Chapter 5:

The alarm that blared at five thirty nearly left Chanyeol in a state of permanent distress. He looked like he was trying to find ways to smash the thing with his fist. I leaned over my nightstand though and freed him from his anxiety.

“Yah…”Chanyeol mumbled from the floor, rolling over and hugging his pillow tightly. “Why is it set so early? School’s at nine!”

I scoffed at his bad memory.

“Who are you yah-ing?” I growled back. “I took the morning shift at work that you didn’t want to take! The 6-9 one.”

Chanyeol rolled over again, his curly hair a messy fringe that appeared to be forever hopeless.

“Aish,” he answered. “How do you plan on getting to school on time if you work ends when it begins?”

I got out of bed and stretched, followed by a yawn.

“Eh, it’s across the street. I’ll leave a minute early and run,” I responded.

This was only my second time taking the morning shift. Last time, I ended up being two minutes late to class. Lucky for me, our teacher was out talking to another teacher and I made it to the classroom before he did.

I didn’t think this time I’d be so lucky so I brought my first hour books home yesterday. Then I could just run straight to class without visiting my locker.

When I tried explaining this to Chanyeol, he ended up half asleep again.

“You’re leaving?” He mumbled when I was done getting ready.

“Yah! Have you been paying attention?” I grumbled, annoyed. “Yes, I’m leaving.”

“Who’s going to make me breakfast?” His muffled voice rang out as I slipped on my shoes.

“There’re leftovers in the fridge!” And with that I left out the door to make sure I made it to work on time.

I trusted Chanyeol to lock my door when he left. He normally did and I had no memory of him forgetting so I left without much worry.

The bus ride, to the corner where the coffee shop was located, was boring. I had headphones over my ears and I listened to a slow song and thought about the one I started composing. The one that reminded me of Jongin.

I got off the bus listening to the song To Build A Home. The intense piano was leaving my ears drunk with the beauty of the notes. They flowed so perfectly and the singer was doing such a great job at conveying his emotions.

Although I took English, there were still parts of the song I didn’t understand. Because the full piece was in a different language, I tried my best to interpret but my English definitely was not perfect.

“There is a house built out of stone. Wooden floors, walls and window sills.”

The doors to the shop approached me too quickly because I was soon taking my headphones out and entering, taking chairs off the tables and tidying up.

A customer immediately entered. It was a girl. She was definitely a foreigner and I began to get nervous. Ironically, I was just listening to an English song and here was a white girl walking in the shop.

She had bright red hair that reminded me of a flaming sun. Her skin was pale, like billowy clouds that created crisp snow. The surface of her face was layered thick with freckles, that gave her an innocent image. And her eyes were big and electric blue.

Did she speak Korean?

“A-Anyeong..ha..seyo?” It came out as a question and I approached her.

“Um…” I started. “I speak …li- a little English.”

“Oh thank god!” She said, sighing with relief.

“First time in Korea?” I questioned, wincing at how horrible my pronunciation sounded.

She nodded, smiling beautifully, pearly white teeth.

“Keurae,” She responded in Korean, having a slightly weird accent. I didn’t blame her. I probably sounded ridiculous speaking in English.

“Where from?” I continued, praying to whatever god that was out there that I was speaking correctly.

“United States,” She answered, looking sad. “I miss it and my father’s job brought us here.”

I looked at her in confusion. I didn’t really understand. I got that she was from America and something about her dad.

“Um…Appa,” She looked like she was trying so hard. Then she pulled out a book mumbling, “How do I make this possessive?”

“Appa-ui,” Her dad’s…”Jig-eob.” Job. Her dad’s job brought her to Korea. I assumed that she moved to Korea because of her dad’s job.

“Ah…” I answered. “Sorry.”

She giggled.

“I love your accent!” She guffawed, holding her sides.

Were all American’s this informal? I didn’t really mind though. It seemed like there were carefree but I knew she must’ve been frustrated, leaving behind her home and coming to a whole new country, having to learn a new language.

“What yo- do you want?” I asked her.

She looked at the menu, staring intently at the Korean that was mixed in English. I knew she probably didn’t understand han-gul at all.

“Coffee…” She slowly said. “Any kind. You pick.”

