Just You | Sunnew

Chapter 11

Today is the big day! Chanhee has been discharged from the hospital about three hours ago: he went home, took a shower, got into his school uniform. And here he is, standing at the front entrance gates in front of his high school with Juyeon, Hyunjae, and Changmin next to him.

Chanhee fidgets as he leans into his left leg, distributing more of his weight onto his crutch he is holding underneath his left armpit to take away some of the stress and pains from his right side and leg.

"Should we make an arm throne?" Changmin teases as he takes Chanhee's backpack and puts it over his shoulder so Chanhee wouldn't have to worry about carrying it. "My goodness. What do you have in here? Bricks?"

Chanhee nervously laughs as he looks down at his shoes. He doesn't know what to say, it's been about two whole days since he's had any social interaction, he's been deprived of his friends, as well as the one and only: Sunwoo. The boys go into the school and Juyeon helps Chanhee get his backpack into the locker and carries his notebooks to their first class: Biology.

Aside from the few side glances and weird looks from half of the students in the class, there's nothing else that seems unorthodox. Perhaps everyone is just startled by the information about how the school's sweetest nerd has a father who is the presumable leader of the most dangerous gang in Korea? Seems abought right, perhaps that hit the nail on the head.

He can't help but cling closely onto Juyeon, Hyunjae, or Changmin whenever they're present because he can't stand that fact that everyone knows who his dad is now. It was as if it was just a couple days ago that Chanhee wanted to know everything about who his father is, where his father is, and why he left him: not just a bunch of scrap book pictures with crinkles and white lines etched into the ink. Now, he wishes he knew absolutely nothing. The amount of hours, days, and years he would spend to find a genie in a bottle would be unimaginable.

"Chanhee." Juyeon whispers quietly in Chanhee's ear. Chanhee opens his eyes to notice that he dozed off in biology class while leaning on Juyeon's shoulder.

"Ah, sorry." Chanhee apologizes shyly before getting up. Before he could pick up his notebooks, Juyeon quickly scooped them into his large hands so he wouldn't have to worry about Chanhee holding books while using his crutch.

"I'll bring these to your locker, I'll see you in the council room. Okay?"

"Yeah, thanks." Chanhee smiles, which seemed so filled with effort that there's not a single doubt that it's fake.

Chanhee is the last student to leave the room, but before he could leave: the teacher stops him.

"Chanhee, my star student. Have you been doing well with recovering?" Mr. Lee carefully asks, trying not to stir up any jailed emotions.

"I've been a lot better. It used to hurt to take a deep breath, but it's a relief that it doesn't anymore."

"That's great. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm all ears. Okay, buddy?" The teacher smiles and gently placed his hand on Chanhee's shoulder before retreating from the room. As soon as the teacher's body exits from the door frame, he sees Sunwoo leaning against the wall on the other side of the hallway with depressed eyes.

Chanhee slowly makes his way over and stands a good two feet away from him, but the two say not a single word: they only exchange awkward eye contact.

"Chanhee . . . You have no idea how guilty I feel." Sunwoo sighs and shakes his head as if he has disappointed Chanhee. "Just minutes before it happened, I told you I'd protect you."