To be fair, Kyungsoo looks just as nervous as he does. His eyes are wide, but his eyebrows still overshadow them making him look spine-chillingly threatening. As soon as he sees Jongin, they lock onto him and don't let go.

Jongin edges into the tiny room cautiously, and chooses the seat furthest away from Kyungsoo, ignoring his frown. The teacher-who has still not introduced himself – sits in between them, maybe to act as a mediator. Or a barrier, if should come to it.

“Kyungsoo, Jongin. I'm Robert Hendrick, call me Rob, ok?” both of them nod, “a little birdie told me, you two have been having some difficulties regarding each other,” well, no , Jongin thinks to himself, “and both of you are here to try and resolve this issue, and make up, ok?” he says, and his tone is just a little patronizing.

“It's all a misunderstanding,” Kyungsoo jumps in before Rob can say anything more, his voice insistent.

A misunderstanding. Right. Of course. Jongin flinches a tiny bit when Kyungsoo's head flicks in his direction. Jongin suddenly becomes paranoid: can Kyungsoo read minds? Is that why he's insane? He mentally apologises and begs for forgiveness, imagining himself bowing deeply with his hands clasped together, but Kyungsoo doesn't react, so he feels a little stupid.

Mind reading? Really?

The corner of Kyungsoo's mouth twitches and Jongin mentally freaks out all over again.

“Kyungsoo? Please explain. What did Jongin misunderstand?” wait, why is this suddenly Jongins's fault?

“I. I think I scared him-you off,” he addresses Jongin halfway through the sentence, and he actually looks remorseful, but Jongin is still suspicious. Why is he all rainbows and respectful sparkles, rather than murderous intentions all of a sudden?

“Yeah,” is all Jongin says, causing  Rob to frown disparagingly,

“What did Kyungsoo do that frightened you?” he asks, trying to be delicate about it but not quite succeeding. Jongin thinks this probably isn’t his job. Maybe he’s a cleaner or something. Maybe not.

“You mean apart from screaming at me, and acting like a complete lunatic?” he asks, sardonically. But he says it looking at Rob, not brave enough to say it directly to Kyungsoo's face, just in case.

“I'm sorry; I was annoyed. I should have waited until I was under control to speak to you,” Kyungsoo looks less scary now-dare he say it-approachable? He nods in fervent agreement, and makes no secret of his feelings towards his behaviour. At least he's 'under control' now.

In the supposed safety of this room-he's pretty sure Kyungsoo won't try to kill him with a teacher present- he decides he might as well ask the question that's been on his mind since he first saw him.

“Why have you been staring at me all the time?” it comes out quieter than he wanted, not confrontational at all, but Kyungsoo still blanches.

“Because. Um,” he manages to get out, then stops.

“Go on,” Rob encourages, and Kyungsoo glares venomously at the floor. There, that right there is why Jongin is so scared of him.

He mumbles something that Jongin doesn’t quite catch, but Rob must've heard because he smiles generously at him. It also seems that Rob doesn't feel the need to tell him to repeat himself, which Jongin thinks is a little unfair.

“Can you answer the question so that I can hear it, please?” he pushes, surprised at his sudden bravery in the face of certain death.

Kyungsoo clears his throat softly, and glances up at Jongin only briefly, but in that brief moment, he manages to send chills down Jongin's spine and make him regret that he even opened his mouth. He totally should've stayed quiet,

“I said, it's because I wanted to talk to you, but I didn't know how,” he snarls. He emphasises the word 'wanted' in a way that makes Jongin this he doesn't mean it. Not in the slightest.

“Alright, so now that you're both here, we can establish that neither of you want to hurt the other. Kyungsoo just wants to be friends, ok Jongin?” he sounds like a primary school teacher, talking to a year four pupil. Jongin reckons he doesn't even realise he's doing it.

“Yep, I just wanna be friends,”  Kyungsoo doesn't sound like he wants to be friends at all, to be honest. And didn't he say 'date me' when he yelled at him the other day? He looks at him suspiciously. This kid is not right in the head, and he definitely doesn't want to be friends with him.

