EPISODE 1

"What do you want?"

He’s too nervous to respond. A blush stains his cheeks a bright shade of pink, and he can’t keep the tremble of anxiety from his fingers. Wringing his hands together, Do Kyungsoo lifts his eyes away from the scuffed surface of his sneakers to the person who stood in front of him. Kim Jongin slightly slouched over and uniform tie hanging loosely around his neck looked impatient and ready to leave.

“I, well,” Kyungsoo began, stumbling through the words. Sweat gathers at his temples and his glasses are slipping down gradually. “For a while now – since I first saw you, I’ve always…I’ve always admired you.”

“Is that so?” drawled Jongin, a hint of a smirk at the corner of his mouth. Kyungsoo stares at him, face steadily turning red. “Thanks, I guess.”

Kyungsoo, panicking when Jongin reaches down to retrieve his school bag, gathers what little courage he has left in him and blurts out: “I like you!” That halts Jongin. The senior’s eyes widen a little, the dark brown iris’s zeroing in on Kyungsoo as the freshman shakes from head-to-toe like a leaf in the wind. “I like you, Jongin.”

The moment those words left his mouth, Do Kyungsoo knew he had made a mistake. Kim Jongin stands in front of him, a smile stretched across his lips. It wasn't a nice smile -in fact, it was downright scary. "I don't date fat people."

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm had barely begun its round when a hand shot out from beneath the blanket to smack the snooze button. The quiet that had settled in the bedroom had lasted only a few minute before the door was thrown wide open and a man clad only in black sweatpants started to knock insistently on it. “Oi, Kyungsoo! Wake up!”

The lump on the bed that was Do Kyungsoo gave a muffled “Go away” in response.

Sighing in irritation, Park Chanyeol strides into the room and plops down on the edge of the narrow bed. The added weight causes the mattress springs to groan in compliant along with Kyungsoo. “You told me to wake you up at seven,” Chanyeol reminded his friend of seven years. “it’s already seven o’ five and unless you want to go into work on the first day late, I suggest you get your up now.”

With a deliberate slowness, Kyungsoo frees himself from the tangle of his blankets and peers up at Chanyeol with narrowed eyes. “Since when did you, Park Chanyeol, care about punctuality?”

“I don’t,” Chanyeol says as he stands up to stretch out his too long arms and legs. “But I’ll never hear the end of it if you come home whining about being yelled at or something because you came in late on the first day.” He throws Kyungsoo a crooked smile that the dark-haired man answers with a scowl. “Anyway, breakfast is on the table and I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Right, right,” muttered Kyungsoo as he gets out of bed and makes his way into the bathroom. The mirror is still misted over when he comes in, the air damp with moisture from the hot shower that his roommate had taken. Turning on the tap and splashing his face with lukewarm water a few times to wake himself up a bit more, Kyungsoo makes quick work of brushing his teeth before settling his focus on his own reflection. His eyes were large and doe-brown, accented by thick lashes and lips plush and pale pink. He hadn’t changed much in the looks department – he could be considered cute, maybe even handsome – but physically and psychologically he was no longer an overweight teenager.

Why did I even remember that? Kyungsoo thought as he jumped into the shower and rushed to scrub himself clean. It’s been almost ten years since that fateful fall day. Kyungsoo, only fifteen and fresh into his high school life, had made the biggest mistake of his life. He was quite sure that he wasn’t the first (or last) person to confess to That Bastard (he refuses to even think or utter his name) but he was pretty sure that he was the only one to ever been flat-out rejected and laughed at because he was a little fat. Okay, he had been pretty fat during high school but really! That Bastard should have been a little considerate of Kyungsoo’s feelings when he turned down his feelings.

“You’re going to be late!” Chanyeol yelled as he walked past the bathroom, and Kyungsoo shuts off the shower with an annoyed huff. Climbing out of the tub and wrapping himself in a towel, Kyungsoo stares heatedly at Chanyeol’s turned back.

Back inside his bedroom where the walls were painted a light blue and the furniture and décor primarily white, Kyungsoo dresses in a pair of ash gray skinny jeans and a long-sleeved V-neck shirt that falls past his hips. With his hair tangle freed and styled into a casual tousle of loose waves, a smile softens his face. With all thoughts of That Bastard out of his mind, he makes his way into the kitchen where Chanyeol was perched on the straight-backed brown chair and drinking a steaming cup of coffee while scrolling through his phone.

“You’re not going to eat?” he asked without looking up.

“I’ll grab something on the way over,” Kyungsoo stated as he laced up his shoes and grabbed his coat and bag. “Well, wish me luck.”

“Mm.” was all Chanyeol said.

Rolling his eyes at his friend’s antics, Kyungsoo took a deep breath and pulled open the front door. His nerves were tightly wound and ready to snap but he had been preparing for this day for months – years really since he first decided which company in the fashion industry he wanted to work with.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol calls out before Kyungsoo could step outside the door. The blonde-haired man smiles and holds up his arm, hand fisted. “Fighting.”

Smiling a little brighter, Kyungsoo nods. “Fighting,” he agreed and closes the door behind him as he leaves.