scholarship | p1harmony

chapter two

_

"thank you."

you look up from where you are kneeling, and you see that the boy is avoiding your eye contact.

"no problem." you reply kindly before lowering your head back to his knees, which you are busy plastering and bandaging. maybe being stuck in the nurse's office often did pay off eventually.

you stick one last plaster over a small cut and stand yourself up. "make sure you still go to the hospital to check if anything's broken." you say sternly, and the boy nods at your tone.

luckily he wasn't too badly injured, there was only a few cuts and bruises—with the worst being a green-looking mark on the boy's thigh—so you doubt that he would have anything badly damaging.

"what's your name?"

you look at the boy again—this time he's giving you his full attention. "y/n. what about yours?" you ask, even though you can clearly see it on his nametag.

he hesitates slightly before answering: "lucas."

you nod. "and your age?"

"eighteen. what about you?"

turns out there's a bit of an age gap between you both. "...sixteen."

it suddenly goes deadly quiet and you awkwardly shuffle your feet.

"so... do you know why those bullies were ganging up on you?"

a dark expression immediately floods lucas' face, as if you'd just asked him if someone had died.

it goes silent between you, and as soon as you are about to say that it doesn't matter if he can't tell you, the weirdest answer leaves his lips.

"H6."

"huh?" you wonder if he'd just blurted out the first thing that entered his mind. "it doesn't matter if you feel uncomfortable telling me—"

"haven't you heard of them? harmony six?"

he looks genuinely confused that you don't know what he's talking about.

"no... what is it? a boy band or somethi—"

lucas starts laughing at your confused look. "i wish."

you half-smile at the boy's answer, not really knowing what he meant. digging into your pocket, you take out your phone has been vibrating like crazy since you got away from the bullies. as you look at your lockscreen, the large numbers at the top almost make your heart jump out of your chest.

"oh my god! the delivery! i totally forgot!" you panic suddenly, making lucas stare at you like you're crazy.

you quickly shake your head. "i was supposed to deliver food to someone at acadia! that's why i was taking the shortcut through the alleyway—"

lucas stands up from the bench. "i'll do it for you. i have to go back to that hell anyway."

"hell? what hell?" you send an outraged look at the older boy.

if having personal chefs, guaranteed future jobs and more money than you'll ever dream of is hell... where do you sign up?

"i'm telling you, y/n. it's absolute hell."

you blink at his sudden harsh tone, but you change the subject back to your delivery.

"anyway, you can't deliver the food for me...! it'll ruin my reputation and i won't get any tips either..."