CHAEBEOL | minsung

four

͙ ͙۪۪̥ ͙ ♡𐡘 𐡘 𐡘 𐡘♡ ͙ ͙۪۪̥ ͙

Jisung was hovering in the courtyard out the front of their school building. His hands were in his pockets, and he was trying not to look back with the door he had just come out of.

Seungmin and Felix had kept walking, deep in discussion about something Jisung wasn't really paying attention to.

His head was elsewhere. Maybe it was because every time he moved his mouth, it would send a shooting pain through his jaw. Maybe it was the way he kept catching glimpses of his reflection and the mauve hue starting to darken his chin.

Or maybe it was the boy who did this to him.

Lee Minho? Is that what the teacher had called him? Jisung could barely believe someone would dare to lay a finger on him in public, never mind someone who hadn't even been enrolled for 24 hours. And then what the teacher had said shortly after-

"Hey, Jisung? Coming?"

Felix's voice stirred Jisung out of violent thoughts. Felix and Seungmin had finally noticed Jisung lingering by the bottom of the steps and they had turned to look at him.

"You guys go without me. I've just realised I've left some stuff in my locker that I need," Jisung called across the distance between them.

A frown passed over Felix's face. "We can wait for you!"

Something different was visible only for a millisecond on Seungmin's face. A knowing look, one Jisung was familiar with. If anyone could see through Jisung, it was Seungmin.

"Don't worry. We already stayed late enough to meet with the teachers. You two go home, I'll text in the group chat when I'm back at my house." Jisung tried to make himself sound reassuring.

Felix still didn't seem convinced, yet Seungmin clearly was.

"No, Felix, come on. Let's go. See you tomorrow, Hanji!"

Felix tried one last time to deter Seungmin, confused, but allowed himself to be dragged by the crook of one elbow away from the school. They left behind Jisung - annoyed by the nickname but even more so by Seungmin's irritating perceptiveness.

He'd only been stood there for a few minutes, brain fizzing with a million different thoughts to keep him occupied, when a noise from behind him made him turn.

Him. Stood at the top of the steps that led down to the exit where Jisung waited. Phone in one hand, bag in the other, a morose twinge to otherwise straight lips. Jisung's gaze was hyper-critical as he watched Minho glance up from his phone and catch his eyes on Jisung.

Minho's face seemed to flash for a moment in curiosity - a tilt of his head, a twitch in one eyebrow. But then it reset into something indecipherable. He spoke as he descended the stairs towards Jisung:

"Is this the part where I die?"

The older stopped a few steps away from Jisung, who stayed quiet, observant. And then Minho rolled his eyes and held his arms out at either side.

"Go on then. Get it over with."

Jisung breathed out a laugh through clenched teeth. Glanced down at Minho's hands, his defenceless stance, and let his eyes pause on Minho's expression. Irritation? Exasperation? Defeat? All of the above?

"You think I'm going to humiliate you privately?" Jisung's voice was smooth. "I'm going to let the whole school watch me destroy you."

"Kinky," Minho countered, the same brow quirking again.

The twist on Jisung's face didn't seem sure on whether it wanted to wring itself into a scowl or a smile. He chose neither, kept his face neutral. Waited Minho out.

"So, if you're not going to teach me my lesson now..." Minho sauntered past Jisung away from the school as he spoke. "Why did you wait for me?"

Minho's movements felt like a power play. Long strides would need to be matched by almost a run from Jisung, and Jisung wasn't sure if he wanted to submit so easily. He was sure, however, that he wasn't letting Minho get off this lightly.

"What makes you think I waited for you?" Jisung called out. He stayed stood where he was.

The desired effect - Minho stopped moving. He didn't turn to face Jisung, but he did call an answer back over his shoulder.

"Call it intuition," he said with the hint of a smile.

Minho didn't keep moving, so Jisung took a few steps of his own to stand behind the older boy again. This was enough to make Minho turn. He clearly wasn't expecting any more from Jisung, and so he cocked his head to one side, awaiting an explanation.

"After you assaulted me in Math's class, our professor gave me some pretty devastating news. She's partnered us on the project."

Minho's face betrayed him, and his eyes crumpled into something disbelieving.

"After I literally slammed your face into the desk? She's still making us work together?" he asked, incredulous.

A smirk from Jisung. "Assume I told her I would work with you anyway. Consider it my charity act of the month. Tutor the poverty-stricken."

Even Minho, with what he considered iron resolve, couldn't stop his eyes from flicking up into an eye-roll. He shot Jisung a foul look which Jisung returned tenfold.

"Fine." Minho's tone was short. "You do half, I'll do half. Keep out of each other's way."

Jisung drew his lips into a pout and widened his eyes. "And leave you responsible for my grades? Hell no. Not a chance I'm letting you work unsupervised on anything that will have my name attached to it."

There was a stillness between them. Both were sizing each other up; Jisung wasn't used to people acting so flippantly around him, and Minho wasn't used to dealing with pompous arseholes. They each struggled to navigate the conversation, and the tension rising between them was palpable.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. We won't have time to work on it. I've been suspended for a week," Minho muttered, breaking eye contact to glare at his own feet.

"Oh, really? And why's that?" Jisung's feigned ignorance came with batted eyelashes.

"Ha," Minho spat back. "Tried to crush a cockroach. The headteacher didn't like it."

It was Jisung's turn to roll his eyes, but he let the comment slide.

"Tomorrow evening, after school. I'll have a car sent to your house."

Jisung didn't wait for a response from Minho. He took a step to the side and walked without looking back past the older, whose glare had become a full-blown scowl. Minho spun on one heel to watch as Jisung kept walking.

"What makes you think you know where I live?" Minho yelled at the receding figure.

A distorted mirror: Jisung called an answer back at Minho, but didn't stop, didn't bother to turn and see his reaction.

If this was a power play, he would die before he let Minho have the upper hand.

"Definitely not intuition," Jisung had twisted Minho's words, thrown them back at him.

"I get what I want around here, Lee Minho."

͙ ͙۪۪̥ ͙ ♡𐡘 𐡘 𐡘 𐡘♡ ͙ ͙۪۪̥ ͙

...top jisung or top minho? thoughts and opinions ? xxxx