Feathers of Black and White: Chapter 2 - A Note For You
It was lunch time and I could hear Chanyeol chewing on his food from across our small table. He’s such a messy eater that I ended up placing my sketchpad on my knees, saving my work from bits of food that would fly off the giant’s mouth. Ironically enough, I was sketching my angel eating on a cafeteria table as civilized as a teenager could be - or how imagined a decent teenager would eat.
“Hey, are you even listening?”
“Yes,” no, I wasn’t.
“Yeah, what did I say then?”
I looked up at him and gave a sheepish smile. I’ve been caught.
“I thought so,” Chanyeol said as he chuckled, gulping down a good amount of soda from his bottle. “I asked if you’ve seen the school’s popular group of kids.”
Thinking, my head tilted to the side as I bit my lower lip, absentmindedly shading my angel’s eyes as I tried my hardest to ponder over Chanyeol’s question.
My time alone is usually spent doodling stuff on my sketchpad, experimenting on the different views and shapes wings could muster whether they’re in motion or at rest. I prefer them at rest though, widely spread on both side to display its breathtaking beauty. And no matter how many times I pick up a different color from the bag of paint beforehand, I always end up filling up the palette with black paint, coloring the pair of wings with it. And if a group of popular students would pass by me, I wouldn’t have noticed, my mind’s too preoccupied with wings to do so.
No, I haven’t seen them but I’ve definitely heard of them. Word around school says the group is almost inseparable, going almost everywhere together even outside the class. Everyone even thought they’ll talk to the higher ups about hooking them all up on a single schedule so they could stick together but they didn’t, they have different schedules - and different years too, so I guess some of them are older than the others in their group. As to why they were popular though was something I didn’t understand nor was I interested with it.
Unless they were beings with black wings.
“I saw one of them eyeing you once,” Chanyeol said as he let out a sigh of content, finally full from the huge lunch he just had. I looked at him again though, thinking of how ridiculous it sounded.
I wasn’t a member of any sporty club, nor was I attending any of the local parties held inside the school. If I wasn’t anywhere with Chanyeol or in one of my classes, I’d be inside the art club’s room or inside my dorm room, drawing. I blended with the walls and the floors and with the other students, I was the invisible kid seated at the far end corner of a room. And I was pretty sure Chanyeol’s height was enough to hide my small body from the rest of the school, so it couldn’t have been me who’s being eyed by one of the popular kids.
“It must have been someone else.”
“No, it was you. He stayed looking even after the ball hit his face.”
I closed my sketchpad and slurped some of my shake, a pathetic excuse of a lunch in Chanyeol’s point of view because apparently I needed to eat something else that’s more nutritious than fruit shake if I wanted to grow any taller.
I shook my head.
“Trust me, he was looking at you. He still is, actually.”
Startled, I looked around to try and see if anyone was indeed looking at us and just my luck, the bell rang and almost every student inside the cafeteria started to get up from their table and flocks off to wherever their class is. Aside from all the body and heads heading to the cafeteria exit, there wasn’t a single pair of eyes directed at our table. I heard Chanyeol loudly get up, thrusting my backpack onto my chest as he stood beside me. Slowly getting up, I kept my eyes alert to almost everyone, hoping to catch someone.
“Stop glaring, he already left. Now, hurry up,” Chanyeol said as he dragged me to our next class, and there I sat down with someone I didn’t know so I assumed he was a transfer student.
It wasn’t hard to notice when you get a new seatmate in class, especially when the previous one wore a heavily rimmed reading glass and baggy clothes and had his face molding itself on the textbook - almost literally. So when I sat down on my chair and noticed a good looking guy wearing a simple tee and jeans with deliciously tanned skin I almost choked on air because one: I am not one to do well under pressure and sitting next to someone this handsome forces my brain to work overtime, and two: it’s definitely hard to try and focus on the lecture when you’re constantly trying to sneak a peek at your side. He stayed silent though, looking straight forward and paying me no mind. He was biting the tip of his pen as he tried to process whatever it was the professor was spewing about in one go and I found myself fascinated at how his forehead would crease in confusion, how beautiful it was to hear him softly chuckle when he found something amusing, and how his voice sounded so melodious when the teacher asked him something and he answered with confidence though his tone clearly said he’s only guessing - and yet he answered correctly.
I felt my heart skip a beat though when he sat down and flashed me a small smile before he’s going back to his intent listening, my face heating up I could feel it up to the tips of my ears that I needed to look down at my hands on our shared table in fear of him seeing my reddened face.
Embarrassing, yet I couldn’t help the fluttering feeling I was having after that - butterfly wings moving inside my stomach, heart pounding so hard I was afraid he’ll hear it. If this is what people feel when they see someone they were having a crush on, then now I completely understand the amount of energy they have when they talk animatedly about that special someone.
