II.

“Jinki, I don’t think I can handle this,” Kibum groaned at lunch. He hadn’t even touched his food yet. “Tutoring every day,”

“You’re lucky he gave you Friday off,” Jinki said, trying to look on the bright side. “Plus, Mr. Choi is just trying to help you out. You’re a senior. Your grades are really, really important right now.”

“It’s not like it’s close to the end of the year,” Kibum pouted. “It’s just the beginning of the first semester; Mr. Choi should just cut me some slack.”

“What slack is there to cut?” Jinki asked. “You have the worst grade in the class.”

“Gee, thanks for making me feel better, hyung.” Kibum sighed, finally picking up his chop sticks. He played around with the rice.

Jinki frowned; “It can’t be that bad.”

“It is that bad! He won’t let me go until I have a ninety-five average. Ninety-ing-five! You know how long that will take?”

“If you’d just study…”

“I can’t study a subject I hate, okay? It’s just impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible,”

Kibum rolled his eyes.

“What? I’m just trying to be positive here,”

“Just shut up and eat your chicken.”

After lunch, the rest of the day decided to go unbelievably slow.

When the end of the day finally reached, a couple of Kibum’s friends stopped him in front of the school’s gates and asked if he wanted to go out with them for some karaoke.
He wanted so badly to tag along with them, but he knew he couldn’t.

He explained to them how he had tutoring; he just wanted to get some air before actually going.

“Why don’t you skip?” his friend, Dongwoon suggested.

“How can he skip? It’s not like he has Mr. Yoshida where a simple; “I forgot about it” would work.” Nicole snapped. Mr. Yoshida was another Health teacher, but he was not as sharp as Mr. Choi. “Mr. Choi’s really serious about his student’s getting good grades.”

“Oh… I thought he had Mr. Yoshida…” Dongwoon looked at him, a playful smirk plastered on his face. “It amazes me how good you are at everything, but health.”

“Shut up,” Kibum punched him in the shoulder. “Everyone has flaws,”

Dongwoon laughed; “See you tomorrow then,”

“Pay attention in your tutorial okay?” Nicole pinched his cheek and walked off with Dongwoon.

Kibum heaved a sigh as he shoved his hands into his pockets and made his way back into the school building.
He took his sweet time getting to Mr. Choi’s classroom, stopping here and there to look at posters on the walls that he never bothered to look at before.

He burped when he reached the classroom. He adjusted his backpack on his shoulders and smoothed out his blazer, doing the upmost just too waste time. He turned the shiny knob and entered the classroom; “I’m here,” he called out.

“You’re late,” Mr. Choi clicked his pen. He was leaned back in his chair, feet on his desk

Kibum bowed, keeping quiet.

“I need you to be in my classroom by 3:45,” He clicked the pen again. “Understand?”

Kibum just nodded and took a seat in one of the desk in the middle of the room.

“So, you don’t know how to talk?” He clicked the pen once more, and Kibum swore if he clicked it one more he would throw something at him. “I know you know how to use your mouth, Kibum.”

Kibum wanted to laugh at what he just said, since it sounded wrong, but he held it in.

Mr. Choi sighed and clicked his pen for the final time; “I want you to start writing me an essay about what foods to avoid if you don’t want to get obese, get high-cholesterol, and diabetes. I want at least six pages and it better be done by Thursday. If you don’t have it by Thursday, be ready to face some major consequences, understand?”

Two days to write six pages? Sigh, I’ll just try and write big, maybe that’ll work. Kibum thought to himself.

“You better get started on your rough draft, mister. You’re stuck with me for another forty minutes,”

He sighed in defeat and pulled out his journal and wrote, in big letters, at the top: Avoid These Foods If You Want To Live.
He tapped his pencil, thinking of a creative way to start off the essay but his mind was blank.

So he just gave up and sat there for the next forty minutes just staring at the nearly blank page.

“So,”

Kibum, who started to doze off, shot up in fright.

“You’re telling me that for the past forty minutes, you’ve done nothing but write a title?” Mr. Choi adjusted his glasses.

Kibum nodded, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes. “I can’t come up with anything.”

Mr. Choi smirked; “See? I knew you could talk.”

Kibum mentally rolled his eyes as he started gathering his things.

“I’m not joking around when I say that essay is due on Thursday,” Mr. Choi crossed his arms as he stalked back to his desk.

