By the time the bell rang to signal the start of lunchtime, I was already prepared for this.
I was, and am, a boy after all. I'm not being full of myself if I say this body and face Jenn have is attractive. It's just a matter of a boy admiring a girl.
Also with the little chit-chats and info reveal there were during the recess earlier and what happened in the sports class, I knew I would be drawing even more attention to myself.
A few girls and boys mobbed around my desk trying to sit and lunch together with me, so we ended up joining a few desks together to make a bigger table for all of us to sit at.
When I was a boy here I often skipped eating lunch. The usual routine was that Hechan would force me to go grab something for him from the school cafeteria - paying with MY money -, and after I got him what I was asked to get I'd just sulk out of the classroom to go hide somewhere. If I sat by my desk and ate with Hechan sitting behind me I would be bothered to death by him, and after going through hours of being toyed with during the morning, I'd rather go and rest somewhere peacefully than try to eat something. I normally lost all my appetite by then.
But this time, no - I had nothing to fear. In fact, contrary to my initial fear, this first day back at school could only get better as time went by.
"Jenn, did you really have an accident and have amnesia?", one of the girls, Jihee, asked.
Jihee was an outgoing girl with a good personality, but during my previous times that didn't matter much as I had no chance to interact with her. You see, when you are at the lowest rank of the classroom hierarchy and subject to daily bullying like me, even 'good' girls (and boys) tend to avoid you. It's not that they think it's right for you to be bullied. There just isn't any incentive for them to be involved and risk being lumped together with someone like me and potentially suffering together. So someone like Jihee was never mean to me - we just never had any interaction. That's all.
Yet now, we were having lunch together and having our first conversation ever.
"Yes, it is true"
"Wow, how did that really happen?"
"I was in a car crash. Our car crashed into a roadside fence and I lost consciousness for a few days"
"Oh my gosh, did you get hurt?", Minji, a girl I knew to be in an art club and was pretty good at drawing asked me.
"Fortunately I wasn't hurt anywhere physically. Even my head was okay. Doctors didn't know why or how I got into a coma, but after a few days I came around and everything was okay"
"Did you see anything strange or special while you were out?", asked Miko, one of the few girls in the class that I actually had some form of interaction with before, although it was only once. It was just her telling me that our homeroom teacher asked me to come to see him at the teacher's office during lunchtime (I remember that day because I was happy to get away from Hechan before he got me to run yet another errand for him).
"What do you mean?"
"You know, like seeing the light at the end of a tunnel kinda thing. Or someone calling you from across the river and stuff"
"No, nothing like that, haha. I was just out cold. All I remember was sitting in the backseat of the car, and the next thing I knew I was laying in my bed at home"
"That's wild". Jiho chimed in. He was the boyfriend of Jihee, which made them a Jihee-and-Jiho couple. A match made in heaven I guess.
"Here is your sandwich, Hechan…"
I heard a familiar voice from behind me. I really wanted to turn around to look although I knew who it must be.
"Just a sandwich? No drinks? Are you fucking messing with me?!", Hechan shouted at the boy.
"So…sorry, I didn't have enough money to buy drinks"
"You poor piece of shit. If your parents don't give you enough lunch money why don't you go get a job or something?"
"But Hechan… I already-"
"You fucking talking back at me now? You want ME to find you a job? Just say it, I will find you a job. I can think of a few things that you can do :chuckle:"
Then a few of the other boys hanging around Hechan laughed together.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…."
"FUCK OFF", with that I heard a slap. Hechan must have slapped the poor dude on the face, and his glasses actually flew through the air and landed on my lunch box, which, fortunately, I have not opened yet.
"Oh, I'm sorry-", the victim boy rushed over to me to grab his glasses.
"You fucking idiot. What are you doing?!", Hechan walked over and grabbed the boy by scruff of his neck.
It was only then I started to look at the boy properly, and just as I thought, it was Donsu.
I was laughing inside seeing Donsu get bullied like this, because well, he was another lowlife worthless loser like me previously, but he was always above me. He was getting bullied by Hechan too, but we weren't brothers in arms. For one reason or other, he 'ranked' higher than me, meaning, Hechan would sometimes get this Donsu dude to slap me around for fun while I wasn't allowed to do anything back to this four-eyes.
Idiot. Now that 'I' am gone, you are the lowest level of life form here in this class. How does it feel now?
But - I wasn't gonna say such things as Jenn.
"I'm sorry, but what was your name again?", I looked up to Hechan and asked, who was still grabbing Donsu.
"Ah, I'm sorry this little piggy here disturbed you. I apologize. My name is Hechan"
"Right. Hechan-", that actually was really hard, to say his name without a fear in my voice.
"I would appreciate it if this did not happen again"
"Did you hear that, Donsu boy? Kneel and apologize to her", Hechan pushed Donsu's head down.
"No - you don't need to apologize… Donsu. It's you who caused this trouble", I firmly said while looking at Hechan. Not eyeballing, not with a frown or disdain, but just a neutral stare.
"It's you who did this. I don't ask for you to apologize, but please don't do it again"
"Who do you think you are, bitch?!" Soojin came out from nowhere and squared up to me while I was still sitting.
"I'm Jenn. And you?"
"Hey, Soojin, hold back", Hechan put his hand on Soojin's shoulder and pulled her back slightly. I turned to face Donsu, who was now kneeling on the floor. Poor fuck did follow what Hechan said after all.
"Donsu?"
"Ye—Yes?"
"Here are your glasses"
I beamed the kindest smile I could manage and handed his glasses over to him.
He immediately blushed and gratefully took the glasses, put them on, and got up and ran out of the classroom. He probably thought now was a good time to run and hide away from Hechan for the rest of lunch time.
"Now, let us enjoy the meal"
I gave a reassuring smile to everyone nervously sitting around me and opened my lunch box.