Chapter Three;
Leeteuk mustered up as much dignity as a boy covered with noodles and bits of meat stuck in his hair could. He lifted himself off the floor, professionally brushed off the disgusting meal from his uniform, and left amidst the mess that his life had become. He didn’t care who’d done this to him; whoever it was, was just another of his haters, and Leeteuk was used to this kind of regular treatment. It probably wasn’t going to get any better. As he walked away with a mask of indifference, he could feel himself burning up on the inside. But it didn’t matter; because he’d long ago learnt how to suppress his feelings and keep the tears where they should be. He knew that he couldn’t let his emotions out here; no, not when the transfer student and the other juniors could be watching. He wanted to act as a hyung to them, and let them feel protected- and if he showed any weakness in front of them, his babies’ sense of protection would vanish immediately.
Leeteuk walked back to class, knowing that it was unlikely for anybody to be there during recess. To his surprise, Kangin was lounging around on the teacher’s desk, and was not in any way affected by Leeteuk’s entrance.
“I’ve been expecting you.” Kangin said in a serious voice, before grinning. “I’ve always wanted to try saying that.”
Despite himself, Leeteuk emitted a small chuckle before silently chiding himself for showing such an unprofessional side in front of one of the school’s biggest rebels.
“I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now. If you really want to be booked for skipping school, you could always come to me some other time. Go back to your classroom.” Leeteuk dragged his feet back to his seat and lay his head down, disgruntled that he couldn’t have the quiet time he needed to settle down his feelings.
Kangin raised an eyebrow and pushed himself off the table, walking towards Leeteuk. “Yah…” he hesitated. “Hyung,” he finally added, “why did you let those people off when they pranked you in the cafeteria?’
Leeteuk, surprised at the rebel’s careful gentleness, responded before he could stop himself. “If you saw that… incident, then how’d you get here before me?”
“Well…” Kangin smirked. “Firstly, I’m much faster than you.” Leeteuk groaned at the memory of the gruesome chase in the park. “Secondly, I walked right past you and you didn’t notice.”
Leeteuk was surprised at that; had he really been that oblivious?
“Ahh, well it’s none of your business so if you don’t mind, I’d like some time to do my homework.” Leeteuk sighed. “Go ahead and play in the park if you want. Whatever.”
Kangin scratched his head. The head prefect wasn’t being fun today. “I was going to,” he said defiantly. “But then it sounded like everybody was having fun without me, so I came back to see what the big deal was. I still don’t know what’s so exciting about having an ahjumma like you covered in noodles.”
“Ahjumma my foot,” Leeteuk mumbled. “Just leave, will you?”
“Fine then,” Kangin’s voice was strangely tainted with anger. “I’ll leave. And you can stay here and pine away by yourself.”
There was no response.
He left—and waited outside the classroom. The sound of faint sobbing reached his ears soon enough, and he closed his eyes. Why was he feeling somebody else’s pain?
~
“So how do you know that loser?”
Kyuhyun sighed as the four of them walked back to class, Eunhyuk still watching him suspiciously.
