Taehyeon doesn't go straight to his own classroom. He is already late. A few extra minutes isn't going to make a difference now. He pulls open the door to class 6 and rushes over to Bada.
"Can I help you, student?"
Taehyeon can't answer the teacher. All he can do is pull Bada out of his seat. He buries his face in Bada's chest and screams.
That's better.
"Sorry, Miss," Taehyeon says as he leaves.
He finally arrives at his own classroom, takes a telling off and a couple of demerit points, and he sits down in his seat.
← Kim Bada
Kim Bada
What was that?
Mo Taehyeon
I needed to scream or I would have exploded.
Kim Bada
Okay…
What happened to you? No offence but you don't look as good as you did in the picture you sent me this morning. Why are you catfishing me????
Mo Taehyeon
Lee Minjun asked me to be his friend.
Kim Bada
What?
No way
Mo Taehyeon
He wasn't weirded out by me liking him or anything. He asked me to sit with him at lunch and everything. I'm going to be sick.
Kim Bada
Now I need to scream
!!!!!!!!!!!
Motae
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN LOVE AND HAVE A BOYFRIEND IN NO TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Taehyeon doesn't get the chance to respond. His phone mysteriously floats out of his hands. And then his homeroom teacher is raising her eyebrows as she reads his personal and private messages.
"Miss—"
"I would just like to know, what is so much more interesting than me explaining about the residential trip before winter break?"
"Nothing," Taehyeon says as he reaches for his phone. "I'm listening, I swear!"
"It is always romance," Miss Ahn mutters. Louder, she says, "You know it really is a waste of time daydreaming over kissing and holding hands. Right now you are setting up your future. You need to focus on studying instead of—"
Miss Ahn looks at Taehyeon and then hands over his phone.
"Turn that off."
Oh no.
She really read the messages.
Taehyeon turns off his phone.
Immediately after Miss Ahn walks away there is a loud scrape of chair legs.
"Who do you fancy?" Minjeong asks (not at all quietly yet somehow not loudly enough to irk a teacher).
"What?"
"That's obviously what your text messages were about," Minjeong points out. "I'm a really good matchmaker. Tell me who it is and I will help to set you up."
Taehyeon scoffs, though his teacher stumbling upon a secret has sapped away his bravado. "You can't be serious. Why are you pretending not to know? Ripping pages out of other people's textbooks is vandalism. If you don't want me to tell on you, pay me back for it."
Minjeong's eyes boggle. "What are you talking about? Taeri, take him to the nurse or something. I'm worried."
Taehyeon is worried about Minjeong. "Did you really forget ripping a page out of my history book? How much criminal damage are you doing on a daily basis?"
Minjeong huffs and shakes her head before looking to the front of the classroom. Taehyeon really is going to have to hope his mom never finds out if nobody is going to take responsibility for the property damage they are enacting day by day.
"Oh," Taeri chirps. "That was me."
"What?"
Taeri is all chubby, pink cheeks and baby powder fragrance. She's innocent. Taehyeon tears his eyes from the rubber and ruler-based catapult he had begun to construct from items inside his pencil case. He looks at the back of Minjeong's head — oh, now the front of her face — and back at Taeri.
"What do you even mean by that?"
"What did you do that for?" Minjeong asks. She's already grinning like this is hilarious to her. It shouldn't be funny at all. Taehyeon isn't laughing!
"I needed some proof when I showed—"
"Shut up!"
"What can I help you with now, Mo Taehyeon?" Miss Ahn asks in a booming voice from the front of the classroom. Taehyeon is too scared to make up an excuse. He isn't sure what will help him out of this situation.
"I can't believe we're going glamping," Taehyeon says. At least, he tries to say it. His voice doesn't make it far out of his throat. The entire class erupts into laughter and starts mimicking Taehyeon with their own unfunny impressions of his voice-crack.
