for just one day

"i've heard that hard work never killed anyone, but i say why take the chance?" kim wonshik, twenty-one.

[uhxroy]

a matter of pride • sw × ws

November 2014

Sangwoo was a meticulous note-taker. He wrote down everything he thought was important as neatly and legibly as he could. Not only did he have a way to quickly review lessons at the end of each day exams, taking notes helped him absorb the lecture as it progressed. He carried the habit over to university in Korea, and it helped him manage his time between studying and busking. Unfortunately, it could only work so well. Sangwoo stretched his body to its limit to divide his time, and when a cold spell hit Seoul in November, he became an easy target for the flu.

When he was well enough to go to school after two days, he was deeply anxious. Reading textbooks would take too much time. He needed to borrow someone — no, anyone else’s notes. As he stepped into the lecture room, he approached the person seated nearest to the door. Sangwoo didn’t know who the person was. He didn’t talk to anyone unless he needed to.

“Hey, uh, hi,” he greeted awkwardly as he took the chair two spots away. “Did anything happen during the last lecture? I missed out on it and was wondering if you had any notes I could borrow?”

[hdxshik]

      school had never been one of his priorities. nothing had ever really been a priority, honestly. he was simply lucky that he had a natural intelligence that had somehow managed to push him through high school and into university. with his laziness and his dislike for any kind of effort, it was a true wonder that he was even still alive.       or, on a lesser note, it was a wonder that he ever showed up to class. or absorbed anything at all. (the truth was that he wasn't as lazy as he seemed, at least not in everything. it was only in things he knew wouldn't kill him that he gave up even the pretense of effort.)       a voice caught his attention and he glanced up lazily from where his head was resting on his arms. "mm?" even the sound was slow, rather uncaring, and he blinked at the other male rather uncomprehendingly. "notes?" the thought is rather foreign to him and he yawns for a moment. "... i don't take notes."       he had no idea who this person was and why he was asking him for notes (he rather thought everyone, including the teacher, looked at him as the idiot who didn't do anything to succeed in school). apparently it wasn't common knowledge, how little he cared. a pity. it was too much work to talk to people.

[hdxstephanie]

BED BUG | Wonshik & Stephanie

"Wait what?" What’d he just say? Stephanie thought, pacing the length of her bedroom. She hadn’t been expecting a call so late at night, but it wasn’t at all a bother — well, not really. She had been up, yes — a Skype call had just ended a half hour ago, but there was no way she’d be falling asleep any time soon (heavy conversation topics tended to do that to her). Sick? Did he say sick?! With her phone pressed up to her ear, she could hear muffled sniffling and coughing. Oh my g— ”You know what? Don’t worry. I’m on my way.” 

With frantic steps, Stephanie was quick to grab her coat, keys and phone, sliding on a pair of sneakers and running out of her apartment. It was easy to see that she was a little jittery; she was practically jumping up and down as she waited for the elevator. As soon as the silver doors opened, she stepped in, pressing the ground floor button frantically. It was probably an overreaction — Wonshik wouldn’t be dying… would he? 

Stephanie gave the doorman a single nod before jetting out of the building, walking as fast as she could without actually running. With the amount of worrying she was doing, she had almost completely ignored how chilly it was outside. Pale clouds of smoke formed in front of her lips with every breath exhaled. 

Suddenly stopping, Stephanie changed direction, turning into the closest convenience store. Clutching a shopping basket, she was quick to fill it with a myriad of things: tea bags, tissues, hot packs and cold packs (she wasn’t sure which one he’d need), non-prescription painkillers and orange juice (Vitamin C is what you need when you’re sick, right?). 

Paying and holding the bag of groceries, she was off once again, walking even faster until she reached Wonshik’s apartment door. “Shik?” she called, knocking a couple times. “Hey, man. You ain’t dead yet, are you?”

[hdxshik]

      he was sick, but honestly, it didn't matter all that too much to him. he felt rather like he was dying, lying there quietly as he stared up blankly at the ceiling, a congested cough leaving his lungs as he groaned softly, pulling the blankets over his face. the light hurt his eyes, and his headache pounded away rather steadily behind his temples. honestly, he rather hoped that he could die; it seemed like considerably less work and sounded much more appealing than suffering through what his life was at the moment.        the sound of a knock at the door broke his contemplation of whether or not death would require less effort than suffering through his congestion (but then again, the act of offing himself would require a great deal of effort as well). "i'm dead, hooray." his voice was completely clogged up and rather scratchy as he lumbered from the couch, where he had set up residence, to the door, to unlock the stupidly clumsy thing for his friend.        "i'm talking from beyond the grave." he grumbled at the sight of the girl standing there, huffing rather ineffectually, as he was still ridiculously clogged up. his voice was nasally, barely even audible now that he'd given up on actually making an effort to talk loudly, trundling back towards the couch and flopping onto the plush surface, trusting stephanie to close and lock the door behind her.        "why're you here?" he muttered, his eyes closing as he drew the blanket over his face, his already muffled voice even more unintelligible with the thick fabric covering him.

