The sound of pencils grazing against the paper was awfully loud, the whole room was filled with people heads hung low, eyes fixed on the paper, hands nonstop moving.
Final paper, final semester, final day before they announce the holidays and all school matters was to be forgotten.
Everyone was focused on giving their all for this grand finale so that they can leave for their holiday with ease, time was ticking, they were coming near the ending to freedom—
"Time's up!"
Shoot.
The teacher announced and within minutes later, everyone placed their pencils down. The papers were being collected. The boy was quite restless as he wasn't over with his final equation, however, before he could finish writing down the final answer, the teacher was tapping on his table. Reluctantly, he had to hand his papers.
He glanced to the student seated next to him, both of them smiled excitedly at one another.
As soon as the last paper was collected, the whole class jumped abruptly off their seats, but he decided to remain seated first. It turned out, that he did the right thing despite being the odd, the teacher wasn't done for the day yet.
"Take your seats first, I have a project to announce." He said and the rest started to groan.
The teacher placed the papers on the desk as he made a serious face, but he looked slightly amused. "Now as you all know, the school has an annual senior assignment. That means, your next semester." He started and everyone knew where this was going.
He smiled. "Unlike previous years, we allowed you to choose your partner but it turned out to cause cases of neglect, incomplete and sometimes bullying." He sighed. "Therefore, this year, we've analysed each and one of you equally and your assigned partner's name for next semester's History project is on the bulletin board."
"Therefore, complete the project nicely as you've been briefed, or suffer the loss of 20% for your finals. Happy holidays, children." He smiled and instantly everyone shot up from their seats, rushing over to the two doors of the classroom. "The deadline is on the first day of semester and I don't accept excuses!" He yelled though he knew he was ignored.
The boy remained calm as he packed his things, until he was approached by his friends. "Ugh, the hallway's gonna be packed." One of them voiced.
"Did you finish the exam?" One of them asked, and the boy shook his head.
"You'll get a 4.00 anyway." His friend rolled his eyes which caused him to chuckle. "Jen, hurry up!" Another one said, they had to go down the hallway fast so that they wouldn't drown in the sea of students.
At the mentioned of his name, he nodded his head and walked out with the two. As they walked down the stairs, they found a massive crowd trying to look for their names and their partners, some were happy some were grumbling.
Jeno turned to one of them, "Alright, I say we push." One of them, Renjun said and was ready to do so until someone called them. "Guys! I got your names." Donghyuck exclaimed as he came running to their sides.
"Enlighten us." Renjun said.
"So, I'm partnered with Jaemin." He said and the two instantly high fived. Renjun became happy out of nowhere as he was positive that he'd be with Jeno. Partnered up with Jeno, means doing a project with a smart guy, which equals to him doing nothing much.
"Sweet! I got Jeno you loser—"
"Um, hello? I exist." Yangyang made a face. "We're stepbrothers, the school isn't nice enough to put us together." Renjun rolled his eyes.
"Hate to break it to you buddy, but no." Donghyuck grinned. "You're with Lula and Yangyang's with Areum." Donghyuck grinned, "And Jeno got the one and only Haneul."
"Your cousin?" Jaemin asked.
"My cousin." Donghyuck nodded. He was about to say something else to Jaemin when he was rudely interrupted.
"Lula?!"
Renjun had his mouth agape, he knew the girl, everyone knew her. She wasn't a mean girl or a burdensome or anything, that is everyone except Renjun. The fact that she had an obvious crush on him was something Renjun couldn't handle.
"Why does he get the cheerleader?" Renjun complained and pointed out to his half brother. "Told you, I'm the handsome one." His stepbrother, was enjoying every moment of this with a laugh he didn't bother to hide.
Jaemin made a dissatisfied face, "I don't think that's how it works." He said. "Really, does it matter?" Yangyang asked. "Um, yeah? Because in this partnership one of you is the master of History while the other one is just—" he stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry.
"Lula's a pro with Maths but not so much in History though." Donghyuck commented. "Well, I'm a flop in both of them." Renjun smiled sarcastically.
Yangyang clicked his tongue, teasing his brother. "Then why is Jeno and Haneul partnered up? They're both top students." Renjun added, obviously wanting a change. "Hani's only great at History in exams, her homework are rather plagiarised from the great author that is me." The girl's cousin declared.
"And the teacher knows it. So Jeno would be a great help, I think?" He added.
Jeno kept quiet the whole time, he knew Haneul, of course. She was popular because of her father's recent bloom in business and also top of the class. They were in different courses, but an attractive girl like her was hard to miss. The fact that Donghyuck was her cousin supposedly make Jeno know more about her, but yet he knew nothing despite her name. Heck, they had never even met face to face.
"Hyuck!"
At the call of his nickname, the said boy and the rest of the group turned to look at two girls waiting for him. Renjun was already sighing as the voice belonged to no other than his 'secret' admirer, whom was grinning from ear to ear after hearing the news.
"Happy summer, see you if I see you!" Donghyuck exclaimed. "Stay strong, Renjun." He patted the guy on the shoulder before heading to a pair of girls. Jeno's eyes followed his friend until they landed on her. Hardly smiling, always seemed uninterested, yet was always so perfect.
Lee Haneul.
He wasn't sure if it was true, but he vividly heard his name being mentioned by her. "Is that Lee Jeno?" She asked her cousin which he replied with a nod.
The brief eye contact sent something strange to himself but he figured out it must've been because it was their first time seeing one another.
〚 王 〛
🐾hello!
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as much as i can to update consistently.
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