Chapter Text
“Why do you look like that?”
“Because of Kim fucking Donghyun, that’s why!” groans Taesan, the palm of his right hand dragging down his face. Riwoo winces at the damage it will cause for his skin in later years, but chooses not to waste his time lecturing Taesan about something that he inevitably does not care for.
“He can’t be that bad. What’d he do this time?” The other boy leans against his closed locker, watching as Taesan rummages through his own with a seemingly permanent scowl on his face.
“The fact that you have to say ‘this time’ says enough, I think.” Taesan is always one to complain about Leehan and his nonstop endeavors. On a good morning, he’ll just ignore Leehan to the best of his ability and try to have a normal school day. However, that morning, the brunette seemed to have other plans.
—
“Dongmin!” A voice called out to the male who had both his headphones plugged in, not paying any attention to his surroundings. “Han Dongmin!” The voice tried once more, desperate to gain the attention of none other than Han Taesan, troublemaker of the school.
Despite being ignored two times already, Kim Leehan was not going to give up. The boy strutted towards the aforementioned troublemaker, who was making his way down the hall with his eyes locked on his phone screen. He took in a deep breath before unplugging both of the boy’s headphones and letting them drop to his side, ultimately leading to the other groaning and picking them up.
“What do you want?” the raven-haired boy voiced, rolling his eyes under closed lids to hide his frustration with the brunette before him. “I haven’t even reached my first period classroom yet. What could you have to nag about?”
Leehan sighed and wordlessly stared at Taesan’s shirt. Even though he was very obviously hinting at the bold statement on the top of Taesan’s shirt, the other pretended as if he did not notice.
“What?” the boy sneered, putting all of his weight onto one leg to show how fed up he was with the other.
“Your shirt,” Leehan pointed out as if it weren’t obvious. “It goes against the school dress code.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Taesan groaned loudly, not even trying to hide his annoyance anymore.
“And no swearing. You have to change or put a hoodie on top of that. It’s not allowed.” Leehan crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the explicit message that lay across Taesan’s clothed chest.
“I don’t have a hoodie.”
“Yes, you do. You have one tied around your waist.” Leehan tried to suppress his laughter, finding Taesan’s lame attempt at getting out of the situation funny. “But if you don’t want to wear that one, you can always wear the school’s—”
“No! Absolutely fucking not! I’ll wear my own hoodie and be on my way, thank you very much!” Taesan almost dropped his phone when he heard the suggestion. Everyone in the school knew how God awful the logo and merchandise was and nobody wore the school clothes when given the choice.
Shoving his phone—which he thankfully had managed to keep a grip on despite his shock—into Leehan’s hands, the ravenette hastily unwrapped his hoodie from his waist and forced it onto his upper body. Once his head peeked out through the opening and his hands made it through the sleeves, Leehan returned his device in the same manner that it had been given to him. With that, Taesan almost dropped his phone again, if it weren’t for his fast reflexes.
“Thank you. See you at lunch, Dongmin-ah!” Leehan shined his famous smile at the older boy who fake-gagged at the use of his real name. Once he had regained his sense of self, Taesan shot Leehan a passive-aggressive response before he could fully get away.
“Don’t ‘Dongmin-ah’ me after that, you dick!” Taesan really wishes he could go back and stop Riwoo from voting Leehan as Student Body President, because that nerd took his job as seriously as humanly possible.
Leehan’s giddy attitude didn’t die down from Taesan’s remark. In fact, he got even happier.
“I won’t next time, Taesan!” He looked back and gave Taesan one last wave before pushing through the hallway’s double doors.
At that moment, Taesan thought that Riwoo’s idea of joining the Student Body just to frame Leehan and get him kicked out sounded very appealing.
—
“Let me get this straight—You’re mad at him because he dress-coded you for your shirt being inappropriate?” Riwoo tries to straighten out the story a bit more. Most of what Taesan had spewed out in the last 2 minutes were colorful words and loaded insults, but Riwoo usually omits those extra hints of spice in Taesan’s daily rants anyway.
“Yeah, fucking bastard.” Taesan slams his locker shut, proceeding to lean against it just like Riwoo is.
“Isn’t that his job though? I mean, as Student Body President, his job is literally to point out people and their wrongdoings, especially when related to the school and its environment.” Riwoo states in a matter-of-a-fact tone, bringing Taesan’s mood back to ground level. “What shirt were you even wearing?”
Taesan pushes himself off of the locker at the expected question and cautiously takes off his hoodie. He doesn’t know if Leehan is hiding somewhere, waiting to pounce at him again, and he really does not want to deal with him for a second time today.
“Taesan—” Riwoo’s shaky voice makes it clear that he’s struggling to hold back his laughter. He covers his mouth and looks up at the other, who sports an irritated look—Even his own best friend is against him!
“God, what?!” he speaks through clenched teeth, his eyes forced shut so as not to look at Riwoo’s face. He knows he’ll start laughing too if he looks at the other for too long.
