Chapter Text
“AT LAST! Out of this hellhole.”
“Say it louder, Kai, for all the teachers in the staff room to hear you,” Taehyun laughed, grinning wider when Huening Kai pouted and (gently) slapped his linked arms, which were looped around Kai’s right arm. Soobin laughed along gently on Kai’s other side as they walked out of the gates of the school.
“I’ll be fine,” Kai waved his hand dismissively. “I’ve got the class president and every teacher’s dream student here, what have I got to be afraid of?” He shot both his friends a cheeky grin, unfaltering even as they pretended to return blank stares back.
Taehyun turned away to hide his smile when he spotted a head of blue hair a short distance away from them. He swallowed, feeling his heart rate suddenly pick up in speed.
Clad in his signature leather jacket, a white shirt and a pair of light blue jeans, Choi Yeonjun could really be said to be one of the most attractive people at the school (according to Taehyun, anyway). He always carried around the air of throwing all caution to the wind, skipping classes whenever he felt like it, committing petty acts around the neighbourhood like drawing graffiti on the brick walls of the alleyways or skateboarding in places where they had signs all over forbidding people to. The authorities had labelled him as a troubled kid, but the school allowed him to stay after accounting in his amazing grades (to everyone’s surprise), and the fact that he never truly set out to hurt people during his activities.
Still, among the rest of the students, rumours were abound that Yeonjun had joined a gang, that he was secretly sneaking drugs, that he once took down 6 grown men in a knife fight, so on and so forth, which Taehyun had decided not to believe anyway. After all, being a victim of bullying himself, he knew how fake rumours usually were.
On the other hand, Taehyun had maintained the top student position at school since he entered and he aimed to keep it that way until graduation. He was lucky to be able to rely on Huening Kai and Soobin in school, who were his friends since they were in diapers. Despite the stark differences between Yeonjun and himself, Taehyun could not lie to himself and say that every time he saw Yeonjun in the hallways of school (when he chose to attend anyway), his heart did not flutter or his face did not flush easily at the thought of Yeonjun possibly noticing a giant nerd like him.
But he will never admit that out loud to Kai or Soobin. Unless he wanted the endless teasing that he knew would follow.
While Taehyun was busy with his own thoughts, Kai had started complaining about math class, and Soobin echoed his sentiments as they casually strolled past the delinquents.
“Well, okay, but complex numbers are-“
“Hey there, babydoll!”
The trio froze and slowly turned around to meet the sharp gaze of a blue-haired boy.
Taehyun’s eyes widened as he realized how he and Choi Yeonjun were directly facing each other. The older boy was leaning against the outer fence of the school, the stick of a lollipop sticking out of his mouth. He was smirking a little as he stared at the trio. Taehyun turned to glance quickly at his friends, who returned the same puzzled looks back to him.
Taehyun turned back to Yeonjun, only to meet those captivating eyes staring right at him. He felt his breathing catch in his throat, but maintained an air of calm (even though his heart was beating a million times a minute).
“Er… hi.”
Taehyun surprised himself at his boldness. It seemed as if Yeonjun straightened himself up and Taehyun could see his eyes light up at the response, but maybe Taehyun was just imagining things. Maybe.
“Get home safe!” A voice suddenly piped up behind Yeonjun and a black-haired boy walked up to stand beside Yeonjun. Taehyun recognized him as Choi Beomgyu, Yeonjun’s ‘partner-in-crime’ and also a classmate in Huening Kai’s homeroom. Curiously, he noticed how Kai jumped in shock as Beomgyu appeared, and how his cheeks were tinted a soft pink. Taehyun caught Soobin’s eye as the taller boy also looked over, and they shared a knowing look.
“T-thanks,” Kai smiled nervously, now openly staring at Beomgyu, who met his stare with an intense gaze. “S-see you today- erm, tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow.”
Beomgyu smiled wider and simply waved, the bright, boyish smile on his face mismatched with the all-black outfit he was sporting. Yeonjun nodded as well, eyes still fixated onto Taehyun. Taehyun could not help himself but to look over as well, feeling his ears grow hot at how Yeonjun was eyeing him up and down. He distracted himself by tugging onto Kai’s arm to direct him away, and the trio continued on their path.
They waited for a few steps until they were sure they had walked a fair distance from the school before Soobin turned around to grin cheekily at Kai. “So, Choi Beomgyu, huh?”
