The 1 Rule - haobin

unwanted company

"What about him?" Ricky asks with a confused expression shown on his face

"No, nothing really. I was just wondering if you could pass me the paper that you took from him. He said that he wants it back" I say cautiously

"Paper-?"

"Yeah. That's what you guys were talking about when you left the cafeteria, right?" I say. I see Ricky's eyes widen and then laugh

"Oh! That paper! Yeah! Yeah, I'll give it to him, don't worry" he says, laughing nervously and scratching the back of his head. I nod and smile. They need to at least know how to lie well to get away with these kinds of things.

"He seemed to really need it right now though" I explain, trying to hide the grin forming on my face

"Now?"

"Yeah. Just give it to me and I'll take it to him"

"No, I'm sure he doesn't need it right now" he replies, his ears turning red

"Oh I'm sure he does. He seemed really stressed about it." I say. Ricky slowly nods his head and opens the zip of his bag and dives his head inside to search for a paper. When he finds the paper, he crumples it into a small piece, and passes it to me.

"Here. Don't open it, he said he wants to keep anything that is inside a secret" He says. I nod and smile

"Yeah, don't worry. Thanks man" I stand up and strut out of the library, the paper in my hand. Once I'm out of anyone's sight, I open the paper and snicker when I see maths equations scribbled around in Ricky's handwriting. Now, I honestly wanted to tell Ricky that I knew what they were up to, but I noticed that I have no proof whatsoever, and also that neither Ricky nor Gyuvin seem to be comfortable yet to talk about it, so I'll just leave it to them to tell me when they feel ready. I shove the paper inside my bag and hide it between my pens that are scattered all around the base of the bag.

"Hanbin!" I hear Cho call out. I turn around and smile at her

"Hey! Are you feeling any better?" I ask

"I wasn't feeling bad in the first place. Just tired"

"And are you still tired?"

"A bit. Gyuvin and Gunwook ended up spilling cold water on my face to wake me up" She says gloomily. I laugh at her expression

"And did it work?"

"Not really, it just put me in a bad mood. I had to change because of them" She signals at her blue shirt that she definitely did not have at the start of the day

"Try drinking coffee. That always help" I reply

"I tried. Apparently I wasn't the only one with that idea though, because all the good coffee was sold out once I got there" Her back slumps as she leans on the wall. I follow her motion and lean on the wall next to her. We stay in comfortable silence as she looks at her phone, and I look at her

"By the way, what do you think about going to an escape room?" she asks, putting her phone down in excitement

"I've never been to one. Sounds like fun" I say

"Alright, it's set then. We should ask Ricky to come!" she says

"And Gyuvin. Ricky wouldn't go if Gyuvin doesn't" I say. Cho nods and looks at me

"I swear I think those two are dating," she says. I look at her, debating whether or not to tell her

"I thought that too at some point" I say finally

"I think everyone does. They act like an old married couple." She says, laughing. I laugh as well and look at my phone

"Shit, class starts soon. Imma get going, yeah?" I say. Cho nods and gets of from the wall

"Same. Wanna meet after school?" She asks. I suddenly freeze with happiness of the sudden question, but my smile drops once I remember I can't hang out after classes

"Sorry, can't. Tomorrow we could though. It's the weekend anyways"

"How about we do the escape room thing tomorrow then?"

"Sure! I'll text you" I say, waving at her and then walking away. I feel my heart racing with excited jumps, the rush of adrenaline of talking to her hitting me directly to the heart.

"Hanbin! Wait up!" I hear a voice from behind me. I turn around once only to see, out of pure disappointment, Camille.

"Oh... hey" I say, trying to walk faster as she runs beside me

"Hi! I just wanted to know when we're having our next tutoring session?" She says with a wide and genuine smile, so genuine that it breaks my heart

"Uh... tutoring?"

"Yeah. The maths tutoring," she says "oh, don't tell me you forgot about it?"

"No, of course not. It's just that I understand everything now, so I don't really need any more help" I say, cringing at the lie. Because clearly, I don't see my math grades getting any better.

"Oh that's a shame. I mean it's a shame for me, definitely not for you" she says, finding herself funny. I laugh along out of pure sympathy

"Yeah..." I say awkwardly, fastening my pace a little more

"Nevertheless, I need your help" she says quietly. I allow myself to look at her and smile in the kindest way I can

"Yeah? With what?"

"Well... I'm actually having a lot of difficulty with English. And since finals are coming next week, I really need tutoring" she explains

"Oh" I say, not wanting to agree to helping her

"Could you... help me?" she asks

"Well, I'm already tutoring a friend of mine"

"Oh! That's perfect, you can teach us both at the same time" She says in a happy tone, touching my arm ever so slightly. I look down at it with an uncomfortable expression

"I don't know if she'll be happy with it"

"I'm sure she will. Just tell me her name and I'll go talk to her about it"

"Cho. Cho-Hee. Tell me what she says"

"Of course! Pass me your phone number though so that I can text you to know when our next tutoring session is!" she says, handing me her phone. I nod and start typing down my phone number with regret.

"Nice! I'll see you later Binnie!" she says, skipping away. I immediately cringe at the sudden nickname given to me by a complete stranger. I walk to class with a feeling of annoyance and disgust, in the least rude way possible, of course.

♡♡♡

Omg is there smt going on between the 04z????

Who knowsss.... 🤭🤭🤭🤭

But anyways, idk abt you but I actually really like Camille for some reason. Like I can't manage to make her into a bad person. I feel like she was introduced as more kind than what I intended to introduce her as

I also feel like I made Taerae look like a bad person though, and that was completely unintended.

My bad.

(stream 'zero' by NewJeans)