Donghyun adjusted the collar of his jacket as he stood in front of the full length mirror that he had strategically placed on the wall facing his bed. It wasn’t that he was a ert or anything, his bedroom hadn’t seen any of that type of action since... well... ever. Donghyun was still a simply because he was the only one amongst all his friends who hadn’t come out of the closet yet. Hell, he didn’t even know if he was in the closet. He knew that he could trust them with knowing about his situation, but knowing them they’d probably throw some sort of rainbow celebration and invite so many sketchy people to bang him that it’d turn out being some sort of awkward lifestyle involving him hiding at every party in order to avoid all the blind dates they’d set him up on. And judging by what they’d done with Kwangmin, he shuddered with the knowledge that they would even stoop to the all new low of setting him up on blind dates without even telling him that it’s a date. All in all, the mirror was placed in a way where he could easily check his hair without having to move from his bed.

 

Giving himself one last look before deciding that no amount of adjusting would change the fact that Hyunseong had forgotten to iron his tie the night before, he sighed and reached for his bag, throwing it over his shoulder and trudging through his small apartment that, given the opportunity, was usually cluttered with teenage boys. However, everything was empty by the time the sun had risen on a school day, sneaking back into their houses before their parents had found them missing, or found them at all. The morning still had the finishing touches of late summer, the Autumn wind just barely managing to seep through the assorted  fabric covering his smooth skin. Hyunseong smiled when he noticed him at the bus stop, which had only been around half a block from their apartment, and Donghyun grinned in return, offering a regal wave as greeting. “Did you sleep well?” Hyunseong glanced at him knowingly, watching the older boy stiffen in response before turning his face toward him. “I always sleep well.” Forcing a large smile, he motioned toward the arriving bus with a tilt of his head, motioning for him to follow. “Don’t want to be late.” Feeling relieved that he could avoid the question, he hopped on the bus with added energy, finding a seat and waiting for the next stop.

 

Minwoo had woken up much earlier than he had needed to that morning, his eyes refusing to stay closed for no reason other than jitters from changing schools so suddenly. He was delighted that his parents had pulled him out of the hell hole he had been attending before, but he still felt nervous since rumors tended to follow him wherever he went. Stretching his arms above his head, he yawned as he turned his head to face the clock. “Hm... an hour early...” He smiled to himself, raising up to cancel  the alarm he obviously hadn’t needed for that morning and hopped out of his bed, hurrying to get his things ready before his mother woke up. Her support meant everything to him, but he couldn’t take seeing her so excited only to be disappointed by the end of the day one more time. As he threw on his clothes, he glanced in the mirror to check if he looked halfway presentable. “Minwoo-ah, you really need to stop sleeping with your head under the pillow... It’s killing your hairstyle.”

 

He laughed to himself as he attempted to fix the extremely messy bedhead he had, grabbing a bottle of water and wetting his hands in an attempt to use them as his styling tools. Finally finding himself to look halfway decent, he hurried downstairs to his fridge, grabbing one of the small milk containers to drink on the way. “Bye mom, love you~!” He whispered to his mom, who had yet again fallen asleep on the couch the nigh before. Making a face at her position, he shook his head and laughed, adjusting her blanket and fluffing her pillow without waking her up. Planting a kiss on her cheek, he smiled lovingly and rose up, running out the door to his bicycle. As he pedeled with ease, he passed a few bus stops, giving a judgemental look to a bus that was driving slowly past an empty stop. “It looks like it can’t handle rejection.” His lips turned like an ‘n’ shape, and he passed it with ease, not knowing that it’s passengers would soon be a large part of his life. Donghyun looked at Hyunseong with an irritated face, “What’s the point in a bus that has no passengers?” They smirked at each other, then went back to flipping through their music players and singing songs together.

