Chapter 22
The Blue of the Sky on Rainy Days
- "Oh Eunhyuk, I’d need your help, would you give me a hand?" The attractive guidance counselor asked the student who was passing in front of his office to go to the toilet.
- "Uh yes..."
Siwon started to rummage in a box with a big smile plastered on his face, then came back with quite a big pile of flyers in his arms.
- "Here, we received all this from the Ministry of education and health; could you bring them to the sick room, I admit that I'm a bit too lazy to take care of it myself. This kind of thing bothers me since the day my sister ... ah sorry. Anyway, you'd be nice to do it, okay?"
- "Uh, yes", Eunhyuk replied to the counselor he found more and more strange, the sick room only being located at the end of the hallway.
- "By the way, about the small problem you told me about, is it fixed? I mean, did you use my little... gift?" The counselor innocently asked while piling some varied colored sheets on his forearms.
Eunhyuk, who had slightly started to blush with the sudden question, though that, for someone who claimed having done a seminar, he did not seem particularly uptight.
- "Hmm ... not yet."
- "That’s great dear, take your time, don’t rush things. Okay so I'll let you take care of all this. Thanks again, and have a nice day", he concluded before closing his office door behind him.
Arms full of flyers, Eunhyuk advanced into the hallway with measured steps to avoid making them fall on the floor. They overlapped in all directions, and he tried, leaning on his thigh, to put them a bit into order. But his burden’s mass was unfortunately too large for such a venture, and the sheets soon escaped his grasp, twirling around him before ending their journey on the floor.
- "Damn it..." He hissed in between his teeth, bending to pick them up.
Many of the flyers proposed to fight against the ravages of smoking among young people, but he did not feel very concerned by these warnings, thinking he still had his whole life ahead of him to stop. He then picked up the flyers for green numbers, like SOS suicide or beaten young people, as well as information on various drugs and the sentences incurred for their consumption. Amid warnings about AIDS and the need to have protected , as well as information about the morning-after pill, he discovered a small pile of flyers that title’s raised his concern: Homouality: What is it?
- "Uh yes..."
Siwon started to rummage in a box with a big smile plastered on his face, then came back with quite a big pile of flyers in his arms.
- "Here, we received all this from the Ministry of education and health; could you bring them to the sick room, I admit that I'm a bit too lazy to take care of it myself. This kind of thing bothers me since the day my sister ... ah sorry. Anyway, you'd be nice to do it, okay?"
- "Uh, yes", Eunhyuk replied to the counselor he found more and more strange, the sick room only being located at the end of the hallway.
- "By the way, about the small problem you told me about, is it fixed? I mean, did you use my little... gift?" The counselor innocently asked while piling some varied colored sheets on his forearms.
Eunhyuk, who had slightly started to blush with the sudden question, though that, for someone who claimed having done a seminar, he did not seem particularly uptight.
- "Hmm ... not yet."
- "That’s great dear, take your time, don’t rush things. Okay so I'll let you take care of all this. Thanks again, and have a nice day", he concluded before closing his office door behind him.
Arms full of flyers, Eunhyuk advanced into the hallway with measured steps to avoid making them fall on the floor. They overlapped in all directions, and he tried, leaning on his thigh, to put them a bit into order. But his burden’s mass was unfortunately too large for such a venture, and the sheets soon escaped his grasp, twirling around him before ending their journey on the floor.
- "Damn it..." He hissed in between his teeth, bending to pick them up.
Many of the flyers proposed to fight against the ravages of smoking among young people, but he did not feel very concerned by these warnings, thinking he still had his whole life ahead of him to stop. He then picked up the flyers for green numbers, like SOS suicide or beaten young people, as well as information on various drugs and the sentences incurred for their consumption. Amid warnings about AIDS and the need to have protected , as well as information about the morning-after pill, he discovered a small pile of flyers that title’s raised his concern: Homouality: What is it?
I hope it’s a pure and total coincidence that Siwon gave me that at least, Eunhyuk thought while starting to leaf through the small file, still half kneeling on the floor, the other flyers correctly piled up in front of him.
After he had quickly read the first title that was called: “Attraction towards the same : a passing or definitive state”, and briskly the second one titled: “Others' people opinion, an obstacle that you must learn to overcome”, he let his eyes wander over a short paragraph that dealt with first ual relations.
