splinters 一 weak hero.

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'yejun. yejun. yejun-'

i blinked awake, shrugging off the pencil's rubber-tip that hatsume was repeatedly poking into my back. 'mm?'

she didn't reply - and i lifted my head, swinging it around blearily until i found her gaze, eyes wide and anxious. 'not me,' she hissed, jabbing her pencil at the air frantically, and my eyes followed its direction to another more keen and expectant pair.

miss han stared at me, her dainty, petite face mildly amused. 'sleep well, yejun?'

there was a great rustling as the front half of the class turned to face me. it was, in my opinion, entirely unnecessary as this certainly wasn't the first time it had happened before. you see, i had initially come into high school with the presumption that i could easily get through my lessons - and school life in general - fairly unnoticed. i had been entirely wrong.

it worked half the time, but that also meant it didn't work for the other half.

in this particular instance, i was quite tempted to give the middle finger - which i did, with my lips curled at no one in particular - until i suddenly noticed the boys standing beside miss han at the front of the class.

they were dressed in our cheongang high school uniform - yet somehow wore it as if it were branded attire (the same couldn't be said for the majority of the school, who all looked as if their clothes had never crossed paths with neither washing machine nor iron). additionally, despite their pristine blazers and immaculate, straightened ties, there was a ruggedness about each of them. they had an array of dyed hair, and had it not been for that, they could have posed as the first perfect school representatives. i almost snickered.

i was given the impression they were mature (despite the baby face of one), much more mature than the idiots that resided in this class. they looked fairly out of place here, but whether they cared or not, their faces were entirely smooth and indifferent. it seemed they wouldn't be fazed easily.

that statement, however, shrivelled up in my head as soon as my gaze connected with the boy on the far right who had a head of faded mint coloured hair. the corner of his lip lifted almost imperceptibly in a sneer as he looked away.

i sat up straighter at that, and miss han smiled. 'we welcome three new students to the class today. please treat them how you would no other.'

a chorus of sniggers travelled round the classroom at that.

the boys bowed in perfect synchronisation as if they'd been programmed to do so. fuck the formalities, i would have thought. miss han's eyes flicked to mine. 'lee yejun. since my lessons seem to bore you especially so that you're even sleeping through fourth period, perhaps you would feel slightly more engaged if i tasked you with looking after these boys this term.'

'fuck's sake,' i muttered.

miss han beamed. 'wonderful. boys, please take a seat.'

'sorry i didn't wake you earlier,' hatsume said.

'it's alright,' i said, turning briefly to give her a half-smile. hatsume gave me an awkward thumbs-up before returning to her textbook.

i didn't mind. hatsume was one of the nicest people in the class, and i really had no idea how she'd ended up in this shithole of a school. it was nice to have a quieter friend, and although we didn't speak that much outside of school, we got on pretty well in class. she reminded me of a fawn - both gentle and sweet, simultaneously always looking like a deer-in-the-headlights whenever the spotlight fell on her in lessons.

gazing around, i located all the spare seats in the classroom that the newcomers would possibly sit in.

i wondered why there were as many as three new students, and all transferred to the same class. i had been aware, however, of the constant vacancies within certain classrooms, class 1-5 being one of them. a consequence derived from the somewhat unconventional 'tendencies' of the students here. the only free seats were distributed unevenly due to the different groups in class. the boys split up without a word: the scruffy red haired went to sangchul's gang, the pink haired sat unabashedly at the front without a second thought, and-