Chapter Text
It’s an innocuous act.
Something that would have otherwise gone completely unnoticed in a loud and boisterous classroom, with boys jeering loudly and girls giggling to themselves.
But when the scrunched up paper ball makes contact with the back of the blond's head, the room goes silent.
A chill hangs over the air, all senses on high alert.
“Ya, aren’t you gonna pick that up?”
The perpetrator calls out from his seat at the back of the classroom, waiting for his prey to take the bait. He slouches back in his chair, legs kicked up with the sort of ease that could only come naturally to a predator— someone who knew that he couldn't be challenged.
As if encouraged by the silence and the class-wide attention, he turns to the lackeys around him, an arrogant grin pulling at the corners of his lips.
But they only stare back at him, faces pale.
“What the hell are you doing? Do you even know who that is?” one of them whispers, knocking the perpetrator's arm down furiously. He stares back at them, bewildered, before looking up at the sound of a chair scraping.
The victim of the paper ball stands up, pulling off his headphones, then turns around.
The coal-black glare burns into his soul.
“What the fuck was that?” the boy asks, voice harsh and unforgiving.
When the perpetrator looks at his friends for back up, he finds all of them suddenly staring in separate directions, avoiding eye contact.
What? What was going on?
He looks up at the approaching boy, and subconsciously swallows.
“Was it you? Jinkyung?” the boy takes a second to squint at the name card on his desk, then back at him with that same unforgiving coal-black stare.
Shit. He knew his name now.
“I- hey, it was just a misunderstanding. I didn’t mean it, truly,” Jinkyung stammers, ears turning red. All around him, he sees people exchanging whispers and stares, and he grits his teeth.
Fuck. This was so embarrassing.
The boy stares down at him for a second longer, the entire class waiting in bated breath for his response.
Then he backs off.
“Whatever,” the boy says, before returning back to his seat, pulling his headphones back on.
There’s an audible exhale of relief around the room, as he does so.
With a swallow, Jinkyung feels his own heartrate drop from its previous high.
“Man, what was that? Don’t you know who that was?” one of his lackeys hisses, trembling hands running through his hair.
Know who he was? Why would he?
But staring back at the scathing looks of his lackeys around him, Jinkyung felt stupid. He hated feeling stupid.
He snaps.
“Why should I care about who that is?” he demands, standing up. Both lackeys fall back into their chairs.
“I- we didn’t mean it that way. It’s just- that’s Choi Beomgyu. He’s a transfer student from Daegu, and he’s got an insane reputation. I heard that he fought six guys at his old school and won,” one of them whispers, to which the other nods.
“Apparently they were injured to the point of hospitalisation- that’s why he had to transfer over,” another one pipes up, looking around secretively.
Looking back and forth between his lackeys and at the blond boy at the front of the classroom, he frowns to himself.
Six? Even that was too much for Jinkyung- there was no way that story was real.
“He’s so cool,” he hears one of the nearby popular girls, Naeun, sigh, and he grits his teeth.
Whoever this kid was, Jinkyung was going to make sure he was grateful he never transferred.
**
“You really had to be there to see it! When the paper hit him, I swear it was like the entire room went silent at once,” Hueningkai calls out, arms flailing in the air as he reenacts the story to his friend. His friend who only stares back with a bemused smile.
It was possibly his third time hearing the story that day, but Taehyun doesn’t bother to stop him— it was cute when the younger got excited.
And hearing the story back, he thinks it’s more like a fictional story than something that would happen in real life.
While there were kids that acted out in school, the mere thought of anybody’s appearance being so intimidating that even bullies were afraid made him smile to himself.
Maybe when the kid fights six bullies in front of me as proof— then I’ll believe it, he thinks, but only nods solemnly along to the younger’s tales.
“Hey, you’re smiling! It’s like you don’t believe me or something!” Hueningkai points, but the elder just pats him on the head.
“No, no, you’re just so cute, Hyuka,” Taehyun coos, before the other slaps off his hand, looking embarrassed.
“Jeez, no need to baby me,” he says, although he secretly looks pleased.
Taehyun laughs to himself, and thinks, even if I were to encounter someone like that, I can turn anybody into putty in my hands.
If there was anybody to be feared at this school, it should be him.
**
By fourth period, it’s pouring.
When the bell finally rings at the end of the day, Taehyun gathers his belongings and quickly walks out to meet up with Hueningkai, making sure to see if the other has an umbrella.
“Thank god I read the weather forecast this morning,” the younger laughs with relief, as the rain becomes even heavier.
“Let’s walk to the gates together— I have some pictures to show you,” he says, looping his arm within the elder’s.
As they walk through the corridors and down the steps, bodies hustled closely together for warmth and Hueningkai talking animatedly, something catches Taehyun’s eye in the distance.
It’s a boy, crouched down near the staircase, holding his arms together as he tries to shake off droplets of water from his hair.
The boy doesn’t seem to have a jacket on, and his tie is loose. His shirt is soaking wet.
He must've been caught in the rain. Maybe he doesn’t have an umbrella.
Feeling a tug at his arm, he turns his head to see Kai also frowning at the sight.
“Hey, isn’t that the guy from my class? Choi Beomgyu?” he squints, to which Taehyun’s interest peaks.
Choi Beomgyu? As in the delinquent transfer student?
What was he doing out there?
“Should we go out there and help him?” Taehyun asks carefully, looking back and forth between the two, before he notes a flicker of hesitance cross the younger’s face.
