addiction 4. 

The classroom clock read four minutes into the next class period, a constantly ticking 11:04 that grew later and later. Sunggyu nervously sat on one of the desks in the front, swinging his legs. He had never been later than two minutes to a class, and he had never been explicitly asked to stay back to talk with the teaching assistant before. It was common knowledge that TAs only asked people to stay behind to talk about grades. A few had asked Woohyun before. 

Woohyun. Sunggyu knew his own grades were suffering because of how he went out nearly every night to look for him, to find him sneaking in lazy puffs between the garbage cans or crouching against a wall, holding his head. Sometimes, Sunggyu would just sit and watch him smoke, observing how his eyes fogged over with every drag. Sunggyu just couldn't understand how it had happened. Two weeks ago, Woohyun had been sputtering over his first cigarette ("I can't believe my dad likes this crap. Or the kids in our class, for that matter," he said). But Woohyun had been fascinated-- "Just another one," he said. "I kinda like how it feels afterwards."

"What does it feel like?"

He smiled. "Feels like I'm alive. I don't know. It feels good."

In the beginning, Sunggyu tried to turn a blind eye for friendship's sake, telling himself that Woohyun just liked smoking from time to time and that was it. There was nothing else to it. He wanted to believe that this was the Woohyun he always wanted to be friends with. 

When they first met, there had been certain things about Woohyun that made him intriguing--his striking looks, his deep voice, his on-and-off personality, even the way he dabbled in casual friendships with almost everyone. He showed a smile here, a laugh there, although nothing ever far enough to be called good friends. But it was the thinly veiled detachment that drew Sunggyu in. Woohyun always walked home alone, always ate lunch alone, always did everything alone. His mom was dead and his dad constantly away on business trips, and he had no extended family that anyone knew of. Sunggyu wanted to be the unsung hero that pulled him from the depths of solitude. 

So when Woohyun gradually initiated more intimacy with him, he had been absolutely ecstatic. Sometimes, he even forced himself to pull away because he was digging himself too deep. Sunggyu fiddled with his uniform cuffs. Now, he needed to concentrate more on his grades; he couldn't keep lying to his parents and sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night.

His life didn't revolve around Woohyun. His life shouldn't have revolved around Woohyun.

"How long will this take?" Sunggyu asked. 

"Only a couple minutes. Don't worry, I'll write you a late note for your next teacher."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I just wanted to talk about you."

Sunggyu exhaled sharply. 

"You've been a little distracted lately. I mean, you're still fine--engaged, paying attention, and taking notes during lessons. But your analytical writing has been suffering. Sometimes, you space out in class. And you know, that quiz…" L trailed off into a tense silence. Oh, yeah. The quiz three days ago he had scored a 54 on. 

"It's not like you. I know you can do better than this, Sunggyu."

His throat became uncomfortably tight, and he tried to swallow. He lowered his head. "I know." 

Suddenly, L's eyes softened. "Look, Sunggyu," he said, "I don't know what's going on between you and Woohyun, and I'm not going to pry. But I'm going to have you do extra work with me, alright? After school today, right in this classroom, and then again on Thursday. If you need more, I can schedule more times. Is…that okay?"

"Yeah. I could do that."

L ripped off a page corner and wrote a quick note, passing it to him. "Sorry for keeping you," he said.

"It's fine. Really. Thanks, Mr. L." Sunggyu managed a smile and dashed out of the classroom.

"Just L is fine!"

After Sunggyu was gone, L sunk into a seat and sighed, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. It was flushed. Sometimes, he wished he had been assigned to an elementary school--these high school kids practically looked his age.

reposssttttt. I'll repeat what I said earlier--I will try to do weekly updates from now on. I can't promise that after the 24th though, since that's when my term abroad actually starts. it'll have to depend on my schedule. 

sorry for the lateness of this update! I'm juggling a whole bunch of stories right now- taking turns writing a bit of each, which turns out is extremely inefficient and makes me look like I've just gotten lazy with updating. but I haven't! :( 

anyways. dundundunnn, Myunggyu has finally entered! now, where exactly has Woohyun gone off to..?

thanks for reading and/or subscribing! and thank you for your patience! :D