𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐞 | 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐢

007.

just as the bell rings, sunoo hurriedly walks into the classroom, having to take abnormally long strides through the halls just to get there on time.

as he steps in, he's met with a young lady- maybe in her late twenties, who doesn't seem korean.

"sir, may i know why you're late to class on the first day of the new semester?" she says, her eyes stern, radiating a much more mature energy than what sunoo had expected based off her looks.

"it's my first day here, ma'am." sunoo calmly responds.

"kim sunoo, i do not tolerate students being late to my class. is that understood? next time this happens, you'll most likely be finding yourself serving detention." she sneers, eyes narrowing towards sunoo.

"yes ma'am." sunoo replies, nodding his head in agreement, a little surprised she could tell who he was already.

"find a free spot, it'll serve as your assigned seat for the rest of the year." she conveys, finally sitting down at her desk and proceeding to pull up her introduction presentation on the projector.

sunoo quickly scans the rest of the room, realizing there's only one free seat in the entire room.

and it's right next to nishimura riki- who seems to be hard at work with a math questionnaire.

how is he even in this class? isn't he thirteen? what the actual hell?

sunoo sighs before heaving the books in his arms towards the seat, sitting down next to the boy as he hears a few light snickers as he walks by.

riki chews on the eraser of the pencil in concentration as he works, writing down the answers rapidly.

sunoo snaps out of his trance over the younger when their teacher begins to speak, her presentation illuminating the room due to the projector.

"as some of you may recall, my name is ms. ngo. i'm originally from hanoi, but i've moved to korea due to this job opportunity at decelis. it's an honor to be here and teach such a prestigious subject that i love, and i hope that you all may find yourself loving this subject as much as i do." she says in a rather bored manner, as if she's rehearsed it for far too long.

"on every desk, i've placed a questionnaire for all of you to fill out. it should be basic knowledge from pre-calculus you all took last year, so i doubt you all should have any trouble. at the end of the period, return the sheets to me; i'll be grading them." she completes.

sunoo realizes the lengthy pack of papers on his desk, quickly getting out a writing utensil to complete them.

his mind is hit with an ounce of confusion as he skims through the problems, variables blurring together as he tries to comprehend them.

just as he raises a pencil to answer the first question, an identical pack of papers is slid on top of it swiftly.

it takes a few seconds for sunoo to realize nishimura riki's name scrawled in the top left corner of the questionnaire, realizing he gave his worksheet to the older to copy.

the older turns to look at him, but riki is turned away from him, probably spacing out.

as sunoo starts copying down some of the answers, he realizes a loose slip of paper at the bottom of the stapled questionnaire.

sunoo raises an eyebrow, holding the paper in his hand and reading the note on it.

i saw you looking at me in the bus, kim.

i believe it's best we leave it as if we never met each other.

it's better that way.

let go of your petty crush.

all i'll say regarding being late to the bus today is that...

money isn't the only way people can pay back debt.

there are far more ways. far more dangerous, too...but they're still damn well possible.

by the way, after you copy the answers, please return both of our packets to ms. ngo.

-NRK

sunoo can feel his fist curling in annoyance.

what the fuck is he talking about?

what debt?

sunoo answers the rest of the worksheets with riki's answers, taking the note the younger gave him and crumpling it up into a paper ball.

a girl in the desk in front of him looks back with a displeased look on her face, her chocolate colored eyes locating the crumpled ball in sunoo's hands.

"so you're the new kid, eh?" she asks, her voluminous orange hair running down the sides of her chair.

sunoo just nods his head in response, not in the mood to reply.

she sighs.

"i'm huh yunjin. i'm a senior here at decelis, as well as the student council vice president and a national level cellist. i'm from new york, but i moved to korea to learn here. nice to meet you." she says, holding out a hand for sunoo to shake.

he hesitantly grasps her hand back, whilst introducing himself as well.

"i'm kim sunoo. i'm a sophomore, and i moved here from suwon-si." sunoo replies, careful not to mention the orphanage.

"you look hella stressed. tell you what, meet me after school okay? i'll show you something nice." she smiles.

"oh, okay." sunoo responds, a little unsure how to react to that statement.

yunjin turns around as ms. ngo calls for all of the students to give her back the packets, most of the students getting up to hand them personally.

that is, all except nishimura riki, of course.

sunoo grunts and walks to ms. ngo and hands her both of their packets easily, collecting his books on his desk before the bell rings.

"before all of you exit, i have a homework sheet for you all to do as well. don't forget to pick one up as all of you leave the classroom." ms. ngo calls as the bell rings, the deafening noise radiating through the room.

sunoo grabs the paper and throws away the crumpled up piece of paper on his way out, already tired of this stupid day.

he starts walking to his next class, visibly pissed off.

there's too many questions in his mind right now.

what's with riki?

what does yunjin want to show me?

what did wonyoung's mother mean?

is everything real?

or

am

i

just

imagining

things...?

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*

..sunoo will slowly be going more and more insane as the chapters go on, he has a LOT of character changes throughout this story- and just remember we haven't even reached the fantasy aspect of this book... stay tuned, everyone >:)

ALSO Y'ALL I HAVE A VALENTINE THIS YEAR WTFFF 😭😭

actually it's more of a platonic valentine BUT STILL IUEDHUHSIUSHDUHEUDHSDSENJFNEJFN

anywayyy bye have a great week besties~!