Chapter 3 || Meeting Once Again

“Chanyeol… what are you doing…?”

“Pen tricks!” Chanyeol excitedly announced; eyes glued to the led pencil in between his fingers. Unlike in his unrealistic fantasies, the pen which was supposed to swiftly spin around in his fingers was just awkwardly balancing around on his digits, repeatedly nose-diving out of his grasp and falling onto the desk only to be swiftly scooped back up and toyed around with again.

“Chanyeol are you that bored? You know you’re just embarrassing yourself, right?” Sehun hopelessly shook his head, turning away from his taller friend to avoid the secondhand embarrassment.

“Am not! Don’t judge a pro at work!” Chanyeol laughed.

“Don’t toss that around so carelessly now, Chanyeol. That pencil could poke someone in the eye.” Joonmyeon cautioned in his usual fatherly matter-of-fact tone. Chanyeol simply waved him off as Jongin discreetly eased behind Kyungsoo for protection. The screeching sound of a chair being pulled out directly on Chanyeol’s left caught everyone’s attention. Looking up almost in unison, they were all greeted by Baekhyun’s usual morning grin and wave.

“Morning guys! Chanyeol trying to develop a weird, random talent again?” Everyone, including Chanyeol, all nodded in response. “Ah, I see.” Baekhyun nodded. Straightening his posture in his seat, Baekhyun quietly looked down at his desk. Gazing over, it didn’t take a genius to notice that Baekhyun looked a little squirmy and restless right now in his seat- leg shaking and fingers tapping on the desk nonstop.

“Everything… okay, Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo watchfully asked with a slight arch of the eyebrow. In a matter of seconds, Baekhyun was already turned and sitting at the edge of his seat towards his group of friends.

“Okay, you guys wore me down!” he said anxiously. “So did you guys hear the news??” Taking a moment to think to themselves, the boys all muttered a mixture of their own no’s and not yet’s. (Except for Jongin and his ‘I don’t watch the news’ comment that everyone tried to disregard). Gesturing for his friends to come in closer, all six boys leaned in enough to form a small tight knit group huddle. Bringing his voice down to a breathy whisper, Baekhyun dropped the bomb.

“Hong Hyojin is coming back. Today.”

“OW!!!” Immediately, all eyes landed on Sehun who was now clutching onto his eye with Chanyeol’s pencil in his other hand. Trailing their eyes to the right, they all gawked at Chanyeol whose face now completely paled with eyes now wide open and jaw slack.

“Really? After her accident? And here I thought she was never going to make it back.” Jongin mused aloud, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Chanyeol’s eyes involuntarily eased downward to stare down at the ground beneath his feet.

“Yeah, it’s been months now. Summer vacation is just around the corner too.” Kyungsoo added. Chanyeol uneasily rubbed the back of his neck.

“I heard that’s she’s about healed up now so there’s no real reason for her to keep staying out of school.” Silence now hung around the boys with all of them now deep in their thoughts. Finally Baekhyun spoke up once more. “There are rumors going around that the ‘car accident’ wasn’t even all that big of a deal and that she was just putting up an act just to take time off of school. Probably because she was just lazy.”

“I heard that she didn’t even get hit by a car and that it was all just a big lie to skip school.” Sehun said, tossing his five cents into the conversation with a still swollen eye.

“Both of those sound pretty plausible.” Joonmyeon acknowledged. Chanyeol’s eyes were almost helplessly darting from friend to friend as they all kept building up on the idea that it was all just a big, drawn out hoax. He just couldn’t bring himself to joining in on this conversation though…

Finally at the sound of the class bell, the boys as well as the other students in class who were lingering around all dispersed from their groups and plopped into their assigned seats. Just a few minutes tardy, their first period teacher came waltzing through the door. “Quiet down everyone, class will begin in just a few minutes once I’m all settled.” She broadcasted, placing her folders and other teacherly items onto the front desk.

In the midst of the silence that was beginning to build up within the classroom, the distinct sound of a foot tapping and fingers drumming on a wooden desk faintly echoed throughout the room. The few students who were bored enough to pay the noise any mind found themselves looking over at Park Chanyeol, the maker of these disruptive noises.

Just as the sounds had suggested, Chanyeol was in his own world tapping his foot and fingers a bit uneasily. Every few intervals he would heave out a long drawn out sigh and run his fingers through his perfectly spiked up black locks. And every few milliseconds, his eyes would get reeled up by some unknown force to stare up at the closed classroom door. “Chanyeol.” A voice hissed. Chanyeol jerked his head to the side to see Baekhyun hunched over his desk scrutinizing him. “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re about to piss yourself!” Baekhyun prudently whispered behind his hand. Chanyeol, who had probably blinked about 50 times during the duration of Baekhyun’s question, gave Baekhyun an obviously fake scoff and quietly laughed it off.

