A LITTLE LESS - (5+1) jackbum

4: penny for your thoughts

crying really took the energy out of jackson, which is what led to their fourth argument. he'd begun spending his third lesson in a daze. he and jaebum never once spoke but the teacher had yet to move them back to their original seats. now, he spent most of the time thinking of ways he could still avoid contact throughout the lesson.

sometimes, this led to staring. jackson would space out, forgetting to listen to his teacher as he just blanked out, some days for minutes at a time. he would sit, turned in his seat so his shoulder was resting against the wall, and just stare off into space. there was no doubt that the teacher and jaebum noticed, but jackson didn't have the energy to care.

there were a few occasions, however, when jackson would catch himself staring at another classmate. specifically, jaebum. his eyes would suddenly refocus as he was jolted out of his thoughts jaebum stretching, or just dipping his head to write. if jaebum noticed this, he never made it obvious.

until, obviously, he'd had enough.

"jackson." jaebum moved his hand across the table, nudging jackson's arm. jackson jumped slightly, as if he hadn't even realised jaebum was there.

"hm," jackson realised jaebum was speaking to him and tensed up, he had barely even heard jaebum's voice in the past few weeks. "what?"

"you were staring..." jaebum whispered. "again." jackson immediately blushed, he really didn't mean to.

"um, a-are you sure?" jaebum gave a curt nod and jackson narrowed his eyes, turning so he wasn't facing jaebum at all. "okay." jackson felt the urge to apologise, but he realised he didn't really have anything to apologise for. it's not as if he was harming jaebum in any way.

"well, can you stare somewhere else, next time?" jackson rolled his eyes, ignoring jaebum completely. he could just pretend he didn't hear him, that way they couldn't argue, right?

five minutes later, jackson was spaced out again, his eyes once again completely unfocused as his chin rested in his palm. he wasn't staring directly at jaebum, but at the board. jaebum decided it was close enough. his hand swung out, pushing jackson's arm from under his head.

"what the hell?" it was a struggle for jackson to not raise his voice, what was jaebum's problem?

"stop staring at me, i already told you. it's weird." jackson scoffed.

"i wasn't staring at you, why are you so arrogant?"

"if you weren't staring at me, then what were you looking at," jackson looked at the board, seeing there was nothing new written on it. "because that has been there since yesterday." jackson huffed, laying his head in his arms.

"why can't you leave me alone?" he whined quietly and jaebum was silent for a moment.

"well... it's probably because you can't keep your eyes off me." there was a smug tone to his voice and it made jackson angry, as usual. "why won't you just do your work?" jackson ignored him again, why did jaebum get to tell him what to do? "jackson, you'll get in trouble if you carry on."

"what do you care?"

"i don't, i'm just warning you."

"yeah, save your warnings for a friend." jackson was already feeling sad that the arguments had started again, and the fact that he an jaebum really weren't friends just depressed his mood even further. they had been arguing like this for nearly half of the school year and jackson really didn't feel like continuing this for another year and a half. he had tried hard to ignore and avoid jaebum for jinyoung and he knew that jaebum only did the taunting. jackson began to realise he was the only one really getting angry and that was probably why jinyoung still wasn't back to being friendly with him.

he felt like this 'rivalry' with jaebum was a knot in his back, and the tension jackson felt was only making it bigger. it felt as if jackson was always carrying a weight of stress just from hating someone.

he just wanted jaebum to leave him alone, for once.