 

They made it to their first class a lot earlier than he had expected, and although it was a good thing for Hyunseong, who had wanted to ask one of their mutual friends a question, it felt weird for Donghyun. He had wanted to arrive just as the bell rang, but as his luck would have it, the bus didn’t have as many passengers as usual, therefore it didn’t stop as much as he had hoped. “Hey, did you hear about the new kid?” He looked up from his own restless hands to see Jeongmin perched on the floor beside his seat, using the desk as his own headrest. He hadn’t heard, most likely because he had found himself distracted for the most part of the past three months, and before he even got the chance to vocalize himself, his clueless face gave everything away, resulting in a large sigh from his unusual friend. “Seriously man it’s like you don’t even listen to me when I talk!” His lips curved into a pout as he pretended to be angry, but, to Donghyun’s defense, he did talk a lot. Like, a lot. He went on to speak of a boy with full, pink lips who was so tiny that even he wanted to pick him up and carry him home.

 

“Sounds like a cute kid.” Kwangmin appeared out of nowhere, causing both Donghyun and Jeongmin to practically their pants as he ignored their reaction, allowing Youngmin to pass him and sit in his desk directly in front of them. “I met him on my way to the teacher’s lounge yesterday, he doesn’t just sound cute, he is.” He turned around to face their shocked expressions and rolled his eyes. “What? I can’t compliment anyone without you guys thinking I want the d?” As they laughed and shook their heads no, Hyunseong nudged Jeongmin with his foot, perched on the desk of the seat beside Donghyun, and leaned forward, talking in a low voice. “I heard that he’s weird and had to transfer schools because he tried to kill somebody.” They continued to talk about the new kid in whispers, making Donghyun have to lean forward to hear them and straining the necks of the twins. “Apparently he uses the cute act to get near people, then when they least expect it, he goes after ‘em.” With a horizontal motion across his neck, Jeongmin moved his hand while making a “kkkk” sound, making the twins gasp in horror while Donghyun spoke up nervously. “Hey... It... It’s not like he’s gonna be in our class. We have like, what... 5,000 students?” 

 

“Maybe, maybe not.” Jeongmin opened up a juice box as he seemed to be deep in thought, continuing to speak as more students entered the room. “Rumor has it he targets one person out of the entire school to get close to, and he uses his connections to get the teachers to put him in the same class as that person.” Kwangmin made a ghostly noise as he poked Youngmin, causing the blond one to make an angry face at him. “Stop it! I only passed him, he never even looked at me!!” Hyunseong calmed him down like the older brother type he was by turning the fear to someone he thought could handle, picking someone who was much worse with scary information than Youngmin. “Guys, Donghyun is more his type than anyone. He resembles the only friend that Minwoo kid ever had.” Donghyun gulped as Youngmin looked relieved, and Jeongmin spoke up as well. “That;s true, except the guy that looked like Donghyun got hit by a car a couple of years ago.... Isn’t that what made him go nuts?” Donghyun glared at them for bringing him into the conversation. “You guys are the nuts.”

 

As the others laughed, the door to their class opened up, revealing a small cute boy. His large brown eyes scanned the room, landing on Donghyun curiously, his full, pink lips in a thin line as they Donghyun returned the stare. The new kid’s blinking sped up as if he was a computer that needed to process information before his lips curved into a shy smile. Donghyun’s heart almost stopped. “He’s looking at Donghyun isn’t he?” He could hear Hyunseong whisper loudly enough for the rest of the class to hear, aside from those closest to the door, and Donghyun quickly turned his head, trying to still his heart before he lost consciousness or something. At least he thinks that’s what happens when your heart goes too fast. Minwoo’s smile faded as he awkwardly scratched his head, looking for a place to sit where people wouldn’t be crowded nearby. Before he got to find a spot, the teacher walked in, patting Minwoo’s shoulder before explaining that he would assign his seat for him according to the chart he had been given.

 

Clearing his voice, he announced that the students that had taken their seats according to the chart from the previous year would need to move, resulting in groans from those who were seated closely with their friends. Or at least, from the area where Donghyun’s circle was crowded in. As the teacher announced seating arrangements, Jeongmin grinned and high-fived Kwangmin and Youngmin, who had been placed on either side of him in the main back of the classroom. Donghyun looked back and smiled excitedly when he had been assigned the seat in front of Youngmin, quickly leaning forward to steal one of his many extra erasers all the his fanboys had given him. He didn’t doubt that the older twin had fangirls as well, but going to an all boys school was a major setback for any girl who wanted to get near him. As he made a fist at the supply thief, his eyes widened, alerting Donghyun that a new presence had invaded their space of habitation. Motioning with his head, he mouthed the words “Turn around!” to Donghyun before sliding back in his seat, trying to be as inconspicuous as humanly possible.

