Feburary 19, 2015:

 

To the flag

 

Of the blah blah crate beloved numerica

 

Hyukjae stood, feigning attentive listening as he rolled his eyes for the billionth time that day.

 

It was third period and could not get any more boring.

 

He remembered somewhere around first when he turned around in his desk and asked the girl behind him what time lunch was going to be; she sat there, eyes trained on her work as she replied

 

“Bro. It’s 8 in the morning.”

 

8 in the morning is no excuse for not handing out food every hour of the day, Hyukjae thought.

 

He could really go for some chicken nuggets right now...a nice ICEE from the closest Valero would actually do him quite the favor.

 

The redhead thought about those vibrant colors oozing their way down to that filling cup.

 

The biggest 32-ounce carton dripping with frozen coke. 

 

One time at the Buc-ee’s just off of the feeder road to 190, Hyukjae had made a pit stop to grab a drink and decided on an ICEE.

 

But that was only before he knew what would happen next.

 

The machine lost its mind; went bat- crazy to say the least.

 

Here was this nuts redheaded Korean dude with a broken ICEE machine as he tried to lift the lever to stop the contraption from all but bathing him in cherry vanilla. Right as he thought he finally got it under control, an employee screams, grabs a feather duster and sticks it up the hole of the device. Hyukjae sighed in relief for a few seconds until the flood gates of the ICEE machine open and Jesus all but washes him away, frozen drink all up in the crotch and whatnot, had to get some soap and water to wash away the fake .

 

Hyukjae shivered at the memory, sitting down and listening to the announcements of the day drone on.

 

They were all the same anyway; some kid gets caught smoking it up in their car, a custodian falls and busts her , the culinary club will be making chocolate covered rice crispy treats and selling them during all three lunch periods.

 

Disgusting, Hyukjae thought.

 

The kids in school were gross and all stupid.

 

One dude from his chemistry class never stops asking ridiculous questions.

 

“How do you balance this one-step equation...?” he would ask one day.

 

The same way I balance my one-step on your face, Hyukjae would almost reply in place of the teacher, if not for the fact that legal actions would surely commence.

 

Didn’t matter anyways.

 

He was a sophomore now, almost ready to drive and take his test.

 

There would only be two more years of putting up with this bullcrap before University.

 

After that, he could run anybody he wanted to with his Kia Soul...or simply pull a Norman Bates and slit their throats before they him.

 

Yeah. He liked the latter idea better.

 

“Good morning cuties!” The theatre director screeched, waking the redhead up from his tired stupor.

 

How the hell can she be so up this early?

 

Hyukjae watched with a crusty frown as he could see her obvious saggy s sloshing around in that low-cut new top of hers.

 

“We’ll start out by doing the Good Morning song!” she laughed.

 

Like we always do.

 

“You look nice Ms. Rya!” another student pipes up.

 

Yes. Just like a street walker.

 

The music starts to blare out of the speakers and Hyukjae is forced to fake a smile as he does the warm-up for the day.

 

He claps with the beat, just as the rest of the circle does before the first string of lyrics hit them.

 

Wave away my yesterday

‘Cause I’m leaving it behind me

 

With my taco salad from the Mexican restaurant down the street, Hyukjae recalls.

 

The routine begins with the tacky as hell movement of walking sideways and waving their hands to each other.

 

It’s supposed to be some sort of body language exercise.

 

Hello sunshine, come what may

I feel something new inside me

 

Reminds me of my Donghae.

 

Hyukjae pipes up and sees Hae across the circle, dancing with a bright grin on his face.

 

He loved Donghae.

 

Been his crush for ages.

 

Great actor, cute smile and shy demeanor; something Hyukjae found utterly irresistible.

 

The redhead misses a turn as he stares at Donghae with his mouth open, and only then does he catch the drop of drool that managed to slide down his chin.

 

Whoops, sorry. You’re just way too cute.

 

I hear the birds singing

Now my alarm’s ringing

Get up, get up

Hey

 

Shut up. Go to bed. Not time to turn up yet.

 

He watches Donghae from afar again, as the brunette makes a motion to the air and dances their morning warm-up.

 

Donghae was the only person Hyukjae could stand at this school.

 

More than stand; Hae was just really adorable.

 

They met back in grade school, but this was the redhead’s first year in advanced theatre and as God has it, Hae was in this class too.

 

It’s a good morning

 

No it’s not.

 

Wake up to a brand new day

 

I’m this close to-

 

This morning

I’m stepping

Stepping on my way

 

I’m about to freaking step on your a-

 

Good morning

You give me strength

You give me just what I need

 

Hyukjae held up his fake smile, making the dance-step motion as his feet cross over the other.

 

He could feel his muscles ripping from the agony.

 

The agony of smiling.