“What are you talking about? I’m fine. Just fine!”

“No talking!” Their teacher’s voice boomed, startling the both of them. Looking up, the two boys caught a glimpse of their teacher managing to give both of them killer glares that would silence even the loudest and bravest of people. Ignoring some snickers from some of the student in class, they both silently looked back down at their desk in front of them.

Chanyeol impulsively yanked his head up when he heard the click of the classroom door opening. Staring at the door slowly open with bated breath for what seemed like several non-blinking seconds, Chanyeol narrowed his eyes at the all too familiar face that stepped in. All around, light whispers and a few gasp here and there could be heard once this person walked into the classroom. Well, walking wasn’t exactly what this person was doing.

Dragging one foot and stumbling every couple of steps, this person was limping across the classroom towards the teacher. Looking up, the teacher immediately dropped everything and hurried over to her side. “Ms. Hong, I didn’t know you were able enough to walk. I thought you would have been in a wheel chair, or at least crutches.” Hyojin didn’t respond to her teacher and simply averted her eyes.

“Students, may I have your attention please.” The teacher called out. (Not like she needed to, since everyone in the room was already looking up) “Our fellow student Hong Hyojin has finally returned after her misfortunate accident. We should all be very thankful that she managed to come out of this predicament without any long term issues.” Hyojin had to bite her tongue to avoid any unwanted things from slipping out. “So please be mindful that she’s still recovering from a few injuries and do you best to take care of her.”

Without even realizing it, Chanyeol felt his eyes soften a bit looking over at her, for reason he didn’t know at the moment.

“Why is she limping?”

Chanyeol picked up on various whispered voices all around him- all of them centered on Hyojin.

“Maybe she did go to the hospital after all…?”

“But she looks fine.”

“She looks really pale and thin though.”

“As if that makes her any more different than how she was before!”

“You’d look like that too if you lied and stayed home for several months.”

Chanyeol did an inconspicuous scan of the whole classroom and saw that there really were mixed feelings amongst his fellow students. Some looks genuinely remorseful of her, while others looked like they didn’t care in anyway. Where did Chanyeol stand here? He wished he knew…

Chanyeol gazed back up when he saw Hyojin inch her way towards her desk near the back of the classroom. It seemed like she was having a large amount of trouble just walking there though; he felt like he was getting exhausted just watching her. About half way there, she abruptly lost her footing and fell and staggered into a nearby desk. Almost by impulse, a flinch and a faint ‘oh’ piped up Chanyeol’s throat after he had witnessed this. He couldn’t pull his sights away from her. Why was he getting so worked up about this?

Thankfully enough, Hyojin hadn’t fallen down and was just leaning against the desk. Ever so faintly, stuttered cusses could be heard from her. “Hyojin, a-are you okay?” questioned the soft spoken girl that sat in the desk Hyojin was resting on.

“Ah, it was Joohee’s desk.” Chanyeol murmured. Hyojin completely disregarded Joohee completely and attempted to stand herself upright again. But with Hyojin’s luck, things weren’t going as she planned. Pushing herself away from the desk simply made her lose her balance. She was having more trouble than she should have trying to push herself away from this desk and it was frustrating her.

“Someone assist Ms. Hong to her desk.” Came the teacher’s impatient voice in the back. With a bit of paralyzing hesitation that she forcibly had to toss aside, Joohee stood up out of her seat. With cautious and slightly trembling hands, she reached out to gently and almost barely, lay her fingertips on Hyojin’s arm in order to help her balance herself. At the unexpected contact, Hyojin’s body tensed up and she didn’t hesitant to slap Joohee’s hands away.

Ignoring the gasp from the individuals surrounding them, Joohee reached out to Hyojin again. “Please Hyojin…”

“G-GO AWAY…!!!” Hyojin screeched, shoving Joohee away. Joohee slipped backwards and fell down onto the ground with a loud and distinctive thud. Several students rose up out of their desks and ran over to Joohee’s side. Hyojin defiantly stared down at Joohee, finding the tears Joohee was now shedding making her blood rush even more. But after a moment, Hyojin suddenly felt the angry tension built into her knitted brows gradually unwind and her quicken pants slowing down. She stared down at Joohee in complete shock and confusion.

“Hong Hyojin! What on earth did you do?!” Hyojin eyes snapped up to stare at her teacher who was gaping at both her and Joohee on the ground. It seemed as though this teacher was literally seconds away from exploding in anger but after looking at Hyojin, it seemed like she had to hold her tongue. “J-Joohee, please go to the nurse’s office. H-Hyojin… just take your seat this instant.”

