Chapter Text
“Can I draw on your hand?” Nam-gyu let out a little sigh. No, obviously Su-Bong could not draw on his hand. They both knew how that would end.
“You’ll just end up drawing dicks, so no.”
Su-Bong groaned and leaned closer. The fucker sure loved Nam-gyu’s personal space. “Come on, man. I won’t, I promise!”
”Uhh, yes, you will? We both know it.” He put a hand in Su-Bong’s face and pushed him away. They should focus on their math class right now, not have this stupid discussion. But Su-Bong had never been bright, exactly. And Nam-gyu had dreaded every single second since their teacher had sat them together because Su-Bong was going to fail her class the third time in a row if he didn’t improve. Nam-gyu was supposed to be the good influence.
Nam-gyu did not want to be the good influence.
So instead of handing Su-Bond his hand, he sent a dreadful look over to Se-mi. She caught his gaze and grinned ear to ear. Yeah, fuck her. She could at least have some fucking empathy for his situation. Maybe pity him a little. He deserved pity for being seated next to this wannabe-rapper-bad-boy. Because seriously, who ran around calling themselves Thanos and then expected people to still take them seriously? Su-Bong. Su-Bong did that.
And Nam-gyu wanted to get up and throw himself out the window whenever Su-Bong had the nerve to correct the goddamn teachers. No one called the loser Thanos. No one except his little friend group of puppies—and half the school, but that wasn't important. They followed him around everywhere, mimiced whatever he did and made him feel like the king of the school. He wasn't. He was an embarassing waste of air. Sadly, except for Nam-gyu, Se-mi and the teachers, not a lot of people thought that way. They had somehow managed to convince Se-mi's girlfriend that Su-Bong was weird, but only with a lot of effort, especially from Nam-gyu's side.
So when the teacher had told Nam-gyu to please go sit next to Su-Bong, Nam-gyu's worst fear had become true. He had gone so many years without talking to the guy. Had managed to avoid group projects, bumping into one another or ending up on the same team during P.E. And then this stupid math teacher had ruoned it all for him. He had been allowed 18 years of relatively peaceful life before Su-Bong had ruined it all for him. Because he wasn't a good influence on Su-Bong. He never talked to him unless absolutely necessary, for example to avoid having his hand destroyed by a the depiction of male genitalia, so if anything, Su-Bong was a bad influence on him. Because the guy was talking constantly, and if anything, Nam-gyu's grades went down, instead of Su-Bong's up. Within those two weeks of literal hell, Nam-gyu had begged his teacher at least fifty times to let him sit next to Se-mi and Mi-na again. But no, she had refused every single time. "Give him time, Nam-gyu, he will adapt to you eventually."
No, he wouldn't. And Nam-gyu didn't want him to, either. He just wanted to get away from him, that was all. Simply just away.
"Yo, dude, do you get this shit?" His head snapped over to Su-Bong, who pointed his chewed up pencil down on his paper. It was completely empty besides a few scribbles in the top right corner that looked dangerously close to rap lines. He was very happy they were too small for him to read.
"Understand what? There's nothing on your paper." Su-Bong looked at him like he couldn't comprehend Nam-gyu was serious.
"Well, duh? She's writing it on the board, why would I write it down as well?" Now it was Nam-gyu's turn to look at Su-Bong like he couldn't be serious. Because what in gods name was this guy saying?
"Well—yeah? She's writing it down so you can copy it and use it as notes for studying." Su-Bong raised his eyebrows and Nam-gyu felt incredibly close to getting up and punching the dickhead in the fucking face.
"I have the internet for that. Youtube's free, idiot." He leaned back in his chair and looked at Nam-gyu like he had just won a debate. And it was also that moment that Nam-gyu remembered that arguing with someone who had hay instead of a brain in their head was useless. So he just shook his head and looked back to the front. He just had to ignore him. It was three lessons a week that he had to bear him. Two on Mondays, one on Thursdays. It was the worst way to start a week ever. It was already monday, which meant he wanted to die, but then Su-Bong came along and made him want to actually jump out a window. At least today was the Thursday lesson, so he only had to bear him for forty-five minutes. "So, why can't I draw on your hand now, man? I promise I won't draw dicks, I swear it!"