“Okay,” Kibum answered He threw his backpack on and left.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

That night Kibum was on the phone with Jinki.

“How was tutoring?” Jinki asked.

“Terrible, he gave me this difficult assignment and I just sat there,” Kibum belly-flopped onto his bed.

“Don’t you want your grade to get better?”

“I do, but I…I’m lazy.”

Jinki chuckled. “What’s the assignment? I’ll help you with a few pages?”

“Really?” Kibum squealed aloud. “Okay, so like…” He started to explain what he was assigned to do.

“Kibum are you serious? That isn’t hard at all.”

“Whatever, are you going to do it?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll see what I can do.”

“This is why your my best friend,” Kibum made a kissing sound towards the phone.  “Good night, hyung.”

“Wait, Kibum?”

“Hm?”

“I have this friend who had this crazy idea of going to a gay club,” Jinki explained. “He persuaded me into going with him, but I want you to come with me – so I don’t feel awkward with just us.”

“Wait, are you saying that being with just that friend of yours – what’s his name by the way? – will make you feel awkward? Or being surrounded by a bunch of gays period?”

“His name’s Daesung...” he clarified. “And no, no, it has nothing to with gays. I mean my personality – the atmosphere would be awkward even if we were in a club.”

Kibum snorted; “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Good night.”

“Night,”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Seo In Guk slid a small picture towards Minho who sat across from him at the kitchen table. “Nickhun Horvejkul, a stripper at the White Swallow, some gay club. His job was to sell about fifteen or twenty bags of twenty ounces of weed. He was supposed to give me my money last Monday.” In Guk took a puff from his cigarette. “Tomorrow night his shift starts at one in the morning till six, I want you to talk to him, y'know, find out what's the delay. If  he’s been smoking my stuff, you take him out. Simple as that,”

Minho took the picture and shoved it into his pocket. “I understand,”

“You want anything to eat? I got some instant noodles in the pantry.”

“Nah, my roommate probably has cooked for me already,” Minho replied, getting to his feet. “However, you really should clean up around here.”

“You’re my son, clean for me,” he coughed.

Minho scoffed; “Just ‘cause I’m your son doesn’t make me a slave. Anyways, I’ll see you tomorrow,”

=~=

“I’m home,” As soon as Minho stepped in, he was greeted by a tight hug from Jonghyun. “Oof! Why so excited?”

“Nothing,” Jonghyun said, letting go of him. “Can’t I hug my dongsaeng?”

Minho just smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Where have you been? You smell like cigs,” Jonghyun’s nose crinkled.

“I went to my father’s house; you know how he likes to smoke…” Minho placed his suitcase on top of the kitchen table. “What’s for dinner?”

“A bowl of kimchi, rice, fresh soup, a couple of side dishes and bulgogi,”

Minho loosened his tie; “Do you know that I love you?”

Jonghyun blushed as he scratched at his neck awkwardly. “We should go to the super market tomorrow though; I need to buy more ingredients. The fridge’s getting empty.”

“Ah, sorry I won’t be able to,” Minho picked up the metal chopsticks and nearly drooled as he gazed at the food. “I have this really late meeting,”

Jonghyun tried not to pout in front of him as he stuffed a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

“Maybe next time,” Minho said. “I’m sorry, work is a pain. You know that student I was talking about?”

“Kim…Kibum?”

“Yeah! I just want to punch him in the face, but I have to stay professional,” Minho said. “I gave him an assignment and he just sat there for the next forty minutes. So stubborn. Aish.”

“Just give the kid some time, he’ll come around,”

“I know. It just irritates me. He has a thirty-eight average in my class – shouldn’t he want to get a better grade? He’s a really smart kid.”

“Maybe he just at the subject,” Jonghyun shrugged.

“I know he does, that’s why I told him to stay after for tutoring.” Minho stuffed some bulgogi in his mouth. “But if he doesn’t finish the assignment I gave him, I’m going to give him the paddle,”

Jonghyun laughed; the idea of Minho giving someone the paddle was just hilarious.

“W-What did you give him for the assignment?” Jonghyun tried to calm his giggles.

“For him to write an essay with six pages, about foods to avoid if you want to stay away from obesity, diabetes and something else…” Minho answered. “It’s due on Thursday anyways,”

“Such a cruel teacher,”

Minho’s smile suddenly fell.

the next chapter will be better, trust me.
not so proud of this one.
like the poster? ^_^