“Taesan, your shirt literally says ‘Sex 4 Lyfe.’” Riwoo bursts into laughter, doubling over as though Taesan’s shirt is the funniest thing in the world. And to him, it might be, because Taesan thinks it’s completely normal and rational for him to be wearing! It’s true!
“And?! I think I can read, thank you!” Taesan scoffs and shoves his hoodie on again, suddenly self-conscious. He thought the shirt was cool, his brother thought the shirt was cool, and clearly he must have caught Leehan’s eye if the guy managed to call him out for it.
“You’re a junior in high school. You’ve never even had sex before. Let alone dated a girl or a guy!”
Riwoo has to catch his breath so he doesn’t faint from amusement. Taesan tries to act annoyed, yet he can’t help the smile that eventually reaches his face.
“Stop laughing!” Taesan whines and punches Riwoo lightly because he doesn’t want to hurt him. “Fine, then! I will have sex with someone!” he says this just to get Riwoo to stop ridiculing him—he doesn’t really want to have sex with anyone.
And it works. Ha ha.
“You— what?” Unfortunately, Riwoo laughs even harder at this declaration and Taesan is starting to feel even more insecure because other people have entered the school and they’re all looking at him funny. “No, no, Taesan-ah. You can’t have sex with someone.”
Riwoo finally calms down and puts his hand on Taesan’s shoulder. He’s grinning and Taesan knows that’s because he has a bet up his sleeves.
“But… I bet you can’t get a girlfriend or boyfriend by the start of senior year. Fifty-thousand won.” Riwoo takes his hand off Taesan’s shoulder to cross his arms. He has that look on his face that gamblers usually have when they think they’re going to win a bet.
Taesan looks Riwoo up and down and mirrors his stance, crossing his arms before whispering, “You’re on, bitch.”
—
It’s no surprise that Taesan’s least favorite class just so happens to be the only one he has with Leehan.
Taesan begrudgingly walks into the room with his backpack slung on one shoulder. His hoodie is on, pulled all the way down so Leehan can’t possibly find another way to mention it. He’s sure he looks absolutely ridiculous because he didn’t plan for his hoodie to be half of his entire outfit, but he’d rather wear this than the school merch.
Taesan is surprised to walk in and see Leehan talking to a group of girls. Usually, people leave him alone because he has a stack of papers almost as tall as Taesan that he has to fill up. Taesan might even think he looks worthy on the common occasion that he does. (Taesan is joking here.)
But Taesan doesn’t care. He really doesn’t. Right now, he doesn’t have time to focus on Kim Donghyun and whatever the fuck he’s got going on with his life because he really wants that fifty-thousand won and he’s really sure that he’s going to get it. He just has to introduce himself to some girl or guy and hope that they aren’t dejected by his offputting personality.
Offputting. Yep. That’s exactly how Riwoo would describe it. Taesan thinks he’s quite bubbly, but the fact that he has no other friends except for Riwoo and Myung Jaehyun probably says otherwise.
Taesan rolls his eyes when he hears Leehan’s honey-like laughter resonate through the already lively room and sits down in the seat as far away from the dude as possible. He tries to act like a normal student, which he is, and takes out his pencil case, notebook, and reading glasses. (Just in case.)
As he’s zipping up his backpack, he sees someone knocking on his desk in his peripheral vision. He knows he must be dealing with someone absolutely insufferable if the first thing they decide to do is knock on a desk.
Taesan looks up because he doesn’t feel like asking what the person wants and is not surprised to see Son Jiho glaring at him. He blinks up at the guy, totally unamused, and uses his face to ask him what the fuck he wants.
“You’re in my seat,” Jiho points out the obvious and Taesan almost laughs by accident. “And don’t start with that ‘I don’t see your name on it,’ bullshit. We have assigned seats in this class.” Taesan deflates at that because now he has no stupid argument to make Jiho mad.
“I want to sit here, though.” Taesan juts his bottom lip out childishly and sets his bag on the floor next to his seat to further enrage Jiho. He doesn’t like Jiho and he’s 60% sure the guy doesn’t like him either, so whatever Taesan can do to piss him off, he will do.
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re sitting in my assigned seat. You don’t think the teacher is going to notice? And you don’t think we’re both going to get in trouble?” Jiho crosses his arms and looks down at Taesan condescendingly. Taesan just about chokes on the air because he’s only just noticing that Jiho’s goons have spawned right next to him out of nowhere.
“Since when do you care about getting in trouble?”
Taesan snickers and moves to unzip his pencil case but is stopped by a firm hand. He nearly manages to roll his eyes but his arm is yanked so hard by whoever grabbed it that he doesn’t have time to think about it.
“Fucking move, Han.” Jiho’s face is so close to Taesan that the latter can feel his spit. Ew.
“Or what?” Taesan really doesn’t hope they’re causing a scene right now because that means Leehan is going to be all up his ass about it after school. Some part of him kind of wants the guy to intervene, you know, just to get Jiho to go away, but he can’t say that out loud.
