p e r s o n a l l y ☆ 2jae

n i n e

"You got a detention!?"

Youngjae didn't respond but looked away from Jinyoung's gaze. The Friday had arrived, something that felt like time had passed way too soon and dragged on way too long.

"How come you didn't say anything about it before?"

"It's not your buisness--" Youngjae snapped back quickly. Instantly regretting his action.

A solemn and serious look fell across Jinyoung's face, "Youngjae-ah. I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."

He took one last look at the younger and slowly turned away.

Friday detentions were always after school, an extra half our of sitting in a room in silence surrounded by anybody else who's acted wrongly that week. Youngjae huffed and began his walk of shame to the detention room at the back end of one of the buildings.

Room 274.

The door looked slightly older than the other doors in the building, Youngjae stepped in and saw a man standing by the whiteboard at the front of the class. He gestured for Youngjae to take a seat as he gathered some papers. Youngjae did, sitting in the middle row on the right side closest to the window.

The teacher, short and round with thin glasses, walked up to the boy's desk.

"What are you here for?"

"No homework," Youngjae replied quietly.

The teacher nodded and jotted this down into a file, "Which teacher was this?"

"Mr Alesto."

The teacher's pen scribbled once more, "Ah, he's a maths teacher right?"

Youngjae nodded as the teacher began to walk away.

"You can sit and do some work if you like, or just sit as long as you're not misbehaving."

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"You've got to be kidding.." Jaebeom muttered as he swung open the door to room 274.

Youngjae looked up at the noise, a look of shock frozen into his expression.

"Ah Jaebeom, what's it this week?" The teacher spoke abruptly.

"I was late," Jaebeom replied bitterly.

"Mr Alesto too I assume?"

Jaebeom agreed, for Mr Alesto was one of the strictest teachers for handing out detentions. The teacher waved a hand at the empty seats for the boy to take one. Jaebeom sat in the middle seat of the back row.

The first 15 minute were sat in silence. Nobody else had entered the room, leaving an uncomfortable aura floating in it.

At that moment the teacher stood up abruptly from the computer where he sat, "I've got to sort some things out so you too just stay here, I doubt you'd do anything since it's just you two."

He quickly gathered his things and rushed out the door, popping his head back in momentarily for a quick reminder that, "I'll be checking on you two at the end of the half hour to make sure you're still here."

And with that the door swung shut again.

The air felt colder and thinner, as if the boys were balancing on top of a mountain, treading carefully to not fall off the edge. Youngjae turned over his left shoulder to look at the elder.

Their eyes met.

1

2

3 seconds of staring before Youngjae broke away again.

"What?!" Jaebeom muttered harshly.

"Nothing," Youngjae replied, not turning back to look at him.

Jaebeom felt a wave of anger rising in him, did Youngjae like to mess with him like this? Make him feel worse than anything?

"Ya! Youngjae!" The elder called out, but the latter making no effort to acknowledge it.

"Don't take this personally, but you've seriously become some sort of asshole-"

Youngjae scoffed from his seat, "Wow.. Pretty rich coming from a guy like you.."

"HEY!", Jaebeom yelled, his voice getting louder and louder as he spoke, "I'm not the one who's suddenly trying to act all emo and thinks he's better than everyone else!"

Youngjae turned back angry, his chair scratching against the dirty wooden floor. Jaebeom noticed that Youngjae's eyes were cloudy and watering. His stomach dropped.

"What about you! Trying to care about everything and trying to act like you haven't been an asshole the whole time!"

Youngjae felt out of breath, his heart was racing and he could hear his heart pump in his ears, "Just because you dress differently and call teachers 'Sir' now doesn't change the fact that you're putting on an act and pretending that everyone doesn't notice!"

His voice resonated in the empty room for a moment, leaving behind a suffocating tension.

Youngjae had tears streaking down his face at this point. His breaths loud and irregular. With a final angry look he turned around and aggressively wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

The elder wasn't sure how to feel. He felt angry and hurt and powerless and confused. His fists tensed up as he gripped the sides of the desk, knuckles turning white.

A few more minutes past, that time alone feeling longer than the whole half an hour that they had been stuck in the room for. The door opened once more and both boys whipped their head into that direction.

"You two are free to go," the teacher said before briskly leaving again.

Youngjae was the first to hurriedly grab his bag and storm out of the room. Again, leaving Jaebeom the last person there.

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Author's Note:
Hi! I'm not sure who's reading this story but if you are I hope you're enjoying it so far. I'm trying to upload a bit more often now since writing these chapters is really fun.
That's all I really wanted to say, I hope you're having a good day!