neighbours (hyungwonho)

9

clearing his throat a little, wonho decided to ask the question that had been on his mind ever since, "hyungwon, what happened?"  

hyungwon didn't answer and was staring coldly at the white board. wonho raised an eyebrow to encourage hyungwon to answer but only sighed when hyungwon held that cold expression on his face.

glancing back, wonho saw that jaemin, although looked annoyed still looked pleased. wonho was about to try his chances by asking again when mr choi walked in.

"okay, wonho, you can leave first. i need to have a word with these two"

mr choi's voice was stern and wonho only bowed a little before scurrying out of the classroom. he could hear the male teachers voice as he walked down the hallways to the main doors and shivered a little at the intensity of his voice.

hyungwon had listened to his scolding by mr choi obediently, he was always like that. he aimed to be that quiet kid noone payed any attention to and in a way he had succeeded so far but he had a few obstacles and one was jaemin.

jaemin was not only influential in their school but he knew many people and because he did, he knew all the gossip and he definitely knew about hyungwon. 

it was a year ago when hyungwon had only started djing that jaemin had found out. jaemin was faster than any wifi connection when collecting gossip and in particular negative gossip that he could gain benefits from.

at first it had been threatening hyungwon to let him in exclusive clubs or events as well as giving him 'pocket money' and hyungwon was fine with that but then there were more requests. requests such as using hyungwon to get with hot girls, using hyungwon to bribe competitions and of course using hyungwon to get more power.

what could hyungwon do though? his djing career would be in jeopardy  if jaemin revealed it and his school life would be horrible. his mum? hyungwon was so sure that she would be against it and be super disappointed in him, and that was why he had kept quiet about it. noone cared about him anyway and there was noone that could help him, and so he just had to take everything as it was.

he had honestly considered quitting but he couldn't force himself to. the moment he had started playing with the equipment, it was like a switch flicked on in his head. this was something that he actually wanted to do, something he was actually passionate about. through a few connections he was able to get a casual job to fill in whenever the scheduled djs couldn't make it. he was glad that he had met and was able to befriend i.m who was also a dj. it was i.m who helped teach hyungwon about djing and had pulled the strings to help hyungwon get a more permanent job.

hyungwon had his head low the entire time mr choi talked, he couldn't bear to see how angry and disappointed the teacher was. he hated letting people down which was why he worked so hard. it was part of his personality to always do his best and although that is usually a good trait, hyungwon always beat himself up mentally whenever something didn't go right. he would lament on himself for days if he missed a single beat when djing or he would practice past papers for a test if he didn't do as well as he had expected.

the nicer teachers knew too, which was why they never forced hyungwon to step out of his shell, they all wanted to wait till he was comfortable in doing so.

sighing, mr choi let hyungwon go first and hyungwon watched as jaemin's scowl increased as he picked up his bag and walked out the door. hyungwon was feeling wierd. he had never been involved in any issues at home or at school and this time it was his fault. he had started the fight and he couldn't decide how to feel.

should he be happy that he stood up to jaemin? should he be disappointed in himself for breaking underneath jaemin's pressure? should he be angry?

he didn't know, he really didn't.

stepping out of the school gates, hyungwon stopped in his tracks as he saw a familiar boy leaning against the pillar. the boy looked up as he heard footsteps and a small smile appeared on his face.

"hey, hyungwon"

hyungwon was frustrated and so he didn't answer, he just walked ahead trying to ignore the persistent boy chasing after him.

"hey hyungwon! let's go together"

no answer.

"hey, can you tell me what happened?"

no answer.

"i'm genuinely concerned about you, i-i realised that jaemin has been talking to you more these days and i guess i'm concerned about you"

wonho heard a little scoff but ignored it as hyungwon's long legs fired away.

"hey, i'm serious, as a friend, i want to help you"

this time, hyungwon stopped abruptly and wonho nearly ran into his back.

"we aren't friends wonho. and, i don't want to tell so can you just shut up and stop following me."

it was a rhetorical question and wonho knew it but he wasn't giving up.

the boys were in the middle of the pathway and they were lucky that the time was a little past 4PM, an ambiguous time where most students have already gone home and the workers haven't finished yet.

"chae hyungwon!" wonho exclaimed as he grabbed onto hyungwon's shoulders so that they were looking directly into each others eyes.

"i really really really want to help you okay," wonho said slowly as he tried to emphasise each word to the taller boy, "i genuinely want to be your friend"

hyungwon didn't want to listen to anything right now, his head felt like it would explode any second, he was already physically injured by the fight with never and he was mentally exhausted with having to deal with the said boy and dealing with the feeling of disappointment he hated.

"just shut up won't you!" hyungwon retorted, "i don't need any friends okay! i can do fine by myself and that's how i want to keep it!" hyungwon was slightly hysterical now, tears forming in his eyes as he shouted at a shocked wonho , "i don't need someone like you who can't even take care of their own grades to take care of me! i don't need someone who doesn't care about other peoples feelings to be concerned about me! and i really don't need someone like you to be my friend!!"

despite wonho's bright exterior, the boy was as frail as the cold wind that flows in the icy winter. wonho's heart fell as he heard hyungwon's words and he took a few breaths to calm himself down.

"for real?" wonho asked, wanting to give one last chance to this friendship.

"yes!!!!" hyungwon shouted back as he held onto his head as a few tears escaped. he had his head down so that wonho wouldn't see the tears streaming down his face, but he also couldn't see the tears forming in wonho's eyes.

"o-okay" wonho replied with a wavering voice, "i'm sorry for being...annoying to you, i-i won't annoy you anymore" he finished as he was forced to take a few breaths in.

with that, wonho walked ahead at a fast pace as he willed himself to not cry. but, it was hard when all your sincerity and genuine feelings had just been stomped over and treated like rubbish, only to be thrown into your face again.