Kai let out a flustered screech and wrenched his arm out of Taehyun’s clutches, lunging at Soobin, who ducked out of his way, giggling as he ran to hide (well, as much as he could anyway) behind Taehyun, who finally burst out laughing at his younger friend’s antics.
Kai crossed his arms, pouting like a child, even as the flush on his cheeks persisted.
“Don’t you two dare say anything. How about we talk about how Choi Yeonjun had the eye out for our Taehyunnie, hmm? It was like we were dust beside him.”
“Oh, tell me more,” Soobin grinned, craning his head to look at Taehyun’s face.
Taehyun straightened himself. “Don’t exaggerate things, Hyuka. He was looking at all of us. Don’t change the subject.”
“Your ears tell a different story, babydoll.” Kai exaggerated the last word, lowering his voice to try to match Yeonjun’s husky tone but ended up sounding like Darth Vader instead.
Taehyun huffed, reaching up with his hands to cover his (now very warm) ears, causing Kai and Soobin to burst out laughing at his expense. Taehyun, in return, simply grunted and continued walking down the sidewalk without waiting to see if his friends were following him. This only caused his friends to laugh even harder, even as they rushed to keep up with Taehyun’s quickened pace.
“I’m pretending I don’t hear you!” Taehyun yelled back to his friends as he continued walking, and their casual bickering continued to echo throughout the neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, once Taehyun, Kai and Soobin were out of earshot, Yeonjun turned to look at Beomgyu.
“Get home safe, my sweet, adorable, baby Huening Kai,” Yeonjun mocked, deliberately making his voice squeaky and high-pitched to annoy the younger. Beomgyu yelled and pushed Yeonjun away, the latter only grinning widely. “Damn, you’re too whipped. It’s disgusting, get it out of my face already.” Yeonjun continued to tease, reaching with a hand to pat Beomgyu’s head twice like a puppy (never more than twice, Yeonjun learnt that the hard way, but his best friend was sometimes too cute to resist, even with his tough-guy exterior).
Beomgyu rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because we’re all so smooth. Who calls someone babydoll anyway?”
Yeonjun glowered back. “So my brain never works when it comes to Kang Taehyun, we get it. It was just a slip of the tongue-“
“Your brain has never worked a day in its life anyway-“
“You fu-“
Taehyun took his seat at one of the tables in the cafeteria, reaching into his bag to retrieve his sandwiches. He scanned the room and when he found Soobin leaving the queue with food on his tray, Taehyun lifted up his hand to wave him over. When they finally made eye contact, Soobin beamed and walked straight towards him.
Both of them were too distracted to notice that Soobin was walking past the table where Park Sa-young and his posse usually sat at – they usually avoided being within meters of the group, for good reason: Sa-young had somehow harboured a hatred for Soobin, Taehyun and Kai and would harass them at any turn. The tray that Soobin was holding blocked his view from the leg that Sa-young casually extended, waiting for Soobin’s downfall.
And indeed, Soobin stumbled over Sa-young’s leg, almost falling flat on his face-
Until a hand reached out to pull him back, allowing Soobin to regain his balance again while another hand helped to stabilize the lunch tray so that its contents would not spill all over the floor.
Soobin turned, flustered, trying to identify his saviour, and was surprised to find Choi Yeonjun gripping onto his arm.
Ever since the first day Yeonjun and Beomgyu said hi to Soobin, Taehyun and Kai, the greetings continued almost every day, and simply saying hi and bye evolved into making small talk about the events in school. It helped as well that Beomgyu and Kai were both assigned to be each other’s project partners for the semester, which created the platform for more interactions (and more platforms for Yeonjun, Soobin and Taehyun to tease their respective friends). As such, even as their conversations were mostly limited to that corner of the school, they had rarely interacted with each other in school within school hours.
Yeonjun simply gave him a calm nod. “Watch where you’re going.” There was a hint of a smile, though, as his eyes drifted away, and Soobin followed his gaze to see Taehyun, now sporting a look of visible gratitude on his face.
“T-thank you so much!”
Yeonjun nodded back at Soobin again, before letting go and continuing on his path to the door that led out into the courtyard.
Soobin then looked back towards Sa-young, noticing with a sense of satisfaction that the latter had turned back towards his table with a dark look on his face, his friends shooting glares at Soobin.
Soobin quickly diverted his route and soon reached Taehyun.
