20Cm

TURBULENCE.

TAEHYUN

His sophomore year goes by unbearably slow, especially when baseball season starts. Due to his lack of confidence and fear of failing, Taehyun decided not to try out for his high school's baseball team for the second year in a row. Even though San and Mingi graduated, other rude upperclassmen replaced them with their own bullying antics. They didn't hold as much of a grudge against Taehyun compared to Mingi and San, but they still played a lot of cruel jokes on him and continued to harass him in the hallways. Taehyun seemed to be invisible to everyone in school except for them.

He was an easy target for bullies. His scrawny appearance and the old clothes he wore that his grandmother bought for him at thrift stores made him easy to make fun of. Taehyun didn't understand why people couldn't just leave him alone. Yes, he did make a laughing stock out of Mingi in front of the whole school when he accidentally spilled his tray of food all over him, but did that warrant all the torment he got from his jock buddies?

One breezy April day is when he's finally had enough of the torment. After a grueling first half of his school day, he made the mistake of leaving one of his textbooks in the locker room after gym earlier in the day. His teacher, instead of loaning one of his many spare textbooks, forced him to go back to the locker room to get it. Along with that, he wrote him up for a tardy due to being unprepared.

With a sigh, Taehyun nearly sprinted toward the locker room. He took the stairs two at a time down the main hallway before hustling towards the large gym. Once he got to the doors, he took a moment to catch his breath and glance inside. The students were coming out of the locker rooms after getting dressed. Perfect, Taehyun thought to himself. He didn't want to run into anyone in the locker room or have to give anyone any explanations on why he was here.

He opened the gym door and walked along the side of the gym toward the men's locker room. He avoided the confused stares of some of the students and kept walking. Taehyun opened the door to the locker room and disappeared inside. A few loud voices were talking near the bathrooms and Taehyun dipped his head, walking over to the bench where he usually set his stuff. He found his history textbook sitting right where he left it. He grabbed it quickly, tucking it under his arm. Just as he was about to leave, a familiar voice interrupted through the air.

"Look who it is!" Lee Jeno, a senior and member of the jock group that would often target him, interrupted with a laugh.

Taehyun halted, slowly glancing over at the two seniors who were swiftly approaching him. Jeno was one of San's closest friends. Sometimes, Taehyun thought that Jeno punished him worse than San ever did. Next to him was Na Jaemin, another member of the mindless jocks. Jeno had a confident smirk on his lips and his dark hair was shaved on the sides to display an undercut hairstyle. Jaemin regarded him with cold eyes and he crossed his arms across his bare chest, flexing his toned biceps in the process. The two of them looked to be in the process of changing into their bright red baseball uniforms until Taehyun interrupted. Today, the baseball team had their first game against some high school in downtown Los Angeles. They had to travel for it, which meant the baseball players were able to leave their classes early to get ready. Of course, Taehyun had to encounter these two of all the players on the baseball team.

"You jealous of this, freak?" Jeno asked with a gleaming smirk on his lips as he held up the red baseball jersey.

Usually, Taehyun would turn around and walk away. Sometimes, he'd clench his jaw and glance down at the floor to prevent the feeling of embarrassment from flushing to his cheeks. Today, though, he had enough. He was sick and tired of the bullying. It was time that he stood up for himself and his self-esteem.