13/13
Chan was running through the dry, dusty streets on the countryside. The wind flew through his hair and cooled his ears, blurs of green and yellow flashing past him as he continued along his path. The sky was shining blue, and the sun was lazy that morning. Chan, too, decided to be lazy that very morning. He woke up late, which meant he was late to class. His bike broke the previous night after Vernon tried to perform tricks on it, and so he was left running to school, his hands tightly grasping his backpack straps. Tears escaped out of the corners of his eyes as he thought about his prized bike chucked over a hill; that wasn't important anymore. What was important was getting Chan's butt to school despite the fact he was already thirty minutes late.
He rounded the corner at the big apple tree in front of his school and ran into his classroom. The math teacher, who was busy explaining a problem on the board, turned and looked at Chan before saying, "Well, look who decided to show up."
Chan bowed and apologized sincerely, "I woke up late and my bike is broken so I couldn't get here any earlier. I'm sorry."
The math teacher nodded and said, "Okay, stay after school to determine your punishment."
Chan bowed again and took his seat in the front row. He turned around after he felt a pencil poke his neck and saw Vernon mouthing a sorry to him. Chan furrowed his eyebrows angrily and turned away. He would deal with Vernon later.
The classes flew by along with the clouds in the sky, and Chan received his punishment. Vernon offered to do his punishment for him, but Chan refused; it was technically his own fault for waking up late that morning. Chan had to go back to school later that night to help clean the classroom floors, and he was not looking forward to it.
"Ah, I hate myself," Chan sighed as he leaned back and looked at fluffy clouds in the sky.
"Don't say that!" Jeonghan exclaimed. "You just overslept, and sleeping is always a good thing, so don't feel bad."
"At least it's only cleaning the floors," Seokmin laughed, his eyes narrowing into crescents and shining in the light of the sun. "Remember that time Mingyu, Minghao, and I decided to sneak into the school and grab seventeen apples from the big tree? We had to stand outside the classroom all night with our arms up."
"Who's idea was it anyways?" Minghao asked.
"Mingyu's." Seokmin said, his eyes no longer twinkling.
"You make it sound like it was a bad thing," Mingyu whined. "I personally think it was a good memory."
"My arms ached for days," Seokmin glared at Mingyu. "Good memory my-"
"Hey, Chan, could you leave for a second?" Vernon asked, a look of seriousness befalling his face.
Chan looked at Vernon, his eyebrows scrunched again. Vernon folded his hands and pleaded, Chan reluctantly getting up and heading over to the big apple tree. He tried not to listen into the whispers of the twelve boys he hung out with ever since he was a child and looked up at the sky. The clouds floated about without a care in the world, and the sky was just as blue as ever. He looked down at the vast fields of green in front of him and sighed. He had always wanted to go to the city, but there was something about the blazing sun, the bright blue sky, and the lush green grass that kept him to his small little town. Chan looked back up again at the sun. The sun, who was sleeping and lazing around earlier, was suddenly awake and alert. It looked at Chan, grinned, and then let out a low drawl before laughing. Chan's eyes widened as the sun continued to laugh. He ran back over to the benches where his friends sat and pointed at the laughing sun.
"The sun is laughing!" Chan cried out. "The sun hasn't laughed like that my entire life!"
The twelve boys stopped talking and looked up at the sun. Just as Chan had said, the sun was laughing, and no one knew why. They did, however, notice that the sun was looking at Chan and laughing. Wonwoo, the quiet kid with glasses, pushed up his glasses and said, "It's been about two hundred years since that sun laughed."
Jihoon took the glasses off Wonwoo's face and said, "You don't need these fake frames, Wonwoo. Are you sure about the sun laughing, though?"
Wonwoo snatched his glasses frames back and put them back on his face as he said, "My grandmother was telling me the story from when she was a young girl and she told me about the laughing sun."
"What does it mean?" Chan asked, his voice starting to shrill.
"That's the thing," Wonwoo whispered. "No one knows why the sun laughs."
"Maybe," Soonyoung looked at Chan, his eyes narrowed and his voice hushed. "It's laughing at you because you overslept and got in trouble."
The boys in the group cracked up except for Wonwoo and Chan; Chan wasn't laughing because he didn't think it was funny, and Wonwoo wasn't laughing because he felt like something bad was going to happen.
"I don't think we should take this too lightheartedly-"
"Calm down, Wonwoo," Seungcheol laughed and slapped Wonwoo on the back (who winced because Seungcheol hit his back really hard). "Nothing is going to happen."
"When do you have to come back to school anyways, Chan?" Jisoo asked.
"Around seven, I think," Chan murmured. "That means I won't be able to hang out tonight because I have to do my homework too."
"That's okay!" Seungkwan cheered. "Vernon will be the youngest today! We'll pick on him instead of you."
"We're the same age, Seungkwan," Vernon slapped Seungkwan's shoulder.
"I've lived here longer than you have," Seungkwan hissed, his face in Vernon's face.
They all laughed again, Chan getting ready to head on back home. He grabbed his backpack from the classroom and left the group of boys sitting by the big apple tree. As he walked along the dusty path, he couldn't help but feel the blazing sun on his back, and he couldn't help but hear its laughter.
..
inspired by the sun in soul eater and the countryside in non non biyori
