It was the first time that Jongin would reply at a message on a lecture time. He usually didn’t pick it up, even he felt his phone vibrated under his pocket, he would leave it there until it stopped vibrating. A phone call also included. He couldn’t bring himself to sacrifice his lecture time for a phone, that was just a big no.

Now, here he was. Replying Hayoung’s messages in no particular reason, he also found it weird. Sehun found it weird, everyone found it weird. At the beginning of their third year, Sehun usually sent him messages, or funny pictures—even both of them were in the same class, but different row of seat—out of boredom but Jongin had never once reply on those instantly, he had always replied it on break time or he did not reply at those. Jongin had told Sehun that it was plain annoying and Sehun deliberately stopped sending him messages. Jongin had, too, reasoned to Sehun that he wanted to focus on the subjects, and did not want to lose his phone or his best score—that was a reason why Jongin never replied any messages that has sent on lectures time.

And now, here he was.

“You awake?” Jongin started a conversation, to lead the current topic away. He knew that if Sehun knew about Hayoung, he would definitely burn Jongin alive. And, the option of burning until die was not an achievement for Jongin. He had pushed all of those options away, but it seemed that it has came back for reasons.

Sehun rolled his eyes and beckoned at Jongin’s pocket, “Who are you chatting with?”

“Someone,” Jongin replied shortly.

“That must be pretty important for you.”

“Well,” Jongin said, staring at the blackboard to prevent any eye contact with Sehun. He knew, the moment Jongin laid eyes on Sehun, he couldn’t lie—so it would be better to stare at the blackboard instead. “It is my mom—you know how important she is.”

“Right,” Sehun nodded, buying his words. “She really is important, as important as she thinks she is.”

Both of them were laughing. This, too, what Jongin despised the most. It was so hard to released himself from Sehun, but it was so easy for them to make up. When they had a big argument yesterday, they would talk casually tomorrow. Sehun made it so easy to patch them up, but did they really want to patch up? Jongin doubt it—heck, he even doubted himself.

Then, both of them were silent. Probably because the science teacher had noticed them and glared at them for a mere seconds before he continued fiddling with his computer games. The teacher, surprisingly, had stopped lecture and gave the students assignment—which Jongin couldn’t do it without any source, and so did Sehun. So, for the first time, Jongin decided to gave up on his assignment, and worked it at home, and doodled things on his note.

“Listen,” Sehun started whispering. “Let’s play at your house; working on this stupid assignment.”

Jongin stared at him and nodded before he doodled again. Sehun gave up on the science and slept for the rest of the hour, which that was why the teacher has stared at Sehun for a long time, and Sehun—absolutely—ignored it. It was no strange that Sehun had slept over the lecture time and woke up when it was almost break time. He had done it every time, actually, most of the students did it.

Jongin looked at the clock before he replied, “Sure, I’ll wait for you at seven.”

“No, no,” Sehun oppose. “Actually, let’s play after the school ends.”

“Oh,” Jongin said, still stunned. “Cool.”

Then, the bell rang and Sehun gave him a wide smile to him. He looked afar from Jongin and waved at his bowling teammates. Sehun loved bowling and bowling was pretty popular amongst the students, which made a fine reason why Sehun loved it. He loved attention, and popularity—it was the only thing that made him came to school, for a better word, motivated him.

The rest of the school was blur, the only thing that made Jongin alive was Hayoung’s texts. This time, it was art class which explained why the whole class decided to go out for painting. The teacher—Ms. Han—had a few errands with the principal; she said it herself, and left them free on the back field for painting. The theme was nature, and most of the students were painting tree because they were too lazy to paint more. The most artistic was Miyoung, the infamous girl with artistic hands. People paid her and let her sketched their crushes’ faces. Miyoung agreed because she needs extra money. Kris made her sketched Ms. Jung and he made it into a bookmark.

Kris was the least artistic painting out of all the people he knew, he just drew two straight lines and made curly lines above that, then he created some creatures of his around it. Then, he let it be as he walked around to see other paintings. Jongin did not have any guts in painting, painted mountains—even there was no mountain there—and houses under it.

Sehun ditched the subject.

