BOY SCOUT. － s.yh + j.jh

11: entry fifty-two

Yoonoh didn't know what he was doing wrong. Why did all his classmates hate him? He just did what they did and he always tried to not be a bother in any way, sticking to walls and tucked into corners, to the point that most break times he'd eat in a bathroom stall. He did his best, so why did they keep putting him down?

As it often happened since it was his mother tongue and he was older, Youngho had helped Yoonoh prepare for an English grammar test, spending hours at his home and being a patient tutor while the brunet would ogle him for his American accent － Youngho assumed it would never fail to impress him and this thought pleased him, oddly enough.

Along with the fact that he himself had lived in the U.S.A. for four years and had an affinity for the language, upon receiving his marked test some days later, he came to know that once again he had placed first in class.

Seeing this, giddiness brimmed from within his chest down to his fingertips and he couldn't wait to tell the news to Youngho and his parents; however, as he lifted his head his smile dissolved.

"Miss, I think Yoonoh is a cheater!"

The teacher quirked a brow, her untrusting stare snapping from the girl seated in the second row to Yoonoh in the far right, whose jaw had fallen slack and eyes had widened in shock as she herself finished handing out the last of the tests.

"He always gets first place and that's impossible! He's not that smart," the child prattled on accusingly, receiving murmurs and nods of agreement from her peers.

At that, the woman's expression hardened, her eyes squinting slightly, enough to hardly be seen.

"I've heard Jung does well in most subjects, Min," she replied in a bristly tone, "He also always does his assigned work, unlike some of you."

The subtle jab brought an angry red to the girl's ears and a number of others, but Yoonoh found no joy in it, far too distraught by the fact that he was being accused of being unfair at all.

"But I saw him look into his bag during the test!"

Yoonoh let out a faint squeak, "I promise I didn't, I only did well because I studied a lot with a senior. I'm not that smart but － but he's kind and helps me and I try really hard."

The bob-haired girl turned to him with a wrinkled face, sour and disgusted as she gave him a once over, "Ew, is he your boyfriend or something? Gross."

Boyfriend? Gross?

"That's enough, Min," the teacher intervened, clearly altered by the derogatory comment, "Another word and I'll be calling your parents."

Despite her raised voice though, Yoonoh heard merely fragments and processed not a syllable, far too entangled in his swirling thoughts.

Youngho as his boyfriend? Why would that be so bad? Why would she offend his friend by calling him gross when he was one of the best people he knew? － given he didn't know many. He felt the need to defend himself in some way, defend Youngho who couldn't do so in his absence, but his hands were already trembling from having spoken loudly to be heard by the teacher a couple moments ago and his eyes were welling with tears from his frazzled emotional state.

He went to speak up, but his lips were quivering and his voice wobbled, "That's not t-true," he forced out, "Youngho is my best － best friend a-and he isn't gro-gross. I －"

"Yoonoh, why don't you go calm down outside for a while?" the woman had softened her tone but he looked to her in panic, cheeks blotching pink as tears eventually spilled down them.

"B-But I didn't cheat, Miss."

She gave him a fond smile, patient and soothing and it momentarily felt as though she were his mother, "I know you didn't, I had been watching over everyone during the test. Now go out for a bit and relax, alright?"