Love Me Stage Left; Soonhoon

02

1 DECEMBER

JIHOON PLANS ON spending his free block that morning in the auditorium, reviewing the script with Seokmin and Seungcheol, who also have frees, and putting together a prompt book for the actors' cues and other show requirements.

The hall is bustling with kids hopping between classrooms, trying to get in their morning chatter before the first bell rings. On his way to the auditorium, he passes a small girl – probably a freshman, judging by her stature. She has this bouncing enthusiasm that Jihoon thinks is unreal for anyone at this time of morning, and a type of naive, optimistic smile that almost makes him envy her. He thinks he's seen her before. Yoojung, maybe is her name? She stands outside what's probably her homeroom, clutching some papers and a pen, and her eyes turn into full moons when she sees him coming her way.

"Wait up!" she calls to him, catching him just as he's about to pass her. Jihoon groans internally.

"Yeah?" he asks weakly. "Sorry, I'm kind of in a hurry."

"Would you sign this petition?" Yoojung holds a page up to his face, with lots of messy, inky black signatures scrawled on it. "It's for the art department's funding. Just two seconds to write your name, please? Aw, c'mon, it takes no time at all," she adds when he opens his mouth to protest. Jihoon winces when her puppy-dog face turns into something a lot more serious and judgmental.

He sighs and gives in, grabbing the pen she offers him. Using the wall as a makeshift clipboard to write on, he asks, "Who's this going to, anyway? Is it actually going to do anything?" Yoojung blinks.

"Well, yeah. I mean, it could. If we gather enough signatures, the school can file a referendum and make an appeal to the county to maintain our funding."

"But ... I mean, how would that work? Like our school is special? The state can't just pick and choose who to give money to."

"Technically not, but it's the only one in the county with such a big arts program. As far as the local government is concerned, it's supposed to cut funding for all nonessential programs in schools, but that doesn't have to mean arts, necessarily. We just need to show why arts are so important for us as an institution, versus ... I dunno, sports."

"Huh." It's fine. Jihoon doesn't care about PE that much, anyway.

He scans the page one more time before standing up straight, looking at her; she's a small thing, refusing to stand still and looking at him with such sad eyes, she could pass for a kicked puppy. But he remembers her earlier look and gets the feeling that she's dead serious about this, and he commends her for her effort. Passing the paper back to her, Jihoon says, "Okay, cool. Hopefully everything works out, then." Yoojung thanks him about a dozen times by the time he manages to get away.

When he gets into the auditorium, he finds Seokmin and Seungcheol already sitting on the floor, scripts open, and Soonyoung is with them.

"Don't you have class right now?" he asks, making his way over to the group.

"Yeah," Soonyoung answers, "but it's math, and I decided that math at 9 am is simply too much to handle. I'm skipping."

"Risky. That means you have the whole rest of the day to possibly run into your teacher."

"If she asks, I'll say I had a doctor's appointment."

Soonyoung looks cute in the morning, is what Jihoon thinks as he sits down next to him. He's not much of a morning person, and it shows: ruffled hair, puffy eyes. Soonyoung's lips fix themselves into a tired pout that usually lasts for a while before he wakes up fully, and Jihoon likes to see him like this. Unfiltered, wholesome. Little pink splotches on his cheek where it pressed against his hand the night before, waiting to fade away. It's sweet, even if he is a little cranky.