Running With Scissors [Chapter One]
Title: Running With Scissors | Chapter One
Author: dohremi
Rating: PG-15
Pairing/Focus: Ontae
Summary: A/U | "The hottest love has the coldest end." Socrates
Author's Note: Okay I lied. I wrote an even longer one this time. Damn. I'm sorry. -.-
Prologue | Chapter One
Click for Poster | Cred: LILCHAN | Profile Cred: nerosdecay
Running With Scissors
Chapter One
"Ow."
"What?"
"Hurt."
Taemin didn't look up from the open wound on his finger. He had just pulled a hangnail, and it hurt like shit. The seventeen year old doubted that it was the result of his addicting nail-biting habit. He brought the right index finger to his lips and just before his tongue could dart out to nurse over the ache, Kibum yanked his hand away by the wrist and examined it with a pair of eyes that could put a surgeon to shame. The older male hissed in response when he saw it. In a way, that one exaggerated reaction made him sound like a snake.
"Yah. Taemin-ah. I told you to stop pulling it. You have to cut it. Cut it!" Kibum pointed at the rosy red spot that began to look very angry and painful. Taemin wiggled his finger within his best-friend's grasp and pretended that he wasn't affected much by it.
"Don't you know hangnail is even worse than a paper-cut?" Kibum talked as if he was the first one to discover such fact. Of course Taemin knew that. Most of the time, if he pulled the piece of dry skin the wrong way, that spot would end up throbbing for a week. Paper-cut usually lasts for three days. Strangely, both are skin injuries, except one heals much much faster.
"I know." Taemin answered indifferently and sighed as he watched Kibum fished out from his bag a bottle of lotion. "Put some on," he ordered and went back to copying something from the Dictionary, the Special Edition.
"I don't get it. Why do you even carry this stuff in your bag?" Taemin couldn't help it. The sting nestled right beside his nail was turning him into an ass.
They were sitting at a secluded corner in the school library. Taemin and Kibum had already claimed this place as their territories even though the table had plenty of battle scars and the chairs had crooked uneven legs. This spot was the furthest away from the librarian. They could talk as loudly and as freely as they want.
Kibum's head shot up, and amazingly, his fingers were still scribbling marks onto the blank sheet of paper. He eyed Taemin as if the boy had grown two heads and one of which had dared to ask such a question.
"I like to smell good. Is that a problem?"
Taemin shook his head and snickered. Dear god, he thought and continued to laugh inwardly.
Kibum was older than him by a year. Taemin wished it wasn't so. It would make it much easier for both of them if they were the same age and in the same class. They could have each other's back more often if that was true.
Taemin didn't exactly hate being a sophomore at Busan Public High, but freshman year was better than his current one. Nobody knew him when he was a freshman. Then somehow he just became the red hot target of every single bully in school. Taemin, once, had actually considered going up to one of them, an upperclassman, bulky and stupid looking (or just stupid), and maybe just stand up for himself. 'For once' (like Kibum always said) But his active imagination, which involved a sophomore being eaten alive like a little shrimp among the sharks, spared him the moment of regret. Kibum stopped motivating such dangerous task after getting some knuckles himself. Poor Kibum. He skipped school for weeks because he couldn't stand walking around with a lopsided bruised cheek. The boy really valued his face more than anything. From then on, Kibum resorted to sharpening his tongue, spitting out venomous list of vocabularies. It was like zapping your enemies with a stunning gun or blinding them with a pepper spray just to buy time. But it worked.
Kim Kibum. The name that made some girls gag and some boys want to beat him to a bloody pulp. On the contrary, it also made some girls look on with envy and some boys look on with lust. His best-friend was notoriously known as being the school's 'cock sucker.' Taemin just thought of him as an open homosexual or 'gay' guy, and what the other chooses to do in his personal time is never Taemin's business. At first, he had honestly wanted nothing to do with Kim Kibum. The Lee Taemin, he remembered, was still getting used to liking his own pet dog let alone liking anything that belongs to the Homo Sapien category. It wasn't until he, involuntarily, met Kibum on one rainy afternoon that they became glued at the hips. Kibum had plenty of experience and tricks under his belt and felt the need to take Taemin under his wings. He thought that he was an angel sent from heaven. Taemin thought that Kibum was an devil in disguise, but inside, he was thankful for that day.
That day, that one rainy afternoon day, class was canceled. (A miracle that only comes once in a life time). Kibum found Taemin lying in a rain puddle with wet mud stains all over his school uniform and blood that was so diluted it was hard to identify where it came from on the body. Taemin became conscious when Kibum nudged him in the stomach (where it hurts) with his foot and spoke up in a cautioned but concerned voice. "Are you dead?" Taemin remembered each and every word. Such a pessimist Kibum was.
The older boy brought him home and did what he would do to any stray cat he found--cleaned, fed, clothed--minus the interrogation part because cat can't speak human language but Taemin could. Taemin ended up spilling all his life's miseries, his name, his age, and 'why was he even lying on the ground when he really wasn't all that injured?', to the stranger who he deemed was very scary. Taemin said he was playing dead so the bullies could leave him alone. He also said that the cut under his eye and bruises on his ribs were more serious than any of his childhood injuries, but Kibum shut him off with a declaration that he had seen worse: a kid whose face was so beaten his mother couldn't even recognize him.
Later on, Taemin found out that it was a lie Kibum made up just to scare him.
Kibum finds joy in scaring people. But he admitted that nothing brings him greater happiness than hearing Taemin admitting that he, too, is gay.
"Just admit it, you like boys. I only befriended you because I knew you will be one some day." Kibum had blurted out one time, out of no where, and scared Taemin shitless. The younger one gawked at the other with a bewildered and fearful expression, completed with cold sweat and wordless denials. Taemin was scared that it was true. What will his parents think if they find out?
Kibum told him right then and there to stop looking like the world was going to end. He claimed that everything was going to be fine. That having feelings for the same gender was not a bad thing. But Taemin only remembered being furious, shocked, disgusted with himself. He called Kibum some nasty names before storming out of the library. They didn't talk for three weeks, until Taemin showed up to school with a black eye, and that was that.
"Well look what we have here, the fags. What are you dick suckers up to?"
