Well Done! (Part 5 of 10)
 

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He didn’t roll himself off the bed. I now fervently wished he did.

I awoke with a pillow slapped on top of my head. I was instantly wide awake again. Gosh, that seemed to be happening an awful lot lately. I sat up immediately and found a groggy looking Kyuhyun sitting up on the bed. I scowled at him. I would have boxed his face if he wasn’t unwell.

“You were snoring and making pew pew sounds. What were you dreaming about?” Kyuhyun muttered still in his sleep induced state.

“I do NOT snore! You must have heard yourself!” I argued without substance because I knew that I do snore and it gets worse when I am dead beat. It’s just that agreeing with him will be like committing suicide. That was potential blackmail material, so no, I was not going to admit. Pew pew? Oh, my .45 calibre used in shooting those green-faced goo-oozing eyeballs-popping pizza-and-cakes stealing ty zombies.

“I’ll taped it down as proof if a chance presents itself…..again.” Kyuhyun suggested with a little smirk.

“You can go kiss that chance goodbye. Ain‘t gonna happen.” I pumped up my resoluteness with a puffed up chest and at the same time making a mental note not to sleep anywhere remotely near Kyuhyun. And his gang, I added as a precaution.

“I’ll rather be kissing something else.” Kyuhyun moved his face nearer to me and was looking intently into my eyes with a, yes, smirk, what else? What was with all the smug looks? I was getting pretty annoyed. Where were the long overdue thanks for helping him? Such an ungrateful bastard.

I lifted up my right hand with my palm and fingers spread wide and hi-fived his face with a push. His head fell back and I heard a chuckle from behind me. I turned around and saw Nurse EeTeuk leaning against the door frame with arms crossed over his chest. He walked towards me and gently pulled my hand from Kyuhyun’s face and told me to be nice to the sickly.

“Why should I!? He did not even thank me for helping him and I missed first period because of him!” I grunted and gave the nurse an incredulous look.

“First of all, he was unwell. Then, he was being nice to you. He wasn’t nice to just anyone.” Nurse EeTeuk provided that piece of information with emphasis placed on the you. He seemed to know Kyuhyun pretty well.

“He was dying out there! Of course he had to be nice to me!”I exclaimed. “I bet he would even betroth himself to a passing cow for a ride here.” I huffed, indignant evident on my face.

They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“You wouldn’t.” Nurse EeTeuk grinned and looked at Kyuhyun in amusement.

“No, I wouldn’t.” Kyuhyun affirmed and the two of them burst out in laughter again. More boisterous this time. I looked at the two nut cases and sighed. I don’t even want to know what the joke was about.

“Okay, since I am no longer needed here, I will take my leave now. Carry on laughing, you goats.” I said dismissively and turned to walk out of the room.

Kyuhyun made a grab of my hand and pulled me towards him. “Not so fast, pretty boy.” He said. “You have to help me get back to my class first.” He said whilst I tried to wrestle my hand out of his firm grasp without much success. He was strong for someone who was once dying.

“You are well now, I can tell so get back to class on your own.” I hissed still trying to ease off his grip. I looked at Nurse EeTeuk for help but he just shrugged and walked off. What was wrong with these people? This was bullying, wasn’t it?

“Please, pretty please? Just in case.” Kyuhyun pleaded a little too earnestly and loosened his grip a little but never completely. I hesitated and then contemplated. I might as well get it over quickly so that I can get rid of him for good.

“Okay then....since you pleaded.” I sneered. “And let go of my hand, will you? I promise I won’t run away.” I added, twisting my hand this way and that.

“No, what if I faint? I need to hold on to you.” Kyuhyun reasoned unreasonably. I felt like slapping him.

“You looked healthier than me now.” I argued. Oh why did I give in so easily?

“How about like this?” Kyuhyun released my hand and hooked his left arm on my shoulder. This time, the grip is on my shoulder. I felt caged.

“Aren’t you pushing this a little too far?” I sighed and looked at him with disdain. He gave me a grin but no answer.

“Now let’s go, shall we? You looked like you want to get rid of me badly.” Kyuhyun urged and prodded me forward with the arm on my shoulder. You bet I am.

“I’m glad that there is a brain somewhere in there among all the in-house .” I said pointing to his head. Kyuhyun grinned happily.

