shades of yellow » han seojun ff

57. amber

CLAD IN AN OVERSIZED purple hoodie, face-mask and cap, Seojun was prowling the streets of Seoul when he felt a bicycle come to a stop next to him. Reflexively, he looked away, only to hear a familiar voice saying, "It's alright, it's me."

It was Yeonwoo, on her trusty yellow bicycle. She rang the bell cheerfully. "Thought I'd take her out for a spin, and she seems to be working perfectly fine. I made Heiran's husband promise to take her out twice a year to clean and oil it. Are you allowed to ride your motorbike?"

"Nope," replied Seojun glumly.

"What?! Heekyung banned you? That doesn't seem very characteristic of her."

"It wasn't her, it was my mother."

Yeonwoo laughed. "I should have expected that." She patted the rear rack of the bicycle. "Wanna hop along? I remember in high school, I vowed to take you to school on my bicycle and not on that metal deathtrap."

"Seems like the roles have reversed, haven't they?" Seojun quipped, as he perched upon it. "Anyways, where are we going?"

"School—didn't I say so? Hang on!" With a lurch, she began pedalling, and Seojun reached out to gingerly hold the edges of her coat.

They rode through the streets of Seoul, and he was beginning to become painfully aware of the stares they were receiving; this freakishly tall guy was sitting at the back of the bicycle with his legs scrunched up while a similarly tall girl rode up front. 

"It's okay to hold onto my waist, you know."

"Haven't we had this conversation before?"

Seojun could tell from the way her cheeks were lifting up that Yeonwoo was smiling. A warm feeling zipped through his heart, his stomach turned to mush and he knew from that that he was still very much in love with her.

—

They rounded the corner and there their old school stood. It was still majestic-looking, with the ivy vines creeping over and around the brick.

They disembarked, and Yeonwoo wheeled her bicycle over to a bike rack where she locked it. She asked him, "Today's a Saturday—will the school be locked up?"

"Let's find out!" He tugged on her hand towards the school doors. He tried to push them open, but they were locked firmly shut.

So they walked around the building, checking to see if any of the classroom windows had been left open. And finally, she spotted one.

Giggling, they opened the window wider and stepped inside the classroom. Yeonwoo dusted off her pants and looked around the room in awe. "Hey, it's the old chemistry classroom!"

"And I still don't know the names of these chemicals," Seojun said, picking up a glass bottle with interest. Yeonwoo bounded over to him and inspected it critically.

"Me neither."

"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?"

She gave him a look. "I've been only studying music for the past five years, anything chemistry has already gone out of my head. Now let's go and see if we can find our old classroom!"

They went up to the second floor and peered at the signs until finally, Seojun found class 2-5. They stepped inside, breathing in the familiar smell of eraser dust and pencil shavings, paper and ink.

"Does Mr. Han still teach this class?" Yeonwoo asked, picking up a piece of chalk.

"Nah, he became a stay-at-home dad when Ikjun came along. He loves it though, and every time they come to the agency to pick up Heekyung-noona, he's wearing a baby sling and running towards Heekyung-noona like a character in a K-drama. She's just as bad, because she pushes past us screaming, Grapefruit, grapefruit, grapefruit! for some reason."

"It must be nice to love someone that much," Yeonwoo mused. But then, she halted, because she realised that it could be easily inferred to the conversation they had a few days ago, when they confessed they had had crushes on each other in high school.

But Seojun didn't seem to notice, for he said "Do you want to leave a little message for this class?"

Yeonwoo's eyes sparkled, "What kind of message?"

He took the chalk from her and began writing on the board in big, messy characters, HSJ WAS HERE!!!

"That's really risky! Of course, they're going to know it was you because you're famous and you were from this class!"

He waved a hand dismissively. "It's fine. I'll add this little note too!" in smaller letters, he wrote, and JYW. "Sure, you're a little bit famous as a cellist, but it'll be fun! We're like delinquents."

"Haven't you forgotten that we're twenty-five years old and not high schoolers anymore?" Her eyes widened. "If we get caught, we could get into jail for breaking into a facility. And it's not going to look very good for the both of us."

Seojun winced. "Damn it, you're right. I'll erase it." But before he could, a loud pair of footsteps could be heard coming towards them.

"Oh my goodness, hide!" They pushed each other towards the back of the classroom, where they could hide behind the lockers. Seojun sat down and pulled Yeonwoo in front of him.

Yeonwoo peeked out and could see a security guard poking his head into the doorway of the classroom. Behind her, Seojun whispered into her ear, "It seems that whenever we're together, we end up getting into these crazy situations. Remember the camping trip?"

Yeonwoo stifled her giggle. "Actually, Jugyeong told me a few days ago that she was the ghost."

"You're serious?" And he was the fool thinking it was a sign from Seyeon telling him not to hit on his sister.

Luckily, the guard didn't seem to notice what was written on the board, despite its glaring obviousness, and moved on.

"That was fun," Yeonwoo sighed, standing up. "But we should get out of here before we get caught for real."

"You want to leave the message as it is?"

"I'll change it, you go outside and keep a lookout."

Just before she left the classroom, Yeonwoo wiped the board clear and wrote her own little message at the bottom right corner of the board. In tiny and neat letters, she wrote in pure white chalk:

HSJ + JYW