Wow, well this is strange. A second update :)

Sungmin knocks on the large wooden door of the principal’s office. No response is heard and the door remains closed. Sungmin frowns.

Kyuhyun pushes Sungmin aside, “You’re knocking too softly.”

The harsh, loud sound of Kyuhyun’s knuckles rapping repeatedly against the hard wood makes Sungmin flinch. He gives Kyuhyun a look, but the latter just smiles slyly in response. Sungmin’s eyebrows furrow. He knew that wasn’t a good sign.

After a minute, the door is flung open and the angry principal stares down at them. Kyuhyun runs behind Sungmin and points to him with his thumb. The man rests his fury fed eyes on Sungmin.

Sungmin freezes.

“Just get in here,” the principal says, holding the door open for them.

Hyukjae and Donghae race after them before the door closes in their faces.

Sungmin scans the room around him with curious eyes. Four chairs sat before the principal’s desk, which was sparkly clean with only a few papers and pens scattered across its surface. The remaining pens and pencils sat organized in a plastic pencil holder with slide out drawers for thumbtacks and paper clips. The navy blue walls are decorated with light streaming from a window with pulled up blinds. To Sungmin, the place didn’t look like a principal’s office at all.

He had been expecting bloody axes hanging on the walls next to mounted child heads, a pencil holder filled with assorted knives, and boxes filled with file folders containing information of all the kids he killed for being disrespectful to their classmates and teachers.

This place was great. At least compared to what he assumed it would be like. However, the principal himself gave off an angry vibe, his face always twisted into an infuriated expression.

Sungmin watches as the man turns away to get something from a cabinet clinging to the furthest wall from the door.

Kyuhyun, standing on his tiptoes, reaches up to the desk to grab a pencil. Giving him a weird look, Sungmin watches skeptically with his arms crossed. Loosing his balance, Kyuhyun pulls his hand back to his side, but the pencil holder tumbles down with it, spilling it’s contents all over the carpeted floor. Kyuhyun steps back quickly, trying to distance himself from the issue.

When the principal turns around, Kyuhyun points to Sungmin again, “It was Bunny. He’s super clumsy.”

Sungmin glares at Kyuhyun, his fists clenched by his sides.

The principal clears his throat, “Lee Sungmin, you’re walking your way onto my bad list.”

Sungmin freezes, “Y-You know my name?”

He nods, “Yeah. I’m a friend of your dad’s.”

Glancing at the name plaque on the desk, Sungmin 'oh's in recognition, “You’re Mr. Kim.”

The principal nods, “Now, excuse me for a second, boys, I need to find something. Just give me a few minutes.”

Hyukjae, Donghae and Kyuhyun stand in their spots, motionless. Sungmin, however, takes advantage of the moment. He picks up a tack from the floor and with his other hand, grabs Kyuhyun’s wrist and drags him out of the office.

They stand out in the hallway, Kyuhyun leaning up against a wall with his arms crossed and Sungmin stretching his arm outward, the tack in his hand as he silently offers it to Kyuhyun.

“What?” Kyuhyun snaps.

“I want to know why you’re being such an idiot to me,” Sungmin says through grit teeth, wincing when he realizes one of his teeth is loose.

Kyuhyun doesn’t seem to notice the tooth issue as he stares at the ground, “I just want to be your friend.”

Sungmin raises an eyebrow, “Really?”

Kyuhyun sighs, “Yes.”

Inspecting the tack in his hand, Sungmin frowns. He doesn’t reply.

“So will you be my friend,” Kyuhyun asks.

“Hmm…” Sungmin glances around as if in deep thought, “You know what?”

“What?” Kyuhyun asks eagerly, practically dancing on his half shoeless toes.

“You can be my friend, if”-Sungmin takes a step towards Kyuhyun-“you eat this for me.”

Kyuhyun stares as Sungmin extends his palm outward, a tack from the principal’s office resting on his soft skin. He then glances at Sungmin with a bewildered expression on his face, “You’re crazy.”

Sungmin his head and smiles, “Not as crazy as you. Thank goodness.”

