School Afternoons [HyungWonho]

Chapter 5 - Poco a Poco

Hyungwon stepped into the classroom with caution.

It was good he stepped in with caution, because the orchestra room was seemingly crowded with people. And... the teacher was nowhere in sight. Great.

Hyungwon sighed before getting a pat on the shoulder from behind. Hyungwon turned around almost in panic, but his anxiety eased when he saw the small frame of Priya attached to the hand that patted his shoulder. Looking up a bit, he also found Changkyun walking into his peripheral.

"Oh! ...Hey guys," Hyungwon said, waving at the two with a small smile. "It's nice to see you."

Priya's smile grew. "It's nice to see you, too!"

Changkyun's smile grew as well, but seemingly mirroring a smile of the devil more than Priya's. "Everyone's been dying to see you-" The small boy was interrupted by Priya softly punching him in the shoulder.

"Uh, ow!"

"Come on, Daniel, he's stressed enough!" Priya replied while turning to glare at the demon spawn. Hyungwon self-consciously dried his palms on his jeans, cleaning off the sweat that seemed to accumulate from the five minutes of walking into the classroom.

Hearing Changkyun called "Daniel" enough was already catching him off guard enough, but then he saw someone staring straight in the group's direction.

A pale teenager with silver hair was fast-walking in their direction, and Hyungwon thought he Changkyun was enough to deal with.

Luckily for Hyungwon, however, the silver-haired man (Huh, he has blue highlights, too, Hyungwon thought. It was a wonder how him and strawberry boy were not getting dress coded every step they walk through the building) aimed to get Priya's attention, as he began tapping lightly on her shoulder. He looked a little stressed out, despite how he presented himself, with his ripped jeans and rubber bracelets laced with American band logos (or British, Hyungwon didn't know for sure).

Priya turned to glance at the silver-haired boy, glanced back at Changkyun, and then glanced back at the silver-haired boy while jumping a little bit backwards when she seemingly realized who it was. "Oh, Hoseok! What do you need?" she asked.

The boy's stress didn't get amplified, per se, but he did give a sheepish grin to the group. "Ah, it's nothing much, Priya," he said, straightening his back from his previous hunched position to match the girl's height, "I just wanted you and Changkyun and..."

The silver-haired boy turned to Hyungwon. "I'm sorry, I need to meet you properly, but Mr. Mariani is bound to come here anytime soon and the whole class needs to set up and I'm kind of the first violin not to brag but I feel like I have to be responsible and get everyone settled and set up and tuning and-"

Hyungwon was just about to process what the silver-haired boy, Hoseok, said until he could hear a door opening, causing everyone in the class to fall silent.

Hoseok turned towards the door, a sweat drop falling down the side of his face. Hyungwon noted that even though sweaty and stressed, his profile was really good.

Wait... why was he suddenly focused on someone's appearance now, the teacher was probably going to yell at the whole class!

The teacher, now confirmed present in the doorway, stood silent glaring at the classroom. Even though no words were uttered, a sigh from the teacher was enough to get every student, including Priya, Changkyun, and Hoseok, to scramble to their respective seats and sections with their bows and instruments ready to rosin and tune.

The teacher still seemed a little ticked off, but a sight of the lone Hyungwon standing in the middle of the empty space of the orchestra room instrument-less, the teacher scurried over to shake Hyungwon's hand, much to Hyungwon's surprise.