A young man was running, running, running as if it was a matter of life or death. I could see him pass by me, but he would never glance at me, no matter how much I tried to get his attention. Each time he passed, I could see something new about him.

 

First, he was tall, much taller than me. If we were to stand next to each other, I'd look like a stupid hobbit next to tree. No, really.

 

Second, he had rather long black hair that would wipe his face over and over with each step he'd take. It was quite messy; did the boy never use a hairbrush? I shouldn't try to judge him for such an unimportant detail, since I wasn't that perfect either.

 

Third, his eyes were dark, so dark I couldn't help staring. Sure, Asians are known for their dark eyes, but not like his... They were almost entirely black. I mentally slapped myself: why was I staring at this man as if looking away would kill me? Why did I feel the need to know him? So much questions, so little answers. He kept running in large circles, would he never get tired? Just as I thought that, the tall man abruptly stopped and looked at me intensely, as if he only noticed me. His piercing yet big eyes got me blushing... What kind of man was I to blush from just an eye contact?! Nevermind this silly stuff, another mental slap and here he was, in front of me. Damn, he really was tall.

 

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, without even trying to be polite to this stranger.

 

"…"

 

He just kept looking at me, as if I was some kind of alien. What was this guy's problem? But even if he did anything to me, I would fight back…! Even if it looked like this dude could take me over in no less than a second. It wasn't my fault if I wasn't strongly built!

 

"Will you tell me who you are instead of just being a weirdo?"

 

For the first time, he blinked and looked me up and down. Then he did something I would never to expect. This, excuse my words, bastard dared to kiss me without even asking. Not that I would've allowed him anyway. As I tried to push him off, he just disappeared as I touched him. I looked all around me, but no sign of that man. I found that extremely weird and I was starting to question my own mental sanity, because who would see a man running and running and then kissing him before disappearing? Not normal people, indeed. In a blink, here he was again, in front of me. I was about to punch him as hard as my frail arms could when my vision got blurry. I could see him mouth something and I caught some words.

 

"See you.... love."

 

And then I woke up. What kind of dream was that? I didn't even want to think about it, as my cheeks were burning of embarassment. I wasn't gay. Me, Lee Taemin, wasn't gay so why on Earth did I dream about a man kissing me? I brought the closest pillow close to my chest and hugged it tight. I had to keep myself from thinking about it, since I didn't have to question my uality. I was 100% attracted by women, no doubts about it; I loved women more than anything. But then... Why did this imaginary yet so realistic kiss make him so flushed? It wouldn't help me recover from this if I kept reviewing this in my head. Big eyes staring at me, his arms embracing me as his lips made contact with mine...

 

"Taemin~, hurry up and get downstairs! You'll be late again!"

 

Thank god, my mother brought me back to reality, a reality where I loved women. Yeah. I sat up and gave a quick look at my alarm clock. "6:30" . I rushed to my wardrobe, picked random clothes and threw them on my bed. After a not-really y stripping, I put them on me and ran downstairs. On the right, I could see my mother in the living-room, watching TV by herself whereas my dad, on the left, was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. I quickly greeted them and sat at the table where my dad started to put the plates.

 

"Today, Mister, I propose to you~..."

 

During this pause, he imitated a drum roll with the forks, much to my mom's annoyance who just wanted him to be quiet.

 

"Pancakes! Enjoy them, my son."

 

Pancakes, great. It had been the third morning in a row that he cooked pancakes for breakfast, it was really nothing special yet it looked like my dad was enjoying it. He was such a weirdo too, but I couldn't do anything against it. I slowly munched on my oh so delicious pancake, staring at nothing in particular. I couldn't stop, no matter how hard I tried, thinking about that dream. The weirdest part about it, minus the kiss, was that I didn't know who this man was. I'd seen plenty of men but none like him. Maybe it was one of those premonitory dreams? Please no. What would people think of him? Surely something like "Did you hear about that Taemin dude? He's gay! Who wouldn't have guessed? Ahahaha!" I was already annoyed by people doubting my masculinity since I didn't have many muscles, but people doubting my love for women? Ridiculous, simply absurd. What if I hadn't had a girlfriend yet? I just didn't meet the right one. That was it.

 

"Hey big boy, you should hurry if you don't want to miss your bus~."

 

I was brought back to reality once again by my father's words and I looked at the time, I felt my jaw drop. "6:50" I stood up abruptly, almost flipping the table over, and grabbed my bag.

 

"See you tonight!"

