nostalgia, six.
❛ a lot more volunteers ❜
"There's no way I can reach that!"
"I know." Huening Kai snickered, glancing down at Yebin with a taunting look in his eyes. She knew he was making fun of her height.
Yebin looked around for ladders, which were all being used by the other students. She'd finally finished working on the welcome banner, and now had to hang it up on either end of the stage.
"You do it then." She crossed her arms at Kai, who shrugged before trying to reach the stage curtain rod. Even he wasn't tall enough.
Yebin stifled a laugh, and Kai rolled his eyes before crouching down, patting his shoulders. "Get on, shortass."
With a happy smile, she grabbed the banner and climbed on his shoulders. She made it to the stage's height perfectly, and began sticking it on. Kai would jokingly pretend to stumble and drop her every now and then, resulting in a series of hysterical panic-stricken expressions on her part.
Just then, the doors of the gym opened and in walked the last person she wanted to see. Him.
She didn't hate him. She was just- mildly frustrated. There was never a day that went by without her seeing him, and neither did a day pass without him blatantly ignoring her.
She didn't know what she was doing wrong. She stopped trying to approach him after the first few attempts, but even then he avoided her like she had a virus he didn't want to catch. She couldn't share her frustrations with anyone here either, as the only people who knew about him were Xiaohui, her sister, and her grandmother.
But today was different. He walked in with Heeseung and Sunoo by his side, along with four other boys she didn't exactly recognize.
"Yah!" Kai shrieked. "What are you doing up there?"
"Sorry!" Yebin turned back to the banner. "Got distracted."
Not even a minute later, she heard herself being called once again. Choi Beomgyu was staring up at her. "Hey, can you document festival?"
"The entire festival?" Yebin asked.
"Yeah, just take a bunch of pictures and videos then send it to the editing team," Beomgyu said excitedly, before raising a thumbs up. "Sounds good? Okay!"
"Thank you!" Beomgyu smiled as he briskly walked away from Kai and Yebin, the latter of which was calling him back in protest. The student council president hummed to himself as he roamed the school gym, until finally finding more people he needed talk to.
"Hey, good morning guys! I see you brought a lot more volunteers." Beomgyu approached the group of Sanheoli High School students. Heeseung turned around, glancing at his four friends that decided to tag along that morning.
"Oh yeah, they were just-" Heeseung paused to come up with an excuse. "-in the mood to help today."
"Great! You guys are all friends, right?" Beomgyu asked randomly. The boys all nodded, albeit their own confusion.
Beomgyu checked around before leaning in, his voice lowering in volume. "Okay, so you guys would love to perform at the festival right? We're kind of running short on concert performers right now."
Sunoo tilted his head. "Perform- what? Like a song?"
"Yup! Thanks so much for agreeing you guys." Beomgyu put a hand on Sunoo's shoulder, before walking away as if nothing had happened. The rest of the boys just stood there, dumbfounded.
Jay turned to his friends. "We have to peform a song? Does he think we're a boy group or something?"
Sunghoon shrugged. "Haean students are so weird."
"Hey, we can't forget why we're really here," Jake said quietly, before nudging Jungwon. "Where is she anyway?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." Jungwon sighed as he shoved his hands in his pockets, walking off to busy himself with some task. Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, and Niki thought it would be a great idea for them to volunteer today, for the sole purpose of seeing the girl he'd told them about the day before. He found it ridiculous.
"Do you see her?" Jay asked Sunoo, who shook his head.
"She's probably helping out somewhere."
Heeseung crossed his arms at them. "You can't just sit around trying to find her, you know. You're here as volunteers, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah." Jay waved him off, following in Jungwon's direction with Sunghoon and Jake behind him. Heeseung and Sunoo exchanged looks before heading opposite them towards the area they worked at yesterday.
Jay, Sunghoon, and Jake found Jungwon at one of the tables, holding string and colored paper in his hands.
"These need to be folded and strung together," Jungwon told them. "I just can't find the tape."
He looked around the gym and there amidst all the students, he saw her. She was hanging up a banner by the stage, laughing for whatever reason. He didn't know it at the time but her smile was contagious, and he found himself smiling slightly as well. Her hair was tied up, thin-framed glasses slightly crooked. She was pretty, he thought.
His smile fell however, when he noticed she was sitting on someone's shoulders. It was Huening Kai, the boy he'd met just the other day. He felt bitter for some reason, and looked away with a roll of his eyes.
"What's with the attitude?" Jay asked, before following Jungwon's previous line of sight. "Wait, is that her?"
"No," Jungwon lied. He then handed Jay a pile of colored paper. "Now help me with this."
While working, Jungwon couldn't help but glance back over his shoulder every now and then. She was simply where she was before- until she wasn't. He looked around in confusion, finally spotting her. She was heading right towards him.
He turned away, eyes widening in panic as he realized she was approaching him again. Nudging Jay, he spoke lowly. "Help, she's coming this way."
"What?" Jay glanced behind him, seeing the girl from earlier walking towards them. "You said that wasn't her!"
"I know what I said!" Jungwon whisper-shouted. "What do I do?"
"Don't worry, I got this." Jay shook his head, motioning for Jake and Sunghoon to follow him as he left the table.
Han Yebin was walking towards the supplies table, hoping to grab a pair of scissors when three people suddenly blocked her way. They stood in front of her and two of them looked vaguely familiar, but she'd never seen the boy in the middle before. He wore a blank expression, and his face somewhat reminded her of an angry bird.
Still, she had no idea who they were or what they were trying to do.
"Uh- hi," Yebin began awkwardly. "I just wanted to-"
"I don't think so," the boy in the middle cut her off.
Yebin blinked, slightly taken aback.
"The weather's great today, isn't it?" the boy spoke again. "I'm Jay, by the way."
"Oh..." she trailed off, not knowing what to say. "I'm Yebin."
"I know."
Jake didn't miss the uneasiness in Yebin's eyes at Jay's words. This wasn't going so well.
"Hey, you went to soccer camp last year, yeah?" Jake asked, attempting to shift the conversation.
Yebin's eyes lit up. "No way, I remember you! Jake, right?"
Jake nodded happily.
Sunghoon decided to join in. "Aren't you Xiaohui's friend? I see you around the rink sometimes."
"Yeah, I am." Yebin smiled, finally realizing who he was. He and Xiaohui were the best figure skaters in town, and so on the ice they were always silently competing. Xiaohui would talk about how much she hated him.
"I don't skate or play soccer," Jay chimed in. "But we can still be friends!"
Yebin scratched her head awkwardly. "Uh- I don't know."
Jay burst out laughing. "Haha, that's funny!"
Yebin raised her eyebrows, taking a step towards the supplies table. "I just wanted to grab a pair of-"
Jay blocked her way once more. "See, I can't let you do that."
Yebin stared at him in confusion. "Uh- you know what? I don't really need it."
She turned around quickly, walking off in the opposite direction and murmuring under her breath. "Sanheoli students are so weird."