1

Planting

Sometimes Hyukjae wondered why he had friends.

He sat on Siwon’s desk with his legs on his own chair. Siwon was somewhere far away, snuggling with his girlfriend in a corner, so he couldn’t say anything of it. And even though you could think that that was annoying Hyukjae, it wasn’t the case. Sure, Siwon was a good friend but not his only friend so if that giant tried to get under Tiffany’s skirts then Hyukjae wasn’t going to stop him.

And contrary to the believe of many of his classmates, this time, it wasn’t Kyuhyun bothering him either. Kyuhyun was playing his with his PSP as if his live depended on it while constantly chanting: “Up, down, left, left, down, right, up, left, left.”

But for once, even that didn’t bother him. No, it was a girl that bothered him with long brown hair that curled on all the right places. Not that that made Hyukjae’s heart beat harder or something. He was gay and proudly so whenever he saw the opposite behaving like Jessica did now.

The corners of were turned downwards, just like her eyebrows. She had her hands on her sides and she was glaring at him. “Come on, Hyukjae. Why can’t you do this one thing for me?” She asked with a voice that was an octave higher than normal because of her outrage.  

“Because it’s a pain in the .” Hyukjae returned smartly.

“How’s taking care of Donghae a pain in the ?” She cried out but yet low enough so that said person wouldn’t hear.

Still, he looked with an anxious face but to his relieve there was no sign on Donghae’s face that he had heard what Jessica had practically screamed.

“He’s boring.” Hyukjae told her desperately.

“You’ve never even talked to him.” Jessica countered.

Hyukjae puckered his lips in annoyance.

“Come on, Hyuk. Please do this for me.” Jessica begged.

“Why? Why does he need me?”

“Well, look at him,” Jessica made an obvious gesture, “The only friend he has is me. And now that I’m moving away, he’ll have no one.”

“So? He could make new friends on his own.” Hyukjae protested.

“Oh, come on. Most of the guys here are stuck up, they won’t even look at him. I need you to help Donghae fit in.”

“Jessica…” Hyukjae sighed.

“Great, thanks! You won’t regret it!” Hyukjae was baffled, he had no idea that with just mentioning her name he had agreed to it. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked away.

Hyukjae sighed deeply and turned his head to look at a certain Lee Donghae.

It was true that he hadn’t talked much to Donghae even though they had been classmates for two years. There wasn’t really a reason for it, it was just that they had different friends. The only friend that they had in common was Jessica.

“If you have to be friends with Donghae, you need to go over to talk to him.” Kyuhyun advised and Hyukjae rolled his eyes before turning to his friend.

“I never agreed to it.” He tried to remind Kyuhyun.

“True but I think that he needs it.”  Kyuhyun admitted while not even looking at Donghae.

Hyukjae sighed but before he could say anything else, he was shoved off the table by Siwon. The large male had a scowl on his face and growled: “Get off my table.”

Kyuhyun snorted because of that little sentence. It was a bit needless to say because Siwon already shoved Hyukjae off his table. Kyuhyun then looked down at Hyukjae who now laid on the ground with a dark expression directed at Siwon. Siwon rolled his eyes and answered the unspoken question: “I’ve told you often enough that I don’t want your on my table.”

Hyukjae opened his mouth but right on that moment the teacher walked in the classroom. Surprised the teacher came to a halt and with a dry tone he asked: “Mr. Lee, can I ask you what you’re doing on my floor?”

“I was checking if the floor was more comfortable than those bad chairs.” Some classmates snorted but the teacher wasn’t so amused.

“Well, then, I suppose that if you find the floor so comfortable, you can bring your chair and table to the hallway and we’ll try to find someone who wants to use them.”

Hyukjae was up quicker on his feet than he normally was. “No need, sir. I prefer the chair to the floor.”

“Sit down then. I would like to begin my class.” The teacher walked to his desk and began the class as if nothing had happened while Hyukjae quickly sat down. Then he turned his head sneakily towards Donghae and he saw that the boy was still giggling in his hand while the other part of the class had stopped paying attention to him.

There was no real reason for it but Hyukjae thought that it was particularly cute. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to look after Donghae after all.

Hyukjae was considered one of the delinquents of the school. He had a motorcycle, his friends’ had motorcycles, his friends smoked – Hyukjae didn’t – and he and his friends talked back to the teachers. Oh, and he did his fair share of fighting.

But then again, he was in coll