The first time Yoon Doojoon saw Yang Yoseob, it was during the first years’ orientation and the only reason Doojoon saw him was because it’s kind of hard to ignore bright, white-blond in a sea of black and otherwise darkly dyed heads. And even if Doojoon did miss the mess of blond, it’s still pretty hard to ignore a face like that. It’s the kind of face that is the epitome of something so cute you want to bite it.

                Except Doojoon wanted to do a lot more than just bite it.

                He sees Yoseob again after the first years were let out of the auditorium to roam the school grounds and mingle and find their classes for the first day—which would be tomorrow. There are first years trying to make friends and first years who already have friends and Doojoon was lucky enough to be one of those first years. He has Yonghwa operating the map of the school on one side, Joon attracting the stares of the first year girls and not seeming to notice through his obtuseness on another, and Junhyung with his schedule entirely memorized leading the way.

                But the curious thing about high school is that it brings you closer through separation. Doojoon’s schedule only gives him one class with Joon and Junhyung together and one class with Yonghwa. His first period contains nobody he knows and he has to make his way to the science hall completely alone for biology and is five minutes late because the Biology Honors classroom is in some obscure back wing that no one ever cares about except maybe janitors.

                The only empty seat amongst the double-seat tables of the laboratory is next to Yang Yoseob who Doojoon has already heard whispers of from the girls that constantly pass back and forth Joon like flies to honey—Yonghwa tries to explain that they are probably trying to interest Joon by making him jealous and talking about the equally attractive-though-in-a-different-way Yang Yoseob, only Joon doesn’t get it at all and Yonghwa decides it’s probably best not to strain Joon’s mind too much.

                Doojoon sits down immediately next to the other boy because he doesn’t want to upset the teacher right from the bat considering he knows he at science and hates science and will need to be in the teacher’s best graces as is possible when you both hate and at the subject she teaches.

                The teacher introduces herself as Lee Hyori and Doojoon thinks to himself that she’s kind of sort of extremely hot. She goes on about what they’re going to do this year and then she has them introduce themselves and what school they came from since this is a private school for the rich and swanky and even though Doojoon is rich and swanky, he doesn’t really have any interest in the rich and swanky middle schools the other kids came from so he tunes them out and peeks at the boy beside him.

                Yoseob introduces himself and his rich and swanky middle school and everyone gives appropriate reactions and Doojoon goes along. They finish early with introductions and Hyori tells them she doesn’t feel like actually starting anything because she just got back from the beach and would rather still be at the beach had she the choice, but since she doesn’t, she says that she’ll just let them talk so she can get more coffee.

                Doojoon decides that he likes her.

                He also decides to make friends with Yang Yoseob since at the very least, Yoseob doesn’t seem to act rich and swanky like the other kids in the class. “Hi,” he says, swiveling around in his chair so that his knees point towards the other boy.

                Yoseob turns his head, blinks once at Doojoon, and then proceeds to burst out into laughter.

                Doojoon is dumbfounded by doesn’t show it because that’d be unprofessional even though he’s a high school student and there’s no professionalism needed in that. “What?” he says.

                “Your hair,” Yoseob tries to explain once he’s calmed down some, “is so stupid.”

                Doojoon is about to try and formulate a response when he feels something touch his back. He swivels around a little bit more and finds out that it’s the fingertip of a girl sitting at the table behind him. She smiles with a clear intent of flirting—or at least pulling herself into his crowd or pulling him into her crowd. “I don’t think it’s stupid,” she says a little too warmly.

                He feels like he needs to thank her even though, frankly, he doesn’t really care if his hair is stupid or not—Yoseob just shocked him a little by saying that it was because as far as greeting statements go, Doojoon has never heard this one before. He’s about to thank her when he’s intercepted.

                “Really?” Yoseob says, with an expression that would look cynical and sarcastic and downright cruel on anybody else (on Doojoon’s face, it would probably make the girl cry) but simply looks adorably, teasingly confused on his. “I think it’s completely stupid. He has sideburns and it’s pointy in the back and yeah—it’s just stupid.”

                Doojoon pets his sideburns, feeling slightly offended.

