School was just another daunting task for Jongdae. He didn't fear it by any means, his friends, mainly Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, had made sure of it. Bullies weren't a problem, in fact, the two people who could be called bullies were people he had good relations with. Jongin being his twin, and Kris being his ex. He didn't fear school, he feared the people in there who'd judge him. Ridicule him to no end. The 'school bullies' weren't a problem, it was the other people. When him and Kris emerged as a couple, it was him who got all the verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse. Not Kris. He was the star of the school's basketball team, hurting him would basically hurt the school's chance of winning. Since the breakup the snide comments and odd punches seemed to have calmed down, but Jongdae was always alert.

One time, during a particularly bad physical attack by some tormentors, Jongdae remembered being saved by his savior.

~

Jongdae shielded his stomach with his arms, ducking his head into his chest in a futile attempt to protect himself from the ongoing flurry of punches and kicks. The sting of knuckles making contact with any place he couldn't protect caused pain to shoot through his body. He wanted to groan in pain - he could feel himself breaking apart with each shot of pain. Alongside the whirlwind of pain, verbal attacks were being thrown constantly. Most were from the girls watching, filming it on their phones. They screamed about how he stole Kris from them and urging the boys on. The boys themselves yelled about how he was disgusting and wondered why he even went to the school where everybody hated him. 

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo had attempted to stop the boys, but the girls held them back and kind of intimidated the two to flee, shouting apologies directed towards Jongdae. He didn't blame them - he'd be scared of the girls and not go back, they could be quite fierce.

The attacks kept on going for a few more minutes, seemingly hours for Jongdae who groaned and moved around in pain before a ringing voice sounded from the direction of the school.

"What do you think you're doing?!" The voice yelled, seeming to close in from the direction it was coming from.

The group of students and their bystanders cursed under their breaths and scattered away from Jongdae. The mysterious person ran down and dropped to their knees and cradled Jongdae's head in their lap, screaming for help. Jongdae tried to get a look at his saviour before passing out. 

~

"Helloo? Earth to Jongdae?" Kyungsoo said, waving his hands in front of Jongdae's eyes to get his attention.

Jongdae shook his head slightly and blinked as he was brought away from his thoughts, "Oh sorry what?"

Kyungsoo sighed playfully, "I said, do you have a partner for the science project?"

Jongdae shook his head again, "No. I was gonna go with Baek but he said he was with Chanyeol. And you're with Lay and Jongin's with Kris."

Kyungsoo nodded, "Yeah, I know. I was asking because Joonmyeon was wondering if you'd go with him."

Jongdae turned to face the front of the room where the aforementioned sat scribbling notes down violently from the board. He stared at the older for a few moments before facing Kyungsoo again, "Get him to ask me."

Kyungsoo chuckled as he leant in towards Jongdae, "You know, for someone who hates pretty much the entire population of this school, you have high standards."

Jongdae flashed Kyungsoo his smirk and nodded, "Yeah, something tha runs in the family I guess."

Kyungsoo laughed before walking over to Joonmyeon and tapping on his shoulder and whispering something into his ear. The older looked up at the younger and Jongdae could've sworn he saw a blush creep on Joonmyeon's face and he seemed to turn quite shy. From what Jongdae knew, Joonmyeon was the president of the student council and had a bold personality, confidence seemed to be an attribute he had and showed off with pride. It was weird seeing someone he thought was confident become shy. It was an unusual feeling to say the least. 

Jongdae decided he'd play the unknown card and began to take notes as Joonmyeon began to make his way over to the younger. 

"H-Hey Jongdae," Joonmyeon said, crouching down and sticking his head on top of Jongdae's notebook, causing the younger to laugh.

"Hey Joonmyeon, you're kind of in my way you know," Jongdae chuckled, poking Joonmyeon's cheek with his pen.

"Sorry."

Jongdae raised an eyebrow and looked at Joonmyeon, faking a tone of surprise, "What do you want?"

"Well, you see," Joonmyeon rubbed the back of his neck, "I was wondering if you'd be my science project partner..."

Jongdae stared back at Joonmyeon, pretending to be in thought, "Hmmm, sure, I guess."

Joonmyeon's blush darkened very slightly and he smiled, "See ya."

Jongdae smiled to himself as Joonmyeon returned to his chair - he found himself looking foward to working on the project.