- "What are you doing?" Heechul, who wanted to skip class using a stomach ache as an excuse, asked him upon seeing him in such a weird position in the middle of the deserted hallway. "The bell rang you know."
- "Oh, uh, it's nothing, nothing at all", Eunhyuk replied as he tried to hide his embarrassment behind a laugh that sounded really fake, almost tearing his arm to hide the compromising prospectus behind his back as fast as possible.
But this gesture, instead of making him avoid being discovered, made Heechul want to know what his friend was trying to conjure away in such a hurry, though he would not have cared one bit otherwise. He pretended to squat too in order to help him help pick up the sheets, casting curious glances toward Eunhyuk’s back.
- "What are you hiding like that?" He asked, noticing that Eunhyuk pivoted on himself to hide what he held in his hand from his eyes.
- "Oh, nothing important, I swear. Thanks, it’s okay, I'll take care of this, but aren’t you going in class? They’ll never validate your term if you skip again."
Heechul, changing tactics, still handed him a few sheets while getting up, and, as Eunhyuk held out a hand to take them, he took advantage of his lack of attention to snatch what he was holding. He found himself face to face with the neon green booklet, from which only one word of the title jumped to his eyes: Homouality.
He raised his head, mouth wide open, looked at his friend, looked back at the small file, blinked, looked at Eunhyuk, and began to stammer:
- "Oh ... oh I... Eunhyuk!"
He looked at him and, failing to express himself how he wanted to, not even able to think properly, he repeated in a quite shocked way: "Oh!"
Taking advantage of his complete stupefaction, Eunhyuk grabbed the flyer and hide it among the others before rapidly walking towards the sick room with rosy cheeks and a heart that had suddenly started to pound.
After he had quickly read the first title that was called: “Attraction towards the same : a passing or definitive state”, and briskly the second one titled: “Others' people opinion, an obstacle that you must learn to overcome”, he let his eyes wander over a short paragraph that dealt with first ual relations.
- "What are you doing?" Heechul, who wanted to skip class using a stomach ache as an excuse, asked him upon seeing him in such a weird position in the middle of the deserted hallway. "The bell rang you know."
- "Oh, uh, it's nothing, nothing at all", Eunhyuk replied as he tried to hide his embarrassment behind a laugh that sounded really fake, almost tearing his arm to hide the compromising prospectus behind his back as fast as possible.
But this gesture, instead of making him avoid being discovered, made Heechul want to know what his friend was trying to conjure away in such a hurry, though he would not have cared one bit otherwise. He pretended to squat too in order to help him help pick up the sheets, casting curious glances toward Eunhyuk’s back.
- "What are you hiding like that?" He asked, noticing that Eunhyuk pivoted on himself to hide what he held in his hand from his eyes.
- "Oh, nothing important, I swear. Thanks, it’s okay, I'll take care of this, but aren’t you going in class? They’ll never validate your term if you skip again."
Heechul, changing tactics, still handed him a few sheets while getting up, and, as Eunhyuk held out a hand to take them, he took advantage of his lack of attention to snatch what he was holding. He found himself face to face with the neon green booklet, from which only one word of the title jumped to his eyes: Homouality.
He raised his head, mouth wide open, looked at his friend, looked back at the small file, blinked, looked at Eunhyuk, and began to stammer:
- "Oh ... oh I... Eunhyuk!"
He looked at him and, failing to express himself how he wanted to, not even able to think properly, he repeated in a quite shocked way: "Oh!"
Taking advantage of his complete stupefaction, Eunhyuk grabbed the flyer and hide it among the others before rapidly walking towards the sick room with rosy cheeks and a heart that had suddenly started to pound.
- "Thanks for helping me picking them up, dude", he said while starting to walk away, biting the inside of the cheeks and mentally crossing his fingers for Heechul to still be too stunned to talk.
- "But I ... it's ... no really ... I’ll never get used to it", the latter yet managed to blurt out. "I think I'll forget about it for now. Yeah ... I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see anything ... nothing at all."
He had yet already asked Eunhyuk if Yoo Ra assumptions about his relationship with the center’s autistic were true, but between that and the word that spread unhindered in big yellow letters on the booklet his friend was hiding behind his back, there was quite a gap, a labeling, a categorizing that seemed insurmountable, unimaginable, unthinkable to him. However, what Heechul could think about him was not what worried Eunhyuk the most; his major concern was to see his secret become even more known and eventually create a dangerous situation that would prevent him from seeing Donghae freely, or worse, seeing him at all. Fortunately, one of the only tangible evidences that existed had been destroyed in due form.
