Chapter Text
Physics. The bane of every high schooler’s life... or at least the bane of Changbin’s existence.
If the teacher were to say something he would move, but until then Changbin was perfectly content sitting atop his desk using the wall as a backrest, sketchbook in his lap and numerous pens scattered around. This seat truly wasn’t ideal for observing his teacher’s endless (not to mention pointless) demonstrations, but it was by an outlet and it was comfortable. He wasn’t going to learn anything regardless of his location in the cramped classroom. He caught the occasional word or phrase from the teacher but lost motivation to actually pay attention months ago. He knew he would regret it when the test came, but the internet would forever be a better teacher. Spending the night before hastily googling physics concepts and scribbling them onto a notecard got him a decent enough score. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So his internal monologue of worrying about grades died down, and he returned to sketching.
The physics classroom was located in the Bermuda Triangle of cell phone service leaving every class to follow the same pattern: sit like a normal person and try to learn, doodle all over notes that made no sense, check for cell service to no avail, give up on productivity and do something better, and escape to the art room when it’s time to do labs. Hiding in the art room meant cell phone service, no dealing with Ohm’s law or whatever the hell Mr. Park was rambling on about, and most importantly Felix.
Felix was the cute art TA the period that Bin had physics. To say Changbin admired him from afar would be an understatement. Changbin would get the occasional text from him asking for help with math homework and both spent as much time in the art room as possible.
“Yo, come on dude,” Chan said, hitting the boy lightly on the knee to get his attention as he walked by heading towards the back of the room, “Do you have any fuckin’ idea how to do this lab?” Chan made up one third of his lab group and paid even less attention in class than Changbin. Luckily for both of them, Hyunjin, who was already at the lab tables connecting circuits, actually tried when it came to physics and was skilled at deciphering Mr. Park’s confusing labs.
“No sir, I do not. When do I ever know what’s going on in this class? You think I understand any of this shit?” A glare shot from his teacher, “luckily we have this nerd to help us out,” he muttered a little quieter, enveloping Hyunjin in a side hug. “So buddy, what the hell are we doing?”
“And you’d be failing without the help of ‘this nerd’ so be grateful, this isn’t that hard and half of it is common sense,” Hyunjin slid his paper over towards the two, letting them copy the impressive amount of work, “Plus I found most of it on google during one of Park’s tangents.”
“This is why you’re the smart one Jinnie,” Chan loved to annoy them with these nicknames, “Hey Binnie,” ‘don’t call me that!’ “this means you’ll have time to sneak away and drool over that TA.” One thing Changbin was not, was subtle so Chan knew about Felix almost as soon as Changbin did. His cheeks grew red and he jokingly hit Chan on his arm, too flustered to come up with a snarky reply.
They finished up the lab with time to spare thanks to Hyunjin who did a good 93% of the work. Changbin grabbed his sketchbook and booked it out of the class without even bothering to sign out or grab the mangled, laminated neon pink hall pass hanging on the door.
He made his way to the art room with one stop to get skittles from the vending machine. He gave a nod to Ms. P, who knew by now not to question when he showed up, grabbed his mug and a teabag from his art locker along the back wall. While waiting for the microwave to heat up his water, he took his regular seat at Ms. P’s desk and put his feet up on the table carefully to avoid messing up any art projects waiting to be graded. Not only was it the comfiest seat in the room, but it was next to the table where TA’s sat. Felix was making a huge mess of ink and paint trying to do paint pours, an assignment their teacher gave all the TAs. She was desperate for examples to show the Art 1 kids.
Watching Felix do art fascinated Changbin, his style was messy and experimental but he put so much care into every mark he made. When he was really focused he would hold his breath to ensure no mistakes would be made, causing the corners of Changbin’s mouth to rise. His thoughts were disrupted by the ding of the microwave. His steps were rushed, which caused Felix to look up, on his way back he heard a voice call for his attention..
“Hey Changbin? Before ya take a seat again, can you help me out?” Felix’s voice made Changbin melt... and spill some tea on the table.
“Ye-Yea, ‘course, whatchya need Felix?” ‘Take a deep breath, you’re f i n e’
“Can you reach into my back pocket and grab my phone? I’d do it but ya know,” he held up his hands, which were coated in yellow paint. “I can feel it ringing and I need to know if it’s someone that matters.”
“No that’s okay, can you put it on the table for me?” Felix struggled to blow the hair out of his face while Changbin slowly put his phone down, “Hey I’ve always wanted to ask this since you always end up in here this block,” Changbin pulled the comfy chair over an took a seat next to Felix, “don’t you have a class you should be in? I know they don’t give free periods this time and if you had a study hall I bet you’d be in here the whole time.” The blonde was mixing together various paints and inks while talking.
“Well technically I should be in Physics, but there’s no reason I need to know physics” He reached over to grab his tea and took a sip.
“I thought you were a math genius, shouldn’t you be like amazing at physics… they tend to go hand in hand.” Changbin’s heart fluttered when Felix complimented him, god he could listen to Felix talk forever.
“Not a math genius per say, but no, not amazing at physics. Actually rather bad at it, I just copy Hyunjin’s labs and come here so I don’t have to put up with more of Mr. Park’s bullshit tangents,” he started to ramble like he always did when he was nervous. “I’d pick here over that class any day of the week, that class is absolutely pointless. Today’s lab answers were even online, so less work than normal. So we got done hella quick and then Chan started teasing me about you which was a dick move on his part, ya know maybe I should just expose his crush, then he’d know what it’s like--” He was mindlessly spinning the chair back and forth when he was cut off.
“Wait… crush?” ‘Fuck fuck fuck’
“Out of all of that, that’s the part you had to pick up on… shit.” Once more he was interrupted with perfect timing. This time by Ms. P telling the class it was time to clean up, “Fuck Park’s gonna beat my ass.” He got up and half sprinted out the door before Felix could say anything else.