⁺◟ chapter thirteen. . . ꜜ
❝ oh to hear without
my ears ! ❞
17 june 2020
it's a sunny day. hyori and eric sit underneath a tree, hyori fans herself with her hand as eric lays down, his head resting on hyori's lap. hyunjoon stretches in front of them.
"why did it have to be so hot on the day of the sports festival?" whines hyori, a pout adorning her lips. "i didn't sign up for this."
hyunjoon pfts. "no one did. now stop whining: it's annoying."
eric stifles his laughter behind his hand, earning a glare and smack to the arm from the girl.
"you little—"
a loud whistle rings in the air, signaling all the students to gather around the teachers. hyori and eric get up and walk with hyunjoon to the field.
"hyori!"
the girl turns her head to see sunwoo jogging up to her. eric and hyunjoon look at the unfolding scene with open jaws.
"yeah?" she says as sunwoo stands to her side.
"are you participating in any events?" sunwoo leans forwards, waving a small hello to the two boys. he looks back at hyori, blinking at her as he waits for an answer.
hyori lets out an amused chuckle. "pft," she laughs, pointing at herself. "me? participating in the sports festival? you're funny."
the trio, including sunwoo, walk towards where the students are gathering.
"i thought everyone's supposed to participate in at least one event?" sunwoo asks, kicking a random pebble he sees.
eric pipes in, swinging his arm around hyori, leaning forwards to look at sunwoo—the boy finds his expression amusing. "yori and yongbok are the class reps. they're taking down the scores of our class instead of participating in the events."
sunwoo ah's. "i see."
"xixi!"
haknyeon runs up to his sister, eyebrows furrowing when he notices sunwoo standing beside her. "...and sunwoo? what are you doing here?" he asks. "i thought you guys hated each other?"
"right..." mutters hyunjoon a little too loudly. eric gasps, slapping his arm.
"dude!"
hyori rolls her eyes. "we're friends now."
"yeah," says sunwoo, bumping arms with the girl. "juju and i are besties now."
hyori cringes. "ew," she said, "you did not just say that, sunwoo."
"oh," the boy laughs, "but i did."
"you're lame."
"no, you're lame!"
they argue as they leave haknyeon, eric, and hyunjoon dumbfounded. haknyeon turns towards eric and hyunjoon.
"they're friends now?"
hyunjoon raises his hands. "don't look at me," he says. "i didn't know about this until today."
haknyeon glances towards eric; the boy shakes his head.
"huh," says haknyeon. "i don't know if i should be worried or happy about this..."
˚◞♡ ⃗*ೃ༄
with the clipboard over her head, hyori squints at hyunjoon and eric making their way towards her.
"so," says hyunjoon, walking up to the railing in front of hyori, leaning on it as he speaks. "who ranked higher this year?"
"i dunno," the girl replies. "ask yongbok. he's in charge of keeping score of the boys in our class this time."
the boys groans, begrudgingly heading towards the blonde boy to find out which of them placed higher than the other. at the same time, sunwoo jogs over towards the girl, a boyish grin plastered on his lips.
he jumps on the fence in front of the third row of the bleachers, hanging onto it as he leans over to speak to hyori.
"hey," he chirps.
hyori purses her lips, shoving the clipboard in front of sunwoo's face. he swats it away.
"don't be so rude, juju." sunwoo whines.
the girl scoffs. "then don't go shoving your face in front of mine."
"aw," he coos, poking her cheek with his pointer finger. "is someone starting to like me?"
hyori gags. "in your dreams, kim sunwoo."
sunwoo laughs before he speaking. "are you going to see the boys' soccer game against the other class?" he asks.
"nope," she says. "yongbok and i will be in charge of keeping score for the girls' game. donghyuck and yeji are in charge of the boys' game."
the boy groans. "donghyuk is keeping score for the boys' game? juju, he's going to rob our class of some points! you know how donghyuk is," sunwoo huffs before continuing, "that little bitch always cheats."
hyori sighs, waving the boy away. "go tell yongbok to switch with yeji so that she'll watch the girls' game with me. you can rely on him," she says. "he's pretty competitive, and won't let donghyuck get away with cheating."
