pet, meanie

III

"Bye mum! Bye dad!"

Wonwoo yelled as he struggled to lace-up his shoes. He glanced down at them once he thought he was done putting them on, and frowned when he saw a blob of mucky brown on his left sneaker. The laces were sloppily done, too.

He crouched on the floor again, undoing, and re-tying the laces again. Just as he was about to step out for once, his mum called for him.

"Wonwoo, breakfast!"

"Can't mum, I'm late!"

"And this guy wants a cat," he heard her scoff, as he closed the door behind him, followed by some more muffled muttering he couldn't quite catch.

On his way to school, Wonwoo felt like he should have woken up just ten minutes earlier, so he wouldn't have to skip breakfast. It was chicken and waffles this morning, and Wonwoo was weak for his mum's waffles.

Cooking up fantasies about waffles, Wonwoo didn't realise when he slammed into some guy while crossing the road. When he looked at him to apologise, he noticed it was a boy from the school's track team.

Yoon Jeonghan. At first glance, he seemed far from an athlete, with his painfully thin frame, and delicate face. Heck, the first time Wonwoo saw him, he'd thought Jeonghan was one of the cheerleaders. He definitely had the charm and looks to be one.

"S- Sorry, man. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Asked Wonwoo, dusting off his shirt as he moved a step back. Jeonghan sent him a sweet smile, almost angelic, but Wonwoo knew better than to fall for the boy's exterior innocence. Jeonghan was a beast on track, cute smiles forgotten at the time, and had a reputation of being extremely witty in tricky situations.

"Yeah, no, you didn't hurt me. Are you okay?"

Wonwoo nodded.

Jeonghan narrowed his eyes at him, as he spoke, "Aren't you Jeon Wonwoo? The STEM kid? The one with the bomb project for the year-end last year?"

Wonwoo blushed slightly. It felt strange having a literal school-level celebrity recognise him. He nodded, earning a giggle from Jeonghan. Wonwoo wondered what that meant.

Jeonghan held out his hand for Wonwoo to shake. Albeit sceptical, Wonwoo did, and left with a quiet 'I'll get going, now'.

He swore he heard Jeonghan cackle as he turned his back to him, muttering something about his teammate – Kim Mingyu.

Kim Mingyu was like the epitome of perfection. He was like a magnet, attracting anyone and everyone, except the teachers. The teachers just admired him for his record in academics, while his coach would only ever bellow like a bull during practice. It would have been weird if even the teachers had a thing for Mingyu.

Even before Wonwoo had reached the gates to school, he was pounced on by Jun, followed by Seokmin. Minghao, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Minghao said he'll be trying out a few new things this morning. Don't be a mum,"

It was like Seokmin could read his mind. Well, Seokmin could read anyone's mind. He was good at the 'figuring out feelings' stuff.

"Jeez, I hadn't even said anything,"

"Yeah, but your face did,"

"Whatever,"

"What do you have first?" asked Wonwoo, as he stuffed his books inside his locker, along with Jun and Seokmin.

"G.P." grumbled Jun

Wonwoo snorted. At times, despite being pulled away from his friends, since all of them were Fine Arts students, Wonwoo was glad he didn't have seven fucking classes on his plate. He had to deal with only four.

"Have fun, both of you," Wonwoo drawled, mockingly, and slammed his locker shut. "I'm free right now,"

"I'm not," Minghao's voice came from the back, as he walked up to Jun, and planted a kiss on his lips. "Morning,"

Wonwoo shared knowing glances with Seokmin next to him. The boy cleared his throat, signalling the other two obvious fools that they weren't alone.

"Enjoy G.P. you guys, I'll be in the cafeteria. Or the basketball court, I don't know,"

Seokmin looked confused. "Basketball court? I thought you hated sports,"

"On the bleachers, asshole,"

Seokmin's mouth formed a little cheerio shape, and he nodded sheepishly, before trailing behind Jun and Minghao. Wonwoo, like he'd claimed, walked to the basketball court, not paying much mind to his surroundings. He plugged in his earphones, blasting Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. Wonwoo realised he was definitely emo, like Minghao had rightfully claimed multiple times.

When Wonwoo slung his backpack off his shoulder, and placed it next to himself – on the last, topmost, row of the bleachers – he looked in front, at the court. His eyes widened, witnessing the whole fucking track team doing their thing, while their coach blew his whistle for no particular reason over and over again. Why, and how, hadn't Wonwoo noticed these guys as he was entering?

To make it even worse, he unexpectedly caught Jeonghan's eye – who winked at him, before resuming his drills. Wonwoo could leave right away, but the sight of Kim fucking Mingyu's massive arms – next to Jeonghan – snagged all of his attention, and Wonwoo couldn't help but get captivated by the sheen of sweat that glistened on his perfectly golden skin. Woah. Mingyu sure didn't look like he skipped a single day at the gym.

Wonwoo shrugged, trying not to focus too much on the Greek God-like figure that sprinted and jogged on the court. Now that he noticed, Wonwoo wondered why in the world the track team was having practice during school hours, and that too on the basketball court – it wasn't like the school didn't have its own track.

"Whatever," he mumbled to himself, and pulled his Chemistry coursebook out to flip through the pages from Saturday's class. His own notes weren't reliable enough – they looked like a chicken had angrily scratched the pages of his notebook. The coursebook would have to suffice for two more years, since Wonwoo wasn't bothered to sit up straight in class to make readable notes.