I definitely owe Chanyeol an apology.
In an attempt to calm myself down and to try and let the blush subside naturally, I picked up my pen and let myself immerse in drawing, automatically ending up making a pair of wings’ contours, carefully mapping out the place where each of the feathers will be. And just like that, the calm I was aiming for entered my system, and I couldn’t hear nor feel anything outside my little world of limited imagination.
A neatly folded piece of paper fell on top of my notebook though and when I looked up, I saw the same small smile from the tan male before he’s walking away out of the room, and the bell ringing for the next class was gradually making itself into my ears.
Feeling the blush come back I unfolded the paper and tried to decipher the message written in a messy scribble of letters.
Hi! I like your wings.
-Kai
I felt the seat beside mine being occupied and wasn’t surprised when a lanky arm made its way onto my shoulders.
“You’re all red, are you okay?” Chanyeol asked and I was rereading the small note still in my hands, I nodded dumbly.
“Hey, Yeol?”
“Yes, Soo?”
“Do you like my wings?”
There was a small moment of silence that passed between us and I pictured Chanyeol trying to figure out if I had asked him something legit or if I was just talking to myself again. There was a sigh as I heard the room’s noise gradually die down. The teacher had just entered and Chanyeol removed his arm from my shoulders, trying to look like he’s going to pay attention - which he won’t.
“I guess they’re okay, why?” he said softly before the teacher started talking, and like always I wasn’t listening.
I folded the note again, placing them on one of my sketchpad’s pages for safe keeping.
I smiled softly.
“Someone told me they liked my wings.”
===============
“Please tell me you did something,” Baekhyun asked over our last class for the day. “I don’t want my money being wasted on nothing.”
Apparently, Baekhyun had asked one of the students on my physics class to change seats with me in exchange for a physics book he had to buy a few days ago. It had cost him a few thousands and threatened to castrate me if I didn’t do anything to let my existence known to him.
I sighed and nodded which didn’t erase the annoyed expression on Baekhyun’s face. He wasn’t satisfied with my answer, clearly sending me mental messages to explain myself.
“I wrote him a note,” I said as I copied down a formula that the teacher said would be crucial on our prelim exams.
“A note?”
I nodded and Baekhyun groaned.
“Well, what kind of note?” the irritation in his voice was so evident I had to keep myself from chuckling lest he snaps and strangles me.
I couldn’t believe the kind of nervousness I felt when Baekhyun told me to sit beside him on physics because he’ll be my seatmate from today onwards, going through how he had managed to do it so quick I hadn’t had the time to process it and when I entered the room my usual seat was taken by a guy wearing some baggy clothes and heavily rimmed glasses. I glanced to wear he usually sat and there he was, trapped in his small little world like always and I felt my heart skip a beat as I slowly made my way closer, finally sitting down beside him.
He hadn’t noticed, like all the things he failed to notice when he’s doing something he loved so I let myself get preoccupied with the lesson. But like always, everything about him just naturally attracts me and I just couldn’t help to take small peeks at him as he stayed looking down on his notebook, doodling random stuff. I felt him looking at me at times though that made me so nervous I ended up chewing on the tip of my pen, my hands sweating so much and my heart thundering inside my chest I was almost positive he could hear it. My mind went blank and I almost choked on my own spit as the teacher called my name to answer a question I didn’t know the answer to, so I guessed and was luckily right. And like it was the most natural thing to do, I smiled at him as I sat down, and for a moment the fear was back.
He didn’t know me, he still doesn’t have any idea of who I was and yet I did something a bit too risky for my liking.
I saw him blush from the corner of my eyes as I looked in front again, and I was terrified he’ll burn up. Luckily though, he didn’t. He started doodling again instead and I couldn’t help but look at how intricate he was doing it. I saw what it was that had him calm down as the blush crawls away from his cheeks and the sad feeling crept its way into my system.
Wings
He was drawing a pair of wings on his notebook. He was so careful with it as if he’s afraid he’ll make a mistake and ruin the things, like he’s trying to keep the purity on the pair of wings and I tried to stop myself from yanking him closer to me and hug him.
Instead I made a note, the simplest note I could come up with without saying too much and dropped it on his notebook, smiling as I made my way out of the room for my next class.
“I told him I liked his wings,” I said to Baekhyun.
“And he didn’t burn up?” he asked as he gaped at me, surprise probably at my bold move.
I shook my head, he sighed.
“That’s a good sign,” he said as he played with the pen on his hand. “He’s never good with compliments anyway; he’s too shy for that.”
I smiled at that.
“It’s true though,” Baekhyun added as the last bell for the day rang and he stretched out, popping of few bones on his back as he sighed contentedly.
“What?”
“Aside from him alone, you’ve always had a thing for his wings,” he said in a tone of finality as he pulled all his things from our table and dropped them messily in his bag.
I shrugged and smiled fondly as I stood up.
“They were the purest ones my eyes ever laid eyes on.”
“Hey, are you even listening?”
“Yes,” no, I wasn’t.
“Yeah, what did I say then?”
I looked up at him and gave a sheepish smile. I’ve been caught.
“I thought so,” Chanyeol said as he chuckled, gulping down a good amount of soda from his bottle. “I asked if you’ve seen the school’s popular group of kids.”
Thinking, my head tilted to the side as I bit my lower lip, absentmindedly shading my angel’s eyes as I tried my hardest to ponder over Chanyeol’s question.
My time alone is usually spent doodling stuff on my sketchpad, experimenting on the different views and shapes wings could muster whether they’re in motion or at rest. I prefer them at rest though, widely spread on both side to display its breathtaking beauty. And no matter how many times I pick up a different color from the bag of paint beforehand, I always end up filling up the palette with black paint, coloring the pair of wings with it. And if a group of popular students would pass by me, I wouldn’t have noticed, my mind’s too preoccupied with wings to do so.
No, I haven’t seen them but I’ve definitely heard of them. Word around school says the group is almost inseparable, going almost everywhere together even outside the class. Everyone even thought they’ll talk to the higher ups about hooking them all up on a single schedule so they could stick together but they didn’t, they have different schedules - and different years too, so I guess some of them are older than the others in their group. As to why they were popular though was something I didn’t understand nor was I interested with it.
Unless they were beings with black wings.
“I saw one of them eyeing you once,” Chanyeol said as he let out a sigh of content, finally full from the huge lunch he just had. I looked at him again though, thinking of how ridiculous it sounded.
I wasn’t a member of any sporty club, nor was I attending any of the local parties held inside the school. If I wasn’t anywhere with Chanyeol or in one of my classes, I’d be inside the art club’s room or inside my dorm room, drawing. I blended with the walls and the floors and with the other students, I was the invisible kid seated at the far end corner of a room. And I was pretty sure Chanyeol’s height was enough to hide my small body from the rest of the school, so it couldn’t have been me who’s being eyed by one of the popular kids.
“It must have been someone else.”
“No, it was you. He stayed looking even after the ball hit his face.”
I closed my sketchpad and slurped some of my shake, a pathetic excuse of a lunch in Chanyeol’s point of view because apparently I needed to eat something else that’s more nutritious than fruit shake if I wanted to grow any taller.
I shook my head.
“Trust me, he was looking at you. He still is, actually.”
Startled, I looked around to try and see if anyone was indeed looking at us and just my luck, the bell rang and almost every student inside the cafeteria started to get up from their table and flocks off to wherever their class is. Aside from all the body and heads heading to the cafeteria exit, there wasn’t a single pair of eyes directed at our table. I heard Chanyeol loudly get up, thrusting my backpack onto my chest as he stood beside me. Slowly getting up, I kept my eyes alert to almost everyone, hoping to catch someone.
“Stop glaring, he already left. Now, hurry up,” Chanyeol said as he dragged me to our next class, and there I sat down with someone I didn’t know so I assumed he was a transfer student.
It wasn’t hard to notice when you get a new seatmate in class, especially when the previous one wore a heavily rimmed reading glass and baggy clothes and had his face molding itself on the textbook - almost literally. So when I sat down on my chair and noticed a good looking guy wearing a simple tee and jeans with deliciously tanned skin I almost choked on air because one: I am not one to do well under pressure and sitting next to someone this handsome forces my brain to work overtime, and two: it’s definitely hard to try and focus on the lecture when you’re constantly trying to sneak a peek at your side. He stayed silent though, looking straight forward and paying me no mind. He was biting the tip of his pen as he tried to process whatever it was the professor was spewing about in one go and I found myself fascinated at how his forehead would crease in confusion, how beautiful it was to hear him softly chuckle when he found something amusing, and how his voice sounded so melodious when the teacher asked him something and he answered with confidence though his tone clearly said he’s only guessing - and yet he answered correctly.
I felt my heart skip a beat though when he sat down and flashed me a small smile before he’s going back to his intent listening, my face heating up I could feel it up to the tips of my ears that I needed to look down at my hands on our shared table in fear of him seeing my reddened face.
Embarrassing, yet I couldn’t help the fluttering feeling I was having after that - butterfly wings moving inside my stomach, heart pounding so hard I was afraid he’ll hear it. If this is what people feel when they see someone they were having a crush on, then now I completely understand the amount of energy they have when they talk animatedly about that special someone.
I definitely owe Chanyeol an apology.