Just minutes ago, Taehyeon was ready to do a backflip because Lee Minjun said that he wanted to be friends. And now this. Awful. Terrible, even. Taehyeon doesn't think he will be happy again. He won't be able to bring himself to thank Taeri for her part in this because this simply isn't fair at all. It's not like this is the sort of thing he would advertise. Nobody would! Especially not in high school when his entire social currency hinges on how cool people think he is.
Nobody is going to think Taehyeon is cool for fancying a boy.
When the classroom settles to normality, Taehyeon glares at Taeri. "I'm not your friend."
Taeri doesn't react and Taehyeon supposes that makes sense. He is hardly someone people would be sad to lose as a friend. He would obviously need to be friends with someone in the first place for the threat to hold any weight.
Taehyeon stews in his annoyance until breaktime. Bada appears and drags him down the corridor and into the toilets.
"A stall? Bada, I don't want people to think I do my number twos at school."
"Taehyeon, we're in here together. I'm sure everyone is going to think we are doing a lot worse than taking a shit together." Bada pushes his hair out of his face and grips Taehyeon's blazer tightly. "Just to get this out of the way first, I'm sorry to hear you've fallen out with Taeri."
"What? That literally just happened. Nobody else—" Taehyeon shuts himself up. Oh. Minjeong was sitting right in front of him. He's glad that he managed to keep Taeri quiet about the actual secret before Minjeong could hear about it.
"Okay, we're done being sad. I want to punch you in the face right now. What happened? How does Lee Minjun even know your name? How did you start talking? I know there's no way you approached him first."
"Thanks for your faith in me," Taehyeon grumbles. "But yes, you're right. He approached me. Wait, I don't think that's the right word. He grabbed me the second I got through the school gates and dragged me off somewhere. I actually thought he was going to beat me up but I made it out in one piece."
"That's it?"
"Is there supposed to be more?"
Bada sighs and shoves Taehyeon away. There isn't exactly anywhere for Taehyeon to go so he just ends up with a bump on the back of his head.
"It could still be a trick," Bada says. "He might be setting you up. You need to be careful, you know."
"You're probably right," Taehyeon agrees quietly. After getting all the screaming out of the way and being brought down to earth, the reminder of this possibility is necessary too. It isn't like he wants his life to be over when he has a year and a half of high school left. "You're definitely right. I shouldn't sit with him at lunch. I should stay away from boys for a while."
"Until after school at least," Bada says.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"The basketball match," Bada cheers.
"This isn't the time for those Eoleunjeol boys."
"It absolutely is. Trying to impress boys at this school is pointless. At least at Eoleunjeol there are only boys. Statistically there are more likely to be boys like us there. And I have found us some. You'll get a boyfriend in no time!"
"Did you want to shout that any louder?" Taehyeon grumbles. "I don't want an ugly boy to be my friend anyway. If they go to an all-boys school, nobody there is going to make an effort with their looks. I bet the whole school threw a parade when they saw you coming. Every ugly boy in Gyeonggi-do is going to at least get to third base thanks to the charitable Kim Bada."
Bada scowls. "Don't make me fall out with you. You're not being nice."
"You're looking out for me and I am looking out for you too. I don't want you to get taken advantage of."
Bada doesn't look as though he believes Taehyeon's deep and sublime kindness and sincerity. That's fine. At least Taehyeon knows that he means it. Just to show how truly sincere he is he doesn't stop Bada from running a comb through his hair and turning his school shirt inside out.
"I still look terrible," Taehyeon says once Bada is done with him. Standing in front of the mirror is a good way to see Bada's handiwork. In his defence, Taehyeon looks miles better now than he did when Bada pulled him back out of the toilet cubicle. It still isn't anywhere near as good as Taehyeon looked this morning as he stepped out of the front door.
"I know, but you didn't bring your P.E. kit to change into. And I don't have mine to lend to you either."
"There's no way I can ask anybody else."
"I know," Bada agrees. He pats Taehyeon's back firmly. "Thank goodness you sent me that selfie earlier. At least this way they'll believe me. We'll tell them that you got roughed up to explain why you look like this. I reckon it will get you some sympathy points too."
Taehyeon supposes he will take sympathy points. He is feeling sorry for himself after all.