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

1.6 a new friend & circumstances

It had only been a few hours since Wooyoung entered the new school, and only a few minutes since he met Mingi, but within that few minutes, he knew he had found a new friend.

The first few minutes were slightly awkward, both parties not knowing what to say. It couldn't be helped, they had literally just met. But after a while, the conversation peaked and they both felt themselves enjoying each other's company.

They got along really well, and even shared a similar interest in the performing arts. Unfortunately, Mingi, being the antisocial self that he was, wasn't in the dance club. He hadn't bothered to join any of the school activities since his enrolment last year.

"Maybe you should try out this year, I'll be trying out too! You should come with me!"

"It's fine. Besides, there's be plenty of opportunity in the future, once I graduate."

They continued chatting until the bell signalled the end of lunch. Mingi picked up his things from beside him and stood up. "Well, it was great meeting you, Wooyoung. Thanks for coming up here to keep me company. It wasn't necessary, but I'm grateful. Maybe I'll see you around later."

And with that, Mingi left for his next class. It was at that moment that Wooyoung realised that he had no idea where he was supposed to be. He didn't know his homeroom number, he didn't know his lesson plans, nothing. He stood  from the ground, dusting off the back of his pants as he got up. Maybe he should go back down to Hongjoong. He should know where Wooyoung had to go.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Where were you? I'm supposed to be in charge of you for today, basically, and I lost the whole five and something feet of you within two seconds! You could have gotten lost or something. What if you got hit by a car? How would I have answered to the principal? So, where were you?"

Wooyoung had expected Hongjoong to be mad, but not this mad. He was fuming with anger. "I'm sorry, I know I should have headed back immediately after the washroom, but I really needed to clear my head. I was just upstairs, upstairs, upstairs, upstairs and upstairs."

"So you were on the roof of the lunch hall? That's a relief. I thought you might have left the building or something." Hongjoong visibly relaxed, his tensed shoulders settling down after the realisation that Wooyoung would have been fine.

"I'm really sorry..."

"It's okay. I'm just really protective of the new students. I'm protective of everyone in general, really. The students well-being is more or less my duty, so, you know... Anyway, as long as you're fine, everything's all good. Now, let's head over back to the admin building for the official papers and stuff."

"What?! Why couldn't we have just settled it in the first place when we were there this morning?"

"There's an order and system. Believe me, I've scratched my head multiple times regarding this too. And I've had to do this with every admission. You get used to it if you end up in this position like me. Shall we get going?"

Wooyoung sighed under his breath and nodded. Looks like he would get a lot of exercise today, more than what he expected.

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The duo made their way up the three flights once again, Wooyoung feeling like he was gonna pass out from exertion. How was Hongjoong still going so quickly? It was at times like these that he wished he had the power to defy gravity, or fly even.

Somehow, though, he dragged himself up the stairs without collapsing and they both made their way inside, except this time, he followed Hongjoong down a hallway and up one flight of stairs.

"Welcome to my humble office."

Hongjoong's office was small, obviously, but it was immaculate. In Wooyoung's mind, he had expected a student's office to be, well, messier. In reality, it had to be even better than some of the teachers. Stereotypes. In the centre of the room was a desk, exactly the same as the classroom's, and behind it, in one corner, was one of those large metal file cabinets. In the other corner was a locker.

On the left of the desk was a stack of papers, each sheet so precisely placed on top of the previous that it looked like they were bound together. If the left side was the angel, the right side was definitely the devil, or any analogy you prefer. On the right was a yellow minions mug filled with what used to be warm coffee and a Bluetooth speaker.

Hongjoong must have registered Wooyoung's surprise at the state of his office.

"It's not usually this neat, by the way. Seonghwa was here earlier this morning before you arrived, and he absolutely can't stand messes, so he helped me to clean up my organised mess."

"You of all people should know there's no such thing as an organised mess."

"Yes, there is! My desk was the perfect example of that until this happened." Hongjoong spoke in pout, and it was one of the cutest things Wooyoung had ever seen, despite his distaste for other people's aegyo.

"Cute."

Wait, did he just say that out loud?

Clearly he had, because Hongjoong got flustered.

"Th-thanks. Now, where are those freaking papers! Ugh! Seonghwa I'm going to kill you!"

The neat stack of papers was now strewn all over the desk.

"I knew I shouldn't have let him in here- oh! It was on the top the whole time. Haha!"

"I have a feeling you did that on purpose..."

"Shush! Nobody else needs to know about this, especially not a certain somebody who caused all this in the first place. Anyway, let's get on with what we were supposed to do."

Hongjoong slid the papers towards Wooyoung. "Basically, this is your timetable, a copy of the rules cause you missed this morning's briefing, the activities registration form and a couple other things that aren't as important, but yeah! There you go."

Wooyoung looked down at the timetable. It wasn't too bad, and he had a two hour break on thursdays. Sweet.

"What's your homeroom number? I didn't see that earlier."

"Oh, it says 3-2-3. Meaning 3rd floor, year 2, class 3 right?

"Yep! Also, you're in the same class as San too! What are the odds?"

Seriously?!

A/N: Woosan is the complete opposite of "fate is pulling you miles away and out of reach from me"