He could tell that Hueningkai was obviously concerned- but it was highly likely that the fear of the boy outweighed any feeling of concern he might have.
Looking at the sensitive, distraught look on the younger’s face, he decides with a sigh that he should take care of the problem himself.
“Maybe not. There’s still a lot of people around- someone else will probably help him,” Taehyun says lightly, patting his arm. At these words, the younger’s troubled expression almost immediately melts away, quickly being replaced by a bright smile.
“Yeah, you’re right!”
As the two finally make it towards the school gates, the topic of conversation already left behind, Taehyun quietly thinks how sensitive the younger is, and how no-one should be able to hurt him.
So when they finally part ways, he waves goodbye with a smile, and watches quietly as Kai opens up his umbrella. He doesn’t make a move until the other is gone from sight.
Then he turns back.
Even before reaching back to the staircase, he knows that the boy is still there.
It’s clear that the crowd of people has thinned out, the likelihood of any help being offered diminished.
He thinks back to Kai’s good nature and his conflicted expression, and thinks that he should be able to do this much at least, on behalf of the younger.
When he finally makes his way over to the crouching figure, he steels himself, before he calls out.
“Hey, are you okay out here?”
There's a silence.
At first he thinks that his words have been lost to the loudness of the rain because there's no response.
But then the boy suddenly turns around, and Taehyun is momentarily startled by the intensity of his expression.
He almost feels rooted to the spot.
The boy's eyes are piercing- a deep red-brown colour as devastatingly mesmerising as they are stone cold.
His hair, soaking wet, clamps to his forehead, but doesn't make him any less intimidating- only brings out his eyes, his dark brows, and the squareness of his jaw, which sends all of Taehyun's senses on high alert. Every single one of his features are strong and harsh and practically radiate intensity.
For one second he can see why he has a reputation.
Then he opens his mouth.
“What’s it to you?”
Taken off guard slightly, Taehyun blinks for a few seconds.
What?
With a scoff, the other turns back to wringing out his hair.
Frozen slightly, Taehyun tries to think of how to respond. He had never been faced with such upfront hostility before- people usually tended to do that in more subtle ways.
For a moment, he wonders if he should just turn around and leave, before shaking his head. No- he needed to see this mission through.
“I was just going to offer you an umbrella,” he says, trying to keep his voice even. The other actually looks up for more than a few seconds this time, clearly startled by this.
He eyes Taehyun’s umbrella carefully, before looking back up at him. After a few seconds pass, he looks down at the floor.
“No thanks,” he says curtly.
At this, Taehyun frowns. Seriously?
He almost gives up and turns around, before he sees the slight shiver of the other's body, and he stops, expression softening.
Ah. So it was all just a front.
Biting his lip, he quietly lifts his umbrella and walks over to sit down next to the other.
“You're gonna catch a cold because of that pride, you know?” he says gently. He ignores the water droplets falling from the other’s body, and instead tries to position himself in the most harmless way possible.
Eyes flashing, the other looks up, and Taehyun wonders momentarily if he had gone too far- this approach really was more intrusive than he ordinarily would have liked to be.
But then the hard line of the other's mouth curls into something more akin to annoyance than anger, and he visibly relaxes.
"What do you care?" the other asks, clearly meant to be a jab.
Truthfully, Taehyun doesn't know why he does. But he takes the opportunity nonetheless.
"Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm just fulfilling my quota for my daily good deed," he replies evenly.
At that, the blond looks up at him momentarily, eyebrows furrowed, before looking away.
“Right. And how're you gonna get home without an umbrella, then?” he scoffs. Taehyun merely cocks his head to the side with a shrug.
“I don't mind waiting. I’m not the one that’s soaking wet and would have more to lose from sitting here in the cold,” he replies.
The other doesn’t say anything back, although Taehyun can see him tense up.
Strangely, he thinks to himself that this guy was nowhere near as frightening as the rumours made him out to be. Perhaps he had an intense first impression and a semi-abrasive personality, but beneath all of that, he was actually quite docile.
As long as you didn't push him too far, he didn't bite back.
Deliberating for a few seconds, he takes off his blazer.
“What’re you doing?” the blonde asks, wary at the sight, before Taehyun finally shucks it off.
His eyes widen, as Taehyun reaches around the other to wrap the blazer around his shoulders, pulling him close. He almost shrugs the jacket off by instinct, but quickly pulls a hand around it to stop it from falling.
“If you’re too stubborn to take my umbrella, at least take this,” Taehyun says quietly, holding onto the jacket. The boy waits for him to move, but he doesn’t. They're close- much too close for strangers, and yet neither pulls away. Looking up into his eyes, Taehyun notices a difference in colour- they're light. Much lighter than before.
Strangely, colour begins to bloom across the blond's face, eyebrows furrowed as if in confusion.
Before he can push him away, Taehyun stands up, and picks up his umbrella.
“Well, stay warm,” he says, only out of a lack of better things to say, before he opens it and runs off into the distance, water splashing against his legs.
He doesn't turn around- doesn't dare to, because he doesn't even know himself how to react to what he had just done.
It wasn’t much- what he had given the boy, but at least it was something to keep warm in.
He thinks about Kai, and how he relieved he would have been. Perhaps Taehyun would tell him about it the next time he saw him, to ease his worries.
But when he finally reaches home, it’s not Kai or even the blazer he’s thinking about- it’s those red-brown eyes and darkened cheeks spreading like wildfire in his mind.