                Yoseob catches him in the act and starts laughing so loudly that Hyori comes out from the backroom and asks what’s wrong.

                When Doojoon brings Yoseob out for lunch—provided by the school since it’s orientation—and meets up with Joon, Yonghwa, and Junhyung since they all have the same lunch period by some greater miracle, Joon gets the award for the best reaction hands down. Doojoon brings Yoseob out to the table and before he can introduce Yoseob or Yoseob can introduce himself, Joon starts stuttering, “God—you—just—tiny—hug—oh my God—crap—so—Doojoon-ah—he’s—just—why—adorable.”

                Doojoon feels bad that Yoseob has to get spit on during orientation.

                Yoseob dodges the saliva shooting out of Joon’s mouth and smiles. “Yeah,” he says simply, “I am.”

                Yonghwa grins and Junhyung laughs and Joon scoots over to make space for Yoseob to take a seat. “Not you,” Joon says, looking at Doojoon. “We don’t care about you because you’re not adorable.”

                Doojoon rolls his eyes and takes a seat next to Junhyung.

                But it’s not long after that—maybe two or so weeks after school starts—that Yoseob decides that as much as he likes Doojoon’s friends, he wants to make more friends and comes back with a slender boy named Jang Hyunseung in tow. Junhyung attaches himself to Hyunseung, but it’s not long after that that Yoseob and Hyunseung find other friends to hang out with even though Yoseob will keep coming back to Doojoon on occasion and, as previously said, Junhyung has attached himself to Hyunseung.

                “So,” Doojoon says one day when he and Yoseob are after school alone, sitting at the stairs of the lobby. “I’m thinking of trying out for the soccer team.”

                “Why?” Yoseob says around a Popsicle stick. “You at soccer.”

                Doojoon pushes him. “No, I don’t.”

                Yoseob grins. “Yeah, you don’t. You’re actually kind of awesome at it.”

                “That’s why I’m trying out—we should both try out,” Doojoon suggests.

                “I know,” Yoseob says, “because I’m the at soccer, too.”

                Doojoon pushes him again—this time a little harder and Yoseob laughs. “We’re doing it then, right?” Doojoon smiles as Yoseob finishes off the first half of his Popsicle, bright cherry red staining his lips and tongue.

                “Totally,” Yoseob says seriously. “My place or yours? I mean, I know you’ve got the lube, but the condoms are at my place so—“

                This time Doojoon shoves him so hard, the Popsicle almost falls out of his hand—partly because of the force of the push and partly because Yoseob is laughing so hard he’s about to fall off the step they are on. “Why are we even friends?” Doojoon says, unable to push the laughter out of his own voice.

                “Because I’m adorable,” Yoseob says and sticks his bright cherry red tongue out.

                “No you’re not,” Doojoon retorts. “You’re actually really, really awful, but you never let anyone know except for me because then you wouldn’t be treated like a princess by the others.”

                “They don’t treat me like a princess,” Yoseob shrugs and raises his eyes in thought. The Popsicle is gone, but he continues to on the thin wooden stick.

                “Right,” Doojoon says. “They just give you everything you ask for.”

                Yoseob nods after a moment. “I guess you’re right,” he grins. “They do—so why don’t you?”

                “Because this whole adorable thing doesn’t work on me,” Doojoon sniffs. “Since I know how terrible you actually are. It’s like how everyone thinks puppies are adorable, but if you’re allergic to them and they make you sneeze and break out every time you’re near one, they aren’t so adorable anymore.”

                Yoseob blinks. “Yeah, except I don’t make people break out and sneeze, ,” he says.

                “God, just shut up,” Doojoon responds. He picks up his backpack. “I think my ride’s here—but Wednesday at the main gym,” he says as he walks down the few stairs it takes to reach the lobby floor. “Don’t forget.”

                “Yeah, yeah,” Yoseob calls after him. “Don’t forget my brownies tomorrow.”

                “Fatass,” Doojoon shoots over his shoulder as he goes out the doors.

