taehyung isn't feeling particularly great.

the room is bustling with energy. his classmates are out of their seats and perched atop their friends' tables as they chat with them leisurely, or are strolling around the class and laughing loudly without a care in the world. if there hadn't been a teacher handling the class at the moment then this would be considered perfectly normal, but mrs. kang is very much there, unheeding, tapping away at her phone and stifling yawn after yawn at her desk.

it really hadn't taken much begging on the students' part for a free period for the teacher to give inㅡas the last class of the last day of school, there wasn't much chance of her winning against thirty-odd students.

it isn't that taehyung doesn't notice the attempts some of his classmates make at starting a conversation with him or bringing him into an ongoing one. a month ago, taehyung would have jumped at the opportunityㅡpeople talking to him? he would have considered it a miracle, thanked his stars and promptly joined the discussion.

but now, it's nothing new. he picks up people glancing his way a lot more these days, opening their mouth to say something and closing it, trying for a smile on awkward eye-contact. it's normal. as if they're suddenly aware of his existence and are curious of him, but too apprehensive to approach him.

so taehyung had tried approaching them, instead.

and it had worked astonishingly wellㅡhe hadn't even needed to say anything but "hi, i'm taehyung" for the person to warm up to him almost immediately, to break into a genuine smile and introduce themselves back.

he wonders why he'd never tried that before, why he'd insisted on distancing himself away from everyone when it all could have been as easy as that. but he doubts people would have reacted so warmly if it wasn't for the transformation his outward personality had gone through.

maybe it's the smiling. taehyung does smile a lot more now.

but right now, he isn't.

he's not smiling, but people are still yelling his name, calling him over with bright grins. this is new, definitely, but he shakes his head. not now.

there's a hollow, unsettling feeling in his stomach as he sits at his desk silently, knees pressed together under the table and fists clenched unconsciously. his gaze flicks upwards to the wall-clock, and a fresh bout of nausea shudders through his bodyㅡthere's barely ten minutes for the bell to ring; for school to close.

and he still hasn't met anon.

taehyung brings his head down, propping it up with his hands and groaning. his locker. why had anon asked him to check his locker? he'd checked it after every period. he'd checked it before and after lunch break. he'd even cleaned it out, discarding all the scrap paper and candy wrappers he'd never bothered to chuck, just to make sure he'd checked every nook and cranny.

a stupid, cruel prank to get his hopes up? taehyung's considering sending anon another round of angry messages demanding an explanation, though he knows that they too will only get left on read or not be read at allㅡanon has some sort of steadfast determination to not text in school. educational purposes, he insists. bullshit, taehyung thinks.

"taehyungie?"

his head darts up, and he heaves out a sigh, forcing on a tight-lipped smile as he turns in his seat. he pins down the source of voice easily enoughㅡseokjin has his head tilted to the side, eyes crinkled in concern.

"are you okay?" he asks softly.

taehyung nods, laughing and pressing a hand to his temple. "yep, yeah. just, you know ... tired."

seokjin cocks up an eyebrow like he doesn't buy it, before his lips curve up in a small smile.

"why don't you get out of here?"

taehyung blinks rapidly, not understanding the implication behind his words one bit. he couldn't have done something to offend seokjin by simply sitting motionlessly in his seat ... right? "i'm sorry?"

"out of here. the classroom," seokjin motions around. "everyone's making a lot of noise, maybe you need some quiet? take a walk."

"i'm ... sorry?" taehyung repeats, utterly confused as to why seokjin is saying this. there's no way it's because of some grudge the other could be harboring for him because he's smiling at him so amiably, so what the fuck?

"or, you know, go to the bathroom, wash your face. i dunno." seokjin is still talking, eyes moving away from taehyung to the teacher. "just ask mrs. kang, i'm sure she'll be okay with it."

"iㅡi'm sorry, why do you want me toㅡ?" taehyung begins to say in confusion, but trails off uneasilyㅡthere's a knowingness in seokjin's gaze that he doesn't understand at all.

"just to clear your head. go."

taehyung gets up slowly, seokjin's eyes traveling upwards with his motion so as to keep them fixated on taehyung's face. taehyung's not even sure why he's even going along with it; he could very well say, no, i'd like to stay here, thank you.

"okay," taehyung finds himself saying. "i'll go."

seokjin smiles and nods, then does a 180° turn in his seat to pick up a conversation with the person behind him like nothing had even happened. taehyung frowns momentarilyㅡsitting in his seat with a spinning head, walking through the hallway with a spinning head; what difference would it make?

nevertheless, he makes his way to the front of the class and clears his throat. "miss?"

mrs. kang looks up a bit too abruptly, her glasses slipping down her nose. with a scowl, she fixes them into place, peering at taehyung through them irritably. "yes, taehyung."

"can i go to the bathroom, please?"

she eyes him for a beat before glancing down at her wristwatch. "just a few more minutes for the bell. hold it in."

it's exactly what taehyung had expected. a 'yes miss, sorry miss' is ready on the tip of his tongue but then seokjin's voice rings out from behind him, loud and clear: "mrs. kang, he's feeling a bit queasy!"

the fuck?

"ah," the woman squints at him, "you do look a bit pale. run along now, and try not to make a mess if you don't make it to the bathroom on time, hm?"

"yes miss, sorry miss," taehyung answers distractedly, turning away for the door. he casts a bewildered look in seokjin's directionㅡthe male only grins and flashes him a thumbs up.

"the actual fuck?" he murmurs under his breath, shaking his head as he turns the corner. granted, he does feel pretty nauseousㅡbut not in the sense that he needs to throw up.

his pace slows a few feet from the classroom as he realizes that he doesn't even have a clue where to go. he could just walk around aimlessly since his pounding head had pretty much robbed him of his sense of direction, but he feels that he'd much rather have been sitting in his seat than doing any of this.

taehyung sighs, beginning to mutter resentfully under his breath, "stupid anon, stupid lockeㅡ"

locker. taehyung's eyes are suddenly wide open. he could check his locker now. of course, he'd checked it before entering this class, but what if anon had only had time to put whatever he wanted to put in it laterㅡ?

he breaks into a sprint, the dizziness of his head fading into utter clarityㅡhe's certain now. he's certain that anon's done whatever he wanted to do. of course he'd do it in the last possible second so that taehyung would have no time to approach him during school hours. of course.

he skids to a stop, not even panting as he fumbles with his padlock's combinationㅡanon was here. if he wasn't 100% sure before, he is now, because it's like he can feel wisps of anon's presence lingering in the area despite the fact that he's never even met him before and that that's technically not possible.

1230. taehyung swings the locker open.

it takes him only a moment to find it.

the white sheet of paper stands out in the dark corners of taehyung's newly cleared-out locker, folded carefully and placed in clear sight. he picks it out gingerly, unfolding it and flattening it out, despite the clear lack of crinkles.

taehyung holds the sheet in aweㅡnot in wonderment of how anon had managed to get it inside his locker as there's sufficient space to slip it in, but the fact that it's an entire sheet of paperㅡnot a chitㅡand it's filled with neat, cursive writing.

and taehyung's sure that somewhere, there's his name. he's going to find out anon's name.

he looks around the deserted hallway, then back at the paper, gulping. resting his back against his locker, he drops down into a crouch, clears his throat,

and begins reading.