that boy | hwang hyunjin | ✔

Chapter 34

"Tell me, students," the principal voices, pacing back and forth in his office with his arms behind his back. "Is there something wrong with the school's main gate?"

"N-No, sir," Felix mutters from his chair, too embarrassed to face the principal.

We're busted.

The PE teacher that approached us didn't come in peace. He didn't let us off the hook with a friendly but strict warning. No, he was about to grab our collars and forcefully drag us to the principal's office. To avoid that, we surrendered immediately and followed the man meekly.

It was a walk of shame for all of us, even though the hallways are completely empty with all the students in their assigned classrooms. It's just that... facing the principal for a bad reason is nerve-wrecking. He's sarcastic, his mood unpredictable as the weather.

And right now, he's not in a good mood.

He seems pissed off as he comes to a halt right in front of where we are seated. I nervously hold my breath and judging from the small gasp next to me, Hyunjin does the same.

"Then why don't you just use the main gate?" the man hollers, suddenly raising his voice. Small droplets of saliva fly through the air.

I flinch, pressing my back against the hard wood of the uncomfortable chair to make myself as small as possible as he scrutinizes us sharply from under his bushy eyebrows.

"W-We had to go to the park a-and it was shorter," Felix stammers, his cheeks flushed red as he warily eyes the man in front of him.

"That is no valid reason," the principal counters. "You're not a bunch of wild animals, crawling through the fence as if you have no manners."

None of us knows how to respond to that, so we hang our head low in defeat and shame, staring at our shoes with burning cheeks and a nervous sensation surging through our veins as we await the consequences of our action.

"I'm sorry, sir," Hyunjin mutters, keeping his gaze cast at his feet.

"One hour of detention right away," the principal sighs, taking a seat in his expensive leather office chair. "Do not repeat this action ever again and now leave before I double your punishment."

We all hurry to our feet, not risking the chance of getting two hours of detention instead of one. With a polite bow as a greeting, one that he doesn't even notice anymore, we leave the office in a rush.

Once we're outside, we all heave out a collective sigh of relief. Tension slowly leaves our bodies now that we're freed from the principal's piercing eyes.

"That was intense," I mutter. "I swear that principal is some kind of dark mage that plans to take over this school and-"

"You accuse everyone you don't like of being some kind of evil magical creature," Hyunjin interrupts, the corners of his nouth curled up into a lopsided smile. "We're not at Hogwarts, you know that right?"

Felix' laughter hollers through the empty hallways. "Shit, our school is ruled by He Who Must Not Be Named," he gushes. "We must run!"

Taking his own words quite literally, he dashes off and disappears around the corner, leaving me and Hyunjin behind as we're still trying to process what just happened.

Sighing deeply, I slap my hand against my forehead. Sometimes, I just don't know what to do with that guy.

"What was that?" Hyunjin asks, still staring at the hallway our orange-haired friend disappeared into just a moment ago.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself," I reply, shrugging it off because I'm actually not trying. I gave up a long time ago when it comes to understand Felix' antics.

The raven-haired boy next to me just hums and raises his arm to check the time on his wrist watch. He inspects the silvery object for a moment before turning to me again.

Something weird happens when our eyes meet.

Until now, every time it happened still caused a small wave of fear to surge through my body. A sudden nervousness, partly for reasons I could explain and partly for reasons that were a mystery to me. I even came up with a name for it.

The Hyunjin-effect.

It was a name given to the urge to look away whenever our eyes would meet. It made me nervous, almost scared sometimes. Just looking into his slender but soft brown eyes felt incredulously wrong.

Even though I started to trust Hyunjin more, looking into his eyes never went without any side effects. I would be lying if I say I don't feel anything right now -the nervousness surges through my body like crazy. But it's different. It doesn't feel like a bad thing anymore, looking into his gentle eyes.

Completely unaware of the endless stream of realizations that are processed inside my head, the boy lightly tilts his head in a questioning manner.

"When does detention start?" he asks.

"Four," I quickly reply, taking this sweet chance to look away and calm the nerves. For some reason, just looking at him causes heat to rush to my cheeks.

I already mentioned strange things are happening, didn't I?

"I don't know where the detention classroom is," Hyunjin slowly states, glancing around the labyrint of hallways surrounding us. "But detention begins in five."

"Easy," I quickly reply, walking ahead of the boy to avoid any unneeded eye contact. "Follow me." 

Even though it doesn't feel really wrong anymore, it still feels weird and alien, awakening a stream of thoughts and feelings that I don't know what to do with.

And walking ahead of him to show him the way is the perfect opportunity to escape from his gentle brown eyes, even if it's just momentarily.

I feel myself walking faster than usual as I enter the same hallways Felix did a while ago. It's not a point for Hyunjin, though. With his long legs, he has no trouble keeping up with me.

"It's in the same hallway as the library," I hastily explain as we rush through the hallways. "We're almost there."

And indeed, we arrive there two minutes early. Felix, who is already waiting in front of the now empty classroom, greets us with a smirk.

"Took you long enough," he snickers.

"Shut up, Weasly," I scoff, still amazed by my best friend's always happy demeanor.

Felix just grins widely before marching inside the classroom and with a small sigh coming from me, Hyunjin and I both follow the boy.

We sit down at the tables in the back row and taking advantage of the current lack of teachers, I immediately rest my head onto the table.

Detention is boring and it will always be.

Even though it's just one hour.