༊*·˚ fools
"so, what do you say?"
hyerin was hesitant to accept his invite to lotte world mostly because donghyuck was staring in their direction from the other side of the field looking unimpressed.
"i'll... go."
jaemin's expression completely changed demeanour and his lips curved into a big smile.
"i'll look forward to seeing you there."
"guys! can you save the chat for the end of the lesson?"
both of them giggled as they went back to the game still leaving donghyuck curious as to what that interaction was about.
"you might want to close your mouth before a fly goes in," his partner pointed out with a playful grin.
his attention focused on the guy whose goofy expression had altered as soon as donghyuck's cold stare landed on him.
"shut up." with that, he walked off to exchange places with their opponent pair.
˗ˏˋ 'ˎ˗
during lunch, hyerin walked past the music practice rooms to find that same brown-haired boy in the practice room dancing to some new kpop release. for a second, she was completely mesmerised by the way his body flowed so freely and every movement was done so perfectly as if he'd been born dancing. he looked so at peace even though the choreography was so intense.
hyerin came back to reality by softly shaking her head before walking in the direction of the cafeteria only to see myunghee and dongmin sauntering out of it.
"hello! join us." myunghee hooked her arm with hyerin's and they pranced to the courtyard together to sit by the steps and eat lunch there. a lot of other students were doing the same since the sun was starting to come out and it was becoming warmer.
"where's kiya?"
"football practice. her coach asked them to be there today because i think there's an upcoming game," myunghee replied, looking at the guys playing down below. "you should play with them."
"let me eat lunch first." she held up her chocolate milk.
myunghee smiled at her friend then her attention went to something behind her and the twinkle in her eyes disappeared as she glanced back down at her lap.
hyerin cocked her head to see what was behind her that was making myunghee so upset but then she saw it was dongmin laughing with another girl.
"myunghee, what's going on?" she cooed.
she shrugged. "i don't know. i honestly don't know." she ran a hand through her hair.
hyerin gave myunghee a bread smile before finishing up her chocolate milk.
"did i tell you jaemin asked for me to go with him and the guys to lotte world this weekend?"
myunghee's eyes lit up. "are you being for real?"
"yeah, i couldn't make something like this up." she laughed. "he said he and the guys had been talking and they wanted to spend some time with me without donghyuck. so he's not invited."
"are you going?" the girl cocked a brow up.
"yeah. i'm going."
at that, myunghee smiled widely and gave hyerin a quick hug. "i'm proud of you."
"for what?"
"does there have to be a specific reason for me to be proud of you?"
"well, when you say it out of no where then yes," hyerin pointed out.
myunghee shrugged her shoulders. "it seems like you're opening up a bit more since... whatever happened. i remember how you were always so shy and would barely speak to me and dongmin the first couple of weeks and how you couldn't go anywhere without one of us."
the journey had been a long and tough one and it was still far from over but hyerin had acknowledged the small improvements to the point she couldn't even recognise herself from two years ago. she was most thankful for myunghee and dongmin for never leaving her when many people would've because they played a big role in her development.
"okay! enough sentimental stuff. go and play football while i get some sun." myunghee ushered the girl away who joined the boys without hesitation.
today, chenle was playing.
"chenle!" she called.
he spun around to see who'd called his name and his smile almost reached his eyes when he saw it was her.
"can i play?"
he jogged over to her. "of course! but on my team."
she chuckled. "who's not part of your team."
chenle pointed out the five guys and made sure it was obvious to her who they were before he gave her a pat on the shoulder and started the game.
twenty minutes later, the game had come to an end because lunch was shortly over so everyone was congratulated for a good game and went to pick up their bags that had been discarded on the edges of the field.
"so you are coming on saturday?" chenle asked her.
she nodded her head.
"do you want to do a sleepover?"
"a sleepover?" she smiled.
"yeah. you know, when you sleep at someone else's house."
"i know what it is, idiot," she joked. "sure, i can do a sleepover."
chenle's smile beamed. "good. that was the only acceptable answer anyway." he swung his bag over his shoulders and turned to leave but then turned back around. "i'll see you soon, yeah? take care of yourself."
she smiled and he mirrored her action before wrapping his arms around her in a hug. hyerin was taken by surprise but hugged him back and laid her head on his shoulder before they pulled away and went their own directions.
"what was that?" myunghee questioned as hyerin picked up her bag.
"two friends hugging?" she scoffed.
"friends, huh?" myunghee cocked a brow up as she put her bag on her back.
she hadn't even noticed she'd called him a friend. it seemed to slip out so naturally.
"things are going well for you, miss moon."
after lunch, she had geography – the same drill as all the other lessons previously. she sat in jaemin's seat and as she waited for donghyuck and the teacher to arrive she got the materials from her bag.
if she wasn't awake, then donghyuck slamming his bag down on the table would've instantly woken her up.
as much as she wanted to comment on it, she kept her lips pursed. she knew better than that.
"good afternoon, kiddos! i'd like you all to write a resume on what you're researching and what you plan to discuss with your projects. it's just so i know what you're all researching so i can do this thing i'm doing to make my life easier when we go on the trip..." the teacher trailed off before. "send it to me through email so i can save them to my laptop and have them all in one place."
hyerin already knew donghyuck wouldn't bother with any of that so she would be the one writing it up.
"and, in addition, because i know a few of you are artsy, i'd like you to make a 3D model of the specific place you're researching. if you prefer to draw it then the only condition is that it'll have to be very detailed and not a drawing my five-year-old nephew would do," he requested.
"do we have to?" a student asked in an annoyed tone at the sound extra work.
"no – but it would increase your grade just by a tiny little bit," he put his pointer finger and thumb together, "and i may or may not reward the best one with something you'd all like."
that promoted more discussion between the students and teacher.
"now! do your work because it's not going to do itself."
hyerin shifted in her chair to face donghyuck and picked up a pen.
"i'll do the write up and i'll also make the model thing," she mumbled to him knowing it was up to her if she wanted to get a good grade on this.
donghyuck just nodded his head.
the gesture kind of surprised hyerin but she didn't say anything and picked up her pen, again, to do the work.
"can i ask you a question and promise you won't explode?" she whispered to him, half-way through the class.
"shoot."
"are you okay?"
he looked up at her with the most serious demeanour and she thought he was about to go off on her but then a corner of his lip tugged upwards and he laughed.
hyerin blinked a couple of times.
she'd just made donghyuck laugh?
he cleared his throat. "i'm fine and if i wasn't it's not like you could do anything to help."
she kept her head down for the remainder of the class.
what was that?
<3
i made a spotify playlist for this fic the code is down below. i add new songs every once in a while so you can get to know the vibe i'm going for. feel free to check it out if you want to (: