Kim Jongin groaned when he saw the picture that his friend showed to him. He glared at his friend who wore a -eating grin on his face. “This,” Jongin pointed at the picture on his friend’s phone screen, “wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t act like a little that Friday morning.”

“Oh, come on! It was an accident!” A male student laughed as he replied, his deep voice reverberating in the classroom full of chatters.

Noticing some of their classmates were tossing a few glances their way, Kim Jongin hissed, “Can you be any louder? I’m already receiving so much needless attention because of this crap article, and I don’t need more. And how could the act of you throwing my bag towards the girl be an accident in the first place? That was intentional, and don’t you dare say otherwise, Chanyeol.” Jongin rubbed his temple and released a sigh. “I shouldn’t have transferred here.”

“Hey, if you knew she was standing there, you shouldn’t have chased after your bag. I don’t see why I’m the only one at fault here.” Chanyeol shrugged.

“Then should I just let the damn bag hit her then?” Jongin let out a smile, but his eyes were not smiling.

“Well, it’s better than you crashing into her, right?” Chanyeol let out another laugh. “I was watching from afar, but looking at you so panicked right after is such a rare sight that I almost died from restraining my laughter.”

Maybe Jongin should hit his friend that was sitting right in front of his desk? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea to him. Perhaps only then would Chanyeol shut his big mouth and repent. Others’ pain and suffering should not be something to laugh over.

As for whether the article was right or wrong about the woman—Yoon Haera if he recalled her name correctly—he already knew what the answer was. The woman was even hyperventilating and looking like she was about to pass out by the end of his encounter with her and that childhood friend of hers.

It was disgusting how someone could twist the truth into such an ugly lie.

Jongin beckoned Chanyeol to scoot his chair closer to his desk. “Come here.” His friend looked at him with confusion, but he still complied with Jongin’s request. Jongin then leaned over his desk, raised his hand, and hit the back of Chanyeol’s head.

“OW!” Chanyeol held the back of his head with his hands, his body doubled over on the chair he was sitting on. “What the hell, man!”

“I was thinking about whether or not I should hit you.” Jongin returned to sit back on his chair. He blew into the palm of his hand. “So, should I hit you?”

“You already hit me, you !” Chanyeol rubbed the throbbing spot on the back of his head and stood up from his chair. He pointed a finger at Jongin. “You,” he huffed before continuing, “will be treating me to a meal this recess, and that’s final!” His deep voice boomed in the noisy classroom, overwhelming any other voices and attracting the attention of every single person in the room to his and Jongin’s conversation.

What Jongin hoped to achieve from transferring to this private academy were some peace and quiet. Instead, thanks to his friend, all that he has gotten thus far were anything but that.

He let out a short laugh as he looked at Chanyeol. He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t want to. What are you going to do about it?”

“Oh, don’t mind me then, Jongin. You don’t want to buy me a meal as an apology for hitting me? That’s fine, that’s fine.” He nodded his head several times before his -eating grin he wore earlier made its way back onto his face. “Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”

.

Jongin forgot that he had a little piece of as his friend. A crazy little piece of .

“Everyone! I have an announcement to make!” Chanyeol took a few steps back from Jongin and spread out his arms. “Did you all read the article posted yesterday? Yes, that article that featured my good friend over there, Mister Kim Jongin.” He gestured towards Jongin. “I can’t say if any other part of the article was true, but one thing for sure is—”

“Chanyeol, if you don’t want to die today, you better shut your mouth.” Kim Jongin growled.

Chanyeol’s -eating grin grew wider. “Kim Jongin fell in love with the infamous Yoon Haera at first sight, this much is true.” He turned his attention from the audience—his classmates—to Jongin, satisfaction written all over his face. It was as if he was saying, ‘Hah! Take this!’.

The other students in the class burst into chatters as they all looked at each other, shock apparent in their faces. Murmurs of “So the article wasn’t wrong after all?”, “Oh, Jongin got tricked.”, and “Nooooo! My Jongin!” were mixed and interspersed in the classroom as the opinions of those who heard Chanyeol’s announcement—which was practically everyone—varied from one another.

Kim Jongin slammed his fist onto his desk. “Park. Chan. Yeol…! You are really testing my damn patience!” Just as when he was going to walk over to his friend, the door to the classroom slid open to reveal their Mathematics teacher.

Everyone quietened down and went back to their respective seats, leaving Jongin unable to beat Chanyeol senseless. His friend was seated right in front of him, but the fact that he could not grab Chanyeol by his collar and send him straight to the infirmary with bruises, made him seethed in anger.

