Seunghyun jerked awake in a cold sweat to see a familiar pair of slacks by his desk. He slowly recognized the situation. Ah . Not now.

“Having a good nap, Seunghyun?” His math teacher’s voice sang down from above.

Seunghyun groaned. He knew he couldn’t hide that he was sleeping this time. He had his assignment done at least, right? He looked down to see his assignment peeking out from under his textbook. It was finished but he had another problem. He looked down at his really tight pants. .

“I have the assignment done, sir.” Seunghyun said showing him the completed sheet, hoping to get some mercy and only a few ruler slaps.

He grabbed the sheet from Seunghyun and looked over it, obviously surprised. Seunghyun tried to avoid the look of a certain boy across the room. He didn’t need to make the problem worse. No one’s eyes felt like how his did.

“Seunghyun, you may have finished the assignment but with no homework ever, including today and falling completely asleep, I can’t excuse that.” He said before pulling Seunghyun to his feet.

Seunghyun felt his whole head turn on fire as he heard all the students around him start snickering and whispering. He tried to pull his shirt down further as he slowly walked. It was a little too late to tuck now. Maybe he could think it away. He closed his eyes and thought as quick as he could of something to loosen his pants. His mind landed on his mother’s face from the other day, bruise so dark, her eye a mere line from the swelling. He felt his eyes start to fill with tears and the tightness started to disappear.

“I will go easy on you today, Seunghyun. Only 5 beatings.” He said.

Seunghyun heard the swift sound before the fire spread up his legs.

“One!” He shouted through gritted teeth.

Seunghyun focused on his guilt with each whack. His grades. His sleeping habits. His mother’s face. His crush on Jiyong. With each whack his yell of the count got louder, releasing his frustration.

When he sat at his desk he felt out of breath, embracing the ache in his legs. It was only about 30 seconds but the feelings made him feel like it was half-hour. His heart felt like it could burst. Now he felt clean at last. He felt, at least in this moment, like he could move on from all the negativity.

He looked at Jiyong to give him a small smile of reassurance and saw that he was looking at him, his face flat of emotion with tears rolling down his cheeks. Oh no. Seunghyun looked at the clock. 10:47. Why was Jiyong crying? His heart couldn’t take all of these emotions. It made him exhausted. He could barely stay awake normally, let alone after this emotional roller coaster ride the past week.

He started writing in his rapping notebook, all of his feelings, flowing poetry. He pictured all the tears shed the past week. His pen flowed just like water onto the paper. Jiyong’s face never far from his mind. Soon the teacher’s bell rang he lifted his head only to see Jiyong’s back as he ran from the room. He looked down to see a lunchbox by his feet. Jiyong left it and dashed and Seunghyun didn’t even glance from his writing.

He hit his forehead against his desk. He scared him away. He’s really got to focus and not think of Jiyong as more than a friend, at least for now. Jiyong can’t handle much more than that and he knew he couldn’t either. His hands laced together and his mind drifted off at the image of Jiyong’s fingers between his. How soft they would feel. He shook his head. No. These thoughts can’t happen.

He spent the rest of the day thinking of anything but Jiyong. It was really difficult but he managed to do it. He worked on his assignments, ate his lunch, thought about how his mother and his noona were doing and about calling his other friends to ask if they wanted to hang out. Things were pretty normal until the final bell rang.

Seunghyun slowly put his things away, thinking about his leftover rolled up egg. Maybe he could eat one now. It wasn’t as good as his omma’s, but still good in it’s own way. Jiyong’s omma used some kind of seasoning in the egg that reminded him of jjangjangmyung. He leaned down to fetch the lunchbox, his stomach growling impatiently, when he saw a pair of shoes at the desk across from him.

“We’re going to be late, you know.” Jiyong reminded his hyung with a little cool impatience.

“You know, you are lucky I have gone with you to work as many times as I have. I’m not the one getting paid.” Seunghyun grumbled back.

“Yah! You said we could hang out with the 1TYM hyungs and see if they could help with our rapping.” Jiyong reminded Seunghyun, kicking him swiftly in the shins. “Plus, you said you would buy me batteries.” He added.

Seunghyun rubbed his leg. Like he hadn’t had enough damage to it today.

“Arasso. Just promise me you won’t kick me like that again.” Seunghyun said with his teeth clenched.

Jiyong had a moment of what looked like pity before he helped the older boy up, with the assistance of the desk behind him.

“Let’s go. You know I don’t like being late.” Jiyong said, pulling him out down the aisle of desks and out the door.

Seunghyun panicked when he saw the total come up on the cash register. He was 100 won short. He reached into the depths of his pockets, hoping he’d turn into a magician and make some change appear. Jiyong was outside fidgeting and looking at his watch. Seunghyun was in a panic, looking through his bag for one coin, just one coin. He knew he didn’t have any other choice. He looked through the window of the shop at Jiyong looking desperate. Jiyong looked in at him and sighed, walking inside.

“How much are you short?” Jiyong asked exasperatedly.

“Not that much…”Seunghyun said as Jiyong looked at the register and snorted.

“Wow. Today just isn’t our day, is it?” Jiyong quipped pulling out a coin to put on the counter, glaring at the clerk for not giving them a break.

Seunghyun gulped. He reminded himself not to get on Jiyong’s bad side. He could get really scary. He grabbed the black bag and left the shop trying to catch up with, the practically jogging, Jiyong. Maybe they should have waited until after work to get them.

They walked up to YG building just as a black van pulled up and the four 1TYM hyungs got out of it. They looked drained and rather grumpy. They all walked in together grumbling and not making much eye contact.

All the 1TYM members, minus Teddy, trudged into the practice room where they expressed more vocal sounds of anguish. Teddy snuck over to the fridge, looked inside, cursed, before grabbing a bottle of water angrily and walking into the practice room behind his dongsaengs.

“What’s got them in a mood?” Jiyong asked while starting the towels again.

“Beats me.” Seunghyun said before opening the fridge.

When he looked inside, the pizza box was gone, replaced with apples and celery. The water was still there but the produce raised some questions.

“Hey, Jiyong. Did you clean out the refrigerator?” Seunghyun asked hesitantly.

Jiyong got up and looked in the refrigerator. He smirked and shook his head.

“They’ve been caught.” Jiyong said with a little laughter in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Seunghyun asked innocently.

“YG must have had an inspection and seen the pizza box and the trash from their food Saturday.” Jiyong explained before a look of panic dawned upon his face.

Jiyong started to scramble around his nook like he was looking for something he lost.

“Hey, Ji, what are you doing?” Seunghyun asked.

“I’m looking for my report. Every time YG does a weekly inspection he leaves a detailed report in my nook.” Jiyong said before picking up a slender piece of paper with triumph.

Jiyong’s eyes darted over the paper quickly. He frowned in certain parts but overall it didn’t seem too bad.

“What does it say?” Seunghyun asked nervously. This was like YG graded both of them anyways.

“It says we need to be more through on the floor cleaning and there is going to be a show coming to film inside of the building on Wednesday for 1TYM so it needs to be perfect. If it is, and my hyungs approve…I may get a promotion.” Jiyong said with shock.

Seunghyun bubbled with happiness. “A promotion? Really? Jiyong that’s so cool! We have to work extra hard this week.” Seunghyun said enthusiastically.

Jiyong bit his lip and his brows furrowed as he nodded, like he was holding something back. Seunghyun didn’t seem to notice the paper drop to the floor. On it was the one left out condition.