It was nothing, but it felt eerie because he rarely ditched its subject. He used it as a free time and just joked around for the rest of the subject—but now, he was nowhere to be seen. After Jongin felt enough with his painting, he let out a heavy breath before he checked his watch. It was ten minutes away from going home, and he sighed. Ten minutes were too much, and he was too tired to everything.

Then, his phone vibrated.

From: The Whale

Are you bored?

She came back texting him, after a long time—he thought, ought her next text even he didn’t have to reply to the last one. Jongin looked around before he efficiently texted back.

To: The Whale

Yes. I mean, Ms. Han left us alone and I am really bored, right now.

Jongin grinned on his own reply and waited for the next reply after he sent it. It took shorter time than the classroom’s, it probably came out  ten seconds after he sent a reply. This girl was surely had a thing with texting; she texted so well, and so fast. He wondered how could it be, how could he be if he texted that fast. This is not a chat.

From: The Whale

I can see that winks wonks at the nearest window of your current place.

After Jongin saw that text, he immediately searched for the nearest window. He literally turned 360 degrees to found the window, which it happened to located right across him. It was a classroom, with a bunch of students working on their papers except for one girl; with a strays of pink hair, looking at him and grinning before she beckoned at her phone and texted under the window.

From: The Whale

YOU LITERALLY JUST SPINNED 360 DEGREES TO FIND ME, .

Jongin didn’t know what to say, after all, nobody ever called him a or any cursing words. Heck, he rarely used or heard cursing words. That was like, lethal for him. His parents would chop his head if they had heard those words. They said that those words was one step to murdering someone, which clearly was not his style. If he could murder a person, he would say, his parents—that came in one package—. Then, Jongin looked at Hayoung. She gave an are-you-kidding-me stare and threw her hands up in distress.

From: The Whale

Come on, Boundaries guy. That word was just a joke—all of it was a joke!

Jongin read its text a few minutes and stared back at Hayoung, in which she replied with a silent duh. Hayoung probably feel pretty annoyed because Jongin could not read any of her senses in right way. She actually was, and she must remind herself that Jongin didn’t familiar with all of those words—especially . But, Jongin didn’t matter that much; surely that he quite not familiar with that word, but it didn’t matter as much as the nickname she just gave.

Boundaries guy.

It came again, which clearly shoved his thoughts away and read its message.

From: The Whale

Anyway, you said that you need my help and et cetera, et cetera—so, meet me at the front gate, after school. Don’t make me wait!

Then, his lips turned upward and glanced at Hayoung’s face whose had her face stared blankly at the white board. Then, he caught her; glancing at Jongin with a flirtatious wink, which he had decided to take that as a joke. The bell suddenly rang, and he immediately took his equipments away and bought them with him, to put it back on his locker. He ran upstairs, where his classroom was, and snatched the bag hurriedly. He found Sehun, waiting for him in front of the male bathroom.

“What the—“

“Cut the homework issue, I can’t right now.” Jongin said hurriedly as he passed through Sehun, didn’t even give any single at the fact that he was waiting for him for the first time. It didn’t matter now, the things that matter were on the front gate; waiting for him to take upon an incredible journey to his circle of zone.

He was starting to have this sweet thrilling rush on his veins, trying to pop out every time Hayoung was there. Hayoung, for Jongin, was the living creature that represented thrill. This girl, loved thrill and she could influence everybody with her eccentric-ness that came out as a sweet thrill rush on his blood. After he got out from the school’s main door, he immediately spotted her, waiting for him at the front gate as she promised and she was leaning against the metal gate while fiddling with her phone, as if she didn’t know that people currently was gossiping about her as they walked past her.

However, Jongin remained until she laid her eyes on Jongin’s and beckoned him to walk to her. He hesitated his own choice; should he or shouldn’t he? He didn’t know, and apparently everyone didn’t even have any clue about it. He stood there, outside the school’s door, staring skeptically at Hayoung. In which, she groaned and ran to Jongin, only to swung her hands around his neck, pushed him to walk and whispered in a low tone,

“Be brave, Jongin.”

Friendly reminder: I would update infrequently from today because school is always being such a .

Friendly reminder #1: Errors of grammar are mistakes; sorry. Too lazy to reread lmao.