All his life, Hong Jisoo had lived by the rules. 

Upon entering school, there wasn't a single moment where he could imagine ever going against it. He didn't think there was anything wrong; rather, he was pretty sure following the rules was the right thing to do. That's why they were there in the first place, right? Things were nice, simple, and free from punishment. He was a well-liked, all around nice guy, with a neat image and good grades. At least, Jisoo was sure of his life choices until Wen Junhui came along.

Junhui was just a transfer student back in middle school, and already he managed to build a reputation for himself. He was without a doubt good looking, with an air of charm and charisma that seemed to follow him wherever he went. Jisoo has talked to him a few times, but not too much, mainly because they had a different set of friends. Also, mainly because a few months after entering school, Junhui decided to dye his hair brown.

Jisoo knew right then and there that Junhui was everything he wasn't.

Brown was admittedly not a wild color, but it was still breaking the rules- and so Jisoo tried to stay away. Breaking the rules meant trouble, and trouble was definitely not something Jisoo wanted to be a part of. Still, staying away doesn't exactly mean ignoring; especially since Wen Junhui was definitely hard to ignore. Jisoo wondered, time and time again, how somebody could so blatantly choose to go against authority like that. Also, he wondered why all Junhui got was the usual hour of detention, and nothing else. 

"He gets good grades," his friend Seokmin said once during lunch, when Jisoo posed the question. "He participates in a bunch of extracurricular stuff too."

Jihoon nodded, "martial arts, dance team, all that. Teachers let him off easy because of his so-called Chinese charm. It works with that Minghao kid, too." 

Jisoo let the topic drop soon after, choosing to keep his thoughts to himself again, and hopefully away from the thought of Junhui. Which was proving to be harder each time, because Junhui was just… always there. As the years went by, Jisoo’s focus on Junhui didn’t seem to waver either. Junhui lost the vest first, followed by a refusal to tuck in his polo shirt. Then came the loose tie. His brown hair got lighter and lighter. Finally, in their third year of high school, Junhui entered the school with his hair dyed blonde. 

“Blonde. Can you believe it? It’s actually blonde.”

His friends sighed simultaneously.

“Yes, Jisoo, we heard you the first time.”

“At least he didn’t come to school when it was bleached blonde,” Seokmin noted, mentioning how he saw Junhui somewhere during summer break with hair brighter than Jihoon’s extremely pale skin. Jisoo wondered at how that would look like, and was almost about to bring it up, but Jihoon’s clearly questioning and even silently judging gaze stopped him.

Jisoo tried his best not to bring up Junhui after that.

Jihoon wouldn’t let him, though.

They’ve got Jisoo cornered in his own room, which the boy found was extremely unfair. He brought his friends over for a project, and he chose them knowing that they were as diligent and hardworking as he is. Also, maybe because he didn’t quite know anybody else in that class. However, twenty minutes into the brainstorming and the planning, Jihoon and Seokmin shared a look and Jisoo knew they weren’t going to get anything done that day.

“We’d like to hold an intervention,” Jihoon said pointedly, ignoring Jisoo’s groaning.

“About what?”

“About your fixation for a certain Chinese male.”

“What are you guys talking ab—“

“It’s so painfully obvious.”

Jisoo tried to change the topic, “I don’t stare at Minghao—“

Jihoon cut him off with a frustrated grunt, “you know who we’re talking about.”

“N-no, I dont.”

Seokmin chuckled, “you always were bad at lying, Hong Jisoo.”

That was the story of how Jisoo ended up spilling a little bit more than he had hoped to his friends. It was a revelation not only to his friends, but also to himself, he guessed. He figured it was coming sooner or later, but straight up admitting his crush on Wen Junhui was, well, a different feeling altogether. After a few minutes of ‘how come you never told us before’ and ‘I thought friends told each other secrets’ followed by Jisoo shoving them off his bed, things got a bit more serious.

Serious in a way that Jihoon had a determined look on his face and even Seokmin dropped the bright smile to look thoughtfully at Jisoo, the gears of his head clearly working.

“You need to talk to him,” Jihoon said simply, and Jisoo knew talking to Junhui was anything but simple, so he just stared at the shorter boy with an unamused expression. “We’re in the same class as him, right? I vaguely remember a tuff of blonde hair in class.”

Jisoo nodded, still thinking that again, it wasn’t that easy. What was he even going to say? Talk about homework that Jisoo clearly knew about? Ask about the weather as if it wasn’t the most obvious topic ever? Compliment his hair like it wasn’t breaking sc