Just Before The Dawn [DaeJae]

Eighteen

Youngjae left the bathroom and went to his bed, where he sat down. Daehyun lied on the left side of the double bed, while Junhong stood in front of the mirror, fixing his hair. 

"There's a grocery store around the corner, we could go there and get some snacks" the older said, "I want cookies~" 

"Sounds good." Junhong turned around, now looking at Youngjae. "Do you wanna come with us?" 

The boy shook his head. "I want to rest a bit..."

"Alright. Should we bring you anything then?" Daehyun got up and put on his jacket.

"No, thank you."

"Okay. We'll be back soon."

...

"Listen, I appreciate your worries and care about him, but this is my class. My students. It's me who is responsible for them so please refer from deciding such things on your own."

Daehyun and Junhong exchanged looks. They had just gotten back to the hotel, when they heard Mr Kim's voice from a room next to the lobby. They stopped and stood next to the slightly open door. What was thisa bout? Next, they heard Ms Park's voice, she sounded annoyed.

"Didn't you listen to what I just told you? What they did? How can you just accept that they bully him that extremely? You're right, you are responsible for them, but this is exactly why you have to do something!"

"Do you have any proof that they are bullying him?" The man seemed bored, as if he didn't care at all what she was saying.

"It is obvious, especially after what happened earlier! Also, he told me this wasn't the first time."

"Well, I never noticed anything and since he is part of my class, he is supposed to come to me when something is wrong, not to you, and he never contacted me at all. I will talk to Jumin and Sangjun later and ask them what happened, then we will see if what you are saying is true, but I believe it was completely different than you think. You know, I have noticed that Yoo Youngjae seems to like being in that kind of victim-role. He is late every day, never does anything for school, he clearly wants nothing else than attention and I am not ready to support such behavior. If you would excuse me now, I have to take care about really important things."

"Fine. If you don't want to understand, I will have to take care about it myself. Good night."

A chair was pushed back and the two boys hurried to get away from there, not wanting to be caught. When they were in the elevator, Daehyun took a deep breath. "What the hell was that? I don't understand how Mr Kim can be so careless about what happens among his students... Most of the people in his class are complete idiots who think about themselves as the coolest... I feel so bad for Youngjae, he has to face that every day..."

Junhong nodded. "I know what you mean, this is just impossible. I thought Mr Kim was a good teacher but now I don't know what to think of him anymore."

When they got back to their room, they found Youngjae on his bed, sleeping.

"Oh. Should we wake him up?" Junhong asked, but the older shook his head.

"Let him sleep, he had a hard time and we still have half an hour until dinner." He threw himself onto his side of the bed and started playing a game on his phone.

Junhong lied on his back, staring at the ceiling. "Dae. You're from here. Is the place we visit tomorrow interesting?"

The older laughed. "Junnie, we moved to Seoul when I was ten, I don't even remember if I have ever been to that museum, but my cousin says it's cool."

"Your cousin... he lives in Busan?"

"Yes. Oh, actually, on Thursday he has his birthday party and asked if I wanted to come... You could come, too."

"Sure, sounds like fun." He grinned. "Although I don't think we're allowed to do that but well, they don't have to notice."

"Exactly." Daehyun exited the game and turned around to face his friend. "By the way, how is it going with your mysterious girlfriend? You never tell me anything about your relationship. I wanna know, I'm your best friend after all."

Junhong sighed. "Um... It's not that easy to talk about it, I mean... I would like to but I'm not sure if I can talk to you about such things, it's kind of complicated..."

"What do you mean by complicated? How can something like that be too complicated to tell your best friend? Was it a lie and you don't have a girlfriend or what?"

The younger took a deep breath. "No, it's not like that, it's just... um... it's- It's not a girl."

Daehyun sat up, staring at the boy in surprise. "Wait, what? Are you telling me you- you have a boyfriend??"

Junhong nodded slightly.

"Oh my god, Junnie, that's so cute! Why haven't you told me? I want to know everything, how did you meet, what's his name, just tell me everything!"

"Well... to be honest I don't know his real name, but he is from here, from Busan. We met in the comment section under a Youtube video and started texting, that's basically the whole story."

"What, you don't know his name? He's your boyfriend!"

"It's... We agreed on keeping our names secret until we meet in real life... But we didn't plan anything yet, I asked if he had time this week while we're here but he said he's not in town until Thursday and on Thursday he doesn't have time..."

Daehyun looked at him sceptically. "Sounds kind of suspicious if you ask me. The thing with the names... Was it your idea or his?"

"His, why do you ask?"

"Well, he has excuses for not meeting, he wants to keep his name secret... I'm worried he might be tricking you though..."

Junhong's eyes widened. "Do you think he could be doing that?"

"It doesn't have to be but it all sounds a bit strange. Have you got pictures of him or called him?"

"We call sometimes and I do have one picture."

"Only one? How long have you known him?"

"Fora bout half a year... He isn't much of a selfie-person..." The boy ran a hand through his hair. "Dae, now I'm insecure. What if he's really just catfishing?"

His best friend scooted closer and wrapped his arms around the boy. "Don't think too much about it now, we will find out whether he is real or not, and if he's not then I will haunt him for the rest of his life."

This statement made the younger laugh and he leaned against Daehyun's shoulder. "Sorry for not telling you earlier... I wasn't sure if you would have a problem with it..."

"Huh? With what exactly should I have a problem?"

Junhong didn't get to answer, because the door opened and Mr Kim came in.

"Sorry for disturbing, I just wanted to check if everything is alright with the change.  Are you two sure you want to have him in your room? If it gets too much I can send him back to his classmates." 

Daehyun got up from the bed. "Don't worry, it's perfectly fine. Isn't it dinner time now? We should go downstairs."

The teacher nodded. "Yes. See you downstairs."

He left and Daehyun let out an annoyed sigh. "What's his problem? This is not how a teacher should behave" he mumbled and went to wake up Youngjae.