“He helped you.” Taehyun smiled. “I didn’t expect him to.”
Soobin grinned as he took his seat.
“Maybe this is a good start. Why? Looking for more opportunities to hang out with him?”
Taehyun was so surprised he did not have time to hide the flush that bloomed from his neck up to his face. Soobin nudged him playfully before turning his attention back to his food.
“Shut up, Soobin-hyung.”
Taehyun walked towards the bathroom, yawning in exhaustion. He was the last to leave the library, which was not unusual considering the amount of work and extra credit he was rushing to finish. He took the usual route and elbowed the door open, huffing out a sigh of relief as he finally got to wash his hands.
“Oh, surprise, surprise. It’s little Kang Taehyun.”
Oh right. Detention ended around the same time as he usually left the library. How could he forget? Taehyun usually observed his surroundings before he walked out into the hallways, but today in particular he was just feeling too weary to remember.
Taehyun closed his eyes to collect himself, then he turned around to face Sa-young.
“Just let me get out of your way,” he responded tiredly. “I don’t have the energy to talk to you today.”
And without warning, his sentence ended with a gasp as Jae-Hwa, another of Sa-young’s taller friends, grabbed him and shoved him up against the bathroom wall. His arms were also pinned to the sides of his body, preventing his struggle. Taehyun winced from the sudden hard impact.
Sa-young walked up to a trembling Taehyun, a smug smirk on his face.
“Not so brave now that your friends aren’t with you now, huh?”
Then he landed a punch onto Taehyun’s left cheek.
Taehyun let out a loud yelp as he felt his head hit the marble walls of the bathroom, causing a searing pain to envelope his entire head. He could feel the left side of his face start to swell already.
“Don’t worry,” Sa-young mocked again, reaching up to pull on Taehyun’s hair harshly, causing the latter to whimper a little. “No need to call for anyone. Everyone’s gone home so there’s probably no one to hear you scream-“
As if by sheer luck, the door to the bathroom opened and Taehyun could see a blonde boy walk in. Even Sa-young stopped and turned around to see who had interrupted their “talk”. Jae-Hwa let go of Taehyun and the latter fell to the floor, hugging his knees to his chest.
“Move, Park, I just need to use the- wait, Taehyun?”
When Taehyun met Yeonjun’s eyes, it was with a look of absolute relief – well, as much relief as you could express while slumped on the dirty bathroom floor, his cheek aching from the punch that Sa-young had delivered.
It was like an angel had walked into the room, was all Taehyun could think to himself, staring at the delinquent as the latter’s eyes narrowed, scanning his surroundings. And then Taehyun hissed as he ducked to hold his head with both hands. He had probably moved too much.
Taehyun heard shuffling as Yeonjun pushed past the gang to stand in front of Taehyun. “What did they do to you?” was all Taehyun heard, but his head hurt too much to speak, so he just groaned in response.
“We were just hanging out, Choi. Mind your own business.” Sa-young spoke up, only to be silenced by Yeonjun’s piercing glare.
“Okay, whatever, I can never believe you. Get out unless you’re looking for a fight.”
While Sa-young’s gang did outnumber Yeonjun, Yeonjun’s ‘reputation’ did come with a huge advantage.
The gang apparently decided that he was not worth the fight and Sa-young led the group out. He turned around to look at Taehyun, who was still cowered on the floor, and pointed a threatening finger. “Don’t you think we’re done with you, Kang.”
As the door closed behind the group, Yeonjun scoffed in annoyance and turned back to face Taehyun. The tough demeanour he was sporting suddenly dropped and Taehyun felt him approach, squatting down until he was eye-level. “Hey, are you alright?” Yeonjun asked nervously, his hand hovering over Taehyun’s arm. He wasn’t sure whether Taehyun would be okay with being touched at the moment.
Taehyun finally lifted his head up and Yeonjun felt an ache in his chest at how shiny those big, beautiful brown eyes were from the tears that were pooling in them. Sighing, Yeonjun finally gave in and rested his hand onto Taehyun’s, rubbing his thumb in circles for comfort. If both of them felt a tiny spark when their hands made contact, none of them said anything else.
There was a terse silence as Taehyun struggled to collect himself and Yeonjun waited patiently for him to do so.
When Taehyun had stopped trembling, Yeonjun stood up and walked towards the sink, where he fiddled with a loose tile underneath it. Taehyun watched confusedly as Yeonjun removed the tile and retrieved a first aid kit from the hole that was made.