 

Smiling is harder than the step-foot mess.

 

And I can feel the hope that’s rising in me

It’s a good morning

 

How many times do you have to say this, lady?

 

Hyukjae wished he could just run up the monitor and fast-forward the song and sit down already because his smile needed to sit the hell down for awhile too.

 

Give me like half a marathon

I’ll give you the Gospel of St. John

 

I’ll take a .

 

Again, Hyukjae’s eyes wander over to Donghae, and the brunette actually looks like he’s having a great time; clapping, dancing, laughing.

 

What a cutie.

 

s were nothing compared to how beautiful Donghae looked to Hyukjae right then.

 

Good morning little miss sunshine

 

Good morning little mister Donghae.

 

As the song draws to a close, Hyukjae makes a last forced picturesque move before the chorus wraps things up, just so the theatre director knows he’s “motivated” and “ready to learn.”

 

The only thing Hyukjae was ready to learn right now was how to go to bed in school with his eyes open.

 

And how Light Yagami managed not to get caught in that one anime he watched last November.

 

The song ends abruptly, the fake smiles fading and dance moves ending.

 

“That was beautiful!” Ms. Rya squeals in that annoying voice of hers, those same sloshy s bouncing around that heinous top.

 

This should be outlawed.

 

Trying not to pay attention to the cascading wrinkles of her floppy , Hyukjae tunes into the lesson plan for the class this day.

 

“This is my treat to you guys,” Rya vocalized, pulling a grey basket of fortune cookies from behind her desk.

 

Food!

 

“But-“ the director’s breathe hitches as she tries to portray suspense, “there’s a catch.”

 

I’ll catch your s and stick them in a push-up bra.

 

“After I say so, you must pick an acting partner of your choice around the room,” she smiled.

 

Hyukjae his lips as he eyes Donghae from the side.

 

Come to the Hyukcumber baby Hae.

 

“You two have five minutes to create a scene that changes time and human characteristics drastically, almost like alternative universe in writing.” Rya reaches in the basket and fishes out a cookie.

 

Oh yes goody.

 

“While incorporating the fortune cookie in the scene when I say the cue ‘now’.” Rya puts the basket down, opening her cookie and taking a seat on her director’s chair.

 

“Ready...set...partners!”

 

Hyukjae rushes to the other side of the room, spotting Donghae immediately and letting out an ugly fangirl cry.

 

The redhead’s fingers grip onto Donghae’s wrists, the former pulling him back to where he sits around the acting circle.

 

No hesitation.

 

Hae just looks on, blushes and follows suit to what Hyukjae wants.

 

“Partners?” Hyukjae asks without uncertainty, forgetting to let go of Hae’s hand.

 

“Sure,” Donghae responds, carefully prying Hyuk’s fingers off of his wrist that he was sure would bleed any second now, “if you don’t mind, you’re kinda cutting off the circulation.”

 

“Oh yes! Of course!” Hyukjae lets go immediately, noting the subtle-but-there nail marks he left on the brunette’s skin.

 

I need help.

 

“So this cookie thing...” Hyukjae’s the first to break the ice, “got any ideas?”

 

Donghae looks ecstatic.

 

“Yeah I do actually,” the brunette begins to pull out two black pens that he thinks would do great as props. “We could be an old couple. Since you picked me and you’re a guy, it’ll work out okay because it’s just improv anyway.-“

 

From there Donghae could be saying lee lee lee lah lah lah and Hyukjae would still be paying attention to his beautiful face; whatever the hell Hae was saying going in one ear and right out the other.

 

“Got it?” Hae asked, annoyance apparent as this redhead was obviously not listening.

 

“What?” Hyukjae blinked, closing his mouth for the umpteenth time that day, “Yeah I got it. Old people, pens in the ears a circle of ting.”

 

“No.” Donghae tried to keep his cool in front of this real-life walking and talking airhead extreme. “We’re a couple. In a knitting circle. These can be the tapering needles.” he momentarily paused to bring the pens to Hyukjae’s attention. “I’ll act like I have lung cancer to keep the conversation going and we’ll just ad-lib the entire thing from there.”

 

I’d like to ad-lib your entire thing and knit your circle with my tapering needles.

 

“Sure!” Hyukjae agreed, sending a warm smile over to the brunette.

 

By God was Donghae so adorable and intelligent.

 

I heard he’s in AP everything this year.

 

“Hyuk?” Donghae asked, looking over to the redhead and seeing him drift away again with that same stupid look on his face. “Please don’t mess this up for me. I want to move up to productions next year and this could make an impression on Rya.”

 

From there, Hyukjae made sure he would do anything possible to make the scene look natural and rehearsed.

 

Anything for my Hamlet.

 

Wait...does anyone even love Hamlet?

