The next morning was a blur to Lay and the sound of his mother yelling had woken him up instead of his normal alarm clock.

“I swear Yixing, if those new friends of yours are so opposed to going home early like all of the other good children, why bother going to school in the first place?! Hurry up and get up before you’re late!”

“She says one thing and means another. What a perfect morning.”

Lay rolled over on his bed and reached over his bag to check the time on his phone, sitting up distressed by the numbers that were displayed. School started an hour ago and he hadn’t woken up due to the fact that he didn’t set his alarm the night before and left it off from the mishap from yesterday. He ran around his cluttered room in a frenzy; using one hand to pull up his jeans and the other to brush his teeth, finally sliding his feet into his shoes and running towards the bus stop.

“Why are you so late Mr. Zhang?”

Lay twiddled his thumbs under the watchful eyes of his principle and kept his head down low.

“You should just suspend him! All students like him are bound to drop out of school anyways, why not do him the favor and-“

“Mrs. Lee, I am the one speaking to this student so please do not interfere. I know that he will be due for punishment as well as a call to his family once I am finished.”

The old woman had an obvious scowl on her face, but hearing about a punishment, her lips curled up at the corners and she just grinned at Lay’s misfortune. The bell had already gone off and it was already fifteen minutes into lunch.

“Don’t let me see you late again Mr. Zhang. It’s the last week of school and I don’t want to have to make it a bad end of the year for you. No punishment is really needed since you are one of our more exemplary students, but I expect better out of you, do you understand?”

Lay nodded gingerly and the principle shooed him away, not minding the utter look of shock placed on Mrs. Lee’s wrinkled face. Once he stepped foot outside of the office, he felt his body start to defy gravity and he plummeted to the ground, face first into the tile.

“Looks like someone finally decided to show up. Better not be late and miss our scheduled times together .”

Hyunshik and his friends let out a hoot of guffaws as Lay fell and stalked off without another word.

“What the hell did I do?”

Lay brushed off the bits of dirt from his shirt and made his way down the hall, passing corners until less and less amounts of people were seen in the area and only a pair of stairs was in front of him. He ascended up and pushed the old door open with his shoulder, wincing at how it seemed to press into his bone more than usual today. As the light streamed in through the opening, Lay found a scuff mark on the shoulder of his shirt and cursed at how his day was so far.

“Damn Suho we really need to fix that door, it’s getting worse and worse each-“

A flurry of gasps was heard and Lay realized that that couldn’t have been made with the same mouth.

“Mr. Kim, what’s he doing here?”

A cluster of girls all surrounded Suho and they all sat in a semi-circle next up against the wall together.

“Sorry Mr. Kim, I didn’t know that people were here.” Lay quickly apologized and turned around to leave, only to be called by his teacher amidst the group of girls.

“Wait Lay! Come and eat with us!”

“Ehhhh, Mr. Kim, do you know that guy?”

“Isn’t he the weird Japanese kid?”

Lay felt his cheeks flare up and glanced up to see a familiar pair of eyes baring down on him. He felt the chill run his spine and tried to walk away before she had said anything, but he had heard it even as the door was fully closed.

“Why would he know him? He’s just a freak gay kid.”

Lay rushed down the stairs and to his next class, disregarding the way that Mrs. Lee was eyeing him out as he walked into her class. He pulled out his phone and earphones to try and keep himself occupied and to make ache in his head disappear. Sure enough when he the music, only one side decided to play while the other ear bud just crackled and vibrated in his ear.

“Mr. Zhang, there is no electronic devices allowed in my classroom!”

A bony hand reached down and swiped his phone away, making his ears pop from the sudden gesture. The old woman just smirked before heading back to her desk and shoving his phone into the top drawer. She crossed her legs and began to drum her fingers on the table with a contented expression.

Lay just watched her go back to her desk and released a groan when she wasn’t looking, digging his head into his arms.

“Lookie here. It’s the loner, or should I say, the .”

Something tangled into Lay’s hair and yanked him out of his seat. Lay felt the pain in his scalp, but bit his cheek to prevent any noise from being let out, staring at the problem right in the eyes.

“What do you want Hyunshik?”

A sneer ran across the boy’s face and he tightened his hold on Lay’s hair.

“Nothing much , how’s you and your boyfriend?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Hyunshik’s face darkened at Lay’s cluelessness, dragging him outside despite the fact that the bell was going to ring in a few minutes. Hushed whispers and murmurs grew louder as he lugged Lay down the halls.

The sunlight hit Lay’s face as he exited the school. Being thrown on the floor made his clothes dirty and his palms stung from being flung down so harshly.

“This-“

Hyunshik whipped out his own phone and held it up in Lay’s face.

“Is what I’m talking about.”