From across the table, Kibum's pencil lead snapped, and Taemin's heart dropped to his stomach. Keeping his eyes on his open book and swallowing back a sense of dreadful bitterness, he could see Kibum's hand stopped moving as the boy inhaled deeply. Taemin almost heard the sharpening sound mixed in it.
"Shouldn't you already know Jaebeom? It takes one to know one. "
Kibum was so composed. He sat back against the chair and slung one of his legs over the other in a perfect manner. Taemin's eyes shifted from his best-friend to Jaebeom to the three other clowns behind him. Their obnoxious laughter switched to a loud 'ooh' when Kibum spoke up. Somewhere up ahead, a loud shush traveled all the way to their table. Jaebeom gave his boys the vulture eyes before turning back to Kibum with a dark smirk.
"Are you calling me a fag…Kim Kibum?" There was a heavy enunciation in that one word. Jaebeom cut the gap between himself and Kibum, so close he could snap Kibum's neck in a blink of an eye. All Taemin could do was stared on with a frozen look only his best-friend would know that it was more panic than any other emotion. The hairs on his nape stood up, however, when he felt warm breaths hovering closely.
"Seungri, you're like a dog breathing down my neck but worse. Your breath smells like crap."
Kibum's jaw dropped a few centimeters. His comeback to Jaebeom suddenly disappeared as they both turned to Taemin with a twin shocked expression. What the fuck was that? Kibum messaged him with his eyes. The sophomore swallowed nervously, before snickers from the other two minions interrupted the awkward frightening silence.
"Motherfu--!!"
"SHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Just as Seungri grabbed his collar and right before his fist met Taemin's cheekbone, the younger boy was thankful for that irritating shush. He glanced over with wide eyes that seemed to glaze at the corners and saw that Kibum was saved by it as well.
"YOU--!
"SHHHHHHHHH!!!! PARK JAEBEOM!"
Scratched that. They were saved twice.
Taemin was thrown at the table as Seungri released his collar, and the same could be said about Kibum. The four males acted like magnets and began to back away from their table, heading for the library entrance, of course not before Jaebeom could mutter a "see you soon faggot" to Kibum.
Their eyes followed the four to the entrance and watched with caution when Jaebeom stopped and did a brotherly hand clasped gesture with another student. They chests bumped and even exchanged jokes, and Taemin recognized that the person was none other than 'mister popularity,' Lee Jinki.
"You're like a dog? Your breath smells like crap? WhatthefuckwasthatLeeTaemin!?"
Kibum's face was suddenly in his vision, blocking out the view he was keeping on Jaebeom and his crew and Jinki. Taemin blinked in surprise and blushed at the way Kibum mocked him. It was as if he was talking to a mentally disabled person. Taemin knew that was the most embarrassing act he pulled to date and averted his eyes toward his book.
"-W-what?..I don't know. I thought I should say something. It just came to me. His breath does stink you know." The younger one explained though was trying his hardest not to laugh at his own embarrassment. He flashed Kibum a toothy smile and shrugged, earning a pencil thrown at his direction. Kibum snickered loudly.
"SHHH!"
As they both mimicked each other expression, they both thought and spoke up at the same time.
"We need a new spot."
"W-wait. No. Why?" Taemin was the first one to contradict himself. Because noise carries easily back and forth, shouldn't this be the safest place? After all, they were saved twice today. He voiced his opinion quickly before Kibum could throw all his things into his bag.
"No, my dear. I was thinking we need to find an even closer table to that obnoxious lady. She has great hearing for a hag."
The said female was in her fifties. She carried a typical stature of a librarian, always wearing her glasses down, lips painted with a cheap red color, always in her tight formal suit that couldn't seem to contain her floppy belly. Not that Taemin was staring because she was never attractive (and it wasn't polite). But she was nice on all the occasions he spoke to her. Most of the time, she would search the book out for him instead of making him go hunt for it.
"On second thought, let's get lunch. I'm hungry." Kibum, who changes his mind faster than girls change clothes and who also was unaware of how much of a distraction he posed while packing loudly, grabbed Taemin's elbow and steered them both out of the library. The librarian threw them a look behind the glinting of her glasses and coughed. Taemin mouthed a 'sorry' and ducked his head as he leaves.
---
Kibum's lunch consisted of banana milk and a vegetarian sandwich. Taemin's lunch consisted of apple juice and umma's kimbab. Both were equally healthy in Taemin's eyes, but his lunch tasted better. Kibum insisted that he becomes a lacto-vegetarian, someone who would eat dairy products but not eggs, to cleanse himself and to spare himself from the thought of killing innocent animals. "Eating meat increases your chance of getting heart attacks or developing cancer." A glare was sent toward Taemin's plate before it evolved into adoring affection for the slices of whole-wheat bread in his own hands. Taemin could even smell the avocado scent seeping through the fiber. He held a piece of kimbab between the two chopsticks.
"It's only crab meat," he commented in defeat before munching on it.
By the time he thoroughly enjoyed chewing and swallowing the third piece, students began to trickle in like water from a leak faucet. Taemin observed the rest of the student body from his spot on the floor near the cafeteria's trash bins. They were in a beehive. No definite conversation could be made among the chattering, they might as well be buzzing from their mouths. Taemin stole a glance at Kibum and wondered for the umpteenth time why the male would sit with him. Kibum got a clique of friends who, frankly, are also like him, very much so that each one talks, walks, acts like an exact replica. Kibum once stated that he likes to be the biggest fish inside the pond, and that there would be too much competition if he was with them. Taemin thought it made sense that he would be the bigger fish if Taemin was the only other fish inside that pond, but Kibum rejected his hypothesis, saying that Taemin wasn't a fish but instead coral reefs.
"Why coral reefs?" Taemin asked suddenly causing Kibum to nearly drop his banana milk carton.
The older boy responded with a loud laugh with his head hid behind Taemin's shoulder for a second, drawing some stares from the passerby's. "Find out yourself. Too long to explain." Kibum ended the sentence with a smirk then slurped the rest of the liquid.
If it wasn't for the sudden uproar from across the room, diverting his curiosity away from the topic, Taemin would continue to push it until Kibum gives up and answers. "Jinki." That was about the only sound he could make out from everyone's lips. Apparently, in the center of the crowd was the boy himself. Taemin sucked in his bottom lip and watched the group intently.
