Ch. 6
Being Human
Ren, Key, and Minhyun eyed the junior in front of them from behind the corner of the wall.
Yongguk slammed his locker shut, unaware of the audience he held.
"Go, now!" Key hissed and shoved Ren out into the open.
The blonde stumbled for a few seconds, glared at the older diva, and turned to face the thug. "Yongguk-sunbae!" Ren exclaimed.
Yongguk eyed him warily and slung his bag over his shoulder.
"I was wondering if you had any plans after school." Letting out his full cute charm, Ren blushed and smiled softly.
I do." Yongguk deadpanned and began walking away.
Ren faltered for a moment, not actually expecting the junior to turn him down before he'd even made an offer. The blonde recovered quickly and trotted behind his prey.
"Where are you going?" Ren asked sweetly.
"To take care of some things."
"Can I accompany you?"
"Will your friends be watching us from behind the corner?"
Ren flushed. "I don't know what you mean." He said hautily. "Can I?"
"Why?"
"Because I want to get to know Yongguk-sunbae." Ren exclaimed.
"Why?"
The diva huffed. "Can I come or not?"
"No."
"Why not?" Ren whined.
Yongguk turned to face him. "Because I don't know what you want with me so just leave me alone."
Ren frowned.
First mission: failure.
Ren bounded up to Yongguk the next day in the library. He had this break before he was forced to go to Mr. Kwon's classroom and spend another hour biting his nails over JR. Ren hoped to at least get into the junior's good books before facing JR.
"Yongguk-sunbae!" Ren appeared in front of him.
Yongguk looked up at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Yongguk-sunbae, can I call you Hyung? Cool! Hyung, I was thinking that we should get some bubble tea after school." He grinned brightly.
"No thanks." Yongguk looked back down at his papers.
"Why not?" Ren pouted.
"I don't like bubble tea."
The diva gasped. "How can you not like bubble tea? Have you even tried bubble tea?"
Yongguk shook his head.
"Then you don't know if you don't like it. Let's go after school!"
"No thanks." Yongguk turned his attention back to the papers in front of him.
"What're you doing?" Ren didn't miss a beat. "Is that English? I'm pretty good at English. Want me to help you?"
"No thanks."
He nearly screamed in frustration.
Yongguk continued to sit there, shuffling through papers.
When Ren didn't leave, he looked up. "Do you want something from me?"
"Well, if you would take a hint and not reject me every time I ask you out, that would be nice." Ren muttered, irritated.
The junior looked thrown for a second. "Asking me out?"
Ren's eyes widened. "Not in that way! Don't be mistaken! I was talking about friends!"
Yongguk raised another eyebrow.
Ren was about to walk away from his second defeat when Yongguk called out softly, "I'm guessing it's that bubble tea place in the mall."
The diva whirled around grinning. "Yes, that's the one!"
"After school, you said?"
Ren nodded again.
Yongguk turned back to his papers and with that, Ren had succeeded.
He burst into Mr. Kwon's class just as the bell rang and held up his hands in a 'I am better than all of you peasants' fashion.
He didn't bother to look at JR. Why bother? He was probably just glaring at him and secretly fawning over Ren's beauty.
Ren sighed and took a seat.
Behind him, Baekho was trying to reason with Key to get off of the blonde boy so he could work on his project with Byungkun.
Minhyun looked faint as he dully stared at Aron who was trying to explain something.
When Ren finally looked at JR, the thug was smiling at him.
Ren immediately scooted backwards in the chair.
"What the is wrong with you?"
JR's smile widened. It was a sickly sweet kind of grin and Ren didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.
"Just wondering if my dear partner has decided on a topic."
"I'm not the only one with a brain here. You can pick one too." Ren paused. "Ok, I take that back. I think I am the only one here with a brain."
JR's jaw twitched and Ren had the feeling that the boy would like nothing better than to get a grip on Ren's smooth, milky neck.
Just a little longer, Ren thought. Then I'll have you at my feet begging for mercy. He smiled. That sounds .
JR shot him a weird look. Probably because he'd been giggling to himself.
The rest of the period was spent with Ren devising many different scenarios with JR slaving away for him.
JR just watched the diva with a 'I got stuck with this crazy ' face.
At lunch, Ren was disappointed to see that Yongguk hadn't suddenly decided to ditch the thugs table to sit with him.
Just a matter of time, Ren concluded.
Suddenly, the doors to the cafeteria flew open and a familiar cat-eyed man entered.
"Your hair..." Ren mumbled.
"Is ruined!" Key shrieked.
"That wasn't what I was going to say." Ren shrugged and continued poking the glob on his tray. It's been weeks and he still hasn't succumbed to the disgusting cafeteria food.
Key collapsed into the cafeteria bench and buried his head in his arms. "I asked for sunset gold and this gives me 300 year old book paper yellow!" He wailed, gaining the attention of the entire cafe.
"I think it looks good " Minho said, patting the diva on the back.
"It does look good on you." Ren admitted, feeling his own bleached locks.
"Yeah, it reminds me of a lion's pelt." Baekho chipped in.
Key's head shot up at Baekho's compliment. "Really?"
He nodded. "It really suits you."
Key straightened and petted his new golden hair. "Well, I mean, I do make everything look good."
Ren rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the thugs' table.
JR was talking to Aron, his back to the rest of his friends and Aron nodded every once in a while.
