Chapter Two

Donghae sat in math class, chewing on the inside of his cheek and doodling on his otherwise blank sheet for notes. He had long since given up on trying to keep up – the damn man wouldn’t slow down without treating him like a mentally challenged child who couldn’t understand a word he said. All he asked was that he not explain so fast and then erase what he wrote before he had a chance to comprehend it.

He had been thinking about joining athletics. He had run track at his old school, though he wasn’t really fast enough to get any huge awards. This school didn’t have a dance club of any sort, though there was some gay-ass theater arts program, or else Donghae would have immediately joined.

After school, he ventured into the counselor’s office and asked about it. Joining athletics would make him change his entire schedule so that his last period class would be available for practice. He agreed and she happily went to work, telling him he should speak with the coaches. The coach seemed more than willing to let him join, almost excited at his decision. 

But practice wasn’t easy. Even though track season seemed like forever away, the coaches ran everyone whose sport wasn’t coming up like they’d get fat and lazy before then if not.

Donghae tried not to think about how long it had been since he’d last run, only concentrated on not giving up and barfing on the grass. The cross-country field was nothing like his old school’s. It was in the woods, lined with trees and bushes on the entire trail. He almost killed himself by stepping in a hole at least three times, and by the time he made it to the end of the course, he knew he was bright red in the face and sweating like a pig in the September weather.

“Good job,” the coach said and patted Donghae on the back as he drank from a water bottle. “I can’t wait until you get back into shape. I can tell you’re dying,” he continued with a laugh.

Nodding, Donghae set the bottle down and turned around to head back for the gym.

Another runner came from the path and slowed to a walk and stood, panting with his hands on his hips for a long moment before straightening up and looking over at Donghae.

It was Kyuhyun, surprisingly. He hadn’t imagined the guy lifting a finger beyond what was absolutely necessary.

Donghae was just going to continue walking without acknowledging Kyuhyun, but he realized that was a plan doomed to fail as Kyuhyun waited for him to walk by and fell in step with him.

“I didn’t know you ran,” Donghae mumbled because it was rude to ignore people.

“It’s fun,” Kyuhyun replied simply. “During meets you can elbow people and not get in trouble for it.”

Donghae tried to smile, but he really didn’t want to. He was always the poor guy on the receiving end of the elbow, and it wasn’t fun at all. Sometimes he was too hot and tired to care, or too determined to get to the front, but occasionally one got him in the wrong place and it just fucking hurt. Figures that Kyuhyun was that type of person.

“I was waiting for you to trip and break an ankle,” Kyuhyun stated as they entered through the back doors and headed down the hall for the locker room.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Donghae didn’t respond to that.

“But I guess you’re sturdier than you look.”

He really wanted to just blow up, lose his temper, start a fight. It wasn’t a good way to start the school year, but fuck if he deserved to be talked down to like that. Instead, he did his usual thing and ignored the statement, pretended it didn’t bother him. He made it back to the locker room without any further remarks from Kyuhyun, though he could feel his stare as he walked across the room.

It was a bit of relief to be able to look over and see that Kyuhyun was going about his own business, changing clothes and stuff instead of watching Donghae like a hawk. It gave him space, as if Kyuhyun’s eyes made him claustrophobic.

“How did you do on that test?” Kyuhyun asked as Donghae was pulling on his shirt.

Remembering his low B kind of pissed him off. “You got a bunch wrong,” Donghae said.

“On purpose, of course. She knows you’re not that smart.”

Bitch, Donghae thought and turned around in Kyuhyun’s direction with a face he knew didn’t look nice. “What the hell’s your problem?” he demanded, but his voice didn’t sound as tough and deep as he’d like.

Kyuhyun paused, his arms poised inside his gray shirt as he was about to put it on. He glanced at Donghae and pulled the shirt on as he turned and crossed the locker room. His gaze was definitely making Donghae feel claustrophobic – nowhere to go, nowhere to get out of the way. He didn’t stop walking until he was practically pressed against Donghae, his chin up and his eyes looking down his nose at Donghae like he was a piece of shit on the sidewalk.

 Donghae realized he’d lose this fight, no doubt. He might stand a chance if Kyuhyun didn’t seem like fear was a foreign emotion to him and fights were just an adrenaline rush. He looked away, tried not to back away like a pansy but he’d already established that much in Kyuhyun’s mind. He only looked up long enough to see the triumphant smirk on Kyuhyun’s face.

“I’m glad we had this chat,” Kyuhyun stated, and with the back of his hand he pushed Donghae away by the chest just a bit. A warning. “I’ll see you around, Donghae.”

