Elaena was furious when she found out about it. It was the only thing all the girls could talk about since basically the entire female population of tenth grade was lovesick for Ten Lee. And any news about him and that new girl, Byeol, spread like wildfire.
"Hello, you two," Elaena said with a smile as sweet as poisoned honey as she passed by Byeol and Ten. They had their chairs faced one another as the class conversed, waiting for their English teacher to arrive.
Ten and Byeol gave her a look, each one with different feelings built behind them. Elaena sat down in her spot next to Byeol and heard the two going back to their conversation about the snow yesterday evening. She found it hard to keep her boiling anger under control so she tried to find something to distract her, and opened the camera app on her phone and fixed her already-perfect mascara.
"Hello there, sorry I'm late." A substitute teacher said loudly as he walked in. The class went quiet as they silently celebrated the Mr. Adams' absence. They got some lousy vocabulary assignment to work on, and soon the class returned to their loud nature again.
Elaena walked over to her friends on the other side of the classroom. They shared some more gossip and one of them talked about some really cute guy she met at a coffee shop this morning. Elaena couldn't help but keep glancing over at Ten and Byeol. The latter had moved from her seat to the empty one next to Ten, and they both were giggling about something that Ten showed her on his phone.
"Damn, Elaena, you look like you could kill her." Her friend to her right said.
"You better believe it," Elaena responded lowly. Her friends shared concerned glances, but they didn't blame her. And they always fully supported her- everything she did, at least in their eyes, was fully reasonable. No matter how bad it was.
"Class, listen up!" The substitute said. "I just got an email from your teacher about another assignment-" The class groaned but he went on nonetheless, explaining the directions and where to find the resources necessary in the textbooks. He asked for a volunteer to pass out the textbooks and Elaena's hand shot up without thinking.
She went around the room with the big stack in her arms, handing one out to each student. When she reached the middle of the classroom, she handed one to Ten, who took it with a blank expression and quickly averted his eyes from the annoying girl to the book on his desk. Byeol internally rolled her eyes at the two of them and rested one hand on the desk, curved, and bent over to the side to pull out her pencil case from her backpack. Suddenly, she felt a crushing weight on her hand and could feel multiple sickening cracks. She screamed from the pain out of reflex, straightening up to see at least seven of the heavy textbooks on top of her right hand.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Elaena's disgustingly convincing voice said as she covered her hands with her mouth, eyes wide with fake but believable shock. "I didn't see your hand there, the books just slipped from my arms-"
"Save it, Elaena!" Ten interrupted, standing up and lifting the books off of Byeol's hand. The girl gasped at the unbearable pain in her hand, slowly pulling it close to herself. She shut her eyes tightly and gripped the side of her chair with her other hand, trying her best not to show too many signs of pain in front of everyone, but she already failed. Ten rushed over to her side, crouching down and looking at her with a worried expression.
"What happened here?" The substitute hurried over and the class watched with piqued interest.
"The books started to slip because they were so heavy and I didn't see her hand. I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! I'm such a terrible person!" Elaena covered her face with her hands. The substitute softened, pursing his lips.
"Yeah, you really are," Ten mumbled and the substitute glared at him.
"Let's not be rude. It's okay, it was just an accident. Hey, are you okay?" He looked at Byeol who nodded even though it was clear she wasn't.
YOU ARE READING
Counting on Stars // NCT Ten
Fanfiction"It's just me, you, and the music." Byeol has moved schools again. It's normal. But just because things happen often doesn't make them easier. Throughout her difficult time adjusting to the new settings along with leaving so much behind, Byeol meets...
