Two
Outside

Kyuhyun

Cho Kyuhyun hates school.  He hates school with a burning passion that far surpasses the heat of the rising sun.  He hates school with an intensity that rivals that of the war two enemy nations fight against one another.  He hates school with such ardor that he is rendered emotionless whenever he is in its presence.  Indeed, Cho Kyuhyun’s feelings toward school are anything but warm – and, surprisingly, it isn’t because of the subjects.  He prides himself, albeit internally, on his ability to absorb information and work through just about any problem thrown at him.  He is particularly fond of his prodigious aptitude in mathematics, the likes of which have led to his being placed in a class two years his senior.

What he isn’t particularly fond of are the people who are constantly surrounding him – the ditsy girls who twirl strands of their hair around their fingers and pop gum loudly as they flutter eyelashes at groups of guys; the scatterbrained boys who do nothing with their lives other than talk about sports and chase after the ditsy girls’ skirts; the ditsy girls who attempt to work their bull, for lack of a better word, on him; the scatterbrained boys who try to engage him in conversations about things he cares nothing about.

Truth be told, Kyuhyun has no problems with school and learning itself; all of his contempt for school is held within the people.  He hates being around people – period.  He is a recluse, a loner, an outsider.  He prefers to sit alone in class within a small, imaginary bubble and block out the rest of the stupid world of SM Academic Institution.  He hates being spoken to, hates being watched, hates being disturbed, hates company of any form, hates any type of human interaction – period.  It’s not his thing; he’s had this decided for years now.

It is for this precise reason that he currently finds himself in one of the hundreds of classrooms of SM Academic Institution, in some building he can’t really remember the name of all too well at the moment, whilst the remainder of the student body is sitting in the cafeteria eating their school lunches.  He’s seated in one of the desks toward the side of the room farthest from the door, yet still in the front row – mainly because he is admittedly too lazy to walk all the way to the back of the room.  He is leaning over the desk, hands working furiously on a portable gaming device, flying over this button and that, the picture on the screen shifting with each push of a button.

This is the way it is each and every day; he selects a random classroom he is sure he hasn’t been to – or at least he doesn’t remember spending a lunch period in – pulls out his gaming device, and then proceeds to game for the entire hour-long lunch period everyone in the school is allotted.  He spends his lunch periods in peace as a result, with no interruptions, no noise, no odd sights or smells and, most importantly, no humans.  The rotating between classrooms keeps him moving along before anyone is able to find him, especially since he selects classrooms completely at random.

He is quite unprepared, therefore, when he hears the door handle to the room turn and witnesses the door being pushed open to reveal a pair of dark, rounded and yet still accented eyes and unbelievably smooth, porcelain skin.  His expression does not, however, shift from its emotionless façade, his eyebrow only quirking upward as a head of blond hair peeks into the room shortly afterward.  The dark eyes blink once, twice, three times, and then the door is opened completely, revealing a relatively average-sized boy with the overall charisma of a bunny, a hand still holding the door handle down, another holding the strap of the school bag slung over his shoulder.

“Who are you,” he questions, and Kyuhyun is caught off guard by how much deeper his voice is than he’d originally expected.  He frowns and quips, “Who are you,” and is surprised yet again when the boy actually answers, with a small, friendly smile and his average-pitched (although still far deeper than Kyuhyun had expected it to be) voice, “Sungmin.  Lee Sungmin.”

Kyuhyun purses his lips, tilts his head, narrows his eyes, examines the other’s face once, twice, thrice, and a fourth time, absorbing every detail.  He takes note of the fact that the boy is wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and gray blazer, – fit for the season, as it is autumn – takes note of the way the boy’s weight is resting on one hip now, although he has yet to remove his hand from the door to the classroom, takes note of the way the blond’s light-golden hair falls just so over his large, dark eyes.

“Have you eaten lunch,” Sungmin asks, and Kyuhyun finds himself caught off guard for the third time within the space of the two minutes that the other has been in his presence.  He shrugs, shakes his head, and then turns back to the game, feeling his tranquility slowly evaporating into thin air as the other shuffles into the room, allowing the door to close shut behind him, and seats himself upon the teacher’s desk.  “I don’t eat lunch,” he responds absentmindedly as Sungmin makes his journey, simultaneously making the character in his game hop over an obstacle.

