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“What are you so scared about? It’s just a storm,” the oldest of them, by barely a few months, asked Rok Soo, who was sitting quietly near the corner farthest away from the window of the classroom.
The rain had started soon after the first period began, and knowing that both of his parents were going to be really busy with their newest cases, the little boy didn’t have the heart to ask them to come pick him up. He had been taking it fairly well so far, despite how nervous the weather made him, until the thunder began showing up in the clouds.
Still, he wanted to persist and be brave, reminding himself that he was safe and sound inside the building, and that nothing bad could happen if he waited for the day to end like a grown-up.
Of course, it was easier said than done.
Twisting a little plushie cat in his hands, Kim Rok Soo looked up at his classmates and, not for the first time, felt a bit of envy about how easy it was for them to exist every time it was pouring outside, “I just don’t like the sound.”
That was, well, not the whole truth, but the kid couldn’t find in himself to share more than a minimal part of his problem. His classmates weren’t his friends, even though most of them were very nice to him, and he didn’t have bad blood with anyone in particular. However, just getting along wasn’t enough for him to disclose the real root of his fears to the group.
“I c’me to pick Rok So’-y’h,” a redhead kid of around the same age as the others inside the classroom, but whose growth had been stunted for the last year, popped his head through the cracked door. He was holding a tissue tightly over his running nose, which made his voice sound funny.
The homeroom teacher just nodded; it wasn’t the first nor would it be the last time that either of the children showed up in each other’s classroom during the middle of the day to pick the other up, since they left together almost every day. Although they stayed all day, most of the time too. They weren’t family, as half the school staff had initially suspected, but their parents knew and trusted the others enough to let them take their child off when necessary.
That day was one of those days, as it was no secret between them how shaken up Kim Rok Soo had ended after the near car accident where Jour had taken them on a little trip to a forest village.
“My hair’s all fuzzy again,” after forcefully sneezing enough times to make his nose take on a closer hue to the hair he was complaining about, Cale kept staring at his reflection in the mirror, voice back to normal for a few moments. “Rok Soo, do something.”
His best friend took his eyes away from the homework the teacher gave him before leaving; it wasn’t anything he couldn’t do without his guidebook. Without a word, the black-haired kid plucked out a frizzed strand of hair with his free hand, the other still holding onto the Henituse hand, the same tight way he had been since they left the classroom, as the boy jumped and started yelling at him.