[hdxshik]

▸ torpid truancy

[hdxnathan]

He was literally only doing this because Taekwoon had insisted he did — he didn’t particularly have the motivation to go back to school right after he had left it, and in a rather bad manner as well — but his cousin had gave him a whole speech of how this would be better for him and how he shouldn’t waste his life away on nothing special, especially since his parents were bound to find out eventually that he was no longer at Harvard and back in Seoul and if he was in school again, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad.

(As if. Taekwoon didn’t understand his situation with his parents but he decided to humor the other and go explore the campus of Hongik.)

Considering being back on campus literally just reminded him of being back at school where he was learning about something he didn’t care about at all in a language he didn’t fully understand and being called by a name he really couldn’t train himself to answer to, Hongbin was in a rather cloudy mood by the time his stomach started rumbling. He had swiped a bun from Cafe Espresso after his shift in order to fend off this hunger but it was inevitable that he would end up hungry.

He wandered around campus for a while longer — of course today of all days was the day he ended up getting lost too, right? — before he finally located the food slash cafeteria area where he could, hopefully get some lunch., Stepping inside and glancing around, he debated on what he wanted to get, wanting to come to a decision quickly since he was pretty sure his stomach was about to eat itself any moment now.

[hdxshik]

he yawned as he clutched at his cup from the starbucks in the student food court, his usual grande dark roast. he was simply too lazy to order anything particularly fancy, and the waiting only made it all the less appealing. ah… coffee was definitely a better choice than going to class. class was ridiculously boring, and he honestly had no idea how half these professors got their jobs, talking in a monotone voice as they did. highly observant were not the right words to describe him, as was quite clearly shown by the next thing he did — bump into an unsuspecting student, his coffee sloshing out of its cup as it splashed all over his hand and onto the other boy’s shirt, dark brown staining the lovely cream-colored sweater that the other happened to be wearing. well, shit. wasn’t this just lovely. he was obviously extremely competent at everything today, and even lazy as he was, he couldn’t possibly walk away from the other boy. “… shit, sorry. are you okay? i didn’t mean to…” he winced slightly, glancing at the face of the poor student he’d just… uh, destroyed the clothing of.

[hdxybr-deactivated20150325]

♔ devil's right hand — bora & shik

Those little breaks between classes at university were Bora’s favorite. They didn’t last long, but it was enough to do everything needed. Some time she would go have a lunch or go for a cup of coffee with friends, but those she enjoyed the most were those when she went to smoke. There was a really special place near the university where all students who smoked would gather. Atmosphere was always so nice. It was never uncomfortable to be there, even if you were without your friends. That’s how Bora met a lot of students in the university and how she made some friends as well.  That day, Bora was grumpy. She didn’t feel like eating and she already drank two cups of coffee - a third would be too much indeed. She went to the so-called smoking place, where she could free her mind from all the things that were bringing her down. There weren’t many students there and she knew only one of them. On the other side, she noticed a new male, somebody she had never seen before, neither on the halls or there. He was leaning against the wall and she, wanting to be friendly as always, leaned against the wall next to him in attempt to start a conversation.  But as soon as she was there, a cigarette that was in her right hand burned the student. Bora had too many arguments for past few weeks that she didn’t need another, especially not that day. Her reaction was quicker than his as she glanced on his hand that started to show a circle-shaped red mark. “Oh shit, I’m so sorry.” was all she was able to say.

[hdxshik]

      he cultivated a bit of an unhealthy habit. that wasn't news to him. he'd never exactly been one to particularly concern himself with that, and often even neglected to take care of wounds he received or illnesses he'd caught. it was simply too much work to deal with almost everything, and he figured as long as he wasn't puking up his guts, or losing a limb from gangrene, his body would probably get better without all too much effort. the excuse not to attend school helped a good deal, too. he did so hate going to school, where all the attention the teachers demanded drained his energy.        lazily, he slouched his way over to the area of the university he'd heard was exclusive to smokers. he himself was one; although he didn't make a habit of smoking more than once daily, and often even less than that, a good cigarette was always a welcome feeling in his fingers and in his lungs.       leaning against the wall lazily, he contemplated moving over to actually talk to people, but that, too, sounded like a good deal more work than was appealing to him. instead, when a girl moved in his direction to talk to him, he inclined his head politely, expecting some kind of greeting as she leaned against the wall next to him. not pain, that shot through his hand, and he glanced down at it dully, sighing a little bit at the burn that had manifested on his hand.      "oh," he sighed softly, shaking his head slightly. just what he needed. he didn't want to have to clean it and everything of the like -- that just seemed far, far too annoying.

[hdxshik]

▸ torpid truancy

      he contemplated whether or not he wanted to go to his next class silently. it was drawing closer to the end of the winter term, and his motivation to attend class was steadily dropping. he was more than guaranteed to pass the class, so why exactly was he bothering? he wasn't quite sure.        it wasn't like they were teaching anything important in class to begin with, anyways. his time would surely be better spent if he was... napping. yes. napping sounded like a fantastic idea. good job, kim wonshik. (of course he had to congratulate himself. if he didn't, no one else would.)       why had he chosen to take a winter class again? they weren't required, so why had he willingly put himself through the torture of having to go places during the winter? it just didn't add up to him sometimes. wandering into their main building, he headed straight for the food. what did he want to eat today...?

[admirateurs]