Chapter Text
Yongbok’s hand had gotten sweaty in his mother’s from how tightly he held onto her. The classroom in front of them was terrifying, bustling with life and above all loud. Kids were running around, yelling and giggling while all the parents stood in a corner talking about… whatever adults talk about. “Come on, sweetie,” his mother urged. “Let’s go say hello to Miss Cho.”
Miss Cho was a young woman with a blunt bob cut and friendly eyes. Her cheeks bunched up when she smiled brightly. “Hi Mrs. Lee!” she exclaimed. “How wonderful to see you. I bet this cool boy here is Yongbokie, huh?”
His mother crouched down next to Yongbok. “I have to go home to take care of your little sister, okay? But Miss Cho will take good care of you. I’ll pick you up right after school, promise.”
“Okay,” Yongbok said softly. His mother patted him on the head and exchanged a few words with Miss Cho before leaving. He watched with prickly eyes as she went. A soft hand on his shoulder startled him out of it. Miss Cho smiled down at him. Maybe her face was stuck like that.
“So, Yongbokie. Shall we?”
She showed him to his desk, a small wooden table with a matching wooden chair with rubber sleeves on all the legs so they wouldn’t scratch the floors. The desk next to his was already taken. Another boy, juice packet squeezed between his hands, was talking to an old girl. She must’ve been at least in high school. “You’ll be sitting next to Chenle here,” she explained. “And that’s Ahyoung-noona. She’s my own kid, and she wants to be a teacher later just like me, so she helps me out.”
Chenle turned to him, lips remaining pursed around his straw as he spoke: “What’s your favourite dinosaur?”
Yongbok stared at him. “I…”
“Ahyoung-noona says hers is a T-Rex, but mine is the Carcharodontosaurus because it’s even bigger and stronger than a T-Rex, so mine is better than hers. Did you know I can spell Carcharodontosaurus? It’s C-A-R-C-H--”
“That’s great, Chenle,” Ahyoung interrupted. “Why don’t you give Yongbok some time to think about his favourite?”
Chenle’s eyes widened, as if he just realized something. “I’m so sorry! If you don’t have a favourite, we can read my dino-book during the break and pick one. Mom packed it for me so I could show it to my friends in class. It has all of the species in it.”
Yongbok nods. “That’s good. I don’t have a favourite yet.”
Under the burning summer sun on the playground, it was easy to make friends with Chenle. They’d shared their cookies during the break, and sat by the sidelines of a small football court, reading Chenle’s dino-book. They were majestic creatures, really. Yongbok found it particularly hard to choose between the Brontosaurus and the Elasmosaurus, but Chenle assured him that all dinosaurs are equally cool (except the T-Rex and the Carcharodontosaurus, of which the latter was obviously superior).
At some point, a boy named Eric joined them, and his repertoire of dinosaur facts was impressive enough to warrant him a spot in their new social circle. Eric also liked baseball, explaining passionately about the last game he’d watched, and which players he was going to be like when he was older.
At the end of recess, they were lying in a patch of grass somewhere, Eric talking about the way that grass on a baseball pitch was different from normal grass. And that his older sister sometimes makes salads with grass, or something that looks like it at least. Yongbok tries to stop Chenle from ripping out a wad of grass to ‘try it’ (stuff it in his mouth unceremoniously and chew and swallow it). About half an hour later, Chenle starts throwing up so violently in the corner of the classroom that Miss Cho calls his mother to come pick him up.
The rest of the day was nonetheless fun, and Yongbok came to the conclusion that school wasn’t as scary as he thought it’d be after all.
His second day was even better. He could barely wait to wave his mother goodbye at the door, and bounced over to his seat next to Chenle, who had recovered entirely from the grass incident. They spent the morning studying Korean, tracing letters with shaky strokes in their workbooks. Ahyoung actually sat next to them because Chenle did not (and for some reason would not) hold his pencil correctly.
They had PE also, which Felix had expected to be literal hell. His older sister was always complaining about it, but nobody had bothered to inform him that PE was nothing but running around and having fun! Miss Cho even brought out a gigantic coloured parachute which they magically turned into a tent by filling it with wind. It was amazing.
Recess in the schoolyard was no less exciting than on the playground down the road. Mainly because the schoolyard had a gigantic jungle gym that turned blazing hot in the sun. Yongbok had his sleeves pulled over his hands to climb it, all the way to the top. Eric and Chenle were already there, dangling their legs through the gaps and laughing about some or other hilarious joke. Another boy, one he didn’t recognize, was climbing up as well. He stretched his arms out all the way, trying to reach the next bar of the jungle gym in an attempt to skip some steps…
The boy fell to the ground with a loud thud and the schoolyard fell silent. The boy’s first wail broke the silence, and Miss Cho came rushing over to comfort the crying boy. Yongbok, Chenle, and Eric rushed down the jungle gym to surround them.
“My my, Jisungie,” Miss Cho scolded. “You scraped yourself up pretty bad, no? Yongbok, can you take him inside to Ahyoung-noona?”
Yongbok locked eyes with little Jisung’s, big and round and teary. His lips were contorted into a deep pout and he seemed to be holding in a lot of tears. Miss Cho helped him up, and Yongbok took his hand. Side by side, they walked into the building, Jisung with a small limp. It was quite a way to the classroom, passing by some other classes and the gymnasium. They found Ahyoung in a supply closet, pulling out craft materials for the afternoon.
“Noona,” Yongbok yelled when he saw her. “Jisung fell from the jungle gym!”
Ahyoung looked up from her box of pattern scissors, immediately putting them aside. “Oh boy,” she said, eyes flitting over the scrapes on Jisung’s knees and arms. “Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up.”
There’s a steel washbasin in the back corner of their classroom, where dirty paint brushes and ragged sponges sit on the edges. The water is always ice cold, no matter which knob you turn, and it loudly clatters against the steel as it runs. Ahyoung is dabbing away at Jisung’s scrapes with a wet towel. The blood blooms on the towel, spreading through the water. Yongbok watches intently as she sticks a dinosaur band-aid over the scrape. It doesn’t even cover everything, but band-aids always make everything better.
And so began their friendship, somewhere between those band-aids and the jungle gym.