Thud.

Nayoung raised an eyebrow at the sight of the orange haired boy fast asleep, mouth slightly parted and hair covering his eyes. Looking to the front to find that the teacher was still enjoying listening to his own voice, she wondered how someone couldn’t have noticed that someone was indeed bored seeing as their head had hit the table quite loud.

And then she remembered that no-one ever cared about what happened at the back of the room unless delinquents, someone of ‘her inhumane kind’, were making a scene of some sort.

Looking back at the board to find that more had been written, Nayoung placed her pen to the page, only to stop at the all-too-familiar metallic scent, along with a somewhat sticky feeling which ran down the side of her leg. A drop of red landed on the floor.

Oh .

Snapping out of her thoughts at the sound of the bell ringing, she shoved her book and pencil case in her bag and checked the back pocket of her jeans. Finding a folded bandage, she slipped the material into her sleeve so it was resting on her wrist as she walked to the door.

“Oi.”

With a short sigh, Nayoung turned around to find her teacher right in front of her. He then turned to the back of the room, where a desk was still occupied by a boy with orange hair.

The new guy was still asleep.

She turned to the teacher again and shrugged, assuming that he was asking why he was still asleep. However, his question was completely different.

“Could you please wake him up?” Nayoung went rigid at how kind the teacher sounded, only to glare when he added, “I’ll have a talk with his father later.” He simply laughed at Nayoung before he tried to shove her out of the way, only to be pushed out the door with much force.

Nayoung turned to the new kid and sat cross-legged at the end of his desk.

Byunghee, huh? Nayoung had failed to catch his name when he was introducing himself, thus she had stopped momentarily when she saw ‘Jung Byunghee’ scrawled on his book in cursive.

She didn’t want to wake him up, so she carefully ped his bag to take out his timetable. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been as quiet as she hoped, and she hadn’t noticed the owner stirring at all until she retrieved the sheet of paper.

“Um, is there a reason to why you’re searching through my bag?” Byunghee didn’t sound annoyed, strangely. Instead, he yawned loudly and rubbed at his eyes. Then his eyes moved down and he just… stared.

Much to Nayoung’s inconvenience, he was staring right at her bleeding ankle.

, .

Nayoung tried to keep her cool by looking as deadpanned as possible, but the guy seemed way more distracted by the red that begun to stain the edge of her sock.

“Uh-“ Byunghee had begun, before he was cut off by his timetable being thrown at him.

Nayoung tried her best not to bolt out the door. So, she spoke before she opened the door and left it ajar behind her.

“Think what you wish, but a bleeding ankle is not worth wasting your eyesight on.”

---

Byunghee was frozen for quite some time.

First, the girl didn’t seem to know what manners were, second, she was very bad at trying to play off the whole bleeding ankle dilemma (which he couldn’t help but feel slightly concerned about) and third, he hadn’t expected for her to speak so…sophisticated?

Byunghee decided to stay with that, because she never used slang, oddly enough.

He shivered, snapping himself out of his trance before he noticed that he was the only person in the room. When his eyes fell on the clock, he shot up from his desk and bolted to the office in hopes of seeing Seungho there, only to find a rather plump lady, stacks of skin on her face with small spectacles that look as if they were about to pop off.

And so he ran into the hallway he was stuck in before, ready to start the torturous period of time to decode his timetable.

He didn’t get too far by himself. There were a few faces he remembered from his class, so he just followed them without them knowing.

---

Halfway through Byunghee’s second week at his new school, he’d just made progress with trying to understand his timetable.

So, maybe the teacher’s sirname should be the first few letters, the last one probably being his first name… so what the fudge are the numbers-

“Yah.”

Byunghee’s eyes shot up and blinked at the figure in black standing in front of him with an eyebrow raised, lips in a straight line.

“…What?”

“I just got kicked out of art. It’s down the hall before you turn right.” With that, the figure walked off towards the office.

 “…Um, thank you?” the boy simply held up a hand, not turning back once.

Gee…what’s with the abundance of black in this school?