“I-is that yours?” he asked curiously.
Yeonjun smirked. “Beomgyu and I stashed it here… just in case something happens. We’re not giving this school an excuse to kick us out.”
He walked back towards Taehyun and opened the kit, now sitting cross-legged on the floor. He grabbed Taehyun’s wrist gently, looking at him for permission. When Taehyun nodded, he pulled the hand that was covering his face away to reveal the nasty-looking bruise that was starting to form on his face.
“Why would they do that to such a beautiful face?” Yeonjun muttered under his breath angrily, not knowing that Taehyun could hear every word. Taehyun could not help but blush and break out into a huge smile.
“Thank you, that’s very sweet of you.”
Yeonjun looked up in surprise. “I…. I didn’t say anything-“
Taehyun giggled at Yeonjun’s flustered expression, and replied, “For what it’s worth, I think you look beautiful too.” Part of him could not believe the words coming out of his own mouth. Where was he suddenly getting all this bravery from?
Yeonjun only grunted in response, too embarrassed to retort back. He simply busied himself with applying a topical cream onto Taehyun’s cheek. Taehyun unwittingly felt himself holding his breath – the callouses on Yeonjun’s fingers combined with the softness of Taehyun’s cheek was an interesting feeling. Yeonjun himself looked gorgeous close-up, his eyes narrowed in concentration and his nose scrunched as he focused on treating Taehyun’s bruise.
“Stop staring at me.” Yeonjun grumbled, keeping the cream back into the kit, and Taehyun immediately snapped back into reality.
He smiled as he grabbed onto the sink nearby to pull himself up.
“How… how’s your head? They hit it hard, didn’t they?” Yeonjun asked quietly as he turned around to look at Taehyun.
“Hmm… I’m not sure. If you’re so worried, how about you walk me home so that I get back safe?“ Taehyun retorted back, making use of the last of his bravado.
Taehyun’s heart fluttered as he watched Yeonjun look away to try to hide the huge smile forming on his face.
“Sure, w-whatever,” Yeonjun muttered, still trying to appear nonchalant, yet nothing could stop the flush that started to form on his cheeks.
Something felt different. Taehyun could not put his finger on what exactly was different, though.
Wait– Taehyun froze as Sa-young and his posse walked past the tree where he, Kai and Soobin were standing and chatting under before school started. He caught Sa-young’s eye as he walked past, and Sa-young slowed his steps. Taehyun quickly looked away, fearfully expecting another confrontation like Sa-young had always instigated whenever they crossed paths, but when he looked up, the group was gone.
“That’s strange.” Soobin observed. “Haven’t you guys noticed that in the past week Sa-young hasn’t bothered us at all?” Taehyun had not realized that Kai and Soobin were also noticing his movements.
Kai and Taehyun nodded in reply, also wearing the same looks of confusion.
Hours later, when the final school bell rang, Taehyun gathered his items and immediately walked out of his classroom to meet Kai and Soobin. As he was walking down the stairwell, he heard a whispered “Kang Taehyun” above him, and he stalled in his tracks. Turning around, he took careful steps up the stairs until he saw Sa-young leaning against the stair banister, whispering heatedly with a fellow clique member Taehyun could not bother remembering the name of.
“Dude, it’s Choi Yeonjun. Do you guys think I have a death wish?” Sa-young grumbled, crossing his arms defensively.
“What did he say to you, dude? You’ve never been so chicken around those nerds.”
“I’m going to say this once, and I hope I never have to repeat this again,” Yeonjun growled, pinning Sa-young against the wall, using one hand to keep him in a frontal choke hold. “I don’t want you or your little posse anywhere near Kang Taehyun, Huening Kai or Choi Soobin. I better hear that they are to be left alone. If I find so much as a hair on them that has been touched by your filthy hands, I will come back for you, and you won’t be leaving this school intact. Understand?”
“He just told me-“ Sa-young stopped to pick his words carefully, “look, the most important thing is that we shouldn’t bother those 3 anymore if you don’t want Choi Yeonjun or Choi Beomgyu coming after us, okay? Leave it.”
As he listened, his heart pounding so hard he was mildly concerned that Sa-young would hear his heart beating, Taehyun took it all in. And then he just smiled stupidly to himself and walked away to meet his friends.