I think that she wanted me to pick whatever but I wasn’t exactly sure so I was highly cautious about making the drink. I also wondered why she was up so early in the morning.

I started to make her a hot cappuccino, taking in consideration the increasing colder temperature that went down every day. Sometimes fall good be really cold.

Once I gave her the drink, hesitantly, she sat down and sipped it. It put a smile on her face so I gave a sigh of relief and returned behind the counter.

She stayed for a while, occasionally talking to me but I think she just enjoyed the quiet atmosphere. Customers dropped by every ten or so minutes but she paid no attention to them and just sat in silence.

I figured this was probably going to be one of her favorite places to go to when she just needed to sit in a calm atmosphere.

Time slowly ticked away and it was almost time to head to school. I nervously watched the clock and then the door to see if the person for the next shift was coming but he hadn’t arrived. It was five minutes to nine and he still hadn’t arrived.

I achingly watched as the minutes started to count down to nine. Soon enough, it was nine and I felt myself tremble at the thought of being late to class and ruining my perfect attendance. I had to leave now but I couldn’t just leave the shop unattended unless I wanted to get fired.

Being late meant detention. I never got detention.

“……,” was all I could mumbled, hoping no one yelled at me for my terrible language but it was almost five minutes past nine. The bell had already rung.

“Hey…don’t you have school?” The American girl came up to me, inquired.

I understood the school part with her questioning tone and nodded bitterly.

“Next person,” I said. “Uh…not here?”

“Oh…” She nodded in response and suddenly smiled.

She took her arms and wrapped them behind me. At first I thought she was hugging me but she was just relieving me of my apron and pulled it over my head and then around her waist.

Then the brave girl put a finger to her lips.

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” She informed me.

I think that she wanted to keep it a secret. I had no idea how my late coworker was going to react, seeing her here, but I bet that she could convince him somehow that she worked there.

To be honest, I was just relieved that I could leave. Even though, in the back of my mind, I was highly worried about getting fired for this.

Either way, academics came first.

So I sprinted across the street to the high school and snuck through the double doors. After a few turns and running down two hallways, I made it to my classroom and peaked through the window.

Luck definitely wasn’t on my side today. The teacher had already taken attendance and was beginning the lesson.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I walked through the door.

“Do Kyungsoo,” The teacher turned around, setting down the white board marker. “Tardiness is never accepted. Especially without a pass.” He looked at my hands that only carried books and no pass from the office.

“You can enjoy the rest of your day in detention,” He strictly told me. “I got no call from your parents or the office.”

I felt like kicking a chair. I never should’ve been stupid enough to take the morning shift just because it worked last time. The truth was, I did need a little extra money. It’s not like I was living super tight; however, I wanted some breathing room in terms of finance.

The teacher probably thought that I had been screwing around in the hallway and that was why I was late, which, obviously, was not true. I knew that if I tried to explain with my excuse that I would just be in deeper trouble. So, I left the classroom, drowning out the snickers.

The hallway suddenly got darker than it had before in my eyes. It’s not like I had high hopes of making it in time, I just hoped that my teacher didn’t make an inconvenient phone call to America. I could just imagine my parents answering the phone at 2 AM, angered at the thought of answering the phone so early in the morning. So then, information of my detention would make their anger heightened.

I almost tripped over my shoes because I was in such a daydream. More like a nightmare version of a daydream. Daydreams were supposed to go your way. This outcome that I was working out in my head definitely was not going my way.

Frowning, I continued on in the direction of the office. Through the window, I could already see someone was sitting in the principal’s room. They were sunk down lowly in the chair, as if all the cares in the world had passed them by.

I walked through the door, mindlessly, nearly smacking a poor female student silly. She narrowly dodge and I muttered an apology, slightly bowing but not really sorry that much. I was too mad to be sorry for anything.

“Do Kyungsoo!” The principal exclaimed.

It was only recently I spoke to him.

“I did not expect to see you here.” He said. “Or you either, Kim Jongin.”

My eyes widened and I tried my best not to make my mouth a gaping hole as I walked in front of the chair that the mystery body was sitting in. Surely enough, Kai was slumped in front of me in all his pissed glory.

“Y-You!” I cried, trying to contain my surprise/anger/disappointment/annoyance/a million other emotions running through my exhausted veins.

