barriers | donghyuck

Chapter Seven

< Things spoken in Korean will be in italics >

You struggled to wake up and pull on your yellow uniform the next morning considering how late you were up the previous night. Walking down the halls of the school wasn't as bad anymore considering you were getting used to where everything was located.

Staring at your schedule, you wanted to crumple it up in your hand seeing that you had your dance class first thing in the morning. Silently you wished that Mark or Donghyuck or one of the boys you were able to become friends with were able to comfort you right now.

Walking down the hallway that seemed stretch on forever, you mentally thanked whoever was looking down on you seeing Donghyuck enter the same practice room you were heading for.

Stopping in your tracks, the image of him in the picture you saw last night from NCT flashed through your head. And eventually that was all you could see when you looked at him. Shaking your head, you tried your best to get it out of your head as you attempted to approach Donghyuck.

You never realized that he was in your class this first week of school. As soon as you saw him, you realized how wrong you were to think that he'd be able to comfort you right now. It must've been because you were trying so hard to avoid communicating with anyone until your Korean got better. And that was exactly why you were so nervous to talk to him without Mark around as an interpreter.

Closing your eyes, you took in one last deep breath as you walked in Donghyuk's direction, you not knowing that he was already looking your way.

"Hey Donghyuck!" you exclaimed in Korean, his face lighting up seeing that you were trying to talk to him.

"___," he smiles. "How are you?"

"Good," you reply. "We have, um." you started slowly, trying your best. "Same class?"

He laughed seeing how hard you attempted, nodding his head. And from there the class began as you just half listened to the instructor talk about dance, not really knowing what he was saying. Chatter was lightly going on around the room, but you and Donghyuck just sat there silently next each other not knowing what to say.

The language barrier made it extremely awkward for you both didn't know what to say to each other. That was as far as your conversational skills could go in Korean, and you didn't want to embarrass yourself any further.

You so bad wanted to ask Donghyuck about NCT 127 and the pictures you saw, but you didn't really know how to go about it. The silence was killing you, and you could feel Donghyuck looking at you from out the corner of his eye wanting to say something as well.

Screw it, you thought. "Donghyuck," you started, knowing you wouldn't be able to say much let alone anything in Korean.

"Yes?" His head snapped in your direction.

"I saw NCT 127." You began slowly, hoping he'd understand you.

"Yes!" He repeated himself more excitedly this time.

"I saw the name Haechan and I was confused." You giggle, and all that Donghyuck got out of the sentence was the name Haechan.

"No," he spoke. "Stage name!" Your heart rate sped up realizing you had no idea what he said. He could tell you didn't know what he was saying, and tried his best to change the topic. "Um, debut soon."

You face was red, still trying hard to understand what he previously said. "I'll look forward to it."

"You too." Donghyuck spoke in English, not making any sense. He knew that he didn't make any sense either, having no idea what you just said.

And so awkwardly once again, you both turned away from each other red faced, giving up on talking to each other as you both tuned back in to whatever the teacher was talking about.