Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"So Lana wanted to meet up at McDonalds, and I was all like, 'Girl! You. Dumped. Me!' Then she apologised. And apparently she really needs help with her Maths homework."
Jeong-Soon sighs, playfully rolling his eyes at his best friend. "Let me guess, you're meeting up with Lana Delgado at McDonalds."
"I am meeting up with Lana Delgado at McDonalds," Dillon declares giddily, and Jeong-Soon desperately tries to hide his exasperation.
"You never help me with my Maths homework."
"Lana has hips. Do you have hips?" Dillon reaches over, teasingly swatting the stick-straight bones Jeong-Soon has in place of an actual waist through his oversized t-shirt. Jeong-Soon bursts out giggling at that, clutching his stomach as his free hand closes around the classroom's doorknob and twists it open.
He walks in. His laughter stops, calando in his suddenly too-tight throat. He freezes in place, heart pounding a mile a second, reaching, reaching, reaching, out to the slouching boy who has somehow managed to end up in Jeong-Soon's seat.
It's then that Jeong-Soon realises exactly who the new boy Sully had told him about is. And that he's in very, very deep shit.
Dillon shoves him aside gently, clearing him out of the entrance so their classmates can file in. "What's wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost." Dillon's eyes land on the boy occupying Jeong-Soon's chair. "We have a new kid? How come no one told me?"
Jeong-Soon doesn't answer---he can't. Not when his eyes are locked on the new kid like a trained sniper's rifle. Not when his lips are sealed shut with fear, dreading the other boy's anger. Not when his heart still beats to Gregory Gan's tune.
Something catty grips him, swelling in his chest like a tsunami held back for too long. Jeong-Soon slaps on his plastic face, twisting his mouth in the most casual grin he can muster. He saunters straight up to his seat and gently taps Gregory on the shoulder. "Excuse me," he says. Not too loud, not too soft. Enough to prove a point, but not enough to set free the turmoil of emotions swirling inside him. Mezzo forte.