He hardly looked at me and only raised an eyebrow. I think that he was trying to make some effort of acknowledging me because the principal was standing there.

“Tell me now,” the principal said. “What are two of my perfect students doing in this office?”

I scoffed, muttering, “Perfect,” while looking at Jongin, glowering at him.

He acted as if he hardly noticed.

“Tardy,” I managed to finally say.

“Same,” Jongin replied.

I contained my annoyance from being put in the same category as him.

“Aish, that’s a shame,” Our principal responded.

Sometimes I wondered if he thought of his students more as friends than students. He was way nicer than the vice principal and any other teacher that we had.

“Well,” he continued. “I feel bad about giving you guys detention, so I’ll just have you clean the windows in the D hallway.”

I kept myself from but Kai groaned in annoyance. For once, I didn’t blame him. The windows in the D hallway ran down the whole hallway and they were massive. The D hallway had a nickname. That was the Sky hallway.

“Both of us?” Jongin wondered.

The principal nodded, looking at me suddenly. He remembered that I was investigating Kai recently. He probably just realized what he was doing. But there was no going back now.

From under his desk, he pulled out two baseball caps. A Yankees one and a Red Sox one…or so I thought. I wasn’t totally familiar with American baseball.

He handed me the Yankees one and Kai the Red Sox one.

“To keep the chemicals out of your eyes,” He said with a wink.

I was pretty sure that glasses or goggles would’ve done the job a hundred times better than a baseball cap.

Jongin and I reluctantly stuffed them on our heads and the principal dismissed us to go to the janitor’s closet to retrieve the cleaning supplies.

My cleaning partner managed to slink back away from me as we walked. He didn’t abandon me but he made sure that he wasn’t walking in line with me.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be thankful or just pissed off.

We carried the stuff all the way to the Sky hallway and set it down when we got to the beginning, looking at the long stretch of windows in front of us.

“I can’t reach the top,” I simply stated, looking up at the top of the window.

“Shortie,” was all Kai said before picking up the supplies and putting on gloves.

I followed in suit, spraying the window in front of me, Kai taking the one next to me.

We worked in mostly silence for the next hour, a few snide comments here and there that normally consisted of Kai and me insulting each other. I didn’t think that I’d ever be able to get along with him.

“I still can’t reach up there,” I informed him for the second time, looking up.

“Well what do you want me to do about it?” Jongin demanded, slightly annoyed.

“I don’t know,” I remarked. “I do know that I don’t want the vice principal inspecting and seeing the top part not clean and extending our detention.”

Kai’s eyebrow twitched.

“Think about how much schoolwork we’ll have then,” I added.

Jongin exhaled and then clicked his tongue, getting more pissed by the second.

“Fine,” he hissed, pushing me aside roughly.

I was easily moved, which caused him to stop in motion and look at me as if to question if my weakness was that true.

He blinked a few times and then returned to the window. On his tiptoes he managed to get the rest of the top easily.

“Let’s make a deal,” I finally said.

He gave me a look, as if to say he didn’t like the idea of striking a deal with someone like me.

“I’ll get all the bottom halves and you’ll take all the tops. Arraseo?” I suggested.

“Arraseo,” Kai responded in a mocking tone.

While he worked on the top, I took the bottom just like I said.

Suddenly the bell rang and students started to run out of their classes like maniacs. However, once any of them saw Kai and me, which was the majority of them, they stopped and whispered and pointed.

“Aish,” Jongin groaned at me. “Stop looking. It’s what they want.”

He spoke like he had experience which made my stomach feel uneasy for some reason.

As we continued, I felt a sudden weight on my shoulder and it was Chanyeol’s apparent hand.

“Aw man!” He laughed loudly. “This is hilarious.”

He flicked my cap, referring to it.

“You guys are wearing caps of the two biggest rivals in American baseball!” He exclaimed, nearly dying from laughter.

Neither Kai nor I looked amused.

“So you ended up being late, huh?” Chanyeol wondered. “That .”

“Did you lock up my apartment?” I suddenly asked, hoping the answer was yes,

I noticed Kai looked over when I said this but then returned his gaze back to the window.

“Of course,” Chanyeol replied. “Oh , but I still have the spare key!”