In the tiny screen of the boy’s phone, was a picture of two people outside of a familiar aquarium. Hyunshik swiped his finger to reveal more pictures, including one of the two same people in a car together and the last picture was the most scandalous.

It was a picture of a man hovering over another man in a restaurant; Both of the two being familiar faces.

“How did you-“

Hyunshik lifted his foot up and brought it down on Lay, pinning the boy to the floor. His heel dug painfully into his shoulder and Lay winced at the sharp ache.

“My baby and I decided to go out on Sunday and found a couple of familiar faces. Didn’t think that Mr. Kim was gay though, let alone want to date someone like you.” Hyunshik spat.

By now a crowd of students were circling around the ordeal like sharks, waiting and watching the entire scene unfold into something interesting. It seemed like the entire school was taking a break from classes to watch and Lay felt all of their eyes staring holes into him. For once Hyunshik had complete power over the boy and relished the moment, a triumphant smirk plastered on his face. Lay never showed much emotion when he bullied him before, but now, seeing Lay pleading for him not to say a peep made his heart race and the adrenaline made him pumped and ready to do something completely stupid.

Taking his phone in one hand, he messed with the touch screen and shoved the device back into his pocked with a contented curve of his lips.

A beeping noise was heard from the crowd, followed by another and another. The noises increased and Lay’s eyes strayed to each and every phone that was pulled out of a pocket or a bag.

The crowd became hushed for a second before roaring with disbelief and alarm. Their eyes darted back and forth from their own cellular devices to the boy under Hyunshik’s shoe, skeptical of the situation.

“All of you break it up right now!”

“Not now…”

 A new face ran into the circle and disrupted the ring of people around Lay and Hyunshik. The gossiping became louder and pretty soon, Lay could even hear voices from the school chattering about what was going on.

“Well look who decided to show up? Here to rescue-”

“I already saw your little message from your girlfriend’s phone Hyunshik and I will explain this out loud so that everyone will understand.”

Suho walked over to where Hyunshik was, grabbing the boy forcefully by his shoulder and pulling him away from Lay. He then pulled the latter to his feet and dusted his back, glaring accordingly at Hyunshik, who just had his arms crossed and looking elsewhere from Suho’s own eyes.

“That indeed was Lay and I in the picture, but it was not how all of you students think. We just went to the aquarium before summer break started as something to do. I don’t understand why all of you assumed I or Lay were gay because of this one incident.”

“But Mr. Kim! What about the picture of you two in the restaurant?”

Suho heaved a sigh before turning to face the student that had spoken.

“I don’t even know what picture you’re talking about, but we went to the restaurant to get dinner because we hadn’t eaten all day. You don’t expect me to starve my student, do you?”

“Mr. Kim, what is the meaning of this?”

Instead of making a path like the students had previously done, the voice came from the crowd and everyone looked around bewildered at the familiar, but anonymous voice. After a few seconds of waiting and looking, a bunch of students started to cry out in pain and were herded towards the sides to make way for someone. Standing in the gap was Mrs. Lee with her same old ruler in her hand; face contorted into a half pained, half pissed one.

“A teacher having form of any relationship type of contact with a student that isn’t related to school is strictly forbidden.”

Her eyes leered left towards Lay and she felt the pure disgust for him as her eyes bore into his bones, eyeing him from head to toe.

“Mr. Kim! Why couldn’t you have picked one of us instead of that loser?!”

“Kim Joonmyeon, why aren’t you answering me?!”

Suho just tried to answer all of the questions thrown at him, but anyone could see that he was overwhelmed by the amount of words and shouts being directed towards him. He began to sweat and his hold on Lay’s arm became tight and uncomfortable for the boy just standing on standby.

Even the principle had gone out of his office to see why half of the student population was outside and not in their classes, astonished by what was causing the ruckus. He crossed his arms and had an eyebrow risen at the situation, a face of disappointment on his face. Students became quiet and strained their ears to try and hear whatever the man was going to say. 

“If what these people say is true then I’m afraid I’m going to have to fire you and possibly write a report to the police about this incident.”

Gasps and pained cries rushed through the audience and Lay felt his heart drop at what came out of the man’s mouth. Suho’s entire career could go down the drain if this escalated and he wasn’t even lifting a finger to help him.

“B-But sir-“

“I’m sorry Joonmyeon, but we had signed an agreement and if you are not able to keep it then I’m afraid-“

The principle was cut off by a sudden spitting noise and everyone turned to see who had interrupted what the big man had to say. Lay was hunched over and his hair hung over his eyes, only the sound of cackles were in the air.

“You all have to be kidding me.”

Suho’s eyes went wide from the sudden speech and gripped his arm to try to keep Lay from talking, but his warnings came to deaf ears and Lay continued to speak.

