Still A_Stray: Living With Stray Kids (ot8 fanfic)

Chapter 4 - Interlude

Hi guys!

You made it to chapter 4!!! *claps*

Because I this part doesn't really fit in anywhere in the story, I added it as an extra scene. So here's a quick add-on chapter for y'all about how Yeji and Claire met. It's also a little intense (see the trigger warning below) so read at your own discretion. Enjoy!

~Avi

TW: homophobia, a slur, mild swearing.

I wanna be myself (I don't care)

College wasn't supposed to be this boring.

In the past half hour, I'd drawn a total of seven balloons, five different calligraphy fonts of my name, and four eyes in varying states of surprise. Should I be taking notes? Probably. Was I going to? No.

It wasn't really my fault, either. Professor Adams hadn't remembered to tell us to get our computers out to take notes before launching into one of his infamous lectures. You know the kind—impossible to pay attention to, sounds very intelligent but is really just the speaker chasing their own tail around in circles. I tried to listen, but gave up after the first five minutes. I didn't understand how biochemistry could be this boring. I thought it would be interesting, but then again, I hadn't really chosen it because I was interested in it. I'd chosen it because ... because no one had told me to, or expected that I would, or forced me into it. Because choosing biochemistry out of all the other class options had been a decision that was completely my own, however stupid and on-a-whim it was. 

And yet here I was, doodling in my notebook like a ten year-old. I let out a frustrated sigh, angry with myself. Every second I was here, in the United States, in Columbia University was a second I had endeavored and fought for with everything in me. It physically hurt to waste it. I trying to pay attention, but I could never hold on to what he was saying for more than a few seconds. I needed to try harder—it was disrespectful to him and to my peers. If my mother saw me now...

I clenched my fingers tighter around my pencil, yanking up my attention and chucking it in my teacher's general direction.

"The most commonly asked questions in endocrinology are the ones surrounding the hormonal impact on sexuality," Professor Adams said, pausing lengthily after every word like he was waiting for a curtain sweep that would never come. This, however, caught my attention.

"In fact," he continued, "The hormones that cause homosexuality are often imbalances in the body, which makes the mind react differently to certain ... types of people. That's why, if someone is revealed to be homosexual, the best course of action is often time to try and alter their levels of estrogen and testosterone and change how they think."

"What?"

The whole room went as quiet as a ghost. For the first time since the beginning of class, Professor Adams fell silent. Students who had been dozing off jerked awake at my exclamation. People who'd zoned out zoned back in.

I normally would've been embarrassed to have every eye in the class on me, but my dismay at his words was quickly funneling into outrage.

"It's a true statement," Professor Adams said, soundly slightly baffled that someone had actually turned out to be paying attention to him. "One could say that homsexuality is, in its truth, a chemical imbalance."

My heart thudded loudly in my chest, making my head feel hot. "That's not—that's completely marginalizing it," I said, struggling to find the right words. "You can't alter whether someone is gay or not."

Professor Adam's eyebrows furrowed. "Well, Miss Seo, many studies have actually found out that the hormone imbalance of—"

"Hormone imbalance, my ass," I snapped. "Homosexuality might be a chemical imbalance, but so is love. They're not any different."