He pulled it from his pocket and pressed it into my hand.

“Sorry about that,” He immediately apologized.

I didn’t care. I was just happy that he locked up.

“Looks like you better keep working,” Chanyeol said as a farewell and he left, winking.

Kai remained saying nothing.

After another hour or so, I was driven crazy with the silence. I had to say something. My inner social butterfly was screaming. I needed a conversation, even if it was with the most undesirable friend in the universe.

“So why were you late?” I asked, hoping it didn’t sound condescending.

“That is also none of your business,” Kai replied, continuing to wash the window.

I thought for a moment. He must’ve been referring to the other day where I had confronted him about his past at the middle school.

“I was late because of work,” I spilled and he gave me one of those does-it-look-like-I-give-a- looks.

“I worked the morning shift and the guy who was supposed to have the next shift was late so I ended up being late to school.”

I thought that he hadn’t been listening at all but he finally answered.

“Why would you have to work the morning shift?” He asked. “It’s not like your parents can’t pay if you're money tight.”

I opened my mouth to say something but shut it, frustrated at him.

“Well that is none of your business,” I answered with an equal amount of hatred that his words held.

Kai pursed his lips shut, returning the glare that I gave him. At least we were on the same page when it came to easily annoying the hell out of each other without really saying anything.

By lunch time I was starving because I had no breakfast but I didn’t want to awkwardly leave because Jongin was planted where he stood. We were barely halfway done with the hallway.

*

By the end of the day, I was starving. We had finished the windows only five minutes ago and my arms were already starting to feel the next day’s soreness.

Kai and I wordlessly left. I didn’t notice that my cap was still on my head when I gathered my things and started to leave out the door.

Most of the students had already gone.

I walked out into the schoolyard, stretching my muscles a little and promising my growling stomach a muffin at the coffee shop. I had work again after school. Two shifts in one day! Five to nine.

Honestly, I could just ask my parents for more money if I ever needed it but I didn’t want to give them an indication or sign that I couldn’t live alone. I did not want to go to America.

I was almost to the gate when I spotted a group of five guys waiting by the fence. Four of them were in uniform and one of them wasn’t. It was the boy who got suspended for hitting me. My stomach clenched and I thought about what the newspaper said. Retaliation.

Then I shook my head, trying to shake the ridiculous idea out of my bones.

“Oh! Do Kyungsoo,” One of them greeted me. “You got some guts! Hanging out with Kai!”

I knitted my brows in confusion. Hanging out? He must’ve been referring to detention, which could hardly be considered hanging out.

“You trying to turn him against us?” The guy who hit me before demanded.

Oh lovely. Because I really wanted to see him again. Even though their stupidity amused me I felt increasingly nervous.

I shook my head, feeling my stomach churn in anxiety.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I calmly stated. “He’s too unreasonable to be friends with.”

I don’t think my words were sincere enough because I suddenly buckled down onto my knees because someone kicked my legs from behind.

Another punch hit the side of my cheek, right where my old bruise was finally starting to heal. I found myself sprawled across the ground, trying to deflect their kicks but it was inevitable, getting hit.

The explosion of pain in my legs and face was much greater than anticipated and my breath was already ragged with exhaustion. My thoughts were racing but a coherent sentence couldn't even be formed.

One blow was especially painful as it hit a tender part of my stomach, causing my eyes to water with pain and frustration.

Getting up was also out of the question because I was punched back down. Where were the school teachers when I needed them? Like, honestly what the were they hired to do?

“What are you doing?” The bored voice didn’t only surprise me but the guys who were taking all their hatred out on me evidently noticed.

“K-K-Kai!” They stammered immediately straightening.

The handsome, careless boy looked down at me.

“Why don’t you leave him alone? Now.” Jongin hissed the words through his teeth and it was enough to send the five guys running, well more like walking as fast as they could while trying to look cool.

And then he continued walking without looking at me twice.

“W-Wait!” I managed to call.

He stopped but didn’t turn around.

“Don’t take it personally,” he responded, tilting his head though, as if he almost regretted the words. “I just don’t want to be in debt to you.”

And with that he was gone around the corner.

I realized now that he knew why they were beating me up, without even initially hearing them. He knew that I was getting beat up for being associated with him.