quiz!au

*

***

"good morning, mr. way! may i please have a band-aid?" brian asked his teacher.

"of course, brian!" his teacher looked in his drawer and pouted. looking up at his student, he said, "oh dear... i seem to have run out! why don't you go to the nurse? i'll give you a pass, sweetie."

"oh... it's okay, sir. i'll just ask my desk buddy."

"alright, dear. but if you change your mind, just come to me. okay?"

"sure thing, mr. way."

the young boy slunk over to his seat, sighing. he hung his backpack on the back of his chair and slowly sat down. as a small pain rang through his knee, he hissed. his desk-mate turned to him and asked, "everything okay, brian?"

"yeah, jackson. do you have a band-aid?"

"no, sorry."

"it's okay."

"why do you need a band-aid?" the dark-haired boy asked.

"i scraped my knee falling for someone."

"you like someone?" a soft smile appeared on jackson's face as he gave brian a gentle nudge with his elbow.

"what? no." brian looked over at his friend in confusion. "where'd you get that from?"

"you said you fell for someone, silly!"

"oh!" the brunette chuckled and waved his hands around. "i said it like that? i meant to say i fell because of someone."

"silly, silly." jackson pinched the brunette's cheek and turned to him. "did you fall for that summer school buddy of yours?"

younghyun groaned and turned around in his seat to take out his pencil case. "i didn't fall for him..." the brunette unzipped his pencil case and took out a pencil and eraser. "i fell because of him."

"so it is jae!" jackson happily chirped. the dark-haired boy tugged on brian's shirt, gaining his attention. "does he take you to school?"

"no," brian grumbled, placing his head on his arms in boredom. when was the bell going to ring already? he just wanted to take his quiz and go to the nurse... "i walk him to school."

"you take him to his school?!" jackson excitedly clapped his hands together and leaned into brian. "does that mean you get to see mark?"

"yeah. and he and jae always try to make me late to breakfast..."

"hey... hey, brian!"

brian rolled his head sideways so he could look up at jackson's excited face. "what is it?"

"let me go with you next time."

"no."

"why not?!"

"because you live ten minutes away... by car." brian impatiently tapped his pencil on top of his desk and hissed when his shorts rubbed against his knee as he shifted his feet onto the chair holdy-thingy. "and besides, if i took you with me, i would probably never get to school: not on time, not at all."

"awhhhh, but briaaaannnn," jackson urged, pushing the older boy's forearm repeatedly. "i want to go toooooo..."

"no means no, jackson," the brunette sighed out. and then the bell rang and the boy looked to the front of the room, awaiting his teacher's instructions.

*

jae sat at his desk, chewing on his pencil's eraser. he was supposed to be taking a quiz, a very VERY important quiz, but he just couldn't seem to get his mind off of what had happened that morning.

**"Hey, Brian!" Jae waved goodbye to his mom and ran over to his friend, who was standing in front of the front door of his house.

"Hey, Jae." The brunette smiled and beckoned the blonde to hurry up. Jae grinned back at him and leapt through the doorway, landing next to him. As they walked to school, Jae kept pestering Brian with pokes, because isn't that what friends are meant for? The brunette ignored him, instead focusing on reciting the vocabulary words on his quiz out loud as he walked. "Abundant, redundant... poign--"

Just when Brian was about to finish the next word, he saw a bicyclist coming towards him and Jae. The man was dangerously close to Jae, and it looked like he was looking up at the sky instead of looking where he was going. Similarly, Jae was too busy poking Brian to notice the bike heading his way. As the bike entered the four-foot range, Brian grabbed Jae and fell sideways, holding the blonde to his chest. As his knee hit the sidewalk, the brunette released a cry of pain. The bicyclist passed right by them, not having noticed that something was amiss.

Jae's eyes widened and he clambered up, offering the injured boy a hand. "Hey... Hey, Brian. What just happened?"

Younghyun groaned and took the hand being offered. He allowed Jae to help him up and dusted off his shorts where he fell on them onto the sidewalk. "A bike almost hit you while you were too busy annoying me to pay attention."

"Oh..." Jae looked at the ground in guilt. "I'm sorry, Brian."**

and as he sat at his desk, eraser between his teeth and thoughts between his quiz, jae's mind kept repeating the moment when he was pulled into the safety of brian's arms... when he was saved from a collision with a stupid, stupid bike.

