NIGHTMARE

08 | tale of a tragical romance

"oh, changkyun?"

jeong sewoon headed towards him early the following morning with a pile of papers in his hand.

"you printed them? great, thanks," changkyun rambled quickly, snatching over the papers and turning to leave.

"hang on, what are they for?" sewoon asked, frowning in confusion.

"huh?"

"i mean," sewoon struggled, "i printed them like you asked, but i didn't get why you'd ever need them."

that's when changkyun looked down at the papers.

"sewoon!" he screeched, "what have you done?!"

"i just- uh, i mean, i just did what you asked!" sewoon answered helplessly. "that was the file you sent me!"

changkyun stared at the pile of print outs and sighed. each paper was a printed screenshot of a picture his mom had taken many years ago - of a toddler changkyun dressed in a pink princess costume.

it was unbelievably embarrassing.

"god," changkyun huffed as he stormed off, leaving sewoon just rolling his eyes somewhere behind him. "kihyun is gonna be pissed."

he dumped the pile of papers in the nearest trash can and stomped off to homeroom. though changkyun always looked forward to literature class, he knew that today he was in for a lashing.

"what's got your panties in a twist?" his homeroom seatmate asked as he sat down.

"fuck off, jinwoo," changkyun scowled.

because even the anticipation of kihyun's disappointment had put him in a bad mood.

he trudged towards literature class that afternoon, hoping and praying that the whole thing about the posters was a dream, and he wouldn't have to see kihyun frown at him on his way in.

"hey, faggot."

changkyun froze.

they'd been on his back for the last two years of high school ever since that rumour had gone around that changkyun was gay. it wasn't really a rumour, of course, since it was true.

but now they just wouldn't leave him alone.

changkyun slowly turned around to face them. they only ever seemed to corner him when he was alone between classes, or if he bumped into them late after school.

"i'd rather be a faggot than a fucking nasty cu-"

"what is going on here?" someone else demanded, in a small but authoritative tone.

changkyun slowly uncurled his fist.

"go to class please, all of you," kihyun demanded, and the trio of bullies scattered.

"thanks for saving my ass there, sir," changkyun smirked, throwing a daring arm over the teacher's shoulders.

kihyun shrugged it off and hurried ahead to class. "just hurry to class now," he said, sounding more than a little flustered, "and i'd like a word with you at the start of lunch."

"yes, sir," changkyun saluted, feeling himself relax as he followed the teacher into the classroom.

the class ensued, and they read further into a midsummer night's dream. though he probably wouldn't admit it to anyone (except maybe his hot literature teacher, maybe) changkyun was actually getting into the story of the play. it was all about a love potion going wrong, and the characters falling in love with the wrong people.

changkyun had a soft spot in his heart for tragic romances.

"psst, changkyun," a voice hissed behind him.

"what."

"come and get ice cream with me after school?" jiyeon asked cutely from the desk behind.

"it's, like, winter," changkyun scoffed, "no way."

"please?" jiyeon whined. changkyun didn't even have to turn around to cringe at the expression he could hear in her voice.

"got baseball practise anyway," he shrugged her off.

sewoon let out a laugh in disbelief. "sure you do," he said sourly, "you had baseball practise yesterday."

"stop lying to me, changkyun," said jiyeon, pursing her lips.

"what's up with you?" changkyun demanded, shooting sewoon a glare.

sewoon huffed, his eyes boring holes into the textbook on his desk. "you wasted my printer money," he grunted.

changkyun stared at him, and then let out a hoot. "oh my god, sewoon," he chortled.

"and we haven't hung out since christmas," sewoon added. "what the heck do you do after school these days?"

changkyun didn't answer him. most days after school were filled with irritating kihyun, then outrunning the homophobes on his way home, and then living in the reality of his mom's tiny apartment they could barely afford. after homework was done, and he'd watched something on the static box tv, sleep was usually the first thing on his mind.

or the second thing. yoo kihyun being the first.

***

the bell rang and kihyun didn't know whether to feel dread or relief. changkyun was always a handful, always overstepping the boundaries, with no concept of appropriate behaviour.

even so, kihyun had thought him to at least be reliable, to at least care about fixing his mistakes. but no choir posters had gone up that morning, and nobody would know about it.

ping!

kihyun snuck a peek at his phone as changkyun slowly packed up his stuff after the bell.

(1) missed calls from unknown.

you have (3) missed calls from unknown.

kihyun sighed and threw the phone back in the drawer in the desk. it said unknown but he knew who the calls were from. he'd deleted the number a month ago.

"you wanted to see me, sir?"

changkyun was suddenly perched on the edge of the desk, looking down at him with teasing eyes.

"yes, uh..." kihyun desperately tried to get his shit together, searching through the papers on his desk. "you didn't print my posters..."

changkyun pulled his lips into a pout. "sorry about that," he said. "looks like it'll just be you and me in choir club then," he added with a smirk.

kihyun brought out a pile of posters and changkyun blinked. "since you failed to print what i asked, i did it myself just before this lesson," kihyun told him firmly. "i want you to put the posters up around the school."

changkyun's smirk faded and he gaped at the teacher for a second. "aw, do i have to, sir?" he whined.

"just do it, and maybe i'll forget that you didn't do your homework for me last night." kihyun pressed the papers into his hands.

"yeah, i was at karaoke with soonyoung," changkyun laughed. he paused. "be mine?"

kihyun blinked. "i'm sorry?"

"by infinite," changkyun finished, "it's a good song, right?"

"y-yeah," kihyun answered. his phone went off in the drawer again and he reminded himself to turn it off as changkyun finally left with the posters.

the last thing he needed was the past coming back to haunt him.

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