 

I yelled as I ran to my bus stop. When I arrived, there were still people, friends and es. I spotted Jonghyun in the group of people, and rushed to him. Jonghyun was my closest friend at school, one of the only persons who accepted me even though I looked slightly different. He was like a puppy, always clinging to me and being over-friendly but I didn't mind. He always knew how to make me smile when I was sad, he would always be there for me when people would bully me and I was thankful for that. Sure, he was a little dumb but that made him the person I was friends with.

 

"Yo, Taemin-ah! How are you?" He greeted me, and hugged me.

 

He might be the reason people think I was gay. But it didn't annoy me much; I was used to all this dumb talk.

 

"Ah great great… I almost missed the bus today too... Good thing I made it in time."

 

Jonghyun just laughed at me, but he had a good reason to. Every morning, be it rainy, snowy and sunny, I would always either miss my bus, or arrive really late. Could I be cursed by some random ghost? I would never know. We talked about everything and nothing for a little while when the bus arrived. It was almost full, obviously. I went in last, since everyone has been polite enough to push me behind to not let me pass. I caught Jonghyun's sorry smile when I saw he had someone next to him. I glanced everywhere and I didn't find a single free seat. I was walking slowly towards to end of the bus when goodness, a free spot. I just had to ask the person there if I could sit next to him, no big deal. Yeah, no big deal. That would have been no big deal if the man sitting there didn't look exactly like the man I dreamt of. Same hair, same eyes, same everything except for the clothes he was wearing. I didn't remember what he wore in that dream- no, nightmare but it was certainly not this suit.

 

"Hum... Excuse me, may I sit there?"

 

Why did I sound like a shy school girl? Why was I so polite? What the hell was wrong with me? The man sitting there looked at me and nodded slowly. Good. I sat down and just stared at the seat in front of mine. I tried really hard to not look at him but curiosity won over and I quickly locked my eyes on him. But I wouldn't expect him to be looking at me at the same time. I could see him eyeing me, up and down, before opening his mouth. Yet, no sounds came out of it. I just glared at him and turned away. Was I that weird looking? Yeah, I had blond hair. Yeah, I looked like a fourteen year old. What now? Couldn't I be left alone?

 

"Sorry for staring... But I have the feeling I already met you. Funny, isn't it?"

 

"O-Oh really? I'm sorry, but I have no memory of you." Such a lame answer, was it really what I was capable of? And I even stuttered, congratulations myself.

 

"Ah, my bad. Let's forget it then, alright?"

 

I nodded quietly and looked anywhere but at him. Now that I thought of it, he had a pretty low and deep voice. So manly. Whereas my voice resembled a dying cat. Speaking of dying, I was pretty damn tired suddenly. Could it because I went to sleep at two in the morning? Most likely not. Ah, my eyes were so heavy, I had no choice than to close them and fall asleep on this spot.

 

Here I was again, standing there watching the same man running in circles. The more I watched, the lamer he looked. Sure, he was really good looking for a man but just running in circles was just as stupid as a goldfish swimming around in a fish tank. I called him out and he came to me once again.

 

"Look, Mister Mysterious, I want you to apologize for what you did to me last time."

 

Why bother with the presentations when you could be direct? He blinked and he laughed. I could hear him clearly this time, which was weird in my opinion. He grabbed both my shoulders and looked at me straight in the eyes.

 

"Seriously? You want me to say sorry for a kiss you enjoyed?"

 

If I had a mirror, I would see my face reddening as I frowned in anger. Did he really think I enjoyed the kiss? What a joke! I was as straight as a tree, did he really think a single kiss meant I was gay? Moron.

 

"I don't want to hear your bull. A single sorry and I forgive you for what you did."

 

The bastard chuckled again and brought his face closer to mine. I struggled to get away but he was way too strong for me. He was about 3cm away from my mouth when he stopped moving. Or so I thought.

 

"Well my dear..."

 

2cm now. Couldn't he stop this already? I was growing tired of this all.

 

"May you..."

 

1cm. He was going to do it. This... This thing was about to kiss me again, I could feel it.

 

"Forgive me?"

 

His lips met mine once again, but this time it was sweet and tender, not as rushed as the first time. I didn't move at all: I didn't push him back, neither did I kiss him back. I just stood there, hoping for this to last. When he finally moved away, he looked almost sad. His eyes went fixed on nothing and his arms dropped by my sides.

 

"Hey... Hum, you okay?" I asked, because even if he kissed me without my consent, I could still be a good guy and try to help him. It wasn't because I suddenly fell in love with him, what a stupid idea.

 

He just nodded and grabbed my chin with two fingers. Was he going to kiss me again? Wasn't a kiss per dream already enough? It was already too much for me, but yeah, it didn't matter at the moment. He leaned close to my face, but instead of kissing me, he whispered something in my ear. Just the small wind made me shiver, but I didn't understand what he said.

