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The morning sun shone softly on Wonho’s face as he got off the bus. He had the music blaring in his ears. He looked down as he walked straight to his classroom, trying to avoid the gaze of the people around him as he always does. He hated attention. He hate it ever since. It’s because he always got it the wrong way. How to explain it? He’s known as a troublemaker at his school, and he knew it. Actually he’s not really a troublemaker or something, but his appearance gives him that impression, thanks for his ing blonde hair. No matter how much he explains it to those around him; nobody would believe that he was born that way. He does not even suffer from albinism. Besides, he was not the only blond student in the school. There was a blond – no, white haired sophomore named Lee Minhyuk or something, but no one ever treated him like they treated Wonho. It’s weirder than a blonde, isn’t it? It’s even more like the hair of a granny.

Yeah, that is one of the advantages you get if you are born from a rich family like that Lee Minhyuk guy. Everyone will adore you no matter what the circumstances. As for people born from a poor family like Wonho, having shortcomings is a big sin and you will be considered as rubbish wherever you are.

Flashback to his primary school days, Wonho wasn’t too concerned about it because he thought he can handle it easily. He doesn’t need to take a bus to go to school because all he need was to close his eyes and imagine the school gate, and ta-da~ he was already standing in front of his school gate. Nor does he need to feel sad or annoyed of the gaze of the others, because he just needed to cover his face with his palms and he will disappear from their sight.

But he couldn’t do that as he pleased nowadays. He must be careful so that the others don’t know his other curse.

Wonho shook his head to get rid of daydream. He arrived at his classroom, and as he had expected, every pair of eyes in the class looked at him in disgust. Wonho shrugged as if he didn’t care and walked straight to his seat. He put his bag on the desk, and rested his head on the bag as if it was the softest pillow in the world. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Hold on a second, Wonho-ya. Just hold on until the bell rings, and they will focus on the lesson and forget about your presence as if you never existed.

 

 

 

Minhyuk slumped at his desk, completely boring. Hyungwon was practically busy with his novel, while Kihyun had his head lowered to his arms and was turned towards the window. The classroom was empty, leaving only the three of them. The other students all were having made their way to their chosen lunch spots. Actually Minhyuk was already hungry and wanted to go to the cafeteria, but he discouraged after knowing the mood of his two best friends. If Hyungwon has drowned himself with his novels, it means he is having trouble with his father. And about Kihyun, he’s often cranky without any specific cause.

“What is the lesson of the fifth period?” Kihyun suddenly asked. Ah, so he just pretends to sleep.

 “Mathematics.” Hyungwon answered without taking his eyes off his novel.

“Will you attend the class?” Minhyuk asked.

“Are you crazy?” Hyungwon put his book on the table, looked at Minhyuk, and then smirked, “Let’s go to the game room.” He Continued.

Minhyuk smiled, “Sure, sounds good to me.”

Hyungwon put his novel and mathematics book into his bag, while Minhyuk was already carrying his bag – which has not been opened since he arrived at school. They turned towards Kihyun who looked at them with a strange look.

“Will you come along?” Minhyuk and Hyungwon asked in unison.

“No, thanks.” Kihyun replied with a straight face, clearly not in the mood.

“Come with us, please. It would be fun.” Minhyuk persuaded, showing his puppy eyes.

Kihyun rolled his eyes, clearly not buying it. “Last week we were punished by skipping PE class.”

“That’s because the 1st grade student who looks like Hyungwon dare to report us to our crazy Vice Principal. Now there will be no problem. Come on, it wouldn’t be exciting if you weren’t there.”

Hyungwon pouted hearing his name mentioned, “Yah, that arrogant girl isn’t look like me.”

“She is your doppelganger, and everyone knows that.” Kihyun smiled, finally got his good mood back. He had to admit that teasing his friend was one of the things that made him happy.

Minhyuk grinned triumphantly. “So, will you come?”

“Yes, I will. But make sure this time we are not punished or both of you will regret for taking me.” Kihyun said with an intimidating tone, trying to look all cool and bossy but he’s more like a cute hamster.

Minhyuk dan Hyungwon exchanged glances, the corner of their lips turned into a smirk before saluted in unison. “Aye-aye, captain.”

And Kihyun died of laugh all of sudden, as if being possessed by the spirit of a witch. Neither Minhyuk nor Hyungwon know what’s wrong with their best friend’s brain. But what can be said? A friend is a friend. If one of your best friends laughs, you would laugh in spite of not knowing what made him or her laugh. Every best friend does this at least once, right?

Hyungwon turned to Minhyuk. “Hey, give me your phone.” Hyungwon said in between his laughs.

Minhyuk pulled his phone out of his pocket, handed it to Hyungwon. If Hyungwon borrows his phone, its means he’ll ask if he looks handsome.

Hyungwon observed his shadow on the phone screen, straightened his bangs, “Do you think I look quite good today?”

Minhyuk nudged Kihyun who was shoving some books into his bag, smiling at him with an expression like ‘See? I told you’ clearly defined on his face.

