Everyone laughed as Soonyoung struggled to sit on the grass.
Leaning on an already seated Seokmin’s shoulder, he grabbed his knee.
“Ahh…” he groaned in pain, sounding uncannily like an old, old lady, “Grandpa, your wife is getting old.”

Someone in the group snorted.
Soonyoung and Seokmin were a comedy duo of sorts. One would always complete the other’s joke.
So of course the younger boy wouldn’t be left behind today.

Seokmin broke out his old man voice, “No worries. Grandpa will take care of you.”
He paused for a moment, staring into space as if deep in thought. He then slowly turned to Soonyoung, his eyebrows furrowed.
“I think I heard a crack, Grandma. I don’t think I’m too young either.”
The laughter was louder this time.

“You two are a bit too comfortable being a married couple,” Jeonghan commented, still chuckling.

“Yeah,” Seunghee teased, “Do you wanna maybe tell us something?”

The two boys seemed unfazed.
“We’re just really good friends,” Soonyoung explained with the air of a Professor who is over-prepared for a lecture.

“And we really like girls,” Seokmin added.

“And yet…” Yoojung trailed off.
The boys looked only slightly offended.

“All of us here are single,” Seunghee pointed out. She paused for a moment and then turned to Eunmi and Wonwoo, the only ones sitting on a bench. The two had been silent for quite a while. “Aren’t we?”
The two nodded.

Eunmi shifted uncomfortably but then chose to speak.
“Yoojung unnie, you broke up with your college boyfriend?”

Yoojung only shrugged and an awkward silence followed.
Seunghee caught Eunmi’s eyes.
For now, the older girl mouthed with a wink.

Eunmi held back a smile. She didn’t want Yoojung to think she was making fun of her situation. She didn’t know what had prompted her to pry. The older girl was quite sensitive about the topic as, Eunmi thought, she should be. She couldn’t imagine how the girl felt. She had never been in a relationship that complicated. She hoped she never would.
She chose to change the subject.
“Jeonghan-sunbae,” she turned to the said boy, “I heard you have a fan club.”

The boy didn’t even try to look humble.
“Of course,” he said with a smug grin, “Seunghee is the President.”

“I quit long before it was founded. That girl from Kirin took over,” Seunghee stated matter-of-factly, “I heard the club is losing members after you cut your hair.”

Only a part of what Seunghee said seemed to affect Jeonghan, who sighed wistfully as he ran his hand through his now short hair.
After weeks of being warned by the CRs, then his homeroom teacher, and then other teachers to cut his hair, Jeonghan had only given in when the Vice Principal had actually threatened to call his parents.
When he had shown up with short hair the next morning and Yoojung had joked about how he should have sold his locks, he hadn’t laughed.
His haircut-induced depression, however, had lasted only till lunch when a small group of first years had shyly complimented his new hair. After that, Yoon Jeonghan was all smug smirks and lazy grins again.

“You just have to hit me where it hurts, don’t you?” he almost sneered at Seunghee, who just shrugged in response.

Eunmi couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her lips.
“I feel your pain, sunbae.”

Jeonghan looked up to meet her eyes. They exchanged what could only be described as a look of empathy as they nodded slowly, pouting for some reason.
No one commented on the exchange, either having fallen into their own conversations or too annoyed by their dramatics to respond (Seunghee).

Out of nowhere, almost startling Eunmi, Jeon Wonwoo spoke.
“You used to have long hair?”

Eunmi could only nod in response.
He spoke at the most unexpected of times and said the most unexpected things. She never had a response ready.
After a moment, however, she found a few words to say.
She looked up at him, smile tiny but real, “Why? Is that a surprise?”

The boy’s mouth opened and then closed immediately. He shook his head, his eyes travelling to a tree in the distance.
Eunmi could only watch, her smile growing, as Wonwoo scratched the back of his neck.
When he finally turned to her, his face finally composed, she found herself almost disappointed. For a while, she had seen a Wonwoo that she had never seen before. A flustered Wonwoo!

“I was just wondering how you looked,” Wonwoo mumbled.

Eunmi could only smile up at him.

