October 5th

Taemin turned in his quiz. He blanked out during the whole thing, he didn’t remember a single thing that was on it.

He barely studied for it or put forth his best effort while taking it. He was used to having help while studying...

Oh well.

Maybe he’ll just retake it or something. 

He got up from his seat when they were dismissed from class, not missing the disappointed glance from his teacher. He had been eyeing him the whole time watching him as he picked up his pencil just to twirl it in his fingers and draw doodles on the side of his paper.

But Taemin only acknowledged him for a split second as to make sure he didn’t want to encourage his teacher to have another ‘talk’ with him. Of course his father felt the need to inform his new teachers of his families recent events. So most of his teaches were patient with him, but he knew their patience would run out soon.

He walked out into the hallway blocking out the distant chatter and noises coming from the kids around him by plugging in his ear phones to listen to music.

It’s been almost two months since he started high school and he hadn’t made any new friends. 

By now people in his grade had already formed their cliques and groups of friends. And he was just a loner aside from his main group of friends. But he hardly saw them since they were upperclassmen and had different classes them him.

He was moments away from reaching his locker when he was suddenly struck down by a a force that came at him full speed. His headphones were in so he didn’t hear theses group of kids get chased down the hallway by a teacher behind him.

He was knocked down so hard his feet were swept off the ground and his paper and binders went everywhere.

When he was able to get himself together and look to see what caused his downfall he was taken aback to hear a “Thanks you stupid idiot!” instead of a sorry.

They guy who ran into him hopped back up with no regards to his surrounding school supplies on the floor, crushing a pencil with his foot as he got up, and ran towards the direction he was originally heading with two other guys in tow.

He sat still in shock and embarrassed as people looked at him, some with concered looks, others laughing.

He was just glad his friends didn’t see him like this.

His face turned a slight red and he hurriedly scrambled to gather his belongings when he heared a high pitched voice near his face startling him.

“Oh my-are you okay? Are you okay?” She asked frantically twice.

“Umm...yea.” He said confused as to who she was and where she came from.

She kept rambling on about something as they stood up and she helped gather his things.

He wasn’t listening as he was just more focused on who she was.

“Don’t mind them. They’re jerks.” She said handing him his English papers that fell from his binder.

“Oh yea..yea.” He simply said.

“I’m IU.” She said bowing slightly.

He blinked. She was cute. 

She was really small, in stature and size. She wore long brown strict hair that reached down her back. Her eyes were round and were complimented by her round cheeks when she smiled.

“I...U? Like the English letters?” He asked almost sounding rude. But he was more caught off guard by the strange nickname. 

“Umm yea...it’s just a nickname. I prefer that over my real name.” She answered looking slightly embarrassed. Now he felt bad.

“Taemin.” He blurted out knowing she would ask for his next.

“When were you born?”

“July, 1993.” He said slowly walking back infront of his locker feeling her eyes on him.

“I’m May, 1993. Dont worry about calling me Noona, just call me IU.” She blushed.

“R-right...” H e was surpised she was older than him, she looked like a little girl. She had such a babay face and was so tiny, height and stature wise.

“Your a freshman too?” 

“Mhmm.” He answered.

He didn’t mean to seem rude or uninterested. In fact she was very pretty and pleasant to look at, but at the moment he was focusing on putting his stuff in his locker and thinking on whether he wanted to skip his next class.

“Well um, I’ll see you later I guess? I have to go to class.” She said sounding suddenly worried as she realized what time it was.

“Sure. Thanks again.”

“No problem, Taemin!” She skipped away.

Did he make a new friend? 

She seemed like the type that likes to talk a lot and he knew she would probably talk his head off the next time he saw her.

It would be nice to make at least one new friend he thought.

Now, class? Or should he skip and walk down the street for some fried dumplings? 

-

Ultimately Taemin ended up skipping class, but he wasn’t too worried. His forth period teacher often forgot to take attendance so he wouldn’t have been missed. It was his last class of the day anyway.

