swxtched. | jhs

XIV : LEAN ON ME

AFTER CLASS, GREEN'S apparent calculus classmate Namjoon approaches her and remarks, "You actually paid attention in this class."

She chuckles just as Hoseok would. "Geurin's been rubbing off on me, I guess."

"Yeah, I can see that," he chuckles back, leaning back on the desk behind him and crossing his arms. Everything about that is suspicious. "You even write with your left hand like her now."

Oh shit.

Namjoon smiles. He dimples. She calls it dimpling. "What's up with that?" he asks.

"I don't know," she replies.

"You don't know?"

"Anything else you came here for?"

"I guess so." Namjoon clears his throat, boundlessly amused. Green swallows. She's learned early on that Namjoon never approaches someone without an agenda. "Do you even like Geurin-ssi? Because a tiny voice in my head says that you don't and that maybe there's something else going on between you two."

She blinks at how she didn't see this coming. 

"And that voice is usually right, by the way."

"I— hold on a minute. I like him, I— I mean I like her. I like Geurin," Green stammers, hands getting clammy. My body doesn't sweat when I'm nervous. Man, this body sucks.

He raises a brow. He stands there for a moment processing and organising his thoughts when he lets out a resigned sigh. "I just thought that maybe you're hiding something."

"What makes you think we're hiding something?"

Shoot. I said "we're."

Namjoon scratches his head. He doesn't answer at first, which makes Green tap her foot, still seated on her chair. "Well?"

"Forget it."

Once he turns around and leaves the room, she passionately scrapes her nails down her scalp.

Hoseok, you better appreciate me for saving your ass on this stupid calculus test. And there's Namjoon too, making those eyes at me. Ugh.

She walks in the hallway on her way to her next class when a thought crosses her mind, and she peeks into her body's next class. She finds Hoseok there, staring at her desk. Green squints, pondering on whatever can be odd about her desk that's worth staring at, when her brain comes to a screeching halt.

She rushes inside, pulling Hoseok by the collar before anyone came inside to notice and examines the desk.

"FUCK YOU MIN GEURIN"
"YOU DON'T DESERVE HIM"
"FREAK"
"BOT"
"WHORE"

"What the fuck?" Green mutters when Hoseok warily holds up a damp cloth. She snatches it from his hand and rubs furiously at the desk, removing all traces of the marks.

"I thought you—" Hoseok gulps. "I thought it stopped."

"Well, clearly it didn't."

"Does the teacher know?"

She laughs, unamused. "Please."

"Then shouldn't we—"

"I am not letting a teacher know only to get myself ratted to my parents."

Hoseok shuffles his feet and looks at the ground. "If my opinion matters at all, I think your parents should know."

"Don't you know my parents well enough to... whatever," she angrily grumbles. "Tell my parents. Tell the whole world. I don't care anymore."