dandelion by the road. | A BrightWin AU

3a.

- Many years ago, in high school -

"New, please gather at least 5 students to help you out for the classroom decorations. For the rest of you, please finish your worksheets by tomorrow, no excuses."

The bell rang, just as the teacher finished the last sentence. Everyone was ready to sprint out of the classroom, until New, the class representative, called for everyone to wait for a bit.

"I'm sorry to ask this but I'll need 5 of you to help me out for the upcoming school festival decorations, as announced earlier. Every classroom needs to have their decorations up by Thursday, which will be 2 days from now."

The class was dead silent. Nobody wanted to help, understandably. It was just too much work that nobody was interested in.

The look of disappointment on New's face began to grow with each passing second. In his mind, he was preparing himself to do everything alone - one way or another.

"I'll help."

New turned around to see where that heaven-sent voice came from. It was that shy boy called Win, who sat in the furthest corner of the classroom who hardly spoke to anyone. But never mind who it was; having someone volunteer was all he needed. New walked over to his desk and thanked him profusely, to which Win sheepishly pushed up his glasses and gave a slight nod.

Eventually, 4 other students agreed to help with lots of begging and promises of treats from the desperate class leader. Everyone agreed to stay on after school the next day to set everything up, and it seemed like everything was going well.

Until it wasn't.

New caught a cold that night, which meant that he couldn't come to school. When school was finished for the day, the team that was supposed to be here was nowhere to be seen.

Except Win.

Still sitting at his desk, he considered just leaving as well since nobody else seemed to care. But thinking about how much trouble New would probably get in with the teacher if the things were not done up by today, he heaved a big sigh and decided to do it on his own. The guilt was too much for him to bear to just walk away like this.

"Let's see. These ribbons were supposed to go up here..." He muttered to himself as he studied the sketch that New had sent to him. Thankfully, New had planned the placements beforehand, which meant that Win didn't have to spend even more time figuring out what items went where. There were various drawings, balloons, letters cut out from cardboard and ribbons he had to place in different parts of the classroom, which had been prepared some time back.

He decided to complete the ones within reach of his height first, since those were easier to do. He only had a few hours to get everything done before the school closes, so he had to work fast. Just as he was about to start, he got a text from New.

New: thank you, i'll be counting on you and the team.

"Team? The 'team' is just me, New." Win muttered to himself sadly.

"Come on, please stay there." He stared at a big ribbon that he was supposed to stick onto one of the walls that kept coming off no matter what he did. The tape that he found seemed to not stick very well to the wall surface, but he had no other option.

By this time, he had already put up about a quarter of the decorations, and had used up more than half the roll of tape just to get them to stay up. He was almost at his wits' end with the amount of frustration that was building up inside him.

"Phew, finally!" That ribbon was finally willing to stay put at its spot on the wall, after countless attempts.

But it seemed he had spoken too soon.

The sounds of tape peeling off the walls echoed around the classroom. One by one, the decorations that he had painstakingly put up before started falling off, again. He could only stand there as he watched his hard work go down the drain.

He sank to the floor, sitting there in defeat. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes, and he removed his glasses to wipe them away.

"Why are you sitting here?" A voice came from above his head.

Win lifted his head put his glasses back on to take a clearer look at who spoke to him.

It was Bright.

Win wasn't close to anyone in the class, much less Bright. He only knew him as the tall, tanned guy who was popular among many students in the school, despite not being loud or bubbly. He had a charisma that naturally attracted people to him.

"Have you been crying?" Bright asked gently, squatting down next to him to take a closer look.

That question just made Win's eyes well up with even more tears. "I'm...fine."

Bright looked around the classroom to see all the pretty decorations lying on the floor in a mess. It wasn't hard to guess what happened before he arrived. "Where are the rest of them? I thought there was supposed to be 5 of you."

"Well," Win rubbed his eyes, "one of them said they had an urgent matter and couldn't stay, one had to go for club activities, and the rest just, well..."

Bright made a soft grunt, feeling annoyed. He didn't say a word and stood up. "Come on, get up. We have a lot to do."