As soon as Kyuhyun left the locker room, Donghae sighed. “Asshole,” he grumbled aloud.

“I heard that,” Kyuhyun called from the hallway.

Donghae rolled his eyes and shoved his shoes into his locker angrily.

“And don’t think I can’t tell you rolled your eyes.”

As he slammed his locker shut, he thought of every possible curse word and paired with the Kyuhyun’s name, keeping himself occupied with creating different insulting combinations as he left the gym and headed for his car.

And it wasn’t by choice or in his favor that all he could think about was that asshole for the entire night. He hadn’t insulted Kyuhyun once without provocation, hadn’t even said a word to deserve his attention in the first place. He had the feeling Kyuhyun wanted him to get pissed off, would have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the fight that would have happened if Donghae didn’t have a reign on his own temper.

His entire schedule had been rearranged, but thankfully he hadn’t ended up with any classes with Kyuhyun. He didn’t think he’d be able to tolerate that. He sat down at his choice table with Eunhyuk, Sungmin, and the others and dug into his food. It wasn’t that good – no school lunches were, but it was hard to mess up a sandwich in Donghae’s book.

“Oh, hey Kyuhyun.”

Apparently it was possible. The bread turned to cardboard in his mouth, the cheese and meat tasting disgusting all of a sudden at the sound of the name. He dared not look up to see Kyuhyun sitting down next to him, wasn’t surprised when a knee roughly bumped his under the table.

“What brings you to the cafeteria?” Shindong asked, oblivious to the extreme lightning bolts of tension between Donghae’s and Kyuhyun’s bodies.

“I forgot to pack a lunch,” Kyuhyun replied in a voice that sounded oh-so-friendly.

And the conversation went on, but Donghae wasn’t paying attention to the topic. He was getting more and more furious with how naturally nice Kyuhyun sounded, how he occasionally nudged Donghae as if he should laugh, too because everyone else was and it was just hilarious.

Asshole.

Fake, sonavabitch asshole.

Donghae stood abruptly to throw his half-eaten lunch away. He couldn’t sit and listen to Kyuhyun be a perfect buddy any longer and try to fake friendly conversation at the same time. When he sat back down, he made it a point to sit as far away from Kyuhyun as possible without climbing up on Sungmin’s lap and hissing like a pissed off cat.

It didn’t help that Kyuhyun decided to walk by him out of the cafeteria with that damnable smirk on his face.

“Not speaking to me?” Kyuhyun asked in a mocking tone, going so far as to stop at Donghae’s locker to infuriate him further. When Donghae didn’t respond, it seemed to only add fuel to the fire. “That’s a shame. Here I was going to invite you to the game tonight.”

“Not interested,” Donghae said stiffly, shoving books around in his locker.

“Another shame. Are you sure?” Kyuhyun asked, leaning against the lockers beside Donghae’s.

“Positive.” Before Donghae could leave, Kyuhyun grabbed his shoulder and turned him back around. Donghae jerked himself free but didn’t attempt to leave again.

Kyuhyun wasn’t happy with his decision. “We’re friends now, see? I helped you with your test, you humored me with your attitude. Friends go to football games with other friends.”

“We,” Donghae said, pausing to swallow so his voice wouldn’t crack, “are nowhere close to friends.” And it happened so fast Donghae was only able to blink at Kyuhyun with wide eyes as a hand clamped onto his face, squeezing his jaw. He looked through the corner of his eyes for help, but the bell had already rang and the halls were empty, making them both alone and tardy.

“You,” Kyuhyun said in a mirror of Donghae’s tone, “will come to the game. And when you get there, you will find me and the rest of your friends and we’ll hang out and you will pretend you don’t hate me.”

“Why?” Donghae asked and tried to pull his face away. “Back off,” he grumbled, shoving away from Kyuhyun in a frenzy of fists and flinging arms.

But Kyuhyun only smirked and seemed utterly amused by this. “Be there,” Kyuhyun said as Donghae turned to leave.

“Like hell I will,” Donghae said, making sure it was loud enough for Kyuhyun to know he meant for it to be heard.

And like the night after their almost knock-down, drag-out, all Donghae could think about was the asshole. He didn’t go to the game, didn’t even consider it. Even as he lay in bed, exhausted from running and working out and just school in general, he couldn’t think of anything except how he’d never hated a person before Kyuhyun. He rarely even had disagreements – everyone at his old school had liked him, considered him a nice guy. He had gotten along with all of his teachers, never once had to go to detention. He was a model student, except that he didn’t always make the best grades.