“It’s stupid that any of you believed what bullcrap came from that guy’s mouth.” He jabbed a finger at Hyunshik who turned pink under the few hundred eyes that were now staring at him.

“But why did you guys eat on the roof together alone? And why did you guys go to the aquarium and eat together?!” Another girl shrieked, stomping her feet into the dirt like a child.

“Because I hate being by people that think I’m just an emo Chinese kid that can’t even speak! We only went to the aquarium because Mr. Kim wanted advice on teaching ideas. He wanted to incorporate English speaking if any of us wanted to travel and needed language help.”

The crowd seemed to become less frantic, but one girl bit her handkerchief angrily, shooting lasers at Lay for ruining her plan.

If she couldn’t get Mr. Kim and was stuck with a moron like Hyunshik, then nobody deserved happiness.

“Why were the two of you eating at that restaurant? And in the picture it looks like Mr. Kim was trying to make a move on you while you were sleeping!”

Lay slapped his forehead and she just gasped at how dumb he was making her look.

“We went to eat because Mr. Kim said he felt bad for not getting me food during our studies at the aquarium. Plus he had to carry me to his car because I was so tired after trying to help and prepare next year’s class. In fact, how did you manage to get your hands on those pictures?”

The girl sputtered at the conversation being turned towards her and before she could speak, Lay had already spoken for her.

“Because if you ask me, it would seem that you were following us. Stalking is a form of harassment and can land you a good couple years in jail, even for whoever had helped in your escapade.”

Hyunshik took in a large breath of air, making all eyes turn to him and his girlfriend, who hid her face in her hands.

“Even so Mr. Zhang, relationships between students and teachers is strictly prohibited and-“

“He was the first person to actually be nice in this hell hold and I could have actually sued if I wanted to. Allowing YOUR students bully another student is against what the Department of Education states and they would be VERY interested to hear all of the things that Hyunshik and my other fellow classmates have done to me.”

The principle’s Adam apple bobbed and he tried not to seem defeated by the boy, which all the other students “oohed” to. Mrs. Lee just snickered behind her ruler, but when Lay turned his head to look at her, she stopped cold in place.

“You’re one of the best examples of this Mrs. Lee. Carrying a ruler around like that can be very distressing to students and if the DOE heard that you’ve actually hit any of your students with that, well… I think you know what could happen to whatever’s left of your career?”

The fiery ego she had was burned out in an instant, shrinking from Lay’s words and hiding the ruler behind her back.

“If anyone else has something to say then by all means, don’t hesitate to say it, but if it’s about Mr. Kim and I then, I assure you it’s not true.”

“Stop it Lay.”

“Mr. Kim isn’t that dumb to actually want to date someone that was his student, let alone be so open with his relationship.”

“Lay, you need to stop!”

“Furthermore… Even if he had an interest in men, why would it be me? I can see all of the anger in the girls’ eyes and I can guarantee that almost all of you thought that you are way better than I am if I was in a relationship with him. Snap out of all of your delusions and wake up god damn it!”

Lay was hesitant to speak at first, but with every breath and every syllable, his words became less shaky and more powerful, ending with a brutal slap to anyone that was listening. He turned to look at Lay and expected to see him relieved not to have just stood there like an idiot, but the look on his face confused him.

Suho’s eyebrows were scrunching together and his eyes darkened, making his overall face look more tired than it was originally.

“I-If any of you have anything to say to me, don’t. I can easily report anyone that has a problem with me, but you all shouldn’t since I don’t even talk to any of you anyways.”

Lay brushed Suho’s hand off his arm and walked back towards the school with his hands shoved into his pockets. Strolling towards the edge of his audience, they made a path for him and he was able to continue walking without even having to touch another living soul.

The rest of the day was pretty similar. Some of the students still jeered at him as he passed, but once the word spread, he was avoided like the plague. He even had gotten his phone back from the witch of a teacher, smiling stiffly and holding out his earphones as if she were holding life itself. The week passed by quickly and it was already Thursday night.

Lay was in his bed, staring up at the ceiling and lost in his thoughts. The moonlight shone through his window and the stars seemed to be in hiding, unable to be seen in the sky like usual. He pondered if what he did was a good thing and thought it was, but something at the back of his head nagged him to no end.

It was Suho. Had he done the right thing for him? He and Suho hadn’t spoken since the incident and Lay no longer ate at the roof like he used to, always going straight to his next class or just wandering around campus to avoid the blonde male. Whenever he had English, he would try his best to avoid the heated stares that Suho sent him and whenever he made the mistake to look up, he’d be met with Suho’s pleading eyes. He didn’t want to speak to the male, especially since the principle was still skeptical of their ties together. 

What he was doing was the right thing.

It was the only thing he could do.