i could use another cigarette;

i could use another cigarette;

"Jaehwan, that. Is. Enough."

With a few snickers and slightly nervous eyes, Jaehwan's two brothers looked at him and he showed a cheeky grin to his dad even though he knew it would earn him a more severe punishment than the one he was already going to get. His eyes glanced to his mom and she was subtly shaking her head with disapproval while continuing to eat.

After a few moments passed, the table went quiet again and the family resumed eating normally.

Jaehwan's head immediately began to buzz with thoughts of conversations, things he could do, things he could say . . . His two brothers began to talk about the game that was on last night but their conversation was just continuous mumbling in his mind. The thought of testing himself against his father's patience pulled his nerves taut but excited him at the same time—then again, when he looked at his mom and the wary looks she sent him, a small bit of gloom made his shoulders drop and he (against his better judgment, of course) decided he should at least try to behave.

The disquieted feeling in his stomach began to get stronger, and with no way outlet, Jaehwan (loudly—his parents both glared at him, one of his brothers rolled his eyes, and the other just shrugged) excused himself from the table and set his dishes into the dishwasher. In a somewhat last-ditch effort, he skipped out of the kitchen, across the dining room (past his family who watched him) and then up the stairs to his room.

A heaviness settled in his chest as he leaned against the newly closed door. Laying his head back as he sunk to the ground and let his brown eyes drop close, Jaehwan suddenly wished he would have stayed with his family and tried a little harder. The need to talk to someone burned his tongue and he fought against every urge to grab his phone, call one of his friends, and chat their ears off about completely nothing until he felt better.

That could wait until tomorrow, he guessed.

But then he couldn't help but wonder if anyone was on Kakao. It wasn't very late, so Hakyeon, Hyuk, or Wonshik were bound to be on . . . He snickered at the thought of annoying Taekwoon in a private chat or actually calling him.

"Sometimes, I think you have a death wish." Hongbin would tell him when he constantly prodded at Taekwoon whenever the six of them were together.

Ultimately succumbing to his impulse, Jaehwan leaped onto his bed with his phone and unlocked it, opening the Kakao immediately and signing in. Millions of message alerts went off at once and reminded him that he was in at least a thousand chat groups. When he saw at least a hundred alerts for mentions of his name, he couldn't help the broad smile from breaking out.

His first instinct was to check either E-Planet, S-World, or VIP-Lounge, but he went to Starlight-Starbright instead and checked to see who was online. Hakyeon and Hongbin were there, talking about dance practice this weekend.

Jaehwan guffawed so loudly that from down the hall, he heard one of his brothers shrieking for him to shut up, but he only laughed louder.

For the next hour or so, he talked to his friends while unconsciously circulating the conversation around himself with every chatroom he entered. After saying something maybe a little out of turn in DAI5Y-Days to one Hyeri, he was banned (probably permanently this time) and decided that he got his fill of social interaction for the moment.

The next day at school, he joined his friends at the lunch table and Taekwoon and Wonshik stopped talking to each other and looked (scarily intense) at him. He frowned (or crumpled; the two were basically interchangeable) at them, just about to as what was wrong or if there was something on his face before Hongbin, Hakyeon, and Hyuk flopped down next to him. The table seemed to grow ten times smaller as the group leaned in.

"Everyone's talking about what you said to Hyeri last night." Hongbin muttered indiscriminately, but a clear frown plastered on his face. "People are getting mad . . ."

Wonshik snorted and Jaehwan glanced at him. "I don't see what the big deal was, and it's nobody's business but Jaehwan's and Hyeri's."

He was trying to think of what he said to her last night, but it had happened in such passing for him that he hadn't put much stock into the words. Now he was beginning to regret not paying more attention—considering everyone was talking about him, he wanted to know what he said so badly for . . . future reference. Just the fact that he knew a lot of people had thoughts running their mind about him made his face light up.

Fingers snapped in front of his face.

"Jaehwan, this is serious. Pay attention!" Hongbin called again, worry creasing his (as always) flawless face.

"s'Not that serious," Wonshik singsonged with a roll of his eyes. Hongbin flicked him in the shoulder.

"Hyung is right," Hyuk added somberly, looking around the lunchroom to see a few heads turned in their direction. "You should have known better with Hyeri, she can't keep anything to herself . . . Plus, there were like, lots of people in the room last night, right?"

Jaehwan shrugged in reply, mind still reeling at the fact that people—lots of people—were talking about him. Giddiness bubbled in his chest as he continued to think. Maybe if he did something like that again, more people would talk about him.

Hyuk looked at the others. "You guys, I don't think he actually cares."

"I could have told you that," Taekwoon muttered, clicking his tongue.

"It wasn't even that bad," Wonshik repeated, rolling his eyes. "People like to blow this kind of up so ing much because they don't have anything better to do."

"You really have to control your cussing." Taekwoon admonished, and Wonshik looked away with both embarrassment and annoyance.

Hakyeon began to wave his hand, and then leaned on his folded arms. "He just really needs to be careful. I've never met him, but . . . I hear that Hyeri's boyfriend is a little scary." he explained warily. "If she's told him, then there's no doubt that he'll be upset—well."