 

"What? Say it louder, you idiot..."

 

I heard him laugh, and then he spoke up.

 

"You should wake up, you are drooling over my suit."

 

 

I slowly opened my eyes and I noticed that I was indeed drooling. But I didn't remember using this man's shoulder as a pillow. Oh , did I really drool on him? I had to apologise, for the drool and for sleeping on him.

 

"Ah! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to... Uh you know. So yeah, I'm sorry."

 

I quickly bowed to show my excuses but he just laughed it off. I surely looked like an idiot, saying sorry for sleeping on a stranger.

 

"Don't worry about it! You have such big bags under your eyes, I wasn't really surprised when you dozed off to sleep."

 

Such unnecessary comments, yet they made me flustered. Was it the reason he was staring at me? Minus the "Oh I think I already saw you!" bullcrap obviously. Oh well, as long as he stopped looking at me. But he didn't, this man was seriously getting on my nerves. Didn't he have something else to do? Check his phone or stare outside the window for example? Nope. I was so much more entertaining to him, for whatever reason he could have.

 

"Say, what is such a young person like you doing here?"

 

Oh no, he didn't. He didn't just assume I was young, this... Ugh.

 

"Sir, I think you should know that no, I am not around 14. I am an 18 year old, all grown-up so please shut the hell up now."

 

Ow snap. Now, he wouldn't dare talk to me again, would he? He better not, or else I'd punch him. But before he could say anything else, the bus stopped at the bus station and I quickly ran out since I didn't want to spend any more time around this man. I waited for Jonghyun to step out and we walked together to our high-school. He apologised again for not being able to save me a seat but I brushed it off. It wasn't that bad sitting next to a random stranger who looked exactly like the man who kept kissing me in my dreams. Yeah, not bad.

 

"Hey, I just remembered. Aren't we getting a new teacher today?" Jonghyun asked. Now that he said that... We were indeed getting a new teacher, even though we were three months away from graduation. It was really stupid to me, why would they go through the troubles of getting someone to teach us useless stuff so late in the year? Oh well, they'd better be nice to us and let us do whatever we wanted to do.

 

"Yeah, but I bet they're going to be a total imbecile."

 

"Still as optimistic as ever, Taemin-ah~."

 

Ahah. Hilarious. I was dying of laughter. I couldn't help it if I expected everyone to be an absolute idiot. It was just my way of thinking. But whatever. We finally arrived in front of our high-school, where we saw Jinki leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette. Lee Jinki was just a friend of ours, hanging around our high school even though he already graduated two years ago. He and Jonghyun were really close, he was the one who presented him to me. Jinki always wore leather, he had some piercings and tattoos and his hair was pushed to the back of his head, but he was one of the sweetest guy ever. No homo. He always had a smile on his face, no matter what could happen to him. If I had to describe him in a single word, it'd be cool. Other than that, he could brighten the mood, even if he's really obnoxious about the atmosphere around him. Yeah, he was a sweet yet cool guy.

 

"Onew, what did I tell you about smoking?" Jonghyun barked, still not accepting the fact that his friend started smoking. I'd keep telling him it was none of his business but as the dog he was, he was always so clingy. That part of him was slightly annoying.

 

"Hey, Jongie, Taemin! How are you, guys?" Onew simply ignored Jonghyun's question and talked to us for a little while. Apparently, he got dumped again and the reason was "because he didn't dress like every other guy." I admired Onew for dressing the way he wanted, being free about himself and what he was doing. I wanted to be as free, but the furthest I could go was dyeing my hair.

 

We heard the ring and hurried to our class. I hoped our teacher would be either a hottie, or really lazy. With Jonghyun, we waited behind everyone else in the corridor, still waiting for the teacher, who was late. A few minutes later, we heard someone's quick walking in the hallway. Everyone stopped talking, anticipating what the teacher could look like. I stared along with everyone and I froze on my spot with what I saw. The stranger from my dreams, the one who actually existed, the same ing person was running towards us in his suit. He arrived to us and gestured to us to go inside the classroom. When I passed him, I tried to not look at him, not even a single second. It would be really bad if he remembered me and what I told him earlier.

 

"Everyone, sorry for being late. I was talking to the director... Anyway, please sit down."

 

We did as we were told. With Jonghyun, we sat at the last row, next to the windows. This way, we wouldn't be noticed too much and we would have a nice view of outside.

 

"My name is Choi Minho, and I'll be your Maths teacher from now on. Pleased to meet you all."

 

Those three months were going to be the death of me, I could feel it, Mr. Minho.