We went to collect our school bags from our lockers and continued our walk on the now deserted passageway towards Kyuhyun’s class. His was on the second floor while mine was on the third. It was uneventful until we heard the bell ring to signify the end of first period. Kyuhyun tightened his hold by curling the arm on my shoulder towards my neck and held on to my necktie. I gulped. Students started to stream out of their respective classrooms. I gulped again while trying to dislodge his arm off my shoulder. I felt eyes on me, on us. This looked bad, really bad. We were sending out wrong signals, wrong ideas. I wanted so much to push him away and run up to the third floor but his grip was vice-like.

“Stop fidgeting or I’ll never let go.” Kyuhyun said nonchalantly as we climbed up the stairs to the second floor, totally disregarding the discomfort the whole situation had caused me. “Only a few more steps left…...” Kyuhyun said wistfully as if he wanted to walk the long walk with me ten times over.

I tried my best to hasten our steps but he kind of pulled me back to walk slower. Students snickered knowingly and gave us a wide berth. Kyuhyun seemed to be basking in the attention. I dreaded the gossips during recess hoping that we will be stale news by the end of the day. Hopefully.

Finally, we reached the door to Kyuhyun’s classroom. I unhooked his now slacked arm and returned it forcibly to his chest. He staggered backwards a little but quickly steadied himself. Before he could do anything else, I swiftly turned around and ran off.

“See you, Minnie.” Kyuhyun shouted loudly after my retreating figure. Needless to say, I sprinted.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I slumped over my desk trying to even out my breath after the run. Eunhyuk and Donghae came over to my desk. Donghae ruffled my already dishevelled hair and looked at me reproachingly.

“You overslept again, didn’t you?” Eunhyuk asked impishly.

“No. Long story.” I pant out. “Tell you during recess. Now, let me breathe.” I dismissed them both with a wave of my hand, in time with the arrival of Mrs Boo. The torture never ends.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“Told you he likes you.” Donghae said after I had narrated the incident to them during recess. We were now sitting at our usual table, snacking away on chips after wolfing down a healthy portion of chicken rice each. Eunhyuk nodded his agreement. I covered my ears with both hands. Don’t want to hear. Don’t want to know.

“Look who’s looking at you Minnie.” Eunhyuk pointed with his lips to his left. I lifted my head towards that direction and was aghast to see Kyuhyun winked at me. His clique blew wolf whistles at me. I quickly retracted my turtle head and shrunk into the shell of my blazer. More snickering and whispering could be heard.

“Guys, you have to help me on this. People are giving me strange looks.” I whined tiredly. Turning to Donghae, I added firmly, “I think you are wrong. He do not like me that way. He digs the attention he gets from toying with me. Once he gets tired of this toy of the week,” I said pointing at myself, “he will move on to next week special.”

“You are so unbelievably naive…..or stupid.” Donghae said with a shake of his head. I resisted the urge to slap his head because I needed his help.

“Or both.” Eunhyuk muttered. I pouted and gave him a hurt look. He reached over and tapped his index finger lightly on my nose and continued, “Look, I don’t think you should overly worry yourself on this. For all you know, he could be just teasing you. And don’t forget, you are his tutee so there is no way to avoid him totally unless you get your mom to fire hi...”

“I beg to differ.“ Donghae cut him off in mid sentence and then looked me in the eyes. “Tell me, why are you so adverse to him liking you?”

“We are both of the male species, that’s why! It is not normal.” I hissed out hoping that Donghae would stop probing.

Now, Donghae looked hurt and Eunhyuk blushed. Blushed? That was telling a lot.

“Please don’t misunderstand, I am not against same ……relationship.“ I tried to word it nicely. “It is just that I will not want one for myself. Not to mention that my mom will kill me if I do, I think.” I continued. “I have nothing against the….thing you have between the two of you.” I swept one palm-up hand to and from the both of them. “Gosh, you two are so obvious.” I ended with a roll of my eyes at them. “So, are we good?“ I looked at them questioningly.

“Yup.” They said in unison with smiles blossoming on their faces. I was relieved.

“Come on, let’s go disturb Ryeowook.” Donghae suggested mischievously and the three of us walked out of the canteen with my arms around each of their shoulder.

Kyuhyun watched Sungmin’s interaction with his two friends with carefully concealed jealousy. You can’t run away from me, Minnie, he thought.

I knew I was being watched. I could feel it but I couldn’t care less. I do not belong to anyone.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“Mommy, I'm home!” I yelled out once I stepped into the house.

“Oh baby, I made your favourite stew today.” Mom yelled back.

