path to dazzling lights // ateez high school au {on hold}

1.14 lost

The next day, Wooyoung woke up with a rather puffy face. That could only be blamed on himself. Who asked him to come back so late, eat so late, and sleep so late? He took a glance at the clock which stated prominantly: 5am. He could afford to sleep a little longer. His "a little longer" turned into longer than expected. By the time he regained mental consciousness, the clock seemed to have sped up in its counting. Now it read 6:45.

6:45?! He was late! For elaboration, the bus always came during the rush hour, so in order to make sure he got to school on time, Wooyoung gave himself one hour to get to his destination. The traffic jams were terrifying. And now, it's gonna be even more terrifying if he does end up being late on his third day of school, just like his mum had predicted.

He quickly gets dressed, grabs his bag and leaves the house in record time, not even bothering to get any breakfast or even fill his water bottle.

Unfortunately, luck is never on his side. He'd left his wallet on his desk.

He made it to the bus stop, where lo and behold, the bus had just stopped at. Running at his top speed, he climbed on board the bus and reached in his pants pocket, only to finally realise that it wasn't there. Hurriedly, he looks in the other pocket, his bag, only to no avail. Everyone who had been waiting at the stop had already made their way into the centre of the bus. Wooyoung was the only one left who had yet to pay their bus fare. "Well, boy, you're holding up a lot of us on our journeys. Are you gonna pay up or not? If you don't have your card, pay using cash."

"I-I left my wallet at home... I don't have cash on me."

"Then go home, get your wallet, and wait for the next bus! We can't all keep waiting here for you!"

"Excuse me, I'll pay for him."

"Yunho...?"

"Hi Woo."

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To say the journey was awkward would be an understatement. The two weren't really on talking terms especially after the fight they had. They were both silent on the journey, until one of them decided to break that silence. "Hey.. Um, I'm really sorry. About that fight that we had, and on your second day no less. I'm sorry for dragging you into our drama. You were right, I was just being hypocritical and I apologise for that."

"Don't mention it. I don't know what happened between you and Mingi, but it wasn't right of me to call you that either. I'm sure you're a really nice person and you have your reasons. You'll find the solution to your dispute soon, I just know it."

After that, the tension that could have been cut with a knife visibly disappeared as the two started talking and sharing experiences. Just overall getting to know each other better. "Y'know, there's actually this one time when I was travelling by train, where I fell down and broke my nose."

"How did that happen?"

"Well... I was sleeping and I fell forward when the train stopped. It hurt a lot but I didn't think too much of it. Turns out it was broken lol."

"Hahahaha you're such a fool, man!"

They joyfully chattered all the way until they reached school, thankfully they were still in time. Where they then split up at the third floor into their respective classrooms. "Thanks for helping me, Yun! I'll pay you back tomorrow!"

"It's fine! I owed you for being such an idiot..."

"Nooooooo that's a different thing altogether. I'll give it back to you tomorrow. No buts about it."

"Okay fine. See you later!"

"See ya."

Wooyoung waved at Yunho as he entered the classroom, noting that both Mingi and San were both already at their seats, the latter waving energetically at him as he made his way to his seat.

"Hi Woo!!!" :)

"Ah, um, yes, hi?"

Mingi, however, didn't even bother to look up even when Wooyoung approached his desk. "Minky? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!"

He had spoken up rather harshly. That was the first time Wooyoung had ever heard him talk like that. I mean, he had still been here less than a week.

He was taken aback.

Instead of attempting to chat, he silently made his way back to his own desk. Lost in thought once again.

He didn't even hear when the teacher came in. His body moved by reflex upon the command from the monitor to stand up and bow. Then he felt himself sit down and still had no control over his actions.

"Had Mingi seen Yunho talking to him?"

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Clearly, the teachers must have been informed to be lenient on him since he's new. None of them spoke up about his inattentiveness or his expression that showed he wasn't quite there. He couldn't even pay attention during the math class that he had spoken to his mother so highly about.

Due to this, lunch hour came quicker than he expected.

Instead of joining the others at the hall, he asked for his lunch to be packed, and brought it with him all the way to the rooftop.

Sitting in the centre of the grey, dusty cement floor was the exact person he was looking for.

"Hey."

He didn't acknowledge his presence.

"Hello?"

No response.

"Oiiiiiiii!!!!!!!"

The other boy finally looked up, and Wooyoung wasn't surprised to see that he looked upset.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be hanging out with them?"

"What makes you think that I prefer it more."

"You seem, I don't know, happier when you're with them. All I do is make people unhappy as it seems..."

"Just because I look happy doesn't necessarily mean I'm happy!"

"..."

"What?"

"I saw you with Yunho this morning."

"I thought you might have. Is that why you're acting like this? Like a sulky brat?"

"I'm no sulky brat!"

"That's what you're acting as now! Become the happy Mingi once again!"

"What if Mingi doesn't want to be happy? What if Mingi doesn't deserve to be happy?"

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Hi everyone!

Technically I'm still on writing hiatus, but since I managed to finish this chapter, thought I'd give you all an update, you all deserve it so much! This story has been so much fun to write, that I can't help but find time to write it despite how busy I've been lately.

Actually, it really hurt me writing Mingi like this when he's still on hiatus, but yeah, thank goodness he's much better now! ❤❤❤❤

Thanks for all the support on this story! We're almost at 1k, and I appreciate it so much! :)

See you in the next part! Love you guys!
(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡(๑・ω-)～♥”

~cey xx