- "By the way", Eunhyuk replied, seeing that his friend’s momentum had suddenly been cut off by his discovery and that he did not risk anything anymore, "I give you back your memory card. I don’t know if you’ll still be able to use it thought ..."
With that, after digging the pocket of his jeans for a while, he handed him the small pieces of shredded plastic from where residues of red and blue wires sometimes escaped. Heechul looked at these crumbs with one of the most surprised air, wondering how in the world it could have ended up this way. He grabbed a piece with his fingertips and lifted it to sniff it suspiciously.
- "... But hey, a memory card isn’t so much paid for the reconciliation of two old friends, isn’t it?" Eunhyuk added, holding out his hand.
- "But I ... it's ... no really ... I’ll never get used to it", the latter yet managed to blurt out. "I think I'll forget about it for now. Yeah ... I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see anything ... nothing at all."
He had yet already asked Eunhyuk if Yoo Ra assumptions about his relationship with the center’s autistic were true, but between that and the word that spread unhindered in big yellow letters on the booklet his friend was hiding behind his back, there was quite a gap, a labeling, a categorizing that seemed insurmountable, unimaginable, unthinkable to him. However, what Heechul could think about him was not what worried Eunhyuk the most; his major concern was to see his secret become even more known and eventually create a dangerous situation that would prevent him from seeing Donghae freely, or worse, seeing him at all. Fortunately, one of the only tangible evidences that existed had been destroyed in due form.
- "By the way", Eunhyuk replied, seeing that his friend’s momentum had suddenly been cut off by his discovery and that he did not risk anything anymore, "I give you back your memory card. I don’t know if you’ll still be able to use it thought ..."
With that, after digging the pocket of his jeans for a while, he handed him the small pieces of shredded plastic from where residues of red and blue wires sometimes escaped. Heechul looked at these crumbs with one of the most surprised air, wondering how in the world it could have ended up this way. He grabbed a piece with his fingertips and lifted it to sniff it suspiciously.
- "... But hey, a memory card isn’t so much paid for the reconciliation of two old friends, isn’t it?" Eunhyuk added, holding out his hand.
***
The iron jingled when his mother laid it on her small ironing board to turn the clothes. Eunhyuk frowned in front of his history lessons. The notes he had taken earlier this year were so incomplete he had had to resolve himself to borrow some specialized books to complete them, a very first for him. His lost air while entering the library had amused the manager who had taken half an hour to explain its functioning and help him find the books he wanted about European colonization in the world. So he was, sitting in the dining room to be able to spread out, currently copying long passages to memorize them, thinking with a smile that when he would ask Donghae to make him recite them, le latter would probably memorize in ten minutes what he would have spent hours on. But this thought, rather than discourage him because of the difficulties he encountered over his friend, reassured him because he was proud of him and his abilities, which increased day by day.
- "You're not too tired Eunhyuk?" His mother asked him while flinging some water on a shirt. You’ve been working for three hours now.
- "No it's okay, I'm almost done."
His mother put her iron down and looked at him with a smile as he took hold of a large looking depressing paragraph.
- "You know, I'm proud of you my son. I’m sure all your efforts will pay. I was scared for your future, but it looks like you matured all of sudden. I guess that sorrows help growing up, isn’t it? Everything went back to normal since then?"
- "Yes, everything’s all right now", her son replied while burying his nose in a particularly dark chapter, sign that he did not want to be questioned too much about it.
- "Otherwise, I was thinking about inviting your grandparents to diner, so we can celebrate your success in the Olympiads. Your grandmother didn’t believe me when I told her you were in the top fifty, but when she’ll see your diploma ..."
- "Hehe, inviting these ones isn’t really a gift you know", Eunhyuk joked while stretching against the back of his wooden chair, exhausted by so many intellectual exercises. "By the way, do you want to come to Donghae’s prize-giving? Remember, he’s the one who came first and they organize a small ceremony at the City Hall, but I'm not sure his parents will make the effort to come..."
- "Of course, I have to thank him for having such a great influence on my son", his mother replied while skillfully folding some pants before putting it on the pile of clean laundry. "Do you want a glass of milk for your snack?"