Lee Jinki was the hive itself. He was captain of the soccer team and also a midfielder. If anything, it was soccer that should be Jinki's middle name. The (now) senior became the talk of the school when he became the first freshman to ever join the school's varsity team. Even though, people wouldn't admit that he did, but he was what got them their first victory. But he wasn't just known by that, nor was he just known for having sick defensive skills--legs scissoring back and forth until the ball was his--or how his offense was as accurate as old skilled players, always managing to kick the ball at such acute angles and still make the goal.
No. Mister popularity was also the richest kid in school. But for some reason, nobody really knows what his parents do for business. Some say they own large monopolizing companies that have foreign investments. Some say Jinki's parents were drugs dealers, casinoes owners, debt collectors, or perhaps mafia bosses, but Taemin really doubted that last one (Not that he believed the rest either. He doubted them too), because then they wouldn't be sending their son to such a school as this one.
To the boys, Jinki was the leader of the pack. They want to be him, be his friends, or even act like they know him just so that bit of popularity can rub off on them. To the girls, he was the perfect guy. Cheesy, cliche, and other synonyms, but it was the truth. That megawatt smile had girls flocking at his feet and falling dead like birds or chickens affected with H5N1, Bird Flu. A gentleman and a charmer, Jinki embodied manners and looks. That was to say that he also used them to his advantage. Rumor has it that he 'hit it and quit it' with half the female population, and the only one that he actually still had an on and off relationship with was Shin Sekyung, the queen bee.
Taemin asked Kibum what 'that' meant, 'that' being the phrase "hit it and quit it" and what he got in return were that Jinki was one: "not a virgin" and two: Kibum was surprise that no one had tried to poke holes in his condoms. It didn't take long for the sophomore to realize that Jinki was a "player"--another urban term he learned from Kibum--and that he "dated and had sex with many girls" (Taemin's own phrase). When he mentioned that phrase to his best-friend, Kibum had rolled his eyes and laughed in his face for nearly thirty minutes. He didn't stop until Taemin said that laughing may causes wrinkles.
But the senior really picks and chooses his friends carefully, because another rumor has it that Jinki was keeping his reputation a clean slate in order to be recruited and played in a professional team. He wouldn't want to hang out with the wrong crowd. That rumor and the 'hit it and quit it' one seemed to have quite the equal possibility of becoming true in the near future.
Kibum suddenly elbowed his side, disrupting his thought process and causing him to drop the kimbab his chopsticks was holding. Taemin glared at the older boy but only saw Kibum flicking his head toward a certain direction as if motioning toward something.
Or someone.
Taemin realized who Kibum meant as soon as he switches his gaze. Shin Sekyung, the prettiest girl in school (Kibum doesn't agree), had just made her entrance. Perhaps he had thought that out loud that even Kibum was rolling his eyes. Taemin frowned and turned back to watch the scene. Among the group of friends she was with, Sekyung was the first to grab her food and picked a table. The rest filled in their seats around her. Sekyung was the female version of Lee Jinki, but instead of being the star athlete for scoring goals, she scored perfect grades. She also scored the perfect guy. Taemin saw the way her eyes caught Jinki's from across the room. They didn't greet each other verbally but that brief glance and her smile as she looked down were enough to declare to the rest of the school that they were together. Even with the increasing numbers of estrogen coming up to Jinki, Sekyung was never insecure about her spot. If she was then whoever that girl was that came up to Jinki would have to move school the next day.
He was unaware that Kibum had been poking his arm the whole time. It wasn't until the male snapped his fingers that Taemin turned back to Kibum whose sandwich was dangerously close to Taemin's lips. "Finish this for me. Ahh~" Kibum cheated and used the small gasp to stuff part of the vegetarian meal into his mouth. In return, Taemin groaned and swatted his hand away, but unfortunately, he bit a piece. While chewing, the surrounding suddenly degraded in volume. Taemin looked up in time to catch Jinki standing up and making his way across the room. All eyes were on him as he came over to Sekyung's table. All held their breaths as he walked up behind her and leaned down. All didn't breathe (and some hearts probably stopped beating) when Jinki's lips met her blushing cheek. Taemin heard Kibum made a gagging sound beside him. Taemin picked up a spare napkin and spat the rest of the vegetarian sandwich out.
"Gross."
---
Taemin had a test the next day that was why he returned to the library. The librarian gave him a nod as he walked in during the self-study hours and sat at the table earlier. The younger boy knew that even if he leaves school, no one would notice. He was that invisible. Sometimes that was a good thing. Students didn't have the urge to socialize with him. Teachers didn't feel the need to nag nor talk to him.
Taemin had texted Kibum to meet him at the same place with the designated time. Half an hour later, his phone buzzed, and there came two words.
"Can't. Halmeoni."
Kibum's grandmother was a sickly person. Her illness was on and off so there were some days she was as healthy as a horse and others she would be sick as a dog. Kibum might have come off as ignorant, sarcastic, and self-centered, but he loves his halmeoni dearly. So when the old woman was down, the older boy had to be there, no 'but' or 'if' whatsoever.
Taemin knew so he turned to his book and began the studying process for Calculus. The chapter test administered the next day was over derivatives. There was a list of derivatives to memorize which Taemin found it easier to tattoo into his brain if he writes them down. Math was already complicated as it is. Derivatives were even worse. The repeated x's and y's with d over d of x with problems that contained power notations were making his head spin out of axis. Copying down the list of derivatives did help but the ease stopped and headache started when Taemin started looking at the problems. The letters and numbers started to mingle and become one another.
And so the young sophomore laid his head down on the table. He could hear the soft and steady drumming of his heart and winds from the automatic fans swishing back and forth. Everything brought him a heavy yearning for sleep as his lids gotten heavier and closer. He promised to wake up after ten minutes, no--thirty minutes, then he would feel refreshed and would study for the rest of the night.
Thirty minutes went by as if someone had pressed the fast forward button. But no one pressed pause nor play, and time continued to fly.
