The school garden was almost completely silent when Hoya walked into it. With the exception of a small study group in the corner, it was practically deserted. He looked around anxiously. A few minutes before, he had received a text from Dongwoo asking him to meet him in the garden. However, Dongwoo was nowhere to be found.

“You came!” Hoya heard the loud whisper of his friend behind him.

“There you are, Dongwoo. Where were you hiding?”

Dongwoo laughed mischievously. “I’ll show you,” he said, motioning for Hoya to follow. Dongwoo lead him out of the main garden area around the edge of the school building. They walked along the side alley between the fence and the wall until a gravel trail appeared in front of them. Eventually, the two of them ended up in front of a metal gate.

“Where does this lead to?” wondered Hoya.

“You’ll see!” Dongwoo opened the gate and grabbed something from the other side of the fence. It was covered, but it looked like some sort of box. Hoya was about to ask what it was when Dongwoo started skipping happily down the trail with his mysterious package in his hands. “Follow~” he sang. Hoya shook his head and jogged down the path after him.

Finally, the two of them reached their destination. Dongwoo had brought them to a small park just out of the view of their school. All it had in it was a few flowers and an intricately designed metal bench in the far corner. Overall, it was far less impressive than the school gardens that they had just come from.

Hoya scratched his head in confusion. “Uh…why are we here? I mean, it’s pretty, but aren’t the school gardens even prettier?”

“This is my special place,” said Dongwoo. “I come here whenever I want time alone. No one ever comes here, so I practically own the place! And now you do, too.” He grinned at Hoya. “Now, can we have some lunch?” Dongwoo grabbed the package he had brought with him and opened it to reveal a picnic basket and a blanket to sit on.

So that’s what he was planning, Hoya thought. As Dongwoo set up the area, he couldn’t help feeling like he was on some sort of date. It certainly didn’t seem normal for two friends to be having a nice picnic in the middle of a deserted park with flowers unless there was something going on between them. He sighed uneasily. “Dongwoo?”

“Yeupp?” he answered without looking up.

“Why didn’t you invite anyone else to lunch with us?”

Dongwoo laid out the picnic blanket and smoothed it down before replying. “Because I want this to be our special place. No one else needs to know about it.” He bit his lip. “No one else deserves to know about it.”

Hoya tried to fight away the blush that was threatening to show on his cheeks. For some reason, when Dongwoo said that his heart rate picked up.

“Come on, let’s eat.” Dongwoo sat down on the blanket and pulled Hoya down to join him.

As Dongwoo unpacked the lunch, Hoya decided that he wasn’t satisfied with his friend’s explanation. “I still don’t get it,” he said.

“Don’t get what?”

“Why I’m the only one special enough to come here.”

There was an awkward silence between the two. Dongwoo shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh.

“You still don’t get it? After all this time?”

Hoya tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Get what?”

Dongwoo didn’t respond. Instead, before Hoya had any time to react, the blonde-haired boy leaned forward onto his knees and gingerly wrapped his hand around the back of Hoya's neck, pulling them together until their lips touched. 

When he pulled back, Hoya was sitting still with a shocked expression on his face. His cheeks were bright red and he was staring aimlessly into space.

“Sorry,” Dongwoo mumbled. “I didn’t mean to do that. I guess I just lost it," he said, avoiding eye contact.

“It’s okay.”

Tears welled up in Dongwoo’s eyes. He really hadn’t meant to kiss Hoya. He knew that his friend didn’t feel the same way, and yet…he just couldn’t help himself. Ever since he had met Hoya he had wanted to kiss him. But they had always been best friends and nothing more, no matter how obvious Dongwoo tried to be with his affection.

Suddenly, Dongwoo felt a hand on his cheek. Confused, he turned his head to see Hoya staring at him.

“You know why it’s okay?” Hoya asked Dongwoo quietly.

“Why?” he replied. He was still refusing to make eye contact.

“Because I really like you.”

There was a moment of silence while Dongwoo registered what he had just said. Then he looked up at Hoya and his mouth dropped. “…WHAT?!” he yelled. Now he was looking directly into Hoya’s eyes. “Y-you’re kidding, right?”

“Why would I be kidding?” he sighed.

“Because…I was so obvious! And you never did anything!”

“I always thought you were just joking around.”

Dongwoo froze.

“That’s why I never returned the affection,” Hoya continued. “I thought you were just being lovey because you thought it was funny…so I never wanted to show my feelings.”

