“How was your first day of school, Jongie?” Sungjong’s dad was reading a book on the couch when he walked through the door.

“It was great,” Sungjong said, a huge smile plastered across his face. “I made some new friends!”

His dad laughed. “That's a shock.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m just teasing. I’m glad you had a good first day.”

“Me too,” said Sungjong. “I’m going to go upstairs now. Is that okay?”

“Yep! One more thing, though. Your mother called. She wanted to talk to you about your first day of school. Call her back, okay?”

“Got it!” Sungjong grabbed a phone out of the kitchen on his way up to his room. Once he had thrown his backpack down by his desk, he threw himself down on his bed and dialed his mom’s cell phone number.

“Hello?” The voice of his mother echoed through the phone.

“Mom?”

“Sungjong!” She sounded delighted. “How are you? How was your first day of school? Is Seoul as bad as I told you it would be? Do you want me to come get you?”

Sungjong’s mother had been against him moving to Korea from the very beginning. Although she knew it was best for him to be living with his father in a place where he could get a better education, she was always trying to talk him out of the move.

“It’s all great, Mom. I promise. I really like my new school, actually! Everyone is nice.”

“Are you sure you’re not just sugar-coating things?”

“I’m sure.” Sungjong rolled his eyes. As much as he loved his mom, he wasn’t in the mood for her pessimism.

“How about your father? Is he acting up now that I’m not around to put him in his place? I bet you have to watch him all the time to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. I can just see it now. ‘Sungjong, would you do all my laundry?’ How many meals have you cooked for him? Probably all of them since you got there. That son of a—”

“Mom!” Sungjong interrupted her. “Please stop. Dad’s taking care of me just fine, so you don’t need to worry.”

“But he—”

“Stop! I hate how you’re always beating up on Dad. He hasn’t done anything wrong. So leave him alone!” he yelled angrily. With that, Sungjong hung up the phone. Then he threw it at his pillow and buried his face in his hands. “Why does she have to be like this?” he asked himself as he choked back tears. His mother was far too negative. I don’t want to be like her, he thought. I have to be positive, no matter what.

Sungjong sat on his bed for a few more minutes before his phone rang. Recognizing Dongwoo’s caller ID on the screen, he picked up immediately. “Dongwoo? What’s up?”

“Hey, Jongie,” Dongwoo giggled. “Wanna come to the mall with me and Hoya? He says he won’t go unless someone else comes along.”

“Sure, I’ll go!” Sungjong wanted to get out of the house anyway after that conversation with his mom. “Can you come pick me up?” He gave Dongwoo his address.

“Mmkay, be there in a few,” said Dongwoo.

By “a few,” Dongwoo meant about three minutes. Sungjong barely even had enough time to change out of his uniform before he drove up in front of his house and honked his horn.

“You got here fast,” remarked Sungjong as he hopped into the car.

Dongwoo nodded. “I actually live pretty near here. A lot of people from Seoul Academy live in this area.”

“Oh.” Sungjong wondered if Myungsoo was living anywhere near him.

“Thinking about Myungsoo?” Hoya’s voice surprised him. Sungjong hadn’t even realized that he was in the passenger’s seat.

“N-no! Aish, not you too…” Sungjong could feel himself starting to blush again, so he hid his face.

Hoya laughed quietly. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”

“He must have picked it up from me~” Dongwoo teased.

Hoya didn’t respond. Instead, he turned his head towards the window. Dongwoo pouted when he did this, and didn't say anything else to either of them for the remainder of the drive. The atmosphere in the car quickly became awkward, so Sungjong was glad when they finally arrived at the mall.

---

“Do you think we’ll run into anyone from school here?” Sunggyu asked Woohyun as the two of them walked around the mall. They had just finished eating ice cream and were looking for shops to go into.

“I doubt it. It’s a Monday, so everyone should be at home,” Woohyun said as he munched on the remains of his ice cream cone.

“Good. Because that would be awkward.” Sunggyu laughed nervously. He didn’t know why he was so paranoid. So what if someone sees us? What’s the big deal? He wasn’t sure, but he was so focused on scouting for people he knew that he was barely paying any attention to Woohyun.

“Hey, Gyu. Are you okay?” Woohyun asked worriedly. “You haven’t replied to anything I’ve said in the past five minutes.”