***

“Okay, so which one of us offended Kang?” Jang Soobin asked, looking like his world had fallen apart.
His shoulders sagged as soon as he finished speaking. He brought his hands up to rub his face so hard, the others feared he would hurt himself.

The group of five were scattered on the stairs somewhere on the third floor of the main building. They had decided to not meet in the library because, quite frankly, Soobin had not looked like he was going to be quiet. And he wasn’t.
“Did you see the other groups’ topics?” he asked as looked up at Jihoon, who was standing with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

“I did,” Jihoon crossed his arms over his chest, “Our topic isn’t in our curriculum.”
The other four let out sighs almost simultaneously.

“Any local historical event,” Haeyoon said in a voice that sounded strangely like Mr. Kang.

“Why couldn’t he just hand us a topic like he did with the others?” Soobin whined again.
“He knows it’s difficult to get good sources on local history.”

Jihoon sighed, “He either hates us or is overestimating us.”

Soobin looked like he had given up on life, “The first.”

“So, we don’t even have an actual topic,” Haeyoon concluded.
The other four made small sounds of agreement.

“Let’s work on finding a topic then,” Wonwoo finally spoke. “Sitting and whining won’t help.”

Soobin frowned, maybe taking the other boy’s comment a tiny bit personally.
“Sure,” he said, “that’ll be easy.”

Jihoon cleared his throat, “It might if we try to find two or three topics each. They might overlap but we’ll have a lot to choose from.”

“Makes sense,” the other girl shrugged.

“Okay then, we’ll meet tomorrow after school at the library with our topics.”
Everyone else gave a collective sound of agreement as they stood up.

Eunmi dusted her skirt off and slung her backpack over her shoulder. As she was starting to leave, a gentle grip on her arm stopped her. Turning, she saw Haeyoon smiling at her.
“Let’s walk together,” she said and looped their arms together.
Eunmi simply nodded but returned the smile.
When they were far away from the boys, the other girl finally spoke.
“You know you can talk during group discussions, right? There’s no need to feel shy or awkward, the guys aren’t bad or anything.”

Eunmi paused momentarily. She hadn’t spoken a word during the small meeting, she realised. It hadn’t been intentional; there hadn’t been much to add.
The fact that Haeyoon had noticed and was nice enough to tell her that she did have a say in their group was almost touching. She felt her smile grow as she started walking again.
“It’s not like that,” she explained, “everyone had said everything already.”

Haeyoon looked thoughful for a moment, “Still. There’s no reason for you to feel like you should keep quiet, okay?”
With a grateful smile, Eunmi nodded.
“After all, there must be a reason Wonwoo insisted on having you in the group.”

Eunmi’s steps faltered for a split second, her eyes widening only a fraction.
Wonwoo had insisted on adding her to the group?
This was news to her.
Her stomach did a flip as she tried to digest the information.
“I don’t know why he did that,” she found herself saying.
It sounded like she was confused, she thought.
She cleared and put her usual smile back on. She didn’t want Haeyoon to think there was something wrong.

Thankfully, Soobin caught up to the two girls and they had to discontinue their conversation. The boy, it turned out, was worried that Haeyoon was trying to bail on him.
Haeyoon and Soobin, Eunmi found out, had just started dating and the girl was a bit shy about admitting the fact out loud.

As the two started bickering, Eunmi fell behind. She didn’t mind it. The two seemed to be in love, or at least liked each other very much.
Falling behind, she hadn’t realised, meant falling in step with Wonwoo (Jihoon was nowhere in sight).

A silence, that was becoming unique to them, settled. However, neither made a move to walk ahead.
Eunmi wanted to say something, anything, but kept shut in fear that instead of thanking him for ensuring that she wouldn’t be left alone for the project, she’d blurt a rude question about why he’d done so.
So the pair didn’t say a single word to each other till they had made it out of the building. They waved goodbye to Haeyoon and Soobin when the couple turned and said goodbye enthusiastically.

Before the silence got unbearable though, they spotted a happy looking Seunghee near the gates. Eunmi almost audibly sighed in relief, but caught herself just in time.
Their pace quickened as their senior waved them over.

