Despite how warm the nights were — huddling close in a blanket with JaeHyung and doing his homework — the cold mornings always left a bitter taste in Shin's mouth.
Class 1-A had begun to feel stuffy. Or maybe it was just the sweater vest the students had to wear as a part of the uniform in winter.
"I hope your projects have been coming well this time?" Professor Choi asked. "Now that all frolicking and festivities are over, we should study harder, shouldn't we?"
"Yes Ma'am." 1-A said in high spirits. They were easy to motivate and easier to fool. But somewhere through the year, their results had improved. 1-A now stood at fourth position in all the classes of grade tenth.
"Good." The teacher smiled at her children kindly. "And I really look forward to giving grade A on each of your projects, especially biology. Please don't let me down, students."
Once in a while, Shin's hands would slip and mess up the notes he would take during the lecture. Perhaps it was his imagination or his wishful thinking, but he could sense a sharp gaze on his back, coming from two benches diagonally behind.
"Okay then," Professor Choi switched on the smart board, "tomorrow we will have a mock quiz to assess our progress before you all fly off into the winter break. Now," she turned to the board and began to write, "let's talk about photosynthesis."
"Ma'am?"
Shin glanced over his shoulder, his head turning back despite his better judgment when YooChan raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"May I go to the washroom, please?"
"Alright," Professor Choi gave a nod. She turned to the board once again, and began to draw a jar and a mouse, a plant and a candle inside that jar.
Shin tried to copy the caricature, but only ended up making a circle with two more circles inside. His incorrigible penmanship looked back at him from those two beady circles which were supposed to be a candle and a leaf.
"Now this is a rather important experiment, children."
Priestley. That bell jar experiment where a scientist killed a mouse to find that plants inhaled carbon dioxide. Griffith killed mice too, a lot of them, with pneumonia. All of a sudden, Shin's heart went out to those poor mice who died, coughing and wheezing with their lungs filled up with fluid.
"What this actually proved was that plants take up carbon dioxide and give oxygen. That sounds too easy for us now, but back then it wasn't. Later on…"
Shin heard little of what his Professor had to say. His mind was fixed on YooChan. He couldn't bear one more day living with the knowledge that his best friend was harboring trouble. Even ShiAhn had seemed to give up, because he just couldn't cope up with YooChan's venomous words.
"Ma'am?"
"Yes, Tae Shin, do you wish to say something?"
"Can I go to the washroom?"
"Yes," Professor Choi looked confused, "but don't bunk this class. I would be very disappointed if you do."
"Not at all, Ma'am." Shin gave her a bow and left the room, going straight to the place YooChan went. Shin's hunch wasn't wrong. YooChan was there, just at the end of the corridor, leaning against the railing of the balcony. He had his hands in his pockets and head bowed down, as if in serious thought.
"Chan-ah," Shin slowed down when he neared him, "why are you missing class?"
YooChan raised his head, as if genuinely surprised to see Shin. Then his face twisted into an ugly frown. "The fuck does that matter to you?"

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1.1 | Desiderium ✓
Teen FictionTae Shin is a simple boy with simple dreams, who likes to hide his half-forgotten past into the shadows of his low self-esteem. Kim JaeHwan is a sole heir to a gigantic multi-billion conglomerate, who likes to reminisce the ghosts of his happy child...