Joonmyun lowers himself gingerly into his seat the next morning barely five minutes before class is to begin, hissing at the pain of his newly formed bruises.  He can sense the eyes of his classmates on him wondering why their perfect class president is suddenly covered from head to toe in purplish-greenish splotches.  Studiously ignoring them, he continues to proceed as if everything were business as usual, pulling out his book and picking up where he last left off.

Well, at least trying to.

"Hey cupcake, how're those bruises feeling?" Jongdae inquires companionably, throwing himself haphazardly into his seat next to Joonmyun's.

With a sigh, Joonmyun carefully places his bookmark between the pages and delicately lines the corners of the book up with the corners of his desk before he turns to fix Jongdae with an annoyed stare. 

"I guess that means they still hurt pretty bad, huh? Who knew Mr. Smarty Pants would be dumb enough to walk through that alley. Everyone knows it's the territory of Xiumin and his boys."

"Past experience taught me that it was perfectly safe. I've never encountered any problems before yesterday."

"Yeah, well, the gang's only been in Xiumin's hands recently. I was smart enough never to attack anyone who knows me," Jongdae shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly observing Joonmyun's reaction.

Joonmyun merely narrowed his eyes before turning back to the front of the room to give his attention to their teacher who had decided that now was the time to begin the lesson.

Jongdae followed his lead and tried to focus his attention on the lesson at hand, but soon enough he had once again nodded off, light snores escaping his nose from time to time and adding to Joonmyun's increasing annoyance.

By the time Jongdae was awoken from his slumber, the bell had already rung and Joonmyun had already left for his next class.  It wasn't until the end of the day that they crossed paths once again as Jongdae was making his way to his locker and saw Joonmyun and his diva friend at his own.

"Hey there cupcake," Jongdae smiled as he slung his arm around Joonmyun's shoulders, careful to be gentle for the sake of the bruises he knew were hidden under his school uniform. "You should soak in Epsom salts tonight, it'll really help the swelling go down."

"Thank you for your unwarranted opinion," Joonmyun says in a clipped tone as he shrugs the arm off of his shoulders.

" off Jongdae, don't you think you've already done enough damage?" Joonmyun's short friend spits viciously at him.

"Not necessary, Baekhyun," Joonmyun sighs annoyedly.

"Yeah Baekhyun, nobody asked you," Jongdae mocked.

"Also not necessary, Chen."

"Woah, cool your jets cupcake. I can see I'm not wanted here and I have things to do anyway. I'll be off then. Ta-ta for now!" He gives a dramatic wave before prancing off down the hallway seemingly unconcerned by all the bizarre looks his actions were attracting.

"What a er. I can't believe he's acting like he actually cares about you after having kicked your ."

"When did I ever say he was the one who beat me up? Also, I don't appreciate your word choice." Joonmyun frowns at the thought of everyone thinking he had his kicked.

"You didn't have to, everyone knows he's a part of that ty gang that hangs out around here. You really ought to report him to the police."

"Yeah, I'll keep it in mind," Joonmyun mumbles distractedly as he shuts his locker and heads home, thoughts occupied by the enigma that is Kim Jongdae.

A/N: Hey, look what I did instead of typing up my case study. I'm sorry it's so short, but I wasn't planning on writing anything today and I only had about twenty minutes to write. I did the best I could. Once again, I'm sorry my updates are so few and far between. I'm really enjoying this story but I barely have time to get my actual work done, let alone invest time in a fanfiction. Please don't lose patience though. I know this has been a slow time for fics. Not only have I not been updating with any kind of regularity, but none of the fics I'm following have been updating recently. The struggle is real guys, I hope this short chapter helps to ease some of your pain. T^T