Just then, I received a text message from Kyu. He mentioned that he had emailed me extra homework to do for the rest of the week in which I had to complete a set per day and that I was supposed to hand it in to him during recess break every single ing day. What the heck!

I was annoyed, needless to say but I have another need to address to urgently - my growling stomach. The delicious aroma of kimchi stew led me to the kitchen where I found my mom dishing out the said stew from a pot. Rice and another side dish were already laid on the dining table. I gave my mom a kiss on her cheek and helped to bring out the eating utensils. The food was great like always and I told her about my day at school excluding the episode with Kyuhyun. She beamed when I burped.

After the hearty meal, my mom washed the dishes while I cleaned the table. Then I gave her another kiss on her cheek and headed upstairs to my room.

I had no homework from school today and had originally planned to brush up my fighting skills in Starcraft so that I can beat Eunhyuk the next time we played. However, whatever mood I had for it had diminished after that one dreadful text message so I decided to check out the extra work that clod had sent me. I concluded that he wanted me dead after printing out the endless pages.

A set of worksheets has six pages with three mathematical problems on each page and some spaces in between for the workings. That worked out to eighteen problems to analyse and solve in a day which was outrageous! I have no life!

“Mommm” I whined loudly as I stomped down the stairs with the intention of complaining and gaining some sympathy from my mom at the same time. Maybe she could talked Kyuhyun into giving me lesser homework, I thought with sudden cheeriness.

I found her comfortably seated in the living room where she was knitting my father a navy blue sweater. What a warm sight. I walked up to her and lightly placed my hands on her shoulders so as not to startle her and gently massaged them, complain momentarily forgotten. She stopped her knitting, tilted her head back a little and closed her eyes with a smile stretched across her face.

“Don't tire yourself out mom.” I said to her with gentleness.

She patted my hand and smiled up at me beautifully. "I won't." she reassured. “What colour do you want yours to be?” she asked me.

“Hmm.... baby pink.” I replied after giving it some thought. “I want to colour my hair blonde this time so light pink would suit me perfectly. What do you think, mom?” I tilted my head sideway to look at her. She held one of my hands and brought me around the armchair to sit on the hand rest.

“Only if your school is fine with your choice of hair colour.” Mom reminded.

“I checked and school okayed it.” I confirmed.

“Baby pink it is. And I’ll knit a matching beanie for you too.” Mom beamed enthusiastically.

“Thanks mom!” I said matching her enthusiasm.

“Anything for my precious baby.” She my cheek lovingly and I gave her a hug.

“You seemed annoyed earlier. What’s wrong?“ Mom asked with concern. She placed her half done sweater on her lap and looked at me.

“Oh, right. Mommm…..” I remembered and whined again. “That idiotic Kyuhyun gave me tons of extra homework to do every single day and he wanted me to hand them in to him every day at school. Mommm……can you tell him to at least half it, please?” I begged and pulled a pathetic face.

“Sweetie, Kyuhyun called me earlier to inform me about this. He seemed to know that you will come begging so he urged me not to accommodate any request from you regarding the homework unless you are asking for more…..and I kind of agreed.” Mom said apologetically as she held my hands in hers. My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. That manipulative brat!

“Mommmmmy!” I whined louder and pumped up on my cuteness but she avoided by going back to her knitting. No good, no good at all. I was close to having facial spasm and still, my charm has no effect on her. She was determined.

“It is for your own good, honey. You only have a few more months to catch up on the syllabus before the finals so please put in your best effort.” Mom advised while knitting. I secretly hoped she drop a stitch. “Stop slacking and be more productive, sweetie. Remember, I want at least a passing grade for the subjects that you had failed previously.” She warned sternly. “Otherwise, the vacation to Japan that you wanted so much this year end will never happen. And then to top up your misery, I will arrange for extra lessons with Kyuhyun.”

I shook my head vigorously and groaned out no, no, no, no, no….

My mom switched sides so quickly. I was frustrated to know that she was on the brat’s side on this matter. Deep down inside, I knew that she (alright, they, I’ll admit) has my best interest at heart but I was unhappy that there wasn’t even any room for discussion or negotiation. I did the only thing that I could think of – I sulked.

“Kyuhyun is here to help you, not destroy your life, me dear son. Look at it positively and accept his help.” Mom gently patted my thigh and that was my signal to get my back to my room and solve those math problems.

“I’ll try.” I muttered grouchily as I stood up and headed back up to my room. I heard mom sighed dramatically and then she……..whistled.

I smell conspiracy.


~~~~ END OF PART 5 ~~~~