A world of my own - MINSUNG

Part 16 - Jisung

"Your mom wasn't too mad at you, was she?"

I shook my head even though he couldn't see me. "No, she was pretty much OK with it. I think it's because of that crush of hers. And guess who it was."

"Who?"

"Mr Jun! I know, that's insane, right? I can't believe he's gay."

"I can't believe she had a crush on him," he said, sounding amazed.

"Apparently he was kinda hot back in the day." Mr Jun was our English class teacher. He was old and bald and putting on a few pounds. My mother could have been lying, but at the same time, why would anyone lie and say they had a crush on Mr Jun??? I smiled remembering the hug she gave me at the end of our conversation. "You know, I suspected this from before," she'd said. "You seemed so much sweeter as a little boy than all the other rough idiots in your neighbourhood. Of course, any mother thinks that about their child, but you were always gentler. You worried more about me when I got hurt than I did."

I felt bad then thinking about Minho and how his father hadn't reacted the same way at all, hearing about him. "Are you OK?" I said. "I was really surprised you just said that and then left."

"I'm fine," he said, but I couldn't tell if he was lying or what. "I have to give you something so meet me tomorrow at lunch." He paused. "Let's each lunch together."

A big smile spread on my face. "OK. I'll make lunch for us."

-

I sat on the bench nervously; nobody was looking at me yet, but when Minho came, they'd all be staring. Hyunjin, Felix and Jeongin were looking over from where we usually sat on the ground under the trees, but they didn't come over to me like I asked them to. [some friends for life right there. 😔👊] I cursed in my mind wondering why Minho wanted to eat lunch so publicly.

"Sorry, was I late?" I looked up to see Minho smiling at me and for a minute I forgot I was surrounded by people and that I was nervous until the silence ruined the moment [what kind of irony is this]. I tried not to notice the silence. He sat next to me.

"What'd you make?" he said, opening his bag. "Here, I got you an iced coffee."

"Thanks," I said. I rolled the cold drink in my hands, the nervousness building up again. I hoped Minho's personal fan club wouldn't dangle me from the roof once they found out we were dating. They were already looking over suspiciously.

Minho must have seen them looking, he put his bag down and said loudly, "Yes, we are fucking going out."

The silence grew louder if that's possible.

He grabbed my hand and picked it up. I heard a few girls catch on their breath; my own face was going red, but I didn't move away. "We're dating, and before you guys start to assume random stuff, no I didn't force him to go out with me and yes he is fucking good enough to be my boyfriend."

I felt the sea of stares shift to me like a tsunami. 

Someone came right up to me, almost standing on my feet. I backed away reflexively. It was a girl - Kim, the leader of Minho's fan group. It was commonly known she had hated Minho's girlfriend, Chaeryoung, for 'taking the spot that was hers'. She wore way too much makeup so even from far away I could tell the difference between her foundation-orange face and the rest of her pale white skin. Up close it was even worse. She literally has spiders of mascara hanging from her eyelashes.

"So... he's your boyfriend? The quokka?" She spoke to Minho as if I weren't even standing there. She sounded curious rather than rude but something about the way she said it made my skin crawl. "You guys are gay?"