Yongguk woke up late the next morning (as usual). He didn’t bother to take a morning shower and figured out that he would do so after the first period in school. His school tie hung by his bedpost and he grabbed it on the way out of his room along with his school bag, then successfully dodged past the kitchen and made it out of the door.

Usually, he would wait for Himchan but today it was the other way around. He made a sharp turn around the corner and his legs suddenly stopped functioning and his whole body became rooted the ground. The familiar stirring to his groin brought along a sense of dread. Yongguk knew he was doomed—right from the beginning of that very morning.

Forcing himself to walk again, he stopped right beside Himchan, who looked up from her (very pink and sparkly) phone and grinned cheerfully at him. Yongguk caught a glimpse of her very adorable front teeth that were too large in comparison to the rest. Stiffly, he looked ahead and rapidly jabbed his finger into the lift button. Himchan continued using her phone, occasionally giggling at whatever she was looking at.

“When did you ever wear long socks?” Yongguk finally sulkily said when they reached the first floor. He jabbed at the button again irritably and Himchan skipped out first. She pouted at his disgruntled expression. “Don’t you like them?”

Yongguk was furious. The guts of this sickening girl; tempting him on so many levels yet still asking so naïvely if she was doing anything wrong? Balling his fists, he forced himself to take deep breaths instead and made a mistake that he had been doing for the past decade—to stare right into her eyes.

She blinded him; took his breath away and knocked him off his feet right into an endless pit. He was falling deeper, sinking by the second, a breath away from being suffocated to death but…he figured he didn’t mind.

So, he forced on a smile, and watched numbly as she cocked her head to the side. “You look pretty.” He croaked, and the loveliest smile graced itself on her lush lips, rendering him speechless.

The thing was that the school’s dress code included black high socks which reached up to the knees. The rest of the female students followed by the rules except a few which included Kim Himchan. She had always worn her socks below the margin of her shoes, showing off her perfect milky-white legs. Yongguk had grown used to seeing them being exposed—but now yet with her covering them with black cotton, why did they look so much more mouth-watering?

He pursed his lips as he continued his way to his classroom after silently walking Himchan to hers (he made sure to glare at every male student who stopped in their tracks). He slumped into his seat and checked under his table. As usual, all of his books sat neatly at in a pile on the rusty metal surface. Yongguk spiritlessly yanked out a copy of his history textbook and slammed it onto the table top, sighing heavily. A chuckle came from behind him, and Yongguk fought the urge to hi-five Jung Daehyun’s face with his fist.

“I already know what this is about,” the other boy sang as the smug Cheshire-like smile crept across his face upon seeing the tips of Yongguk’s ears turned red. “I didn’t skip a grade for nothing.”

“I’d shut the up if I were you.” The elder had an unpleasant smirk playing on his lips as he twisted back to drum his fingertips on Daehyun’s desk. Daehyun didn’t falter the slightest, but instead he leaned forward with his eyes alight with anticipation.

His pair of lush pink lips parted. “I like a challenge, Yongguk-hyung.”

Yongguk’s eyes narrowed and he snatched his hand off Daehyun’s desk before turning to the front. He already had a whole load of black marks on his progress report—one more demerit point and his father would gladly him out of the school gates. The constant kicking continued as more students streamed in for class, and Yongguk found himself at the breaking point.

His legs acted before his mind did. He had stood up so abruptly (and with so much strength) that his chair flew back under the force and crashed into Jung Daehyun’s outstretched leg. Yongguk watched in sadistic satisfaction as the younger crouched over in pain and hissed out vulgarities while clutching at his leg. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at Yongguk who was standing up in the middle of the class, and then at Daehyun who was trying to stifle his whimpers of pain.

“Bang Yongguk, why are you standing?” Dr. Hwang, the lecturer swept into the class right on time and absently dismissed the scene as he set up the visualizer in a hurry. “Sit down. We have a lot of syllabus to cover by today.”

Yongguk straightened his collar before shooting a warning glare at Daehyun who grimaced back in what that looked like defeat but the elder couldn’t be sure. The kicking did stop, to his relief. He lifted his pen to his lips as Dr. Hwang loudly tapped his wooden ruler to the board’s surface to reiterate a key point. Daehyun’s words were forgotten as the lecture continued, but not for long.

--

Youngjae’s plump lips (which Himchan secretly envied) were curved up in an amused smirk as the older girl emerged from the toilet. Himchan frowned at the cigarette that she held which was giving out a pillar of toxic smoke. “Youngjae-ah, I thought you already quit.” She said disapprovingly, eyeing at the cancer stick.

The other girl shrugged as she brushed her dark stresses aside and took a drag, blowing out a sickly smelling puff of smoke. She blew several times then threw the cigarette onto the floor and stubbed it out with the sole of her polished shoes. “Just don’t tell Daehyunnie.” She smiled almost too angelically and Himchan had to scoff in disgust, muttering a ‘you crazy little ’ under her breath.

They stood there for a while, staring at some boys playing soccer in the field until the school bell rang.  It was as per normal—even though they were a year apart, both of them would rather sit with each another during their shared break times. “What class did you skip