A YEAR AGO - HYUNSEUNG EUNJI NAMJOO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8OlBUQq1Vs

Class resumed on Monday morning, with the snow slowly clearing up and bringing new essence of life to the upcoming Spring that was ahead. At Pledis High, it was an annual tradition to go on a mandatory mountain trip during this time of the year that lasted two days one night. The board of education believed that the sole purpose of the trip would help enlighten their students to realize the importance of bettering the environment, of being better peers with one another and return home with a brand new attitude. Of course since it was Pledis High, none of this ever happened. The trip was often an excuse for students to sneak booze and have a good time with their peers once lights were out and their teachers were asleep.

Vernon and S.Coupe ran over the basics of the trip with Mingyu during lunch time, to which the blue haired Prince pulled a long face and scowled. He hadn’t come to Earth to make friends in the first place, yet here he was now with three good friends (Hoshi may be MIA but he was still part of this category). Now… to make matters worse, he had to go on a mandatory trip to try to be friends with people he wasn’t quite fond of? One full day at school was terrible enough; he didn’t want to imagine a whole 38 hrs with people like Hongbin or Sooyoung around, it made him shudder in disdain.

“During the day we are going to go hiking, probably learn some archery, do some play hunting, and when night falls, we will be forced to gather around the fireplace where we will tell ghost stories and talk about our feelings. It’s pretty lame if you ask me, considering that more than half of us are just playing an act until the teach’ decides to call it a night. Once he’s gone, we all sneak into one cabin and around,” explained S.Coupe.

“You would not believe the amount of snogging that happens afterwards, you might have to even burn your eyes for witnessing something so naughty,” teased Vernon, poking his fry at Mingyu’s nose to agitate the boy.

Mingyu slapped the hand away, making the two of his friends snicker.

“You ever been to a MT back in Laos?” asked S.Coupe.

Back on Planet Diamond, there were no such things as trips. The Palace was the only schooling institution fit for those worthy of scholars, and once you are a scholar you are immediately pulled into the Palace until graduation. The Palace owned a huge pot of land, so everything that was needed to teach the students was all in necessary means of reach. There were five labs, three gymnasiums, twenty classrooms, seven separate dorm halls for the scholars, four libraries, three cafeterias and their very own forest to venture out to. There was no need to travel far, which is what the Palace was used for.  Down on Earth, the Earthlings would have likely consider that a University campus, but for Mingyu, he knew it as home.

“No,” Mingyu shook his head as he took a sip of water. “We never went on trips like that back in Laos. We studied in the classrooms, played soccer outside in the field and that was about it.”

Vernon’s lips grew into a wide grin, “Nice! This is your first MT experience then. It’s going to be sick bro, but just follow with me and S.Coupe. If you fall into the wrong hands at the MT, you are going to be ed. Most presumably in the head.”

S.Coupe whacked his friend on the head. “We aren’t going to be drinking or taking a damn thing there, you hear me? I’d like to remain completely sober during this whole trip. Anyway, now is not the time to talk about such matters when we are missing Hoshi.” He threw a hard look Vernon’s way, as if implying some secret exchange between the two.

Mingyu had the urge to let them know what Hari told him but bit down his tongue immediately. Again, it was a personal affair that only the two of them wanted to resolve themselves. As much as Mingyu wanted to be a part of this, he knew he had no right to since he was only a person who had just gotten to know Hoshi.

“Aish, you’re always like this at first but eventually you cave in. Just you wait and see Mingyu. It’ll be a great trip,” said Vernon, ignoring the side eye that S.Coupe was sending his way and the fact that Hoshi’s name was brought up. When the bell rang, it brought an end to the discussion as the three of them parted separate ways to go to their classes.

In the midst of writing his notes during class, he could see from the corner of his eyes that Namhyun was grilling at him. He tried to let it slip as he jot down some notes, but after a few minutes he grew quite annoyed with the blatant disregard that Namhyun had towards him so he daringly lifted up his head and looked the boy back into his eyes.

Though Namhyun had a steely dark look in his eyes, it was nothing against Mingyu’s. In the second their eyes locked, the Prince could feel the boy tremble in slight fear at the sudden grip he had on him. Mingyu could see the evident face of a green eyed monster peaking from outside the windows of Namhyun’s eyes, as if waiting for the chance to break through. In this moment, he could have easily erased the other boy’s memory, but he chose not to for the sake of being a good samaritan.

Breaking the contact, Mingyu glanced around the room and finally noticed why Namhyun had such a heated stare burning his way. Across the room Sooyoung had been staring at him in such a forlorn way, one would think that this girl had just lost the love of her life from a tragic event. God, how long had she been staring at him for? Since Valentine’s day, he had thought that she had grown to hate him along with her three other friends but judging from the way she was looking at him right now, Mingyu could tell that it was anything but hate. His eyes quickly darted away and back to Namhyun for a split second before it went back down to his notes, where his expression remained unchanged and cold.

I could’ve sworn it was Hongbin who liked the girl… But it appears that Namhyun, too, seems to have a fancy towards her. How strange, maybe Earthlings like to share their girls? Mingyu made a face at the thought of sharing someone you liked with another person. He didn’t want to ever imagine sharing… No. He snapped his mind together before the thought could strike him. Never you mind about this Mingyu, concern yourself with other things, not this .

After he said goodbyes to Vernon and S.Coupe at the bus stop, Mingyu decided to walk around the neighbourhood for a while to clear up his head. He didn’t know when or how it happened, but it seems as though he had said goodbye to his youthful days the moment he stepped upon Earth. The drag of not being able to pull pranks and tricks on people was taking a toll of him, making him lose sight of who he originally was. Ever since he got here, he was bombarded by a bunch of grown up things he had never seen before and grown up feelings he had never felt before.

It wasn’t a bad feeling, but it wasn’t a good feeling either. He hated being responsible for other people’s feelings, but it seems that the more he was learning about the people he knew, the heavier the weight on his shoulder became. He didn’t regret finding the truth, but he hated not knowing what to do with the pieces of information he was given. How could he help them without revealing too much about their problems? At times like this, he wished he had never scanned Hari else he wouldn’t have known about her problems. At least then when she does decide to tell him, he wouldn’t have to lie and act surprised…

But still, would she ever had trusted him that much to explain her wretched past to him? Someone who was only going to be a temporary existence in her life, and would leave her the moment his parents command for him to return on home?

Even the thought of leaving Hari for one night to go on this stupid MT was upsetting enough; he couldn’t begin to imagine what sort of sadness he would feel once he had to depart from Earth…

For a long while Mingyu had allowed his thoughts and feet to let him wander away into the city, but when he finally reeled himself back to the harshness of reality, he realizes that he was now standing in front of a hospital. Could this be where Hoshi was staying? Wondered Mingyu as he stared up at the large white building with hundreds of windows that housed thousands of patients inside, and one of them being possibly his friend. He knew very well where his place was and when to step back down… but at the end of the day, he was still worried over Hoshi. They had formed a bond that day they skipped class together, and seeing just how much the kid adored Hari made Mingyu feel an instant attachment to him.

Glancing around the area, he could see many patients docked in a light jacket with their baby blue gowns underneath as they strolled around the front with their nurses, family memb