When Taemin woke up, he opened his eyes to a dark room. He didn't panic because he normally sleeps with the light off, but slowly as his eyes loose their glassy effect, Taemin's face turned as white as a ghost. Shit! He thought. He had overslept, and doing so with his head on the table had gave him a sore neck and an achy back. The muscles there were as tight as violin strings.
The youth snuck a glance at his watch. The hands were pointing at the A.M. That meant school had closed and nobody was there. He mentally slapped himself for being so careless, and now his parents were probably wondering why he hadn't come home. He threw the Calculus book into the bag and packed his pencils and notebook as quickly as possible. It wasn't until his hand was on the library's door knob that his heart dropped for the second time that day.
It wouldn't turn. It wouldn't open. No matter how hard he had tried twisting the golden knob, at first with one hand then with two, the door wouldn't open. Taemin panicked. He couldn't be locked in. He just couldn't. But he was, and that was his worse nightmare.
"Hello?…Anybody?…" Taemin prayed that the rumors about the school being haunted weren't true. He checked around for any human presence but found none. The library during the day already looked unfriendly, and at night, it resembled a horror movie scene. The whole place was only lit by the moonlight from outside and so quiet he could hear a pin drop. Taemin felt his palms sweat.
Kibum hyung, I'm stuck at school.
Taemin fished out his phone and texted Kibum, but he got no answer in return. He wanted to call his parents but what can they do about him being locked inside a school? Probably nothing. The embarrassment would scar him for life if his parents called the school to get him out. The seventeen year old left a message saying that he was at Kibum's place instead.
After contemplating, Taemin reluctantly dragged himself back to the table. He couldn't possibly sit there for the rest of the night, but at the moment, there was nothing clever inside his mind that could get him out.
It was as if God had heard his prayer, Taemin saw a strange beam of light flashed by from the corner of his eye. It seemed to come from the hallway, right through the entrance glass door. Relief washed over him as he grabbed his bag, thinking that whoever it was could get him out. Just before he could get anywhere close, the blue light seeping through the windows made a spotlight over the glass door. What Taemin saw had his heart racing but not at all in any good way. There were strange masks pressed against the glass surface. The earlier beam of light was shining through the door as if to look into the library.
Taemin nearly cried out loud. There were two words in his mind.
Ghosts. Hide.
The seventeen year old dove for the nearest, safest spot his brain deemed so. That was a spot behind a book shelf, few feet away from the table he sat at. Taemin crouched down with his knees to his chest and a hand clasped tightly over his mouth. His eyes opened wide, shifting toward the entrance as he listened intently to the unknown.
First, there was a scratching noise. Something metallic was scratching against the glass door. Then, there was a click--loud and clear--before the sound of door knob being turned. Ghosts can use keys? Ghosts need keys? Taemin asked himself but was startled when the sound of footsteps approached from the distance.
"Jaebeom! Dude! Can't believe you manage to steal the key!"
"I know right? I'm a pro man! Yo Jinki, this is going to be the best prank ever!"
Even though they were whispers (and snickers, Taemin could always spot those hyena's laughs anywhere), low vibrato and soft shush were meant to carry far. Especially where Taemin was hiding, he could hear everything, and he could even recognize each voice.
There were about four of them. No. Scratched that. Five counting Jinki. Taemin wasn't sure if he should feel relief that they weren't ghosts or scare that they were the bullies instead.
Do ghosts bully?
"Jinki! You and Seungri take this side. I'll take that side. We're gonna turn this place into a mess there won't be any books left." Jaebeom's whispers were the easiest to hear. He got a high voice for a guy. Maybe Kibum was right. Jaebeom might be gay after all.
Taemin jolted from his spot when a louder sound happened much closer to him. They were throwing books and pulling them out and off the shelves. Echoes of paper rustling and flipping joined in the continuously loud thuds upon the tiled concrete.
'This is the dumbest prank ever' Taemin thought as he scooted further back, in hoping that if he stayed low and if all they were doing was pulling books from the top shelves, then he wouldn't be caught. He could hear the noises from the far side, where Jaebeom and probably two other guys were at, were getting further away. But it didn't stop him from worrying because suddenly there were no noise at all from his side where Jinki and Seungri were at.
"…"
All at once, the books to his right, where his shoulder was before he moved, were pulled back roughly and slammed onto the cement. Taemin's gasp escaped his fingers. Shit! How wrong he was about them not trashing the ones at the bottom. He couldn't scoot quickly enough as more books were being pulled off the lower shelves. They were approaching the end. There would be no more books for him to hide behind. The seventeen year old cussed inwardly when he felt the objects being yanked out from right behind him.
Taemin whimpered and froze.
He heard his own panic breathing. He heard the distant books falling and pages ruffling. He heard a loud whistle and fast running, and Jaebeom yelling "SHIT! SECURITY! RUN!"
There were more distressed pushing and falling and more running, but in that split of a second, Taemin opened his eyes and turned to look back.
Taemin met a pair of eyes that mimicked his own with shock and confusion. Jinki's face was only a book shelf away. Taemin could feel the older boy's breath passing through the hollow skeleton of the wooden case. They blinked at the same time before Jinki took off and ran.
The sophomore sat there for what seemed like forever. He thought he couldn't move his legs, but eventually, he could. There were no more commotion, just a dead silence. The library was a mess with papers scattering everywhere. Taemin noticed that the door was left open in the wake of escape, and before he could let himself think, Taemin grabbed his bag and ran home.
---
That morning (because he had gotten back at the wee hour but thankfully still had enough time for a nap), after cleaning up and trying to convince to his parents that Kibum's house ran out of hot water, Taemin climbed into bed but he couldn't fall asleep just yet. From under his pillow, he pulled out a black leather cover notebook. He had to write it down or else he would risk forgetting it.
Yeah right. He heard his inner self responded sarcastically.
Dear Journal,
You can't believe what happened today.
I found a way to make my life less miserable.
Lee Jinki and his jerks had gotten themselves in big trouble now.
☛|
A/N: I'm tired. But I really needed to write it so I couldn't go to sleep. Now I could. WOOT! hehe ^^ I'm sorry if there are grammar mistakes. I'll fix it when I come back to it. It's 5034 words. Holy crap. And I apologize for the sneaking of het. in there and also some scary part if you're a scaredy cat like me and got freaked out while writing it.