There is the sound of a bag being ped, and then some rustling before something makes a defined clunking sound on the wood of the teacher’s desk.  Kyuhyun barely pays it any mind in favor of maneuvering his way through a complex maze in his game, his mind only half-catching the sound of eating utensils and the like being removed from bags.  For a moment, the background noise is almost comforting, and Kyuhyun almost forgets about the new stranger in the room – er, Sungmin that is.  Almost.  Then the other starts speaking to him again.

“Why don’t you eat lunch?”  The question isn’t pressing or nosey, rather genuinely curious, and Kyuhyun allows his brow to furrow at the realization because no – no one ever asks such a question without having some sort of ulterior motive.  “Why does it matter to you,” he retorts, executing a complex sequence of movements in the game that allows him to destroy his current enemy as he does so.  From the corner of his eye, he sees the blond frown, although he completely disregards it.  His game is much more important – and he hates human interaction anyway.

“Relax,” the blond replies after a moment, and it only manages to annoy Kyuhyun further.  How can he possibly relax when this strange blond is pestering him?  He is about to voice this when the latter cuts him off and continues; “I’m just curious.”  He frowns, furrows his dark eyebrows under the mop of dark brown hair he possesses, purses his lips just so, meets the blond’s gaze.  Then, before he can really understand what he’s doing, he’s responds, “Well eating would include me going to the cafeteria, which means being around people – which I dislike.”

He then abruptly stretches his lips into a tight grimace, willing himself to not say anymore, for he is not someone who enjoys any form of human interaction – particularly answering questions about himself and especially answering questions about himself with far more than he needs to.  He internally curses his skills in science for forcing him to subconsciously fully explain his thinking, blaming his relative gift in the subject for his slip of the tongue.  He hears the character in his game yelp and his scowl deepens; he feels his mood darken.

“Why don’t you like being around people,” Sungmin inquires, and suddenly it’s really hard for Kyuhyun to not get up and strangle the kid for asking so many pressing questions – questions that he really doesn’t feel like answering for fear of finding the lack of logic in the way he is.  He manages to heave a calming (at least it’s supposed to be) breath, run a hand through his hair, and redirect his character onto a safer route before he turns to the blond and says, in a slightly strained voice, “I just don’t like being around people.”  He feels his patience wearing thin, and the offended look on Sungmin’s face only makes it worse.  He prays to whatever heavens there are in the sky that he’s managed to offend the other enough to make him leave.

His prayers go unanswered, however.  Instead, silence falls between them as the blond hangs his head and purses his lips, seeming to think about something.  Kyuhyun finds himself pretending not to notice it in favor of pressing the buttons on his portable device in a complex sequence yet again, causing his character to charge into a group of enemies and wipe them out entirely.  Satisfaction settles into his gut for a moment – at least until the blond decides to open his mouth again.

“Do you want some of my lunch?”  Kyuhyun pauses in his actions, completely taken aback, his character freezing on the display screen as well as a result.  He turns his head and glances over at the blond, who is sitting on the desk with his arms outstretched, a box of food in his hands.  Kyuhyun struggles to formulate a coherent response, opens his mouth, closes it, opens it once more, and then closes it again, eyebrows furrowing into a frown.  He wants to tell the other that no, he doesn’t want to eat his food – that he just really wants the blond to leave – but settles for feeling a bit of dread settle into his core when Sungmin places the box of food back onto the desk and begins to search for something in his bag.

His brow furrows into an even deeper frown as he watches the latter rummaging for something at the bottom, and then widening his eyes and smiling in satisfaction to himself when it appears that he has found what he is looking for.  Kyuhyun unconsciously pauses his game and tilts his head to the side in curiosity, not bothering to try and tell the other to stop because no he does not want to eat his lunch.  He watches with his eyes narrowed, closely observing the other’s movements as the blond pulls from the bag a pair of disposable chopsticks and straightens in his seat on top of the teacher’s desk.