"Yeah, yeah," Jaehwan said, waving the matter aside. "It's fine. You guys worry too much." He leaned back and, still unsure, the others did too.

Every now and then, he would cast his eyes around the lunchroom and without fail, he would see at least three or four people looking his way. "Let people talk."

And he really did mean that.

The others watched worriedly after Jaehwan's retreating figure and then looked to Taekwoon. He stared right back at them.

"Talk to Sojin!" Hongbin urged. "You guys are still good friends, right? If Hyeri's boyfriend really is . . . scary, then something might happen to Jaehwan-hyung!"

Before he could reply, Wonshik did. "You seriously worry too much. No one's going to touch him."

"It's not like he's not asking for it . . ." Hyuk muttered, and then all eyes him. His raised his hands in defense. "Hey, we're all thinking it."

An hour later, Jaehwan sat at his desk, not paying much attention to the lecture.

Since lunch, his mind had been completely elsewhere; for the life of him, he couldn't remember what he said and it had to be the most irritating thing. Teasing people was natural talent because people because it was something that got them to channel their minds on him. Still, it didn't mean that he always remembered what he said, or that he really cared if he hurt feelings—even if he got his own feelings hurt in return. The gossip about him was always worth it.

When free period started, he put away his books and decided to see just how much of what his friends were saying was true. As he walked down the hall, he caught the occasional glance in his direction; a lot of the hype had died down over the day—which was a problem.

The courtyard was filled with chattering teenagers talking about this and that as Jaehwan made his way through to the other side, but before he could, a hard punch connected with his jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground, the world spinning pitilessly around him. White bursted over his vision and then melted away in halftones as the murky sky laid in his line of vision.

Without giving him time to recover, his attacker wrenched him up by the collar of his uniform shirt and then slammed him against the brick wall, knocking the breath out of him.

Jaehwan coughed a few times, sure that he might be spitting out blood, but then pried an eye open to see a very upset boy in front of him, his face screwed up in seething anger.

He coughed again. "Sorry, can I help you?" Although he didn't mean for it, his voice sounded naturally cheeky and that just made the other even more angry.

"You should watch your mouth when you're talking to girls," the guy spat, and Jaehwan blinked a few times, wiping his cheek and looking at the back of his hand to see a bit of blood. "Next time you wanna say dumb like that, say it to someone on your level."

" . . . You make it sound like Hyeri can't defend herself." he retorted easily, cocking his head to the side. From the corner of his eye, he saw that a fairly large crowd of apprehensive, excited, rumbling students was forming a semicircle around him and his heart thundered in his chest. He smirked. "What would she say if she heard that you thought so lowly of her?"

Pain shot up his spine and slightly whitened his vision again when he was slammed up against the wall one more time. Ah . . . he laughed in his head, This guy just keeps making it better and better. "Y'know, you'd have to kill me to get me to shut up." Jaehwan dared with a completely innocent face, but then a glint settled in the other person's eyes that actually made him a little nervous.

"Yeah, guess I would—bonus would be you keeping your piece-of- mouth closed."

Air rushed around him when he was flung to the ground. Before he had a chance to realize what was happening, bang after bang after bang rang through his head as it was knocked from side to side by the force of the punches the guy straddling him. It hurt like hell, but the thought at the forefront of his mind was that there were people—so many people—watching what was happening, either in horror or cheering a fight on. The only way it could better is if they were cheering for him.

Fight . . .

"JAEHWAN!" someone familiar screamed. All at once, adrenaline shot through his veins and he launched the other guy off of him, swinging an elbow into his face in return as it sent him tumbling to the ground.

"Jaehwan, stop!" someone called again, and then two people were grabbing him by the arms and pulling him back. Sheepy white hair covered the figure of the guy whose name he still didn't know (but who the hell expected him to care?), pinning him down.

"Wonshik," came a warning voice, and Jaehwan rolled his head to the side to see Taekwoon hovering over Wonshik.

"Hwannie, are you alright?!" Hakyeon cried as cool hands were placed on his face immediately. Jaehwan winced. "We told you to be careful!" Hakyeon glanced to the two holding him up, "Hyuk, Hongbin, crowd control," he asked, his using his handkerchief to start cleaning off his messed up face.

"No, no," Jaehwan nearly pleaded, "It's fine."

The others looked at him incredulously, wondering if he'd lost it or not.

Wonshik yanked up the boy who had been identified as Hyeri's boyfriend (his name was Bowong) and then looked to the crowd of students threateningly. "None of you punks saw anything."

"Teacher!" someone announced, and then the crowd scrambled in a frenzy. Jaehwan felt himself being dragged along by his friends to a hiding place as he listened to Wonshik shout profanities and threats back to Bowong.

"What were you thinking?!" Hakyeon screeched when they hit the rooftop, looking for their stashed first-aid. "If anyone snitches, you're gonna be in so much trouble—oh my god, you might even get suspended—hey, are you listening?!"

The lecture fell on deaf ears as Jaehwan grinned like an idiot, and the others gave each other concerned and wary looks.

"You guys," he said stupidly, still simpering, "People are going to be talking about this for weeks."

Your name is Lee Jaehwan, and you have to comfort your unrequited crush.