That was another thing that pissed Donghae off. Kyuhyun didn’t know what his grades were, how the hell would he know? Teachers didn’t talk about that kind of thing with other students.

In math the next morning, he really just wanted to drop out of high school. It wasn’t worth it. He was going to have to miss thirty minutes of athletics during eighth period to attend math tutorials. He supposed it could be worse – Kyuhyun could be there. At lunch, it seemed that Kyuhyun had altogether stopped bringing his own lunches and camping out in classrooms because he sat next to Donghae again, chatting and laughing with his friends.

  Donghae didn’t really pay attention to Kyuhyun and was glad when he found something better to do with his time than pester Donghae on the way to class.

Right up until he appeared at his side, eyes boring into Donghae’s face.

“What?” Donghae asked.

“Library. Last ten minutes of class.” And then he left.

Donghae wondered when Kyuhyun was going to realize he wasn’t some little child he could boss around and intimidate with a stern voice and curt orders. And yet, he couldn’t help but chew on his mouth and gnaw on his pen throughout sixth period, eyes darting from his paper to the clock every few minutes.

It was like he could feel Kyuhyun waiting in that fucking library, waiting for him to walk through the doors because he knew Donghae would. Fuck, Donghae thought because he was standing up and turning in his paper and asking to go to the library and being told yes without even thinking. He walked down the hallway, half of his mind telling him to go back because Kyuhyun was fucking crazy and would be pissed at him for not going to the game and the other half was telling him they were supposed to be “friends” and Kyuhyun wouldn’t get that mad.

When he walked through the doorway and didn’t see Kyuhyun, he sighed audibly with relief. The librarian was out, as she usually was around sixth period. She usually went to get her lunch then because she was stupid and read her book through the regular lunch period.

“Just when I was beginning to think you were predictable.”

Donghae swallowed because he knew he was an idiot for having the hope that maybe Kyuhyun couldn’t get out of class and wasn’t going to show up. He didn’t turn around, only moved away from the voice and the sound of quiet footsteps on the carpeted floor and into the shelves of books.

“So did you come because you’re scared of me?” Kyuhyun asked, not surprisingly following Donghae.

Donghae pretended to search over the shelves, more to keep his eyes and mind slightly occupied than actually to appear distant and unfazed.

“Did you think I’d track you down and beat you up?” Kyuhyun pressed on. His voice didn’t sound any different than usual, as if he really could care less that he was reading Donghae like a book and he did it every day. Enjoyed it like a game of hide and seek, cat and mouse. “Or maybe you’re a lot testier than I originally thought and you’re trying to piss me off.”

Donghae slowed to a stop at the end of the shelf and idly picked out a book he’d never even heard of. He flipped it over and pretended to read the back.

“So which is it?”

He didn’t know what he was doing here. He couldn’t even answer the question himself, much less voice it out loud to this asshole. Especially not under the pressure that Kyuhyun’s menacing presence created. He felt claustrophobic, though not because he was in a cramped space because that didn’t make him uncomfortable.

A hand shot out from behind him and snatched the book, shoving it back onto the shelf.

“Answer me.”

Being locked in a small closet, taped up in a cardboard box, shoved in a crowded elevator wouldn’t do this to him.

Another hand clamped onto his arm and forced him to turn around.

“If it’s the latter, you’re doing a pretty damn good job.”

Kyuhyun made him claustrophobic.

He could hear his own breathing, feel his heartbeat thudding in his chest with adrenaline. He wanted to leave, break away from the damn stare and never get sucked back into it again. He never wanted to meet that gaze again, never wanted to hear that deceivingly friendly voice in his ears.

But he didn’t. He just stood there, refusing to look at Kyuhyun and instead letting his gaze drift to the torn paperback cover of a book on the shelf next to him.

“Look at me.”

As much as he thought he couldn’t, didn’t want to, Donghae did. The feeling of being trapped, unable to escape intensified by tenfold when he saw the narrowed eyes.

It must have satisfied him that he looked up because Kyuhyun’s face relaxed a bit as he showed a smirk. “Don’t forget about the game Friday night like you did yesterday.”

The feeling subsided as Kyuhyun turned away and left him next to the bookshelf. He could breathe normally again without feeling like a ton of lead sat on his chest, he could stop chewing on himself for the moment, and he could watch Kyuhyun’s back as he left because he didn’t want him to turn around.

              
             .-.-.

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A/N: So I was battling internally over whether to upload this chapter so soon or not, but I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. Here it is, and I hope you enjoyed this. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think ♥