TEEN SPIRIT

art class - @cellarist

Written by: cellarist

 TOMORROW X TOGETHER

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

During Art, Huening Kai showed up without his colour pencils.

The teacher had them colour objects with references, because last week they tried acrylic painting and ended up with twelve pieces of uniform permanently stained with paint.

There was definitely no way he could colour a worksheet if he had no colour pencils, so he made the totally genius decision to use the 4B pencil that was somehow in his pants pocket.

At his table, Beomgyu peered over his shoulder and almost screamed in shock.

"Don't ruin the worksheet like this!" he whispered-yelled; he had no desire to get scolded by their Art teacher. His words caught the attention of Soobin, though, who was sitting at the far end of the table.

Huening Kai glanced at Beomgyu's worksheet, then at Soobin's, and resisted the urge to guffaw at the starking difference between the quality of the two. He did not even bother comparing his with Beomgyu's, but just for the fun of it, and because he had nothing better to do, he glanced at his own work after looking at Beomgyu's again.

This time, he did end up laughing. Beomgyu furrowed his eyes in confusion. Soobin reached over to take a look at Huening Kai's masterpiece, and then snatched it away to show it to Taehyun, who sat beside him.

"What?" Beomgyu asked in hushed tones, but no one paid him mind.

"Shit― Kai's work makes mine look like a fucking exhibition piece. You didn't even try! The pencil made it worse, I swear," Soobin uttered out between chortles. Yeonjun finally looked up from his worksheet and scowled at them.

"Do your damned work, I don't wanna get scolded by Ms. Lee again!"

"Yes, hyung," everyone at the table―except Beomgyu, who made it a point not to shout in puzzlement throughout the whole conversation―responded monotonously, which earned them another glare from Yeonjun.

Taehyun took the chance to look at Yeonjun's work. He whistled, half-heartedly commenting, "You're working hard, aren't you, star-boy?"

Yeonjun grunted. "Quit calling me that."

"Why?" Taehyun asked teasingly. "You'll settle for nothing less than an A-star, after all, even for Art~"

Soobin snickered. Yeonjun merely stared, unimpressed.

The conversation died off after that, after Yeonjun chose to continue on his work rather than to continue a conversation that could give him grey hair at the ripe age of fifteen.

When the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson, Beomgyu was the first to submit his worksheet, out of everyone else in the Art room. He gave it to Ms. Lee with both hands, eyes beaming, clearly proud of his work.

Ms. Lee gave it a once-over and walked away, much to his disappointment. Standing just behind him, Taehyun instantly piped up, "Don't worry, your art is the best out of all of us!"

Beomgyu nodded silently, some of his brightness returning.

At the end of the line of students queuing up to hand in their worksheets, Huening Kai frantically begged Soobin to submit his worksheet pressed under Soobin's.

"Please! I'll buy you ice-cream later! Save me from Ms. Lee's wrath; you're a good friend, aren't you?"

Soobin blew a raspberry, eventually shoving Huening Kai's worksheet under his. Huening Kai gave him a smile, and he bolted out of the classroom before Ms. Lee could notice his atrocious worksheet under Soobin's.

Back at his classroom, he opened his wallet, counting his money.

There were no notes; only two fifty-cents coins. Finding ice-cream that cost as little as that was akin to him getting an A for the worksheet he just handed in to Ms. Lee.

Uh oh.

―――

A week later, Huening Kai entered the art room with great hesitance. Hiding behind Yeonjun's figure, with Taehyun not-so-discreetly trying to shove him away from Yeonjun's back, he tried to reach his table without getting caught by Ms. Lee.

He was halfway there when Ms. Lee hollered his name.

Taehyun stifled a laugh behind him, while he froze. Yeonjun only sighed in a way that explicitly told Huening Kai he would not be able to save him.

Some distance away from him, Beomgyu sat at the table, his brows furrowed, confused as always. Soobin was nowhere to be found. (Did he play hooky again?)

Damn it, Huening Kai should have stayed at home too.

"Huening Kai, can you tell me why you coloured my worksheet with pencil when I clearly wrote in the instructions that you are to use colour pencils?"

Huening Kai closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

He turned to Taehyun. "Tell Beomgyu that I was the one who ate the last strawberry in his fridge."