 

With a tingle running down the back of his neck, Donghyun turned to face those familiarly large almond eyes that were almost hidden by the messy brown hair that delicately fell across his forehead, the rest framing his face in such a way that made him look like a porcelain doll in an expensive store, much like the ones his mother would make him stay outside of whenever she would shop in one when he was a child. They stared at each other in the same position for moments until Donghyun noticed something shiny in his open backpack. ‘Is that a....knife?’ His eyes shot to the object to try and examine it without being obvious, but the sun was reflecting too brightly for him to see what it is. “I hear he tried to kill someone in his old school...” The words rang in his head like a bell as his heartbeat quickened, beads of sweat forming as he averted his eyes and stared at his textbook. Thoughts such as, ‘he’s totally going to kill me’ and the various rumors swirled around in his head, seemingly growing louder and louder, which made it unfortunate for Minwoo, who had chosen that moment to speak up.

 

“Um, excuse me....” Minwoo’s voice sounded like that of an angel’s, sweet and soft like velvet to his ears. And if he weren’t so damn scared of the youngest boy in class, he would have been questioning whether he wanted to make love to that voice or the boy himself. Trying to appear as manly and totally not scared as possible, he turned his head to face him, his eyes lowering to the object in his hand that looked like a knife. “OH MY GOD.” His voice rang out through the entire class as he jumped out of his seat, running out of the room as fast as he could without so much as a glance back, leaving a confused Minwoo seated with his manual pencil sharpener in hand, The teacher looked up from his papers with a startled look, and while Minwoo felt relieved that all eyes had finally left him, he found himself feeling saddened that he had missed his opportunity to make a friend. Frowning, he reached over and picked up the pencil on Donghyun’s desk. “It just looked like it needed sharpened...” He pouted a bit before sliding the blade across the lead pencil, hurrying to sharpen it before his strange desk neighbor returned.

 

When the teacher, who had all his students refer to him as K.Will, finally found him hiding in the bathroom, he explained all of the rumors to him. “I’m not trying to be rebellious... He just scares the out of me...” Overlooking the fact that his own student had just cursed in front of him, K.Will released an incredulous sigh before running his fingers through his own wavy hair. “Donghyun, you know... Rumors are just rumors.” He crouched beside the boy who was currently in the fetal position, and sat beside him, leaning back against the wall and looking as if he were lost in the deepest of his own thoughts. “Even if the rumor was true at some point, it always gets distorted, becoming more and more incredible until it turns into a simple lie.” He looked over at Donghyun, who had continued to stare at the ground throughout the entire conversation. “Look, I promise that as long as I’m your teacher, I won’t let Minwoo murder you.” K.Will tried not to let his bubbling laughter escape from his mouth, hiding the smile tugging at his lips by pretending to clear his throat.

 

“Really?” Although Donghyun was a leader among his friends, he seemed like nothing more than a child to the concerned, albeit amused, teacher beside him. “Mmhmm, I promise.” Allowing himself to finally let his smile show, he grinned at the teenager, helping him stand up and walking him back to the classroom. He had known Donghyun ever since the younger boy had enrolled in the preschool across the road, befriending him even before he had become a teacher. Somehow, he felt like a brother toward him, wanting nothing more than to protect him and to see him happy. And even though he wanted that, he also had a duty as a teacher to keep the rest of his students happy as well, and that included Minwoo, who had been experiencing nothing if not seclusion from the rest of the students. Even the teachers seemed wary of him. Sighing in front of the door, he paused before opening it. “Oh, by the way, Donghyun...” K.Will paused, smiling brightly as he looked at him. “He only wanted to know if you needed your pencil sharpened.” His booming laughter filled the halls as he opened the door, causing Donghyun’s face to flush a bright red as he stiffly walked to his seat, completely avoiding eye contact with Minwoo, who was peeking up at him from behind the book in his small hands.