YoungJae’s peaceful sleep was interrupted by the sound of an explosive shriek, immediately followed by loud footsteps from the stairways up to his room. He tugged his blankets over his head, hoping to block off the thundering noises outside. However, the door to his room burst open with much unknown force, accompanied with a frenzied wailing of a woman’s voice. 

“Oh. My. Gosh.  YoungJae. Please wake up,” the frantic lady shook the boy curling under the blanket covers violently, only to earn herself a dissatisfied and muffled groan from her sleepy son, the endless forceful shakings making him all the more displeased. The grumpy boy shifted under his covers, grabbing his pillow and hid his head underneath, in attempts to drift back to his sleep since he was pretty sure the alarm had yet to go off. Despite his desperate efforts to re-enter his dreamland, his mother’s shaking turned into loose strangles and the cries became more piercing in his ears. 

“Why didn’t you tell me that THE Jung DaeHyun was your friend?!”

The boy instantaneously jolted up into a sitting position and stared at his distressed mother with a shocked expression, the other staring right back at him, her hands still holding onto his neck. He thought he heard his mother wrongly until he saw him at his door frame. Both the two parties noticed the new presence to their right and turned their head slowly. A male stood smart in his school uniform, shirt prompt and tidy, his fringe swept to the side laying above his almond eyes, a surprised expression written on his face from witnessing the scene before him, a mature-looking lady with brown messy hair gripping onto a neck, the boy’s hair disheveled and the rabbit patterned sheets he was sitting on in a mess, making him chuckle a little under his breath. Then, the mother swiftly released her hold from the neck and stood up before hastily brushing her long messy hair. 

“I invited myself in since the door was left open, I hope you don’t mind, ma’am,” the appeasing guest’s smooth voice spoke from the door, forming a sheepish smile on his unblemished face. The mother returned him with an abashed smile and stuttered her way through with a ‘it’s okay’ before composing herself with a motherly figure.

“Jae dear, I will be down in the kitchen to make breakfast, I hope French Toasts are fine” she flashed the most glamorous smile at her son, striding towards the door where the other male was standing at, “would you like some too?” The male replied her with a refreshing smile and a firm nod, making the lady see flowers and sparkles in the backdrop before skidding away to the kitchen, humming along with her light footsteps. The two remaining boys were staring into the thin air before turning their attention towards each other, the one at the door made long strides towards the other with a confident grin on his face.

“Good morning Jae-dear,” Daehyun sneered through his grin, before looking down at the disorganized sheets beneath the boy, “seriously, rabbit-patterned bed sheets?” YoungJae eyed the other for a second or so before shooting his thoughts out like a bullet train. 

“Shut up. Get out. What is wrong with you? Don’t call me Jae dear. Why are you here?” 

The hovering male sniggered loudly and brought his hand to the sitting male’s chin, tilting it up with his fingers slightly so he could get a full view of the evident irritated expression, “so feisty in the morning, I quite like it.” YoungJae received the sarcastic comment as an insult and slapped the hand on his chin away, glaring at the nuisance before him. He huffed a troubled sigh and brought his hands up to his hair, messing it up in exasperation.  
He had already turned down the other and shooed him off because he simply did not want to be in a relationship yet, and he did not understand a tiny bit why the other had to be super persistent about this matter. The very male before him had grabbed his collar roughly, and kissed him, kissed him in front of the whole school population, which is currently hunting for his head surely. He had kicked the male’s shin to escape from the grasp temporarily and took cover in the Men’s for the entire lunch break. When he returned for his lessons, he swore he felt holes in his body from all the dagger stares he ‘kindly’ received from the entire school population. To make matter slightly worse, now he was in his house with his mother who is seemingly attracted to his fame and honestly he was way beyond frustration of the harassment.

“Stop bothering me! I don’t even know why you are after me, I have already rejected you! Why are you so persistent?” he paused his rambling for a moment when something important dawned on his mind, “wait, how did you even know where I live?!” A low chuckle was emitted before the other male before his face got close, a bit too close for YoungJae’s comfort and eerily similar sense of déjà vu overcame him. 

“You are really noisy.”

He felt the familiar pair of plump lips on his own once more.

-

YongGuk exhaled heavily through his nostrils and looked up from his feet, facing the exquisite water fountain of Shelbie High before the wooden park bench he was sitting on. He was glancing back and forth at the people in the campus, especially girls that he could ask out, he accidentally made an eye contact with a girl looking at his direction, breaking it off almost immediately before looking back down at his feet. YongGuk was a mature-looking man, perhaps a little too mature for his own young age, making him look intimidating to others because of his sharp features and menacing eyes. And to worsen the situation, he was tall and lanky, did not interact with many, rumoured to have a gang of hundreds of bulky men, much to peoples’ fear. However, in total contrast to his image, this man was a tender young boy who was just too shy to approach and socialize with others, stuttering whenever he spoke with people other than his closest only friends, DaeHyun and JongUp.

He genuinely envied the two; he wished he had Daehyun’s alluring personality and absolute beauty that attract others towards him although he was an absolute jerk. And there is JongUp, the ball of sunshine that made girls squeal because of his adorableness, despite his well-built frame. But all Bang YongGuk had was a ‘scary-looking figure’ and that was definitely not helping him in any sense.