Author: dohremi
Rating: PG-15
Pairing/Focus: Ontae
Summary: A/U | "The hottest love has the coldest end." Socrates
Author's Note: Okay I lied. I wrote an even longer one this time. Damn. I'm sorry. -.-
Prologue | Chapter One
Click for Poster | Cred: LILCHAN | Profile Cred: nerosdecay
Running With Scissors
Chapter One
"Ow."
"What?"
"Hurt."
Taemin didn't look up from the open wound on his finger. He had just pulled a hangnail, and it hurt like shit. The seventeen year old doubted that it was the result of his addicting nail-biting habit. He brought the right index finger to his lips and just before his tongue could dart out to nurse over the ache, Kibum yanked his hand away by the wrist and examined it with a pair of eyes that could put a surgeon to shame. The older male hissed in response when he saw it. In a way, that one exaggerated reaction made him sound like a snake.
"Yah. Taemin-ah. I told you to stop pulling it. You have to cut it. Cut it!" Kibum pointed at the rosy red spot that began to look very angry and painful. Taemin wiggled his finger within his best-friend's grasp and pretended that he wasn't affected much by it.
"Don't you know hangnail is even worse than a paper-cut?" Kibum talked as if he was the first one to discover such fact. Of course Taemin knew that. Most of the time, if he pulled the piece of dry skin the wrong way, that spot would end up throbbing for a week. Paper-cut usually lasts for three days. Strangely, both are skin injuries, except one heals much much faster.
"I know." Taemin answered indifferently and sighed as he watched Kibum fished out from his bag a bottle of lotion. "Put some on," he ordered and went back to copying something from the Dictionary, the Special Edition.
"I don't get it. Why do you even carry this stuff in your bag?" Taemin couldn't help it. The sting nestled right beside his nail was turning him into an ass.
They were sitting at a secluded corner in the school library. Taemin and Kibum had already claimed this place as their territories even though the table had plenty of battle scars and the chairs had crooked uneven legs. This spot was the furthest away from the librarian. They could talk as loudly and as freely as they want.
Kibum's head shot up, and amazingly, his fingers were still scribbling marks onto the blank sheet of paper. He eyed Taemin as if the boy had grown two heads and one of which had dared to ask such a question.
"I like to smell good. Is that a problem?"
Taemin shook his head and snickered. Dear god, he thought and continued to laugh inwardly.
Kibum was older than him by a year. Taemin wished it wasn't so. It would make it much easier for both of them if they were the same age and in the same class. They could have each other's back more often if that was true.
Taemin didn't exactly hate being a sophomore at Busan Public High, but freshman year was better than his current one. Nobody knew him when he was a freshman. Then somehow he just became the red hot target of every single bully in school. Taemin, once, had actually considered going up to one of them, an upperclassman, bulky and stupid looking (or just stupid), and maybe just stand up for himself. 'For once' (like Kibum always said) But his active imagination, which involved a sophomore being eaten alive like a little shrimp among the sharks, spared him the moment of regret. Kibum stopped motivating such dangerous task after getting some knuckles himself. Poor Kibum. He skipped school for weeks because he couldn't stand walking around with a lopsided bruised cheek. The boy really valued his face more than anything. From then on, Kibum resorted to sharpening his tongue, spitting out venomous list of vocabularies. It was like zapping your enemies with a stunning gun or blinding them with a pepper spray just to buy time. But it worked.
Kim Kibum. The name that made some girls gag and some boys want to beat him to a bloody pulp. On the contrary, it also made some girls look on with envy and some boys look on with lust. His best-friend was notoriously known as being the school's 'cock sucker.' Taemin just thought of him as an open homosexual or 'gay' guy, and what the other chooses to do in his personal time is never Taemin's business. At first, he had honestly wanted nothing to do with Kim Kibum. The Lee Taemin, he remembered, was still getting used to liking his own pet dog let alone liking anything that belongs to the Homo Sapien category. It wasn't until he, involuntarily, met Kibum on one rainy afternoon that they became glued at the hips. Kibum had plenty of experience and tricks under his belt and felt the need to take Taemin under his wings. He thought that he was an angel sent from heaven. Taemin thought that Kibum was an devil in disguise, but inside, he was thankful for that day.
That day, that one rainy afternoon day, class was canceled. (A miracle that only comes once in a life time). Kibum found Taemin lying in a rain puddle with wet mud stains all over his school uniform and blood that was so diluted it was hard to identify where it came from on the body. Taemin became conscious when Kibum nudged him in the stomach (where it hurts) with his foot and spoke up in a cautioned but concerned voice. "Are you dead?" Taemin remembered each and every word. Such a pessimist Kibum was.
The older boy brought him home and did what he would do to any stray cat he found--cleaned, fed, clothed--minus the interrogation part because cat can't speak human language but Taemin could. Taemin ended up spilling all his life's miseries, his name, his age, and 'why was he even lying on the ground when he really wasn't all that injured?', to the stranger who he deemed was very scary. Taemin said he was playing dead so the bullies could leave him alone. He also said that the cut under his eye and bruises on his ribs were more serious than any of his childhood injuries, but Kibum shut him off with a declaration that he had seen worse: a kid whose face was so beaten his mother couldn't even recognize him.
Later on, Taemin found out that it was a lie Kibum made up just to scare him.
Kibum finds joy in scaring people. But he admitted that nothing brings him greater happiness than hearing Taemin admitting that he, too, is gay.
"Just admit it, you like boys. I only befriended you because I knew you will be one some day." Kibum had blurted out one time, out of no where, and scared Taemin shitless. The younger one gawked at the other with a bewildered and fearful expression, completed with cold sweat and wordless denials. Taemin was scared that it was true. What will his parents think if they find out?
Kibum told him right then and there to stop looking like the world was going to end. He claimed that everything was going to be fine. That having feelings for the same gender was not a bad thing. But Taemin only remembered being furious, shocked, disgusted with himself. He called Kibum some nasty names before storming out of the library. They didn't talk for three weeks, until Taemin showed up to school with a black eye, and that was that.
"Well look what we have here, the fags. What are you dick suckers up to?"
