School Afternoons [HyungWonho]

Chapter 2 - Inside Jokes

Hyungwon felt better after the lesson had actually started.

He was surprised that he felt better staying in the class than leaving the class after the instant rush of panic and pain that was his morning.

When class started, the teacher must have realized how emotionally overwhelmed Hyungwon was, so she was nice enough not to attract anymore attention than needed, which Hyungwon greatly appreciated. And today wasn't stressful in the case of the school work itself.

Priya told him that at the beginning of a unit, which they were at now, they would get a packet to work on to get a brief introduction of the unit. The day afterwards would be when Mrs. Gold gives a more in-depth, but still brief, introductory lesson to clear up any questions or confusion from the packet. The whole purpose of this method, Hyungwon thought, is that it would help students develop the sense of learning how to solve problems or answer questions by themselves, and Hyungwon could wrap his mind around that idea of how it would add more challenge to the class.

But since Hyungwon enrolled later into the year, he hadn't gotten the chance to go over the basics of chemistry from the first unit to be able to accurately and correctly get through the packet from the second unit. Not to mention that the packet had a bit of reading to get through, which Hyungwon could read decently, but all of the English chemistry terms in the packet made his overall reading experience in America seemingly more terrible.

Jooheon had offered some help though, which Hyungwon appreciated. He soon realized, though, that Jooheon, though generous, could be a little too loud and distracting for the general public. Hyungwon had looked over at his lab partner a few times, seeing how she seemed to shrink a little bit every time Jooheon shouted "Jooheon" when he and/or the group figured out an answer to a question, which was fairly often.

Even Jooheon's partner seemed a little irritated if he shouted "Jooheon" a little louder than appropriate in a 30-student classroom.

Regardless, all four of them finished and turned in the packet with a few minutes left to spare, and Hyungwon did get useful information with the other three in the group helping him with the laws and formulas. Jooheon had even went out of his way to translate most of the English chemistry terms into Korean when he could and showed Hyungwon some easy ways, along with the rest of the group, to remember the terms.

Hyungwon ended up being a little flattered and flustered at Jooheon's specific method of help. Although Jooheon helped immensely, him communicating with Hyungwon one-on-one like that felt too familiar and personal for people that just met about an hour ago. However, he realized he was in America now. Other Koreans are one of the keys to actually communicate normally without the stress of stumbling on his words or saying something he didn't know the meaning of. Hyungwon had decided overall that it was a nice gesture, so he was sure he would remember to give thanks and apologize to him later.

The bell rang, and Hyungwon officially left the classroom, schedule ready in hand. Following the crowd outwards, he tried scanning for his second period, which should have been in the 2400 hallway, that should have been extremely close to the 2500 hallway he was just in. Hyungwon noticed that his nerves had calmed down sufficiently, and that he shouldn't worry that much bad would happen to him. That was until a hand fell down on his shoulder from behind him, and he practically jumped out of his skin with an accompanying yelp.

He turned to his right, and the familiar red hair from before had enveloped into his peripheral, with Hyungwon quickly realizing it was the loud, Korean angel that helped him avoid being more of an embarrassment in class that he would have been otherwise.

"Oops, sorry," Jooheon muttered from beside him, catching up to Hyungwon to talk side-by-side. "I didn't mean to scare you again, Hyung!" A few moments of silence passed. "That... is your name, right?" he said, tilting his head a little bit as he questioned so.