Outside is where Sehun approaches him again, as usual, and with a homemade boxed lunch tucked under one arm, and a cookie held in the other that he bought with spare change he found in his pocket. “Hyung, good morning!” He greets the upperclassman sitting on the grass not too far away.

“Get lost, freak.” Jongin says.   But, as always, Sehun chooses not to obey. “Did you eat already? If not then you can share my lunch with me.” It’s as if in Sehun's mind the sun is shining right behind them and birds are singing and there flowers are falling from the sky, in his happy world where apparently the two of them are on good terms.   “I said off.”   “Aren’t you feeling well, hyung?” Sehun doesn’t notice the negativity much, and he really means well when he reaches out to feel Jongin's forehead for a high temperature.   Jongin slaps the hand away. “Don’t you dare touch me, freak!”   “But hyung, I was just--”   “It’s better if you don’t make me repeat myself." Jongin warns, tone dark and promising, his hands strongly clutching the collar of Sehun's jacket, and his eyes not missing a moment to glare at him.   Sehun stares back with an expression of appreciation...if either of them can call it that. He could’ve easily been punched already but he's fine, because Jongin's holding back; that's enough to convince Sehun that even if Jongin says horrible stuff, he doesn't really mean it and he doesn't hate him.   Jongin releases him as soon as he feels that his message has been heard and understood and goes back into the school building. It's troublesome now because he doesn’t want to sit in the lunch room with his friends--not that they're the problem. It's the dull atmosphere of it all and the bad food. But between bad food and bad atmosphere, and being bothered by Oh Sehun, Jongin knows which choice he likes better.   Jongin goes and he doesn’t look back.   *****     Jongin finds his friends at the same table he'd left them at, right in the centre of the spacious lunch room. He joins them as if he hadn’t left and to no surprise, they don't exactly seem pleased about it. That's fine, Jonging thinks, but they're not the ones being stalked by a weird kid; having someone you barely know follow you around (even to the bathroom on a few occasions) is nothing to take lightly.   And speaking of Sehun, it doesn't take him long to enter the lunch room. And he's pretty alright with settling down next to his favourite senior at the table and, like Jongin, acting as though he's been present the whole time. The friends at the table are surprised to see him, but their expressions don't match the horror on Jongin's face; he chokes on the cola he'd swiped from the friend beside him.   “What the are you doing here?!” Jongin questions between coughs.   “I thought we were gonna share my lunch.” Sehun says. He doesn't mind the curious glances from his senior's friends who spectate. “I mean, you didn’t directly say ‘no, I’m not hungry’, you just walked off and I assumed you wanted me to follow you.”   Jongin can hear the guy next to him--Chanyeol, that bastard--laughing at him from behind his hand. Nothing about the situation is funny though and Jongin makes sure Chanyeol knows that by giving a rough kick to his knee from under the table. Everyone else stares at Chanyeol strangely when he suddenly gasps, but they don’t ask him whether he’s alright or not because he’s weird and that’s all they need to know.    “Listen, kid, I’m not hungry.” Jongin says. “And even if I am, that doesn’t mean I want to share anything with you, okay?”   “Oh, hyung, I’m sorry! Forgive me!” Sehun shoves a hand in to his pocket fishes around in there for a bit until he grabs and pulls out the cookie he offered earlier, holding it out for his senior to accept this time. "Do you want my chocolate-chip cookie instead? Or I can buy you bubble tea, if you want?”   Everyone else at the table doesn’t exactly know what’s going on, but they can’t say that they’re in the dark because they can guess from what they’ve seen so far. Whoever this Sehun kid is, he has a thing for Jongin, and it’s no surprise considering his good looks and good reputation with the female students, and a few males. And Jongin is pushing him away but that fuels Sehun’s desire for them to be closer even more, which in turns only makes Jongin more annoyed; it's like an on-going cycle or a basic (and cliché) love story.   The oldest friend at the table, Joonmyun, feels urged to say, “That’s kind of you to offer your food to him, Sehun-ssi, but I don’t think Jongin-ah is hungry yet. Maybe he’ll eat something later?” He’s relieved when Sehun nods at him, and is happy to see him open up his own lunch box and eat with a pair of adorable Rilakkuma chopsticks.   Jongin rolls his eyes and then drops his head down on the table, where it’s easier for him to act like Sehun isn’t really sitting beside him.   Until Sehun starts to bother him again, poking his cheek with a chopstick. "Hyung, I have a cushion in my locker; shall I go and get it for you?"   “No, thanks.” Jongin smacks the hand away.   Chanyeol gently taps the newcomer's shoulder, “So, Sehun-ssi, what classes are you studying?”   Sehun is startled by the deep voice he didn’t expect to come from a young and pretty-faced senior, but he gets over it fast to avoid appearing rude. "Maths on Mondays and Thursdays, History all day on Wednesdays and Physics on Tuesdays and Fridays."   “Whoa! You must be a smart kid.”   “Not really. It’s just that I don’t know what I want to do with myself yet. My parents want me to do something practical and useful but I’m not really interest in that. Honestly, I’d like to try being an actor, or even a singer.”   “Why don’t you audition for the school play or something then?” The brunette sitting next to Chanyeol--Baekhyun--encourages with a warm smile. “I’m sure you can try, right?”   “Jongin-hyung told me to give up on that because there’s no way anyone sane or with enough brains would let me perform in their plays.”   “Huh?!” the three friends gasp.   Damn it, Jongin curses. He's already sneakily reaching for his bag from underneath the table. And if he can just put his foot out to get up and run then he can--   “That’s awful! What else has he been filling your head with?” Joonmyun asks. “Is Jongin bullying you? Aish, that punk!”   Sehun shakes his head rather fast. “He’s protecting me!”   “From what?” Baekhyun asks.   “I don’t know. But he said that it’s okay if he insults me and smacks me sometimes because if he doesn’t then someone else will and it’ll hurt a lot more. He’s protecting me and I’m thankful.”   “Sounds more like you’re his punching bag…” Chanyeol mutters.   Jongin holds his breath in the awkward silence, and then quickly leaps away from his seat at the table to storm out of the lunch room. All the while, he’s trying to block out the calls of his friends, especially Baekhyun who has a nerve to call him an 'insensitive jerk with an ego-stick too big and far up his '!.   He'll definitely make Sehun pay for this.