*

younghyun forgot to go to the nurse's office after his test. it was now the end of the day and his knee itched REALLY bad. "dang it..." he looked down at the scab on his knee, seeing dried blood stuck to it and small dust balls sticking to the places where the blood had trickled down his leg. "what am i gonna do now..."

he was walking down the sidewalk in the direction of jae's school, and of course he had only just noticed his mistake. not like a band-aid would have helped him much... but he wouldn't just underestimate the power of band-aids like that...

he stopped for a second to itch at his scab. his fingernails must have been longer than he thought, because the scab re-opened and blood started to gush down his leg, sliding onto his white sock and staining his light blue shoe. "dang it... dang it," he hissed, patting his injury and starting to walk again. "stop bleeding," he told his knee as he walked, wagging his finger at it and shaking his head in exasperation.

"brian! let me come with you!!" the brunette suddenly heard from behind him, and then a small form was jumping up onto his back.

"no, jackson!" he yelled out, shocked. "you startled me!! you're not coming with me! no!!"

"why nooooot?!"

"because then i'll have to walk you home, and i won't have time to do my homework!"

jackson jumped down from brian's back and skipped up beside the taller boy. "ah, that's no problem! i'll just ask mark to take me home! his mom drives him to school." the boy cheekily smiled and tried to wiggle his eyebrows. he failed.

"and what if he says no? what am i meant to do then?"

"he won't say no. i promise, brian." jackson tugged brian's shirt, pouting. "take me with you!!"

"fine," brian sighed out, defeated. "let's go before my knee gets infected."

jackson finally looked down and noticed younghyun's bleeding leg. "wah!! brian, when did that happen?!"

"i itched it just now... bad idea."

"we better go fast then."

"yep."

and so the boys quickened their pace, hoping to reach jae and mark's school as quickly as possible.

*

jae and mark participated in a music club after school and it usually ended just in time for brian to make it to their school (middle school vs elementary school end hours differ, right?). brian and jackson were heading in the direction of the music classroom in the older boys' school after just barely managing to push themselves through the middle school kids streaming toward the activity buses. they were walking down the hall, hand in hand because jackson was quite small in stature and brian had not wanted to lose him in the crowd of bigger kids, when the dark-haired boy noticed someone walking towards them. the small boy let go of brian's hand and practically squealed, running towards the figure nearing them. without warning, he jumped onto the red-haired boy and yelled into his ear. "MARK!!! hiiiiiiiiii!!!!!"

"hi, jackson," mark said in a half-annoyed, half-pleased voice. he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and swung him around in the air. this caused jackson to laugh and scream... extremely loudly. which was probably what alerted jae to their presence.

younghyun saw the blonde emerge from behind the music room door, his guitar hanging from his back and his eyes wide in concern. when the tall boy saw that everything was in fact okay, he sighed and shook his head. "dang, jackson... you want to get us kicked out of this school?"

"hey, jae!" jackson said, still holding onto the lanky boy with red hair, who was just as tightly clutching him to his chest despite trying to seem nonchalant to the small boy's presence.

"hi, jae," brian grumbled, turning around and starting to walk toward the doors.

"hey, mark... can you give me a ride home?" brian heard jackson mumble, the red-haired boy's hum of approval sounding soon after, before he heard a whisper tickle over the back of his neck.

"hey, bri bri."

younghyun sighed out in exasperation and turned around to swat at jae's smug face. "shut up, jae. i let you call me brian, which is painful enough. and now you decide to call me bri bri? no way, man."

"okay, fine. i admit that was too much." jae slung his arm over brian's shoulder and matched his pace to the younger boy's. "bye, mark! bye, jackson!" he yelled, earning no response from the other boys, who were busy trying to mutilate each other in the most loving way possible. brian figured jackson would win this one but knew that mark had some tricks up his sleeve... it didn't really matter to him, though. he just wanted to walk jae home and get him to help with homework. even though jae was considerably worse at concentrating than him...

they were walking down the hallway leading to the school's exit when a sharp pain shot through younghyun's knee. jae's guitar case had knocked against his leg out of nowhere. he hissed and stopped for a second to steady himself. jae stopped along with him, confused. "what's wrong?"

"do you have a band-aid?" brian's knee was bleeding again.

"no, why?"

"i scraped my knee when i fell for you."