From across the table, Kibum's pencil lead snapped, and Taemin's heart dropped to his stomach. Keeping his eyes on his open book and swallowing back a sense of dreadful bitterness, he could see Kibum's hand stopped moving as the boy inhaled deeply. Taemin almost heard the sharpening sound mixed in it.
"Shouldn't you already know Jaebeom? It takes one to know one. "
Kibum was so composed. He sat back against the chair and slung one of his legs over the other in a perfect manner. Taemin's eyes shifted from his best-friend to Jaebeom to the three other clowns behind him. Their obnoxious laughter switched to a loud 'ooh' when Kibum spoke up. Somewhere up ahead, a loud shush traveled all the way to their table. Jaebeom gave his boys the vulture eyes before turning back to Kibum with a dark smirk.
"Are you calling me a fag…Kim Kibum?" There was a heavy enunciation in that one word. Jaebeom cut the gap between himself and Kibum, so close he could snap Kibum's neck in a blink of an eye. All Taemin could do was stared on with a frozen look only his best-friend would know that it was more panic than any other emotion. The hairs on his nape stood up, however, when he felt warm breaths hovering closely.
"Seungri, you're like a dog breathing down my neck but worse. Your breath smells like crap."
Kibum's jaw dropped a few centimeters. His comeback to Jaebeom suddenly disappeared as they both turned to Taemin with a twin shocked expression. What the fuck was that? Kibum messaged him with his eyes. The sophomore swallowed nervously, before snickers from the other two minions interrupted the awkward frightening silence.
"Motherfu--!!"
"SHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Just as Seungri grabbed his collar and right before his fist met Taemin's cheekbone, the younger boy was thankful for that irritating shush. He glanced over with wide eyes that seemed to glaze at the corners and saw that Kibum was saved by it as well.
"YOU--!
"SHHHHHHHHH!!!! PARK JAEBEOM!"
Scratched that. They were saved twice.
Taemin was thrown at the table as Seungri released his collar, and the same could be said about Kibum. The four males acted like magnets and began to back away from their table, heading for the library entrance, of course not before Jaebeom could mutter a "see you soon faggot" to Kibum.
Their eyes followed the four to the entrance and watched with caution when Jaebeom stopped and did a brotherly hand clasped gesture with another student. They chests bumped and even exchanged jokes, and Taemin recognized that the person was none other than 'mister popularity,' Lee Jinki.
"You're like a dog? Your breath smells like crap? WhatthefuckwasthatLeeTaemin!?"
Kibum's face was suddenly in his vision, blocking out the view he was keeping on Jaebeom and his crew and Jinki. Taemin blinked in surprise and blushed at the way Kibum mocked him. It was as if he was talking to a mentally disabled person. Taemin knew that was the most embarrassing act he pulled to date and averted his eyes toward his book.
"-W-what?..I don't know. I thought I should say something. It just came to me. His breath does stink you know." The younger one explained though was trying his hardest not to laugh at his own embarrassment. He flashed Kibum a toothy smile and shrugged, earning a pencil thrown at his direction. Kibum snickered loudly.
"SHHH!"
As they both mimicked each other expression, they both thought and spoke up at the same time.
"We need a new spot."
"W-wait. No. Why?" Taemin was the first one to contradict himself. Because noise carries easily back and forth, shouldn't this be the safest place? After all, they were saved twice today. He voiced his opinion quickly before Kibum could throw all his things into his bag.
"No, my dear. I was thinking we need to find an even closer table to that obnoxious lady. She has great hearing for a hag."
The said female was in her fifties. She carried a typical stature of a librarian, always wearing her glasses down, lips painted with a cheap red color, always in her tight formal suit that couldn't seem to contain her floppy belly. Not that Taemin was staring because she was never attractive (and it wasn't polite). But she was nice on all the occasions he spoke to her. Most of the time, she would search the book out for him instead of making him go hunt for it.
"On second thought, let's get lunch. I'm hungry." Kibum, who changes his mind faster than girls change clothes and who also was unaware of how much of a distraction he posed while packing loudly, grabbed Taemin's elbow and steered them both out of the library. The librarian threw them a look behind the glinting of her glasses and coughed. Taemin mouthed a 'sorry' and ducked his head as he leaves.
---
Kibum's lunch consisted of banana milk and a vegetarian sandwich. Taemin's lunch consisted of apple juice and umma's kimbab. Both were equally healthy in Taemin's eyes, but his lunch tasted better. Kibum insisted that he becomes a lacto-vegetarian, someone who would eat dairy products but not eggs, to cleanse himself and to spare himself from the thought of killing innocent animals. "Eating meat increases your chance of getting heart attacks or developing cancer." A glare was sent toward Taemin's plate before it evolved into adoring affection for the slices of whole-wheat bread in his own hands. Taemin could even smell the avocado scent seeping through the fiber. He held a piece of kimbab between the two chopsticks.
"It's only crab meat," he commented in defeat before munching on it.
By the time he thoroughly enjoyed chewing and swallowing the third piece, students began to trickle in like water from a leak faucet. Taemin observed the rest of the student body from his spot on the floor near the cafeteria's trash bins. They were in a beehive. No definite conversation could be made among the chattering, they might as well be buzzing from their mouths. Taemin stole a glance at Kibum and wondered for the umpteenth time why the male would sit with him. Kibum got a clique of friends who, frankly, are also like him, very much so that each one talks, walks, acts like an exact replica. Kibum once stated that he likes to be the biggest fish inside the pond, and that there would be too much competition if he was with them. Taemin thought it made sense that he would be the bigger fish if Taemin was the only other fish inside that pond, but Kibum rejected his hypothesis, saying that Taemin wasn't a fish but instead coral reefs.
"Why coral reefs?" Taemin asked suddenly causing Kibum to nearly drop his banana milk carton.
The older boy responded with a loud laugh with his head hid behind Taemin's shoulder for a second, drawing some stares from the passerby's. "Find out yourself. Too long to explain." Kibum ended the sentence with a smirk then slurped the rest of the liquid.
If it wasn't for the sudden uproar from across the room, diverting his curiosity away from the topic, Taemin would continue to push it until Kibum gives up and answers. "Jinki." That was about the only sound he could make out from everyone's lips. Apparently, in the center of the crowd was the boy himself. Taemin sucked in his bottom lip and watched the group intently.