 

For my HAEmlet.

 

“Time’s up!” Rya screeches, laughing again as she sees the abrupt end in all of the conversations. Last minute add-ons are heard around the room for scenes before it becomes completely silent.

 

“Who’s on first?” the director asks.

 

Two other guys from the class stand up and bring chairs to the stage, setting their props up that they made on the spot.

 

“Wonderful!” Rya throws them both fortune cookies. She honors their catching skills.

 

The director makes sure everything is set before stating the mark;

 

“Ready guys?”

 

Jun and Blake both nod.

 

“Scene!”

 

The two actors start out by pulling what seems to be library books from the air to Hyukjae at first, only to be dispelled two seconds later as a drink from the shelf.

 

Jun takes a sip of his invisible drink, sitting down on his chair first before Blake follows.

 

“How’s engineering?” Blake asks

 

“Good enough. Love the new shirt.” Jun replies.

 

“Thanks...I like your weight loss.” Blake finishes, blonde hair and bangs fiercely swishing like Beyonce as he turns his head to the crowd for comedic relief.

 

Breaking the forth wall.

 

Smart.

 

Hyukjae looks to his peripherals in time to see Donghae snarl.

 

“We’ll get ‘em good.” The redhead whispers, reassuring the brunette as he ogles him for a minute more or two.

 

“I know we will.” Donghae’s four syllable reply.

 

“Now!” Rya cues, snapping her fingers meticulously as she waits for the scene to get better.

 

Blake manages to open his first, spilling the crumbs all over the linoleum floor.

 

Dude always had such a tight grip.

 

He goes with it though, stooping over and picking the bits off the floor and propping them into his mouth.

 

Wow. Appealing.

 

Rya just chuckles, amazed at how far her students would go to impress her.

 

“End scene.” The director states, gesturing a big X with her arms. She was apparently getting bored at the stale acting. That and Jun’s inability to project and react to emotions on stage.

 

Applause.

 

Hyukjae claps too, mirroring Donghae’s image and synchronizing their claps at the same time so as to make one sound. Hae whistles, yelling “Yeah!” in support of his theatre friends.

 

I can make you scream twice.

 

“Acting was rancid. Kind of unbelievable.” Rya says, clicking her mouse, contemplating what daily grade to insert for the boys today.

 

“80.” Rya flatlines. On a normal day, she’d hand out a 70 for crusty acting.

 

She must be feeling good today.

 

More improv skits pass by; one about a cheating husband and a woman in a taxi played by the two cutest girls in theatre, another about a homeless beggar played by this one chick in there whose name Hyukjae did not know, and the last about a waiter who can’t speak English taking the order of an egotistical magnate.

 

All very interesting; all with minor acting defects.

 

Whether it be breaking forth walls or projecting; there was always something Rya could locate, equally bringing a kid’s daily grade down to a 70 or even 60.

 

As sweet as Rya is, she’s kind of scary.

 

The third batch of applause resounded; the redhead almost losing track of who goes next.

 

“Hyukjae and Donghae!” Rya cheered, standing up from her chair and waving them over, “Choose wisely...” the director motioned towards the grey basket of fortune cookies, ultimately leading to their theatrical doom.

 

If I get Hae a 60, I’m fried toast.

 

Hyukjae looked into the basket carefully, digging his hands in there for the one that felt right...but they all felt the same really.

 

“Just pick one Hyukjae.” Rya gave him the eye, casting a gaze toward the room clock as if subconsciously telling the student he’s wasting her time.

 

. Don’t even-

 

Hyukjae picked one up that seemed alright, meeting Donghae’s eyes and seeing his expression.

 

Donghae was mortified; having the walking and talking ball of mischief brilliance, not to mention biggest slacker, as his partner.

 

He couldn’t help it though; Hyukjae was really kind and sweet, and in other classes he was quite the genius...but in this one, his acting was bat- awful and ad-libbing even worse.

 

Hyukjae couldn’t create action/reaction if it were written on the back of the kimchi jar he ate from this morning.

 

He probably still thinks the green room is where the acting department grows their plants.

 

And “break a leg” means bending your knees.

 

The two took their spots on center stage, keeping composure and not sure yet what was to come from the other; hopefully the acoustics will reverberate their voices and projection would be more than enough.

 

“Scene!” Rya calls from the other side of the room.

 

Here goes the disaster.

 

Hyukjae starts out fine, pretending to be an old man with his back bent at a 90 degree angle, slowly inching his way toward the seat beside Donghae’s place.

 

He’s the first with the impromptu; winging it flawlessly on the spot.

 

“Hello young baby....I’m coming. Wait for me.” The redhead pulls the best old-man accent he can, making sure to create a raspy tone as he sits his on the chair slowly, looking like a legitimate old dude.