“Are you kidding?” Minhyuk scoffed, “You,” Minhyuk paused, eyeing Hyungwon from head to toe, “always look good.” He continued, smiled brightly.

 

 

Wonho ruffled the contents of his bag, spilled the entire contents onto the table - some falling to the floor. His mathematics assignment book is not in his bag. He remembered he put it into his bag before leaving for school, even still there when he put his English book into his bag before going to the cafeteria. He’s doomed today. Their math teacher hated him enough because of a problem last week – Wonho hit a student for purposely spilling a box of milk into his books – and losing his book definitely added to the teacher’s hatred for him. Surely he will be kicked out of class today.

Wonho sat weakly as their math teacher entered the classroom coldly as if there was black smoke following him, as usually portrayed in movies when the antagonist appeared. And as expected, he immediately told all the students to collect their homework even before he had time to put his in the not-so-soft chair.

Class became noisy for a moment. Other students were busy removing their homework books from their bags, while Wonho was busy cursing in his head. There must be someone who purposely hides it, he thought to himself. If only he’d never promised his grandmother not to make trouble at school, he would’ve beaten all the students in his class – uh, not really. There was a student who never bothered him, but he didn’t need to be discussed here.

“Where is your homework?” The math teacher looked at him sharply.

Wonho looked up, showing a face as if imagining a disaster if he answered the teacher’s question. “I think, I... I lost the book, sir. It was still in my bag before I went to the cafeteria.”

The other students laughed – Wonho could see some of them grinning with satisfaction while high-fiving – then fell silent as the teacher slammed his long wooden ruler into Wonho’s desk.

The teacher turned back to Wonho, glaring at him horribly. “Don’t give me an excuse. Just say that you haven’t done it yet, right?”

Wonho wiped the sweat on his forehead. “I’ve done it, sir. And it was still in my bag before I went to the cafeteria. Someone may have hidden it.”

“I said I don’t want to hear your excuses, and I also don’t want to see your face in my class so get out of my class! Right now!” The teacher shouted out loud while pointing to the door.

Wonho grumbled, stepped out of the class and slammed the door roughly, startling the other students. His math teacher followed him moments later, making sure he did his punishment, kneeled and raised his hands straight up, out in the hallway for the rest of the class.

He pulled his earphone out of his pocket and put them in his ears after the teacher returned to the classroom, not wanting to hear the noises from the class. He doesn’t care about the circumstances in there. He just wanted the time passed quickly so that he could return to class.

Wonho was still lost in his daydream when a student had joined him, doing the same thing – kneeling and raising his arms straight up. Wonho just glanced at him, clearly not interested. The voice of their math teacher – who was explaining whatever the formula is – echoing up to the corridor.

“You are Shin Wonho, aren’t you?” He asked after a moment of silence.

“Lee Wonho.” Wonho corrected.

“Oh, sorry. I rarely see you in class, so I don’t remember your name well. By the way, I am Son Hyunwoo, the class president.”

“It’s okay,” at least you want to talk to me, Wonho continued inwardly. “Then what is our class president doing here? Receiving a punishment? Did you forget to bring your book?”

Hyunwoo shook his head, lowered his hands, “I brought it. But I didn’t do my homework.” Hyunwoo smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck that does not itch.

Wonho smiled pleasantly. It’d been mentioned that there was one person among his classmates who never treated him badly, hadn’t it? Nah, that guy is Son Hyunwoo the 3-2 class president who always looked handsome and cool even in his worn out uniform.

 

 

“Changkyun-ah, this way.” Jooheon called behind the torso model that covered his face. He was about to set his foot on the first step when Changkyun grabbed his shoulder.

“Let’s not get through here. We can go down with the stair at the end of the hallway.”

Jooheon shook his head. “But it’s far from our classroom, and this torso model is quite heavy. This is the closest way to our classroom.”

Changkyun huffed. “But I don’t want to get into trouble with Jeongmin today. I’ve done enough with our short-tempered class president.”

“There will be no problem, okay? The bell has been ringing since ten minutes ago and they must be in their class now. So let’s go through here, huh? My hands are starting to cramp.”

Changkyun sighed dan nodded weakly. His muscles – which might not be worthy of being called muscles because they were too small – are also getting tired of having to lift the heavy torso model. “Gosh, this is so annoying. Why does the teacher need two torso models? One is even more than enough. And why does Dodo have to order us to carry these ing torso models? Why doesn’t she carry them herself? Perhaps her naggy mouth had a superpower that could make things float – oh no, she may be able to burn this torso model to ash.” Changkyun grumbled as he walked down the steps, and without him knowing Jooheon suddenly froze at his place upon hearing his nonsense chatter. Jooheon swallowed and looked down, his face paled.