                They try out for the soccer team, Doojoon and Yoseob, and they make it. As it turns out, Junhyung and Hyunseung try out and make it, too. All four of them make it and as the first years of the team, as the maknaes, they are babied by the hyungs rather than bullied with all sorts of hazing. Jaebum is the captain and Taecyeon is the co-captain and they are third years and Doojoon likes them. Yoseob likes them too because there’s not much not to like. The rest of the team, Junsu, Junho, Nichkhun, Chansung, Wooyoung—they are all second and third years too and the four first years fall in love with them, too.

                Doojoon isn’t quite sure when it happens, but if he hazards a guess, the guess would probably be sometime at the end of their first year—a tiny sliver of something, just the barest, finest hints of something that might be, something that could be, but not enough for Doojoon to even have a hope of figuring out what that something is.

                At the beginning of their second year, on the first day back, Doojoon gets it.

                The rich and swanky, even when not s, usually go off somewhere cool for the summer and the Yoon family is no exception. Doojoon was whisked away by his parents to watch moose in Canada, and although he mildly enjoyed it, he still to this day doesn’t quite understand why they can’t ever go somewhere mainstream and tourist-y and normal. Yoseob, Doojoon heard, was whisked away to the sunny beaches of Florida like a normal rich and swanky person.

                Really, all that matters out of this is that Doojoon hasn’t seen Yoseob all summer and Yoseob hasn’t seen Doojoon all summer.

                Summer is over and Doojoon is now looking at Yoseob, only at first he doesn’t know if it is Yoseob, but then he realizes it is.

                That’s his first realization—that it’s Yoseob.

                His second realization is —it’s Yoseob.

                Yoseob’s hair is no longer bright, white-blond. It’s a darker blond, almost brown but not quite—a dirty, stained kind of blond and it’s sort of down, over his forehead and Doojoon wants nothing more than to grip that hair and imagine all sorts of things that will probably get him kicked in the balls by half the soccer team and all of his friends for imagining because everyone thinks Yoseob is adorable like a marshmallow and should be locked away in a closet forever so no one can ever taint him.

                Doojoon knows that Yoseob is not nearly as adorable and pure as everyone likes to think, but that doesn’t mean that Yoseob is as stupid to fall for Doojoon when he has half the school population, male and female, willing to carry him to the tip of Mt. Everest on their backs.

                Yoseob greets Doojoon with a big hug, arms thrown around Doojoon’s waist and face buried into Doojoon’s shoulder. He pulls away and grins up. “Well, your hair’s still kind of stupid, but we’re getting there.”

                “Shut up,” Doojoon smiles back and thinks about how Yoseob looks like he’s lost the last remnants of baby fat, but somehow, somehow, his face is still tiny and childlike and beautiful and Doojoon is so completely ed.

                “Hey,” Doojoon says while he and Junhyung are finishing their locker room cleaning duties. “What do you think it means when you think about you and your best friend doing stuff?”

                Junhyung looks at him suspiciously. “What kind of stuff?”

                “I don’t know—, I guess. Being together.”

                “I don’t like Hyunseungie,” Junhyung says rapidly and turns away to sweep in the other direction.

                Doojoon blinks. “Okay,” he decides to go with after a moment. “I didn’t say anything about Hyunseung, but okay. No, Junhyung-ah, I meant more like—well—do you—do you think Yoseob’s kind of—well, yeah?” Doojoon says, moving his eyebrows up and down.

                Junhyung stares. “Well what?”

                “You know,” Doojoon says significantly.

                “No—no, I actually don’t, Doojoon-ah.”

                Doojoon makes an irritated sound at the back of his throat. “Well, fine then— for you,” he snaps and then continues to violently sweep up the rest of his side of the locker room.

                At the end of first semester, the soccer team has an away game at a fellow rich and swanky high school a few towns away. Kikwang is now the maknae—the only first year that made the cut after Jaebum, Nichkhun, and Taecyeon graduated. It’s an overnight sort of thing because it’s more than just a game—it’s a mini-tournament with a workshop and recreational activities for the students from the different schools to mingle and so they don’t kill each other during the actual games.

                Doojoon ends up sharing a room with Kikwang which he’s thankful for since he doesn’t think it would be such a great idea for him to share a room with Yoseob at the moment—not that Yoseob seemed to care much.

