When Jisung was younger, a little boy by the name of Zhong Chenle was vowed to be his sworn enemy ever since the second grade, when Chenle killed his digital pet Tamagotchi.
To this day, Jisung still holds a grudge on the boy.
So what happens when y...
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"All right, everyone! Let's get into the second project I'll be assigning you guys this year," Mr. Lee began, grabbing the attention of his students. "This project will be involving a partner."
As soon as the word 'partner' left Mr. Lee's mouth, students immediately exchanged knowing looks with their friends, already silently picking their partners.
"And to make things interesting, I will be the one choosing who you will be paired up with."
The classroom immediately filled with groans and disappointed sighs.
Mr. Lee chuckled before continuing, "These boxes here"—he gestured over to the three large boxes placed in the corner of the room—"contains simulated infants you will be taking care of for the whole week," he announced, listening to a chorus of oo's and ah's coming from his students.
"I will be calling out pairs of twos, and when you are called, I want you to come up and write your names on this sheet of paper on my desk, then I will allow you to choose a simulated baby from the box before explaining how the care process works," Mr. Lee explained.
Jisung, while waiting for his name to be called, played with his pencil, watching as each student got up with their partners to collect their robot babies.
"Park Jisung."
He stood up from his seat sauntering his way towards Mr. Lee's desk, grabbing the pen that was placed on the paper of names to write his own, pausing midway when hearing the name he despised, being called out after his.
"And Zhong Chenle."
Jisung froze in his place, snapping his head up to look at Mr. Lee. "Uhm... Can I have a different partner?" he whispered, hearing the sound of Chenle's hesitant footsteps coming closer behind him.
Mr. Lee smiled at Jisung before shaking his head, "No."
Jisung tsked as Chenle stood a meter behind him, keeping his distance as he waited for Jisung to finish up writing his name down.
He stood up straight after he finished scribbling his name, turning around to walk back to his desk, purposely bumping his shoulder into Chenle's while muttering, "You choose the baby," coldly.
Chenle just stood there with his eyes fixated on the floor, fumbling with his hands till Mr. Lee called for him to quickly write his name down.
From his desk, Jisung watched as Chenle wrote on the sheet of paper before walking over to the boxes and picking up a baby for their project. The boy quickly walked back to his seat, placing the baby on his desk and waited patiently for the rest of the class to be paired.
"Okay, now that everyone has a partner and a baby, I will explain how you will be graded on this project," Mr. Lee began. "For those who have the baby, I want you to look at it's back, there you will see a screwed compartment, you will not be unscrewing. That compartment gathers all different types of information on how well your baby was taken care of. At the beginning of class next Monday, you will hand in your babies as they are and I will be collecting the grade from it, understand?"
A chorus of confirmations followed after before he continued, "The main purpose of this project is to experience first hand, how to take care of a baby. With your partner, you will need to make up an efficient schedule on who will be taking care of the baby on whatever days. I want to make this clear, If any of you leave your partner to care for the baby alone, both of you will fail this project," he warned, directing to Jisung, who rolled his eyes in return.
"So! All in all, I have prepared a knapsack for each of you that provides all the things you will need to take care of this simulated infant. You will be collecting it on your way out of class. Now with all that said, I want you to talk to your partners and set things up for the rest of your time in class. If anyone has any questions, feel free to come up and ask me," he finished, taking a seat in his chair then proceeding in typing away at his computer.
Not even a few seconds after did the class become lively, the volume of chatter taking over the room as students moved around to discuss the project with their partners.
Jisung stayed, laying back in his seat, expecting Chenle to come to him with the simulated robot. Which happened, seeing as Chenle stood idly by Jisung's desk, not making any eye contact with the boy whatsoever.
"S-so should we alternate in taking care of the baby each day?" Chenle suggested, trying to ignore Jisung's cold gaze on him.
"No."
Chenle furrowed his brows, finally lifting his gaze to meet with Jisung's. "W-what? But that's the only way we can take care of it together, else we'll fail."
"I don't think it's a good idea to leave you alone with the baby," Jisung voiced out, making Chenle's mouth gape.
Seeing they only had a few minutes left of class before their last period of the day, Jisung abruptly stood up from his desk, shocking Chenle in the process, before walking up to Mr. Lee's desk.
"Mr. Lee, may I please have a different partner," he asked once more, ignoring Chenle's presence beside him.
Mr. Lee sighed, taking his glasses off to give Jisung a serious look. "I'm gonna repeat what I told you before, no. I don't want you asking me this again, all right?"
Jisung glanced at Chenle who had the fake infant cradled in his arms, thinking the boy looked silly, knowing that the robot hasn't even been activated yet.
"Sir, he can't do this project."
Chenle snapped his head to look at Jisung in disbelief. "What?! Yes, I can," he stated.
Feeling the information was necessary, Jisung decided to bring up his past experience of entrusting Chenle with something. "He killed my Tamagotchi," he informed, evoking a laugh from Mr. Lee and a snarl from Chenle.
"You're still mad about that?! We're in highschool Jisung, get over it already."
Jisung ignored Chenle's words, growing irritated with the man laughing in his chair.
"Woo!" Mr. Lee flicked a tear away as he calmed down from his fit of laughter. "I haven't laughed like this in ages," he shared, giggling when replaying Jisung's words in his head. "I'm sorry, that was very inappropriate of me. Back to the point, no... I'm still not allowing you to change partners and that's final."
Jisung slumped his shoulders in defeat, giving Chenle a quick glare before trudging his way back to his desk.