“There we go,” he says, and suddenly Kyuhyun understands what is going on; Sungmin has taken it upon himself to assume that he hasn’t answered because he actually does want to eat.  He finds his frown deepening further still when the blond hops off the desk with both the box and chopsticks in one hand and his own utensils in another.  Before Kyuhyun can say something to stop him, Sungmin is already seated in the desk next to his and is pushing the one he is seated in toward the brunette’s.  Kyuhyun is entirely bewildered; why is this blond not leaving?  And moreover; why is he not forcing him to leave?

When the two desks are pressed against each other into a makeshift table, Sungmin claps his hands together happily and then proceeds to hand Kyuhyun his chopsticks.  Kyuhyun reaches out and takes them out of pure reflex, his gaze still fixed on the blond’s face.  Sungmin notices, and so he coughs into his fist awkwardly and averts his own gaze.

“I’m sorry; we’re both going to have to eat from the box.  I didn’t pack an extra plate because, well, I wasn’t expecting to share with anyone.”  The blond smiles kindly at Kyuhyun right after he says it, though, and then announces, “But I guess it’s a lucky thing that I always pack extra food, right?”  His smile spreads and he watches Kyuhyun almost expectantly.  The brunette purses his lips, eyes still narrowed and brow still furrowed, although much less deeper than just a few moments ago.  “Uh, sure,” he responds unsurely, fiddling with the chopsticks in his hands.

Sungmin watches him with that smile on his face for a few more moments and Kyuhyun tries his best to pretend he can’t see him, averts his gaze to the window on his immediate right, tries to find something to occupy his time perhaps floating in the sky or fluttering down gently to the ground.  He finds nothing, and so he turns back to find Sungmin placing some of the rice from the dish into his mouth.  The latter, clearly feeling eyes on him, looks up at Kyuhyun and – is he blushing?

“What are you watching me for,” Sungmin inquires, looking a little more than flustered; “Just go ahead and eat.  I won’t stop you.”  Kyuhyun turns his head up lightly, looks down at the blond before him, narrows his eyes and scrutinizes him for a moment, and then releases an almost inaudible sigh.  He slouches in his seat a bit, looks down at the food placed before him, and then hesitantly grabs some of the rice with his chopsticks and puts it in his mouth.  It’s not bad – actually,  it’s surprisingly pretty good – and so he eats a few more bites.

His bites, however, are small and far in between; he’s not really hungry and he never actually eats lunch at this time anyway, so the whole ordeal is weird for him.  He frowns curiously all the while, watches the blond calmly but happily eating.  It’s strange having someone so close to him.  A part of him wants to physically grab the other by the loose ends of his clothes and throw him out of the room, while another part of him – a very small fraction of him – actually kind of doesn’t mind having him around.  And that confuses him.  That makes him furrow his brow further and further as time wears on.

Kyuhyun only eats for a few minutes, and doesn’t eat much, before he places his chopsticks down and intertwines his fingers, settling for studying the blond sitting before him.  The latter notices, and so he glances up and quirks a blond eyebrow.  “Are you okay,” he questions, and the sincerity behind it only serves the purpose of confusing Kyuhyun even further.  The brunette doesn’t answer, only studies the blond for a moment with a guarded expression, and then turns and picks up his portable gaming device again.  He tries his best to ignore the way the other stares at him for a while as he presses a button for the game to continue and begins his expert playing all over again.

A long silence stretches between them – a silence filled only by the sounds of the background music playing ominously in the game, and Kyuhyun surprisingly feels himself growing calmer and calmer with each passing moment, his focus slowly being absorbed by the flashing screen he’s holding almost up to his nose.  He fails to notice the proximity between the console and his face just as much as he fails to remember that Sungmin is sitting in the desk set up perpendicularly from the one he is seated in.

That is until Sungmin breaks the silence again.  “You seem to be pretty good at that,” he says, and Kyuhyun almost falls out of his seat because the blond is practically leaning on his shoulder when he says it.  The blond raises an eyebrow in question and inquires, “Are you okay,” all over again.  Kyuhyun’s sure that his own dark eyes are the size of the sun right now, and he feels his heart beating wildly, violently, against his ribcage, threatening to force its way out from the shock.

