Chapter 6 || First Words

Gloomy, gray clouds hung heavily above the now barren school grounds. It was tightly crowded together in such a way that completely blocked out any type of sunlight that was stifled in the wake of it, and thereupon casting a sleepy shadow down onto the earth. Rain drops battered down onto the cement pavement, creating a sort of endless drone-like sonata along with the coming and going whistle of passerby wind. And all the while, Chanyeol stood silently just a few feet away from the afternoon shower underneath the shelter of the school’s main entryway.

A light shiver shook at his shoulders as he zipped up his Harrington jacket the remaining way up to his neck—the cold annoyingly nipping lightly at his cheeks all the while. A hefty sigh pushed down onto his chest and past his lips. “I didn’t think my after school tutoring session would have lasted this long. Now look at the weather! It’s practically raining cats and dogs.” With a shake of his head, he reached behind him to rummage through his cluttered school bag. Whipping out his umbrella, he opened it up and held it up low above his head. And with that, he started treading down the path out the school’s front gate.

His mind sort of blanked out as he walked, perhaps becoming hypnotized by the pitter-patterings of the rain curiously knocking onto the top of his umbrella or maybe by the undeniably addicting way his loafers splashed into random puddles along his pathway. (Or maybe he was just naturally immature like that and just loved splashing in the rain like a five year old)

Just then, the distant sound of female voices caught his attention. Gazing straight ahead, Chanyeol saw a couple of school girls standing around the front gates; huddled together closely with their array of girly colored umbrella’s above their heads. Squinting his eyes, Chanyeol recognized some of them from his homeroom and one of them being Joohee. Chanyeol didn’t personally know the girl but he has talked to her a couple of times. (Then again, Chanyeol was a social butterfly and could say the same thing about pretty much every else in school)

Automatically at the sight of Joohee, Chanyeol would instantly relive that memory of that day when Hyojin first returned back to school after her long absence. Just the simple recollection of when Hyojin had shoved Joohee down in her attempt to help her to her seat made Chanyeol cringe uneasily. That was the first day Chanyeol started to feel weird around Hyojin after all—the first day this imaginary dark cloud unfortunately formed above his head.

Shaking away his ill feelings, Chanyeol called out to Joohee with a clumsy smile and wave of his large hand. Though she didn’t seem to hear or even notice him, appearing to be deep in her conversation with her friends. As Chanyeol came closer towards them, though not exactly approaching them, he finally picked up on their little discussion.

“I still can’t believe her! Did you see how she randomly grabbed me! I’ve never been so terrified in my life!”

Chanyeol arched an eyebrow at Joohee’s words; his interest suddenly piqued. Gradually halting to a stop, Chanyeol pulled his phone out of his trouser pockets and began randomly and aimlessly poking around at it, hoping his attempt at eavesdropping wouldn’t come off as suspicious to them.

“I know, right. And did you see that crazed look in her eyes too? Is she crazy or what?” One girl sighed with a shake of her head.

“Joohee, it almost looked like she was ready to pounce on you! I wouldn’t have known what to do if I were in your shoes.”

“And did you guys see how she was reaching into her bag? What in the world was she going to pull out anyways—a weapon?!” The girl shivered.

“I once saw her beat a girl with a plastic ruler just because she had stepped onto her shoe by accident. It was pretty brutal and it took two teachers to break up the fight! She’s ruthless and unpredictable!!”

“Oh god, I don’t even want to think about what she would have done…” Joohee cringed to herself.

“Don’t worry girl, we brought justice to her. I don’t think she’ll bother you anymore.” Her friend nodded with a proud smile and a reassuring pat on the back.

Chanyeol slipped his phone back into his pocket and quietly continued on his way. That was all he needed to hear.

Weaving his way past random adults and students, Chanyeol found himself walking down the sidewalk quicker than he realized. His heart was ramming against his chest and restlessness had him by the throat. He had this troubled feeling bubbling up within his gut as he relayed Joohee and her friend’s conversation in his head over and over again. It was strange to him because for some reason he felt as thought he knew about everything they were talking about but at the same time knew absolutely nothing at all—it all made no sense.

Coming to an abrupt stop, Chanyeol stood at the stoplight along with a few other people; his neck craned as he stared down at his wet shoes. He physically had to breathe in and out to calm his racing heart and nerves. Looking up, he stared anxiously at the crimson red stop hand on the pedestrian light. Becoming increasingly impatient by the second, he turned his head and looked around at his surroundings.

