popular | kim jungwoo

eight

[4 years ago]

"what do you mean you're leaving to go to another school?"

hurt was clearly evident in yukhei's voice, even though he tried to conceal it on his face.

"my parents, they said that they.. didn't want me to hang out around you anymore."

jungwoo didn't look him in the eye when he spoke. he didn't dare to.

"..but i thought you said that we'll always be friends..?"

the younger male's shaky voice made jungwoo feel even more guilty for lying.

his parents didn't care about the type of people he hung out with, his parents barely cared about their own son's well-being.

jungwoo didn't have a choice but to distance himself from yukhei.

ever since the school learned of their close friendship that started a little less than a year ago, they started to view jungwoo in a bad light.

nobody expected the student body president to befriend the outcast. the students were annoyed, they couldn't pick on yukhei because they would get in trouble with jungwoo.

they wanted their fun back.

homosexuality, at that point in time, and also in their culture, was largely frowned upon.

one group of students told the principal that the student body president was in a relationship with one of the male students.

as soon as the principal heard that, without even giving the accused a chance to prove his innocence, the student body president was demoted immediately.

not only that, he was also forced to make a choice.

either he willingly changes his school, or yukhei gets expelled.

he knew yukhei's family wasn't doing well with money, and the school fees for other schools in their area were so much more expensive than the school fees for their school.

even though he despised the principal for being shallow-minded and unreasonable, he was still glad that she managed to keep the entire situation confidential.

that meant that yukhei and the rest of the school knew nothing about it, they would just be told that the student body president left the school on his own will and started studying at another school.

"starting tomorrow, i won't be going to this school anymore."

he finally garnered enough courage to peel his eyes away from the ground.

yukhei's eyes were glossy, and the edges of his lips curved downwards.

"if you're not here, then who's going to protect me against those bullies?"

those words weren't supposed to hurt jungwoo that much, but they did.

after that incident last year, he promised yukhei that he'll be his friend forever, that he won't allow anyone else to harm him like those three boys did.

but, here he is, hurting yukhei even more than those boys.

even though jungwoo knew he couldn't keep his first promise, he wouldn't allow himself to break the second one.

"you're strong, yukhei, even stronger than me. if anyone tries to beat you up, don't let them. i know that you aren't as weak as everyone says you are, so, give them a reason not to mess with you."

after jungwoo left, for weeks, yukhei was tormented non-stop.

he wanted to stand up for himself, he wanted to fight back, but his fear always pulled him back.

the 4th week, on a tuesday, the same group of boys who always beat him up after school was doing the same thing again.

they were yelling out derogatory remarks, one after another.

it wasn't until one of them spat out,

"you're useless without jungwoo."

that yukhei finally cracked.

that evening, he left school with bloodied up knuckles and a few bruises on his body.

but, compared to the injuries on those 3 boys, it was nothing.

(a/n: this chapter sounds like something out of a luwoo fanfic AJSHHSHS but it's really just brotherly friendship that the two used to have, nothing more nothing less.)