Glancing at the tack again, Kyuhyun swallows a lump in his throat. He wanted to be Sungmin’s friend; he really did. So, if this is what he had to do, we would do it.

“So?”

“I’ll do it,” Kyuhyun says quickly.

Sungmin’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, but they come down as fast as they shot upwards. He watches expectantly, a sweet smile on his face, as Kyuhyun reaches a shaky hand out to pick up the tack.

Feeling the plastic in his fingers, Kyuhyun observes the metal piece of the tack as it sparkles in the light of the school. Sweat forms just below his hairline, showing obvious signs of stress. He was contemplating.

Eating this wouldn’t kill him, right? He was in second grade, for heaven’s sake. He was way too young to die. Siwon, pray for me. Pray for me with my shoe.

Sungmin stands in pure pleasure as he observes Kyuhyun in his unstable state. He was obviously very torn about the whole situation and seeing him struggle made Sungmin happy- he felt better about himself. Kyuhyun lifts the tack to his lips when a thought rushes to Sungmin’s head. Kyuhyun closes his eyes and opens his mouth.

“Wait!” Sungmin grabs Kyuhyun’s arm and snatches the tack away from him.

Kyuhyun gives him a look.

Needing to explain himself, Sungmin looks away and thinks up a quick lie, “I-It might need salt. Or water, you know to wash it down or give it more flavor…”  

The brunette seems to let it pass, “Do you know a lot about cooking?”

“Yeah, my dad’s a professional chef for a TV show. Why?”

“Oh,” Kyuhyun wished his dad was that cool. “Just wondering.”

“Anyway, I’ll go get the salt,” Sungmin turns to leave.

However, a deep voice stops Sungmin in his tracks, “No you won’t.”

Hyukjae spots the tack in Sungmin’s hands, “What are you doing?”

Kyuhyun speaks up before Sungmin can turn around to explain. “Sungmin wanted to ditch school, but he didn’t want to do it alone, so he dragged me out here. I told him that ditching is wrong, so he got mad and said he would eat a tack rather than go back to the office. But then, he realized the tack would have no taste, so he was going to get salt to make it taste better.” Kyuhyun tattles almost endlessly, like it was the truth.

“What?!” Sungmin gapes, “That’s not true at all!”

“Listen,” the principal sighs. “I don’t care what happened here. I’m sorry, I can’t solve your problem from earlier because I have to babysit my friend’s son, but I’ll give you kids a pass to give to Ms. Song, okay?”

All the boys let out a sigh of relief.

Hyukjae is the first to speak, “Okay, thanks.”

The principal grabs Hyukjae’s arm and a pen from his pocket. On the shocked boy’s skinny limb, Mr. Kim writes in sloppy handwriting:

Ms. Song-

Heechul needs babysitting, so I’m sorry I couldn’t punish these insolent kids of your class. Shoot me an email if any bad behavior continues and I’ll try to fix the problem as soon as Heechul is gone.

                                                                                Sorry for the inconvience,

                                                                                                Mr. Kim

The boys, of course, couldn’t read all of it, and they hoped Mr. Kim didn’t permanently write something awful on poor Hyukjae’s arm. When he got home, Hyukjae would have to wash it off before his aunt saw it. He didn’t want her to know he got in trouble, because that never lead to anything good.

As if reading his mind, Donghae smiles, “You can borrow my sweater and wear it home.”

Hyukjae smiles at his friend, “Thanks, Hae.”

When they look up, expecting Mr. Kim to still be there, they find him running off to his office.

Hyukjae shrugs, “Let’s just go back to class and hope we can actually participate in the activities.”

The other boys nod.

“Oh and Kyuhyun,” Hyukjae walks up to the said boy and growls at him. “Thanks for being an .”

“Hyukjae!” Donghae yells through laughter, “He probably doesn’t know what that means!”

“That’s the whole point,” Hyukjae smiles slyly, glancing at Kyuhyun before running with Donghae back to class.

As soon as they’re gone, Sungmin extends his palm outward towards Kyuhyun expectantly. “Dictionary,” he says.