However, his eyes came to a stop when they honed in on a petite figure down the street.

“Hyojin…”

Teetering and tottering down the pavement was in fact Hyojin herself. She had her head hung down low and had her fingers hanging onto a chain link fence nearby her for support as she walked inch by inch. But the fact that was tugging at Chanyeol the most was the fact that she had no umbrella. From head to toe, she was completely and utterly drenched. Her now nappy hair hung down lifelessly and heavily past her shoulders and her wet clothes were plastered right to her pale skin.

Chanyeol could only watch on in astonishment. That is until a man walking opposite of Hyojin suddenly collided into her, causing her to violently plummet to the ground onto her knees and drop all of her things. Chanyeol’s jaw went slack when he saw that, that very man didn’t even miss a beat and continue trudging down the street as if that hadn’t even happened.   

That was it. Chanyeol couldn’t take it anymore.

The moment the light signaled for him to go, Chanyeol was the first to dash down the street. Pushing by random pedestrians, not caring one bit if he came off as rude or if he was splashing people with his heavy footsteps, he came to a stop when he stood directly behind her. Chest heaving up and down from the jog, Chanyeol stood motionless before her.

Even through the loud noise of rain pelting the ground around them, Chanyeol could hear it—just like always. He heard her crying again.

Not wasting another second, Chanyeol kneeled down on one knee and held his umbrella over Hyojin’s small, shivering figure. Being underneath the parasol with her, for just a split second, it felt as thought they were in their own little world. The rain drops were completely muted and all that could be heard were Chanyeol’s shallow breaths and her pained, hiccupped weeps.

Was this the world Hyojin had been living in this whole time?

Reaching a hand over, Chanyeol cautiously held her shoulder. “Hyojin… Are you okay?” he gently whispered. Pulling at her shoulder for her to turn and stare at him, they at last made eye contact.

Chanyeol was immediately taken aback as he stared at her. What happened to her...?

Hyojin’s eyes were red and close to being swollen shut as if she had been crying long before this incident. There were visible pink marks and fresh bruises on her face and arms. And was that a cut he saw on her bottom lip too? Though her uniform was drenched, he still saw smeared dirt stains all over her white blouse and skirt. His eyes softened against hers.

Hyojin stared into Chanyeol’s eyes with a vacant stare, breath jumping every once in a while due to her hysteric crying. He couldn’t even begin to tell what she must be feeling or even thinking right now with him right in front of her. They stared into each other’s eyes for long while, almost as if they were suspended in time. Chanyeol just couldn’t pull his eyes away from hers because right now, all he wanted to do was search through those brown, tear stung eyes of hers just to find even the tiniest hint of what was truly going on in that mind of hers.

But in a matter of seconds, Hyojin’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. She quickly eased back away from him and began to visibly hyperventilate and quiver. It almost looked as if she was having some sort of seizure or panic attack. Chanyeol leaned in closer, trying his hardest to softly tell her to calm down but his attempts only seemed to have bothered her even more.

And just like that, Hyojin started to scream uncontrollably.

“G-go away!! Go… awaaaay!!!!” She slurred, kicking her legs wildly at him. Chanyeol bravely took the hits, still attempting to quiet her down since they were now getting strange and alarmed looks from passing by strangers like they were a part of some type of psychotic circus show.

“Hyo… Hyojin, please calm down! I-I’m only trying to help you!” He pleaded as calmly yet urgently as he could manage despite the fact that he was actually in pain now from her blows. All the while, her frantic screams persisted along with her violent kicks and occasional punches. (Thank goodness Chanyeol was a big, sturdy guy or else these hits would’ve been the end for him.)

Chanyeol couldn’t exactly make out the slurred phrases she’d bark at him here and there but there was one thing he could definitely comprehend from her.

Over and over she kept repeating the words, “I hate you.”

Finally getting fed up and quite frankly exhausted and embarrassed beyond belief, Chanyeol seized hold of Hyojin’s wrist and shoved his umbrella handle into her palm; physically wrapping her fingers around it. And with that, he stood straight up onto his feet and turned to walk down the sidewalk in the other direction, leaving Hyojin to sit there underneath his umbrella.

He didn’t turn around despite his burning urge to, and held his ground. All he really needed right now was to go home and rest. And to also think of an excuse to tell his mom as to why he would be coming home drenched and umbrella-less.

“AH-CHOO!!!!”