“I’ll tell everyone that you kissed that boy behind the school freshman year,” Jiho whispers this as if it’ll make the words any more threatening. Taesan grimaces and tries to think of a way to get this idiot off him.
“And what if I told everyone that the boy I kissed was you?” Taesan whispers it back. Just to be even.
But he guesses Jiho didn’t like that he whispered it back. Or that he said it at all because within seconds Taesan’s on the ground and there’s a throbbing sensation in his bottom lip.
Also, his pencil case is on the floor. He really doesn’t appreciate that.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jiho sneers, looking around cautiously as if all eyes aren’t already on him. “The fuck are you all looking at?” He seems to take note of the attention and grows self-conscious. Safe to say he wasn’t expecting Taesan to respond that way.
“You’re causing a scene.” A monotonous voice interrupts the tense atmosphere of the room. Taesan suddenly wonders where the hell the teacher is because this is really annoying and he has a test next period.
“Shit, am I really? My bad, Mr. President.” Jiho uses a weird puppy-owner voice to speak to the person. Taesan turns his head slightly and isn’t surprised to see that it’s Leehan. “But I was just doing what’s right. This idiot here was sitting in my assigned seat.” He glares at Taesan as he speaks and, this time, Taesan actually rolls his eyes.
Taesan turns to look at Leehan to see what he will do about all this and is taken aback when he notices that the guy is already gazing at him. Taesan wonders if he should stand up to avoid looking like a complete idiot, but he’s too comfortable on the ground now to do that.
“There was no reason for you to resort to violence.” Leehan crosses his arms coolly. Taesan can’t believe he thinks Leehan looks cool right now, but he does. It’s not very easy to stand up to Son Jiho. Unless you’re Han Taesan, of course. “Or has he said something to provoke you?”
Taesan tries hard to not burst into laughter because he knows Jiho is at an impasse. He can’t possibly bring up what Taesan said because he can’t risk his reputation like that—God forbid he’s gay!
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Leehan sighs and taps his foot against the ground. He waits for Jiho to say anything more to defend his case before proposing a solution. “Technically, I could stay quiet and have you both get off scot-free. But I don’t want to do that because you’ve hurt someone close to me.”
Taesan’s brows furrow and he whips his head around at the speed of light. With the newfound throbbing in his lips, it hurts his entire head to do so and he really regrets it, but he can’t believe that Leehan just called him his friend.
Okay, well, he didn’t say that. But he implied it!
“Since when do you two talk?” Jiho seems equally confused and almost offended. Taesan doesn’t blame him, but he’s not about to refute what Leehan’s saying because it seems like the guy is trying to get Jiho in trouble.
“Since forever ago!” Leehan says this as if it’s obvious. Taesan almost chuckles but his bottom lip hurts so bad that he doesn’t.
“U-uh, Dongmin. Your— your nose is bleeding. Like, bad.” Someone from the circle of students that Taesan hadn’t even noticed had grown speaks up. Taesan takes a few seconds to process what the dude said before touching his nose with his left hand. Lo and behold, there is splotchy red liquid everywhere.
“This is so not a look.” Taesan groans and shuts his eyes tight. He opens them just to glare at Jiho before saying, “This is your fault, asshole!”
“No swearing, Taesan,” Leehan calls him out so fast that Taesan almost gives himself whiplash for the second time. He ignores the brunette and considers sticking his tongue out at Jiho to mock him but ultimately doesn’t because he’s not very interested in tasting booger-infused blood.
“You should probably go to the infirmary…” Someone else from the circle suggests. Taesan sighs and pushes himself off the ground.
Instantaneously, multiple people call out in worry as Taesan staggers and grabs onto a random desk for support. Being the person that he is, Taesan tries to act nonchalant and pretends as though he’s not about to flop onto the floor like his cousin’s goldfish last weekend. (Taesan swears it wasn’t his fault.)
“Let me help you.” A sophomore who Taesan knows as Woonhak grabs onto him and helps him stand up straight. Taesan has no clue how, when, or why the guy got here, but he’s grateful for his help nonetheless.
As he’s hopping out of the classroom with blood dripping onto his hoodie and some of his quote-unquote “inappropriate” shirt, he sees Leehan out the corner of his eye. The guy is glaring Jiho down and he doesn’t look even half as amused as he was just seconds ago.
“He better teach that idiot a lesson. He’s a total dick.” Taesan seethes before realizing his face is all fucked up and he probably shouldn’t be moving it at all.
“Oh, he will. He has a bone to pick with Jiho too. Or maybe I should say Jiho has a bone to pick with him. That’s a fun story,” Woonhak snickers and Taesan assumes it’s the “fun story” that’s making him laugh. “Maybe he’ll tell you about it now that you’ve been publicly ridiculed by Son Jiho, too.”
Huh. Taesan is intrigued, but he doesn’t do or say anything to make Woonhak elaborate because God, could he use some chapstick and Advil right now.