Not wasting any time, Hyojin turned and hurriedly stumbled towards her desk. Chanyeol witnessed the entire scene that had unfolded before him. How was he supposed to describe what he was feeling right now? He was angry because of what Hyojin had done to someone as innocent as Joohee but why did he have to have noticed something so subtle from Hyojin? Why did he have to have caught a glimpse of the pure confusion and panic in her eyes after she had realized she had hurt Joohee? Chanyeol finally found the strength to turn away her.

“Nothing has changed!”

“She’s still a jerk!”

“We shouldn’t feel bad for her when she’s completely unappreciative of our sympathy.”

“She deserves everything that’s happened to her, most definitely.”

“What a … You’d think after all of this, she would have changed just a little...”

That last comment came from Jongin who sat just behind Chanyeol… Chanyeol closed his eyes and tried with all his might to block out all the whispers he heard.

The confliction he felt right now, the confliction no one but him understood, was tearing him apart right now and he wanted nothing more than for it to go away…

The final school bell rang throughout the school, and it was at last that time of day where all the now exhausted students could head home. “Ahhh~ I’m so exhausted!” Baekhyun bemoaned, stretching his arms up above his head. “Two tests in one day doesn’t agree with me…” Lightly pounding his fists onto his stiff shoulders, Baekhyun lazily peered down at Chanyeol’s desk. The others walked over and surrounded Chanyeol’s desk; similar confusion appearing to be evident on all their faces.

It was a rare sight indeed. Seeing Park Chanyeol, a living ball of boundless energy and other unidentified substances, hunched over in his desk with his head buried in his folded arms. “Yah… Channie. Get up, class is over. Everyone is gone.”

“Even the teacher is gone for god’s sake.” Jongin groaned, tossing a few light kicks to the leg of Chanyeol’s chair. Chanyeol, without any rush, unfolded his arms and lifted his head up from the table. His eyes were half lidded and clouded with what unmistakably looked like depression or sadness of some sort. “You look like a freakin’ wreck.” Jongin said without any hesitation.

“Well aren’t you the sweet talker.” Sehun rolled his eyes.

“Chanyeol, are you alright?” Joonmyeon worriedly questioned, leaning over to look at Chanyeol at eye level. “You looked completely drained. More so than all of us- which is anything but normal.” Chanyeol didn’t seem to respond to anything anyone was saying. He was just sitting there, staring off into space. Joonmyeon cautiously waved a hand in front of Chanyeol’s face and then jolted up when Chanyeol spoke out of the blue.

“You guys can head out first… I’ll be there soon.” Just the simple fact that Chanyeol’s baritone voice might have sounded even deeper than usual and slightly intimidating in a way while in such a dazed and drowsy state was enough of a persuasion to get the boys out of the room and to leave Chanyeol alone.

Sitting alone in his desk, Chanyeol could feel his chest being weighed down by all this stress he was feeling. He was feeling so good this morning too and now look at him. About five minutes of silent sitting and mind easing later, Chanyeol finally picked himself up out of his chair and grabbed his bag. “I guess everyone did leave already…” he muttered. Before taking a step forward, something in his peripheral caught his attention.

Rotating his head to the side, he saw something. It was a student in his class. A single student that still stayed seated at their desk with their head hung down low. The usual Chanyeol would always cheerfully walk up to any student that still hung around after class and casually ask them why they were still here after the bell. But this wasn’t just any student… and right now, Chanyeol wasn’t his usual self because of this certain student…

“Hyojin…” the name almost blew past Chanyeol’s lips all on its own. It was Hyojin. She was still seated at her desk after all this time…

Chanyeol took a step towards her but almost instantly, before his foot could even fully make contact with the floor, stopped himself. “Just… walk away from her Chanyeol… Like you always had before…” Nodding in assurance to himself, he turned and started towards the door. As he approached the door, his pace gradually began to die down until he just stood there completely stationary.

He heard something. It was very faint and very subtle. But even with it being almost completely out of earshot, he could feel the pain in it in an instant.

It was weeping. He heard Hyojin crying.

Looking over, he indeed saw Hyojin hysterically but quietly bawling to herself. She was practically trembling in her seat. All alone…

Chanyeol looked away from her. “...I’m sorry Hyojin…” he whispered under his breath before jetting out of the room.

Double update here. Okay so... this is an awkward chapter lol This gave me trouble to write so excuse me if it . Like a lot. Let's hope it gets better in the later chapters! (It will and it shall!!! HWAITING!!!)