[EN] HIM (HyunChan)

I.

Christopher woke up at 6:30 a.m. as per usual. One hour was just enough for him to wash up, get dressed, eat breakfast and go to school, which was a quarter of an hour's walk from his house. Sure, he could have sped up his trip on his motorcycle, it would have cut it down to barely five minutes, but he preferred the walk. It always helped him clear his head in the morning, and he needed that now more than ever.

He put on his headphones and walked out into the cold January morning. He turned his gaze to the grey sky when a sad song started playing. Did his music player really need to remind him too that his last relationship hadn't ended happily? It may have been almost six months, but the wound his ex-girlfriend had left in him was still palpable. He skipped the song and let out a sigh of relief.

He could hear the laughter of his friends from afar. He turned off the music, hid his headphones and joined them in a circle a few meters outside the entrance to the conservatory of arts. "Hi. How are you?"

"Good morning," Seungmin beamed at him, revealing fresh braces. "The holidays were a little short, but otherwise good. Did I tell you that my friend will be coming here from today?"

Christopher thought about it. "Yeah, I think you said something like that. So he did pass the entrance exams?"

"Yeah, Seungmin's been blabbing about it the whole time we've been standing here," Minho laughed. "He says he'll probably have some classes with me."

"Wait, you're a year below me, and I'm graduating this year," Christopher widened his eyes at him.

"He's just that talented," the boy with braces said with a wide smile.

"I don't have a problem with it, it just puzzles me," Minho grumbled.

"You are not alone," nodded the eldest.

Seungmin looked at his watch. "He should be here any minute. I promised to walk him to class."

No sooner had he finished than Christopher noticed a rather tall boy with shoulder length hair looking around wildly. He looked quite desperate. He nudged his youngest friend with his elbow. "Hey, isn't that him?"

"Who...? Oh, yeah! Hyunjin, here!" The freshman called out, waving wildly to get his friend's attention.

Almost immediately the person addressed turned his head towards him, and you could see the relief on his face. With a few long strides he reached them. "Hello, good morning. Glad to see you."

"Same here. Hyunjin, this is Chris, he's a senior in music, and this is Minho, you'll be taking some dance lessons with him. If you need anything, you can ask any of them."

Hyunjin nodded in their direction and smiled broadly. "Hi."

Christopher returned the smile and greeting, as did Minho.

"Do you want to go to class?" Seungmin turned to him.

"What time is it anyway?" hummed the tallest of the group, looking at the watch on his wrist.

"Ten to eight," came the voice of Minho, who was currently holding the phone.

Hyunjin nodded and tucked a strand of dark hair behind his ear. "Then we can go slowly, if that's okay?"

Seungmin shook his head. "Of course, come on."

Having said that, he grabbed his friend's wrist and almost dragged him into the building, which was accompanied by Hyunjin's laughter.

"I think we'll go with them," Christopher turned to Minho. The boy nodded in agreement.

"How are you doing?" He asked with a concerned expression.

The elder sighed heavily. "What can I say? It sucks. It still hurts."

"Man, you cannot let this absolutely destroy you," the younger man sighed, patting him on the back.

"I'm trying, Minho, but when what you think is gossip suddenly comes out as truth, and the truth is even worse than the gossip, it sucks."

Minho nodded and grabbed his shoulder. "I get it. But like I told you six months ago, she's not worth it."

Christopher smiled gratefully and patted his shoulder.

***

Before lunch they met in the usual place; under a tacky painting downstairs that the art teacher considered to be modern art. What has the world come to.

By the time Christopher descended from the fifth floor of the building, Hyunjin and Seungmin were waiting for him. He mentally cursed the students who had the privilege of having a classroom near the ground floor, and with a few quick steps, he joined them.

"Hey. Where's Minho?"

"He stayed in the dressing room, we had a dance lesson," Hyunjin explained. "He should be here any minute."

The eldest nodded and shifted his gaze to finally get a good look at Seungmin's friend. Dark almond-shaped eyes peered at him from beneath groomed brows. There was a beauty mark under his left one. He hadn't noticed it in the morning gloom... The skin on his full lips was slightly chapped from the cold. What he hadn't noticed initially either, mostly because of the coat he had worn outside, was that he was perhaps a little too thin, but he wasn't going to point that out.

"How do you like it here so far?" He asked instead.

Hyunjin shrugged. "It's too early to tell if I like it here or not, but so far everything is fine. I'm just glad to have someone I know here."

"How long have you known each other?"

"It's been almost five years," Seungmin mused. "I was the new kid in town and at school then."

The tall boy nodded in agreement and smiled slightly.

"I'm here! I'm sorry, have you been waiting long?" Minho said breathlessly as he came rushing in from the downstairs where the gym was.

"We've almost put down roots here," Seungmin stated. Hyunjin visibly tried to hold back his laughter.

Minho rolled his eyes. "Shall we go? I'm starving."

It didn't take long before they were sitting together with trays in front of them with a balanced ration of meat, vegetables and rice. The cafeteria manager was so nice to treat them a strawberry milk in a carton as a sweet snack.

Christopher couldn't help but notice the speed at which Hyunjin was shovelling food into his mouth, but when he noticed him watching, he immediately stopped eating. Was it his imagination or did his eyes start to glisten a little more?

"Sorry, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast," the long-haired boy smiled sheepishly and quickly blinked a few times.

"It's okay, don't worry," Christopher assured him with the sweetest smile he could muster.

The corners of Hyunjin's mouth twitched in a small, slightly sad smile, and he continued eating, but at a noticeably slower pace than before.