Exams are coming up again and we actually decided to update a new chapter before we get busy so, enjoy!

The moment when every person inside the locker room, except them, had gotten out of the area, immediately, Jaemin and Donghyuck would proceed to their respective lockers and hurriedly change into their physical education class attire.

“Donghyuck, I’m going to kill you if we arrive late just because of this again!” Jaemin exclaimed while putting on the last piece of clothing he needed to wear which were his favorite pair of white rubber shoes.

“Okay! Okay!” the older shouted as a retort, he was now pacing back and forth, trying to get dressed as well.

“Oh my god! Can’t you get any faster?!” the younger snapped.

“I am already moving faster than I should have been, you, you ungrateful person!”

“You’re the ungrateful one since you’re not moving fast enough when you should be since I waited with you for the others to leave the room just so you could change when I should be at the gym right now!” he spoke so fast that Donghyuck swore the younger may have ran out of breath at his sudden outburst. “Whose fault do you think that is?!”

“YA! You should be thankful you’ve seen my body,” he answered back, glaring at the other, trying not to lose this rather irrational fight that they were once again having. “Only my family has seen it and yet here you are, you’ve seen all my glory. You should be proud that you did!”

The younger barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What was Donghyuck even saying? He was clearly out of context. “I am not Mark-hyung, so why would I be delighted upon seeing that…” Jaemin paused to spare Donghyuck a somewhat disgusted glance from head to toe, making the other slightly self-conscious of his self all of a sudden “… that body of yours?!” he snorted, arms wide open, gesturing towards the elder’s unimpressive — in Jaemin’s opinion, physique.  “And YA! Why did you stop moving?!”

“I am moving, okay?! And why did Mark’s name got dragged into this?!” he argued back, unfazed by the insults his best friend had thrown at him. If other people had said what Jaemin had in his face, it was going to be ugly, fist fight guaranteed. But it was Jaemin, and Donghyuck knows that the younger doesn’t mean half of what he says most of the time so he could live with that.

“Because you are definitely trying to act dense when you know perfectly well about it already!” Getting Donghyuck to listen was already a tough job on its own, let alone being able to persuade him from being less oblivious than he already is. “And finish changing already! Don’t stop moving slow poke!” Jaemin never failed to notice the elder’s movements as he seemed to have decelerated in the middle of putting on his shirt.

“I already told you I am moving! Are you blind?!”Having difficulty whilst putting on the piece of clothing, with one hand arm raised, Donghyuck tugged on the fabric, pulling it down as he decided to drop the topic about Mark already since he is well aware he’s going to lose both fights if he didn’t and the almighty Lee Donghyuck doesn’t accept defeat from any form of challenge laid out in front of him. “And can you please just shut up now?!”

“What?! You call that moving?! If you call that moving, then you move like a snail, Lee Donghyuck. Try moving faster like a rabbit or cheetah for once, okay?!” Jaemin sure is trying to corner the older in ways he knows that can’t backfire on him. “On a second thought, move like a cheetah instead, rabbits are cute, they don’t suit you.”

“Na Jaemin! Chill, okay? Chill!” It has only been a little under five minutes since they got inside the locker room and all Jaemin had been doing was shouting at him, and honestly, as much as he loves the younger— sometimes, it was deadly irritating. Donghyuck was attempting to somehow make Jaemin relax, to stop him from yelling in any way possible, but it looks like the younger just won’t calm down. “I get it already!”

“How can I chill when it’s taking you forever to tie that darn shoe?! What? Do you want me to tie your other shoe for you?!”

See?

But c’mon, let’s face it, this isn’t something new for them. This scene had become a usual occurrence that would happen every time they have their P.E class. Yeah, really.

Both would always wait for everyone to get out of the locker room because Donghyuck, for some reason, just doesn’t want to be inside a room that’s packed with other people when he gets changed. The moment they get in the said room, they’ll start shouting at each other — with Jaemin’s lead, of course, because P.E has always been a thing for him. The latter just doesn’t want to be late for this class. As in like never.

“I can handle myself and I’m hurrying, can’t you see?!” the other roared back right at him, not bothering to look up, eyes fixed on tying the knot of his shoelaces.

“No you aren’t. Move faster!”

“I am almost finished! Stop shouting at me Na Jaemin!”

Jaemin huffed, arms crossed on his chest, annoyed at his turtle-like best friend for moving so freaking slow.

