path to dazzling lights // ateez high school au {on hold}

1.1 first day

Wooyoung made his way up the three flights of stairs leading into the admin building of his new school. As he made his way up, he realised for the first time in his life that he had no idea why in the world do all the grand looking schools require such long stairs. Aren't they worried that the students would make it to class on time? With these ridiculous and redundant construction designs, how do they achieve what they even strived to?

It's a pretty remarkable thought, considering that it was only his first day entering this new school, and he wondered if anyone else here ever had such a crazy idea.

After finally reaching the top of the staircase, he'd come to a large wooden door of about nine feet tall. It looked rather grand as well. He knocked on it, wondering if someone would come and open it. To his surprise, the door opened automatically on its own, proving that ancient looking does not equal technologically challenged.

Upon his entrance, a student of similar age to him walked up. He was also of similar height for that matter. Wooyoung pulled himself to full height, despite how small he may be. The other didn't seem to bother, and instead stopped about a metre ahead of Wooyoung and bowed. His hair was such a deep shade of blue that it had to be unnatural. I mean, who even has blue hair in first place?! So the school didn't have any rules against unnatural hair colours. Moreover, this guy had to be of some high leadership position in the school, as classes were still going on now, and he had to have at least missed half of one by now. Huh.

The blue-ette (??) stood up from his bow and put a hand out to shake the others, while introducing himself at the same time. "Good morning! My name's Hongjoong, and I'm the head student councillor here at KQ High. You're Wooyoung, aren't you? We were informed that you would be joining today. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Wooyoung, unsure mostly of what to do and becoming slightly confused and disoriented by the minute, shook the others hand rather heavily, almost dragging Hongjoong down onto the ground. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

"Pardon me for asking, but what year are you joining? I was not briefed on that portion." "Year 2" Wooyoung answered in a brusque manner. "Oh, so I'm a year ahead of you. That's alright though. Come to me if you need any help once you actually start the semester. You won't be that far behind, it's also most people's first day back after the break anyway. Now, I was told to bring you for a quick orientation tour, so if you'll just follow me..."

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"So starting from where we are right now, this is the admin building, but of course you already know that, considering that you made your way here yourself. Currently, we are at the ground floor, obviously, and the upper floors just consist of the teachers offices. Just make sure to know which floor your teachers office is on before coming though, there are way too many offices and it's actually really easy to get lost. I've gotten lost way too many times myself, which is why I've kept a note on my phone with a list of the office numbers."

"Wait, you're allowed to use your phone at school?"

"Weellllll, not during classes, but when you're on break in between the classes or during recess, nobody's gonna stop you. Besides, seeing as the campus is that big, nobody wants to walk all the way across to pass a message either. So, they don't stop us from doing that."

"Oh okay. Continue with your tour then."

"Oh yes! Where was I? Ah! So anyways, this is the admin building. Let's head down to the classrooms now."

"Do we have to go down the stairs?"

"Unfortunately, yes. On the other hand, it does give you good exercise. Once you start the semester, you usually don't bother coming here anymore. The only exception being the student councillors, such as me, and class monitors, like my friend Seonghwa. We have duties. *sighs* You get used to it if you're one of us though."

Wooyoung groaned upon hearing the first statement. Well, now he had to climb all the way back down again. Heck, maybe he should just slide down the bannisters, that'd make things much faster.

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"If you stand right in front of the steps leading to the admin block, both buildings beside you are classroom blocks. Be sure to check your timetable carefully, block 1A is the one on your right, block 1B is the one on the left.  And that's not the end of it, there's also 1C, D, E, and F. 1A and 1B are the homeroom blocks. The others are all subject blocks. If this is still confusing I don't blame you. Everyone gets used to it eventually though. They try to arrange most classes in the same block, so don't panic too much about the arrangements. Let's head to 1A so I can show you what the classrooms look like, they're all the same so I'll just take you through one."

The duo head over to the building on the right, enter the open air corridor, and head into a vacant classroom. "As I mentioned, some of the classrooms aren't being utilised for the time being as the semester hasn't started for the first years, and as you can tell, they're quite dusty as well. We usually clean up within the first week or so, be prepared to help sweep the classrooms or something of the sort. The monitors table is always the one on the front corner closest to the door, so they can run any errands the teacher requires without disrupting the class."

The classroom was relatively large, although made to only house 36 students. The desks were lined up in a 6 by 6 square shape. Every desk was made of lacquered wood, with a lockable drawer underneath to hold books belonging to that particular student who owns the desk. Situated at the front of the room was a larger rectangular desk for the homeroom teacher, and behind it were, on the left, a large whiteboard, and on the right, a blackboard. The standard classroom amenities.

"This is what most of the classrooms look like, exceptions being the science labs and art rooms, but other than those, everything else is standard. Shall we move on?"

"Yeah..."

They enter the corridor while Hongjoong pulls the door shut. At that moment, another boy comes running up to them, looking slightly disheveled due to running at the fastest pace his legs could carry him.

"Hongjoong! Normally I would say great to see you, but this is an emergency! I can't seem to find the classrooms AGAIN! Would you help me please? Oh, is this the new student? Nice to meet you!"

He had said all that so quickly all Wooyoung heard was "Hongjoong", "emergency", "classroom" and "student", but clearly Hongjoong was used to this type of fuss and pace of speech as he immediately responded.

"Your homeroom number is 3-2-3. How can you forget that every single semester? I'll introduce you to the newbie at break, okay? Now, hurry along to your class. You're already late for goodness sake!"

"Oh yes! I didn't even notice! Shoot! Bye Joongie! I'll see you later!"

He ran past them towards the staircase leading to the upstairs of block 1A and disappeared at an alarming pace up the stairwell.

Before he completely vanished, however, Wooyoung managed to catch a glimpse of the running boy's name tag. Immediately, he felt his blood run cold. He'd never wanted to see or hear that name ever again. Never again in this century or the next. Forever.

"Well, shall we move on?" Hongjoong asked while shaking his head after his friend.

Wooyoung had lost all power of speech and decided a nod would suffice. With Hongjoong leading the way, he slipped down the maze of his memories, that boy being the first to appear. He couldn't push that memory away any longer, not after seeing him again after 10 years.

Why were the odds never in his favour?

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❤Happy Anniversary to us, Atinys!!!❤

Heyyyyy! New book here! Please vote and comment if you like this chapter! I have so many ideas for this book but I have no idea how I'm gonna get the writing done
:( oh well...

Anyways, thanks for reading! Stay safe and healthy!

~cey xx