There were good days, bad days, and ty days.


Good days were days when school would run by smoothly without Hyukjae having to lose his indefinitely. Sometimes Choco seemed to even like him, his cheek and snuggled up to him in bed, nice stuff like that. 


Bad days consisted of unbearable teachers and unpleasant bombshells of a pop test. Why the hell there was such a thing as a pop test Hyukjae didn’t know, didn’t want to know. He only wanted to curl up in bed with Choco again and maybe cry his feelings out to her. He could pretend she cared.


A ty day appeared at the worst of times, randomly, when nothing ever went right and ed Hyukjae over tenfold. And of course, of course, Sungmin had to be out on that specific day.


“Lee Sungmin?” Mr. Han glanced up from his desk. “Absent.”


Hyukjae stared at the empty seat beside him, laughing bitterly on the inside. He could swear Sungmin planned to be out as an indirect foreshadowing of the horrible day Hyukjae had yet to overcome. He thought of Sungmin as many things but this betrayal stung. At the next sleepover he’d be sure to use Sora’s thongs to scar him for life this time.


So far, Hyukjae had been late to school, got scolded for almost accidentally hitting a teacher in the face, found an unwanted surprise in one of the boys’ bathroom stalls, and was bitten by a sophomore who was dumped the period before. It was clearly Hyukjae’s fault to have his locker near a furious, loud boy whose devotion to a girl would be mistaken as an obsession.


Too bad the guy apparently couldn’t kiss as well as he could bite.


“Hyukjae!”


He pretended not to hear. If the job was done carefully enough, he might be able to get away with it.


“Hyukjae!”


He went on reading the passage given in class, quietly repeating the English words to himself, knowing only a quarter of what was on there, but still, a quarter? He deserved recognition for understanding that much.


“Hyukjae?”


Ignore him. Ignore him completely. The predator usually leaves after the prey makes no sign of life.


“Hyukjae, I know you can hear me. Hyukjae? Hyukjae! Hyukjae, please talk to me. Wait let me just. Can you hear me now?” 


“ing hell Siwon, you don’t have to breathe down my neck,” Hyukjae snapped, inching away with a hand against his nape.


Siwon’s forlorn expression shouldn’t have been as comical as Hyukjae saw it to be. “You weren’t paying attention to me. I thought you had an ear infection. I was worried for you.”


“I don’t. Why would I?”


“I don’t know. I was going to ask you that next.”


Siwon – the Choi Siwon, yes, you read right – looked exactly like the type of guy who’d turn up on every proud father’s golden plaque in his living room and whose name would pop up every now and then in an elegant get-together full of elitists. He did live up to his name, after all – captain of the swimming team, son of some rich folks (he figured), absolutely flawless in terms of looks and personality (Hyukjae would beg to differ), an all around good guy, with a questionable uality as straight as Hyukjae was in his room searching up gay on occasion and putting a hand down his pants shamelessly.


“Hyukjae,” Siwon cried, reaching out, “are you ignoring me?”


He backed away from Siwon’s supposed holy touch. “Of course not. Why would you even think of something as unbelievable as that?”


“Did you hear about the thing I said about me beating the previous backstroke record?”


“Yes.”


“And the other time when Coach recognized I could be part of the lacrosse team if I wanted to be?”


“Yes.”


“And also when I—”


“Yes, yes, for the last time Siwon, I hear everything you want to tell me. I swear to God,” Hyukjae said, turning to the front. “So if you’d please, I’m going to go wonder about how bad my bitten hand is.”


“Someone bit you?” Siwon jerked Hyukjae’s shoulders back, a pathetic shriek almost escaping his mouth but ended up choking instead. He checked Hyukjae’s hand, gripping it firmly. “Oh no. Oh no no no, this is bad this is really bad. Is it infected? Are you – do you have any other injuries you can’t speak of?” he whispered, as if he didn’t want to embarrass Hyukjae.


The now irritated Hyukjae snatched his hand away. “No, I don’t have anything else. It’s not infected, at least I don’t think so, and why is your hand on my chest, what the hell Siwon move it.”


The tall, handsome boy widened his eyes.


“Stop.”


He jutted out his lower lip.


“No.”


It started to tremble.


“For ’s sake.”


Siwon clasped his hands together and cried out again, “I’m sorry! I’ll be a better person from now on, I swear Hyukjae! Please continue to be my friend! I don’t deserve you I know, but please don’t leave me alone, sometimes Bugsy does and he gets scared of me and I get really sad, but I don’t want you to do so either! I’ll even give you money!”


“Shut up,” Hyukjae whispered, looking around to see most eyes in the room on them. “Okay, I forgive you, okay, happy, be happy, just be happy, stop, don’t you dare get down on your knees. Ah , Siwon. Seriously.”


