hydra | svt

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

wonwoo

after the battle with phthisis, the real test of my strength was having to explain to my furious mother why i had skipped school for no apparent reason and why i'd returned home with a fresh garden of purple, blue and black bruises blooming all over my skin. luckily, the school uniform covered up the majority of the marks and i had a written doctor's note to avoid doing gym and changing in front of my classmates.

hansol and i merely escaped with a weeks worth of after-school detentions and i thanked my lucky stars my mother finally dropped the topic after a day or so. now everything was back to normal, and i spent all my free time practically fused to hansol's hip as we slam our metal trays onto the lunch table.

"how's the allergy?" i ask through a mouthful of steamed rice. the american's pollen allergy had been triggered immensely by the fall of the demon and even now he was constantly sniffling. nonetheless, a small smile graces his lips and he shrugs his shoulders.

"i'm okay. it still doesn't feel real to me."

whilst i had accepted this as my reality almost as soon as i had arrived in this universe, hansol was still coming to terms with his newly restored memories: it had been particularly rough on the first night when he called me at dusk, tears streaming down his face and voice threatening to crack every time he spoke. awaking hansol to the truth of his existence explained a multitude of things, like why he couldn't remember growing up around his sister, but it had also unearthed the gnawing sense of longing i had buried at the bottom of my school bag with the broken pens and the crumpled notes: we missed our brothers.

i swallow my mouthful, a reply collating on the tip of my tongue when a certain voice steals my attention. hansol hears it too and we instinctively shift into battle mode, no matter how much our bodies are pleading for rest.

"it was real! i saw it!" 

to our right, minghao is arguing passionately with his friends; it jolted me as i remember him being a wizard of calm and reason. seeing him so riled up was a new experience.

"hao, you can't have possibly seen anything! a demon? get out of here." his friends, who have their backs to us, laugh heartily. yet minghao refuses to stand down and hansol and i listen with piqued interest, our meals growing cold on the table. 

"i know what i saw. and couldn't you smell it too? i thought i was going to be sick!"

"enough, hao. it's been a week since it happened and you're still talking about it. we'll agree to disagree and leave it there."

instantly morphing into the quiet mediator i was accustomed to, he mumbles one last time that he knows what he saw, though he himself is less convinced now.

"dude, we have to talk to minghao," hansol whispers, observing how much more reserved he looked after being shot down so brutally. "he has to know he's right."

"i know. but i've already embarrassed myself in front of him," i hiss, recalling my harrowing first day and how i had accidentally sat in his seat; the memory plagues me to this day.

"bro," hansol says, raising an eyebrow at me. when i stay silent, he shakes his head.

"fine. i'll find a way."

our conversation is interrupted again as a girl in the year above us dumps a flyer on our desk. cautiously, hansol drags it over with the clean end of his chopstick and skims over it; a glint appears in his eye and a shiver goes up my back. i've never seen him like this before.

"is he in any extra-curriculars?"

"yeah...he's in the photography club." the american smirks, folding up the piece of paper.

"perfect."

i have no time to ask him what he means as the bell rings and we're forced to separate. we join the cluster of students dumping their trays before letting ourselves be carried by the crowd towards our respective lessons. i remember that he has psychology whenever i have maths.

"isn't minghao in your psych class?" i have to raise my voice to be heard over the din of students excited that it's their last lesson of the day.

"yeah, i'll talk to him about letting me join the photography club. see you in detention!" finally, hansol and i are torn apart as he's whisked up the stairs and i carry on towards the maths classrooms on the ground floor.