“Ah, sorry!” Sunggyu scratched his head and looked at Woohyun apologetically. “I just…thought I saw someone I knew.”

Woohyun nodded in understanding. “Oh, okay. No problem. So…what do you want to talk about?”

Before Sunggyu could answer, he saw three familiar faces in the crowd. Just a few yards away from them, Dongwoo was glomped lovingly onto Hoya’s arm, with Sungjong following close behind.

“Run!” Sunggyu whispered, and grabbed Woohyun’s hand. He dragged him into a nearby clothing store and didn’t stop until they were both hidden behind a rack of clothes.

“Oh, so now you want to hold my hand?” Woohyun gasped breathlessly. “What was that all about? And why are we in a Forever 21?”

Sunggyu turned his head and looked around. In his moment of panic, he had forgotten to look at the name of the store before he ran into it. The two of them were getting a lot of weird looks from teenage girls in the area. “Sorry,” he whispered. “But I saw Dongwoo, Hoya, and Sungjong out there.”

“So?”

“So…I didn’t want them to see us.”

Woohyun bit his lip. “Are you really so embarrassed to be with me that you can’t even tell your friends about us?” He avoided Sunggyu’s eyes and played with his shoelaces.

Sunggyu shook his head. “No, that’s not it at all. I’m just nervous.”

“Okay…” Woohyun still didn’t seem convinced. He kicked at the floor and sniffled dejectedly.

“Come here.” Sunggyu grabbed Woohyun’s shoulder and pulled him into a tight embrace. “I’m really sorry," he mumbled into Woohyun's shoulder.

Woohyun wrapped his hands around Sunggyu’s waist. “It’s all right. I won’t pressure you. You can tell me when you’re ready for us to announce our relationship, okay?”

“Thank you.” Sunggyu pulled him in even closer.

“Hey, Gyu?” Woohyun asked after a few moments.

“Yeah?”

“You know that girls are staring at us, right?”

Sunggyu blushed deep red and released his grip on Woohyun.  When he turned around, he saw a group of preteen girls spazzing in the corner of the store. “C-can we leave now?” he asked, as the girls started to take out their phones. “I think they’re going to take pictures of us.”

Woohyun laughed and linked arms with Sunggyu. “All right, whatever you want,” he said, and the two of them dashed out of the store. Unfortunately for them, as soon as they emerged from the Forever 21, they spotted their friends again. The three of them were walking back towards the food court where Sunggyu and Woohyun had been getting ice cream.

“Ahh, there they are again!” Sunggyu hissed. He tapped Woohyun’s shoulder frantically and pointed toward the three boys.

---

“Huh? What’s that?” Sungjong wondered as he walked in the direction of the food court. He thought he recognized two faces in the crowd.

“What’s what?” Dongwoo asked.

“Nothing. I just thought I saw someone,” Sungjong answered. He was sure that he had seen something, so he continued looking around. Suddenly, he spotted Sunggyu and Woohyun sprinting around the corner away from them. Sunggyu had Woohyun’s hand tightly wrapped in his own.

“Sunggyu and Woohyun,” Sungjong muttered to himself, “are they on a date?”

“Who’s on a date?” Dongwoo instantly appeared next to Sungjong, who panicked.

“Uhm…them! Over there!” Sungjong quickly pointed to an old couple buying jewelry a few yards away.

Dongwoo put his hands to his face and squished his cheeks. “They’re so cute! I love old people. But I’m not sure you’d call that a date, Sungjongie.”

“Ehe…right.” Sungjong forced an awkward smile. “Let’s go get ice cream now, okay?”

“All right,” Dongwoo laughed. “You sure are acting weird today. It’s funny!” He ruffled Sungjong’s hair before grabbing Hoya’s arm again and leading them towards the food court. Sungjong lagged behind slightly, thinking about what he had just seen.

Are Sunggyu and Woohyun dating? He thought hard about it. It made sense, since the two of them clearly had feelings for each other. Maybe they’re just waiting to announce it. That seemed like a logical explanation. Sungjong shook his head and decided not to ask any questions. They’ll probably announce it tomorrow, he thought. Won’t they?

a/n: This chapter was mainly WooGyu~ heh. More focus will be on MyungJong in the next chapter :D I can't wait to develop their relationship more. Thanks for reading up to this point and I hope you continue to support my story! <3