Some Kind of Wonderful (Heungsoon Edition)

Chapter 2

Heungsoo stepped off the bus the next morning with his usual impassive face. He towered over the other students rushing towards school. He walked slowly. He makes the effort to keep his mind blank. It's way too early for angst. But nobody would ever know it from his posture. He looked like the world was on his shoulders instead of his backpack.

"You're early."

A pair of pale blue rubber shoes with yellow shoelaces stopped in front of Heungsoo. The wearer of the shoes and the owner of the voice was smirking at him. Heungsoo let out a huff and raised an eyebrow to wordlessly say, "Look who's talking."

Heungsoo walked around the boy-man and continued ambling towards the classroom.

"Heungsoo-ya, you missed me, didn't you?" the persistent teenager followed him and slung an arm around his neck, voice dripping with sweetness.

Heungsoo scoffed at the absurd comment. "Are you crazy?" Heungsoo continued walking but didn't brush off the arm around his neck.

"Eyyyyy! I know you did! Wanna come over tonight? I have the night off. We can cook some meat for a change. What do you think?"

"Namsoon-ah," Heungsoo said seriously as he turned and paused in his stride. "You better be buying the meat, you jerk!" Heungsoo smiled as he playfully pushed Namsoon away from him.

Namsoon laughed out loud, pleased he was able to get Heungsoo to smile. But then his stomach rumbled.

"Yah! You skipped breakfast again?" Heungsoo frowned. He slipped a hand inside his school jacket and turned on his cellphone to check the time. "Follow me," Heungsoo tipped his head.

Namsoon pursed his lips and raised both his brows in an innocently wondering expression as he trailed after Heungsoo. Heungsoo led him to the school snack store. Heungsoo bought Namsoon a piece of bread and a small carton of milk. For a moment, Namsoon's eyes lost its merriment as he recalled how he was in the same place last year trying to buy back Heungsoo's friendship by soothing his anger.

It was easy for Heungsoo to read Namsoon's mind. So he unwrapped the bread and brought it to Namsoon's mouth to distract him. "Eat, eat, eat! We don't have much time!" he nagged Namsoon.

Namsoon blinked his eyes and took a huge bite of the bread that his nose is telling him is delicious. Then he noticed that the other students around then were covertly staring at them. So he took the bread from Heungsoo and sat down on a chair. He ate and chewed as fast as he could.

"Slow down before you choke! How many times must I tell you that?" Heungsoo said exasperatedly as he punched a straw into the milk carton and held it out for Namsoon to drink.

Namsoon felt spoiled. It reminded him of the time when they were still in primary school and Heungsoo almost mothered him because he was such a sickly-looking kid. Heungsoo hadn't done this to him in a long, long time. Namsoon's eyes watered a little so he forced himself to smile smugly as he comically basked in Heungsoo's attention.

Part of him is still very afraid their reconciliation is all a dream. Namsoon is scared he'd wake up one day and find out Heungsoo still hates his guts.

Song Ha Kyung clenched her teeth and kept her face expressionless. To her mother who was going on and on about S University while driving the car, it would seem she was merely listening politely. But Ha Kyung was just really exercising her patience, which has grown quite long over the years. She applauded herself for not talking back even though the words of protest were at the tip of her tongue. Talking back is not really an option anyway because Ha Kyung has learned she's never going to win over her mother in any argument. So she shut herself down for a while and let her thoughts take a mutinous road. Thoughts of cutting class, going out late at night and doing things her mother would never approve kept Ha Kyung company for the rest of the ride to school.