Kyungsoo was glad today was Friday. Fridays were his absolute favorite; there was just something magical about them.  Fridays meant that after school he got to spend the evening doing whatever he wanted, which usually either meant watching movies on the couch with his parents or curled up in bed binge-watching dramas or anime, or frantically reading a well-written book (or sometimes fanfic, though he would never admit this to anyone).

Fridays meant no homework and pizza for dinner, covered in mushrooms and oozing delectable cheese.  No responsibilities, no social requirements, just him and whatever pastime suited his fancy.  Kyungsoo didn’t typically have strong feelings about other specific days of the week, but he just couldn’t get enough of Fridays; they just always seemed to go his way.

Of course, there is always an exception to that rule, and today just happened to be that exception.

Kyungsoo has English every day with Kai, and it is usually pretty uneventful.  Kyungsoo walks into the class and Kai throws the words ‘’ or ‘queer’ at him, which Kyungsoo merely brushes off before taking his seat just in front of him.  The period typically proceeds with Kyungsoo paying diligent attention to the lesson, and Kai rotating between spacing out and throwing little balls of paper at the back of Kyungsoo’s head, which would occasionally get stuck in his smooth hair, only to be knocked out with a quick run through of fingers.

Today, however was different.

“Alright my dears,” the teacher began, “I regret to inform you that today marks day one of a two week long partner project, yay!” She shook her hands in mock enthusiasm, earning a unified groan from the class. Partner projects were always the worst, at least in Kyungsoo’s personal opinion.  He hated having to be dependent on others for a good grade.

The teacher’s announcement heralded many significant looks amongst the friends of the classroom. “You’ll partner with me, right?” is what they all were saying through their silent glances. “Of course,” was the appropriate nonverbal response.

“Settle down my angels, I know you all have someone in mind that you want to work with.”

Kyungsoo didn’t, but he figured he would just partner up with whoever else didn’t have a friend in this class.

“I know you’re excited to work with your friends, but it is my sovereign duty as your teacher to crush all enthusiasm you may garner for group projects.”  There were a number of quizzical looks flashed her way, but this just made her grin in a mischievous way which struck Kyungsoo as being remarkably similar to the look Jongdae made whenever he was about to stick an ice cube down Baekhyun’s pants.

“You will not be choosing your own partners, but rather, I will be pairing you up myself.” There was a general sound of indignation and outrage, which merely fuelled their teacher’s excitement and added an extra glint of mischief to her already sparkling eyes.

“I have carefully thought of who you will be paired up with, but before I tell you who your partner will be, I will first explain to you the project.

“You will choose a piece of classic literature from the list that I give to you.  Together, you and your partner will read it, dissect it, determine what you think that it means, and then – here’s the best part - you will create your own short story based off of the book you just read.  Your short stories will be a modern version of your chosen novel.  It is important that not only does the story translate over into modern times, but the meaning and themes of the original story needs to be present in yours.

“Your story will be presented to the class in the format of your choosing.  What I mean by this is that, along with your written story which will be turned in to me, the two of you will have to decide how you want to present your tale to the class.  This can mean reading it out loud to your peers, acting it out in a short skit, making a video to be shown on the projector, or really any other creative means that you and your partner can come up with.  The more creative your presentation, and the more time I see you’ve put into it, the better your overall grade will be.

“I’m really excited about this project, and I hope that you all put in your best efforts.  I will be giving you time in class to work on everything, but it will not be every day, which means you and your partner are going to have to find time together outside of class.

“Now, I will call out you and your partner’s name, and when I do, I expect you to quietly meet up and look over the list and choose your novel.”

Kyungsoo was completely unconcerned about who his partner would be.  It didn’t matter much to him either way, he was in an Honor’s class; he knew that everyone in the room would be able to contribute to the project, so he needn’t worry about getting stuck with a useless imbecile.  That is unless he ended up with –

“Do Kyungsoo and Kim Jongin.”

“Oh hell no!”

“Kim Jongin, is there a problem with the partner I assigned you?”  The look in her eyes was terrifying and clearly said that there were no ifs ands or buts about it, Kim Kai was going to have to work with Do Kyungsoo.

“No ma’am, there’s not,” was his uncomfortable reply.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” And with that final note, she continued to call off the partners.

Kyungsoo sighed yet again and walked over to where Kai was sitting, his desk partner having previously left to join his own project partner.

“’Sup Kai, I’m thrilled to have you as my partner,” he said, though his voice clearly indicated otherwise.

“ you Do Kyungsoo!” Was Kai’s gruff response.

“Wow, you called me by my name! See, we’re already making such good progress!”

If looks could kill, Kyungsoo would be dead.  But then again, if looks could kill, Kai would’ve have been dead a hundred times over already.

Ignoring the glare being directed at him, Kyungsoo took a seat next to his unwilling partner and began to look through the list of novels the teacher had supplied.

“Which book should we do?  They seem to be primarily Gothic Romances.  Maybe we should do Mysteries of Udolpho?  No? Maybe Jane Eyre then?”

Kai was unresponsive, instead glowering down at the list of books as if it had committed a personal offense against him.

Kyungsoo became quickly annoyed.  Like hell anyone, least of all Kim Freaking Kai, was going to make Kyungsoo get anything less than a perfect grade.

His voice turned low and cold like it did when he was really pissed off; the voice that Jongdae says sends chills down his spine and causes Baekhyun to give back whatever it is he had stolen from him.  “Kim Jongin, I don’t give a rat’s whether you like me or not, what I do care about is my grade in this class, and if you cause it to suffer, I will hunt you down to the very depths of hell and give you your just punishment.”  Kai’s tan skin became almost imperceptibly lighter, and he swallowed thickly.  “Now, which book should we choose?”

“Don’t ing call me Jongin… And I suppose we can do Jane Eyre, I’ve already read it.”

“Great, me too. Let’s meet up Sunday to discuss the project.”

Kai gave him the dirtiest look he could muster.  “Like hell I’m spending time with you outside of this class.”

Kyungsoo gave him a small, joyless smile.  “You will if you plan on keeping all of your limbs intact.  Now, here’s my number, text me so I have yours.”

Kyungsoo slapped a piece of paper down in front of Kai, and then quickly left the classroom as the bell rang, signifying the end of the period.