What should I do…? He constantly repeated the question in his head, remembering the stupid bet he had made over lunch a few days before with his friends, a heated decision that he had made recklessly, and perhaps he had dug his own grave. Come on, how was a demure person like him ever going out there, grab and kiss another person like his friend did? He regretfully shook his head when he remembered the scene in the cafeteria when his idiocy overtook him, watching his friend forcefully grab Yoo YoungJae by the collar before smashing his lips on the other.  He remembered JongUp wooing and cheering for his hyung, while he was completely left dumbstruck with his jaw hanging on the floor.

He anxiously fumbled with his fingers as he tried to push the thoughts aside and replace them with some encouraging words, YongGuk, you can do it, you are not all that bad, I mean look at you, you are pretty smart, rich…and scary. He bit down onto his bottom lips, somewhat becoming frustrated of his own lack of confidence in himself, he wanted to give up, telling his friends that he just cannot do it, but that little sense of male pride in him was stopping himself from doing so. Then again, he did not understand what a normal relationship DaeHyun was talking about. Quite obviously because the introverted YongGuk had never been into a normal relationship, or a relationship even, except when he pretended to be his sister’s boyfriend because a stranger was persistently asking her out, and when he stepped into the picture, the guy ran with his tails between his legs, and he felt sympathy for that guy when his sister slapped him on his shoulder and giving him a satisfied thumbs-up. He sighed heavily again, letting the wave of negativity drown his thoughts over, before hearing a voice from a meter distance from him.

“Hi,” a pink haired boy spoke, standing upright with his legs slightly apart, his clenched tightly by his sides, a pink blush glinted across the chubby baby-like cheeks of the younger-looking boy, his eyes dilating in nervousness as he looked at the older male, “I am Choi JunHong and I am your stalker since you were in middle school. I like you, so please go out with me.”

What is a normal relationship one presumed? He bit down harshly on his lips again.

 -

The dance studio was filled with blasting music from the loudspeakers in the enclosed room, bouncing off the mirrored walls that reflected the sweaty figures moving according to the beat. The music came to a halt at the last beat with everybody striking a unique pose of theirs, smiling from satisfaction of their complete dance routine. Claps and cheers now filled the room with the Dance Club members jumping around and beaming with happiness, wiping of their sweat from the hard work, grabbing their bags before heading towards the exit and leaving for their homes from the club activities.

JongUp was an exception though, being a passionate dancer, he had decided to stay back in the empty studio to enjoy himself, popping some moves and breaking occasional stunts to his favourite Chris Brown music. He was so immersed in his dancing that he did not notice two figures enter the dance studio behind him, only to heed them of their presence when he turned around during one of his freestyle moves a while later. The two had their eyes wide open with fascination and one of them clapped his hands excited at him. 

“Holy cow! Those were some superb moves! You are Moon JongUp right? The dance genius that recently joined us,” he beamed a smile that brought out his prominent cheeks. However, JongUp seemed to know the other quite well too, returning with a wide grin that formed on his face from the recent memories of the incident in the cafeteria flooding back into his head.

“And you are Yoo YoungJae right? The interesting hyung that rejected DaeHyun,” with that, YoungJae face fell to a sudden frown, completely not expecting him to remember YoungJae as the boy who rejected THE Jung DaeHyun, and JongUp thought it was quite amusing to study his face that slowly turned into utter irritation, frequent mumbles of insults thrown towards the floor with pure frustration.

“Hm… and you are JunHong? We were in the same class back in middle school right?” he turned his attention to the pink haired boy, “and the one that stalked YongGuk hyung for almost 3 years. Are you planning on confessing yet?” The two boys immediately perked their head up at him with a mixed expression of shock and doubt, eyes now widened for different reasons and causing him to smile at their reactions. JunHong’s face flushed into a deep shade of red as he dropped his head, his feet shuffling as he fidgeted around.

“I thought you only knew him this year,”  YoungJae turned his gaze towards the embarrassed male and questioned, “you even asked HimChan about him.” 

“I just wanted to know what you guys thought about him, I am sorry…” there was a hint of guilt in his reply as the blushing boy continued to look at the polished laminated floor of the dance studio, “and I do plan on confessing soon enough…” YoungJae gasped dramatically at the reply, putting a hand over his chest to exaggerate his actions, then he gave the other male a thumbs up with a grin flashed across his face, much to JunHong’s relieve, as well as delight. Seems like YongGukkie hyung will win the bet…JongUp chuckled to himself. YoungJae walked towards cabinet located at the corner of the room and pulled out his books, he mentioned that he had come back to retrieve them when he realised he was missing serious weight in his backpack.

The three boys walked out of the room then after, switching off the lights to the dance studio. JongUp heard a raspy, yet enthusiastic voice from a far, calling for YoungJae and JunHong, he shifted his attention to the new-comer who instantly bent down, catching his breath from the running. He got up and brisk towards the two other, scolding them for running off to somewhere without him, leaving him alone to talk to himself in the music room two blocks away. JongUp admired the new-comer’s side profile, called to be HimChan by YoungJae, and he thought his features were mesmerising, it was doubtlessly comparable to DaeHyun’s in his eyes. Just then, his sight of admiration turned to face towards him, making him take a small step back from a slight surprise since he was caught staring at the other enticing male, far more attractive from the front with his raven hair that laid across his forehead, flawless pale skin, and a pair of black shimmering eyes, staring right at him. The male took a step towards JongUp and cupped his face with both hands.

“You have really nice pink lips.”

If I wanted to win the bet, I might as well get myself pretty one.

-

Hohoho A little of everyone in the chapter~ <3