The Hideout I Need

Chapter 5: Happy White Day

"Wait!" Tae-young came running out of his apartment door. Hyeong-jun turned around in an instant. Tae-young ran up to him and softly cupped his face. He smiled sweetly, slowly leaning his face in closer and...!

The blaring sound of Hyeong-jun's horrifying alarm woke him up from his peaceful slumber. What a terrible moment in the dream to wake up. To be fair, the previous day had been extremely memorable, who can blame him for dreaming of it? He groaned, looking for his phone, hoping, as he did every day, that he could hit snooze. Because there's no way Hyeong-jun could sleep in twice in a row, right?

Yeah, right.

"Hyeon-ah!" Hyeong-jun yelled on his way to the bathroom, slamming open his bedroom door causing a loud bang throughout the entire apartment.

"Shh," she shushed him in her sleep, waving him off.

One day. All he asked for was one day where he woke up on time. He stood there mentally cursing at himself while brushing his teeth and combing his hair at the same time. However, cursing at one's self for being late had almost become part of Hyeong-jun's morning routine. He ran frantically back into his room to change into his uniform. Once again the prepacked backpack came in handy.

He ran out of his room and slid onto the floor, hectically putting on his sneakers. And before Hyeon-ah even had the time to process what was happening in their apartment, he was out the door.

Hyeong-jun came running out of his apartment building and started sprinting once again towards the bus stop. However, this time it was nearing 8 AM and Hyeong-jun was significantly more tired, making it that much harder to run. And, of course, the bus was arriving. Everything was going great today. Hyeong-jun let out a huge groan as the bus passed him, not caring if other pedestrians were judging him. People were beginning to board the bus and Hyeong-jun was still a good 50 meters away. It was a stressful situation, to say the least.

As he was running towards the bus, he noticed Jung-mo on his way to board the bus and found a ray of light in his storm cloud. Hyeong-jun yelled, hoping for the best, "Koo Jung-mo!"

Jung-mo looked towards the familiar voice and snickered as he saw Hyeong-jun running towards him. He waved and nodded to signal that he'd stall the bus.

"Please wait for just a second," Jung-mo told the bus driver as he boarded and scanned his bus card. He proceeded down the bus and sat down at a window seat so he could see how far Hyeong-jun was along.

Just as the last passenger in line got on the bus, Hyeong-jun finally made it. He quickly stomped his foot on the bus to show the bus driver he was getting on, spreading his legs from the sidewalk and onto the third bus stair-step, doing a near-perfect split. He quickly noticed the awkward position and got on the bus properly, laughing awkwardly as he straightened himself up. He patted around his pockets to find his wallet so he could scan his bus card.

Oh, god.

"Just a second," Hyeong-jun flashed an awkward smile to the bus driver and turned towards Jung-mo, "Jung-mo, can I borrow your bus card for the bus fare? I forgot my wallet at home."

Jung-mo threw his wallet towards Hyeong-jun, "Here!"

Hyeong-jun considered it a miracle he caught it. He let out a sigh of relief as he got a hold of the wallet. He walked up and put the bus card against the scanner thinking his troubles were over. They were not.

"Balance insufficient," the little robot voice from the scanner said. Hyeong-jun's peaceful smile turned into a face full of dread. He scanned the card again, hoping he just scanned it wrong somehow, "Balance insufficient."