February 9th T-5 Days
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize anyone else came here.” Chay looks up from his phone to the door of the music room where a boy is peeking his head in. Kim, Chay thinks his name is. They sat together on the first day of classes, and Kim asked to borrow a pen.Â
“No worries, you can come in, if you want. It’s just me.”
Kim hesitates for a second before grinning. “Thanks. You’re Chay, right? We have calculus together.”
Chay groans. “Please don’t remind me of that torture disguised as education.”
Kim laughs, sitting next to him and pulling a lunch box out of his bag. “So I’m not the only one who thinks that?”
“Nope,” Chay confirms. “And I bet you’re also thinking about how it’s taught by an old geezer with a stick up his ass, which I have to agree with.”
Kim almost chokes on his food, looking at Chay with a mixture of confusion and amusement. “I’m not sure I would’ve put it that way, but you’re not wrong.”
Chay laughs. “Do you come here a lot, by the way? I come here almost every day, but we’ve never crossed paths.”
Kim nods, swallowing a bite of food before speaking. “I do too, but I usually have student council meetings during this block.”
"Student council?"
"I'm the president."
Chay whistles, impressed. He probably should've known that, but he doesn't care much about class events.
"Cool," he says, then tilts his head. “Do you play?” he asks, gesturing at the decorative little guitar pick dangling from Kim’s necklace.
“Yeah, I do, actually. You too?” Chay nods.Â
“Do you have one of your own?” Chay asks, and he sees Kim’s eyes light up.
“I do. I don’t mean to brag, but,” he says, leaning in as he pulls out his phone to show Chay a picture.
After that, the flood gates open. They talk for hours. Not hours. They talk for the whole lunch break, but it feels like hours. Chay’s never had a better first impression of someone. Whenever he meets new people, even when he first met Ohm, he tends to be very polite, smiling kindly and being slightly reserved. But today? He feels like he can’t stop talking, and Kim returns his enthusiasm in kind. It’s like they’ve been good friends for years, rather than strangers until thirty minutes ago. He's surprised how nice it is to hang out with Kim, but maybe that's his own biases about The Popular Kids creeping in.
Their interests seem perfectly aligned, and they don’t run out of things to talk about the whole time. Chay wants to invite Kim over so he can show him the guitar Porsche got him for Christmas, and they can play together. It’s very weird, since Chay’s never wanted to bring anyone over, let alone someone he just met. It’s not even that he thinks Kim would decline, Kim seems just as thrilled as he is to be sharing these kinds of conversations.
To be honest, he feels a little special to see a side of the boy he doesn’t show to just anyone. Well, at least, he’s never shown it to Chay before... He feels a little less special after that thought. This is probably how Kim is with all his friends, and since Chay’s never had a proper conversation with him before, it would make sense that he’s never seen it.
They talk all the way up until the bell rings, letting them know they have five minutes to get to their next class, which, conveniently, is one they share. Chay stands and cracks his back, stiff from how he was leaning back on his arms. Kim waits for him to grab his bag before they start walking together.
“Valentine’s Day is coming up,” Kim says, holding the door open for Chay. “Have anyone special you’re gonna buy chocolates for?”
Chay chuckles a little. “Not me. I’m too busy trying to graduate.”
Kim nods his head, looking forward as they walk through the halls.
Chay bites his cheek. It’s the first awkward silence since they started talking, and he doesn’t like it at all.
“What about you?” Chay asks to get the conversation flowing again.
Kim just shrugs.
Having no idea what to do with that, Chay keeps his mouth shut.Â
When they enter the classroom, Chay walks slowly, not sure if he’s supposed to sit in his usual seat or follow Kim. When Kim sits down and doesn’t acknowledge Chay, he takes it as a sign and almost starts to walk past Kim to his seat down the aisle, but he pauses, bites his lip, working up the nerve.Â
Finally, he turns back to Kim and holds out his phone.
“Can I get your number?” Chay says, which immediately sounds more forward than he was hoping for. But Kim just blinks at him, then chuckles and hands over his own phone. Chay quickly types his number in, and when he gets his phone back there’s a new contact: kim :)