                During the free hours they have after dinner and before the last workshop before they are dismissed to go to bed, Kikwang wants to go and try out this rich and swanky high school’s gym because Kikwang is a work-out nut like that and Doojoon doesn’t have anything else to do, so he joins his dongsaeng because it’s better than staying in the room alone thinking about how much fun Yoseob is having with anyone-except-Doojoon.

                Expectedly, Kikwang wants to go as late as he can with having only the spare few minutes to shower up and make it to the last, mandatory, workshop but Doojoon has had more than enough—sweating and aching and remembering that they still have a tournament the next day—so he leaves Kikwang and hopes that the younger boy doesn’t get lost or forget about the workshop completely.

                He walks into the locker rooms and admires the way it’s built so it makes it look more spacious than the ones at their own school. He whips the towel around his neck and makes his way to the showers.

                When he turns the corner, he sees Yoseob curled up against the wall with two large students from one of the rival schools hovering over him.

                Doojoon doesn’t think.

                He punches both students in rapid fire succession.

                They punch him back.

                Doojoon doesn’t feel the pain.

                He punches them again—harder—harder—harder—harder, until they stop and leave, faces bleeding and bruised and reeling from Doojoon’s attacks.

                Doojoon’s intention is to kneel calmly in front of Yoseob and check the other boy’s injuries, before carrying him up to their captain—which is now Junho after Jaebum graduated—and their coach, and ask them what to do. But his intentions aren’t really cooperating with his body because all that really happens is Doojoon falls to the ground, skidding to a clumsy stop on the slippery tiles—not caring that he’s getting wet—in front of Yoseob and gripping the other boy’s shoulders without any thought that that might bruise him more.

                There is blood trickling down from both corners of Yoseob’s mouth and his hairline and bruises scattered all over Yoseob’s arms and throat and probably his body if Doojoon checks. His eyes are barely open but Doojoon knows he can see and a tiny smile curves Yoseob’s mouth. “Wow,” he whispers somehow, ridiculously, miraculously still able to tease, “violent much?”

                Doojoon can’t speak. He can’t speak but he knows he has to and it takes everything he has just to muster a hoarse, “I need to get you to coach and Junho-hyung.”

                “Workshop?” Yoseob breathes and every rise and fall of his chest makes Doojoon’s twist upon itself.

                “ you,” Doojoon says, his voice so hoarse now that he feels like he might lose it entirely. “C’mon,” he slips his arms underneath Yoseob’s legs and back, “I have to get you to this school’s nurse or whatever they have. And then I’ll call coach and get you home—or to the hospital, whichever.”

                Yoseob doesn’t say anything more—or maybe he can’t—his head is limp against Doojoon’s chest and Doojoon is afraid to even stand up with the boy’s body in his arms because he might jostle something or bruise something or touch something that’s bleeding and make it worse and he’s just so afraid that he wishes Kikwang would somehow telepathically know his hyung is panicking out of his mind.

                “Okay,” Doojoon says, more to steady himself than anything, “Okay.” He takes a deep breath and slowly stands up. “Oy,” he says softly, bouncing the body in his arms a bit. “Don’t fall asleep, okay? There’s blood from your forehead, and I don’t want you to sleep if it turns out you got a concussion or something. Stay awake, Yoseob-ah.”

                Yoseob’s eyes flutter open and he still doesn’t speak, but he looks into Doojoon’s eyes and then nods once, slowly. Doojoon tears his eyes away, adjusts Yoseob in his arms once more, and walks out of the locker room.

                Doojoon isn’t allowed in the infirmary. The coach and Junho are allowed to talk to Yoseob after this school’s nurse is done with him. They come out a few minutes later to tell Doojoon that the injuries are superficial, although Yoseob will be hurting and sore for the next week or so, and to tell him what they gleaned from Yoseob’s probably extremely edited retelling of what happened in the locker rooms.

                “Wait,” Doojoon says, rubbing his face with both hands. “Why the hell was Yoseob in the locker rooms anyway? I thought he was with Junhyung or something.”

                “He was,” Junho says. He glances at their coach.

                “He was looking for you so I told him that you were working out with Kikwangie,” their coach says, somewhat apologetic. “I guess he bumped into those two in the locker rooms and it blew up from there.”