He didn’t go home early, he decided to linger for a while longer on campus. He had promised to hang out Kibum and the rest of the gang as they hadn’t hung out with him in weeks. 

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t avoiding them. These days Taemin preferred to be away from them. Of coursed he loved his friends, they were the best.

But he could obviously feel how they still pitied him. At least thats how he felt. They always did extra things for him or went out their way more than usual for him and constantly asked to hang out with him. He knew they were just trying to be good friends and not let him mourn alone. But he hated.

He hated having people feel sorry for him. He wanted everything to be normal again. But how could it be? Even though he avoided them sometimes he would regret it when he went home. Home was so...lonely. 

His dad was at work and didn’t get off until 7 or 8 in the afternoon. His brother left for college this year too. He had hardly heard from him since he left. So he was usually home alone.

He felt like there was such an empty and noticeable gap in his life now.

He was walking aimlessly through the hallways waiting for class to let out and class to be over. As he was walking he was about to pass the corridor that led to the student courtyard. It was just a small area where students sometimes rested between classes. 

He was going to walk pass as he didn’t think anyone would be there but was surprised to see a couple of bodies hovering in that area. 

He stood there staring, not to be rude but his curiosity got the best of him. Those kids were probably skipping class too, it was bold of them to hang out in an area out here as teachers or student assistants would patrol the hallway and the area.

He jumped when he when he heard one of the kids call out to him.

“HEY!” The kid yelled.

He figured he thought the guy mistook him for a friend. So he just shook his head and decided to do what he was going to do in the first place and walk past the courtyard.

Fear shot up his spine when he saw the kid get up and suddenly run towards him. His eyes grew wide and his reaction was slow and he nearly tripped on his face as he moved his feet to try to start run away. But that kid was too fast. 

He was suddenly pinned against the wall, his back got a sudden shock of pain as he was slammed against the wall.

“Are you a hall monitor?!” The kid whisper yelled. Taemin was stunned, it was the guy who ran into him earlier. What were the odds?

“Are you snitch?” The kid said again this time tightening his grasp he had on the collar of his shirt and shaking him.

“I-I no-I was just in the hallway!” Taemin said trying to pry the kids hands off him.

“Let em go, Kai. He’s not a hall monitor.” Another boy said coming from the courtyard said. He was short and wore a bored look on his face. He looked fairly young, and his big round eyes and short buzz cut was helping either. He was accompanied by a taller and more serious looking boy, he could pass for a amateur model.

“He’s just a loner. He does this all the time.” The other boy spoke again.

A loner? So someone had noticed? He huffed.

The boy, Kai, let him loose reluctantly.

“He sulks around the school all the time.” The taller boy said. Taemin scrunched in  his eyebrows.

“Yea...your the boy who ran into me earlier...” He said narrowing his eyes at him.

“You mean you ran into me.” Taemin said sternly. He was scared at first, but now he was becoming annoyed with their not to subtle rude comments.

He started to turned his body to walk away. He figured they wanted to poke more fun at him when he heard them laughing and felt Kai grab his arm. He quickly snatched his arm away and took a defensive stance.

“Don’t touch me.”

The three boys looked back at him as if they were surprised that he was defending himself. He be damned if he became one of those stereotypical freshman kids that got bullied their first year in high school.

Kai stepped back and took a more calm and comfortable stance. 

“I’m Kai. This is Kyungsoo, and Sehun.” He said referring to the shorter boy and then the taller boy.

He stood there with an unimpressed look on his face. He didn’t ask for their names. 

“Well? Your name?” Kai asked grinning.

“Taemin.” He responded shortly.

Suddenly the bell rang and it was the signal for school ending. He didn’t give the boys a chance to say anything else as he spun on his heels and walked a bit faster than his normal speed to where he knew his friends classes would be. Not bothering to look back.

Taemin didn’t want trouble. That’s the last thing he was looking for.

He didn’t know why he met so many random people today but decided to take it with a grain of salt.

Besides now he tends to go by the phrase “everything happens for a reason”, something his father said to him at his mothers funeral.

Now where were his friends? 

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