"Lee Taehyeon, get up!"
"But I'm not the one proposing, silly, you are."
Something slaps the back of Taehyeon's head but he can't turn around to see it. He gets dragged upwards and is surprised to see his maths book on the desk in front of him. Minjun is nowhere in sight. Strange. When he rubs his eyes, the familiar clucking of his mother jolts him into alertness.
"What are you doing here?"
"Forget that, what are you doing here? You're late for school," his mom screeches. That is already enough of a shock so Taehyeon doesn't think he deserves to get walloped on the back of the head too. "Why is your shirt filthy? Is that how you looked at school yesterday?"
Taehyeon didn't even change out of his uniform last night. Fantastic.
"I fell over yesterday," Taehyeon says whilst rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
"Into what? A swamp?" His mom stomps around his room and flings around the hangers in his wardrobe before being satisfied with the shirt she ultimately throws at his head. "Hurry up and get changed. You've already made me look like a terrible parent for not knowing that you hadn't made it to school yet. I'm not having you skive off too."
Not a single protest melts his mom's frozen heart. She barely gives him time to brush his teeth and check he has the right school books in his bag before she's frog-marching him to the car. This is totally unfair and Taehyeon still doesn't even know what time it is. His phone is dead so he doesn't even have the luxury of texting Bada to ask if he would still want to be friends with a dirty stinky boy.
Without even human contact to ease the burn of this unfortunate morning, Taehyeon understands that this is essentially the last time he can consider himself to be a man with dignity. He already doesn't have any dignity to speak of, but the fact that he is going out in public with uncombed hair and a dead phone battery is all the confirmation anyone would need that he is a massive loser.
Taehyeon shuffles into school and all the way up to his classroom very sheepishly. According to his mom it is only a bit after 10 so Taehyeon can't have missed too much but he's going to struggle to get inside as effortlessly and unnoticed as he would like.
Miss Ahn doesn't ask Taehyeon why he is late but she pauses speaking and pointedly watches Taehyeon until he sits down. She doesn't start talking again until Taehyeon is hunched over in his seat. By then a lot of the students are sending furtive glances back at Taehyeon. Kim Minjeong is much less subtle and this saves Taehyeon from wondering for too long.
"What does Lee Minjun from third year want with you?" Minjeong asks, turning around to narrow her eyes at Taehyeon with suspicion. Unbelievably, Miss Ahn doesn't even seem to care that she can only see the back of Minjeong's head.
"What do you mean?"
"Before school started he was sitting at your desk and waiting for you."
Taehyeon gestures limply towards the person sitting beside him. "He's friends with Taeri. They must have been talking."
Minjeong shakes her head and looks at Taehyeon like he is just an idiotic, simple-minded little boy.
"He sat here and told everyone that he really needed to talk to you. Miss Ahn even had to drag him out of here so she could start the lesson. Why does he want to talk to you?"
Taeri is very pointedly not paying attention. She can definitely hear Minjeong but she is staring at the front of the classroom. So Taehyeon is alone in this.
"I'm not sure. That sounds kind of weird."
"It does sound weird, doesn't it," Minjeong agrees. With that she turns to the front and she doesn't even pester Taehyeon when Miss Ahn sets them a page of statements to evaluate from the textbook.
Taehyeon thinks he can be forgiven for his lack of focus. If there's a positive angle to view the situation, surely that hinges on the fact it is Friday. Missing one and a half lessons of the day feels like the world taking mercy on him too but he is sure that fact will come around to bite him on the bum sooner or later.
When breaktime comes around, Taehyeon needs to fall back into the normal pace of things. First things first, he needs to replenish the thing which makes life worth living.
"Hey, Taeri, do you have a charger or a power pack I can borrow?"
Taeri shakes her head but as soon as she opens her mouth Minjeong pipes up with, "I do, but only if you tell me why Lee Minjun wants to talk to you."
"Maybe he mistook me for someone else."
That reasoning lasts all of about thirty seconds.
