This Love, Like Dead Leaves, Is Withering

Prompt: Separation 

Jaebum had always believed the world to be fair. An idealistic point of view, he knew that. But to him, things always happened for a reason. That line of thought had served him for the past 17 years of his life.

Until he met Park Jinyoung.

They met in high school. Jaebum was the new transfer kid with the cold look that scared everyone away. Jinyoung was the student president who had been placed in charge of showing him around.

His transfer had been the news of the entire school. A student from the city transferring into a small town was rare. A student from the city transferring into a small town in the last year of high school was unheard of.

Jaebum blamed his dad. That guy always had a wanderlust and somehow found a job that accommodated his needs. He was fine with his dad traveling around the world for a few months, coming back for a few weeks and then leaving again.

He knew his mom wasn’t though.

He had seen her cry herself to sleep, smiling watery grins at the pictures that his dad sent them when she thought her son wasn’t looking.

That had been the only reason why Jaebum grudgingly followed his parents to a small apartment in Jinhae. His mother’s happiness was important to him. Their apartment was alarmingly small as compared to the big modern kind that Jaebum had grown up in.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though.

It was quite a refreshing change from what he was used to. It was more homely. Their previous house had been too big for the two of them. That was particularly the reason why Jaebum always came home late, after his mother finished work for the day. The new neighborhood was small, which allowed for intimacy. Jaebum wasn’t used to walking down the streets and having old ladies and young kids alike greet him.

But it was something that he could get used to.

Unlike his old school, which had state-of-the-art facilities, the high school in Jinhae didn’t even have a dance studio. That posed a problem until Jaebum found one not far from his new home. It wasn’t as big or as furnished as the one back in Seoul, but he was happy with having a space to dance without having to be careful of anything. In other words, he could B-boy to his heart’s content.

On his first day at school, he was alone when he arrived. Despite his parents wanting to accompany him there, knowing how big a sacrifice their son was making for them, they had to settle legal things with the lawyer regarding their apartment. Not that Jaebum was complaining or anything. He wanted some time to prepare himself before having to try and fit into a completely new environment.

For some reason, the minute he was introduced to the student president, he instantly disliked him. It was the president’s duty to show the new kids around the school. Not like they had any others other than him. The last one was a few years ago.

What started as a mutual dislike quickly turned into a rivalry. It wasn’t even an obvious one. More of the cold shoulder when passing by each other in the shoulders, or just subtly trying to trip each other up here and there. Pretty soon, the entire school had gotten wind of the animosity between the new student and the president. Rumors started flying around.

They were utterly ridiculous.

Some were about how Jinyoung was secretly the leader of a gang in Jinhae and Jaebum was the leader of a rival gang in Seoul. Others were about Jinyoung had stolen Jaebum’s girlfriend and Jaebum was tracking him down for revenge.

Jaebum’s favorite was how Jinyoung and he were ex-lovers who had an ugly misunderstanding between them that caused a gigantic fight and how they actually still in love with each other.

Because that was just completely insane and impossible.

In hindsight, maybe that wasn’t as amusing as he found it to be.

Somehow though, they ended up from being enemies to lovers. It wasn’t a memory that Jaebum enjoyed revisiting, but it was one that he never regretted nonetheless.

It consisted a night at a party with alcohol and drunken kissing and confessions and awkward avoidances the day after. And a scheming Bambam. You get the idea.

Just like before, news that the once infamous rivals had ended up being a couple quickly was passed around the school. They were the perfect couple in school, according to their fan club.

The campus couple.

Since Jaebum was notorious for not being a fan of public display of affections, pictures of them looking at each other would sell for tens of dollars. A picture of them holding hands would be hundreds. A picture of them hugging would be probably thousands, maybe.

Of them kissing?

The fanbase would sell their souls to see that.

It might be illegal for such things to be going on in school, but since there wasn’t really much harm done (other than fangirls going home with empty wallets), the school management turned a blind eye.

It was like Jaebum had gone to sleep and became a celebrity overnight. While he didn’t mind the many girls with flashing cameras following him around and their high-pitched screams whenever Jinyoung and he were in the same vicinity, it soon became tiring for him. He just wanted to be able to look at Jinyoung and hold his hand without much fanfare. Or any at all.

What the fangirls didn’t know was that Jinyoung was an avid fan of PDA. When they were on a date out of school and safely away from fangirls, it was his own personal mission to make Jaebum blush as many times as he could. Jaebum was ashamed to say that if they had been taking score, Jinyoung would have won.

It was like the perfect storybook romance.

Everything was well with their lives. Their social circles were slowly becoming one. Or rather, the student council, which was basically Jinyoung’s only social circle, adopted Jaebum since his only friend in the entire school had been Youngjae. Jackson, who was Jinyoung’s vice president, immediately latched onto him. He ha