Chanyeol scrunched his face in annoyance, awkwardly wiping his dripping nose with the sleeve of his blazer. He looked up with a watery sniff, only to see Sehun eyeing Chanyeol’s now mucus soiled sleeve in pure disgust. “You know… wiping your boogers on your clothes isn’t going to make you seem any more attractive to people.” Sehun mumbled, thankfully managing to rip his eyes away from it to lock eyes with Chanyeol.

Chanyeol let out a tired groan and leaned back into his desk, head hung back and eyes squeezed shut towards the ceiling. “Well sorry for not being a beautifully majestic creature while having a bad cold.” He grumbled, wiping his nose with his sleeve once again. Sehun shook his head with a sigh.

“How did you even catch a cold anyways? What, were you dancing and playing around in the rain or something?”

“Hey, I don’t do that!!” Sehun stared at Chanyeol with a deadpan expression that said it all. “Ok, I still do that… but I didn’t do that yesterday! I uh… forgot my umbrella and had to walk home in the rain.” Chanyeol lowly replied, averting his eyes.

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Sehun rolled his eyes. “Park Chanyeol: the guy who could beat up five guys at once to protect the innocent but will turn into a whiny baby the second he gets the sniffles.” Sehun said with a mischievous smirk to which Chanyeol lightly shoved him in the arm with a chuckle.

“Oh my gosh!!” Both Chanyeol and Sehun stopped at the sudden cry and swiveled their heads to the side to see Joohee standing at her desk; mouth hung open and eyes rounded in what looked like surprise. Unbeknownst to the two onlookers, Joohee continued staring at the object in her hands in shock—completely speechless. With closer examination, Chanyeol realized that in her hands was a pastel pink pencil box adorned with a few flimsy daisy and heart stickers here and there. Was she really making such a big scene over that little thing?

“Omo! Joohee, I can’t believe you got it back!” Her friend squealed beside her. “And you said you might have lost it forever. Where did you find it anyways?” Joohee shrugged in response.

“I just came into class just now and found it on my desk! I really thought I lost it outside after school yesterday, but it looks like luck is on my side!”

“Outside? In the pouring rain? It certainly doesn’t seem wet or scratched to me. Wow, lady luck must really be on your side.” Her friend smirked with a tiny nudge.

“All that over a dumb pencil case? Girls are so weird.” Sehun muttered to Chanyeol, turning back around in his seat. Chanyeol had to agree on that but judging by the way she grinned from ear to ear and the way her eyes sparkled, it was safe to assume that it was probably a prized possession of hers and had most likely been with her for a while now.

“Congrats on getting it back.” Chanyeol called out, flashing her a toothy grin and a thumbs up to which Joohee cheerfully nodded in thanks with a small giggle. Midway from turning back around in his seat himself, Chanyeol stopped for a brief moment.

A few seats down, Hyojin had her head turned a bit to the side and was subtly eyeing Joohee and her friend. Though, her stare wasn’t at all threatening or hateful. Rather, her gaze was gentle and softly mindful. It was a look Chanyeol had not yet seen in Hyojin before in all the years he had seen her in class.

He could feel something fairly faint twist in the deepest part of his gut for just a split second, almost going unnoticed by him. Perhaps his cold was starting to get to him…

But it was at that moment with Chanyeol’s eyes locked securely onto Hyojin when something suddenly dawned upon him concerning both her and Joohee.

It’s all a misunderstanding… isn’t it?

The midday lunch bell reverberated across the school, automatically signaling eager students to finally jump out of their seats and rush to the lunchroom for some much needed chow.

“Hey guys. You all go on ahead to lunch; I have something I have to do.”

As if on cue, the five boys threw equally confused looks at the lanky giant standing in front of them in the hall. “Hey, what’s with the weird looks, huh?” Chanyeol questioned with raised eyes brows; his eyes jumping from one person to the next.

“It seems like you always have something you have to do at the last minute nowadays—it’s a little suspicious, don’t you think?” Joonmyeon commented with a light chuckle.

“Huh?”

“I think I know why he’s been running off without us. He’s probably meeting up with his secret girlfriend, am I right?” Baekhyun playfully snickered, mockingly tossing kissy faces at Chanyeol. A spurt of warmness shot up Chanyeol’s now reddening cheeks.

“Oh wait, you mean that girl? You’re talking about her, right?” Jongin eagerly egged on with a laugh.

“Guys, shut up! S-she’s not my girlfriend!! We’re just friends, ok!!!” Chanyeol objected awkwardly with an obvious crack in his voice, only to have his friend laugh at him even more.

