THE CLASSROOM is so warm after the wintry chill outside. seolmin pauses, suddenly feeling lighter, a smile spreading over her face like it belongs there. she takes my jacket off and places it in the cloakroom, her cheeks rosy. the air has a cinnamon perfume and already the room is mostly full.
"good morning class! you guys had fun in daegu right? i saw the pictures last night, it looked great." mrs. lee smiles. "enough fun though, we have exams coming up next week, presidential results and prom preparations! don't you dare think about slacking off."
the door at the back of the class creaked open and revealed jaemin, his tie almost untied, his hair messy and half eaten bread in his hand. "may i come in?" jaemin says, almost out of breath.
"mr. na jaemin, you're running for class president elections, you can't be late like this. why are you late? also please finish eating outside."
"well, i kinda woke up late..i'm sorry it won't happen ever again." jaemin assures and takes the seat beside jeno. seolmin looks behind and gives jaemin a warm smile, jaemin on the other hand was quick enough to notice her as he smiles back. "disgusting."
jeno mutters, copying the questions off the board. "what? i'm just being nice." jaemin nudges.
jaemin notices jeno's weird behaviour. how he's shaking his legs, biting the back of his pen and constantly scratching the back of his neck. jaemin knows jeno too well, to not notice these symptoms of jeno. he's definitely trying to hide something. atleast jaemin and jeno's eleven years of friendship paid off.
"dude are you hiding something? it's cool if you don't wanna tell me though." jaemin whispers praying that mrs. lee doesn't hear him and put him in lunch detention.
"no- i mean yea- don't tell renjun and hyuck though." jeno turns his head and looks back at jeno sitting beside donghyuck. jeno faces the curious jaemin again. "renjun has a teeny-tiny crush on seolmin and he told me not to tell you because he saw you both sucking each other's faces."
jeno notices the obvious expression of annoyance on jaemin's face but thinks it's best not to say anything. jeno really isn't in the mood to get in a fight with jaemin. the last time they got in a fight was around sophomore year and it was one of the worst experiences of jeno's life according to him. he shakes his thoughts away and continues writing down the notes off the board.
"so..when did renjun tell you?" jaemin leans in and whispers. "maybe around a week or so? i shouldn't be saying this but he was actually kinda sulking after he saw you guys...um doing that." jeno replies monotonously. "you're making it sound like we fucked, jeno." jaemin chuckles.
"excuse me mr. lee jeno, could you please stand up and answer this question." mrs. lee points at the board and jeno swears he has never seen a question on alkaline solutions ever in his eighteen years of life. he stutters, "i don't know.." and looks down at the table, trying to avoid an eye contact with the teacher.
"lunch detention, lee jeno, you're going to be finishing datas on alkalis and metals today. sit down and look forward to lunch."
"man i'm so sorry it's my fault. i'll make it upto you sometime soon." jaemin whispers and pats jeno's back.
___
the bell rings indicating that it's lunch time and the hallways are crowded within five seconds. seolmin walks with her heavy biology books and walks to her lockers.
"i'm fucking tired, i have cheerleading practices today. and they're making us skip lunch. not gonna lie, i lowkey envy you right now." hana laughs and takes a sip of water from the blue glass bottle. "envy me? why?" seolmin sounds concerned. "i was just kidding! i meant like we all were in cheer team together but you left after last season, so you get to have lunch you know." she chuckles followed by seolmin.
hana slams her locker shut, grabbing her gym bag; "i'm gonna go or else yuna is gonna I beat my ass!" she says before running and disappearing down the long grey hallway.
she walks into the cafeteria and the strong aroma of kimbap hits her nose. she really doesn't wanna have one right now. seolmin scans the place and only recognises one person she can have an actual conversation with, without it turning into a messy, chaotic situation.
"hi can i sit here?" jaemin finally looks away from his phone. seolmin notices he only had one kimbap out of the six the school serves. jaemin smiles and moves away all his pile of papers and books.
"why are you alone today?" seolmin asks taking a bite of the crunchy lettuce from the caesar salad. "the game seasons are near, jeno and others are playing volleyball this time, so they left my ass here and went for practice." he explains.
"wait why are you alone?" jaemin asks, emphasising the you. "well i need to blame game seasons too, hana, heejin and others are cheerleading again. i'm glad i resigned, it's too much of a hassle." jaemin nods in agreement.
jaemin suddenly leans in and whispers, "i need to ask you something." seolmin keeps her phone away and finally looks at him. "so renjun kinda has a thing for you. do you like him though? i mean he's nice and shit."
"oh? cool i guess? i don't want renjun to get his hopes high, don't tell him anything yet."
"yeah understandable.."