Unfortunately, what Jooheon had predicted was not true. What happened later was the opposite. When Changkyun’s feet had stepped on the last step, someone tripped him on purpose, causing him to fall over and the torso model he carried crashed onto the floor. Parts of it were scattered on the floor. And when Changkyun looked up to see who it was, his eyes met Jeongmin, the son of the school director, who always looked for trouble with him. Seungwoo and Sewoon – friends aka followers of Jeongmin – stood proudly on the left and right sides of Jeongmin.

Changkyun gave him a sharp look. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“Ouch, it must be hurt. I’m so sorry. My legs are too long.” Jeongmin said in a sneering tone, followed by the laughter of his two friends. Changkyun gritted his teeth upon hearing those annoying voices.

“Just watch where you’re going next time.” Seungwoo added.

“Didn’t you just trip me on purpose?” Changkyun asked, shaking in anger.

Jeongmin shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Answer properly. Did you do it?”

Jeongmin grinned, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, I did. So what? Any problem?”

Changkyun’s face reddened. Anger was burning inside him. “Do you want to die?!” Changkyun raised his hand to punch him, but Jooheon grabbed his wrist, stopping him from doing anything worse. He glared at Jooheon indicated his disagreement, but Jooheon just shook his head, signaling him not to look for trouble with them. First, they need to go back to classroom as soon as possible. Second, their mood was bad enough for having been scolded by their class president a few minutes ago, so it would be unwise if they ruined their mood even further in this sunny day by serving a group of troublemakers.

Sewoon made a sound that sounded like a snort. “Whoa, Lee Jooheon. How nice of you to stop him.” He clapped his hands, giving him a sarcastic round of applause.

“Shut up! Just let us pass quietly. Is that too much to ask?” Jooheon didn’t want to let his anger spill out at him, but it was hard to keep his voice steady.

“I guess. Today is so boring. The sun is too hot. And there is no interesting student to seduce. So, there needs to be a drama, right? And you guys are very fit to get the role to be oppressed.” Jeongmin smirked.

Changkyun grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. Just before Changkyun can punch him, he heard Jooheon groaning. He turned and his heart almost stopped to see Jooheon sitting amid the shattering torso model on the floor, whimpering as he held his injured hand. But that’s not what made his heart almost stop beating. The cause was the thin smoke that came from the other torso model, and Changkyun could swear there were some hand-shaped burn marks there.

So shocked, Changkyun could only freeze. And just before Changkyun could react, Seungwoo and Sewoon had clasped his hands, so Jeongmin could freely beat him.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” An unfamiliar voice barked. From the end of the corridor came two well-built students, the taller one with a slightly darker skin and worn out uniform, and the other one with fair skin and a slightly messy blond hair. Jeongmin seems to recognize one of them, as he looked up and stared at the taller one in disgust.

“What do you think, you beggar? Of course we’re giving a little lesson to these disrespectful brats.”

“It’s you who are disrespectful, not them.” The blonde said with a cold face.

“What?! Yah, who do you think you are? Why are you putting your nose in others’ business?” Jeongmin pushed the blonde’s chest with one finger, but thanks to the muscular body that hidden behind his uniform, he remained unmoved while Jeongmin’s finger feel crushed.

Sewoon approached Jeongmin and whispered something into his ear, and the corner of his lip rose into a smirk.

“So, you’re Wonho, heh? Tsk, you look more disgusting than I’ve ever imagined. By the way what’s wrong with your hair? Did you dye it? Are you as old as my grandma? Or perhaps you are friends with my grandma?” Jeongmin grinned mockingly. “Hey gramps, what are you doing here? This is a school, not a nursing home.” Jeongmin burst into laughter.

Wonho instantly punched him in the face with all his might and the arrogant guy sprawled on the floor. Without thinking, Wonho sat on Jeongmin’s stomach and was ready to pummel him into unconsciousness, but a familiar voice barked, bringing the fight to a stop. “Lee Wonho, stop it! What do you think you’re doing?”

Wonho opened his mouth to protest his innocence, but stopped when he realize that the teacher didn’t even want to see his face even briefly.

“Son Hyunwoo, you should’ve stopped them.” The teacher said in a softer tone to Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo also opened his mouth to protest his innocence, but the teacher did not listen to him because he was shocked by the shattering torso model on the floor.

“For heaven’s sake, what’s this mess? Who dared to damage school properties?” The teacher shouted in his shrill voice, and the drama was finally started by Jeongmin and his two followers. They begin to lie with disgusting expressions about Changkyun and Jooheon who are bothering them, when they should now be taking classes in peace. Seungwoo even worsened the drama by pretending to cry like a kindergarten student who had just lost his mother in the crowd. And as the of that cheesy drama, Jeongmin whined to be taken to the hospital to get treatment for that slight bruise and threatened to sue Wonho if the bruise left a scar.

“Jeongmin, Seungwoo and Sewoon, go back to your class. And the four of you, wait for me in the detention room.” The teacher said in a threatening and demanding voice.

Inevitably they follow the teacher’s instructions. Hyunwoo, Wonho, Jooheon and Changkyun shuffling to the detention room while grumbling, while Jeongmin was still demanding to be taken to the hospital.

 

 

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