xxx  The Underdog Class

3 - More Than Meets The Eye

Youngjae spent the rest of the school day huddled up in the library. Between the instruction that he wouldn't receive and his strange classmates, he definitely wasn't in a hurry to return to room 134P any time soon. He simply remained there, under the watchful of eye of the elderly-looking librarian Mrs. Kwak, reading the first book he could get his hands on, which ended up being a book on World War II. He was bored to tears, but he had nearly finished the book by the time the last school bell rang.

He trudged out of the building, dragging his feet along the ground as he made his way to his bustop, careful to dodge Himchan and Jongup who were playing around the front lawn, just beyond the school's main steps.

Once home, Youngjae was instantly greeted by his mother and step-father. He couldn't even slip off his shoes and change into his yellow bunny house slippers before he was instantly bombarded with a slew of questions by the exciteable woman.

"How was school?"

"Fine."

"Did you make any new friends?"

"Kind of."

"Do you like your teacher and classmates?"

"Hell no."

"Youngjae!"

Jisook frowned when Youngjae slammed his bedroom door, effectively ending her interrogation.

Jinyoung placed a comforting hand on Jisook's shoulder.

"He's just being a teenager," he said to his new wife. "All of them are this termperamental, I swear. Here, I'll go in and talk to him."

"That's probably not the best idea if he's already on edge," Jisook pointed out.

"He and I need to bond, man-to-man anyway," Jinyoung shrugged. "What better way than to end up throwing a few punches at one another?"

Jisook smacked him playfully. "Don't you dare lay a hand on my baby, got it?"

Jinyoung hugged her and placed a small kiss to her lips, a sign that he indeed understood her not-so-teasing threat before letting her go. He gently knocked on Youngjae's door and waited no more than five or six seconds before letting himself in.

Youngjae was sitting in bed, his uniform shirt discarded in favor of a loose, comfortable T-shirt, and his ipad perched on his lap. He was busy checking his facebook, twitter, instagram, kakao talk, and other social media already eagerly catching up with his friends back in Suncheon.

"First of all, you two are so gross," said Youngjae, not even bothering to look up front his screen. "Second of all, don't you know how to knock?"

"I did knock," Jinyoung answered. "Don't you know how to listen?"

Youngjae rolled his eyes.

"Seriously though!" Jinyoung pressed on. "Tell me about your first day at Sangjeon. Tell me about your teacher and the kids you met. Your mother is dying to know."

Finally, Youngjae looked up from his tablet and glared firecely at Jinyoung.

"I hate it at Sangjeon," he replied, bluntly. "I'm stuck in the worst class with an alcoholic teacher and chronically under-achieving classmates. And I may be under your roof and I may have to respect you, but I don't have to like you. So stop trying to act all buddy-buddy with me."

Jinyoung clicked his tongue in disapproval, but held up his hands in surrender. "Fine. Whatever you want Youngjae. But let me just say, you might hate Sangjeon a little less if you would take care of that attitude of yours. Change isn't the devil and neither am I just because I married your mother."

With that last word, he left the room, thoughtfully remembering to close the door behind him so that everything was as it was before he intruded.

Angry with the man's words, Youngjae picked up his iPad, all but prepared to throw it at the man's retreating back, but then he remembered the fact that it was pretty expensive. Then he remembered it had been one of the last things his father has bought for him and it was his lifeline back home (because Seoul would never be his real home and he would assert this until his dying day) and he sighed, setting it back down and tapping aimlessly at the screen

The next morning, he woke up at the same time and got dressed in the same uniform. This time, he chucked his loafers to the back of closet, determined not to let them see the light of day ever again. Instead, he found his favorite pair of blue, white, and yellow adidas high tops and slipped those on. Determined to start the day with a slightly different image, he hoped the shoes would help him fit in better than he had the previous day.

Not that he would be around too many other students. He planned on heading straight to the library and setting up camp there once again. In fact, he planned on doing it for the entire semester. No need to bother with 134P and Mr. Too-Hungover-To-Teach Park Jaesang. He would just have to teach himself for the next four months.

No big deal.

And so, when he reached Sangjeon High School that morning, he didn't stop at his classroom and barely managed to cut a conversation with Eunkwang short before entering the library and happily greeting Mrs. Kwak, but today the old lady didn't return the greeting warmly.

"The bell is getting ready to ring for class," She said, sharply. "I don't want you to be late. So go on and head to the room you're supposed to be in."

"But I wanted to stay in here and get some work done today," Youngjae said, a slight whine to his voice. He debated busting out some crappy aegyo on the woman but decided to wait. "Can't I stay in here with you, please?"

"Sure you can stay!" Mrs. Kwak replied.

Youngjae's smile instantly grew wide.

"But you'll have detention for a week if you do," the library added with a smirk.

.

"Look, Mrs. Kwak," Youngjae implored, desperately. "I'm new and they stuck me in classroom 134P. Do you know who's in that class?"