Kyuhyun glares at him, “I don’t have one.”

“Oh,” Sungmin smiles slightly. “Well, that’s too bad, isn’t it? Why don’t you ask your mom for one for your birthday, huh? Because it’s quite silly you don’t know what means. Ah, Kyuhyun, you’re so young.”

Kyuhyun gives him a quizzical look.

“Well,” Sungmin sighs, “I don’t have time to hang out with losers, so see you later, Kyuhyunnie.”

Without looking at Kyuhyun, Sungmin darts up the stairs and back to the classroom.

He had no idea what that word meant. But he needed to figure it out before Kyuhyun did.

Ignoring the strange glances the other students gave him, Sungmin sifts through the shelves, searching for the dictionary. He had been looking for about five minutes to no avail.

The whole ‘trouble causing’ thing was dealt out with minutes ago. Ms. Song apologized for being loud and rude, and the three troublemakers gave her their apologies in return. Sungmin glances over to the sink temporarily, watching as Donghae and Hyukjae desperately tried to scrub the black ink off.

 Huffing disapprovingly, Sungmin stands before the bookshelf with his hands on his hips and suspicious eyes. If the dictionary wasn’t there, then someone must’ve taken it…

“Hey Sungminnie,” A voice rings in his ear. “Looking for this?”

Turning around slowly, Sungmin sighs heavily.

And he should have known Kyuhyun would’ve been standing there with the dictionary in his hands and his childish smirk actually, successfully turning pretty..well, smirk-like. However, he failed to even think who might’ve been standing behind him and just turned around, eyes widening like an idiot when he saw the dictionary in Kyuhyun’s small hand.

“Who’s the loser now?”

“Don’t call me Sungminnie,” Sungmin frowns. He walks away from Kyuhyun to join the other kids in decorating the banner.

“Hey Sungmin,” a boy with a sweet smile says. “Do you want to help me?”

“Sure,” Sungmin smiles as he sits down next to the boy on the ground.

He barely notices the presence of the brunette until he speaks, “Can I help, too?”

“No, Kyuhyun. Go away.” Sungmin says coldly, glaring at the other.

Kyuhyun sticks his tongue out at Sungmin before mumbling to himself about idiots and walking away, leaving the dictionary next to Sungmin.

“What’s your name?” Sungmin asks the boy.

“Sungjae,” the boy smiles widely, handing Sungmin a brush. “Other people have told me great things about you.”

“Really?” Sungmin asks.

“Yeah,” Sungjae nods, “I don’t understand why Kyuhyun is so rude to you, though.”

“It’s weird we haven’t met until now. Who did you have for kindergarten?” Sungmin decides to change the subject.

“I moved here two days ago,” Sungjae says.

“Oh cool,” having a normal conversation with someone was refreshing for Sungmin. “Where from?”

Sungjae looks off in the distance, “Uh…I’m actually not really sure…I’ve moved so many times over the past few years, I get lots of places confused.”

“Is it hard to move?” Sungmin dips his brush into some black paint.

Sunjae shrugs, “Not really. I guess, only if I’ve made really good friends and then I have to leave them, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve only met really strange people.”

“Well,” Sungmin sighs. “There are lots of strange people here.”

“Hey Sungmin?”

“Yeah?”

Sungjae throws an orange blob of paint on the paper, “Since I’m new here, would you be able to show me around and stuff? My parents told me that we’d stay here for a while, so I want to get comfortable.”

“Sure, I can do that,” Sungmin smiles at Sungjae.

“Cool. Lunch starts in ten minutes, so maybe we could sit at the same table..?” Sungjae returns the smile.

“Sounds great,” Sungmin draws eyes and a mouth to Sungjae’s blob of orange paint.

They both stare at the crooked, lopsided, mouth wavering jack-o-lantern. In their eyes, it looked perfect. When to others-like adults and mature second graders, it looked awful.

Especially to Kyuhyun.

He was no narrator, but he was certain Sungmin’s story was leading to a friendship with Sungjae.

And he needed to stop that.

Because every story needs a nasty, evil antagonist.