Jongin sat through the lesson clenching and unclenching his hands. He glared at Chanyeol’s back, hoping to drill a hole into it.

Oh, someone was going to be very dead when recess came, and this time, Kim Jongin did not care if that brought more attention upon him; that article ed things up for him anyway.

Putting aside Chanyeol, he needed to find out who was the admin behind the school’s private website for students, and have a little talk with them. Deforming the truth into a lie, defaming a person and taking advantage of their weak moments—Jongin would not let that slide.

He sighed and stopped glaring at Chanyeol’s back before he was asked to solve a problem on the whiteboard.

He just could not seem to have tranquility ever since he met Yoon Haera, could he?

When recess came around, Kim Jongin held true to his words. He stood up from his seat, grabbed Chanyeol by his collar, and pulled him up to his feet. “Do you have anything to say? Any last words, hmm?” Jongin’s eyes narrowed and he had a thin smile on his face.

“H-Hold up! Let me ready myself first! At the very least, please don’t beat me up in front of our classmates, okay?” Chanyeol put up his hands in defense.

“Is that so? Alright.” Jongin let go of Chanyeol.

Chanyeol breathed out a sigh of relief and straightened his crooked tie. He moved his hands to smoothen out any creases that managed to form on his shirt. “Phew. Man, I knew you are a true friend.”

“I didn’t finish yet.” Jongin let out a dark chuckle. “Just wait until it’s time for us to go home. Remembering how happy your parents were when I said I would transfer to your school, I’m sure they don’t mind me beating you to straighten you up just like how you straightened your necktie.”

“Okay, okay, okay! What do you want? Maybe, maybe I can’t clear up the mess that was started by the article and the one I made about you liking Yoon Haera, but I can help you find the admin.” Chanyeol gulped as cold sweat rolled down the side of his face. “Just, just don’t beat me up, okay? My parents would scold me if you were to beat me up.”

“And how are you going to do that? Hire a private investigator? You know they are mostly illegal here, right?” Jongin ruffled his hair, making it messy.

“Of course not!” Chanyeol denied and his lips formed a smirk. He went closer to Jongin and whispered in his ears. “I’m going to hire a hacker.”

Jongin had enough dose of his friend’s idiocy. He smacked Chanyeol’s head. “That’s even more illegal, you idiot.”

Chanyeol hissed in pain. “That’s the fastest way to find out who is the admin running the website!”

“Forget it. It would be better if I just monitor their activities on the website and infer their identity from there.” Jongin sighed.

What was he expecting from Chanyeol anyway? Jongin went out of the classroom, not waiting for his friend to catch up.

“Hey, wait up!” Chanyeol rushed out of the door and went beside Jongin. He asked, “Why are you so keen on finding out who the admin is anyway? I mean, sure, the article is a bit of a thorn in your side, but the one that’s getting most of the brunt out of this whole thing is Yoon Haera, you know? It’s just a small gossip.”

“A small gossip? I’m pretty sure whoever wrote that up is meaning to ruin the woman’s life in the school. I can’t stand that kind of bullying .” Jongin sighed. “Besides, what if she happens to know about this? I don’t want her to misunderstand.”

Why was his life so complicated? What was this, a drama? That was more to his mother’s cup of tea, not his.

“How would she even know? She goes to a different school and in a different district even. You are worrying too much.” Chanyeol then chuckled. “Besides, I don’t think you need to worry about Yoon Haera. She doesn’t deserve the concern anyway,” the last sentence was said with no small amount of coldness in it.

Was that anger? Chanyeol and anger never really went hand in hand.

Jongin furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Listen here, Jongin.” Chanyeol put a hand on Jongin’s shoulder. “Yoon Haera is not one of those that gets bullied. That woman, she’s one of those that bullies.”

Yoon Haera was cleaning up her desk and putting away her books before Kim Jisoo walked up to her. She only spared the purple-haired girl a glance before continuing on putting her books inside her bag.

“Haera, let’s go to the cafeteria! Go, go! Let’s go!” Jisoo invited with a smile on her face. “Just let the books be. Who would dare mess with them anyway? Come on, it’s going to be super annoying when there’s a lot of people at the cafeteria.”

Haera took out a lunchbox from her bag. “I brought my own lunch.”

“Still~ You can eat at the cafeteria all the same, right? Let me and Nayeon fill you up on the fun that we had when you decided to not show up without telling us that Friday and instead opting on going to school. You weren’t even online on Kakao for the past three days, like, are you trying to be a hermit?” Jisoo ask