The Kitten I Brought Up

f o u r // c o m m u n i t y

It was a fairly uncomfortable trip to the canteen for Wonwoo since everyone would inevitably stare at him because of Jisoo. He had never received that much attention before.

He stopped when Jisoo paused in her tracks. Turning back, she asked, "why are you walking behind me?"

"Ah," Wonwoo opened his mouth. Shaking his head, he quickly stepped to the space beside her. Satisfied, Jisoo continued walking with Wonwoo timidly by her side.

It surprised Wonwoo that he soon grew oblivious to the stares surrounding him. He felt like a regular student out for his lunch. They took a tray, queued for their food, and made sure to grab a carton of milk each – Jisoo with a plain one and him with his chocolate flavoured one. (Jisoo had teased him upon finding out he was a chocolate milk person. "How did you grow so tall then?" she had asked.)

She led him outside to a table where he was greeted by a sheepishly smiling Jonghwa and a couple of familiar faces of which he had seen on stage that morning. Jisoo slid into the space beside Jonghwa while Wonwoo awkwardly remained standing. Tapping the space beside her, he silently heeded and settled down with his tray.

"This is new, Jisoo sunbaenim bringing someone along for lunch," a boy across Wonwoo, who had one of the most beautiful faces he had seen, commented.

"So why Jeon Wonwoo, sunbaenim?" he glanced over and was surprised to see a rather familiar person, Kwon Soonyoung. They lived in the same neighbourhood and often bumped into each other and although the happy child had always wanted to approach Wonwoo, he was never able to.

Jisoo responded with a small shrug as she put a large spoonful of rice in her mouth. She didn't seem to have any intention to give a proper answer but in actual fact, she was just ravishingly hungry and wanted to eat more than talk.

"You don't know us, do you?" the girl sitting on his left piped cheerily.

Before Wonwoo could answer (for he was chewing his food and knew it was rude to speak while eating), the girl proceeded to introduce everyone at the table.

"I'm Mijoo, a year three like Jisoo, as you can tell," she pointed to her grey tie that was slightly loose around her collar, with the top button undone. You would have thought those in the student body had perfect dressing according to the rules but Wonwoo figured this one was a little different. Her slightly tinted hair alone, simple yet full of volume, spoke of how much confidence and flair she had.

"This is Jiyeon, Jeonghan, year twos. Jihoon, Myungeun, Soonyoung, freshmen like you. The guy over there is Jinyoung, year three and you've met Jonghwa right?" Wonwoo nodded quietly, gulping down his food.

Despite the awkward atmosphere, at least for him, lunch went on with the usual (as he assumed) chatter of the bunch. He didn't speak much, except for answering with nods or shakes of his head. He did, though, feel comfortable with them – some were loud, some were the peace-makers and some were quiet.

Checking her watch, Jiyeon interrupted them, "it's five minutes to the bell! We better get going!"

They began standing up with their trays. Before they went their to their separate academic blocks, Jisoo said to Wonwoo, "your shoulder's better already right? Let's go down to the dojo today."

"Oh? Wonwoo does Judo?" Jinyoung questioned.

"Nope, he's going to start," replied Jonghwa.

"Let's meet at the foyer after class."

//

Wonwoo lagged behind his other three fellow freshmen. He watched as Soonyoung slung his arm around Jihoon's shoulder with the latter looking annoyed but couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. Myungeun was beside them complaining about the upcoming quiz her class was going to have.

As he broke away from them to enter his classroom, Soonyoung called out unexpectedly, "hey Wonwoo ah, see you after class!" When the chirpy one saw Wonwoo look back, he waved and smiled, his eyes disappearing with it. Breaking into a small smile, Wonwoo responded with a short, awkward wave and went to his seat.

Settling down, he thought back to lunch and the fun that came along with it. Breaking into a smile, he leaned his chin on his hand and gazed out of the window, feeling glad, that of which he hadn't felt in years.

The next few lessons were hard to get through for Wonwoo. He kept thinking ahead about the dojo and Jisoo, and his excitement seemed to increase by the second. He ended up fidgeting in his seat, resulting in his teacher calling him out, a really rare thing to happen to him.

For the first time, he couldn't wait for school to be over. So when the bell of the last class finally rang, Wonwoo placed his stationery in his pencil case, shoved his books and everything else in his bag all in an instant.

He was about to carry his bag when he remembered Soonyoung saying 'see you after class'. Picking up his bag and putting it on his table, he wondered if he should wait.

He didn't need to decide though, for he soon heard his name being called and he turned to see Soonyoung at the doorway waving at him. Getting up, he walked to his new friend.

Picking up some courage, he asked as they were walking, "where's the rest?"

"Oh, Jihoon and Myungeun?"

He nodded.

"Jihoon has band while Myungeun has Olympiad," Soonyoung replied. Turning and eyeing Wonwoo, he continued, "they don't do Judo... you know right?"

Wonwoo paused, obviously having somehow thought that everyone was going to the dojo together. A second later, Soonyoung burst out laughing. He doubled over close to the ground while hugging his stomach and was soon breathless.

Embarrassed, Wonwoo continued to walking ahead of Soonyoung. Stumbling to catch up with him (all the while still laughing), his new friend wiped his tears and gave a light pat on the shoulder in assurance, "don't worry, it's okay."

Their walk down to the foyer was filled with small talks though it was mostly made by Soonyoung for he was obviously, very talkative in nature.

Reaching the foot of the staircase, they saw Jisoo and Jonghwa waiting by the rows of lockers and upon seeing them, Soonyoung ran over waving, "sunbaenim, we're here!"

Nodding to acknowledge their arrival, the four set off to their second home, one that will soon become Wonwoo's second home as well.