A Room Full Of Windows

Prologue

Chanyeol watched as the handle of the train aligned themselves at an angle, dangling from the steel rods that formed a mesh on the ceiling. The morning sun rays filters in through the thick glass windows making the red hair of the woman sitting by it looked like it was flaming. A girl in sailor uniform was dozing off beside a boy probably from the same school judging by the uniform who was sneaking quick glances at her peeping over his upturned book. Chanyeol counted the telegraph posts passing by, outside thee pale rosy tinted windows. The mechanical female voice announced the arrival of his station as he got up and moved to stand in front of the door. He caught the sight of a girl staring at him, not like others were not but she was particularly unabashed about checking him out with agape. He caught her eye and smirked. She looked away with a furious fuchsia tinting her cheeks. As he walked towards the escalator across the station he saw her staring at him again peeping through the windows as the train dragged forward.

Today is his first day at high school and truth to be told he was not particularly excited about it. Jongin and he were the only one in this section and the rest of his group was in another, thank God he had him at least. Making new friends was a tiresome job and he was particularly happy with his group and did not want any latest addition.

His high school was a government aided private one and the fee structure was not very high. It is not like it was the main reason of enrolling there his parents where Government employees. His mother was a Senior Auditor in the government soon to be a Deputy Director while his father was chief traction executive controller who was in charge of controlling the Subway and train tracks of the town. He had once went to his father’s office and it had reminded him of those mission impossible like action movies all electric lines cables digital screens LED humongous giant screen showing trains and tracks in green and red and a wall full of blinking LED lights. It was kind ‘a cool he admits. They weren’t chaebol like rich but peacefully financially sated.

He didn’t noticed when he had reached the building. The decorated opening ceremony sign stood there by the huge wrought iron gates. Now, this is the reason he chose the school..... the beautiful ambience. The school building was like an old English Mansion build in the 19^th century. When he said old it really mean, it is one of the oldest schools of the batch.

The garden in front of the building was well maintained. The alpine mint bushes were trimmed cut and arranged and colourful spring blossoms were blooming at every corner. There was fountain at one corner barely spurting water but still standing in its all intricately carved out glory. He took the winding pebbled path that ends in the front door with a black collapsible gate that was pulled apart revealing a large hall.

The reception, office and the principal’s room was at the right hand side, a long corridor on the left and a short one to the front that lead to a large open field. At the junction of them, from the hall there were two huge staircases meandering to the second floor. It reminded him of those Disney Princess staircases. The stairs aligned with walls at first juts out later to form a graceful arc again rejoined to form a single large one that laid upstairs. When Chanyeol reached school it was already 9:45. The students flocked in groups chatting on the stair cases and running around in the corridor.

Avoiding the crowds made his way upstairs to find his classroom. he walked along the large long corridors brightly lit up by the golden sunlight that was streaming down the huge glass bay windows that make up one of the walls.

He searched for his class number but was unable to spot it. At the far end of the corridor takes a sharp turn into a dimly lit archway which turns to a flight of large wooden stairs leading to the third floor.

Normally he would have asked somebody for directions but today he felt like exploring.

The 3^rd floor was built on wooden flooring same brightly lit corridor just a bit shorter with bay windows on both sides. A few of them at the end was opened as the wind that flowed in played with the fern leaves of the potted plants kept apart at intervals lining the sides. There were two class rooms at the end facing each other and a Biology lab squished between with glass doors bound by the wooden frames. He could see the glass jar of specimens need to arrange and aligned in huge glass cupboards. There was a skylight window on the top of the roof through which the sunlight filters down on one of benches where plant saplings and samples were kept in petri dishes kept open under the sunlight.

The pale yellow sliding door on the left had bold letters of 1 C on it. Taking a deep breath he grabbed the door handle reading himself for high school life. The first thing that greeted him well was windows. Seems like the man who built this building was obsessed over them. Large windows stretch from the black board to the Teacher’s desk and to the end of the class up to the lockers and the soft board. A huge magnolia tree in full blossom was standing by the windows. The compound wall of the school below was covered magenta bougainvillea. The scenery stretched out before him made him feel proud of his choice. Green and green is all he could see. a long white chimney is visible among the green probably the bakery because that will explain the smell of the sweet bread wafting in the air. He could also spot a large silver lake shimmering under the dull light of the now cloudy sky. All in one word it was beautiful. It was not the best school of the country specifically 23 rank but he was more than satisfied. To him this was for better than any top ranking full placement prison schools of the world.

He grabbed the middle seat beside the windows and sat down. He had always liked middle seats neither too strict and serious like front benchers nor complete bummer like last benchers that use more curse words than necessary he was one of the quiet observers (not really..... The quietest among strangers and the noisiest among friends) who just loved blending into the background in spite of being larger than others with elfish ears.

He is the type of everybody (almost everybody) Talks, smiles greets good morning and ask for pen paper or eraser. He is neither too popular like Jackson (the royal Jester) neither unpopular like Suga the disciplinary Committee head who is always found at some corner dozing off. He knew them from his previous middle school and confirmed their post yesterday at the bulletin board of the school showing the clubs committee members and leaders. He was really amazed really suspicious to see the large number of familiar names there.

Choi Minho his senior was the captain of the basketball team, member of the track team and cooking club, (talk about multi tasking) Kai or Jongin was dance club, Kyungsoo in the cooking club, Kris in the arts club obviously though he doesn’t get the point why it is obviously because he was one of the worst painters Chanyeol saw in his short live of sixteen years until he saw his middle school teacher’s painting. Poor Kris got demoted to 2^nd place with his brilliant Masterpiece of a post mortem frog with grasses growing in its kidney. It had made its mark in place of the excretory system diagram of toad in his Bio science lab copy. He chuckled to himself remembering it as he searched for his earphones. He was even more amazed when the bio teacher actually gave him 1 mark out of 10 in the diagram. Maybe she was tired of asking him to redo it.

He plugged his earphones and set the playlist on shuffle. Owl City’s Fireflies started playing. He stared out of the window resting his head on the table as the song played on.

He was woken up by a gentle shake on his shoulder. He sat up slowly. Owl City’s Saltwater Room was picking up its melody.

I opened my eyes last night
And saw you in the low light
Walking down by the bay, on the shore,
Staring up at the planes that aren't there anymore

He stared at the person who shook him awake. Light brown hair, chubby cheeks and droopy eyes greeted him. A small friendly smile gracing his lips.

I was feeling the night grow old
And you were looking so cold
Like an introvert,
I drew my over shirt
Around my arms and began to shiver violently before...

He somehow felt things slowing down. He didn’t expect to see him here. He heard somebody saying that he was going to A high. So why was he here? Moreover why standing beside him? He was not one of the popular kids he likes to go around with. Chanyeol didn’t like it much.

you happened to look and see
The tunnels all around me
Running into the dark underground
All the subways around create a great sound

“Hey” he heard his melodious voice clearly “is the seat next to you empty?”

To my motion fatigue farewell,
With your ear to a seashell
You can hear the waves
In underwater caves
As if you actually were inside a saltwater room

Authors note: woah i finally uploaded a chapter.

hope readers like it . i have used too much description....sorry...its bcoz the whole setting is in the school. i have used my own school's architecture here...its a little complicated so i am providing some pictures.... they are almost close to what we had...not exact but close.

the hallways ( not exactly this but close)