Lee Jinki was the hive itself. He was captain of the soccer team and also a midfielder. If anything, it was soccer that should be Jinki's middle name. The (now) senior became the talk of the school when he became the first freshman to ever join the school's varsity team. Even though, people wouldn't admit that he did, but he was what got them their first victory. But he wasn't just known by that, nor was he just known for having sick defensive skills--legs scissoring back and forth until the ball was his--or how his offense was as accurate as old skilled players, always managing to kick the ball at such acute angles and still make the goal.
No. Mister popularity was also the richest kid in school. But for some reason, nobody really knows what his parents do for business. Some say they own large monopolizing companies that have foreign investments. Some say Jinki's parents were drugs dealers, casinoes owners, debt collectors, or perhaps mafia bosses, but Taemin really doubted that last one (Not that he believed the rest either. He doubted them too), because then they wouldn't be sending their son to such a school as this one.
To the boys, Jinki was the leader of the pack. They want to be him, be his friends, or even act like they know him just so that bit of popularity can rub off on them. To the girls, he was the perfect guy. Cheesy, cliche, and other synonyms, but it was the truth. That megawatt smile had girls flocking at his feet and falling dead like birds or chickens affected with H5N1, Bird Flu. A gentleman and a charmer, Jinki embodied manners and looks. That was to say that he also used them to his advantage. Rumor has it that he 'hit it and quit it' with half the female population, and the only one that he actually still had an on and off relationship with was Shin Sekyung, the queen bee.
Taemin asked Kibum what 'that' meant, 'that' being the phrase "hit it and quit it" and what he got in return were that Jinki was one: "not a virgin" and two: Kibum was surprise that no one had tried to poke holes in his condoms. It didn't take long for the sophomore to realize that Jinki was a "player"--another urban term he learned from Kibum--and that he "dated and had sex with many girls" (Taemin's own phrase). When he mentioned that phrase to his best-friend, Kibum had rolled his eyes and laughed in his face for nearly thirty minutes. He didn't stop until Taemin said that laughing may causes wrinkles.
But the senior really picks and chooses his friends carefully, because another rumor has it that Jinki was keeping his reputation a clean slate in order to be recruited and played in a professional team. He wouldn't want to hang out with the wrong crowd. That rumor and the 'hit it and quit it' one seemed to have quite the equal possibility of becoming true in the near future.
Kibum suddenly elbowed his side, disrupting his thought process and causing him to drop the kimbab his chopsticks was holding. Taemin glared at the older boy but only saw Kibum flicking his head toward a certain direction as if motioning toward something.
Or someone.
Taemin realized who Kibum meant as soon as he switches his gaze. Shin Sekyung, the prettiest girl in school (Kibum doesn't agree), had just made her entrance. Perhaps he had thought that out loud that even Kibum was rolling his eyes. Taemin frowned and turned back to watch the scene. Among the group of friends she was with, Sekyung was the first to grab her food and picked a table. The rest filled in their seats around her. Sekyung was the female version of Lee Jinki, but instead of being the star athlete for scoring goals, she scored perfect grades. She also scored the perfect guy. Taemin saw the way her eyes caught Jinki's from across the room. They didn't greet each other verbally but that brief glance and her smile as she looked down were enough to declare to the rest of the school that they were together. Even with the increasing numbers of estrogen coming up to Jinki, Sekyung was never insecure about her spot. If she was then whoever that girl was that came up to Jinki would have to move school the next day.
He was unaware that Kibum had been poking his arm the whole time. It wasn't until the male snapped his fingers that Taemin turned back to Kibum whose sandwich was dangerously close to Taemin's lips. "Finish this for me. Ahh~" Kibum cheated and used the small gasp to stuff part of the vegetarian meal into his mouth. In return, Taemin groaned and swatted his hand away, but unfortunately, he bit a piece. While chewing, the surrounding suddenly degraded in volume. Taemin looked up in time to catch Jinki standing up and making his way across the room. All eyes were on him as he came over to Sekyung's table. All held their breaths as he walked up behind her and leaned down. All didn't breathe (and some hearts probably stopped beating) when Jinki's lips met her blushing cheek. Taemin heard Kibum made a gagging sound beside him. Taemin picked up a spare napkin and spat the rest of the vegetarian sandwich out.
"Gross."
---
Taemin had a test the next day that was why he returned to the library. The librarian gave him a nod as he walked in during the self-study hours and sat at the table earlier. The younger boy knew that even if he leaves school, no one would notice. He was that invisible. Sometimes that was a good thing. Students didn't have the urge to socialize with him. Teachers didn't feel the need to nag nor talk to him.
Taemin had texted Kibum to meet him at the same place with the designated time. Half an hour later, his phone buzzed, and there came two words.
"Can't. Halmeoni."
Kibum's grandmother was a sickly person. Her illness was on and off so there were some days she was as healthy as a horse and others she would be sick as a dog. Kibum might have come off as ignorant, sarcastic, and self-centered, but he loves his halmeoni dearly. So when the old woman was down, the older boy had to be there, no 'but' or 'if' whatsoever.
Taemin knew so he turned to his book and began the studying process for Calculus. The chapter test administered the next day was over derivatives. There was a list of derivatives to memorize which Taemin found it easier to tattoo into his brain if he writes them down. Math was already complicated as it is. Derivatives were even worse. The repeated x's and y's with d over d of x with problems that contained power notations were making his head spin out of axis. Copying down the list of derivatives did help but the ease stopped and headache started when Taemin started looking at the problems. The letters and numbers started to mingle and become one another.
And so the young sophomore laid his head down on the table. He could hear the soft and steady drumming of his heart and winds from the automatic fans swishing back and forth. Everything brought him a heavy yearning for sleep as his lids gotten heavier and closer. He promised to wake up after ten minutes, no--thirty minutes, then he would feel refreshed and would study for the rest of the night.
Thirty minutes went by as if someone had pressed the fast forward button. But no one pressed pause nor play, and time continued to fly.