Once Dongwoo thought about it for a moment, what Hoya was saying made a lot of sense. The overly-affectionate way he was acting without actually confessing his feelings must have been extremely confusing, and it must have made him feel awful. “I’m sorry,” he said, bowing his head.

“It’s okay.” Hoya chuckled awkwardly and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m glad you know now. I’m such a coward…I never would have told you how I felt.”

“You’re not a coward,” Dongwoo whispered. He turned his head away from Hoya so the redness of his face would be hidden. “I’m just stupid. Dongwoo pabo. Dongwoo pabo!!” He started hitting his head with his hands as he called himself an idiot over and over again.

“Hey, stop!”

“Dongwoo pabo! Dongwoo pabo!”

“Stop it! You’re going to hurt yourself!”

“Dongwoo PABO!”

“YAH!” Hoya grabbed Dongwoo’s wrist and pulled him off-balance. He landed on top of Hoya, who then immediately pulled Dongwoo’s face to his own until their lips made contact. It took a moment for Dongwoo to realize that Hoya was kissing him, but once he did…he didn’t want to stop. He pulled Hoya in even more, until there was no space between them at all.

When they finally pulled away from each other, both of them were gasping for breath; they had gotten so wrapped up in making out that they had forgotten to breathe.

“Heh~” Dongwoo giggled. “That was fun.”

Hoya laughed. “Then…why don’t we do it again?”

---

“I think I remember Dongwoo telling me about a picnic,” said Sunggyu. “Maybe he was planning a date for the two of them?”

“Do you really think they’re together now?” asked Sungyeol. “Damn. About time those two got it on.”

“y time~” Woohyun laughed.

Sunggyu nodded in agreement. “We can ask them about it the next time we see them. What do you think, Sungjong?”

The younger boy didn’t respond. He seemed to be staring off into space somewhere.

“Jongie?” Sungyeol waved his hand in front of Sungjong’s face. “What are you looking at?”

Sungjong shook his head and snapped back to reality. “Wha? Oh, nothing. Sorry.”

Sungyeol turned around and observed the area that Sungjong had been staring at. He suspected that the maknae of the bunch had been staring at someone in particular, but he couldn’t seem to find him….wait. There he was. In plaid and by himself at his lunch table, as always.

“Geez, Jongie. Could you be any more obvious?”

“Huh?” Sungjong looked at Sungyeol in surprise.

“Your ice prince is sitting all by himself. Why don’t you go sit with him?”

Sungjong blushed. “C-come on…I wasn’t looking at him! I was just looking out the window.”

“There’s no window near his table,” Sunggyu remarked. “Come on. Go talk to him.”

“But…”

“DO IT,” his three friends said in unison. They stared Sungjong down until he got up from the table.

“Fine. But what do I say?”

“Just say hi!" Sunggyu said encouragingly. "It’s not like he’s going to reply anyways; you know him. Just go.”

Sungjong took a deep breath and approached Myungsoo’s table. His classmate was busy reading a book, so he timidly sat down across from him and tapped his hand.

“Uhm…Myungsoo-hyung. Hi!” He did his best to sound friendly instead of nervous.

Myungsoo looked up from his book and smiled. “You can just call me Myungsoo.”

“R-r-right.” Sungjong couldn’t help but stutter. Something about Myungsoo’s smile was insanely attractive, and it made it hard for him to speak. “So, um. How’s your day?” He cringed at the awkwardness of his own words. Out of all the things he could’ve said, he asked him how his day was? How silly.

“Good.”

Sungjong had expected that sort of response to a question as stupid as the one he had asked. He mentally facepalmed himself as he munched awkwardly on a cookie.

“Can I have a piece of that?” Myungsoo asked. He was hungrily eyeing the dessert.

“Sure.” Sungjong broke off a piece and handed it to him.

“It’s yummy…” he said thoughtfully.

His odd demeanor was weirdly captivating to Sungjong. Getting Myungsoo to talk for longer periods of time was becoming a sort of challenge for him, almost like a game. Nodding his head in determination, he decided that his goal would be to have a full conversation with him by the end of the week. To get that to happen, though…he needed a plan. 

a/n: Ohhh, you guys have no idea how much I am enjoying toying with the awkardness between Myungsoo and Sungjong. It's so much fun. As for this chapter...since it was originally supposed to be combined with the previous chapter, it's really YaDong-heavy. But it was really fun to write and I hope you all enjoyed it anyway ^^

And once again, sorry for the late update T.T but I'm on break now, so I'll be updating more often~