Yongguk was sleeping as per usual and Ren studied the dozing boy a few minutes longer than appropriate.
Yongguk really was rather attractive now that Ren was really looking at him. He had intense eyes and thick lips. There was also that incredibly y deep voice he possessed. His red hair was risky but it suited the junior.
Ren's attention moved on and his eyes were caught by Inati's.
The senior watched him carefully.
No, it wasn't Ren he was staring at. He was eyeing Key.
For the first time since Ren had laid eyes on the thug, there wasn't any hostility in his eyes.
In fact, he looked a bit like a puppy that wanted its master to pay attention to it.
Ren gawked at Inati. Then he looked at Key. Then back to Inati.
A light bulb went off in his head.
As if sensing his realization, Inati looked at Ren. Immediately his eyes narrowed back into their former glare.
Without shame, the blonde stared at the senior until he was shifting uncomfortably.
Eventually, Inati stood and stalked over to Ren.
"I need to have a word with you." He growled.
"Like hell you do." Key scoffed. "Go find some other toy to play with."
"Shut up, ." Inati grabbed Ren's arm and yanked him to the exit.
"Hey-!" His friends were about to come to his aid when Ren waved them down, signaling that he could take care of this.
They sat back down reluctantly.
As Inati dragged him past the thugs' table, Ren saw both Yongguk and JR watching them curiously.
When they were outside the cafeteria, Inati shoved him to the ground.
"Ow," Ren muttered, irritated.
"Why were you staring at me?" Inati yelled.
"Why haven't you confessed to Key yet?" The diva smirked.
Inati gaped at him. After he'd recollected himself, he started shouting again. "Because I'm not some sort of ! I'm not gay. I don't even like that ."
"It would have been more believable if you didn't deny it so vehemently so many times." Ren sighed, inspecting his blazer for wrinkles the senior might have made.
"I'm not gay." Inati declared again.
"Neither am I." Ren shot back.
Inati looked dumbfounded. "But... Yes you are."
"So are you then."
"I'm not gay." Inati was seething now but Ren was above him. He wouldn't lay a hand on him. Not now.
"You can keep saying that or you can try to actually befriend Key. You'd have a better chance with him if you did. I don't think shoving him into lockers is really the best way to go."
The delinquent glared at the ground. "It wouldn't matter. I'm disgusting to him. Ever since fourth grade. I was just teasing but that frog guy came in and made it seem worse than it was."
Ren wasn't sure why he was listening to the bully and his problems. He was even more clueless as to why he was trying to help Inati. "Why'd you keep bullying him for years after then?" Ren sighed, checking his nails.
Inati shrugged.
"I never really bullied him. It was only after he left our table that I actually started going physical on him. Before it had always been just taunts."
"Why'd you start using physical actions?" Ren felt like a therapist and he really just wanted to go back into the cafeteria but helping Inati would ultimately mean helping Key so he stayed.
"I got mad." Inati answered simply. "It was supposed to be just that weird friend of yours but then Key got involved. I had to keep my image."
" your image."
"Easy for you to say." Inati sneered. "There's only two types of people in this damned school: the bullies and the bullied. No way in hell will I become somebody's ."
"You have no problem wanting Key as your ." Ren muttered.
Inati snarled at him. "I wouldn't keep that attitude much longer. There are some people bent on getting to you. It's not every day that this laughing stock of a school gets a rich kid."
"Dude, I'm sixteen. Do you honestly think I could get to my family's money if I wanted to?"
"Yes." Inati answered simply.
"Well I can't."
"There are always ways to get to a rich kid's money, Ren. I suggest you watch your back."
"That doesn't reassure me when it comes from you." The blonde raised an eyebrow at him.
"Doesn't matter what you believe. Just know that JR is the bad crowd and he'll do nasty things to get a little cash."
"If JR is the bad crowd then what are you?"
"I'm just someone who isn't going to let himself become the prey. If I have to beat people, steal, lie, and cheat to get there, then so be it."
"Just when I was starting to think you're not so bad."
"Never mistake me for one of the good guys, Ren." Inati smirked. "I would throw you under a bus faster than you could turn around."
"Why aren't you beating me up right now?" Ren questioned.
"Because you're not gonna tell Key about this conversation."
"I'm not?" Ren looked at the bully dumbly.
"Nope. 'Cause if you do," Inati leaned close. "I'll throw you to JR myself."
"Hmm, scary." Ren sighed and looked at his nails again.
"Don't underestimate him, Ren." Inati was walking away. "Your friends couldn't protect you from what he'd do to you."
Ren watched his retreating back until it had rounded the corner then sprinted back into the cafeteria.
It didn't escape his notice that JR and Yongguk both still watched him as he reclaimed his seat.
"What did he want? Did he threaten you? Do you want me to beat him up for you?" Baekho shot a load of questions when he sat down.
"I'll feed that 's to the wolves one day." Key vowed.
"It was fine. I just happened upon a very interesting tidbit of information about our favorite delinquent and he just wanted to make sure that it never slipped out by accident." Ren sipped through his straw daintily.
"Ooh gossip. Do tell." Key scooted closer to him.
"Can't. But I have a feeling that you will be finding out what it is soon enough."
Key moaned and slumped down. "I hate it when there's a secret I don't know about."
Minho patted him on the arm reassuringly.
Comments