When Taemin woke up, he opened his eyes to a dark room. He didn't panic because he normally sleeps with the light off, but slowly as his eyes loose their glassy effect, Taemin's face turned as white as a ghost. Shit! He thought. He had overslept, and doing so with his head on the table had gave him a sore neck and an achy back. The muscles there were as tight as violin strings.
The youth snuck a glance at his watch. The hands were pointing at the A.M. That meant school had closed and nobody was there. He mentally slapped himself for being so careless, and now his parents were probably wondering why he hadn't come home. He threw the Calculus book into the bag and packed his pencils and notebook as quickly as possible. It wasn't until his hand was on the library's door knob that his heart dropped for the second time that day.
It wouldn't turn. It wouldn't open. No matter how hard he had tried twisting the golden knob, at first with one hand then with two, the door wouldn't open. Taemin panicked. He couldn't be locked in. He just couldn't. But he was, and that was his worse nightmare.
"Hello?…Anybody?…" Taemin prayed that the rumors about the school being haunted weren't true. He checked around for any human presence but found none. The library during the day already looked unfriendly, and at night, it resembled a horror movie scene. The whole place was only lit by the moonlight from outside and so quiet he could hear a pin drop. Taemin felt his palms sweat.
Kibum hyung, I'm stuck at school.
Taemin fished out his phone and texted Kibum, but he got no answer in return. He wanted to call his parents but what can they do about him being locked inside a school? Probably nothing. The embarrassment would scar him for life if his parents called the school to get him out. The seventeen year old left a message saying that he was at Kibum's place instead.
After contemplating, Taemin reluctantly dragged himself back to the table. He couldn't possibly sit there for the rest of the night, but at the moment, there was nothing clever inside his mind that could get him out.
It was as if God had heard his prayer, Taemin saw a strange beam of light flashed by from the corner of his eye. It seemed to come from the hallway, right through the entrance glass door. Relief washed over him as he grabbed his bag, thinking that whoever it was could get him out. Just before he could get anywhere close, the blue light seeping through the windows made a spotlight over the glass door. What Taemin saw had his heart racing but not at all in any good way. There were strange masks pressed against the glass surface. The earlier beam of light was shining through the door as if to look into the library.
Taemin nearly cried out loud. There were two words in his mind.
Ghosts. Hide.
The seventeen year old dove for the nearest, safest spot his brain deemed so. That was a spot behind a book shelf, few feet away from the table he sat at. Taemin crouched down with his knees to his chest and a hand clasped tightly over his mouth. His eyes opened wide, shifting toward the entrance as he listened intently to the unknown.
First, there was a scratching noise. Something metallic was scratching against the glass door. Then, there was a click--loud and clear--before the sound of door knob being turned. Ghosts can use keys? Ghosts need keys? Taemin asked himself but was startled when the sound of footsteps approached from the distance.
"Jaebeom! Dude! Can't believe you manage to steal the key!"
"I know right? I'm a pro man! Yo Jinki, this is going to be the best prank ever!"
Even though they were whispers (and snickers, Taemin could always spot those hyena's laughs anywhere), low vibrato and soft shush were meant to carry far. Especially where Taemin was hiding, he could hear everything, and he could even recognize each voice.
There were about four of them. No. Scratched that. Five counting Jinki. Taemin wasn't sure if he should feel relief that they weren't ghosts or scare that they were the bullies instead.
Do ghosts bully?
"Jinki! You and Seungri take this side. I'll take that side. We're gonna turn this place into a mess there won't be any books left." Jaebeom's whispers were the easiest to hear. He got a high voice for a guy. Maybe Kibum was right. Jaebeom might be gay after all.
Taemin jolted from his spot when a louder sound happened much closer to him. They were throwing books and pulling them out and off the shelves. Echoes of paper rustling and flipping joined in the continuously loud thuds upon the tiled concrete.
'This is the dumbest prank ever' Taemin thought as he scooted further back, in hoping that if he stayed low and if all they were doing was pulling books from the top shelves, then he wouldn't be caught. He could hear the noises from the far side, where Jaebeom and probably two other guys were at, were getting further away. But it didn't stop him from worrying because suddenly there were no noise at all from his side where Jinki and Seungri were at.
"…"
All at once, the books to his right, where his shoulder was before he moved, were pulled back roughly and slammed onto the cement. Taemin's gasp escaped his fingers. Shit! How wrong he was about them not trashing the ones at the bottom. He couldn't scoot quickly enough as more books were being pulled off the lower shelves. They were approaching the end. There would be no more books for him to hide behind. The seventeen year old cussed inwardly when he felt the objects being yanked out from right behind him.
Taemin whimpered and froze.
He heard his own panic breathing. He heard the distant books falling and pages ruffling. He heard a loud whistle and fast running, and Jaebeom yelling "SHIT! SECURITY! RUN!"
There were more distressed pushing and falling and more running, but in that split of a second, Taemin opened his eyes and turned to look back.
Taemin met a pair of eyes that mimicked his own with shock and confusion. Jinki's face was only a book shelf away. Taemin could feel the older boy's breath passing through the hollow skeleton of the wooden case. They blinked at the same time before Jinki took off and ran.
The sophomore sat there for what seemed like forever. He thought he couldn't move his legs, but eventually, he could. There were no more commotion, just a dead silence. The library was a mess with papers scattering everywhere. Taemin noticed that the door was left open in the wake of escape, and before he could let himself think, Taemin grabbed his bag and ran home.
---
That morning (because he had gotten back at the wee hour but thankfully still had enough time for a nap), after cleaning up and trying to convince to his parents that Kibum's house ran out of hot water, Taemin climbed into bed but he couldn't fall asleep just yet. From under his pillow, he pulled out a black leather cover notebook. He had to write it down or else he would risk forgetting it.
Yeah right. He heard his inner self responded sarcastically.
Dear Journal,
You can't believe what happened today.
I found a way to make my life less miserable.
Lee Jinki and his jerks had gotten themselves in big trouble now.
☛|
A/N: I'm tired. But I really needed to write it so I couldn't go to sleep. Now I could. WOOT! hehe ^^ I'm sorry if there are grammar mistakes. I'll fix it when I come back to it. It's 5034 words. Holy crap. And I apologize for the sneaking of het. in there and also some scary part if you're a scaredy cat like me and got freaked out while writing it.