“Whatever you say, Channie. Go on then, we won’t bother you.” Baekhyun waved off as the five went their separate ways from Chanyeol, still stifling their fits of obnoxious laughter. Rolling his eyes, Chanyeol patiently waited until the guys were completely out of sight at the end of the hall. And with that, he turned around and started towards his classroom.

The halls on his floor were always vacant around the lunch period, which left him all by his lonesome as he listlessly made his way past one empty classroom after the other; hands situated comfortably inside his pants pockets and eyes innocently lingering aimlessly around at his passing surroundings. Maybe he should have been walking a bit faster or maybe he shouldn’t even be rushing at all. He couldn’t decide, but all he knew was that this was either going to be something he’ll pat himself on the back for later on, or something he’ll beat himself up over with for who knows how long.

His long legs and equally lengthy strides at last brought him to his destination in no time at all. Taking in an overly dramatic deep breath, Chanyeol took one small step forward inside his classroom. Gazing inside, he felt himself relax a tiny bit when he saw the exact person he was looking for still sitting at her desk. But only a little bit, because this certain someone was Hong Hyojin after all.

She sat there leaned back in her chair without saying a single word or moving even the tiniest muscle, almost as if she was just lifelessly tossed into her seat like a defective rag doll. Her head hung down stiffly her from neck and her eyes were languidly hooded halfway. It was obvious that she didn’t notice Chanyeol’s presence in the room with her; even with him now gradually closing in on her.

Completely unintentionally, Chanyeol felt his feet clomping somewhat louder than usual against the wooden flooring as he approached her. Was it because of his slight headache from his recovering congestion or was he just that eager for a reaction from her other than the cold shoulder? Either way Chanyeol, one way or another, found himself crookedly planted in the chair in front of her, facing her head on— his lanky legs uncomfortably angled on either side.

Perhaps about one—maybe even two or more— minutes had past as Chanyeol sat there in that chair without uttering a single word. All he was doing really was staring at her. Just a day ago, Chanyeol couldn’t even bring himself to looking in her general direction but for some unknown reason, today was different. Because all he really wanted to do right now was to look at her—as in, actually looking at her. Not just glance at her as he had done for all these years that have gone by. No, he wanted to really look at her face and take in all of her overlooked facial features. Her feverishly pale cheeks, the weary dark circles etched beneath her drooping eyes, her slightly chapped lips. He felt himself drawn to observing all of it, though it was more of a curiosity sort of urge above anything else.

It was then that he noticed that after all this time; she still hadn’t noticed he was sitting in front of her— which quite frankly to someone like Chanyeol was unbelievable since he was pretty much a walking skyscraper, with a voice that could practically be heard miles and miles away. Her body was obviously there but it seemed like her mind was off in a completely different place entirely. Maybe she just isn’t as alert as she used to be because of… Chanyeol stopped himself from thinking any deeper on the matter.

“Ahem.” He casually cleared his throat (Or at least as causal as throat clearing can get). She gave no reaction. He tried once more, this time a bit more louder and forceful. Still nothing. Is something wrong with her hearing too? Oh well, third times the charm. in a gulp of air, Chanyeol cleared his throat one last time with monstrous force only to have him stop halfway through when he began to violently cough his damn lungs out from unexpectedly choking on his own saliva and mucus in his throat.

With Chanyeol now a noisy, jerking, coughing mess, Hyojin furrowed her eyebrows together at the unwelcomed commotion and finally pulled her gaze upwards to stare at him. After a few more seconds of pounding on his own chest, Chanyeol finally settled down; panting as if he had just gone on a 10 mile run. Peering up, he flinched when he at last saw Hyojin’s eyes looking into his.

Real smooth Park Chanyeol… he thought, mentally thrashing at himself. On impulse, the corners of Chanyeol’s lips pulled upwards into a wide, goofy smile. Hyojin, in response, just kept looking at him. Her eyes still remained half lidded and dark, leaving him without any clue as to what she could possibly be feeling or thinking right now. His strong smile soon wilted away to absolutely nothing when he realized she just kept looking at him; almost as if she couldn’t recognize him or even process that there was someone in front of her.

Not even a moment later, realization visibly dawned on Hyojin’s face as her eyes widened and slowly hung open, moments away from releasing one of her loud screams again. But immediately after momentarily panicking, Chanyeol whip his index finger up to his lips.

“Please!! Please, don’t scream!! Not like yesterday!!!” He quickly and urgently begged, adding his other index finger to his lips to clearly illustrate his plea. “I mean you no harm. Wow, that sounded awkward—but I mean, uh… I just, ya know… wanted to talk to you.” Thankfully enough, she ended up not shrieking in terror and remained silent—though she did seem fairly edgy now.

