School Afternoons [HyungWonho]

Prologue

Hyungwon was ready.

Almost ready for everything.

Like, he was pretty sure he was ready for everything.

After unfortunately only four hours of proper sleep (because he was extremely nervous of the few days coming), he had gotten up and picked an outfit that wouldn't make him stand out more than he already would...

... packed his backpack with the supplies that he would find appropriate for his classes, and then packed his backpack with the extra supplies that he would find appropriate for his classes, just in case he miraculously lost a supply or two...

... skimmed over his Korean-to-English dictionary and practice book to review, all while using Google Translate to kind of help Hyungwon with the super tricky words and phrases...

... walked to the kitchen to get some leftover kimbap from the refrigerator, only to realize, while staring at the stove top's clock, that it was three o'clock.

Three o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the afternoon, sleep-deprived Hyungwon wasn't really sure for a few seconds.

But soon enough, he heard footsteps through the hallway from his parents' master bedroom, and eventually he saw his mom in the kitchen doorway. She had a perplexed face, and since a few seconds had passed by already, Hyungwon came to realize the awkward, stressed, nervous mess he looked like.

Hyungwon stumbled a bit away from the refrigerator, the plate of kimbap remaining in his hand. "Um..." He started to scratch the back of his head. "J-Jesong...hamnida, mama."

His mom put on a soft smile (Hyungwon had thought that she had giggled a little) and moved to him in soft, small steps. She reached where Hyungwon was standing, put her arms around him, and the warm and loving embrace that she gave him showed enough forgiveness from her to lower Hyungwon's high anxiety levels.

"Are you stressed about your new school, Hyungwon-a?" his mom said. Along with Hyungwon's ongoing preparation to speak English to American peers and elders, his mom and dad had helped by communicating in English. He had never thought he excelled past his parents' level of speaking English, but the whole family shared the strong Korean accent that passed through their spoken words. His mom's English always calmed his nerves though, coming from a soothing and familiar voice.

"N-no," Hyungwon stammered, "Well... maybe a little bit."

He was actually stressed a lot, but he assumed that his mom figured that out already.

"It will be fine, Hyungwon. There's a lot of Koreans to speak with in this area. Some might even be from Korea, just like you."

"Eomma... I know that..."

"Is there something else bothering you then, Hyungwon?"

"No, I'm okay," he replied, maybe a little too fast. It wasn't really the truth, but he didn't want to worry his mom... at three in the morning. "I just don't want to be late. On my first day, especially, I don't want to be late."

His mom let go of him slowly, and stretched a little bit. Hyungwon had thought the hug was a little uncomfortable for her, since he was tall enough to tower over his mom and reach the height of his dad.

"Dad and I will wake you up, remember?" His mom said, walking away from him and back toward her and Dad's bedroom. "Hyungwon-a, you'll do fine. You might be even smarter than all of the other kids in all of your classes, honey."

Hyungwon laughed to himself. His mom's true, competitive nature was finally showing, even this early in the morning.

"Okay, eomma. Annyeonghee joomooseyo," he added.

"Joheun achimieyo, Hyungwon-a." his mom replied, a little muffled from the distance between them.

"Oh. Yeah, that." Hyungwon replied back.

He sighed. Tomorrow was going to probably be the longest day of his life.

But he was going to sleep as soon as possible and wake up just the moment his parents called him...

His eyes moved down to the plate of kimbap in his hand.

...after he finished the plate of kimbap.

After all, he didn't want it to spoil.