Raising an eyebrow, he walked down the hall, turning right at the end of it to find a door with ‘Art’ painted on it in bright red. Smiling in accomplishment, he opted for the doorknob, only to stumble back in surprise at the sudden booming of a male‘s voice from the inside.

“NOW WHY THE HELL ARE YOU LATE?!”

At first, Byunghee thought the male was yelling at him, realizing a few moments later that he hadn’t even entered the room.

And I should do that now, so I don’t get murdered by my dear father for being late to class twice in one day.

“Had to use the bathroom-“

That girl’s voice was so distinct… it was almost a bit too deep to belong to a female.

“YOU’RE LYING!”

He winced at the volume of the teacher’s voice as he entered the room, bolting to the only vacant seat… which was right next to Seungho.

“I thought you only worked at the office.” Byunghee whispered as he slipped into the vacant seat. The blonde turned at the sound of his voice, smiling with his eyes tuning into crescents at the sight of the other before he raised an eyebrow.

“If you’re implying that I’m old, I suggest you take your words back.” He smirked.

“No I didn’t imply anything, you basically said that yourself.” Byunghee smirked back, causing Seungho to let out a small laugh before he suddenly looked down at his book and pretended to write something.

Looking up, Byunghee noticed the teacher’s scowl and simply blinked, only to have a tinge of fear hit him when he noticed the teacher’s eyes filling up with anger.

 “Are you new here?” the teacher’s voice boomed. Byunghee, who somehow lost his voice at this, nodded furiously. “Do you have a book?” the boy shook his head, mentally screaming for his voice to come back to him.

The teacher narrowed his eyes before he looked behind him, and so Byunghee did too, only to find that very same girl with the bleeding ankle, sitting alone in the row behind him, staring out the window with her headphones.

Byunghee couldn’t help but notice that her jeans were rolled down now, and that they had been ever since he saw the blood on her ankle.

“Pathetic.” The teacher muttered, his eyes trained back on Byunghee for a brief moment before he his heel and walked towards the girl. And Byunghee’s frightened attitude turned to anger.

Did… did he just call me… Pathetic?

 Narrowing his eyes at the teacher, Byunghee felt his fists clench.

“Who’s pathetic?” Byunghee asked quietly, ready to floor the aged male. At this, Seungho seemed to have seen the orange haired boy’s knuckles turning white, so he quickly grabbed the other’s attention.

“He says that to her all the time. He’s not directing it towards you.” At this Byunghee raised an eyebrow.

“Her? You mean the girl?” Seungho nodded. “Well, what did she do?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I figure it’s because she doesn’t participate in classes much…The teachers don’t like it at all. She still gets good grades, so I find the victimizing completely unnecessary.”

Byunghee nodded slowly, his eyes subconsciously drifting toward the girl.

 “I tend to stay away from her, though,” Seungho continued, and Byunghee’s eyes darted back to him, “She’s always given that aura that tells people to off. And apparently she always glares at people, so it’s kind of unnerving.”

Unnerving is a definite understatement.

Byunghee turned back to the girl once again. She still had her headphones on, but now she held a pen in her right hand, and a pencil in her left. She used both stationery items alternatively, drawing for a little bit before she stopped and erased over some places on the sheet of paper. At one point, she looked down and took out an iPod from her jeans pocket, fiddled around with the device before she shoved it back in her pocket again.

What the hell is wrong with you Byunghee? Why are you staring at her? She’s mean. Cold. She has no manners… She’s wasting your time.

 And now she’s lifting her head up. Turn away. Turn away now…

She’s wasting your time.

“What’s her name?” Byunghee asked Seungho when he quickly turned away upon noticing that he had been staring at her for a while. The blonde looked up from his book.

“Nayoung. I thought you’d know her name, seeing as I gave you her timetable. You both have the same classes, after all.”

“Huh? Really? “

“I am going to ask you once again. Why. Are. You. Late?”

Interrupted by the teacher’s strangely calmer yet still threatening voice, both Byunghee and Seungho turned around to see the teacher standing in front of Nayoung. His arms were crossed, his foot tapped against the ground impatiently, and had the same scowl he’d worn when talking to Byunghee.