With her now relatively composed and at last acknowledging his company, a sort of discomfort began to overcome him at an alarming rate. The sudden fact that he was now alone out of his own free will with the Hong Hyojin—a girl he’s undeniably despised with every fiber of his being— just to casually chat with her suddenly dawned upon him. Well… there’s no going back now… 

Fumbling with the right words to say to start the conversation off, he uneasily started. “So… did you get home alright yesterday? I ended up getting a cold yesterday in that rain. Bummer, huh?” He stiffly laughed only to stop abruptly at her dead expression. God… this is more awkward than talking to an old person… He finally decided that this small talk was getting him nowhere. He might as well just get right to the point.

“Yesterday… I heard Joohee and her friends talking about a girl who might have been bothering them. By any chance, was that you…?” Chanyeol made sure to annunciate each of his words slowly and clearing, just in case she would have trouble processing any of it. She didn’t respond but did appear to become a bit agitated at his question. He already had a feeling it was probably her anyways so her silence was enough of an answer for him. “I remember hearing them say something about you pulling something out of your bag. I didn’t get that part at first but when I saw that whole scene today with Joohee and her pencil box, it all started to come together for me.” He looked deep into Hyojin’s cloudy eyes and asked a single question.

“That pencil box. Yesterday, you were only trying to return it to her, weren’t you?”

She wasn’t quick to respond but it did look like the inquiry caused some thoughts to turn in her head, and Chanyeol was patient enough for her answer. Slowly opening , she spoke. “Wh-y doo you wa-ant… to kn-oow?”

“Why?” he repeated. Why did he want to know? He didn’t even know himself really. “Well because… what they did to you, what I’m assuming they did to you anyways, it was done unfairly. Joohee and her friends didn’t know of your true intentions yesterday, am I right? They mistook this whole thing completely. Stuff like that kinda gets to me…” Hyojin remained unspoken though she soaked in his words like a sponge.

A fleeting moment had past before Chanyeol spoke up once again. “If you want, I could always tell them the truth—that you were the one who returned it.” He grinned. Though Hyojin’s stare suddenly turned ice cold unbeknownst to Chanyeol. “I can tell them right now if you want. And you won’t have to worry because they’ll probably be more forgiving if I were the one to tell them anyways.”

Chanyeol became startled when Hyojin suddenly shot up onto her feet from her chair only to stagger to the side and almost fall to the ground. Instantly Chanyeol flew from his seat and grabbed onto Hyojin’s arms to help her from collapsing down only to have her shove his hands away. “LEA-VE ME ALONE!!!” she screamed loud enough to make Chanyeol’s ears ring.

“Hyojin…” he took a step forward but she forcefully pushed him away once again to put some space between them. Chanyeol’s hands hung by his sides squeezed into fists as he felt his patience wearing thin. “I’m just trying to help you out!!” he suddenly shouted back, not caring that their voices probably could be heard from outside the classroom right now. Screaming out one last thing that Chanyeol didn’t quite pick up, she pushed past him and stumbled forward towards the door.

Chanyeol silently watched her struggle towards the exit, stumbling into a few desks along the way. He fought hard to resist the burning urge to dash over and help her. He should be chasing after her right now because he definitely had more he had to saw, but there was just something that locked his legs into place that prevented him from moving. With her now gone from the room, Chanyeol looked down at the ground and hissed out a soundless cuss. There were so many things he could have said or done that would have prevented this whole spat from even beginning.

He was seething in so much rage; his whole body was practically trembling. Lifting a large hand up, he rested it on top of his beating chest.

It was hurting in that weird way again…

This chapter was actually supposed to be posted a couple of days ago but people just kept ripping me away from my computer so I couldn't finish it until now! But it's finally posted now and that's all that matters, right~ ;-) But yeah I'm sure some of you guys are like "OMG EVERYTHING IS PINK WUT." Well yeah, I decided to make a new poster and it sort of ended up pinkish lol So how is it?? I also changed some stuff in the story like the foreword and stuff cuz well, it didn't sit well with me lol

But anyways, wooo FINALLY Channie talks to her am I right?! I've been wanting to write them interacting for like ever and now it's finally come~ But I'm much more excited for whats to come in the next chapter. I won't make any promises for when the next chapter will be posted since we all know my update schedule is messed up af  lol But idk, we'll see!!!