NIGHTMARE

26 | backseat jealousy

it had been almost a week since changkyun had been pretending to date his classmate jiyeon. and he'd hated almost every minute of it.

almost.

admittedly, there had been moments when jiyeon would say something funny that would set him off laughing, or do something that was actually extremely cute. but one look over at their literature teacher's desk soon wiped the smile off changkyun's face, and replaced the laughter with a neverending pit of doom.

kihyun was ignoring him, and it was painfully obvious.

he never called on him to answer questions in class anymore, he never asked to see him after class, and he barely acknowledged him when changkyun handed in a piece of work.

kihyun's expression was unreadable for the most part, but changkyun could identify confusion, anger and hurt in that cool mask he wore to shut out his real feelings. changkyun wanted nothing more than to tear his hand out of jiyeon's and run over to the teacher's desk to kiss it all better.

of course, he couldn't do that. but it was a nice thought.

"good luck at baseball practise tonight!" jiyeon said sweetly as she packed her things away at the end of the last lesson of the day. (she'd managed to sit next to changkyun in all the lessons they shared.)

"oh, thanks," changkyun said in a quiet voice, slinging his backpack over one shoulder. "see you tomorrow."

he let jiyeon give him a quick hug before numbly walking out of the classroom and heading towards the school field. perhaps baseball would take his mind off of all this.

practise went on as normal after school that day, and it felt weird to changkyun that normal life could just continue rolling on whilst his life turned into a bigger and bigger disaster. worse still, he knew he was off his game. again.

"lim! your aim is off today, get in some extra batting practise, okay?"

"yes, coach!"

changkyun sighed and glanced up at the setting sun. he'd already been at practise for hours, but it wasn't the physical activity that was tiring him out. he was tired of trying to figure out a future where he and kihyun could be together, just like any other couple. but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't picture it.

"want me to stay, kyunnie?" soonyoung piped up with that cheeky grin of his still spread across his face. "i can bowl for you, if you want."

changkyun nodded and took his position in the batter's box. soonyoung shoved on his mitt and took a shot, hurtling the ball through the air towards the other boy. changkyun reacted and took a swing, but his reactions were too slow - not razor sharp like they used to be when everything was easy.

"give it another shot!" soonyoung encouraged.

but they didn't get anywhere for the rest of the night. eventually, coach kwon suggested that they call it a day and head home, so changkyun got changed and followed the instructions, heading for the front entrance.

little did he know, his favourite teacher was coming the exact same way.

"argh!"

without looking where he was going, changkyun walked right into the short literature teacher, sending kihyun and a large box full of books tumbling onto the concrete. the box fell sideways and a dozen copies of romeo and juliet spilled out onto the ground. kihyun let out a groan and rubbed at the stinging in the elbow that had just hit the floor.

"sorry, are you okay?" changkyun blurted.

he was crouched partially on top of the smaller man, and being caught by surprise in this situation had set his cheeks alight with a pink flush. changkyun was speechless, and all he could do was hurriedly scoop the copies of the shakespeare play back into the box and offer his teacher a hand up.