Nayoung seemed to not have noticed the huge angry male looming over her, because she was still sketching and erasing whatever was on the sheet of paper, music now blaring out of her earphones. Byunghee then realized she was actually ignoring the teacher when he had growled, and the volume of the music was turned up.

So, that’s why all the students and teachers hate her. Now that you know, stop staring at her. She’s wasting your ti-

“Nayoung! You dare ignore a teacher!?”

The teacher’s voice had risen by a mile, and so did the music, the singer’s voice belting a note out of Nayoung’s headphones. At this, the teacher slammed his hands on the desk before attempting to grab her iPod. 

Just before his hand even touched the device, she slapped his hand away. He tried again, this time grabbing onto her wrist and tugging at it, but then he was suddenly face-down on her desk. The arm he had grabbed her wrist with was twisted in an awkward position. Hearing the loud thud the teacher made hitting the desk, all the students gasped, excluding Byunghee, who practically forgot how to breathe.

There was silence for what seemed like hours, the sound of the clock above the white board being the only sign that time hadn’t stopped in its tracks. That was, until, Nayoung moved, abruptly stumbling back. She let go of the teacher’s wrist, clutching her own as if it were twisted rather than the teacher’s.

She moved so quickly… A martial artist for sure. Byunghee noted with admiration before he realized that Nayoung has just twisted a teacher’s arm; she’s going to be in so much trouble and yet she doesn’t care!

When her eyes met the eyes of the still gaping students, she her heel, bolting for her bag before she took brisk steps towards the door.

“Hey, wait!”

Nayoung was at the door when Byunghee spoke. She turned around, and the orange haired boy’s eyes met the same dark and emotionless ones.

“Do you have no manners? No apology whatsoever?”

How retarded can you be, Jung Byunghee?

Nayoung blinked at this, re-adjusting her bag as she raised an eyebrow.

“Byunghee, I suggest you shut up now.” Seungho muttered.

Yes Byunghee, please shut up. Who cares if you look like an idiot if you stop now?

 “You just twisted a teacher’s arm. Do you know how much trouble you’ll be in?”

“Seriously Byunghee, shut it. Your dignity, which has already been destroyed by the way, is not important right now.” Seungho said a little louder.

Ignoring Seungho’s warning, he decided to continue, subconsciously deciding that his remaining dignity was more important than his physical health when Nayoung would floor him afterwards. However, when he saw Nayoung slowly backing away out of the door, he realized how much trouble he was in when he lost control of what he said when he suddenly scoffed.

“How could you not have the decency to admit your mistakes and apologize for them instead of running away? Surely your parents taught you that much.”

She flinched.

Byunghee struck a nerve.

And now he was scared less.

He moved backwards despite the fact that Nayoung hadn’t moved toward him at all. Instead, much to the entire class’ surprise, she laughed. But it was cold and bitter.

“It’s genuinely funny that you say that,” Nayoung’s eyes made Byunghee want to curl up into a ball and die. She had that deadpanned look again, but Byunghee could tell that she was trying not to explode; not because she looked angry, but she was shaking.

She gritted her teeth as she continued. “My parents weren’t alive long enough to teach me anything.”

Before he could even apologize, she walked out the doorway, slamming the door shut behind her.

Great job, .

“…Are you always this harsh?” Seungho asked quietly, but he was evidently shocked at how hesitant Byunghee had been when he first spoke compared to how he did just then. Byunghee turned to him with a frown and shook his head.

“I speak before I think a lot…” His voice trailed off when he turned to the door before he snapped his head back to Seungho. “I’m going to die aren’t I?” He asked, panicked. Seungho was about to answer when the bell rang.

“Well, I wouldn’t know. Just pray to god that you live through today unharmed.” Seungho said as he pushed his chair in, patting Byunghee on the shoulder.

Byunghee could only nod as he clutched one strap of his bag tightly.

---

Ahem, so that was a thing.

I'm trying my best to update as quickly as I can.

Comment your thoughts. They get the ideas and motivation flowing after all.

-RKP_Yoshi