They stay that way for a short while, simply staring at each other – Kyuhyun with wide eyes and leaning back as far as physically possible without falling in his chair, Sungmin with a raised, blond eyebrow and a slightly guilty yet concerned look in his eye.  No one says a word, no one moves a muscle, no one makes a sound.  And then Kyuhyun realizes that the whole situation is abnormal and shifts back in his seat to continue playing his game, feeling disappointment surge within him when he finds his character with half his life force drained.

He scowls and undergoes a series of commands, adjusting his character’s position and then setting off on his journey yet again.  It takes a good few minutes to regain his entire life force back, but he manages and soon enough Kyuhyun is back to being entirely focused on his game once again, completely disregarding the blond’s previous question.

He isn’t sure how much time passes afterward; all he knows is that it passes wordlessly and the only sounds echoing in the otherwise silence of the room are those from his game and those of Sungmin quietly eating his food.  A short while in, the sound of Sungmin eating is replaced by the sound of Sungmin packing up the remains and neatly placing them back where they came from, the rustling of bags being put away and trash being thrown out momentarily drowning out the quiet.  And then, before Kyuhyun knows it, Sungmin is done cleaning up and the silence is only ended by his game.

It is eerie and long and yet so, so comfortable.  The blond is so quiet that Kyuhyun is able to forget that he exists for the remainder of the lunch period.  When the bell rings, he abruptly saves his game, turns it off, packs it into his bag, slings his bag over his shoulder as he stands from his seat, and then heads toward the wooden door leading into the classroom.  It’s not that he is in a hurry to get to class – Cho Kyuhyun doesn’t care much whether he is tardy or not when it comes to academics because either way he ranks number one in his class; it’s just that he’s not particularly fond of being caught in a classroom during lunch.

It’s not specifically prohibited by the school – at least not really – as long as there is a teacher or some sort of staff member present to supervise the student (Kyuhyun scoffs at the idea because he figures that having to supervise one student is rather pointless, as one student alone can only cause so much damage).  Either way, he would much rather not get caught without adult supervision in a classroom and land himself a spot in detention when he could be doing much better things with his life – like locking himself in his dark room and playing Starcraft till way past midnight, effectively blocking out the rest of the world and the people that he dislikes to be around so much with it.

He is about to place his hand on the handle to open the door when a soft, “Hey, wait a second,” makes him pause.  Kyuhyun frowns and looks over his shoulder at Sungmin, who has his own bag slung over his shoulder and is looking at him with those big, dark eyes.  Now that they are both standing, Kyuhyun takes note of how he’s actually a few inches taller than the other – quite a few, actually; almost a full head.  Sungmin takes a few steps toward him, and then abruptly stops, stays in his spot.

Kyuhyun raises an eyebrow at the action and Sungmin hurriedly averts his gaze as a result.  Kyuhyun swears he can almost see a light pink tint spreading across the other’s porcelain-like cheeks.  “Umm,” Sungmin begins again, a hand rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, his eyes locked on the floor.  “You never actually told me your name,” the blond half-mutters, and for the billionth time that day Kyuhyun is caught off guard by the other’s words.

“What’s it matter to you,” he finds himself asking, eyes narrowing menacingly as he looks the boy from top to bottom.  Sungmin, sensing the animosity in his tone, raises his hands pacifically and replies, “Hey, I mean no harm; I’m just curious, is all.”  He pauses, seems to ponder something, and then adds, “Plus, I think you owe me as much for feeding you.”  The smile he gives Kyuhyun after he says it should be smug and condescending, although instead it is kind and even a little satisfied.

The brunette visibly deflates a bit at the blond’s words, admitting to himself, quite begrudgingly, that the other has a point.  He puffs out his cheeks and lets the air out slowly, and then turns and faces the blond full on.  “Kyuhyun,” he answers before he can stop himself; “Cho Kyuhyun.”

