ATEEZ l The story of a friendship #1

-4-

12:05 am

The boys continued eating, some talking, some on their phone or in Yeosang's case staring out the window while Yunho and Jongho had volunteered to go toss out everybody's trash and bring the platers back to the cafeteria. 

After a while, Mingi had made yet another move to start talking to Hongjoong once again which seemed to be working since the brunette was laughing while making weird gestures with his hands, the others were sitting at their desk and on their phone.. 

Jongho and Yunho came back from the cafeteria after throwing away everybody's trash at the same instant as a loud thunder was heard and the room turned pitch black. 

For the first seconds no one spoke, until Wooyoung broke the silence.

"Power outage? Really?" He whined.

"So, um what now?" A few phone flashes were turned on.

"What do we do?"

"We should go look in the storage room if they have candles or light or something" Yunho said.

"We should also go find Mr. Lee"

"Let's split into three groups, one finds light, the seconds goes to find the teacher and the other takes a walk around the school to see if everything is okay" Seonghwa deciced.

"I'll go to the storage room, who wants to come with?" Yunho asked.

"I'll come" 

"Me too" Hongjoong added making Mingi smile.

"I'll look for Mr. Lee" Jongho declared.

"Can I come?" Wooyoung asked.

"Um, sure"

"Okay well that leaves San, Yeosang and I to go take a look around the school" Everyone nodded getting up before exiting the room. 

Mingi jokingly wished everyone good luck before following the other two boys, he had never been to the storage room but Yunho seemed to know where he was going. The trio walked for about fifteen minutes, going down a lot of stairs before finally standing in front of a red door. Yunho twisted the knob and the door opened.

"Wait, it's not even locked??" Hongjoong exclaimed.

"Guess not, come on"

"Be careful guys" The brunette said as they entered the room.

Hongjoong started rummaging through some boxes, Mingi and Yunho being the tallest were both inspecting the high shelves and cupboards in the room. 

Yunho was tiptoeing and hanging on a shelf trying to bring forward a box and hadn't noticed how it was shaking, threatening to collapse. In a desperate attempt to grab the box, the brunette laid his weight on the shelf, a loud crack was heard as the metal surface broke and fell down, its content falling straight onto the small brunette who was standing right under it.

"Watch out!" A scream was heard, Hongjoong opened his eyes wide before curling up in a weak attempt to protect himself.

 A loud ruckus was heard in the dark room but the small boy didn't feel anything, he opened his eyes and came face to face with a black shirt and a leather jacket. Mingi was standing over him with his arms wrapped around his figure, his back had received the full blow from the boxes that had fallen as well as the metal structure.

"M-Mingi?"

"Are you okay?" The brunette asked as he looked down at Hongjoong.

"I'm fine, thanks to you. Are you okay??"

"I'm good, don't worry"

"Is anyone hurt?" Yunho asked as both boys shook their heads. "I'm sorry about that"

The three boys were breathing loudly and shaking after the even and even though it took them some time to put everything back in order, Hongjoong eventually found some candles making the trio cheer and leave the room.

++++

Jongho and Wooyoung had been walking next to each other in silence for only a few minutes but Wooyoung couldn't stand the awkward tension. He had asked to join so he could apologize to the younger, but he was incredibly intimidated by the boy. 

Looking around he tried to find something to talk about, but nothing came to mind, they were now approaching the teacher's office and the ravenette decided he'd apologize later. Jongho knocked on the door but no one answered, after some time the boys decided to enter anyway.

 Looking around the room was empty, the cup of coffee was there as well as the files and computer and Mr. Lee's bag but not Mr. Lee himself.

"Where did he go?"

"No idea, maybe the others will run into him. Come on let's get back" Wooyoung nodded his head and followed him out of the room.

"So Jongho, I actually wanted to apologize for talking to you like that. I treated you bad and for no reason, but I want you to know I'm not a bad guy, I'm not a fighter or anything and I don't think you're a nerd either" Wooyoung looked at his feet and didn't see the brunette smile.

"It's okay Wooyoung, I was out of line. You're my elder and I shouldn't talk to you like that. Besides I'm no one to tell you what to do in detention"

"But you were right, even Seonghwa, the nicest guy in school got mad and yelled at me" The ravenette seemed hurt to have been yelled at by so many people today and Jongho smiled again.

"Still, we shouldn't be yelling at you for spending a nice time with a friend"

"San's not really a friend, I just met him"

"Well at least you're making the best out of this detention" Wooyoung laughed and nodded his head.

"Guess I am"

++++

The trio Seonghwa, Yeosang and San had already walked around most of the school and were now heading towards the front door to try and take a look outside. 

The rain was still pouring, the sky was completely blocked by big grey clouds, San and Seonghwa were talking and laughing in the front while Yeosang dragged his feet behind. Seonghwa had tried to make him join the conversation a few times but the boy had stayed quiet.

 Of course he was listening to the conversation, smiling and laughing at what the others were saying but didn't take part which bothered Seonghwa who didn't understand his behavior. The boys approached the door and San went to push on the handle but it didn't move.

"It's locked" He said.

"Locked?" Seonghwa went to see, in deed it was locked.

"Maybe it has an automatic lock for when the light goes out"

"Well that's stupid" The blonde looked around but there was no way to open the door or leave the school.

"Looks like we're stuck here, come on let's head back" The other boys sighed but had to agree with Seonghwa and so the three students walked back to the room in a quiet silence.