Changed For Keeps

III: For The First Time

Morning practice is what most boys from the soccer team try to avoid and hate. A few of them even skipped it, but not Joongki and Kwangsoo. They are running around the field with the rest of their team. Kwangsoo is already out of breath, jogging beside Joongki. His hair is dripping with sweat. He feels like dying after three long laps, but despite that, he can still manage to talk to the person beside him. "This will be the death of me." he manage to say.

Joongki snorts and says, "It's only a jog, and besides, it's good for exercise."

"I don't need exercise." Kwangsoo hisses, saying the word 'exercise' like it's a curse. "I don't even gain weight easily."

"Why did you join the team then?"

"I like the sport, but not this. This sucks."

"Well my friend, you better get used to it."

When the practice ended, to change, the members headed to the sport's team change room where they own another lockerㅡdifferent from their regular lockers. Joongki and Kwangsoo's lockers are right next to each other. Obviously. After taking a shower, they are now standing in front of their lockers, beside each other, drying themselves. The boys strip their clothes off to change back to their regular uniforms. Joongki is combing his dark brown hair with his fingers while Kwangsoo is buttoning up his button down long sleeved shirt.

"I feel fresh again," Kwangsoo sings in a dramatic voice as if he hasn't taken a shower in ages.

Joongki just grins to his comment.

"Hey, what time is it?" Kwangsoo asks with his casual, chill tone. His question hits Joongki like a bullet. Something inside of him click with the word 'time'. There is nothing special about time, but to Joongki, the significance of time has a deep meaning to it. It reminds him of her. He knows how she is with time. When he think or hear anything that has to do with time, he can picture Jessica is his head with a watch wrapped around her thin wrist. And it's not just time that keeps him from thinking about her. It's everything. Joongki is constantly being reminded of Jessica's shadow, almost every single day for the past five years. Five years may seem like a short time but to Joongki, five years is like five decades. Even when she's not around, he is still being reminded of her. He still remembers what she likes. What she hates. Things that makes her laugh and cryㅡeverything. And everything that he sees, he hears, that reminds him of her, he just cannot not think about her. Jessica had been a part of his life. She was there, but not now. Not for the past five years. She is just a living memory now. That is the truth, but that's not what he believes and chooses to accept. He is still clinging to the hope that maybe, just maybe, one day they'll be able to return to where they left off.

"Okay... I'm guessing that you don't know what time it is." Kwangsoo says awkwardly as he puts on his blazer. His statement made Joongki blink back to reality. Kwangsoo walks beside him and rests his hand to Joongki's shoulder with wary. "Were you spacing out, man?"

Joongki blinks twice. "No. I was just too in to my hair." he lies. That made him sound vain. That's what his giraffe friend is thinking at this moment. He knows that Joongki doesn't care much about his hair. Girls find it attractive when he comes to school with bedhead. They squeal so loud to the point where Kwangsoo's ears are going to need a prescription hearing aid. He tried that trick too, however the same group of girls thought he was untidy and gross. One of the girls even whispered to the other, "Doesn't he not own a comb?" It was like that. And so the next day, he didn't dare to do it again.

"Okay." Kwangsoo shrugs.

Students are already halfway through the middle of the year and teachers have been preparing for finals already. The third years are in no doubt, stressed about finishing high school to graduate. Maintaining one's grades is essential to pass high school and it's not working out for one individual. Mr. Choe is Joongki's math teacher. While his pupils are silently solving equations on their given page alone, he decided to clear his throat. "Song Joongki." he called out with a monotone voice, just like how he sounds in class all the time.