Chen watches as some of the leaves flutter with the wind, disentangling them from the branches they loosely hang onto. He wonders what it would be like to lie down in the school field like the leaves that have collected on the grass and fall asleep. He lazily looks at his class, there are still only a few people despite it being close to class time. He sighs because somehow he’d known that high school would suck.
The sound of the seat beside him being sat on fills his ears and he turns his head to the right where he finds a rather pale looking boy fixing his own things to probably get ready for the first day of school. He doesn't know how long he's been staring but it must have been quite a while because the boy turns to him with a questioning look.
"Is there something wrong?" The boy asks and Chen blinks at him because he's not sure if the question was directed at him.
The boy blinks back at him but then he smiles and Chen could've sworn a choir had begun to sing. "I'm Suho."
Suho extends an arm in Chen’s direction and he doesn’t know why but his heart beat quickens as he slowly accepts the hand offered to him. He swallows his own saliva and wills his heart to calm down, “Chen.” He manages to croak out.
“Are you new here?” Suho proceeds to ask, turning his eyes away from Chen for a moment as he sets his bag aside and Chen looks at him as if he can’t believe he’s seriously asking that question.
“Aren’t we all?” Chen asks instead and Suho raises a brow like he doesn’t believe Chen for a moment.
“I’ve never seen you here before so you must be new...” Suho trails off.
“I’m a freshman.” Chen shrugs, “Aren’t you one, too? Seeing as you’re in class 1B’s room.”
Suho’s eyes widen, “Excuse me, did you say I’m in class 1B’s room?”
Chen nods slowly as he watches Suho begin to pack his things and sling his bag over his shoulder. He turns to Chen and smiles at him a little sweetly and apologetically at the same and says, “Sorry, I’m in the wrong room.”
Suho chuckles as he gets off the chair. “It was nice meeting you, though, Chen ssi.” He pats Chen on the head and leaves the room, practically dashing out of there.
It takes Chen a few more seconds before he turns his eyes away from the door where Suho has just exited. The warmth of Suho’s hand linger on his head even though he doesn’t know for sure how he can feel it since his hair is pretty thick. Regretfully, he turns his gaze back to the window where he continues to watch more leaves flutter but his heart doesn’t stop pounding in his ribs. He blames it on nerves that one normally would have on the first day of school. Deep down, he knows that it isn’t true.
Two weeks pass and Chen hasn’t heard from Suho at all. It’s not like he’s expecting, too. But he at least thought that he would see Suho in the halls of their school building.
“Chen!” Chen resists the urge to roll his eyes as his classmate, Baekhyun, invades his personal space, sitting on his desk and forcing his attention to him instead of the window Chen would normally pick over Baekhyun any day.
“What?” He replies a bit disinterestedly.
“Remember that kid who sat beside you on the first day?” Baekhyun begins his feet dangling on the side of Chen’s desk making his seat and Chen vibrate in the process. Chen doesn’t bother replying but Baekhyun goes on anyways. “Turns out he’s an upperclassman.”
There is a blank look Chen sports as Baekhyun turns to look at him. Chen doesn’t even know why Baekhyun is telling him this. Not that he doesn’t appreciate it but it’s not exactly necessary information. Just when he’s about to ask, Baekhyun adds with a shrug, “He introduced himself to you, I overheard. Thought you’d want to know what happened to him, is all. Plus,” at this his eyes begin to have different gleam in it, almost as if he’s planning something mischievous, “you always seem to be looking for someone whenever we’re in the hallways.”
But Chen is unwavering with his expression. He just turns his eyes away and looks back out the window. He doesn’t ask Baekhyun how he knows, even if he wants to, doesn’t want to question Baekhyun’s observations but he also doesn’t deny anything. He keeps his mouth shut and pieces his thoughts together. He’s thankful Baekhyun leaves him when he does.
What he finds in the school field as he looks out the window is not fluttering leaves or a field of green grass but a bunch of students holding up signs and banners for what he assumes to be the freshmen candidates who will be participating for the student council. At first he wants to take his gaze back to the leaves and watch them fall but then something catches his eyes and his gaze lingers a little more on the crowd of freshmen and upperclassmen.
He spots Suho smiling widely and happily amongst the crowd on what seems to be the stage. He is guiding the four freshmen to their respective positions so they can be showcased for the whole batch. He looks around the classroom and realizes that only a few of them are left inside and he debates momentarily if he should join the crowd or watch from afar.
It isn’t much of a decision, he realizes, because he’s suddenly pushing his chair back and exiting the room, going down a few flight of stairs and curses his lucky stars why the rooms for freshmen are on the fourth floor.
When he gets to the field, he finds that he’s so far back that he can barely see the candidates, he does see their class representative however. But he’s not here for them, if he were to be honest with himself. He looks around the crowd trying to spot the pale faced upperclassman who had the smile that could light up a city suffering from a black out.
A defeated sighs escapes his lips when he can’t find Suho. He turns back and walks somewhat defeatedly back to his classroom and tries not to think about the flight of stairs he will trek on to get to it. He doesn’t notice the rather offending piece of stone in front of him even if he’s looking rather determinedly at the ground and that’s when he trips.
The world slows down for a moment as he braces himself for the fall. He’s expecting to crash to the ground and wills the pain to just hit him so he can curl up in shame and possibly die. But it never comes. Instead he feels someone grip his arm and he turns and feels himself plop on something else that he knows for sure isn’t the green grass.
When he opens his eyes, the sun is literally blinding him and making it hard to see his savior but it isn’t long before said savior helps him stand upright, a hand on his waist and the other still holding onto his arm.
“Are you ok?” And Chen recognizes the voice and he loses the ability to breathe. The sun becomes less of a bother as he squints and realizes that his savior is in fact none other than Suho. He can feel about a hundred pairs of eyes watching them and he scrambles to his feet, Suho guiding him to stand up straight.
“Ugh, yeah, I am.” Chen dusts himself off and he hopes he’s not blushing because he feels his face burning.
“Chen!” And he mentally curses because Suho remembers who he is, which is kind of embarrassing because he just made a fool of himself by tripping.
“Suho!” Someone else calls out and they both turn their head to a geeky looking student with glasses almost falling off the bridge of his nose as he approaches them.
“Look! I captured your superhero moment on camera!” The geeky looking guy says and Chen gapes as he sees himself in the camera with eyes closed in the arms of Suho who looks absolutely glorious in his stance.
“We could definitely use this for the school paper!” The geeky guy says as he begins to press next on his camera to view his other captures and Chen realizes with horror that the guy took a series of snapshots and he actually watches himself plummet to his doom.
“Don’t forget to send me a copy, Kyuhyun hyung.” Suho replies as the geeky guy, Kyuhyun, walks away with his camera in his hands.
“Nice to see you again.” Suho says as he dusts off Chen’s jacket and smiles this sweet smile that almost makes Chen gape. “We’re you here to show your support for your representative?”
Chen splutters at a loss for words and decides on just nodding and settling for a smile or a smirk or something that it isn’t exactly a blank expression. Suho watches him with amused eyes as he takes hold of Chen’s wrist and begins to lead him back to the crowd.
When Suho turns his gaze back to Chen, his eyes are shining, his smile is blinding and the sun is casting him a glow that makes him look ethereal and Chen feels an epiphany form at the depths of his mind.
Chen finds himself staying up late thinking of saccharine smiles and warm hands on his wrist. He doesn’t sleep until he notices that his alarm is blinking red angry symbols of 3:00AM in his eyes. And even then, all he sees is the ethereal glow that Suho had emanated that day.