“You’ll forgive me?” he asked, hope etched onto his face. “Really?”


Hyukjae paused. He didn’t know what he’d be getting into after this. He presumed there were worse things in the world. “I do. I’ll be your friend forever if you want. Now for the love of God, get up.”


Fortunately for him and everyone else, Siwon sat back down in his seat, much happier because of the permanent friendship declaration Hyukjae would have to think about once he got home. “You’re my friend.”


“I got that.”


“I kept two friends in one day, I’m so proud of myself. I made a new one this morning.”


“That’s nice, Siwon. I’ll give you a lollipop tomorrow.” The guy was nice and all but sometimes Hyukjae questioned his sanity. For an odd reason he attracted the strange ones, platonically or otherwise. Females not included. Sadly.
 

His thoughts wandered over to the load of work he'd have to manage through tonight. Mr. Choi was ruthless in terms of homework, believing everyone had nothing else better to do. A stupid thought really but Hyukjae realized some teachers cared and some wanted their students dead. They failed to see it was mutual on both sides. 

“…although I don’t think he likes me as much as you do. But I guess it’s how a person is and his preferences.” Siwon noticed Hyukjae’s back facing him. “Hyukjae? Hyukjae, are you listening?”


“Hm? Oh yeah, uh-huh.”


“So what do you think?”


“Oh, um," Hyukjae panicked for a moment, thinking back on what he heard before, "that I agree. A hundred percent. Yeah." 
 

"...Do you even know what I was saying? Hyukjae, were you even listening to me?"
 

"Yes I was." 
 

"Then what was the last thing I said?"
 

He squinted, mind cluttered. "You want to ask the guy out and that you're probably not his type. It's okay buddy, there are other guys out there."
 

Hyukjae should’ve never said anything.

“You didn’t listen! You lied to me! I don’t even like men! You swore to God!”


He should’ve never said anything at all.
 

-

“You look like today.”


Hyukjae stared back at Kyuhyun in front of him, exhausted and not in the mood to retort properly. Kyuhyun was a ballsy sophomore with a mouth that created loads of trouble with the upperclassmen, almost being beat to unconsciousness once. He came back from the dead with a vengeance, somehow managing to make them back away when they realized Kyuhyun simply just wasn’t human. “It’s been a ty day. Siwon was terrorizing the only stamina I had left. Where’s my book.”

“It’s not a book,” Kyuhyun replied dully.


Hyukjae narrowed his eyes. “Manga. Where’s my volume, I want it.”


“Not with me.”


“Then where is it?”


“I don’t know.”


Hyukjae glared hard. “How did you even get to volunteer at the library when you at your job?”


“I didn’t say I didn’t help anyone else. You’re just Hyukjae,” he said, like that helped, and in a way it did.


“Does anyone else work here besides you?” Hyukjae asked, scanning the place around him. “I doubt the teacher librarians could tolerate a brat." 


“I only man the front desk.”


“The audio of you in the boys’ bathroom fighting against diarrhea says otherwise.”


“Sometimes I man the front desk.”


“You’re not going to help me.”


“Not really." 


“All right. You can go yourself. I’ll go get my book.”


“Manga.”


“Don’t pull this crap with me.”


Kyuhyun shrugged. “Suit yourself. The manga collection is at the back. Don’t bump into anything as you go or I’ll blame it on you.”


“Didn’t know you had enough courtesy to say please,” Hyukjae muttered sarcastically, already on his way towards the back of the library. He went between two bookshelves and avoided a couple making out, trying to disregard the fact that one of them was a freshman and the other was plainly not. He also tried not to feel resentful over how they were getting some and he wasn’t.


The manga section was large enough to fill the wide bookshelf in the back, filled with various sorts of genres and volumes of different series. He began searching through the shelves, head moving up and down to find his specific volume. He couldn't trust Kyuhyun anymore. That kid would one day be the death of him. He'd probably find himself lodged between lockers in a school in the middle of South America, and he was positive Kyuhyun had the ability to do that much. 
 

He was too absorbed in finding his own book that he forgot to acknowledge a lone guy sitting on the floor next to him, headphones in.


Naturally, Hyukjae tripped, barely catching himself, head hitting against something pointy (what the hell was that), and cursed himself, the guy, the pointy thing, everything. That actually hurt. A lot. He put a hand on his head, locating a throbbing pain beating against his skull.


“You should watch where you’re going.”
 

“Hyukjae.” 

Not entirely happy with the chapter, actually. But I was stuck. I hope to make the future chapters better! Thank you those who subscribed, commented, read, and upvoted! <3