“Kids!” Seunghee yelled, “Guess who doesn’t have to go to hagwon today?”

Eunmi found herself exchanging a glance with Wonwoo. The sight of Seunghee, she noticed, brought a fond smile on his face. The older girl was well-liked.

“Congrats!”
Not having to go to hagwon was a rare occurrence in Seunghee’s life.

“Why did you get the evening off?” Wonwoo asked.

“Someone close to the teacher passed away,” Seunghee informed them with a smile.
The smile immediately fell off her face as she stared at the ground for a solid five seconds.
“I shouldn’t have sounded so happy when I said that.”
Eunmi tried to bite back her own smile and hoped she wouldn’t go to some form of hell for laughing.
Wonwoo simply nodded, but Eunmi noticed his lips perk up ever so slightly.

“It’s been so long since we went home together,” the younger girl spoke after clearing .

“I’m sorry about that.” Seunghee looked apologetic.

“Oh, no, no,” Eunmi protested, “You don’t have to apologise.”

“You’re right,” Seunghee said as she clenched her fists, “that stupid hagwon does.”
The other two let out a small laugh at the girl’s comment as they finally started walking home.
They had walked about two minutes in silence before Seunghee spoke again.
“Wonwoo, you don’t have work today? Usually you leave before waiting for anyone.”

Eunmi didn’t like admitting, even to herself that she paid the boy any special attention, but she had always been curious about Wonwoo’s quick disappearances as soon as the final bell rang.
Now it made sense. He probably had to go home early, change and then work his shift at the store.

“I took the day off,” the boy responded, his hand reaching up to comb through his hair, “it’s my brother’s birthday.”

Seunghee cooed at the mention of his brother.
“It’s our Bohyuk’s birthday? How old is he now?”

Wonwoo had a small smile on his face as he replied, “He’s fourteen and I’m scared he’s going to grow taller than me.”

“Really? He’s grown that much?”

Wonwoo nodded almost sadly and Eunmi couldn’t help but giggle. The boy turned to look at her and she was stunned for a second. She could have blinked and missed it: Wonwoo pouted at her, his face a mask of feigned hurt.
That was…new. The girl was unable to come up with a better word.
He seemed to enjoy her reaction. She could tell because there was a satisfied look on his face as he turned to answer one of Seunghee’s questions.

The rest of the walk was nothing out of the ordinary.
Their conversation ranged from school gossip, some new app that was gaining popularity, and an upcoming movie that Wonwoo seemed to be extremely passionate about.
It was an adaptation of a book that he really liked, he informed them, he didn’t want the movie to ruin the book for him.

When it was time for them to separate, Wonwoo gave them a small salute, making the girls smile.
They waved as he trudged up a slope that Eunmi had always seen on her way to school but had never paid it any attention. It was quite close to the store Wonwoo worked at.

The girls continued their walk home again.
Eunmi happened to glance at Seunghee only to find the older girl had a look on her face that she got when she rendered Jeonghan unable to retort during one of their innumerable banters. She looked extremely satisfied, Eunmi realised.
“What is it?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“Nothing,” Seunghee replied. “When you first met him you were a bit uncomfortable around him, weren’t you?”
Eunmi opened but no words came out. She knew exactly who Seunghee was talking about.
What she didn’t know, however, was that she had been so obvious about Wonwoo. Had others noticed? If they had, what did
they assume was the reason she acted the way she did?
“It’s okay,” Seunghee’s voice brought Eunmi out of her thoughts, “A lot of people find him intimidating, I guess. The fact that he hardly smiles doesn’t help, but he’s a good kid. Don’t believe the rumours, okay?”

Eunmi frowned.
What rumours? She hadn’t heard any.
She almost asked Seunghee what she was talking about, but decided against it.
She didn’t know if she wanted to know.
“Yeah,” she said instead, “He’s nice.”
She was surprised to find that she hadn’t just said those words, she believed them.

Author's Note:
I'm sorry I haven't updated in ages.
I had finals and stuff.
Also, I have been cheating on this fic with another high school au I have been writing.
I just love NCT Dream very much, okay?
Anyhoo...updates will be more frequent from now on.

xx Hoonie