"...bro." jae took a step backwards as if brian had just said the most surprising thing ever. "you have a thing for me?"

younghyun groaned. he was so, so tired of all of this. "no, it's not like that. AT ALL. oh my god... you're worse than jackson. what i mean is that i fell because of you. dang, bro..." brian shook his head, seemingly disappointed and slightly annoyed even.

"oh." jae's face temporarily clouded over, then changed to an expression of worry. "but anyway... i feel bad about this morning. i'm sorry about that. i really didn't mean to."

brian sighed, sliding his finger down jae's wrist to calm him down. "it's fine. i'm just happy you're safe."

"mm." jae looked down in embarrassment. his finger found younghyun's and latched onto it. after a few seconds of just standing there, lightly swinging their hands to and fro and thinking, jae's head shot up in revelation. "wait, i know who has a band-aid!"

"really?" the brunette tugged on jae's finger, causing the boy to stumble closer to him."who?"

"mark."

"but didn't he leave already?" brian figured the friendly brawl had already ended and their friends had left.

"let's check." jae pulled brian in the direction of the music room. as they approached the hallway, the sound of loud laughter entered their ears. brian was surprised jackson and mark had not been kicked out yet. "guess not."

"mhm." brian pulled jae along, his hand easily sliding into jae's to have a better grip on the boy. jae's cheeks tinted a bit... he had no idea why. oh well. "hey, mark," the brunette called out to the red-head who currently had jackson in a headlock. "can i have a band-aid?"

"sure," the older boy said, letting jackson go and unzipping his bag. he passed the brunette a green band-aid. jackson crept up behind the red-head and jumped onto his back. nuzzling into the older boy's shoulder, he questioned, "why don't you wash your cut first?"

"oh. he's right," jae voiced, ushering brian toward the bathroom. mark followed them, piggy-backing jackson. brian momentarily wondered how the smaller boy was not fazed by the backpack digging into his stomach but pushed the thought out of his head. that was not his main concern at the moment. jae sat him down on the sink-counter and wet a paper towel to dab at his knee. brian hissed as the water and material made contact with his injury. it stung quite a bit. but it wasn't that bad, honestly. "i'm sorry, brian," jae murmured, slowly cleaning the scrape.

"it's okay."

jae curtly nodded and kept dabbing at the scrape. once he was done cleaning it, the blonde quickly wiped the trickling blood off of brian's leg and gestured to the boy. "what?" brian asked him.

"band-aid."

"oh." brian passed him the band-aid, and jae swiftly opened the packaging. he then carefully stretched the fabric over younghyun's knee and plastered it on.

"there. all done." jae smiled up at brian, who was still sitting on top of the sink-counter.

"thanks, jae." brian smiled back at him.

he was about to clamber down from the counter when jackson said, "wait. my mom always kisses the band-aid after she puts it on. that makes it heal faster."

"if you expect me to let jae kiss my knee, you're not as smart as i thought you were," brian told jackson.

"but then it will hurt for a longer time," jackson replied, his tone laced with sadness.

"that's not how it works," mark told the smaller boy, patting his leg and positioning him higher on his back.

"my mom says it does..." jackson pouted and tried to get down from mark's back, but the older boy kept him anchored there because he was warm. at least... that was one of the reasons...

"give me your knee." jae steeled himself, letting out a breath for courage.

"no way! not happening, jae," younghyun told him, trying to jump off the counter. unfortunately, jae stopped him by grabbing his hips and pushing him securely onto the surface.

"i'm with brian," mark said. "it's his knee after all."

"and that's why i'm going to heal it. i'm the one who did this to him."

"that's right, jae!" jackson egged him on. "kiss it to make it all better! kiss it!!"

"shut up, jackson!" brian yelled. he tried to push jae's hands away and tried kicking his legs up, but the next words that jae whispered made him stop.

"i really respect you, brian. and this is the only way i can really show how sorry i am."

the brunette sat still a few seconds more, deep in contemplation. then he shuffled so he was sitting more comfortably on the counter and nodded. "fine. but just this once, you prune."

jae looked down at brian's knee and let out another breath of courage. then he leaned down and placed a small kiss on the band-aid.

"yeah! that's what i'm talking about!!" jackson exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. mark shimmied backwards until the boy on his back crashed into the wall, which quieted him down for a bit until they began to brawl again.

jae let go of brian's hips and offered him a hand. the younger took it and jae helped him get off the counter. then they went home, pretending that nothing had happened and that nothing would happen later on.