School Afternoons [HyungWonho]

Chapter 1 - Chemistry

Hyungwon was late.

Well, not actually late, but it was close enough to actually being late.

Everything had been perfectly fine before! He had gone to sleep after eating that leftover plate of kimbap, slept for another four hours, woke up at a reasonable time...

...then realizing it wasn't a reasonable time to wake up at all when he saw that his alarm said seven forty-five.

School started at eight fifteen.

It took about thirty minutes to walk to school.

Assuming there wasn't any bad traffic or car accidents or anything remotely stressful, it took about thirty minutes to go to school.

So there he was, Hyungwon Chae, seemingly running for his life on the sidewalks as fast as his long, long legs could carry him. Granted he knew where to go; he had walked over a few times to try and memorize the path and also printed the map and directions beforehand. The only obstacle that could get in his way of knowing where to go is either a) people go out of their way to give him wrong directions or b) Hyungwon gets his by a runaway bus and develops amnesia.

The latter actually seemed more possible than the former, however, because wherever Hyungwon looked, there were too many cars. Too many.

Too many to clog the traffic, too many to get into accidents, and too many to hit Hyungwon and make him develop amnesia.

He stopped at the nearest pedestrian crossing to give his legs and lungs a breather. Pressing the button to inform the light about someone crossing the street, Hyungwon looked at his directions sheet and checked the time. It was eight four, and he only has to go on one more straight, long sidewalk to get to the building. Then, he would have to go through the front door, go upstairs, find the 2500 hallway, and find Mrs. Gold's classroom.

He glimpsed at the traffic light beside him and saw that cars were slowing down, and that his slim chance to sprint to school on time would soon come. And when the walking signal blinked to life in front of Hyungwon, that's when he ran.

He wasn't running as fast as he was at the beginning, but eventually he saw the school's silhouette getting bigger and bigger. Hyungwon felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead and in that moment he hoped that no one in his first period would notice how nervous and tired he would be.

He finally reached the sidewalk on the school's property, and Hyungwon silently gulped at the sight of no one there. But he didn't let his anxiety get the best of him this time, so he decided to hold his arms out in front of him and try to run through the front doors. He quickly realized however that these doors were supposed to be pulled instead of pushed, whilst colliding with the doors a bit before grabbing the handles and properly opening them.

He ran up the nearest and biggest staircase he saw, slowing down a bit in the middle of the stairs to catch his breath. A few feet in front of him stood a boy his age, a student, holding one of the straps of his backpack on his shoulder and walking a little too slowly for Hyungwon's current situation.

Hyungwon moved to the right of the student (whose red hair was bright enough to catch his eye a bit), and successfully managed to quickly climb up the stairs and proceed to find his first period classroom.

He heard the student previously in front of him yell something on the lines of "Hurry on up there!" and "You can do it, buddy!" while cackling a lot in between and after uttering those words of support to Hyungwon. He felt comforted by the encouragement, smiled a bit, and tried to wave his hand to show that he acknowledged the red-haired student, but Hyungwon was also about fifty percent sure he didn't see it.