Craving (JJ x James)

17.

On Monday morning, James washed his face and looked in the mirror in the bathroom. He just couldn't get Justin out of his head since Friday. Who did Justin think he was looking that handsome? He absolutely despised him for that – but not as much as he despised him for following him around.

Sure, it was probably James' fault in the beginning for being very friendly to Justin, but how was he supposed to know Justin would become so friendly? The kid seemed very cold at first in fact. He had a complete 360 which James had no ability to predict.

James was only doing it for Sangwon anyway, and now there was no reason to be nice to Justin because Sangwon had told him to stay away from his cousin. And despite how cute Justin was, he just wasn't cool enough to be his friend...

'James!' Keran's familiar voice outside the bathroom door interrupted his thoughts. 'Geez get out of there! I'm beginning to think you just go to school to look pretty rather than to actually get an education.'

'I just walked in though!' James countered and started to get himself ready much more quickly.

Once he had taken a short shower, he walked out and met an angry looking Keran.

'Go make breakfast when you're done dressing up, will you?' She commanded as she pushed him away from the door.

'Do I really have to do that for you?'

'Hey, my apartment, my rules.' she grabbed the handle and disappeared into the bathroom.

Once James was done cleaning himself up, he made his way into the kitchen and attempted to make some breakfast. He wasn't done by the time Keran walked down the stairs all freshened up.

'Wow you're not done yet? I'm gonna be late.' She sat down by the counter instead. 'By the way, I'm gonna be very serious with your grades, just like mom and dad told me. So make sure your mid-terms are good otherwise we're gonna have a big problem.'

James nodded, even though he had no intention of working hard and didn't believe that good grades were exactly something achievable to him.

'Mom and dad said if you don't do well here, they're gonna send you to live with grandma and grandpa in rural China.'

'Wait what!?' James paused. 'Outside the country!?'

'Yes,' she nodded, 'and I know you think I'm terrible and I'm the worst person you could live with, but you do not want to live with grandma and grandpa in the rural area. You wouldn't even be able to handle it. And I'm serious James, don't mess up.'

'Right.' he nodded. Now James felt a bit more pressured, how was he going to get good grades?

𓆩♡𓆪

James sat with his three friends at lunch in the afternoon, all three of them happily conversing except James.

James looked into his tray, trapped in too many thoughts, and his eyes wandered to Justin who was sitting alone. Their eyes met, and James almost cussed under his breath. He was already having a bad day, he didn't need Justin to make him feel worse.

But Justin noticed that James wasn't alright. He knew it wasn't his business, but it was James who had comforted him throughout his struggle as October_Rooster. Wasn't he going to help him now with whatever seemed to be on his mind? His friends didn't seem to notice that he was bothered.

James tried to shake the thoughts away but joining the conversation, but he couldn't.

Maybe this was Justin's chance – maybe if he comforted James in this situation he would open up to him and like him like he did on Instagram. He tried to take the chance. He slowly got up from his table and walked over to James'. The moment James saw Justin, he shut his eyes in annoyance.

'What now?' James asked, sounding aggravated.

'I just...' he looked for the right words to say, which suddenly disappeared because the eyes of Justin's three friends were now on him, looking annoyed with his presence as usual. 'Do you need to talk?'

'Oh my god,' Jungwon laughed. 'Is he serious?'

James slammed his hand on the lunch table and stood up, he looked angry and made Justin flinch from the sound of his hand against the hard surface. 'Why would I even want to talk to you of all people!? What is wrong with you!? I already told you on Friday that I don't want to be around you! And this isn't even the first time!'

Justin didn't want to answer in front of everyone, so he instead kept quiet. He just felt that James would appreciate it and didn't expect this reaction. He looked down on the floor in embarrassment and sadness.

'Justin, if you didn't get it because I said it in private, I'll now say it with everyone in here as my witness. STAY AWAY FROM ME.'

The words felt like a knife through his soul, it felt like rejection and it hurt pretty badly.

Sunghoon whispered something to Jungwon then stood up from the table as well. 'I know what the issue is. You're simply hoping that the new guy is gay like you.' Sunghoon took his cellphone from his pocket and pressed play on the dreaded video that Justin didn't want to see again for the rest of his life, the video that he was hoping no longer existed in anyone's cell phone or mind.

'No!' Justin screamed, putting his hands in his hair. 'Please don't play that video!'

It almost felt like it was echoing in the entire cafeteria, and of course everyone was listening and laughing and chuckling.

'I just have this terrible secret I've never told anyone,' Justin heard his voice in the video as he admitted his most private secret to a stranger, a mistake he had made and now sincerely regretted.

'Sunghoon stop!' he walked towards him and tried to snatch his cell phone from him, but he raised his arm then threw it straight at James who caught it and snickered.

'James please just stop playing the video,' Justin begged as he walked towards James desperately.

'If this is the reason you're bugging me, I'm going to tell you straightforwardly.' he moved closer to him, the video still playing in the background. 'I'm not a faggot like you Justin. You of all people should know that I don't like boys, and I most certainly wouldn't like someone like you even if I were to magically be gay...'

'Hey!' Yorch's familiar voice made James' statement stop midair as he walked towards them. 'You can't talk to someone like that. I don't know if that's how you talked to people in your old school, but not here.'

'Hey you can't blame James only here!' Wonyoung finally spoke, also getting up from the chair. 'Justin has been stalking James and it's been irritating him for a while. He's tired of handling him.'

Justin bit his lip, trying to hold back his tears. 'Just stop the video!'

Sunghoon took the cell phone from James and stopped the video. 'There.'

'You better get rid of that thing!' Yorch warned.

Justin looked at James with tears in his eyes and ran off the scene. He couldn't handle the embarrassment and all the eyes on him, and he couldn't handle this issue being in the light again. He thought it was over, but now it clearly wasn't.

'Now look what you've done.' Yorch said to Sunghoon and James. 'You're just really terrible people.'

James dropped himself back on the chair. 'Whatever, I'm just really tired.' he had too much on his plate to care about Justin at the moment. 

Craving.