Junmyeon struggles to keep his eyes open and listen to the teacher droning in the front of the class. Honestly, Junmyeon thinks, it's a good thing that he's good at chemistry naturally or he'd really have a problem. Mr. Lee is boring, and Junmyeon cannot risk getting anything less than an A in any of his classes.

He sighs and tries to force his attention back in the board up front, but his train of thought had long since run off track. He finds himself giving in and looking around the room instead. His seat mate, Chanyeol, had fallen asleep before the teacher had even really started talking, which usually would've been celebrated like the return of Jesus, but in this situation the kids non-stop talking would've at least helped keep Junmyeon awake.

Junmyeon rests his cheek on his palm and tries not to snort as Chanyeol twitches. He's honestly impressed that Chanyeol's gone nearly an entire class period without snoring and alerting the entire classroom of his lack of interest in significant figures and measurements. Chanyeol is always loud, Junmyeon can usually hear him all the way across the cafeteria at lunch, and they sit in opposite corners. Chanyeol sits with his friends Luhan, Yifan, Baekhyun, Jongdae, Kyungsoo, Jongin, and Sehun. Meanwhile, Junmyeon sits with his friend Yixing, and Yixing's friends Minseok and Tao.

It’s because Chanyeol is so noisy that Junmyeon doesn’t feel bad about eavesdropping. He dislikes intruding on Minseok, Tao, and Yixing’s conversation ("you really shouldn't avoid talking to your friends" "they're more your friends than mine, Yixing") and it isn't his fault that Chanyeol yells and Baekhyun's voice carries and Junmyeon always finds himself stuck with the knowledge that Jongin left baby Sehun at that party last weekend and Luhan's parents will be out of town next week, bring beer.

Maybe, if Junmyeon’s listening skills hadn't been the only thing that kept him alive during his freshman year, he would have been a bit more hesitant to tune into other conversations. But now it's already become a habit and he consoles that guilty part of him with the knowledge that if there was something really secret, it would not be conversed about in a lunchroom where anyone could overhear. For example, Junmyeon tried very hard to keep the bullies he had freshman year a secret. He didn’t talk about them anywhere, much less the cafeteria. Why? Because Junmyeon wanted it to stay a secret.

Of course, Yixing found out anyway.

The bell sounds the end of the day and breaks Junmyeon out of thought. Students are filing out of the classroom to go home. He taps Chanyeol’s ankle with his foot while he packs his books, but the younger boy just groans and buries his face in his arms. Normally Junmyeon would put more effort into waking him up, but he has to work in fifteen minutes and instead decides to grab Chanyeol’s phone, sending a text to Baekhyun informing him that this is Chanyeol’s seat mate and Chanyeol refuses to wake up. He puts the phone back and grabs his things, shaking Chanyeol one last time, before leaving the sleeping boy at his desk.

When he passes Baekhyun and Jongdae in the hall, the two obviously on their way to wake the giant, he offers them a polite smile and receives nods in return before he rushes down the hallway and to the parking lot.

---

Junmyeon works three jobs, one immediately after school from three-thirty to six at a coffee shop downtown, then from seven to eleven at a convenience store near his house, and then he waits tables at a restaurant a half-hour away for five hours in the weekend. He's currently at job number one, which he usually rather enjoys because even when it's busy it's quiet and there is no loud noise to make his constant headaches worse.

Today, however, Yixing has decided to come with him, which of course resulted in him, Minseok, and Tao sitting at the counter where Junmyeon was at the cash register. Minseok (wonderful, perfect Minseok) had brought a book with him and was thankfully falling in with the general vibe of the shop, which in turn robbed Tao of his number one conversation partner, resulting in the sophomore pulling out his homework and working on it as he sipped at the juice Junmyeon gave him.

Yixing, on the other hand, was doing his best to drive Junmyeon up the wall.

"I really think you should quit, Jun. I mean, three jobs and high school are a lot to balance, and with your schedule you hardly have time to eat, and you're pale because you never have time to be outside and I know you're just going to get sick."

Junmyeon shoots him a bitter grin while grabbing Tao's pencil and fixing a mistake on his paper. "Well, I do know of a solution."

"Really?" Yixing grinned.

"Oh yeah." Junmyeon said, still checking over Tao's paper. "I can just quit all of my jobs and go down to the red light district every other day. Then I still get the money I need to survive and I get to be outside. How's that sound, Xingxing?"

"You don’t have to be so gruesome.” Yixing says wryly. “I’m just thinking of your health.”

Junmyeon snorts and breaks away from them for a moment to take an order. When he comes back Minseok still has a slight curve to his lips and Yixing is still frowning. Tao hands his paper back to Junmyeon for a final check. Junmyeon smiles as he reads it over and pats Tao on the head when he’s done.

"Xing," Junmyeon says lowly, refilling Tao's juice and watching the younger boy lean in to slurp at it. "Do you remember those older guys that were always around my sophomore year?"

Yixing’s pout vanishes and he fixes Junmyeon with a confused frown, speaking with a soft voice. "The ones that tried to kill you?” Tao's head tilts their way, juice forgotten, and Junmyeon remembers that Tao wasn't around until this year, and was somewhat oblivious to the hard times Junmyeon went through freshman and sophomore year.

"I was thinking about it during Chemistry today." Junmyeon continues, knowing full well that both he and Yixing (and Minseok, because the senior was no doubt following the conversation silently) knew that those were indeed the boys he'd been referring to. "And I was wondering what you did to make them stop. Because they didn’t even look at me anymore after you found out, and I…" Junmyeon trails off, and Tao's eyebrows hit his hairline as he joins Junmyeon in staring at Yixing. Minseok glances up from his book before turning the page and settling back down in his seat, finishing off his coffee. “I was just wondering.”

"Well…" Yixing’s eyes shift, body tilting a little bit. “I told.”

Junmyeon’s eyes go round in surprise, and he fumbles with the replacement coffee he was about to place in front of Minseok. The liquid burns his hand, but he ignores it in favor of leaning closer to Yixing, who is suspiciously avoiding his eyes. "Yixing, that was a secret!”

"It actually wasn’t so deliberate.” Yixing says as Tao squawks and vaults over the counter to push Junmyeon’s hand under the faucet. Minseok grabs napkins from the dispenser and cleans the mess while Tao turns the water on cold. “I was worrying about it in the hallway because I’d been distracted during class and the teacher kicked me out. Some kid came along and asked me what was wrong and I ended up telling him." He shot Junmyeon a withering look. “And it was a stupid secret, anyway. They nearly killed you. You know, you wouldn’t be as cute dead, Junma."

Junmyeon forces himself to relax, a little uncomfortable that some stranger took his problems into their own hands. "Being cute is not something I have to worry about, anyway. And if you keep talking like that, Tao will get the wrong impression." He turned to the aforementioned sophomore. "They did not almost kill me."

"No, they bullied him until he almost killed himself."

Junmyeon glares at Yixing as Tao stared at him in unmasked horror. "That did not happen.” He reassured their youngest.

“It did too.” Junmyeon hears Yixing say under his breath.

Dear God, Junmyeon shouldn’t have brought it up.