In an attempt to calm myself down and to try and let the blush subside naturally, I picked up my pen and let myself immerse in drawing, automatically ending up making a pair of wings’ contours, carefully mapping out the place where each of the feathers will be. And just like that, the calm I was aiming for entered my system, and I couldn’t hear nor feel anything outside my little world of limited imagination.
A neatly folded piece of paper fell on top of my notebook though and when I looked up, I saw the same small smile from the tan male before he’s walking away out of the room, and the bell ringing for the next class was gradually making itself into my ears.
Feeling the blush come back I unfolded the paper and tried to decipher the message written in a messy scribble of letters.
Hi! I like your wings.
-Kai
I felt the seat beside mine being occupied and wasn’t surprised when a lanky arm made its way onto my shoulders.
“You’re all red, are you okay?” Chanyeol asked and I was rereading the small note still in my hands, I nodded dumbly.
“Hey, Yeol?”
“Yes, Soo?”
“Do you like my wings?”
There was a small moment of silence that passed between us and I pictured Chanyeol trying to figure out if I had asked him something legit or if I was just talking to myself again. There was a sigh as I heard the room’s noise gradually die down. The teacher had just entered and Chanyeol removed his arm from my shoulders, trying to look like he’s going to pay attention - which he won’t.
“I guess they’re okay, why?” he said softly before the teacher started talking, and like always I wasn’t listening.
I folded the note again, placing them on one of my sketchpad’s pages for safe keeping.
I smiled softly.
“Someone told me they liked my wings.”
===============
“Please tell me you did something,” Baekhyun asked over our last class for the day. “I don’t want my money being wasted on nothing.”
Apparently, Baekhyun had asked one of the students on my physics class to change seats with me in exchange for a physics book he had to buy a few days ago. It had cost him a few thousands and threatened to castrate me if I didn’t do anything to let my existence known to him.
I sighed and nodded which didn’t erase the annoyed expression on Baekhyun’s face. He wasn’t satisfied with my answer, clearly sending me mental messages to explain myself.
“I wrote him a note,” I said as I copied down a formula that the teacher said would be crucial on our prelim exams.
“A note?”
I nodded and Baekhyun groaned.
“Well, what kind of note?” the irritation in his voice was so evident I had to keep myself from chuckling lest he snaps and strangles me.
I couldn’t believe the kind of nervousness I felt when Baekhyun told me to sit beside him on physics because he’ll be my seatmate from today onwards, going through how he had managed to do it so quick I hadn’t had the time to process it and when I entered the room my usual seat was taken by a guy wearing some baggy clothes and heavily rimmed glasses. I glanced to wear he usually sat and there he was, trapped in his small little world like always and I felt my heart skip a beat as I slowly made my way closer, finally sitting down beside him.
He hadn’t noticed, like all the things he failed to notice when he’s doing something he loved so I let myself get preoccupied with the lesson. But like always, everything about him just naturally attracts me and I just couldn’t help to take small peeks at him as he stayed looking down on his notebook, doodling random stuff. I felt him looking at me at times though that made me so nervous I ended up chewing on the tip of my pen, my hands sweating so much and my heart thundering inside my chest I was almost positive he could hear it. My mind went blank and I almost choked on my own spit as the teacher called my name to answer a question I didn’t know the answer to, so I guessed and was luckily right. And like it was the most natural thing to do, I smiled at him as I sat down, and for a moment the fear was back.
He didn’t know me, he still doesn’t have any idea of who I was and yet I did something a bit too risky for my liking.
I saw him blush from the corner of my eyes as I looked in front again, and I was terrified he’ll burn up. Luckily though, he didn’t. He started doodling again instead and I couldn’t help but look at how intricate he was doing it. I saw what it was that had him calm down as the blush crawls away from his cheeks and the sad feeling crept its way into my system.
Wings
He was drawing a pair of wings on his notebook. He was so careful with it as if he’s afraid he’ll make a mistake and ruin the things, like he’s trying to keep the purity on the pair of wings and I tried to stop myself from yanking him closer to me and hug him.
Instead I made a note, the simplest note I could come up with without saying too much and dropped it on his notebook, smiling as I made my way out of the room for my next class.
“I told him I liked his wings,” I said to Baekhyun.
“And he didn’t burn up?” he asked as he gaped at me, surprise probably at my bold move.
I shook my head, he sighed.
“That’s a good sign,” he said as he played with the pen on his hand. “He’s never good with compliments anyway; he’s too shy for that.”
I smiled at that.
“It’s true though,” Baekhyun added as the last bell for the day rang and he stretched out, popping of few bones on his back as he sighed contentedly.
“What?”
“Aside from him alone, you’ve always had a thing for his wings,” he said in a tone of finality as he pulled all his things from our table and dropped them messily in his bag.
I shrugged and smiled fondly as I stood up.
“They were the purest ones my eyes ever laid eyes on.”