Head Down

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Petals. Petals. Petals.

Mark wants to know what kind of superstition this town has that's affiliated with dead petals. But he doesn't have anyone to ask. It's not like he's going to be talking to that pale boy soon, or the sun kissed boy either.

As a matter of fact, the only person Mark socializes with is Jaemin. Speaking of which, he's right beside Mark as they walk home together. The sky is bright and the sunshine is a comforting heat, serving as golden light for Jaemin to look absolutely stunning in. After a whole day filled with people who make Mark want to jump off a building, Jaemin is so refreshing. Would he know anything about the town's superstitions? He just moved here about a week ago, but he's a very social and talkative person. He's also the only person Mark lets himself talk to, so it can't hurt too much to ask.

"Jaemin," Mark starts, abruptly cutting him off from speaking. He would feel bad about it, if the petal situation wasn't eating him alive. It's more irritating if nothing else, and the sooner it's dealt with, the sooner Mark can breathe and move on.

"As rude as that was, what's up?" Jaemin replies, cheeky and fun, smiling and radiant. Just like he always is. That's something Mark can appreciate about Jaemin. He admits that his shining and positive energy really does shift Mark's mood when he's around the younger, in a good way.

"Have you..." Mark starts, not really knowing how to phrase his question. "Heard of any superstitions here? About this town? Particularly to do with flowers? Petals?"

His words are fumbled and Jaemin probably doesn't understand what he's trying to ask. He's okay with just dropping it with Jaemin, not wanting to ask again. But then the younger boy is giggling lightly, and Mark isn't Mark if he isn't drawn to the lovely sound.

"What?" He asks, not interested in being left out of the loop.

"Is this because you stepped on some sunshine's petals?" Jaemin asks, voice soft and tone light. Mark knows he isn't teasing, he's just asking. Mark knows that Jaemin doesn't mean to rile him up, but yeah, it does rile him up, because anything associated with the pretty boy and the pale boy seems to irk him.

"Stop calling him sunshine!" Mark groans, kicking a small rock in their path. Sure, the boy is sun kissed and looks like he bathes in honey everyday, but was it really necessary that everyone address him as sunshine? Everyone who's spoken about the boy from the park has only referred to him as sunshine and Mark would greatly appreciate it if he had a name instead. Mark isn't like everyone else, he's not going to call some weird kid sunshine, when he very much most probably has a name.

"Oh," Jaemin says, and this time it's teasing, Mark can tell. Jaemin has a sense of humour, and even though Mark hasn't been able to completely gage at what kind of sense of humour he has, he has a feeling he won't be the most fond of it. But then Jaemin shrugs, going back to being normal and tolerable. "I heard someone talking about the new kid stepping on the school sunshine's petals. I don't know who sunshine is, but it seems like he's pretty popular. You might've bit off more than you can chew with him." Mark groans at that, the universe really does hate him, doesn't it? "But apparently, stepping on flowers who someone has thrown away mean bad luck on both your parts."

Mark makes a sound in the back of his throat, not understanding. How can him stepping on someone else's flowers result in bad luck for them?

"Explain?" Mark tries, seeming helpless.

Rolling his eyes, Jaemin continues.

"You think I know everything about here. Mind you, you've been here longer!" Jaemin complains, but the elder just raises an eyebrow at the younger, not surprised at how he keeps talking. Of course Jaemin would know, he's a social butterfly, made to get to know people, and well, everything all the better. "It's... Believed that if someone has thrown out flowers, it means that something bad must've happened to them or someone close to them to make them want to get rid of something so beautiful. And if someone steps on the flowers thrown away, it's bad luck on them because of the history of the flowers, and bad luck on the person who threw them because someone found them."

Mark takes a few minutes to process Jaemin's words, before scoffing and shaking his head.

"People here are insane," he mutters, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Jaemin shrugs once again, smiling lightly at Mark.

"I don't know... Weird shit happen in towns like this. I'd be careful if I were you."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The door to home room bursts open the next morning, and if Ms. Song was in the room, she'd probably say something. But she isn't and Mark can only watch, since he's nosy and thirsty for drama, as much as he doesn't like getting into it himself, like that.

"Your boy," someone says, jogging right up to the sunshine boy. "You better keep your eye on him."

Mark turns his head slight to gage the reaction of the honey suckled boy. He sees that his hands are curled into small fists on his desk, that his nostrils are flared and that his eyes scream anger. He doesn't know why, why on Earth would Mark know why, but he's scared for anyone who'd be in the boy's path. A little thing he knows about people who've been cooped up into a small town for their entire life is that they've got a lot of pent of emotions. They could snap at any time, and it was kind of ugly when they did snap. And people have the decency to say that city kids were dangerous.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the boy who barged into the classroom says, shaking his open palms along with his head in front of him. "It isn't like that." The boy assures, before smirking and pointing to his nose. "Jen's the one who got jacked."

Immediately, the anger and rigidness in the sun kissed boy's face is gone, instead replaced with concern and worry. It's kind of comical how quickly his facial expression changed, and Mark would've snickered to himself quietly about it if the boy didn't start to talk.

"Who?" He asks, a light growl in his tone despite his expression. "Who's the idiot who touched him?" He asks again, voice increasing in volume as he stands up from his desk.

The boy in front of him, sends Mark a glance, smirk back when he stares at Mark as he answers the other's question.

"The new kid. Na Jaemin."