Written in Code | FRACTIONS • Seungmin #1

The Beginning

Monday, September 25th 2017
7:45 AM

The sounds of many voices carried through the halls of the quickly overflowing school. Some mentions of new hair routines or a possible relationship, maybe even failing a subject being filtered through the mind of one young lady making her way through. She pushed her glasses back up her nose while glancing around the separate groups of students, but avoided eye contact with any individual. Re-adjusting her multicoloured bag that began slipping from her shoulder, she made her way out into the central garden that frequently reminded her of something out of a book. It was quite luscious, bushes with random flowers littered the place making it feel calming; a good place to go for a picnic or to read a book in nature. The grass was split into the four corners with a stone walkway in the separating them all from each other, directly in the middle was a small fountain accompanied by a few long chairs.

Pulling her left wrist up, she checked the time before looking around slowly, and when she noticed nothing out of the ordinary she walked over to a large rock on the far right corner from when she walked out. Leaning down, she patted around the back of it looking for something, before she eventually felt the familiar paper make contact with her fingers. It had been covered in a little dirt, but not enough to become an inconvenience. She swiped away the few sprinkles and pulled her bag around to place it in the front zipper, 'I'll open it later, it'd be too obvious right now'. She once again looked around before standing up, walking back the way she came.

She'd been out in the garden for less than a minute, and yet the amount of students lining the halls seemed to have multiplied significantly. Her chest tightened while shimmying her way through the parade of kids, almost tripping once or twice before finally reaching her locker. She turned away from the crowd, attempting to calm her heart rate while switching out the books she needed for that day. A colourful sheet of paper stuck to her locker door, a table of sorts each with a different colour and subject for the boxes. She mumbled to herself while grabbing what she needed based off the timetable, before finally closing it again.

Remaining still, she watched people walk past her or talk with each other, wondering what they were doing. What their plans would be for the day, what their friendships were like, if they even liked their friends. It was fascinating for her to see groups click and fade over the years, wondering how it was in first place. But as the students started to filter out, getting to class or moving on to find their friends, one person in particular grabbed her attention. He stood at the opposite side of the hall, about 6 lockers down, with a few friends surrounding him. She recognised the lanky boy on his right to be his youngest friend, Jeongin.

He was quite tall and seemed to prefer wearing autumn colours, 'I don't think I've ever seen him without that sweater on'. His navy jeans and black sneakers mixed well with the dark brown sweater, the face of a teddy bear smiling feeling quite inviting. The wide smile on his face at his friends' joke was so precious she couldn't help but smile a little too. Her eyebrows furrowed at the same time as her smile dropped before shaking her head slightly and turning the other direction.

With a little sigh, she made her way up the first set of stairs in front of her, taking two at a time. Thankfully, as she walked bell hadn't rang yet but she knew it would soon and started to pick up the pace. She knew where she was going, this wasn't her first day, but she still attempted to side step as many students as possible to reach her class quickly. Just as she walked through the blue door, the dreaded sound of the bell went off and more students started to rush in while she went to her desk for roll call.

8:30 AM

She was one of the first back out the door at the sound of the second bell, her seat being directly next to it. Shuffling along the hall to get to her next class, she kept her eyes directly on her feet. Only looking up to make sure she was headed the right way until she came across a familiar red door and walked through. The tables were tall and wooden, reminiscent of the Science labs but less formal. And the chairs had backs and cushions, making them far more comfortable than they're counterparts too. No one was assigned a chair here, except for when they were tested or paired up with someone else. Even without a seating rule, people always seemed to be pulled towards the place they chose on the first day; a form of familiar comfort one could assume. And the girl took her seat by the farthest back table in the middle of the room, accompanied only by her bags of secrets. And books.