Storm. || Zen/Hyun Ryu

[3]: you.

[a/n]: happy holidays!

"Wait, Zen is your partner? Hyun Ryu?" Willow interrogated, her voice curious and filled with excitement. Her bored expression from before faded into an enthusiastic one, while munching on her crackers.

I stared at her and nodded slowly. "And why is it such a big deal?" I gulped down my sandwich.

"He's like, really, really attractive." She answered, earning an eye roll from me. "Plus he's kind of a loner, so you being forced to talk with him is basically a good thing."

I shrugged, "I guess..?" I decided to keep the same topic going since I didn't really know what else to talk about. "Hey, speaking of him, he finally decided to come back to math after like, 5 missed classes."

Willow tilted her head, taking a sip of water. She didn't say anything so I decided to think about the guy for a moment when a question just popped into my head,

Was his attractiveness the only good quality about him?

I mean... He ditches class-- barely even tries in them either, he has a narcissistic and slightly annoying attitude, but all he gets is praise. I was the complete opposite; I'm average-looking but I put so much effort into my work, yet my teachers were the only one recognizing it. Was this what our world was coming to? A place where being good-looking is considered a talent?

Or am I just being too quick to judge? I barely knew him after all.

I snapped out of my thoughts and brought my gaze toward Willow, who was still eating her crackers. "Hey..." Willow finally said, her voice muffled since she was eating. "I'm surprised I haven't asked you this but... have you ever had a crush on someone? Like a huge fat one?"

"A huge fat crush?" I echoed for clarification, raising an eyebrow. Willow nodded in response, a smirk curling her thin lips. I pursed my lips before answering, "No..? I mean.... I've been attracted to many people, but I wouldn't really consider them a 'huge, fat crush'."

Willow rubbed her chin, pretending she had a beard (which indicates she was thinking). "Huh. That's interesting." She flashed a smile at me, her blue eyes brighter than usual. "Would it be weird if I told you I had a 'huge, fat crush' on a girl?"

I didn't mean to, but I screeched in excitement. Luckily, Willow was the only one who heard me. "Oh my god. I approve!" I squeal out.

Willow giggled, "Wow, I didn't expect you to be so excited about me turning out to be gay." After saying so, she wiggled her eyebrows. "Ooh do you have a girl crush on me?"

I raised my palm, placed it on my heart and sarcastically replied, "Hhh, how did you know?" I then rolled my eyes playfully at her.

We both laughed and gossiped, while we continued to eat lunch together.

* * *

A few boring classes later, I find myself at gym class with Willow talking about Miss Arthur's weird hairline in the locker rooms. I don't know why, but Willow manages to easily come up with the most ridiculous and pointless topics to talk about. I didn't know whether to praise her for that or not. She was definitely a good conversationalist, though.

We were playing soccer for gym, which required us to go outside and run to the field.

God, I hated outdoor sports.

We would be forced to be outside in the heat and suffer. Plus, to add the pain, no matter how sweaty and gross you were you would be forced to run back into your lockers just to make yourself even more dehydrated. It's a blast!

I ran in my baggy gym clothes to the field, noticing a familiar figure out in the distance. I could tell it was a guy, and his back was pressed against the brick walls of our school--

"Boo!" Willow's voice shouted into my ear, making me jump. I huffed and gave her a playful shove, still running.

"Was that necessary?" I inquired between pants.

She giggled, "Of course it was." I groan and run past her, only to have her try to catch up. "No, wait up!" She called out, panting as well.

I was looking at the silhouette again, my eyes squinting. Why does it look so familiar?

Willow eventually caught up with me, but I didn't notice since I was too busy looking at the figure. Why was I so intrigued in the first place? Her blue eyes traveled to the direction where I was gazing, noticing the figure as well.

She tilted her head slightly, "Huh.... I think someone's ditching class to smoke a cigarette." I didn't answer, and just kept staring.

Our health teachers warned students multiple times about the dangers of smoking, but in the distance was one of them smoking. How ironic.