                “So they beat him up because they didn’t like his face?” Doojoon repeats, still unable to believe the inherent stupidity and amount of ed-up this all was.

                Junho sighs. “Well—you know, they probably didn’t want us to be in the tournament and caught our only goalie alone and Yoseob’s tiny compared to those two—“

                “—He could block all of their shots with his pinky—“

                “—Doojoon-ah, I know that,” Junho says, rubbing his own face with a hand. “But the point is, they beat him up, we don’t have a goalie so now we can’t play anymore because Yoseob has to be sent home tomorrow.”

                “It’s not a real tournament anyway,” the coach assures them, “you guys know that. It was just supposed to be for interschool relations.”

                “Great relations we’ve got going here,” Doojoon mutters.

                “Doojoon-ah,” their coach says.

                “Sorry.”

                Their coach sighs and meets eyes with Junho. “Should I tell the others?” Junho asks. “Or should we wait until tomorrow?”

                “Try not to say anything until tomorrow,” the coach says. “I don’t want them all panicking and trying to see Yoseob, or worse, trying to find those two students and causing a fight. I’ll talk to the other coaches and tell them what’s happened, and tomorrow I’ll call Yoseob’s driver to bring him home.”

                “Okay,” Junho says. He claps Doojoon on the shoulder. “Yoseob’s awake right now, so you can go see him if you want. Just don’t be up too late—we still have workshops and break-out sessions tomorrow.”

                Doojoon nods and his coach claps him on the shoulder, too, before he and Junho leave down the hall.

                Yoseob is lying in one of the curtained beds of the infirmary. The lights are out in the nurse’s office, which makes Doojoon more worried than ever because what if those two students come back?

                The blood seems to have been washed from Yoseob’s mouth, and there’s a white bandage taped right underneath his bangs, peeking out from the stands of hair. His bruises—on his arms, and his throat—are in full-bloom, but Doojoon, with great relief, sees the shine of medicine over them and after that, there’s nothing else that can be done except to give them time to heal.

                Yoseob is propped up against the pillows and the expression on his face doesn’t look much different from the expression he had while he was teasing and joking around with Doojoon on the bus here. The first thing that comes out of the goalie’s mouth after Doojoon takes a seat on the side of the bed is, “Guess I was too adorable for them to handle, hyung.”

                Doojoon doesn’t say anything.

                Yoseob shrugs, smiling simply. “They said that someone who looks like me doesn’t need to work out—or play soccer.” He nudges Doojoon’s arm with his elbow, “But hey, we both know I could totally beat their asses.”

                “Totally,” Doojoon says quietly, trying to smile back.

                Yoseob looks at him for a long moment and then snorts. “Hyung, I’m fine—really. I’m not going to bull that I’m fine if I’m really not. I’m fine enough to play tomorrow, but coach and Junho-hyung won’t let me—“

                “Yeah, because if they let you, then there’d be something really ed-up with them,” Doojoon says, incredulous.

                Yoseob laughs softly. “God, if you get any more lines in your forehead, we’re going to have to make you get plastic.”

                Doojoon tries to ignore the throbbing that’s starting up in the corner of his head because of Yoseob’s infuriating nonchalance about the fact that he just got beaten up by two players from a rival team who were both two and a half times his size. He also wants to ignore the upcoming migraine because Doojoon is ing worried for Yoseob and Yoseob doesn’t even seem to care.

                But then again, that’s just how Yoseob is.

                Everyone always worries about Yoseob—he’s so cute, he’s adorable, he’s precious, he’s so pretty, he’s lovely, I want to hold him, he’s hilarious, he’s so smart, I hope he doesn’t get hurt, he plays soccer too, he’s so nice—

                Yoseob is used to being fawned over and worried over and touched and held and his jokes are always laughed at and nothing he does can ever be wrong and everyone always cares about him and cares for him and loves him, so when the one-in-a-million threat does arise, it never really bothers Yoseob. And when the one-in-a-million person comes along who dares to want Yoseob to himself, not just be part of that million that loves him, Yoseob can’t really notice because everyone wants Yoseob for his or herself, but that’s just not how loving Yang Yoseob works.

