The Hideout I Need

Chapter 3: A kind of study date

Whatever classes were after lunch was spent by Hyeong-jun staring at Tae-young. Secretly, of course. It was more like stealing glances. Even though the classes were boring, time went by fast. Hyeong-jun was surprised when he realized school was over and everyone was packing their things. He hurriedly packed down his books and shoved them into his backpack. It wasn't long before most of the students had left already. Who can blame them, though? The first day of school is always tiring when you're not used to it yet.

"So... how would you rate your first day here?" Jung-mo said enthusiastically as the four walked out of their classroom.

"It was great! Thank you guys for tagging me along," Tae-young said politely.

"Hey, no worries. Feel free to join us permanently," Jung-mo laughed.

"Wow, Jung-mo, are you hogging him so he can't make any other friends?" Se-rim nudged at him.

"What? He's cool, we should try to keep him to ourselves."

Tae-young laughed at Jung-mo's comment. It was so nice to be accepted so easily in a new environment. All those worries he had felt lighter. It was insane how he didn't even realize how many worries he actually had. Was he always this nervous?

The four classmates walked down the hall towards Class 3, only to be jump scared by Won-jin hopping out enthusiastically in front of them from his classroom, causing the four boys to clutch their hearts out of shock. So much for being energy-drained earlier. Was he waiting for them to walk by so he could startle them?

"Guys! Do you guys wanna come with us to the PC cafe?" Won-jin gestured largely with his arms.

"Hey, what happened to studying after school?" Jung-mo said sarcastically.

"Screw that, I wanna play League of Legends," Won-jin laughed, suddenly pumped up once again. He started punching the air enthusiastically as if he had just eaten fifty Adderall.

Se-rim, Jung-mo, and Hyeong-jun all looked at Se-kwon as if he failed a huge mission. They looked at him with a disappointed expression and tired eyes. Operation 'Get Ham Won-jin to study' was a fail.

"Hey, don't look at me! He's so persistent," Se-kwon defended, "Also I don't care. They're not my grades, why do I need to worry so much about it."

"See! I have no faith in me, Se-kwon has no faith in me, let's just drop your faiths in me and go play games!" Won-jin pointed around. It didn't come off as strong of an argument as he thought it did.

Jung-mo stood there, hand stroking his chin, pretending to think, "Your defense has convinced me. I'm gonna play games instead of studying."

"Did we not say we would study?" Se-rim laughed at the boys. They did say they would study. But let's not pretend we've never said we'd study and end up doing something else instead.

"Please Se-rim~" Jung-mo clung to Se-rim's arm and pouted his lips.

Se-rim just started laughing at Jung-mo, "Yeah, yeah, I'll go."

"What about you two?" Won-jin gestured at Hyeong-jun and Tae-young.

"Ah... I don't really play games, but thanks for the offer!" Tae-young politely declined, "I have to go to the library to study anyway."

Tae-young wasn't going? Hyeong-jun quickly looked at him, and then looked at the other guys, "Y-yeah! Me too!"

They all looked at Hyeong-jun in disbelief. Won-jin even had his mouth open, his jaw dropped. Jung-mo proceeded to close his mouth by pressing his chin back up from the bottom.