‘The cat isn’t me’, Eunhyuk thought before giving up on the British’s action in India, to take a closer look at their grammar instead.
- "You're not too tired Eunhyuk?" His mother asked him while flinging some water on a shirt. You’ve been working for three hours now.
- "No it's okay, I'm almost done."
His mother put her iron down and looked at him with a smile as he took hold of a large looking depressing paragraph.
- "You know, I'm proud of you my son. I’m sure all your efforts will pay. I was scared for your future, but it looks like you matured all of sudden. I guess that sorrows help growing up, isn’t it? Everything went back to normal since then?"
- "Yes, everything’s all right now", her son replied while burying his nose in a particularly dark chapter, sign that he did not want to be questioned too much about it.
- "Otherwise, I was thinking about inviting your grandparents to diner, so we can celebrate your success in the Olympiads. Your grandmother didn’t believe me when I told her you were in the top fifty, but when she’ll see your diploma ..."
- "Hehe, inviting these ones isn’t really a gift you know", Eunhyuk joked while stretching against the back of his wooden chair, exhausted by so many intellectual exercises. "By the way, do you want to come to Donghae’s prize-giving? Remember, he’s the one who came first and they organize a small ceremony at the City Hall, but I'm not sure his parents will make the effort to come..."
- "Of course, I have to thank him for having such a great influence on my son", his mother replied while skillfully folding some pants before putting it on the pile of clean laundry. "Do you want a glass of milk for your snack?"
‘The cat isn’t me’, Eunhyuk thought before giving up on the British’s action in India, to take a closer look at their grammar instead.
***
The ceremony’s fateful day came quickly. Eunhyuk went to the hospital to pick up Donghae and go to the town hall by car with Kaehyun and Kangin. He was very excited, a lot more than his friend who looked quite anxious, and little game to go and receive the honors that awaited him.
- "Come on Donghae, do it for me!" Eunhyuk told him, unscrupulously resorting to emotional blackmail.
The young patient had done himself up, or rather had let Kaehyun do it: his little strand was nicely brushed, and he had put on the Mickey shirt Eunhyuk had given him that color’s slightly looked like his indefinable colored eternal pants floating around his thighs. However, as he had to enter the car, he planted himself on the spot.
- "Don’t want ..." he managed to utter in between his lips.
- "Oh Donghae, but everyone’s waiting for you, people will be very nice to you, you’ll see", Kaehyun tried to convince him.
- "Don’t... want."
- "Donghae, there will be a good buffet!" Kangin said as if it was a major argument.
- "N ... n."
Eunhyuk got in the car with a smile as if he did not care about his friend’s little drama.
- "You know", he started while pretending to speak to the two nurses, "I told my mother to come, and I think she wants to invite Donghae to enjoy afternoon snack at home. I can’t wait to be there and quickly be done with this ceremony so we can have fun."
Hearing this news he did not believe was for him to hear, Donghae hesitated, played with his fingers, looked up, saw Eunhyuk slumped on the back seat while laughing with Kangin, took a deep breath, and crept beside him like a cat.
- "Come on Donghae, do it for me!" Eunhyuk told him, unscrupulously resorting to emotional blackmail.
The young patient had done himself up, or rather had let Kaehyun do it: his little strand was nicely brushed, and he had put on the Mickey shirt Eunhyuk had given him that color’s slightly looked like his indefinable colored eternal pants floating around his thighs. However, as he had to enter the car, he planted himself on the spot.
- "Don’t want ..." he managed to utter in between his lips.
- "Oh Donghae, but everyone’s waiting for you, people will be very nice to you, you’ll see", Kaehyun tried to convince him.
- "Don’t... want."
- "Donghae, there will be a good buffet!" Kangin said as if it was a major argument.
- "N ... n."
Eunhyuk got in the car with a smile as if he did not care about his friend’s little drama.
- "You know", he started while pretending to speak to the two nurses, "I told my mother to come, and I think she wants to invite Donghae to enjoy afternoon snack at home. I can’t wait to be there and quickly be done with this ceremony so we can have fun."
Hearing this news he did not believe was for him to hear, Donghae hesitated, played with his fingers, looked up, saw Eunhyuk slumped on the back seat while laughing with Kangin, took a deep breath, and crept beside him like a cat.
___________________________
Sorry for the wait, needed a little break x)
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