"Taehyeon, you're here! I wasn't sure if it really was you!"
Sweating and grinning in the back doorway to the classroom is the Lee Minjun in question. He's wearing his P.E. kit so he might really have run all the way here from the dusty sports field. That would be enough to make Taehyeon's heart skip a beat if not for the fact his heart has already sunk deep into his bowels at the prospect of serial secret spreader Kim Minjeong settling into her front-row seat.
"Yes, it's me," Taehyeon says weakly.
Minjun saunters into the classroom and perches on the edge of Taehyeon's seat.
"I was worried. You didn't respond to any of my texts. Taeri said you didn't respond to her either so I thought that something might have happened to you. Thinking about it, you've got bags under your eyes and you look really tired. Did you really stay up all night revising? Taeri said there wasn't a test at all. If you'd have known you could have avoided studying so hard. But then that doesn't clear up the text message thing. Can I check your number and see if I have it right?"
Minjun obviously has Taehyeon's real number because Taehyeon typed it into Minjun's phone himself. The vulpine smirk spreading on Minjeong's face says too much. Taehyeon's life is over. Everyone attending a school within thirty miles of Jeonwon Metropolitan High School is going to know what's going on here.
Minjun seems to follow Taehyeon's line of sight because right away he's talking to Minjeong.
"Are you really one of Taehyeon's best friends? You never told me earlier."
"I didn't want to give too much away in case you just came here to bully him," Minjeong says with enough conviction that she sounds like she's telling the truth.
"What?" Minjun whips his head around so quickly that he jolts Taehyeon's desk into a wheezing creak. "Are you being bullied? Who is it? I'll talk to them and make them stop. Or I can tell them to bother me instead of you. Is that why you didn't come to school on time this morning? Come here and fix your number. If you call me right away I'll go to wherever you are and help you!"
This is far too much for Taehyeon to try to correct.
"You have the right number. I got your text last night but I fell asleep and my phone died."
"Oh," Minjun says. He looks happy about that and says, "Do you have a minute? You should come with me and I can give you… that thing?"
That doesn't help at all. At least it gives Taehyeon an excuse to get out of the classroom. Taehyeon feels awkward walking alongside Minjun but he didn't really expect to feel any other way. Minjun keeps asking light little questions about whether Taehyeon got home safely and whether he has plans for the weekend.
The changing rooms are empty when they arrive. Only Minjun's bag is hanging on a peg above the bench. They might really be alone and that at least eases some of the pressure. With a smile, Minjun passes Taehyeon a carrier bag. There is no need to check that these are Taehyeon's trousers. The problem is that he has nothing to swap.
"I'm sorry, Minjun. I didn't get the chance to wash your trousers. I don't know what is wrong with me, I didn't forget on purpose."
Minjun frowns down at Taehyeon's legs for a long moment and he nods to himself as he crosses his arms. "Alright," he says, "you'll have to give them to me tomorrow instead."
"Tomorrow's Saturday."
Minjun grins widely up at Taehyeon. "It is. Give me some time to decide but I'll text you this afternoon so that you know where to meet me."
As much as Taehyeon would love to make up an excuse, he sort of owes Minjun after all of this. The least Taehyeon could do is clean Minjun's trousers and return them.
"Okay. I won't mess it up this time. Is it okay if we meet around noon?"
"That sounds great to me," Minjun grins. With some half-confirmed weekend plans, Taehyeon plans to leave but Minjun calls out to him, "can I keep texting you about other stuff too?"
"What do you mean?"
"If I wanted to text you to say goodnight and good morning, I can do that, can't I?"
Taehyeon didn't think he'd need to give permission for this. He saw the text last night but the thought of a good morning text sounds way too good to be true. Taehyeon needs to get his phone charged as soon as possible. He's going to make sure he won't miss any more texts like that again.
"You can text me whenever you want."
"Great! I will text you when I need to."
Taehyeon leaves the changing rooms. Maybe he's dreaming. He might still be stuck in his dream.