"don't you think you should watch my game, though?" sunwoo asks, tilting his head to look up at the sky as he grabs his chin. "i mean, it'd help everyone believe that we're actually friends? plus, i heard that a certain guy with the surname moon will be nearby—"
"yongbok!" yells hyori, waving the boy over. yongbok goes over to the girl, hyunjoon and eric trailing after him as they whisper between themselves.
"yeah?" the boy says as he stops at the foot of the bleachers.
"is it alright if yeji watches the girls' game with you so i can watch the boys' game?" hyori asks. "a little birdie told me donghyuck has a knack for cheating."
yongbok thinks for a moment before replying. "yeah, that's fine with me. are you going to tell yeji about switching? or am i—"
sunwoo jumps over the fence, taking everyone by surprise. he grabs hyori's arm, tugging her off the bleachers and towards the soccer field. hyori starts to nag sunwoo to let go of her arm when he turns around to yell at yongbok. "you tell yeji!" he says, earning an annoyed huff from hyori. "the boys' game is about to start, and yeji is at the water station! it's too far from the soccer field, and you're closer!"
yongbok slowly nods as he watches hyori get dragged away by sunwoo. he glances back at hyunjoon and eric. gesturing towards sunwoo and hyori, he says, "don't they hate each other?"
"yeah," answers eric. "but they, apparently, just recently became friends."
˚◞♡ ⃗*ೃ༄
and true to sunwoo's word, donghyuck had tried to not take count of when hyori's class scored. she didn't trust donghyuck with keeping score, so she had snatched the clipboard away from him halfway through the game to keep score.
"can you stop poking me?" hyori tells donghyuck, glaring at him from the corner of her eye as she adds a tally mark to her class' points when choi beomgyu scores a goal. she then scribbles something next to the boy's name.
she sighs—the two classes are tied.
"not until you give me the damn clipboard back." says donghyuck in a sing-song voice.
"donghyuck, there's literally a minute or two left in the game, now shut the hell up."
hyori looks up in time to see sunwoo steal the ball from lee jeno, racing towards the goalie. she chews on the inside of her cheek, quite anxious to see if they'll win the game.
a sharp noise rings in the air as mr noh blows the whistle. the boys cheer, surrounding sunwoo. hyori jumps from her seat, her own cry of victory mixing with those from her classmates. she's jumping up and down, twirling around to see yongbok, hyunjoon, and eric make their way towards where she stands.
hyori squeals in surprise when she's suddenly lifted up in the air and twirled. she glances behind her and sees sunwoo grinning at her.
"did you see?" he asks, his voice a bit raspy. "i totally killed it out there!"
the girl nods excitedly. "i felt like i was about to get a heart attack from all the tension—"
eric clears his throat; hyori and sunwoo snap their heads towards him. eric points at them with furrowed eyebrows. "uh," he says, "what are guys doing?"
"...nothing?" hyori replies, confused at what he's hinting at.
eric glances downwards; hyori follows his gaze to see sunwoo's arms wrapped around her waist. she gapes at it like a fish before tapping on the boy's arm. sunwoo hums.
"um, sunwoo?" she says. "can you let me down?"
sunwoo frowns. "aren't we friends though?"
"i... well, yes—"
"friends aren't supposed to be that clingy," interrupts eric, the ends of his lips tugging downwards to form a frown.
sunwoo deadpans at the boy. "you're literally this clingy with juju. maybe even more, actually."
eric opens his mouth to say something only to close his mouth afterwards, repeating the action a few more times.
sunwoo grins happily, looking back at hyori who's already looking at him.
"so are you going to put me down or what?" she asks.
the boy shakes his head. "nope," he chirps. "we're besties now, remember?"