The Hideout I Need

Chapter 7: Who is Han Min-ki?

"I can't believe you somehow managed to hit your head on the top of the door," Tae-young looked over at Jung-mo in disbelief, "How did you even manage to do that? What were you trying to do?"

They were both in the school nurse's office, Jung-mo lying down on one of the beds. He had an ice pack on his forehead. Was it a bit overkill that he was lying on the bed? Yeah, probably.

"I thought it would look cool if I jumped up and slapped the top of the door," he said, sitting up and taking the ice pack off of his forehead.

"But why would you jump while you were in the door frame?"

"You know what Tae-young? Sometimes I make dumb decisions," Jung-mo burst out in all seriousness, causing Tae-young to laugh at him.

"Well, you're fine," the school nurse came back from around the corner with the absence note she wrote for the two students, "I just don't understand what happened."

"It's too embarrassing to say again," Jung-mo said in shame, avoiding eye contact with her.

Tae-young hurriedly took over, seeing the embarrassed look on Jung-mo's face, "Thank you so much, ma'am. If he's fine we'll be on our way back to class."

"Yeah, go ahead," she chuckled, still smiling awkwardly at the reason Jung-mo was brought to her. Maybe she found it funny deep within herself. Jung-mo got up and politely gave the ice pack to the nurse with both hands, still avoiding eye contact. The two kids started walking back to class, the school nurse waving them off while looking at her phone.

Walking towards the class, the halls started to seem familiar to Tae-young. The school was finally starting to seem like his school and not just his new school. He remembered his way in most places, even though the school was huge, which was something he was proud of. It had been a little over a month, but it was still something he could say he accomplished. He couldn't believe it had already been so long. The weather already seemed so different when you compare mid-March to mid-April.

As they kept walking down the hall, Tae-young's eyes instantly landed on a tall and handsome boy, seemingly their grade, along with his posse of 5-or-so other boys. He had a nice haircut and had dyed his hair a bright shade of brown. It looked a little like he had gotten a perm within the past few months, but it was slowly fading away. He was wearing dangling earrings, which Tae-young wondered whether or not it was against the school dress code. He had to admit, that kid looked cool. Intimidating, but cool.

As Jung-mo and Tae-young were about to walk past him, the boy stuck his arm out to signal for them to stop.

Tae-young's heart started beating faster, looking confused at the hand in front of his chest. He looked up at the boy. He found himself flustered looking at the taller boy but was met with a smile.

"Hi! I'm Han Min-ki," the boy smiled, extending his hand for Tae-young to shake it, "I haven't seen you around the school before. Are you new?"

"Yes, I am," Tae-young awkwardly smiled as he shook Min-ki's hand. He felt very flustered, as he hadn't expected such a cool figure to initiate a conversation with him. Jung-mo, on the other hand, did not seem to enjoy the situation at all.

"You're the one who stood up to Ms. Kim, right? That was pretty cool."

"Thanks," Tae-young chuckled, still a little flustered.

Min-ki looked Tae-young up and down and gave a confident smile. He bent his head down a little to be eye-level with Tae-young, "You seem pretty cool. Shall we be friends?"

Tae-young smiled, "Uh, sure—!"

"Like hell, you'll be," Jung-mo said angrily, as he pulled Tae-young away and started walking away quickly. As they kept walking, Tae-young could hear some of the other boys from Min-ki's posse giggling. They started walking away in the opposite direction.