Chapter Text
6:01 AM.
Jihoon wanted to cry. Why on earth was he getting up so early in the morning? He still had another fourteen minutes of sleep before the alarm would start ringing. And he just knew it would be impossible to fall asleep before he had to wake up again.
The dark sky was wishing him a good morning from the other side of the window, mocking him for having to leave his warm bed.
Even in his long, soft pajama pants, Jihoon felt his entire body shiver under the cold. Winter was already being a nuisance.
(He wasn't much of a fan of summer, either.)
He mentally groaned again before entering the bathroom and letting the warm water embrace his skin. It wasn't helping him to wake up.
The mirror in front of him reflected a really pale boy, with black circles under his red eyes from the lack of sleep, and black messy hair. His irritated eyes protested when his fingers touched the sensitive skin covering them.
Jihoon had spent at least four hours trying to finish his last minute homework, math was not his specialty and YouTube videos only helped him complete twenty percent of everything he had to do for his next class.
Feeling stressed, and somewhat grumpy, Jihoon went to his bed with five cups of coffee in his stomach. He didn't really complain.
(He did.)
His hair was still somewhat wet from the bath he had taken the night before, hoping that the water could relax his body and bring him to a state where he could lie down and catch up on a few hours of sleep.
The door to his parents' room opened and Jihoon heard heavy footsteps walking in the direction of the bathroom. It was his father, Jihoon could recognize him without a doubt.
Jihoon made sure to finish quickly before his father's face made its appearance in the bathroom, opening the door as if he owned the place.
Which was technically correct, but Jihoon was using it at the time.
"Were you using the bathroom?" The old man's deep, husky voice gave the impression that Jihoon was the first person he had spoken to that morning.
"I just finished." Jihoon replied, making his way back to his room again. The man wasted no time before closing the door behind him.
The room was a mess, his mother would surely mention it to him as soon as he got back from his classes, even though their own room was the messiest in the whole house.
He ended up using the extra minutes he had that morning to make his bed; his grandmother always told him you just need to make your bed and the whole place will look a lot tidier than you think whenever he complained as a kid.
On top of his desk was his computer and books, flattened by a big pile of clothes he had thrown there before lying down on his bed.
His backpack was hidden under his bed, for some reason.
The only thing Jihoon loved about mornings were his mother's breakfasts, even if they only consisted of a cup of coffee and a banana. It was the only time of day when his mother was asleep enough to not talk about Jihoon's constant mess, his mediocre grades in math and science, or the dirty dishes he had forgotten to wash after dinner. Usually, they only talked about the drama her mother had watched before bedtime or his literature project.
"You woke up earlier today." Her mother commented as she looked up at the sound of someone coming down the stairs. She had blond hair, which reached above her shoulders, and a small nose. Her thin lips met him with a small smile.
"Couldn't sleep." Jihoon sighed, taking the seat across from his mother, who handed him some cookies before offering him coffee. Jihoon declined. "I don't think my body could tolerate more caffeine, my hands are still shaking."
"I saw you doing homework before I went to sleep, what time did you go to bed?"
Jihoon closed his eyes for a few moments, they felt dry and the movement only made it worse. "Around four o'clock?"
His mother's face became serious. "You need to start organizing your time!"
Jihoon nodded, not feeling energetic enough to fight back.
His dad walked into the kitchen, already clean shaved and with his keys in hand. "Are you coming with me or are you walking?"
"He's just eating his breakfast, can't you wait a little longer? It's freezing outside—" His mother stopped talking when her husband's annoyed eyes made contact with hers.
"I can walk." Jihoon mumbled, all his attention on the cup of tea he had poured himself.
His father nodded, disappearing out the door quickly, surely already late for work.
"What happened yesterday? I heard you laughing, was it a good episode?" Jihoon asked his mother when he sensed that the silence was growing louder and louder.
Smiling, the woman began to recount in great detail how Mrs. Bang accused Mr. Kim of stealing the money from his father's company. Jihoon loved the way his mother's eyes sparkled whenever she talked about the drama. So he had made a mental note to ask her every morning about it. Even if he didn't understand.
It really was cold outside, and even under his big warm jacket Jihoon was shivering, probably in a mixture of the cold and the caffeine his body was battling.
He was waiting for the bus, with the company of two other students, an old man and a woman who Jihoon suspected was already in her forties.
His mother had given him money before he left, asking him to take the bus instead of walking, to prevent him from catching a cold on the forty-three minute walk from home to school. His mother didn't even have to tell him to keep it a secret from his father, Jihoon already knew.
The classroom was completely silent, only four of the thirty students were in their seats, still too early for the classroom to be filled. A few backpacks were waiting patiently for their owners on their seats.
Junhui was nowhere to be seen.
