Distance(d) | Sung Hanbin ZB1

Ch.12 Spark

"Eunbyeol-ah, Hanbin is here."

"Okay, Eomma. I'm coming down now."

It was the start of a new school year, and just like previous years, Eunbyeol wasn't very enthusiastic about it. The second year would undoubtedly be very different from the first; work would be much more intense to prepare them for CSAT the following year, especially now that they have electives. The content would be more detailed and in-depth. Not to mention, knowing that Hanbin definitely wouldn't be the one sitting next to her in class made things seem even worse. Habits can be scary; she had gotten so used to having Hanbin next to her all the time for the last 4 years that she couldn't really imagine what it was going to be like without him in class. But at least they were in the same school, and they would still see each other every day; things couldn't possibly be that different, right?

Eunbyeol went into the classroom, which was still pretty much empty, and took the third seat in the second row closest to the door. She and Hanbin would always choose to sit in the second-last two seats right next to the window, but she wanted a change. There was no point sitting in the same place, when the one next to her would be different.

"Eunbyeol-ah, we're in the same class!" Yuna came running into the classroom and took the seat next to Eunbyeol, right against the wall. The two were in the same class, while Gyuvin and Junhyeon, who both chose science, were in another set. Hanbin, on the other hand, was allocated to the same class as Chaeyeon.

Yuna had broken up with Jeonghyeon sometime before school started. She didn't explain in detail why, but she didn't seem too affected by it either.

The classroom started to fill up, but the seat behind Yuna was still empty. Just then, someone entered the classroom, which caused murmurs of excitement.

The reason behind the commotion was none other than Kim Jiwoong.

He was looking for an empty seat, and his eyes landed on the seat right behind Yuna. He sat down with an emotionless expression and looked at Eunbyeol and Yuna. Just when Eunbyeol thought he seemed a bit cool, a broad smile appeared on his face.

"Annyeong, I'm Kim Jiwoong."

"I think everyone knows who you are. Nice to meet you. I'm Son Yuna."

"I'm Park Eunbyeol."

"You're friends with Gyuvin from basketball, right?" Jiwoong spoke to Eunbyeol before turning to Yuna. "And you're Jeonghyeon's girlfriend?"

"Um... We actually broke up recently."

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I didn't know that." Jiwoong was flustered by the update. His cute reaction made the girls realise that he was nothing close to cold and distant.

Meanwhile, in the classroom next door, Hanbin took his usual seat. It would, however, probably take him a while to get used to having someone else sit in Eunbyeol's place. Fortunately, their classrooms were right next to each other, so he could easily hop over to see her. He was going to do exactly that when Seolah entered the classroom and disrupted his plan.

"Oh, Annyeong Hanbin-ah. Didn't know we were in the same class." The girl acted surprised.

"Annyeong Seolah."

Hanbin and Seolah were both on the debate team, so they already knew each other. Hanbin was well aware of Yuna and Seolah's rivalry, which he attributed to their similarities: they both had strong, confident personalities, were popular among boys, were from pretty wealthy backgrounds, and did quite well in school. He was obviously much closer to Yuna, but he also didn't see the need to completely distance himself from Seolah.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" Seolah stood next to Eunbyeol's usual window seat.

"Uh... go ahead."

He obviously knew someone would end up in that seat, but it still felt weird for him to see someone else sitting in Eunbyeol's seat. The amount of memories he and Eunbyeol made as seatmates in those seats was just uncountable. He was already missing his ex-seatmate.