Chapter Text
“KIM?!”
Ji-Hoon yells out, clinging to Kim’s shoulder. “He’s unconscious..” Ji-hoon observes, trying to lift up his body. After placing him against a wall, he fumbles to get his phone out, calling Park-soo. Voicemail. God dammit… Ji-hoon thought, dragging Jeongi slowly to the teacher’s workroom. Hastily sliding the door to the teacher's workroom, Ji-hoon shouts out, “Jeongi’s been knocked unconscious!”
The teachers who are in the workroom look over at Ji-hoon. Calmly, one of the teachers tells Ji-hoon to go take Jeongi to the nurse’s office.
Ji-hoon was questioned by the counselor about what they saw and what happened.
“..And that’s basically what went down. I don’t know who beat him up… But they should be punished!” Ji-hoon explained.
“Well, we can look through security cameras, and we can have the police conduct an investigation considering this is just straight up assault, but other than that, I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” The counselor says, sighing. Ji-hoon returns to his class, though he can’t seem to get his mind off Jeongi.
“Tsk, how can the teachers be so calm about this?” He mumbled under his breath.
“Do you… Have something to say, Jeong?” The teacher says, glaring at Ji-hoon.
“N-no, 선생님. Sorry for interrupting class.” Ji-hoon responds, in a cold sweat.
“Just don’t do that again, Jeong. Now, would you mind telling the class what the author meant when the curtains were blue?” The teacher points to the projector with their ruler.
“Uhm… The.. character likes blue?” He rapidly flips through the class-assigned novel.
“Wrong. I assigned the class this chapter last week! Pay attention more often, would you? The blue curtains represent how the character is depressed, as you can see by earlier context when Joe broke up with the main character. Everyone, flip to page 234, if you’re not already there, and start reading. I need you to finish this chapter by tomorrow, as it’s shorter than the others.”
Once school had ended, Ji-hoon went to the art club. Payten was inside the classroom, drawing a candy bowl, although it looked a bit weird. Payten seemed particularly excited about this one– he looked like a Jackson Pollock painting himself!
“Hey, Payten.” Ji-hoon greets, pulling up a chair to sit next to him.
“Hey, Ji-Hoon. I didn’t expect you to come… shouldn’t you be in your dorm or something?” Payten spoke, flicking his wrist to draw more strokes on the candy bowl.
Ji-Hoon shook his head, “Nah… I don’t really have anything to do right now… Besides, Jeongi is still unconscious.” He sats ever so calmly, yet Payten seems to have his eyes slightly widened.
“Unconscious?” He repeats.
A nod soon follows.
“Oh... what happened?” Payten questions, swiping slower strokes on his canvas. Ji-Hoon pauses, his eyes narrowing to the artwork. Despite earlier, he seemed to have calmed down. But since it was brought up again, he furrows his brows slightly.
“Just–... Just some idiots beating him up.”
Payten breathes in deeply, sucking in his teeth. He didn’t really know the ‘King’ very well, only rumors and gossip about him. “Damn… I’m sorry to hear that. Have you checked on him yet?” He stops mid-way through a paint stroke, dabbing his brush into a maroon blob.
“Only once… The teacher ensured he would be fine.”
Payten adds shadows to the candy, “You should go see if he’s awake.”
“Mkay. You wanna come with me?” Ji-Hoon offers, getting out of his seat.
“Later. I’m going to finish this up.” He dips his brush into a cup with murky water, then slides it over a napkin with blotches of color combinations.
“Okay. See ya.” He waves goodbye and exits the club room strolling down the hall, hands in his pockets. Why do people have to bully each other in the first place? He wonders to himself, Just for their own satisfaction? Ji-hoon gets even more frustrated. Before he entered the nurse’s office, a buzz came from his pocket.
He took out his phone, seeing Park-Soo calling him. Right… I called her earlier. He leaned against the wall, the device facing his ear. “Oh, Park-Soo?... You called–”
“Actually, you called!”
The shout nearly bursts Ji-hoon’s eardrums. “Gosh… quiet down.”
“You’re the one bombarding me with over 30 notifications!”
“Alright look—Earlier I found Kim knocked out in the hallway. It was probably by other students bullying him again. It’s always him, isn’t it?” Ji-hoon blurts out.
“Gosh… What happened to him now? Did you tell anyone?”
“I went over to the teacher’s lounge. They just told me to bring him to the nurse's office, and check the cameras as if this isn’t a big deal!”
“Really?! Aish, I’ll call you later about this. Go check up on him!”
Ji-Hoon proceeded to hang up on Park-Soo and headed inside the nurse's office. The nurse was making Kim some medication for when he woke up.
“Hi... I’m here to visit my friend Jeongi.” Ji-Hoon says, walking to the nurse.
“He hasn’t woken up yet, but I made sure to clean up his wounds and patch them up.” The nurse gets up to open a cabinet.
“You really shouldn’t worry about him, the wounds weren’t too serious–Though due to his current need for a wheelchair, he may be out for longer than someone inflicted with these injuries normally would.” Opening the cabinet, they scavenge through the cabinet to get some painkiller serum.
After finding the serum, the nurse fills the serving cup and gives it to Jeongi, chugging the rest after Jeongi finishes his sip. Ji-hoon has a shocked look on his face, completely bewildered by the nurse. “I don’t get enough credit for this sh&%, I was told when I was hired to take care of kids with fevers, and on occasion send someone who barfed on their way home…
If I'm being honest, I think you and your friend should get outta this dump. Danger has skyrocketed in recent times, especially with that on the news.” The nurse says, going on a tangent.
“I’m sorry? What's on the news?”
“See it yourself, I'm not your servant–” The nurse gets cut off by the bell. “I’ll write you up a tardy pass, get to class.” The nurse said, signing their signature on a little slip of paper.
Afterward, Ji-hoon proceeds to make a bee line to his next class, dashing out in the field to the other building where the auditorium–and his next class took place. Ji-hoon got there in time the exact time the teacher was roll-calling for his name. “Is Jeong her-”
“I’M HERE!” Ji-hoon said, still panting while everyone looked at him when he burst through the door. “Alright then…Go take a seat.” The professor spoke, then continues to do attendance.
Ji-Hoon swallows harshly before catching his breath and walks over to the back. After attendance, the professor continued with their lesson, while Ji-hoon dozed off, not understanding, nor caring about what the lecture was about. Like a classic Slice of life anime, he gets asked a question mid-class.
“You, what does tulip mania teach us about bubbles?” The teacher asks.
“OH–I uh, that bubbles are fun..?” Ji-hoon got caught off guard.
“While yes, bubbles are fun, we’re talking about the equally fun ECONOMIC bubbles. What’s your name again? I’m writing you up.” The teacher says, mildly annoyed.
Dumbfounded, he reluctantly gives his name.
“Uh-... Ji-Hoon. Jeong Ji-Hoon.”
“Well, ‘Jeong’, please head down to the office. I will not tolerate such ignorance in my class-room.” You could hear their teeth grating–passively aggressively of course.