hoodie ━ yeonbin. ✓

[ 🎀¹⁹ ] rumor has it.

"yeonjun."

the blue haired boy raised his head and finally returned to the setting of the dull classroom, and realized he'd been called upon.

mr. kang expectantly looked at him.

yeonjun felt alarmed. when did he get to third period english? he didn't even remember going to his first class.

he looked over in panic at soobin, who sat diagonally from his seat, in the column of desks to the left of yeonjun's.

soobin mouthed, "you ok?" which, yeonjun did appreciate, but was not the help he needed.

several students turned around in their desks and stared directly at him. yeonjun felt his right cheek throb quickly with the pace of his heartbeat and he tried to swallow back the fear. he touched the cheek that was pulsing as his mind raced to understand what was going on.

mr. kang understood yeonjun's panicked look and repeated, "can you tell me what the blue curtains in this story might represent?"

yeonjun glanced at the open textbook on his desk. they were reading something in there that had a crudely-drawn picture of a person being entangled in blue curtains.

woah, since when did they read such terrifying shit in their literature class?

"he's trapped. no one can see that the dude needs help and he can't see that there could be others that can help him," yeonjun blurted on the spot, grasping at straws.

mr. kang raised his eyebrows and nodded. "wow, that was a great connection! i like that you mentioned..."

and yeonjun tuned out again, staring directly at that image in the textbook. the man being strangled. unable to get away.

chills raised bumps on his skin. his stomach churned as he remembered how helpless he'd felt, being trapped in a group, their arms holding him down...

yeonjun felt queasy, closing his eyes to try and root himself in the moment. if he wasn't careful, sometimes he could slip back into the memories...

he looked up when he saw soobin sit at the empty desk beside yeonjun, as was the norm now, and move it closer.

"we're doing partner work," soobin explained, knowing that yeonjun had not paid attention to the instructions. "we have to annotate this."

yeonjun asked, "when did it become third period? i don't even remember how i woke up or anything."

"you've been kinda dazed all day," soobin whispered back, and shrugged. he continued to look over the text, appearing to actually concentrate on his work. "i kept going to each of your classes after the bell rang and you were always sitting at your desk spacing out; i helped you get to your classes. you really don't remember that?"

yeonjun shook his head. "i don't like the hallways very much." he waited a few seconds before continuing, "thanks."

soobin nodded, "hey, just playing the part of the part of the handsome boyfriend. i'm just the love interest to your main character woes."

a smile tugged at the corners of yeonjun's lips.

"by the way, how the heck did you come up with that symbolism thing on the spot?" soobin furrowed his eyebrows. "i didn't even think that he was trapped or couldn't see."

"they're covering his face," yeonjun pointed at the image. "and his hands are all twisted in them here. i just said the obvious?"

"oh! damn, you're a genius," soobin mumbled, writing a few words down in the margins.