ENTHRALL° s.th

022

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DAEGU
MORNING
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✧──────✦ jaehwa wakes up early and energetic. she should be touching up on her math skills before the exam, but she decides to iron her uniform. the ironing board is in the closet by the living room, so it isn't long before the rest of the household begins to wake up and crowd the area around her. she is actually so in touch with her feelings, that she doesn't even notice she's humming to the tune of a song she'd heard on the bus radio yesterday.

her grandma and mina wander into the area for breakfast and jaehwa and her pale white pajama set stick out like a sore thumb. still on the outs after their mother's visit, mina just ignores her despite the gnawing feeling of guilt creeping up inside of her.

"what's got you so happy this morning?" her grandma asks, walking past the ironing board.

jaehwa looks up and sets the iron upright to fluff her skirt and inspect her shirt, "i'm always like this?" she very much is not, but the content smile ghosting her face is enough to ward her grandmother away. obviously nothing is wrong, so she'll just leave it at that.

now back in her room, jaehwa carefully inspects her exam materials and packs extra in case taehoon had forgotten something. her backpack weighs heavy with everything (this might be the first day she's taking everything she actually needs for school). she decides to do her hair in quick twin braids so it would stay out of her face during the exam.

and when she stands in front of the full length mirror, jaehwa notices a newfound girlish charm about her. her eyes almost sparkle in the natural sunlight coming through the window and the corners of her lips are aren't permanently downturned like a few months ago. she starts to straighten her uniform up and goes to the closet to choose what shoes she wants to wear. naturally, she gravitates towards the sneakers that her and taehoon somehow had the same pair of.

out of the corner of her eye, the scar on her knee catches jaehwa's attention. she twists her leg to examine it. it's still pretty ugly, and she doubts the size of it will ever go down. but for the first time ever, it doesn't affect her. what happened, happened, and there's nothing she can do besides make the best of it. of course she's curious how her life could have played out had her knee still been perfectly intact, but it doesn't bug her. she figures this is what her one-time therapist had explained as emotionally healing.

with a backpack on her shoulders and lunch tote in hand, she heads toward the school with half an hour to spare. it's too early to be rush hour and the streets were calmer than she'd ever seen them. the morning dew hasn't evaporated quite yet in the heat, so the storefront flowers and the weeds poking through the sidewalk cracks are happy and quenched.

the classroom is already halfway filled with last-minute study cram sessions as expected. jaehwa puts her things away and tries to organize her desk for the last week of school (hopefully). she ends up finding a paper she was supposed to turn into the office a while ago and begrudgingly wanders towards the office.

after turning the paper in with a small amount of passive-aggressiveness from the old man in return, the bell is set to ring in a few minutes. jaehwa slides open the classroom door to find taehoon sitting in his spot. early and on time. she almost cant believe her eyes! she walks up to her desk, the one conveniently only about a foot away from him, and the skidding of her chair pulls his attention away from the window.

taehoon slowly turns to look at jaehwa, who is smiling eagerly at him. something tells him she's in a good mood. and all of a sudden, he's violently reminded of the conversation (intervention) he and the other guys had. now that he is aware of the situation and his... emotions... it's impossible to forget it. but he thinks she might be talking to him, given the way her mouth is moving, but nothing is comprehending and all he can pay attention to is the way the breeze through the open window ruffles the short hairs that didn't make it into the braids. his hands twitch at his side and his chest gets tight.

all it takes is her slowly fading smile at the lack of conversation, before he turns and closes the window. no more breeze. he's safe, for now. from jaehwa's point of view, he just stares at her until he suddenly slams the window closed.

"are you okay?"

before taehoon can even start to think of a natural answer, the teacher walks in and starts to pass the testing papers out. before focusing in on the exam, the two share a small glance before looking away. jaehwa feels the burning gaze of someone and first looks back at taehoon. they make eye contact and he quickly turns his head to face the paper, scribbling words to make it look like he's busy. jaehwa bites back a smile.

they take exam after exam, have a quick break for lunch, and finish up the last one before heading out together. the third-years are let out earlier than the others, so they're forced to be quiet until they get out of the gates. it's technically summer already since all of the hard stuff is done.

"so... what do you want to do over summer?" jaehwa asks, shifting her heavy backpack on her shoulders. there's a little pep in her step and every so often she turns to him and walks sideways or moves in front to switch what side of him she's on. she just can't keep still!

"i'll probably just sleep in and eat lots." taehoon replies tiredly, exhausted from the full-length school day.

jaehwa slows her pace in thought. she didn't really have anything in mind besides being with taehoon. there isn't a bone in her body that wants to just sleep in and eat.

"don't you wanna any spend time with me?" she questions, never one to hold back her words. the sun burns bright and jaehwa has to hold her hand over her eyes to shade them as she inadvertently pouts. "i might have to go back to seoul before the summer is over too, depending on when my parents get back."

oh. so this is the sheer distance that he found out he wanted to avoid last night. taehoon runs off of instinct, and this instinct tells him he's got to work fast before she's gone and finds a guy who's bigger and better than him (this instinct is also extremely dramatic). for someone as emotionally constipated at taehoon, the fact that he has made it this far, even if he needed a little push, is a total feat.

"let's go eat." he walks away after changing the subject completely, listening intently for her footsteps to make sure she's following him. jaehwa is used to his lack of response, and just follows him. before much time has passed, it's back to the usual bickering dynamic discussing where to eat. while she's distracted on her phone looking for new restaurants, taehoon grabs the handle of her bag and lifts it up. not enough for her to notice, but enough for her to relax.

✧──────✦ haiii :3 just a quick thanks for reading!! i know it's been disgustingggllyyyy long since i released and chapter, sorry... but thoughts? is it moving to fast all of a sudden or is portraying taehoon with the attitude of an immature brat okay.