Chapter Text
When someone thought about Nam-Gyu, what came to mind first? Was it the fact he wore thin framed glasses? Was it his peculiar taste in music? Was it his overgrown hair? Or was it his obvious lack of friends? No matter what came to mind first, people always found a way to make Nam-Gyu seem weird.
Wherever Nam-Gyu went, people always gave him strange looks, not because he was known for being a bad person; it was because he was always alone. Nam-Gyu didn't seem to have many, or any, friends at all as he seemingly spent all of his time reading books or listening to music through his earphones. No matter how much time Nam-Gyu spent avoiding society at all costs, Su-Bong never failed to make a daily entrance into his life even if Nam-Gyu wanted it or not, though he mostly couldn't care less about Su-Bong.
The only person that Nam-Gyu happily spent time with was Gyeong-Su or his black, long-haired cat Sa-Rang; when most people say that pets usually have a resemblance similar to their owners it really was easy to see in Nam-Gyu's case. Sa-Rang was a sleek but fluffy black cat who could become aggressive with anyone depending on how much she'd seen of them but was truly sweet at heart, Nam-Gyu saw Sa-Rang as his best friend away from school even if she wasn't technically human like Gyeong-Su was.
If Nam-Gyu were to be asked about how he felt about Gyeong-Su, the first thing he'd say was that he was grateful, before Gyeong-Su had come along Nam-Gyu was seen as the outcast, the weird kid that no one should approach, but fortunately for him, Gyeong-Su had changed quite a few people's opinion on Nam-Gyu for the better. People now didn't sound annoyed whenever Nam-Gyu sat next to them in class, staring at him in disgust from across the cafeteria if Nam-Gyu was sitting alone in the corner, or purposefully bumping into Nam-Gyu in the hallways. Though Su-Bong still did all of those things despite the amount of times Gyeong-Su had tried to reason with him.
He found Su-Bong to be an… Interesting character who always had to make his appearance known even in the most inappropriate situations such as a funeral or family gathering — in any occasion Su-Bong always had to make sure everyone knew he was there or, Nam-Gyu assumed, that Su-Bong feared he'd fade into irrelevance in others lives. Su-Bong always had this strange air around him that made others feel a sense of discomfort; Su-Bong's view on being popular was by being feared even if it meant he had to put on this ‘bad boy’ act that wasn't exactly very believable (even if people easily fell for it).
Alongside Su-Bong, there was his gang of cronies that seemed to consist of Se-Mi (a seemingly pretty girl with a hard exterior, taking an obvious distaste to anyone that would even go near Min-Su), Min-Su (the boy that seemed too awkward, meek, and naïve to fit into Su-Bong's group but was able to stay because of Se-Mi’s quick liking towards him), Mi-Na (a sassy bitch that often hopped between Su-Bong’s group and her gang of other bitchy girls that spent all day begging for Su-Bong’s attention), and Gyeong-Su (luckily Nam-Gyu's friend that usually was able to convince Su-Bong to leave him alone). Su-Bong's friends were seen as the sort of hierarchy of their school, known by people from all grades due to their bold presence and feared aura that practically begged for the attention of others.
Other than Nam-Gyu's uncomfortable feeling about how bold Su-Bong was and his bad taste in friends (other than Gyeong-Su), he didn't exactly mind him, though he had no idea to what extent Su-Bong minded him. Su-Bong had taken a strange distaste towards Nam-Gyu for really no particular reason other than for the fun of hating someone. He found thrill in ridiculing those around him, even if they were the prettiest person alive or the ugliest, Su-Bong had probably had a one-sided issue with them in the past.
Naturally, Nam-Gyu had no idea that Su-Bong had taken a dislike towards him until he'd been moved to sit directly in front of Su-Bong in their art class. Unlike Su-Bong, Nam-Gyu really had a passion for art and tried as best as he could to impress their art teacher, Mr. Seong, with his unique ideas for paintings and photographs. Nam-Gyu's passion for art fueled Su-Bong's one-sided hatred.
It was hard to tell if Su-Bong's hatred towards Nam-Gyu was a new thing or not, but Nam-Gyu's presence never failed to enrage Su-Bong even if Nam-Gyu tried his hardest to be friendly with Su-Bong by commenting on his strange newly dyed purple hair, overly exaggerated attitude, or his ability to speak broken English despite Nam-Gyu having trouble deciphering it. No matter how hard Nam-Gyu tried to make friends with Su-Bong, his attempts were futile and only ended up with Su-Bong hating him more. What could Su-Bong possibly want Nam-Gyu to do in order to make ammends.
Ever since Nam-Gyu had been moved, Su-Bong had been nothing but annoying by constantly throwing paper at the back of Nam-Gyu's head, doodling discriminative words before passing it forward to Nam-Gyu, and even whispering prolific words behind him until Nam-Gyu had shown a sign of actually paying attention to Su-Bong's presence, and this carried on for weeks. Nam-Gyu had never hated anyone the way he hated Su-bong before. Whenever he saw Su-Bong's stupid face along with the cocky smirk, he swore the look on his face was rancid; it was quite obvious that he now hated Su-Bong whether he liked it or not.