“Do you even know what you’re talking about?”
Taemin took a deep breath to steady the urge to scream. “I know damn well what I’m talking about. You don’t, because you’re too thick to see what’s happening right behind your back. Or actually, right in front of your face.”
“And how do you know so much about the petroleum industry?” The kid questioned with an obvious flicker of fear of maybe he had missed out on the certain sort of knowledge to top Taemin and outweigh the bad.
“Because I don’t spend my time with my head up my . Listen, watch, and don’t eat what the media feeds you.” The senior class of Speech and Debate was silent.
The kid opened his mouth to say something, closed it, and opened it again with a regained stamina and support to stand on. “You’re just lost because your side kick isn’t here anymore. What was his name again?”
Some girl with a bad haircut and a personality to match piped up, “Kim Jongin.”
“Yeah. Him.”
Taemin’s blood boiled. “Jongin has absolutely nothing to do with this; you’re pulling irrelevant things from nowhere. You sound like a politician.”
The teacher laughed.
The kid stumbled over his words, “You’re alone on this one. Jongin isn’t here. So sit down, and stop acting so high and mighty.”
“Jongin isn’t linked to this issue at all. Is that really all you have to say? And Jongin believed in an oil addiction, not an energy problem.”
“How the hell would you know that?”
“Because Jongin and I dated.”
The room was quiet. Taemin had blurted it out without really thinking. The kid he was arguing with raised his eyebrows, as he had finally gotten an answer that passed in his abilities to reply.
A few kids who had always argued against him, regarding homouality, stared down at him as though he had defiled the code of humanity. Their eyes spit on his feet. Others were just plain shocked. But Taemin concentrated on his twiddling thumbs instead of the (what felt like) hundreds of eyes judging him. If anything, he was proud to have been Jongin’s, to be Jongin’s, to be himself, and he didn’t care who knew.
Even though there had been a long silence, the teacher acted as though nothing had happened and continued with the lecture. One of the kids who had always disliked Taemin mouthed the word “” when the teacher had his back turned. Taemin just smiled to himself, knowing that kid will never experience the kind of world revolving love Taemin has, knowing that Taemin had won before anything had even started.
~~
That same afternoon, after school, Taemin had gone to the Speech classroom again to organize and prepare for some bull event he really didn’t want to attent, as his involuntary role as president. It usually took a while to prepare, but Taemin was glad to have something productive to do with his time. He began sorting through papers, and trying to solve the puzzle of how to direct the tournament. After a few minutes, he suddenly heard a very surprised voice in the frame of the doorway. “Hey Taemin!”
Taemin looked up. Minho stood with his backpack hanging off one shoulder and a bright shimmer of some intangible emotion in his eyes. Taemin had been so focused he didn’t even heart the door open. “Oh, hey. What’re you doing here?” Taemin got a little excited, as he thought this would be a great chance to form a friendship.
“The teacher wanted to discuss my grade with me. Is he here?”
“He went to a meeting. He should be back soon.” Taemin smiled and then went back to sorting through papers.