"Oh, sweetie," Mrs. Kwak suddenly grew a little more sympathetic to the new student. "If the kids in that room are giving you a hard time, you can't just keep running from them. It's only a sign to them that they've succeeded in intimidating you. Don't let the bullies win. If they try to pick a fight with you, don't try to fight fair. Grab a chair, grab a desk, grab some hot sauce and -"

"Can I just take some books with me?" Youngjae asked, interrupting the old lady before her strange advice became excessively hostile.

"Of course!" said Mrs. Kwak. "And if you need anything else, you know where to find me!"

Youngjae quickly scanned a few library shelves, selecting four of the books on various subjects - English, Science, the Joseon Dynasty, and Geography - before begrudgingly making his way to his classroom.

When he opened his door, his was surprised to see his teacher more awake and alert than he had been previously. The entire class was huddled around an iPad and were laughing hysterically at a music video while Mr. Park and Jongup danced along to the song.

"Well, well, look what we have here," Yongguk looked up from the screen just in time to see Youngjae slip into the room.

"Aw yeah, pay up Himchan," said Zelo, eagerly holding out a hand. "I told you he'd be back."

Himchan mumbled a string of profanities as he slipped a 5000won note out of his back pocket and slapped it into Zelo's hand with so much force that the taller boy yelped in pain.

"Why are you so late today, new boy?" Hyosung asked, cheekily.

Youngjae simply held up the stack of books in his arm, showing that he had stopped by the library, before making his way to his desk.

Jieun rolled her eyes. "Too good to talk?" She mumbled.

Hana nodded in agreement. "Kind of a jerk, isn't he?"

"Play the video again!" Jongup shouted once he realized the only sound in the room was his classmates talking.

"Yessir!" Himchan quickly leaned over his friends to hit the repeat button so Jongup could have his music back.

While everyone else settled into rewatching the music video, Daehyun looked behind him. Youngjae already had his face all but burried in the pages of one of the books he brought. He looked at his friends, making sure they weren't paying him any attention, before standing up. He stopped by his desk to grab a snack - a bag of seaweed chips - before swinging by Youngjae's desk.

"You always read this much?" He asked in a hushed voice, trying to keep their conversation private. It was the first time Youngjae had heard the other boy speak and he quickly picked up on his thick Busan accent.

"Do you always eat that much?" Youngjae retorted, not bothering to look up.

"I have to," Daehyun answered. "Gotta keep my energy up so I can win at next week's track meet."

Youngjae rolled his eyes. "You honestly expect me to believe that a lazy, glutton like you runs track?"

Daehyun shrugged. "I don't expect you to believe a lot of things, considering the fact that you don't even really know me. But if seeing is believe, then you should check out the trophy case near the cafeteria later."

"Whatever," Youngjae mumbled.

A bit disappointed with how their interaction had gone, Daehyun gave and returned to his chair closer to his friends. He made it a point to kick Zelo's chair so the boy fell over to the floor, earning a roar of laughter from the group.

"Oh, Youngjae, you totally did the right thing trying to hide out in the library," Eunkwang gushed. The boy was quick to grab Youngjae on the way to the cafeteria for lunch, draping an arm over his shoulders and guiding him, along with the rest of his classmates, towards the surprisingly delicious cafeteria food.

"I wouldn't want to stay in that classroom either," said Minhyuk, a rather chic looking boy with tousled, slightly spiky black hair.

"Are they mean to you?" asked Sungjae.

"They ignore me for the most part," Youngjae answered.

"Can you smell the alcohol on Mr. Park all the time?" Changsub questioned. "I hear he drinks alcohol like it's water."

"Actually, he's never shown up drunk and I haven't seen him drink anything but Pepsi," said Youngjae.

He suddenly stopped walking, the rest of Eunkwang's class paused with him. Youngjae suddenly remembered what Daehyun had said about running track, and when they reached the aformentioned trophy case he stopped to take a look, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Youngjae looked through the glass at various sports and academic trophies and when he saw that there were several large track trophies with Jung Daehyun's name on them, his jaw dropped. The Busan boy had been telling the truth and the proof was there. There were trophies that indicated that Daehyun had been a district, city, and regional champion and had participated on the national youth team.

Youngjae bit his lip, suddenly feeling guilty for judging Daehyun so harshly.

"Are you okay?" Eunkwang asked.

Peniel and Ilhoon looked at him worriedly while Sungjae waved his hands in front of Youngjae's face to make sure he was still with everyone.

"Huh?" Youngjae looked at the group that had recaptured his attention. "Oh! I'm fine. Just hungry. Come on. I think I smell kimchi jjigae!"

He continued walking, the other boys quickly following him and becoming rather excited about having warm and delicious stew to eat for lunch.

a/n: Shame on Youngjae for being so quick to judge people, right? ^^ Hope you guys like this chapter!