That bench by the pool (Daerin)

10th Grade

3 months after they met:

It was already past 7:50 in the morning and Haerin would surely turn up late for school. Definitely not the best thing to happen considering it was the first day of 10th grade. As she entered the gates the second bell could be heard. No no no, she thought. As she hurried inside, her eyes scanned the hallway. Loud chatter could be heard from inside the classrooms. If she had remembered correctly her class was supposed to meet in H4. She hurried the halls frantically making turns until the room appeared before her. It seemed quiet inside. Like no one was there. Her hand reached for the door and cracked it open slightly. The chairs were empty, only one figure could be seen. Their expression quite confused. Her eyes were averted to the door and Haerin recognised Dani from the ceremony last year.

"Oh! Hey, you're the weird girl from the ceremony right?"

"Yeah that's me, weird girl..."

"Oh, sorry...Haerin!, right?", Danielle chuckled.

"Yeah, and you're Danielle?"

"Yep, thats me"

"Anyway, What are you doing in an empty classroom, where is everyone?"

"Hmm...I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out..." Danielle seemed confused.

Haerin couldn't help but let out a laugh. So clueless, she thought. Kind of cute...wait no!! What am I even thinking!? Friends don't call each other that...Ugh what am I doing, she thought.

"Well this clearly isn't the right classroom...you're in 10C right?", Haerin blurted out, unsure of another way to redirect the topic currently on her mind.

"Yeah, that's right...but where is our class the-"

Without thinking Haerin grabbed hold of Danielle's wrist and hurried out of the classroom.

"Come on! We...uh...don't have time to be standing around like this, lets go ask the office"

"Uh, sure"

By the time they had reached the correct room, half an hour of the class had already taken place without them.

They stopped in front of the sliding door almost breathless from running around the school. Still clasping tightly onto dannielle's hand, Haerin slowly pushed the door to the side and after a short scolding from the teacher they scanned the room for empty seats. The second backrow held 3 vacant seats and Haerin led Danielle to one of them, taking a seat next to hers.

"..."

"Uh...would you mind letting go of my hand?"

The wrist hold had turned into a hand hold after all the hustle that morning.

"Oh! Yeah sure...um...sorry about that..."

Haerins voice got quieter towards the end of her statement. She hadn't even noticed. It felt sort of natural to her. But why? Haerin had always been the quieter sort. Never to get involved if possible. She didn't really hang around people anymore and although her classmates had tried to speak with her in the past, she kept the friendship at more of a distance. Would this be different?, she thought. Haerin glanced over to Danielle. And if yes, then how so?