Counting on Stars // NCT Ten

Chemistry

It's been two weeks since the incident with Elaena. Stuff still continued, small things like trying to make the new girl trip or giving her the wrong directions for an assignment, but since Byeol always found ways to get out of those harmless situations, she never cared too much about it. Mark asked her if she wanted to report Elaena, but it's barely been a month since she moved here. She didn't want to take anything too far.

Besides, practicing with Ten for the talent show was enough for her to forget about those issues. They picked Lovely by Billie Eilish and were working on making the choreography for it. (Actually, it was mostly Ten making the choreo because Byeol had never done anything of the sort, but she tried to help where she could.) They made it into the second verse so far, and would soon be at the pre-chorus.

Byeol had also gotten used to his huge friend group. He explained how they're one big group with smaller sub-groups, which were basically the ones who have the most similar classes or who spend the most time together. Apparently Sungchan and Shotaro had joined the group at the start of the school year, just a couple of months before Byeol, so those two stuck to one another a lot.

One day in chem, Ten and Byeol turned their chairs to face one another as they discussed their new project. It was super confusing, even though both of the students were really good at the subject. Byeol understood some aspects that Ten didn't, and vice versa.

"Why is it so hard?" Byeol grumbled as she glared at the assignment paper on her desk.

"Mrs. Brown sure loves us, doesn't she?" Ten said and rolled his eyes. His gaze then landed on someone behind Byeol and his face lit up.

"I got it!" He straightened up, waving at Kun who was standing by the trash can, sharpening his pencil.

"What?" Byeol asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"You know Kun, right? He's amazing at chemistry." Ten explained. "I'll ask him if he could help us!"

Byeol nodded as Ten got up and walked over to his friend.

"Hey," Ten said, and Kun waved. "Do you understand the new project? Byeol and I are partnered up and we can't figure out what to do. Who's your partner?"

"Jaehyun. And yeah, it's not that hard... Jaehyun's coming over after school so we can work on it. Do you both wanna come as well?" Kun smiled.

"Sure! Thanks, Kun!" Ten gave him a thumbs up and went back to Byeol to give her the rundown.

"So, can you come?" He asked once he was done.

"I don't know where he lives, but I think I can come," Byeol said, thinking of how her mom isn't going to be home anyways to ask any questions.

"That's no problem; meet me by the dance studio at the end of the day and we can walk there together. It's not too far."

After lunch and a few more classes, it was finally the end of the school day. Once the bell rang, Byeol and Ten made their way over to the dance studio (which was closed for the dance team that day) and smiled when they saw one another. Ten took her outside into the chilly air. The weather was getting cooler as the days of the year gradually came to an end. Byeol excitedly played around with the piles of dead leaves on the side of the footpath as they started to Kun's house. Ten explained where it was, calmly walking on the sidewalk, and Byeol made an 'o' with her mouth.

"That's not very far from where I live!" She exclaimed. "I live one street over."

"Wait, me too... Oakville drive?" Ten asked, and she nodded.

"Number 53, Oakville drive." She said.

"I'm in number 62," Ten said with a chuckle and she frowned.

"Then why are you always late in the morning? I thought you lived super far away or something!"