Jihoon made his way to the back of the classroom, unfortunately he only had left to choose the seat before the last one he wanted so badly, another student had already beaten him to it beforehand. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he texted his friend.
Jihoon: are you coming?
Jihoon: I'm bored :(
Knowing too well that Junhui loved to take his time to answer any type of message, Jihoon opened Instagram to waste some time there. His headphones wishing him a good morning from his room.
How could I forget my earphones?
Junhui's reply was received ten minutes later.
Junhui: I'm almost there
Junhui: I'll be there in 5
Junhui: Why are you there so early?
Two classmates entered the classroom, eating chocolates. Their cheeks were red, probably because of the cold weather.
Jihoon walked to the vending machine, eating two YaoSh chocolates (those were his favorite chocolates in the whole world), with the money he had left over from his trip to school that morning and decided to wait for Junhui outside the school.
It was almost 8 AM so it was no surprise to Jihoon when he ran into more students in the hallways.
One of his classmates, Wonwoo, greeted him when they walked pass each other.
The vast majority of people just kept walking, their eyes focused on the floor, still half awake and half asleep.
The sun was already greeting them behind the gray clouds, and the wind was having the time of their lives playing with the hair of everyone who was walking outside their homes.
The last thing Jihoon wanted was a rainy day, he didn't have an umbrella to avoid getting completely wet under the rain.
Jihoon didn't have to wait too much before the long silhouette of his friend caught his attention. Junhui was running as fast as he could - surely being a fairly easy task given his long legs - while trying to stop his backpack from falling to the ground.
Jihoon wanted to start laughing as soon as he saw Junhui's light brown hair moving violently thanks to the wind.
He only stopped when his feet were two feet away from the stairs, trying to calm his heavy breathing and apologizing rather embarrassed when he pushed a boy with his backpack.
"Keep walking, I can feel him looking at me." Junhui rushed him.
Jihoon followed him, offering him the chocolate he had not yet been able to start eating.
Neither spoke much in their five minute walk to their classroom, Junhui was too busy eating the chocolate and trying to hide the blush on his cheeks as the same boy walked by his side.
The classroom was already completely full when they both entered, the seat next to the one Jihoon had saved himself was occupied by someone else (Jihoon was pretty sure his name was Sunhmo).
The only place available was a seat near the front of the class, and those were the ones Jihoon hated the most because he spent the whole class making sure that the end of his shirt was under his butt or that there was nothing in his hair (especially when his hair started to itch and all he could think was please don't let it be lice).
He felt bad for Junhui, even when he knew that his friend didn't mind sitting there in the slightest, because now they wouldn't be together. The sweat on his hands and his heart pounding hard against his chest were proof enough that he couldn't do it.
Junhui didn't pay any attention to Jihoon as he sat down and started talking to the girl behind him, asking if there was any homework due for that class.
Jihoon walked until he reached his own desk, waiting for a couple of minutes in front of the young man sitting in the seat next to his, until he would realize he was blocking his way. Unfortunately, he was too busy on his phone.
Behind the young man was Wonwoo, and sitting next to him was Kwon Soonyoung.
Just knowing that Soonyoung was behind him was enough to make Jihoon stressed.
Soonyoung wasn't a bad boy, and he had never done anything directly to Jihoon to make him angry, but his voice was enough to put Jihoon in a bad mood.
He was tall, had long legs (currently under Jihoon's seat) and chubby cheeks.
Jihoon was sure that the entire school could hear whatever gossip he was telling his friend, Wonwoo. His voice was the synonymous of a megaphone.
"Do we have biology now?" the boy next to him asked, reaching into his backpack for his notebooks. The sudden voice startled him.
"Today is Wednesday." Jihoon answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. But nevertheless, the boy just stared at Jihoon, making him feel his own ears start to heat up. "We have art and then math..."
The boy nodded. "Sure, yeah."
Wonwoo chuckled behind them, looking at their classmate with an amused look.
Having a few minutes to spare, Jihoon opened Twitter to read some tweets and just ignore the fact that he felt naked every time he was without his friend. It felt like everyone in that place knew and was making fun of the fact that Jihoon was alone.
"My knee is hurting." Jihoon heard Soonyoung complaining to Wonwoo. "I went to practice yesterday and I think one of my kicks was— Is it bigger? I think it's swollen!"
From his peripheral view, Jihoon saw Wonwoo inspecting Soonyoung's leg. "I think you should put ice on it or something, it's bound to get worse later. Can you walk?"
Soonyoung extended his arm, tapping the back of the classmate's shoulder. Soonyoung's arm almost touched Jihoon's chair.
The young man took off his headphones, glancing over his shoulder to see who had touched him. "Soonyoung?"
"Do you remember the name of the cream you used when you fell on your knee while we were playing volleyball?"