"Because you can't draw, and your promises don't mean shit to me." He didn't bother looking at Su-Bong while he talked. He just stared right at the front of the room, fake listening to the teacher. He knew everything they were doing. It was mere repitition from tenth grade. If he couldn't do this, he was actually buns. But Su-Bong next to him seemed to actually struggle, because when Nam-gyu glanced over, he was hunched forwards in his seat, staring at the board like it was written in a foreign language. What was so hard to comprehend? It all made sense. Nothing really difficult.
The second the bell rang, Nam-gyu got up and slammed his books shut. He needed to get away from this purple goblin with a brain deficiency. He needed Se-mi and a good smoke. Because who managed to sit next to Su-Bong for this long without needing nicotine badly afterwards? Not even Su-Bong it seemed, because wherever he walked, a cloud of sweetly scented vape smoke followed him.
“Out, now.”, he grunted at Se-mi, when he reached her desk. He didn’t even leave her time to say hi first. She snorted and stuffed her notes in her bag.
“Calm down, jeez.” He shook his head. She just didn’t understand.
“I can’t calm down until I have a cig in between my fingers. You don’t sit next to him, you don’t know what he’s like!” She chuckled, swung her bag over her shoulders and together they left the room. Nam-gyu was already going on and on, mumbling about Su-Bong, well aware that Se-mi was too busy scanning the halls for her girlfriend to listen. “And then he asks to draw on my hand. My hand. Like we’re friends or some shit! Like, honestly, who does he think he—hey! Wait!” Se-mi turned around, clasping her hands together apologetically. They were a mere twenty metres away from the exit, almost out of this hellhole, only a couple more and Nam-gyu would feel the sweet release of smoke in his lungs. But now Mi-na had appeared and she would leave him for her smoke-hating girlfriend. Se-mi had already quit smoking because of her but so far, she had at least stayed with Nam-gyu when he had gone out for a smoke.
That had changed last week, when Se-mi had told him that Mi-na despised the way she smelled of smoke when she came back from standing outside with him. “Besides, it’s January, Nam-gyu! It’s way too cold to be standing outside when I’m not even smoking myself.”
Yeah well fuck you too, Se-mi.
He rolled his eyes and waved her off. He didn’t dislike Mi-na, or the fact that she and Se-mi were dating. In fact, he was happy that Se-mi found someone. She had been crushing on the girl for years, but had never believed him when he had told her he was pretty sure that she was gay too. But alas, here they were.
Nam-gyu stepped into the cold alone, already regretting ever becoming addicted. He stomped through the snow-mud into the designated smoking-corner and fiddled out his pack. It was half-full still, and he quickly placed one between his lips. There were clouds forming in front of his face even though the cigarette wasn’t even lighted yet, and his face was numbing already. In this cold, the smell of the smoke would cling to him for a long time. He shivered underneath his jacket and put the flame in front of his face.
The air around him was quiet. Except for people like him, no one spent the breaks outside in this weather. And there were hardly any other people like him on this school. And that in any way. Well, except for…
”Yo, Nam-su!” Nam-gyu wanted to kill himself. Or at the very least, he wanted to throw his precious cigarette on the ground and leave. With a wide grin on his face, vape in his hand, Su-Bong approached him. As if ninety minutes with the bastard weren’t already enough, he now had to spend his break with him too? Yeah, fuck that. But before he could actually drop his smoke and go back inside, Su-Bong had already reached him and grabbed him by the shoulder. Strawberry-melon scented air hit him, and he wanted to throw up. How did Su-Bong seriously inhale that shit?
Smoke a cigarette like a man, asshole.
“Look man, I’ve been thinking.”, he said with a grin still plastered on his face. Nam-gyu scoffed and took a drag of his cigarette.
“Really? Doesn’t happen too often, does it?” Su-Bong’s mouth opened and then closed again, like he wasn’t sure what that meant. Then, he cleared his throat.
“You’re smart like? Like proper nerd fucking smart?” Nam-gyu was not a nerd. He just wasn’t as retarted as the rest of them. He had an actual, functioning brain. But he was in no mood to argue with this guy. The faster he got rid of him, the better.
“Sure, whatever, what do you want?” A cloud of flavoured air hit him square in the face and he almost knocked the vape out of Su-Bong’s hands. He had never been the type of guy to pick fights, but with Su-Bong? He almost couldn’t control his hands. His face just looked way too punchable. His back basically had a huge sign on it that said ‘kick me’.
“Okay, look. Since you’re smart and I fucking suck at math, why don’t you give me a hand?”
Oh, FUCK no.