Reasons to Stay // Hyunin

~2~

Jeongin was out of breath as he arrived at Lee Brights Elementary. It was a big international school from K to 6th grade. Children from other schools also spent their afternoons here because of its good program and atmosphere.

Jeongin checked the time. He was six minutes late. He hurried to the front lobby where an old classmate, Seo Changbin, was sitting at the front desk. "Hi Changbin-hyung, sorry I'm late..." Jeongin took out his ID to check in.

"Nah, I've got you," Changbin answered. "I'm gonna be late too, because my mom's late and I have to stay here until she arrives."

Changbin was one of Jeongin's few friends who had graduated the previous year. He attended a good college in the local area because he had wanted to stay close to his parents. Then he worked some afternoons at Lee Brights because his mom did and she wanted him to have fun and experience with kids for apparent reasons. Even though he'd probably spend his time somewhere else, he was a big mama's boy and he liked to make her happy. So he found himself here.

Jeongin usually stayed with the younger kids, second grade and down, while Changbin led groups of older fifth and sixth graders, because the little ones thought he was scary while the older ones found him fun to tease and enjoyed his company.

Jeongin would go directly to the gym as he was already late, but his leg was really killing him as it was super painful so he went to the restroom and took off his pants to see his thigh. Yup, it had burst open and ew, his pants were probably dirty. He couldn't tell because they were dark-coloured. Jeongin grabbed a small towel that was in his backpack and wrapped it around his leg because there was no time to do a full treatment. He struggled to tie it then quickly slipped his pants back on. There were a lot of kids on Fridays and he was way too late.

He came out of the restroom and there was no one around, they were already all in the gym, so he ran down the hallway and slowed as he entered the gym doors. He thought Uh oh as he already saw the lead guy of this group huff in his direction. "Yang Jeongin, you are twelve minutes and 40 seconds late. We have a lot of kids today!"

"Yes sir I'm sorry–"

"Just go over there," he shooed to the direction of a group of younger kids, "you're with the red group today." and he hurriedly patted Jeongin's shoulder twice before hustling off to some other group of youngsters.

Jeongin quickly jogged over to the Red Group, they were a bunch of kindergarteners. Some spotted him right away: "Foxy's here!"

"No, you have to call him Innie-hyung."

"No, Foxy!"

"Innie-hyung!"

"He said I could call him 'Foxy'!"

Jeongin laughed as he came over, bent down to their height level, and smiled, "Ah, either is fine. See, I am Foxy," and he squinted his eyes like a little fox, "or I am Innie-hyung." he said, pointing to his ID. "I am both."

"Innie-hyung!" a little girl's voice shouted in excitement and she ran over and barreled into Jeongin and hugged him tight.

Jeongin smiled sweetly and hugged her back. "Aera, how are you? That's a pretty dress your wearing."

Little Aera cuddled in Jeongin's arms and whispered, "Innie-hyung, you're here."

Jeongin laughed and patted her, "Yes I am. I was a little late, wasn't I?"

Seeing Aera getting a free hug from their favorite Jeongin-hyung, the other kids clambered around and jumped on his back, his side, tugged at his arms--

The little girl Aera smushed her face into his hoodie. "I thought you were dead because you wouldn't come so I was very sad." She showed her face to Jeongin again. "See?" she said, pointing at an eye. "I was almost crying."

"Aw, all right...well, I'm here," Jeongin assured her and put Aera down, slowly standing up, stroking her head.

You stay because there are people who want you to stay, people who look forward to seeing you, people who care and worry when you're not there...

- - - -

DING!

The elevator door of the engineering building at university opened and classy Hyunjin walked into it. He pressed the button for floor 8 and calmly waited. It opened on the desired floor and he walked out, down the hallway, to Room 143. The door was unlocked so he opened it and walked inside. There were two casual looking college students hunched over a robotics project, trying to stretch rubber bands onto spoke wheels.

"Han~"

The boy with a grey hoodie jumped at the sound of his name being called and jerked his head to see who it was. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of his friend and put his hand to his heart. "Hyunjinnie, you really scared me there, I thought it was—"

"Hey don't be too loud," Hyunjin interrupted and chuckled, peering over to see what the two were working on. He tilted back and laughed, "That's a robot?!"

"I- uh- shush!" Han snapped. "It's not and don't ask. You know it's not supposed to be and stop laughing. I didn't even want to come here, I had to because of your mission, and boy will "Posh" Eun be happy when he realises all you've been doing is walking around on campus like an actual student!"

"Woah stop attacking me," Hyunjin retorted and nonchalantly leaned back on a table, "I already completed my mission."

Han whipped his head back around. "Wait what-? You're lying!"

Hyunjin came back forward with a look of indignation. "No I'm not! I have his name and which school he goes to, and"—he pulled out a laptop from his bag—"I'm about to find out his address."

"No way," Han breathed and craned his neck to see Hyunjin's screen. In less than a minute, Hyunjin had pulled up Jeongin's school photo and social media. "Hm...325 Lonely St..." he mumbled as he dug into Jeongin's personal info.

"So now what're you gonna do next?" Han asked nervously. "...hack into the school website and register yourself as a student...?"

"Wow, you're so smart," Hyunjin remarked. "You think I'd pass as one?"

Han said, "I hope so."

Actually, I hope not.