Ch. 5
Being Human
Eventually, his new friends left to return to their own homes and Ren was left with a feeling of giddiness.
Excluding a gaggle of certain thugs, he was almost excited to go back to the school.
The next day, Ren ignored JR in home room. Images of the beautiful boy punching Baekho replayed themselves in his mind.
At lunch, Key and Minho sat with Ren. Inati glared at them from a distance.
Minho even offered a few one worded answers to questions thrown at him.
At the end of the day, the five boys piled into Ren's car and they spent the evening horsing off.
The pattern repeated itself for about two weeks.
Occasionally, one of the bullies would catch one of them alone and shove someone into a locker but they mostly stayed away.
Key received the worst of it from Inati during the rare times that Minho was not glued to his hip.
Despite being kicked to the ground nearly every day, the diva retained his confident glare.
It was on a Tuesday that Ren witnessed the strangest thing Inati did to Key.
He had pinned the diva against the wall as Ren rounded the corner.
The blonde was about to rush to the junior's aid when he froze.
Something was different.
Inati muttered angrily into the diva's ear and Key kept his usual irritated scowl when Inati grabbed his jaw and slammed his lips onto Key's.
Key looked just as shocked as Ren felt when Inati pulled away.
A look of disbelief crossed the senior's face as if even he couldn't comprehend his actions.
Stumbling backwards, the bully raced away down the hallway.
Key stared after him still looking shocked and confused.
"What was that?" Ren approached the diva slowly.
"No ing idea." Key's eyes were wide and he touched his lips gently. "Crazy ."
They walked to their next classes in silence.
After school at Ren's house, there was an awkward silence filling the room as the two divas were silent.
"What's with the two es?" Minhyun wondered aloud to Baekho.
"No idea." The blonde whispered back.
Minho stared at Key as if he was trying to figure the brunette out. "What's wrong?" He grunted finally.
"Inati kissed me." Key grimaced.
Minho stiffened.
"What? Wait, what?" Minhyun nearly fell over.
"I have no idea." Key answered. "It was random. He pushed me up against the wall and was giving me the usual about how he was gonna beat me up one day, yada, yada, yada, so I was ignoring him as usual, when he goes and grabs my face and kisses me!"
Minho's eyes darkened. "I'll kill him." He growled.
"Down boy." Key patted his shoulder. "He ran off like a sissy afterwards. I swear it was the strangest thing."
Ren nodded his agreement.
"Well..." Baekho trailed off awkwardly. "Anyone feel like a game of Assassin's Creed?"
The rest of the visit seemed to go back to normal and everyone left at dusk.
At school the next day, Inati was absent.
In fact, he remained absent for the rest of the week.
On Friday, during the last period before lunch, Ren was sitting with Minhyun and Baekho as usual. They ignored Aron and JR who shared the class with them.
"Today, we will begin the partner projects we've been discussing the past week." Mr. Kwang started receiving a chorus of groans.
"I'll be choosing the partners." Another echo of moans, this one much louder.
Minhyun visibly paled.
Baekho patted him on the arm reassuringly.
"Baekho," The teacher called.
He looked up warily.
"You're with Byungkun." He pointed to a short and virtually uninteresting boy.
He paired off a few more students. "Minhyun, you're with Aron."
Minhyun's already pale features went whiter.
"Minki, you're with JR."
Ren's eyes widened and he glanced at JR.
JR in turn was staring right back at him.
"Well ."
Ren had been successfully ignoring all of his former attractions to the boy and he'd thought he'd been doing a pretty dandy job of it until the teacher decides to drop this bomb.
"Can't I work with Minhyun and JR works with Aron?" Ren shouted.
Mr. Kwang eyed him before shaking his head.
"I can have you fired." Ren shot hautily.
"The pairings are already in the book, Mr. Choi. I suggest you just do the project."
Ren glared at the teacher.
Ren's professor shrugged and turned back to the class. "Sit with your partners for the rest of the class to discuss what your project will be on."
Minhyun and Ren glanced at each other warily.
"I could pull the fire alarm." Baekho offered.
Ren frowned and got up to sit next to his new partner.
JR eyed him through the fringe of his bangs.
"I'm guessing neither of us actually want to be together so pick a topic and I'll hire someone to do it for us." The blonde crossed his arms and planted himself in the chair next to JR.
A slow smile overcame the thug's handsome features and he leaned forward to rest his head on his palm. "I think of rather get to know each other, partner. After all, it is good to know your peers."
Ren scrutinized him quietly. He knew JR was up to something. "What do you want?"
"Oh, I don't want anything, partner. I just want to be friends."
Swallowing a lump of fear in his throat, Ren prayed for the class to end soon.
***
"What does he want?" Ren whined at lunch.
Baekho was busy digging through Minhyun's lunch to answer and didn't even flinch when Key draped himself onto his lap. The routine was so usual now that the pierced boy didn't even have to look up.
"No idea." Key offered, unhelpful. "JR was always the weird one. That's why I had told you to go with Yongguk in the beginning when we first met. Out of all of them, he's the most normal."
"I heard that he sent thirteen people to the hospital for looking at him wrong." Minhyun piped up.
"People love to spread rumors. But that's all they are. Rumors. He glares a lot but he's nice enough." Key waved a hand.
"So why does he hang out with them?" Ren questioned, an idea forming.
"Everyone else is scared of him." Key shrugged.
"Maybe I can turn Yongguk into my own Minho." Ren wondered aloud. "I could use him as protection against whatever JR is planning."
"Hey," Minho let out a half-hearted grunt.
"Well he's got a point." Key shushed him. "Minhyun has Baekho to protect him, and I've got you. In this school, is best for us pretty guys to have someone watching our pretty asses for us."
"I don't watch Minhyun's ." Baekho grumbled.
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