Sungmin nods in understanding, and right before Kyuhyun turns to leave, asks, “Why didn’t you finish eating, Kyuhyun?”  Kyuhyun blinks, examines the blond’s face, takes note of the way his bottom lip is jutting out just so and his eyes are widened a fraction, making them strangely large and almost childlike.  “Uh,” he begins, and curses himself mentally because Cho Kyuhyun never stutters (mainly because he never really talks to anyone, but still).  “Well to be honest, I wasn’t really –“ he stops, purses his lips, frowns, and then starts again.  “I just wanted to play my game,” he manages to get out after a moment in a tone that’s more calm and matter-of-fact than it is snippy and rude because, despite being a complete recluse and entirely antisocial, Kyuhyun has some level of civility.

“Oh,” Sungmin says, and suddenly there is a frown on the latter’s face.  “Okay, that’s cool,” he says, although his tone states that it is so obviously otherwise.  The blond shifts his gaze toward the floor, seeming to be in deep thought.  Kyuhyun raises a brow as he waits for the other to say something and then, when he realizes that Sungmin has spaced out and probably won’t say anything for a while, asks, “Well?”  The blond raises his head and quirks an eyebrow along with it.  “Hmm,” he hums out in question, meeting Kyuhyun’s gaze as if it is suddenly the easiest thing in the world, as if just moments before he wasn’t staring holes into the floor.

Kyuhyun clears his throat, muffles the sound with his hand, and then meets the other’s gaze.  “Well,” he repeats, and Sungmin’s blond eyebrow only seems to rise into his hairline in question.  “Is that all,” he clarifies when he realizes that the other is just confused.  Sungmin takes his time to answer, and it kind of annoys the brunette all over again because damn it he doesn’t want to get caught in the classroom without adult supervision and he actually maybe wants to get to class on time today.  But the stubborn curiosity within him at what the blond will do next keeps him rooted to his spot, waiting for a response.  He glances at the clock and sees the seconds slowly ticking away.

Finally, after what has to have been the longest minute and a half of Kyuhyun’s life, the blond purses his lips and then asks, “Are you in a hurry?”  Kyuhyun’s annoyance skyrockets and suddenly grabbing the other by his shirt collar and tossing him out the window seems like an optimal idea.  “Well, I’d rather not get caught in a classroom during lunch without staff supervision,” he admits to the other, quite frankly far too annoyed at this point to even really care about what he says.

Sungmin’s lips purse again and for the first time all day, Kyuhyun notices the way that they subtly form a little ‘M’, a soft pink hue against his pale, unblemished skin.  He fights down a frown at the sight and waits, rather impatiently, for Sungmin’s response.  The blond, in turn, is again silent for a few moments before he opens his mouth, his ‘M’-shaped lips forming into a small ‘O’ before he closes his mouth again and puts a finger to his chin in thought.  Kyuhyun feels his core twist, and surprisingly he is not sure if it’s because he is still annoyed with the blond standing a mere few meters away from him (relatively close proximity for someone of Kyuhyun’s nature) or if it’s because he’s actually anticipating the other’s response.

“Oh,” Sungmin says halfheartedly after another while.  “Well you don’t have to worry about that with this classroom,” he continues after only a short moment’s hesitance.  Kyuhyun quirks a dark eyebrow of his own and retorts, “Oh really?  And why is that?”

The blond smiles at his question in a way that almost makes him feel as if the blond knows something he does not – and judging by the context of the situation, he guesses that Sungmin does, in fact, know something he does not.  “No one teaches in this classroom during this period,” Sungmin says, a slightly amused gleam in his eye.  “The teacher has no class this period, and for some reason she always decides to leave it unlocked, even though it’s technically against school rules for a teacher to do that.”  Kyuhyun nods in response, vaguely recalling reading something of the likes in the rules manual for the staff and students of those at SM Academic Institution.  It is the small, amused smile on Sungmin’s face that has him focusing on the situation at hand all over again.

“Alright, that’s fine and dandy I guess,” Kyuhyun says, and it comes out surprisingly far more sarcastic than he means it to be (although it was definitely originally intended to be sarcastic to some degree).  “Either way, I have a class this period and I don’t want to be too late.”  He clears his throat, watches Sungmin's face for the space of two seconds, tightens his grip on the strap of his school bag, and then turns on his heel to face the door yet again.

