soliloquy ↬ chensung

Ch.13

A/N: Yo! This chapter will be a different format.

I feel like this book is getting quite repetitive between cleaning and acting, so this chapter will be from the point of view of the characters from 'Around the World'!

This is the next scene that the crew would be acting out :)

💫Please enjoy💫

"Could the students participating in the basketball match please make their way to the gym?" The coach announced over the intercom.

Chinhae glanced at the clock and read the hands as twelve forty-five. The match was in fifteen minutes. Daejoon and Jichan had been welcoming enough to invite him to watch them play and during the match he had watched with them two evenings ago, he had begun to catch on to the rules. His heart bubbled and fizzed as he reached his hand into the air to alert the teacher that he needed to go.

"Yes, Chinhae?"

"I'm supporting the team in the match today, so may I be excused?" The square wooden desk groaned as he leaned forward, already beginning to pack his pencils and ink pen away.

"Do you have a note from the coach?"

He paused and looked up, his heart falling as he gulped and thought back to when he had been invited. Yes, the coach had agreed, but he hadn't exactly been given formal permission. "N-no, but they said I could go..."

"I'm sorry Chinhae, but without a note, you can't leave the school grounds. That's how it works around here." The teacher lifted his glasses and turned back to the board, continuing the interrupted sum. Chinhae burned red from a mixture of embarrassment and shame that he had been mistaken for trying to skip class. He wasn't that kind of guy. He felt the school uniform constrict around him as he looked down at his page and slowly began to unpack his pencil case.

He looked back up at the clock and it read twelve-fifty...Surely the team would be almost ready to start the warmup. He felt really bad that he wouldn't be there since he had been personally invited. He would have to explain to the two boys that the teacher wouldn't let him leave...but then maybe they'd think he simply didn't want to watch and was making an excuse. He sighed and let his gaze drift out the window, all the talk about maths going over his head. It was only his second day at the school and already they were launching straight into the difficult subjects. Chinhae was struggling.

But then, as the clock showed twelve-fifty-five, the classroom doors swung open to produce a sweaty-complexioned Jichan in his basketball gear. A layer of awe settled over the girls at the boy's presence. Chinhae was new, so he didn't know about Jichan's promiscuous but popular reputation. "Excuse me, Sir, may I take Chinhae to the gym?"

"Ahem, where is the note?"

"Here," he strode over to him and slipped the little white piece of paper into his hand. "Chinhae?" He looked around the classroom until his eyes landed on the pink-faced transfer. He smiled at him and beckoned him to follow. "The match will start soon."

Chinhae nodded quickly and fumbled to pack away his belongings, accidentally knocking into the desk as he rushed. He folded his satchel over and stood straight while walking swiftly out the door. When it closed behind him, he looked nervously at Jichan. "I'm sorry..."

"Nah, that teacher's always been a battle axe. I was wondering why you weren't there so I checked the timetable to find you, and it's a good thing I pulled you out."

"...Why?"

Jichan tilted his head with a lopsided smile. "Because you were in maths."

Chinhae looked down and gripped the strap of his satchel tighter, glad that he wasn't alone straight off the bat at a new school. Not only that, but he had made a good impression with his roommate - good enough that he had been invited to watch him and his friend play. "Am I holding up the match?"