{NINE.i}
{pt.7 of Highschool Lovers}
Knowing nothing about who he is except for what he doesn't like, Jaehyun slowly finds his way back to himself again.
Contains:
- found family
- identity crisis
- self-discovery
Formal info:
- 4 chapters
- final...
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A month and almost two weeks later, it's the end of December. Jaehyun is sitting in the library, the usual spot on the second floor. Two school days left until christmas break. He's writing a math exam tomorrow, the last one before the big finals at the end of February. It should be a crime they let schools do that just before holidays, so he protests against the system by spending his precious free time doing anything else but prepare.
His phone screen lights up with a message from Jungwoo. A thumbs up as a reply to the promise to join forces and make sure Jaewon goes to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight instead of panicking. The only reason Jaewon left about twenty minutes ago in the first place is because Jaehyun begged him to.
He leans back on his chair. Taps the end of his pen against the pages of the notebook opened in front of him.
The library is almost empty today. That seems to happen every time a holiday is approaching, the people all too busy with last-minute shopping and organizing family gatherings nobody really wants to attend. Jaehyun doesn't really mind the silence when it comes from actual lack of people instead of the mutual agreement to keep their mouths shut. But that also means that he doesn't have much to do right now.
He has taken Jewon's words into consideration. He is bad at writing discussions, compositions and other interpretative essays, with that he agrees, but he has never given creative writing a shot because they don't want you to do that in higher grades anymore. So he's starting again from scratch by scribbling down his observations about various people he sees in the library or throughout the day. Building images of their lives out of words. Wondering and wandering after them with his mind after they have long left his sight.
Day 08
It took her over an hour to braid her long, black hair into these gym ropes that fall down from her head and over her back like she's offering them to particularly bored invisible goblins to climb. She prides herself on this skill and never allows anyone else to touch her hair.
Day 25
He elbows his friend into his side for some dirty joke about his non-existent girlfriend. This is going to be a running gag for the next century, minimum. He will beg for him to shut it when they play Mario Kart together, when they are hunched over a group project, when they are walking home after a night out, drunk and delirious in their shared giggles over the immensely important topic of whether snails with shells deserve to apply for quality home insurance more than the average American citizen.
Day 29
This group of college students are clearly not prepared enough for their exam. There is only so many times they can reassure themselves that they've pulled it off with less hours of studying before. At some point, they're going to need to beat their record of zero and invent time travel. Would they still need to pass that exam if they receive the Nobel prize instead? In this planet's modern education system, the answer is probably yes.