His outstretched hand is halfway to the handle when Sungmin calls out, again, “Hey, wait a second.”  The annoyance within him is growing by the second by the time he circles in his spot and meets Sungmin’s dark but bunny-like gaze.  “What is it now,” Kyuhyun questions and the bite in his voice is harsh and almost unreasonable – but he can’t help it.

Sungmin seems slightly offended by the brunette’s tone of voice, although he hurriedly seems to shrug it off before he squares his shoulders back and inhales a deep breath.  He meets Kyuhyun’s gaze unwaveringly and for a second, Kyuhyun is terrified that what the boy is going to say is absolutely, downright dreadful and he’s going to wish with all of his heart that the boy had just kept his mouth shut.  And then Sungmin actually speaks and catches him off guard for about the gazillionth time within the space of that one short lunch hour.

“I was just going to say,” Sungmin says when Kyuhyun raises an inquiring eyebrow, “that if you ever want to eat, just come back to this classroom during lunch and I’ll be here with my extras.”  He stops, grins a bit at the brunette, and then says, “And I’ll make sure to bring an extra plate next time.”  A soft hue seems to grace his pale features for a moment, although it is fleeting and quick; Kyuhyun thinks that he may have just imagined it, that it could’ve just been a figment of his imagination.

“Actually,” Sungmin continues on after only a short moment’s hesitation, “why don’t you just come back tomorrow?  That way you can actually eat something; I’ll be here with extra for you to come and eat, if you want.”  The blond grins, his dark eyes turning into big, shining crescents, reflecting all of the light in the room and only seeming to brighten them.  “How does that sound,” he finally questions when he notices what is undoubtedly the confused and bewildered expression on Kyuhyun’s face.

Kyuhyun, in turn, realizes that Sungmin is expecting an answer and questions why he is forcing himself to answer anyway when he can’t stand being around humans whatsoever.  He clears his throat, suddenly feeling how it’s a little dry but ignoring it in favor of meeting the other’s smiling gaze, feeling something in his core tighten and then flip at the sight.  “Uh,” he starts off, and then mentally scolds himself a billion times for it because damn it, he’s just stuttered for the second time in the space of about three minutes and Cho Kyuhyun never stutters. 

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, tilts his head, ponders what to do.  He knows that the seconds are ticking by, that with each passing moment, he is closer and closer to being later and later to class when he’s spontaneously decided that he might just want to be on time, that Sungmin is patiently standing there with his fingers intertwined, rocking back and forth on his feet, expecting an answer.  Kyuhyun heaves in a breath, turns to face the door, considers leaving without answering and continuing on out of the class and with his life, knowing that he’d probably never see the other again in his life. 

But then he hears the blond’s soft sigh and thinks that maybe, just maybe, he shouldn’t be such an and actually at least give the other a surefire answer, even if it’s clearly not what he wants to hear (because the happy, excited face he had on his expression when telling Kyuhyun to come back the following day practically screamed that he expects Kyuhyun to nod and say he’ll come back the next day).  As a result, Kyuhyun glances over his shoulder and makes direct eye contact with the blond.  He knows what he wants to say, knows exactly what to say and how to say it, knows that it’ll take a fraction of a second to quite simply and bluntly put it, yet he finds himself nodding his head and stating, “Okay, fine,” and then turning and exiting the room, not giving the other any time to respond.

Kyuhyun feels his head buzzing.

And here we have KyuMin's entrance C:
I managed to get this up fairly quickly guys! Yay! ^^ I feel proud of myself.
Anyway, I wonder how you guys feel about this chapter?  It's definitely not as dark as the first chapter, but this is just the beginning.  KyuMin's story will get darker as we go along >:)
I hope you enjoyed this guys! Next one is Hyuk again C: and ummm ... let's just say it may or may not be rated (still debating how to write it out to be quite honest haha).
Anywho, let me know what you guys think! Your input is always received C:

Ahem, now let me go to sleep.  I have an 8am practice tomorrow and I need to get some shut eye ^_-'
Thank you for reading lovelies!
_Love Always, K