“Jongin? You two are going to try to get along now, yeah?” Rob insists, and Jongin very reluctantly nods. As long as by 'getting along' he means staying out of his way, and making sure to avoid him.

“Yeah, I guess. But I still don't...why did you have to scream at me like that? If you hadn't done that I would've agreed to-to be your ‘friend’- easily,” it just doesn't make sense. He wouldn't have agreed to go out with him, under any circumstances though, not even if he seemed normal. He's pretty sure he's not gay. He likes girls.

“I'm sorry,” Kyungsoo hisses through gritted teeth, “I didn't mean to,”

Rob's phone goes off abruptly, and he makes a worried face when he looks at whatever message it is that he's received.

“Will the pair of you be ok on your own? I need to...sort this out,” he says, seeming distracted as he puts his phone away in his pocket. He stands up and walks out of the door.

Where does he think he's going? Is he going to leave both of them alone? At the last moment he turns around and, waggling a finger, says,

“No fighting, are we understood?”  then flees the scene, his shoes squeaking minutely against the hard floor as he speed-walks away.

“It's not like I could hurt you even if I tried,” Kyungsoo complains. Jongin looks at him incredulously. Is he serious?

“Why would you even try? What have I ever done to you?” Jongin grasps at straws trying to understand.

“No, no. I don't want to hurt you,” Kyungsoo promises, waving his hand dismissively, eyes still angry and wide, “I do still need to be friends, however,”

“Why,” Jongin says, and it doesn't come out as a question, more like a challenge.

“Just because. I can't tell you, can you not just trust me?” he beseeches, despairingly, with underlying fury.

Nope. Nu-uh, he's leaving right now. Why should he trust a stranger? Especially one who has been harassing him for days? No. He picks up his school bag, slings it over his shoulder and makes to dive out into the hallway and run for it.

“Stop!” Kyungsoo commands, and for some reason, Jongin freezes. Maybe it's because he doesn't want him to chase after him, maybe it’s because…Jongin doesn’t know.

“Please just leave me alone,” Jongin begs, but Kyungsoo grips his arm and doesn't let go when he tugs away. How such a little person is so strong is beyond him. He doesn't look like he should be able to lift a brick, but here he is holding him back.

“I really need to be friends with you, please don't leave,” he still twists the word 'friend' so it sounds like he's saying something else.

“You mean you need me to date you,” he reiterates, “look, I'm sorry, but I don't swing that way,” he tries to escape again, very much wanting to get out of this room, but Kyungsoo's preventative methods seem to be super effective,

“I don't really care. Can-could you just spend a little time with me?” Jongin furrows his brows; this guy is persistent, “I'm not such a bad person, really I 'm not. You just caught me at a bad day-”

“No. You caught me, now piss. Off!” Jongin gives one final tug and breaks free, leaving Kyungsoo flabbergasted and gaping.

“Please?” he breathes out, outwardly devastated, but Jongin doesn't believe it for a second. He shakes his head and runs for it. He hears Kyungsoo's incoherent shouts follow him down the corridor as he sprints away, bag hitting his back with every stride.

-

Luckily he only has one more lesson after this, so after waiting out of breath in the hallway outside his classroom for the remaining fifteen minutes-he didn’t want to risk going back to the canteen in case Kyungsoo followed him- he heads inside.

 Getting out his huge law textbook-three hundred pages of content he’s supposed to learn, why did he pick law?- he catches sight of a person with a bright red mop of hair moving through the carpark, in the opposite direction to his bus stop. Good, he thinks, this means he lives on pretty much the opposite side of town. He’s yanking on his hair again, and manages to scare a pair of girls walking the opposite direction when he kicks a nearby tree, one of those ones with the flimsy wire around them for protection. It shakes precariously, a few leaves falling off and floating to the ground delicately, belying the reason they fell off.

Jongin assumes he must be shouting or something as well, as the two girls give him a wide berth, and flinch again, twice, clinging on to each other’s arms. Shaking his head, he turns back to his work and resolves to actually get something done this lesson, without terrifying thoughts of Kyungsoo invading his head.

----

christmas holidays started today for me, slightly excited :)

anyway comment if you enjoyed this. or comment if you didn't, comments are good no matter what lol