The boy remained silent for a couple of seconds. Jihoon didn't want to look like he was paying attention to the situation, but he ended up catching Soonyoung's attention, who smiled at him.
Jihoon quickly returned his full attention back to his phone, his ears starting to feel hot again. He was embarrassed.
"Sorry mate, I don't remember. But you'd have to ask Coach Jung later, he's sure he knows the name."
Wonwoo muttered to his friend that maybe he should let the nurse take a look to see if there was anything that could be done in those moments when the art teacher closed the door.
The man had a big belly, a product of the alcohol so present in his life, something he was well known for, and slightly tanned skin. The man, who was already in his fifties, walked to his desk, taking off his jacket. "Good morning, class." He had a thick accent, Jihoon had never thought about it until Junhui brought him into conversation on one of his lunch breaks. Being a foreigner, Junhui usually picked up on such details long before Jihoon did. "We are almost at the end of the semester huh, let's do a challenge. You are going to have one hour to decide and present a project. It's going to be freestyle and it's going to be sixty percent of your final grade. Any questions?"
A girl raised her hand. "Can I use watercolors?"
"It's totally up to you." The teacher simply replied, turning around and writing the date on the board. Complaining about the dry marker as he did every morning. "Let's get started."
Different ideas of how and what he could do began to invade his mind. He had never been good with the abstract, unfortunately, though he knew that was his teacher's favorite.
Suddenly he remembered the dream he had been having lately, and it was at that instant, in the middle of the chaos that was the room with everyone talking at the same time, that Jihoon decided it would be an incredible idea.
So, giving his all in order to ignore Soonyoung's kicks from under his chair every time the boy moved behind him, Jihoon began to mix the colors he needed.
Something fell behind his back and Soonyoung's hurried voice asking Wonwoo, did I ruined his jacket? Wonwoo denied it but Jihoon still took a few moments to make sure his coat was really in good condition before returning to his work.
Time always flies when one is stressed, or tense, so, when he finished his work minutes before the teacher announced to the class that time had run out, Jihoon felt his own shoulders relax. His fingernails finally stopping being attacked by his own teeth.
His teacher began to call everyone up, and one by one, came to the front of the class to show what they had done and talk a little about why they had done it. Jihoon was thinking about the cat that one of his classmates had drawn in honor of his own cat who had sadly passed away not too long ago when he was called to the front.
It was stupid. They would all have to do it sooner or later, and probably only two or three people were really paying attention to what was going on around them, too preoccupied with what they themselves would say or completely bored, wondering what would be waiting for them for lunch in the cafeteria that afternoon. But Jihoon couldn't help it, his heart was running a marathon inside him, and his cheeks were getting hotter and hotter.
Jihoon witnessed his own mind go completely blank and his body become paralyzed, his limbs feeling that tingling he was so familiar with. He wanted to look at his chair, using the trick his mother always told him to do as a child when he was nervous about some presentation look at some object and concentrate on that, you'll forget there are people looking at you. But Wonwoo and Soonyoung's eyes were on him, waiting in no hurry for Jihoon to start talking. That didn't help much.
The corners of Junhui's lips turned up as they made eye contact, whispering luck to him.
"I decided to paint a dream I'm having quite often, I used warm colors and tried to give it some realism. The sky is a mix of the young man's past, present and future, going from somewhat monochromatic to colorful, as time goes by."
"It's good. I would change the color of the carousel in the background to black, as a shadow. But overall, it's fine."
"It looks like Soonyoung." One of the girls in the front commented, half laughing and half serious.
" Oh my God, Hannah, shut up!" The girl next to her laughed, gently tapping her shoulder.
"It's the eyes." Hannah explained, pointing at them. "They're like the hands of the clock when they strike 10:10."
Jihoon looked at the painted young man's eyes again, studying them closely, unable to see what the girl was saying.
"Jihoon dreams of Soonyoung!" Someone in the back of the classroom shouted, followed by the laughter of the entire class. Jihoon felt his face transforming from red to purple.
Soonyoung was laughing lightly, and Wonwoo looked bored at Jihoon.
The teacher called the next student and Jihoon started walking (running) to hide in his seat. That boy wasn't Soonyoung! He didn't even look like him!
Feeling his cell phone vibrating in his pocket, Jihoon unlocked it without looking at the screen.
Junhui: breathe
Junhui: You did well.
Junhui: they're going to forget about this tomorrow, don't worry.
Someone suddenly tapped his shoulder, startling him once again.
Soonyoung rested his hand on his desk as soon as Jihoon turned around. Both Wonwoo and Soonyoung looked at him.
"I liked your work." Soonyoung said with a smile on her face. "The colors you used look really nice."
And Jihoon wanted to throw up at that instant because shit maybe he did look like the guy in his painting.