Everybody knows just how much Jaemin loves P.E. It was the only subject that the latter really enjoyed and causes him zero percent of stress, unlike their other subjects, but the very scene displayed in front of him every single time before the said class gives him undeniably huge amount of mental strain instead.

“I’m finished. Now, are you happy?” he asked the younger in an almost grouching way, standing immediately right up when he was done and dusted his shorts.

“Do you really need to ask that?” the younger raised a brow at his best friend before they hurriedly made their way towards the gym.

The moment they arrived, they saw their classmates warming up already at the side.

“See? We’re late!”

“Shut up.”

“This is entirely your fault,” Jaemin stated in a provoking manner, trying to get his best friend into another fight with him.

“I know it’s my fault Na Jaemin, but if you didn’t put me under time pressure, we wouldn’t have been late,” he reasoned. There is absolutely no way in a million years that Lee Donghyuck will back down in a verbal battle with Na Jaemin. Not gonna happen.

“So you’re telling me that it’s my fault that you move so slowly?” the younger asked as they made their way towards their classmates just across the room.

“We both know I have this kind of mechanism in my body that does the exact opposite of what has been asked of me when you’re putting me in a lot of pressure,” he further explained, trying to make his point. “Stop doing that.”

“So all this time you were doing that on purpose?!”

“I told you it’s a mechanism I have no control over; so basically, I’m not doing it on purpose, meaning, it’s mainly your fault we’re late,” he said, plainly putting out that it’s the younger’s responsibility, not his.

This was getting out of hand, and honestly, Jaemin has had enough of it already. As it pained his ego to do so, he slightly raised both of his hands in defeat as he sighed and shook his head, not wanting to continue this banter anymore. Getting into fights with Donghyuck was fine most of the time but on other occasions, it was just fruitless.

The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by older, which in return, made him gave the other a proud smirk as a sign of his victory— much to the younger’s annoyance that he glared right back at his best friend.

“Na Jaemin, what are you waiting for? I thought you hate being late for this class?”

“I hate you more,” was the last words the younger had said before he went straight to his classmates, leaving Donghyuck laughing to himself.

After a minute or so, the older followed where the former went to and stretched right beside him.

“It’s pretty crowded in here,” Donghyuck commented, noticing that there were double the numbers of students inside the gym than it usually has during their class.

Jaemin agreed. There were quite a lot of unfamiliar faces.

“Hey Chan,” he patted their classmate’s shoulder who was to his right, the closest one he could find. “Why are there a lot of people here?”

“Oh, the special class is having their P.E class with us. Their instructor had somewhere to be and our teacher had taken over his class for the day.”

He nodded slowly, digesting what has been said before thanking him.

“What did he say?” asked Jaemin when Donghyuck had finished his conversation with Chan, poking him on the shoulder.

“You didn’t hear what he told me?” he answered when he turned to face the younger, unbelief clear in his tone.

“Well duh, I wouldn’t ask if I did, would I?” with brows knitted together, his best friend stated in a matter of fact.

“Hmm, usually you’d eavesdrop,” Donghyuck shrugged then shortly uttered a silent “ouch” when he received a light punch on his shoulder, courtesy of Jaemin.

“I don’t. Now, tell me what he told you,” demanded the younger.

Donghyuck let out a short breath before resuming his almost forgotten stretching procedures. “Instructor’s out, special class is with us,” he abridged what their classmate told him, knowing fully that Jaemin would get it in an instant.

And he did. “The special class?” the younger asked, earning a nod from the older. Jaemin then broke into a smirk while staring at his best friend who was now on the floor when he finally understood the underlying thought of the statement. “Well isn’t it your lucky day, Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck snorted but not meeting his gaze. “Whatever.”

Every year level in their university had a special class. There isn’t a significant difference between the special and regular class in terms of curriculum or whatever. Well only that they were way smarter than the rest. And Mark was in the special class while Jaemin and Donghyuck were in the regular class.

With nothing left to do after doing some stretching, Jaemin allowed his gaze to travel around the full space of the gymnasium to see if there were other people there that he knew of aside from his classmates and Mark.

Oh! I see Winwin-hyung and there is Chen Le, the child genius.

He let out a quiet chuckle towards how he labelled the younger— well, he really was undeniably smart for his age, before he continued on scanning the crowd.

