Chapter 8.
 

Jongdae had never replied to Chanyeol's (multiple) text messages and calls, and Chanyeol had moped and fretted over it all weekend. It had started to get on Kyungsoo's nerves ー not necessarily Chanyeol, but the fact that Jongdae was ignoring his friend. Kyungsoo knew that Jongdae and Chanyeol had been friends longer than he had been with either, and Kyungsoo was positive that the economics teacher was well aware of the fact that Chanyeol would be miserable, regretful and desperate to make amends after their fight ー by ignoring him, Jongdae was inflicting the worst kind of torure. By Monday morning, Kyungsoo was feeling almost as bad as Chanyeol, who was worrying obsessively over Jongdae's silence.

"I need to find him and tell him how sorry I am" Chanyeol moaned loudly while his eyes scanned over the heads of the students who were milling past them, as if he were anticipating Jongdae to leap out from behind a corner. "It's eating away at me from the inside out"

Despite seeming somewhat dramatic, Kyungsoo had no doubt in his mind that Chanyeol was being honest.

"Yeol, stop worrying and focus on getting through the rest of the day. Its lunch break now, so go find him" Kyungsoo sighed. Although it was somewhat irritating, Kyungsoo couldn't really bring himself to be mad at Jongdae. He knew that what Chanyeol had said had hurt him, and he needed time.

From beside him, Chanyeol nodded sadly. "You're right. I should" he mumbled incohernetly as if trying to amp himself up before sighing as they approached a fork in the corridor. "I'll see you late, okay? Wish me luck..."

Kyungsoo patted his shoulder and waved goodbye to his disheartened friend before making his way quickly down the hall to his class ー room 215. He had one year eleven lesson before school ended and he had to supervise Kim Jongin's detention. In all honesty he had been dreading it since he had first been told he was involved, it was simply something he would really rather not be doing. Unlocking the door with a sigh, he quickly entered the room and set his class material down.

Thirty minutes of writing notes onto the large whiteboard at the front of the class went faster than Kyungsoo had anticipated, and it was with some surprise that he was jerked to awareness halfway through a sentence on Shakespeare's use of iambic pentameter by the bell ringing, signalling the end of lunch. He scrambled to clear off his desk before his students started to arrive and only just finished the last few lines onto the board before the first few started to trail into the room. Kyungsoo walked over to a large box he had Chanyeol deliver off earlier that day and picked up several copies of Shakespeare's play, Othello, to have distributed around the class.

"Alright everyone, you all know the drill. Take one and pass the rest on, and please turn to act two, scene one" he smiled slightly. For several minutes there was the sound of books been passed and pages turning.

"So, has everyone read this scene as I instructed last lesson as homework?" There were several choruses of yes from around the room, and a number of no-I-didn't glances thrown around among the students. Kyungsoo had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Well, bad luck to those of you who forgot. It was important you did for today's lesson, because today I want everyone to write a lshort essay response on Iago as a 'motiveless malignancy', using examples from this scene and the ones before it" Kyungsoo beamed around the room and several students groaned.

"You have thirty minutes to get that done, and the rest of the lesson will be on Shakespeare's writing style, as you can probably tell from the notes I've written up on the board. Please start now" Kyungsoo smiled before making his way back to his desk.

There was a fulrry of action as students flipped open their workbooks and grabbed their pens. Kyungsoo couldn't help but smile to himself.

"Sir." Kyungsoo looked up, his owl like eyes almost magnified by his thick glasses as they zeroed in on the person that had spoken. Kim Jongin. Why wasn't he surprised?

"Yes?"

"Why do we have to write about Iago as a motiveless malignancy?" the teen asked.

Kyungsoo frowned and blinked several times before answering. "Why not?"

Jongin snorted loudly and several students rasied their heads. "Because he isn't? I think he has a perfectly good reason to want to destroy Othello. Malignant, sure, but motiveless?"

Of course Kim Jongin would think that way. "Well, thats your opinion. Personally I don't think that his so-called motives were a valid reason to do what he did. He was evil, in my opinion."

Several students nodded in agreement, and Jongin scowled. "I think everyone has the capability to be bad, evil even. Imagine if Iago