 

“Oh...my back!” Donghae plays along, holding on to the pens and pushing up his false spectacles. “Is that you, honey? I can’t see ya...my eyes are kinda blurry...been 89 years!”

 

Hyukjae fakes a laugh, feigning a coughing fit as he straightens out again.

 

God it was hard not to crack up with Donghae looking and sounding ludicrous.

 

“Let’s knit shall we...I haven’t seen you since this morning...honey.” Hyukjae all but picks up his sewing needle pens, going 0.01 miles per millennia as he tries to sew an invisible sweater.

 

“Now!” Rya cues.

 

Donghae gets his fortune cookie out, nearly dropping it as he breaks character and rips the plastic off like Godzilla.

 

He gets back into the zone just as fast.

 

“I found these on the driveway.” Hae makes up, face red as he tries so hard not to laugh at how stupid Hyukjae sounds with his old-man accent.

 

The class was already laughing, making it that much harder to keep in character.

 

“Oh did you now, baby-kins?” Hyukjae wheezes.

 

What the is a baby-kins.

 

He hoped that’s what old people would say to their wives.

 

“I can’t knit anymore sweetums.” Hae would egg along, eyes already tearing up from the damn hilarity of this train wreck of a scene. “My throat cancer is spreading to my eyeballs.”

 

Eyeballs?

 

Okay then.

 

“Let me help you up.” Hyukjae finishes his cookie and opens his fortune.

 

This was it.

 

If it didn’t please Rya how it was incorporated into the scene, they would be done for.

 

They would end the six weeks with a -1 report card grade.

 

So far, so good though. She’s laughing, that’s good.

 

“Sweetheart, I just have to tell you....” Hyukjae reads the words scribbled onto the tiny piece of paper;

 

“The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe.”

 

What in the hell?

 

Silence.

 

Then, the room goes wild.

 

Rya laughs.

 

Jun and Blake are on the ground as well as that girl from the beggar scene.

 

The cheating husband and taxi driver actors are bawling their eyes out, not knowing where in the world this scene was going.

 

It was perfect.

 

Donghae looks over to Hyuk for a split second and winks.

 

Maybe Hyukjae wasn’t so bad.

 

Hyuk blushes, eating the remaining crumbs of his cookie.

 

He looks so pretty with the lights on him like that.

 

“Yeah well, you know...” Donghae fishes out his fortune, reading it with scrunched eyebrows as he knew he got the short end of the stick this time;

 

“This cookie expires on Feburary 21^st, 2014. Learn Chinese.”

 

Donghae could hardly keep it in, teetering on the edge of his seat as he tries his best not to break character and just crack the hell up.

 

This scene is a mess.

 

But it was the perfect kind of disaster.

 

Rya claps, signaling the end of the one-shot performance, eternally impressed at the two for their faultless impromptu skills.

 

“End scene!” She reassures, whistling and still chuckling, smiling at Hae and Hyuk from their places on stage.

 

Hyukjae looks over at Donghae, grinning ear-to-ear as he knows he’s done it.

 

He delivered a model performance for Hae; not messing up once. He couldn’t even spot a single thing he did wrong.

 

And as always, Donghae was cunning and glamorous on stage as well.

 

“100.” Rya raves, applause still happening as she gives them even more claps.

 

Donghae looks over at Hyukjae again, holding his hand and bowing before the small curtain-call.

 

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh he touched me!

 

Hyukjae hyperventilates, fanning himself due to Donghae’s excessive hotness holding his hand right now.

 

Hae barely notices, just stands there and laughs and lets the whistles and hands take charge and honor them.

 

You know, Hyukjae’s not that bad.

 

Donghae thinks as he eyes Hyuk from the side, who’s currently not on the floor melting.

 

The brunette casts Hyukjae a small smile.

 

A smile that seems to last quite awhile.

 

The bell rings right then, the indication of the end of the class period.

 

It was unbelievable how fast 45 minutes pass by when you’re with someone you like.

 

Hyukjae scrams and hauls his backpack, going down to the end of the hall over to the doors of the theatre classroom. He didn’t have time to waste; 4^th period Algebra II is a mile away.

 

“Hyukjae, wait!” Donghae takes off for the redhead, catching him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Yes?” The redhead inquires, breath hitching at yet another touch.

 

“I was wondering if maybe...” Donghae starts, unsure of how to finish this without sounding like he’s totally hitting on Hyukjae, “we can go out for coffee sometime?”

 

The brunette actor blushes subconsciously, staring at the redhead straight in the eye before Hyukjae answers back;

 

“Hell yes.”

 

Hyukjae says his goodbye, turns around and smiles.

 

I just need to put a reminder on my phone to buy Hae one of those chocolate covered rice crispy treats culinary club is currently selling.