“Oh look, it’s Mark-hyung,” the younger suddenly announced, finally spotted the familiar older male who was just across the room with his classmates and friends, chatting happily with them.

“So?” Donghyuck countered, rather uncaring. He didn’t have to know that the older was there. He really didn’t care.

But Jaemin knew better.

He saw the other sparing Mark a small glance in the corner of his eyes before looking right back at him. Jaemin giggled. Donghyuck at acting oblivious. “Stop pretending, I know you care.”

“What are you saying? Do I look like I care?” a simper plastered on the elder’s face.

Huh! This guy’s ignorance about his feelings is unbelievable!

Disregarding his friend’s denial words, Jaemin silently observed him and how his eyes would wander around the area where Mark was every now and then before looking away, acting like he wasn’t even caught staring in the first place.

The younger shook his head lightly and snickered at how exceptionally bad the guy was— bad at pretending of ignoring the presence of the older. Seeing all of this happening in front of him, Jaemin made a mental note to lock both of these hopeless lads together in a room one day.

I’m sure Donghyuck will get angry if I do, but who cares? He’ll be happy anyway.

He then shrugged at the thought while his gaze slowly manoeuvred itself unconsciously and landed on those who were beside the older male, his fellow peers.

Jaemin tilted his head, curiously looking over to where Mark and his friends were. He easily identified Winwin and Chen Le from before, who were engrossed in a conversation with Mark. However, another quite unfamiliar face, which was also with them, caught his attention.

He saw that boy again.

“Hey, Donghyuck,” he called for the older.

“What?” the latter responded.

“Who’s that guy?”

“Where?” he asked again, not knowing where the sudden question came from.

“There, the one besides M— ”

“JAEMIN, DONGHYUCK, THE GAME IS GOING TO BEGIN! WE NEED YOU GUYS OVER HERE!” a rather loud voice from across the room shouted.

Both boys flinched at the mention of their names echoing inside the gym. Seriously, they didn’t need any more attention than they already have, thank you very much. Distracted by the call made, Jaemin just closed his mouth and forgot about his question for a second there.

“What were you asking again?” Donghyuck asked him, curious of what his best friend was being inquisitive about before they were interrupted.

He knows that Jaemin never really throws second looks at people he doesn’t know of or those that have not been introduced to him properly unless he’s curious or interested about them.

“Huh? Uh, never mind that for now, I’ll ask you later,” he answered, disregarding the question thrown at him.

Donghyuck made a quirky expression, following closely behind the younger’s back who was now heading towards the center on the court for he would be playing in the first set of the volleyball match.

“Hmmm…” he searched the multitude around him for prospects, for someone who might have caught his best friend’s attention.

“Maybe it’s him? Hmm… nah! He’s popular, who doesn’t know him? But, maybe it’s really him? I don’t know though… Maybe it’s really him… Aish, who else would it be then? Jaemin, who is it?” Donghyuck mumbled to himself, trying hard to figure out who’s the person that his best friend was asking about.

“DONGHYUCK, GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT!” their team captain shouted for him when he saw that the former still hasn’t gotten into his position yet since he too would be playing alongside Jaemin and their team.

Pouting because he never got to comprehend fully who’s the guy the younger was talking about, he thought,

 Eh, he’ll probably ask again later. I’m sure of that.

He fastened his pace and went to the left edge at their side of the court before their good-for-nothing captain blows another fuse at him. What is it with people and why were they shouting at him a lot today? And before they knew it, the whistle was blown and the first serve was made.

For the whole duration of their class period, as they were busy battling in and out to win the game, Jaemin never got the chance to ask Donghyuck again who that boy besides Mark was.

So maybe, just maybe, Jaemin won’t forget to ask Donghyuck a little more about it later.

--

The assumption that smart people preferred studying and rotting in their rooms, reading books rather than playing sports and getting down and dirty on the field was a big lie. The special class that Jeno was in are thrilled at the idea of being able to do sports and recreational activities.

Now, today was one of those very unusual days. Their P.E instructor was on official leave for a week because of an important matter and the special class was forced to share their time allocated for P.E with the regular class that their substitute teacher was also teaching. But they didn’t mind, they liked the company of other people besides the usual presence of their classmates anyway.

After receiving specific instructions, both classes went to the designated place their teacher had put them in line with the activity that they would be doing that day. The regular class would be playing volleyball while Jeno’s class would be playing basketball at the opposite side of the gym. Only the