꒰🍒꒱ warning : graphic descriptions of violence

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

When Mr. Min left the classroom, everyone started to go to their friends to chat. Taehyun was almost a hundred percent sure that they weren't even going to talk about the project.

Something Taehyun would do if his friends were actually in the class. But they weren't, and Taehyun hates socializing.

Beomgyu sat silently next to him, his head was staring at the opposite side of the class, Taehyun notes that he was looking at the group of people who were laughing and chattering together. Beomgyu had AirPods on and was silently tapping his head to the rhythm

Taehyun couldn't just sit there for two whole hours, embracing the awkward like a coward. Well, he could, actually. But he wanted a decent grade for this and he knew he couldn't do it alone considering the fact that the other male's vocals had to be in it too.

So Taehyun weighed his options.

Plan A, just put on his earbuds and listen to loud metal that he doesn't even like and hope that it'll distract him from satan incarnate who was next to him

Plan B, tap on his shoulder and apologize for suddenly ramming his face into his chest when they 'passed' in the hallways and explain how he just got lost because he forgot where the bathroom was and then hope Beomgyu doesn't turn Taehyun into his personal slave for it like in those Kdramas.

Plan C, shut his eyes and pray to God that a huge hole will swallow him right up so he doesn't have to feel the shame.

at first, plan C was looking promising to him, but after much consideration, Taehyun decided to go for the second one.

Besides, what was the worst that could happen? it wasn't like Beomgyu would throw him out the window right then and there, right?

Taehyun briefly glances at the window and looks down, noticing how there were some houses with sharp metal roofs and a car parked directly under the window. There were tall buildings beyond the horizon and a garden was below it too. Taehyun remembers that he was on the fourth floor.

he had second thoughts when he realizes this.

but he opted to talk to him anyway. He was Kang fuckin' Taehyun, for God's sake. he wasn't a wimp or anything. at least that was what he told himself.

So with the anxiety in his body that he tried to mask, he reaches to tap on Beomgyu's shoulder.

"What?" Beomgyu said way too quickly as if he was expecting it, moving away from the touch, "If you're going to talk about the music shit, I don't care,"

"I- wanted to apologize," Taehyun said, "I really didn't mean to slam into you this morning, I just got lost and- Kai was- and you were right there and then there was a .. locker and.." Taehyun blabbers, his eyes had trailed down but then he slowly looks up to meet the eyes of the older, "..your chest,"

"Your so pathetic," Beomgyu scoffed harshly, snapping his AirPod case shut.

"I got you fired yesterday, too," Taehyun said. And his mouth dropped open once it left his lips. He did not mean to say that out loud.

Where was this confidence coming from?..

"Whatever," Beomgyu said after looking (and trying to hide, but failed) taken aback at Taehyun lashing out, "This is why no one likes you,"

Taehyun wanted to reply, but that stung. How could this person who bullies him every single day determine whether no one liked him or not?

Taehyun's thoughts turned his anxiety into anger. He was getting riled up. Beomgyu was nothing, Beomgyu wasn't anything without his little two-member support crew.

"For someone whose always alone, you're quick to judge,"

and that was Taehyun's huge mistake because, in one moment, although he expected it, anticipated it, Beomgyu grabbed a fistful of his front shirt and pulled him up, and the feeling of his knuckles colliding with his chin made Taehyun's eyes snap open and a low groan emits in his throat.

Taehyun had never been punched so hard before, so he was incredibly shocked when he felt liquid run down the side of his mouth, and him choking on the iron-like taste.

"He's bleeding- call Mr. Min!"

"Oh shit is this a fight?!"

"Stop recording and call someone for fuck's sake!"

Beomgyu wasn't thinking when he let out his boiling antipathy and swung his tight fist, too quick and potent, into Taehyun's defined jaw; the impact like thousands of venomous blades piercing apart his clammed fist. It leads Taehyun to one conclusion: that it hurt. Like a son of a bitch.

Beomgyu's teeth were gritted tight and his face was scrunched up in a scowl, looking down at the younger.

Taehyun's mind flashes to the smiling, soft-spoken Beomgyu who he witnessed for only a few seconds at the coffee shop. the cat cafe he was now fired from. this was not him.

"You dont know shit about me," Beomgyu said, looking down at the male whom he had his front shirt fisted, "So stop talking like you do,"

Taehyun chokes, on what, he doesn't know. On one hand, he thought he was choking on his words, on the next, It could probably be the liquid running down his jaw now (that he assumes could be blood. he prays it's not)

Beomgyu's voice wavered when he talked like he was afraid. Like he was the one being threatened instead of Taehyun. Like he was the one having to dangle by the throat in front of a crowd where people's eyes held fear. Beomgyu was panting, hyperventilating almost. And Taehyun's hand that was tightly grabbing Beomgyu's fist that was holding him, scratched harder.

Just as Taehyun felt like his muscles were going to relax, to let him be hurt like this, to not fight back and let Beomgyu have his way with him, the door slides open in a frantic, rushed manner. the back of the door collides with the concrete wall and Mr. Min's worried eyes meet with Taehyun's first before his eyes travel up to Beomgyu's.

"Choi Beomgyu," Mr. Min said, his voice cold and stern, yet calm, "Let him go and come with me,"

Beomgyu's eyes did not leave Taehyun's. Taehyun notices how his eyes didn't hold any resentment or hate.

instead, it held fear. Choi Beomgyu, who had punched him, had eyes who holds fear for the victim he had hurt.

The fear wasn't like regret. it was more like the fear of getting caught. the fear of being caught. Like Taehyun had just said Beomgyu's secret out loud and now he had to kill him for it. Like Taehyun had caught onto something Beomgyu was hiding.

Mr. Min walked over, and the sound of his dress shoes on the tile floor was probably the thing that snapped him out, because a moment later, Beomgyu blinked rapidly and lets the younger go. Mr. Min, with his arms folded as if it was his default state, looks at him.

"I'm not even surprised at this point," He says with disappointment, looking at the boy who was born and raised in Daegu, "Can someone take Taehyun to the nurse's office?"

"I-I can go myself," Taehyun said, and he felt like his throat was on fire. As if every time he talked, it came out like a gargle.

Mr. Min sighs, "Are you sure?"

Taehyun nodded, unconsciously wiping his mouth. He looks at what he wiped and he felt his heart stop.

His clean white uniform was now stained with a dark, red blotch of blood. And if it weren't for Mr. Min, who placed a hand on his shoulder, he would have probably never snap out of it.

Taehyun's mother was going to be so worried.

"Come on, boys," Mr. Min says, guiding Taehyun to the door.

Beomgyu was looking down the whole time since he let Taehyun go, unblinking, and his breathing picked up. He felt like he was going to have a panic attack, the overwhelming sensation and the pain that shot up through his arm from the punch starting to take over him.

Beomgyu only moved when Mr. Min came back to retrieve him, telling the students to go back to work. Beomgyu trembles as he was being led. not to the principal's room, but to the counselor.