The Boy in the Rain (Day6 AU)

CHAPTER 10

You lumber down to the breakfast table. Your mom has pancakes out, and the smell is good enough to wake you up. "Good morning!"

"Hello there, dear." She pours you a glass of orange juice. You take your seat and both of you say a quick prayer before eating. As you cut through the fluffy layers of pancakes, your mother asks, "I haven't really seen you these past two days."

You bite your lip. "Yeah. Sorry about that. School's just been really tiring."

"I see. I'd love to hear more about what's happened in school these past couple days!"

You almost choke. You cough and flush it down with orange juice. You're not entirely sure what to say. You didn't want her to worry about you. She had enough on her mind already. "Uh, nothing much. I've been hanging out with Fiona and Dowoon again. Made another friend, too. His name is Wonpil."

"Ah, the three musketeers have been united again!" Your mom beams. "And who's Wonpil?"

"I'm not sure if you remember, but there was this boy in choir before–"

"Oh, the one you liked?"

"Mom!"

"Is this the good singer? You wouldn't stop talking about him when you were a kid–"

You feel a strong sense of secondary embarrassment for your past self. "I did not do that. No way."

"Yes way!" She looks over the house. "I think the video tape of it might be somewhere in these boxes..."

"Oh God, mom, please don't." You hold your head in your hand.

"Alright, alright!" she says, chuckling. You glance up at her. You're mildly annoyed, but it's just great to see her smile. Knowing that her child seemed to be adjusting well and reconnecting with old friends (and flames, as your mom would probably put it) filled her heart with so much joy. You wanted that to be true, for her sake. Your mom continues, "Maybe some other time then. Eat up. You'll be late for school."

The first half of the school day passes by relatively uneventfully. The teachers are starting to pick up steam as they delve into your subjects, and your first few assignments are coming in. You spend lunch with Fiona, Wonpil and Dowoon.

"Hey, have you guys signed up for the music club yet?" Wonpil wonders out loud.

"Oh right. We didn't have time to sign up after lunch yesterday. Want to sign up together later?" Dowoon invites. You all agree and then head to the nearest bulletin board after eating.

Wonpil scans the board until he finds the sign-up sheet for the music club. "Here it is!"

Wonpil takes out a pen from his pocket and scribbles his name. Then he hands the pen to Dowoon, who proceeds to write. When it's your turn, your eyes flit up to the name that's just above Wonpil's. You stop cold.

Park Sungjin.

You hesitate. You can't seem to move your hand. You glance toward the others. Fiona is writing on the sheet for drama club, and the other two are busy talking with each other. You turn back in front of you, feeling your gut tremble as the writing on the paper taunted you.

I can't do this, you think in a cold sweat. You're panicking inside. I don't know what to do.

Why were you like this? Why were you so easily paralyzed by this boy?

... Were you actually considering bailing on music club and your friends just because of him?

You feel like curling up into a ball in your bed again. But the thought calls to mind the memory of Brian's voice over the phone, singing to you until all your broken pieces felt mended together again. You breathe.

You are going to sign up. You bite your lip, still unable to write your name. But you have to sort things with Sungjin first before you do that.

Quietly, you retract your hand and hand the pen to Wonpil. He and Dowoon are so absorbed in their conversation that he doesn't notice that you haven't written your name yet when he takes the pen back from you.

Fiona checks her watch. "Alright, that's done! We should start heading to our classes."

"Okay! See you guys around!" Wonpil bids you all goodbye and jogs away. Fiona and Dowoon likewise split. As you walk to your next class, you feel like your legs are moving on autopilot. Life wasn't giving you any other option than to deal with your problems, and it scared you to death.