-

“Oh, hey Hoya.” Sungjong greeted with a smile. “Ready for your first day?”

“Pretty much.” Hoya replied, “I still don’t know what to do though.”

“It’s easy! See, we keep the kids company while they wait for their turn for therapy.” Sungjong explained. He grabbed a clipboard and took a glance at it. “Hmm. It looks like you won’t be assigned to a kid today, Hoya.”

“What? Then.. who?”Hoya asked, confused.

“Dongwoo. He’s the oldest here. He’s twenty three.” Sungjong replied, smiling. “He’s really nice. So, you don’t need to worry about anything.”

Hoya nodded. “I’ll trust your words then.”

-

Hoya entered the room. It was just a plain room, with bookshelves filled with books. At the middle, there’s a table, and there sat Dongwoo, Hoya’s first assignment at the center.

“Hi.” He awkwardly greeted as he took the opposite from the guy.

“You’re new, aren’t you?” Dongwoo asked. Hoya nodded. “I’m Dongwoo.”

“Hoya.”

“So Hoya, what brought you here at the center?” Dongwoo asked again, Hoya felt the awkwardness around them vanish a bit.

“It summer, I didn’t have anything to do at all. So I decided to get a small job.” Hoya answered, He looked at Dongwoo and found the other nodding while arranging a couple of pencils in a straight line. “What about you? I mean, I don’t want to be rude but—“

“Hey, hey, Its alright.” Dongwoo replied. “I have autism. I’ve been in therapy for quite some time now. That’s why I look normal, but I still have some disorders. Like, dyslexia and… this.” He pointed at the straight line of pencils lying on the table, “It’s a habit.”

“What are you in therapy for?” Hoya asked again, glad that Dongwoo is opening up to him.

“For dyslexia, and speech.”

“Speech? You don’t seem to have problems at all.”

“I do!” Dongwoo replied, his tone an octave higher. “I stutter sometimes.”

Hoya nodded. “Do you.. go to school?”

Dongwoo’s face fell a bit that made Hoya a little worried. “No. I mean, yes. But I’m in home school.”

“Hey, don’t be sad, I’m sure your parents are thinking about you, that’s why they placed you on home school.”

“But why?”

“The world isn’t good, Dongwoo. There are a lot of bullies out there.”

Dongwoo nodded. “Yeah, bullies. I saw this documentary about them and they are so mean.”

“See? So don’t be sad. It’s almost the same as a normal sch—“

“Dongwoo, your therapist is looking for you.” Sungjong said as he peeked at door.

“Oh, okay. Thanks, Sungjong.” Dongwoo replied. Sungjong nodded and disappeared behind the doors. “Nice to meet you, Hoya. I hope I can talk to you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I have a therapy tomorrow too.”

“Sure. See you.”

Hoya watched as Dongwoo stood up and hopped heading out of the room.

-

“So, how’s Dongwoo?” Myungsoo asked during their lunch break.

“He’s fine. I actually liked talking to him.” Hoya replied.

“I envy you.” The other said, pouting. “He said he doesn’t want to talk to me because I look scary. Like, is this face scary?”

Hoya glanced at Myungsoo’s face. “Yeah, a little bit.”

“Ya! You’re so mean.” The younger pouted. “What did you talk about?”

“Things. He opened up to me.” Hoya smiled, “Isn’t that great?”

“He does that to everyone, that’s why Dongwoo is the ‘angel’ of the center. He will make you feel comfortable with his presence. You know, no awkwardness at all.”

“So, he tells everyone about his..”

“Autism? Yes.”

Hoya felt a little bit disappointed. He wasn’t special. “Oh. That’s good, I guess.”

-

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dismay: Yeah, you got it. It's Dongwoo ouo