Kyungsoo didn’t go to school the next day, instead deciding to play hooky and spend the day catching up on his pile of books to be read.  His parents didn’t question it; Kyungsoo didn’t ask to stay home often, so when he did, he was usually allowed to do so.

Jongdae called around lunch time to check in on his friend.

“Yo, Kyungsoo, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine Jongdae, thanks for checking in.  I was just up really late last night working on that history paper and couldn’t get up this morning.”

“Dude, that paper isn’t due for another three weeks, why on earth are you working on it already?”

“Oh, you know me, I’m an overachiever who’d rather just get everything done all at once.”

“Nerd.  Anyway, I’m going around to your teachers and collecting assignments for you.  I’ll bring ‘em around after school. Don’t worry though, today’s workload is pretty light, it shouldn’t take you more than an hour to finish everything up. Scratch that, this is you we’re talking about, you should be able to get it all done in half an hour.”

“Thanks Jongdae, you’re the best man.”

“I am more than aware.

“Oh wait, hold on a second, Baekhyun wants to talk to you.”

“Okay, put him on.”

“Soo Soo! My poor baby, are you okay!?”

“BYUN BAEKHYUN! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!?”

“Awe, I’m glad to hear my Soo Soo is feeling okay.  I miss you, come back to me soon!”

“BAEKHYUN!”

“Sorry, it’s Jongdae again, that miscreant scampered off after handing me the phone back.”

Kyungsoo just sighed heavily into the phone. “Do me a favor and punch him in the arm for me, will ya?”

“Anything for you Kyunggie.”

“And while you’re at it, punch yourself too.”

Jongdae chuckled into the speaker.  “Love you too.  I gotta go now, bell’s about to ring.”

“Bye Dae, see you later.”

The phone call reminded Kyungsoo that he probably ought to eat lunch now too, so he went down to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich which he carried back to his book and laid down to read for the rest of the afternoon.

Sometime between lunch and the end of the school day, Kyungsoo had dozed off.

He peeled his face off of the pages of his book when he was woken up by a loud knocking on his front door.  Groping around on his nightstand for his glasses, Kyungsoo shoved them onto his face and walked out of his room towards the source of the sound.

Flinging open the door and running his hand through his hair, Kyungsoo said, “Jesus Christ, Jongdae, you know the goddamned passcode, quit knocking on the ing door!”

“Uhh…”

Kyungsoo finally looked up to see who it was at his front door.

“Oh, Kai,” he shifted uncomfortably and looked anywhere but at him, “what are you doing here?”

“Do you mind if, if I come in?”

Kyungsoo stepped aside, giving Kai space to enter into his home and slip off his shoes.

“Would you like anything to drink?”

“No, I’m fine, thanks.”

The two of them continued to stand in the foyer, shifting uncomfortably and avoiding eye contact.  Kyungsoo managed to gather his wits soon enough and led Kai into the living room, telling him to take a seat.  He himself perched at the edge of the recliner that was adjacent to the couch Kai sat down on.

“So, um, why are you here?” Kyungsoo repeated his question from earlier.

“Oh, I brought your homework,” Kai explained as he began pulling assignments out of his bag.

“I thought Jongdae said he was going to bring them to me?”

“Yeah,” Kai rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “I asked him to give them to me.  He threatened to beat me up if I did anything to them or you.”

Kyungsoo laughed sardonically, “Good ‘ole Jongdae.

“Is that all you came here for?  You could have just let Jongdae bring them to me and save yourself the risk of exposure,” Kyungsoo was as cool as a cucumber as he took his assignments from Kai.

“Um, about that, are you…uh…are you okay?”

“Why exactly do you care?”

“I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t because of me that you weren’t at school today.”

“Well, I hate to bring you down, but it was most definitely because of you I wasn’t at school today.  Prolonged exposure to your dickish personality tends to leave me feeling ill.”

Kai looked down at his hands which were clasped between his knees and then rubbed his sweaty palms against his legs.

“Look, I’m not going to say I’m sorry for disliking you, because I’m not, but I will apologize for the way I’ve treated you.

“Seeing you cry like that,” at this Kyungsoo blushed furiously and turned away, “seeing you cry like that made me realize that I’ve gone a little overboard with my insults.

“I’m not going to stop hating you or anything, but I’ll try to refrain from being so outwardly -ish towards you.”

Kyungsoo stood up and walked into the kitchen, not responding to the half-assed apology.

He opened the fridge door to pull out some water when he heard Kai enter the kitchen behind him.

“You can’t be mad at me for saying I don’t like you, you don’t like me either.”

“ you Kai! your half-assed apology! The things you say to me all the time, do you think I can just brush them off and begin treating you like any other kid I don’t know as easily as that?

“Because I can’t! I ing can’t! For years you’ve called me ‘,’ ‘queer,’ ‘,’ and I’m suddenly supposed to pretend that it’s okay?  It’s not ing okay!

“I may pretend your words don’t hurt me and that the things you say don’t bother me, but they do, dammit!  Do you have any idea what it’s like coming to school every day and being told you’re a worthless human being, more filthy and disgusting than garbage every single day!? Do you? Because let me tell you, it ing !

“I never let you know how much it affects me because you don’t deserve to have that power over me, but it does! It does affect me and I don’t want it to!  I know the things you say to me aren’t true, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less!

“So once again, you Kai! you and your ty apology!”

Kai stood frozen, stunned into immobility, as Kyungsoo yanked a glass from the cupboard, poured himself some water, and drank it all in one shot.

“Now, if you don’t mind, please get out of my house.  Thank you once again for bringing me my homework, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Kai was still stunned into silence as he allowed himself to be lead back to the front door.  Kyungsoo allowed him to put his shoes back on before pushing him unceremoniously into the hallway and slamming the door on him.

As soon as the door was shut, Kyungsoo once again burst into tears, this time of anger as well as pain.