                Yang Yoseob is meant to be shared—everyone loves him, so the only way for it to be fair is if everyone gets a part of him. Even as his best friend, Doojoon has to share him—he has to share him with the entire soccer team, with Joon, with Cheondoong, with Jonghyun, with Hongki, with Yonghwa, with Onew, with Jonghun. Doojoon even has to share him with the teachers who all adore Yoseob. He has to share Yoseob with the girls who adore him, with the lunch ladies who adore him, with the school nurse who adores him, with coach who adores him—there isn’t anyone, really, who doesn’t adore Yoseob.

                And there really isn’t a downside to being loved by everyone so, expectedly, Yoseob loves being loved. He loves spending time with everyone, a few minutes here, a few minutes there, a few minutes here again, a few minutes there again—back and forth, all over the place, slicing up his time into little, itty, bitty parts for everyone to have a piece.

                “Why’d you come looking for me anyway?” Doojoon asks.

                Yoseob looks at Doojoon like the older boy is stupid. He reaches out and tugs at a lock of Doojoon’s hair. “It’s been really busy with midterms and all so I haven’t been able to see your stupid hair around school. And I missed it, so yeah.” He grins, and Doojoon wants to punch the wall.

Everyone thinks Yoseob is adorable.

                Doojoon thinks Yoseob is the cruelest person he’s ever met.

                And despite thinking that Yoseob is a terrible, terrible person—

                Doojoon is in love with him.

                It happens a few weeks after midterms finish up.

                It happens after school, when everyone has left once again except for Doojoon and Yoseob. They are sitting on the stairs again with nothing to do but talk because homework is a slow trickle until the new semester revs up.

                It happens simply and suddenly and it’s so simple and sudden that it makes Doojoon feel stupid and like a girl, but then again, Yoseob’s always made Doojoon feel that way.

                They are talking, talking, talking and then Yoseob’s kissing him—kissing, kissing, kissing, and Doojoon thinks that he probably fell off the stairs, hit his head on the metal railing, passed out, and this is the dream he’s having while they are rushing him off to the ER for treatment.

                Yoseob’s lips are soft, and not cold, but not warm either. He still tastes like the marshmallows Chansung gave him earlier at lunch today, and he smells like grass and sun from the game they played with the others before everyone else’s drivers arrived to pick them up.

                It’s Doojoon who pulls away first because he thinks he should clarify the state of his head injury and if the doctors at the ER will have to give him surgery, because surgery takes a while to recover from and they have an important game coming up this weekend. “How is it?” he asks solemnly.

                Yoseob raises an eyebrow. “What?”

                “My head.”

                The other eyebrow goes up. “Stupid—like always.” Then a smile. “But your lips are fine, so it’s okay. My eyes are closed anyway, so your stupid hair doesn’t bother me.”

                Doojoon doesn’t want to believe that this is real because if it’s real, he won’t be able to say no and if he says yes, that means he’s saying yes to sharing Yoseob all over again—he doesn’t think he can handle that. He doesn’t think he can handle being able to have Yoseob in an entirely different way, but still having to share him the same way as before. So he stalls for time.

                “How did you know?” he says.

                Yoseob looks amused. “It’s kind of hard not to, you know—when you get there late for cleaning duty and you overhear your best friend and Junhyung-hyung talking about if you’re hot or not. Oh, and if it’s normal to think of having with your best friend.”

                Doojoon groans. “You heard that? And then you left without saying anything?”

                “Well, you two were almost done cleaning,” Yoseob shrugs.

                “Yoseob-ah, that’s not the point,” Doojoon says miserably. “You should have said something.”

                “Like what?” Yoseob laughs. “There’s not much I could’ve actually said. Besides, I’m human, too, hyung—it was kind of surprising for me, too.”

                Doojoon wants to say that Yoseob isn’t human. There’s no way a human could ever be this cruel. There’s no way a human could ever be this heartless. There’s no way a human could ever be this beautiful—ever be this amazing. “Kissing me isn’t a solution,” Doojoon says. “I don’t know how you think stuff like this works, but you’re not supposed to kiss me.”

                “Really?” Yoseob smiles playfully. “Even if I like you back?”

                Okay.

                Okay—wait.

                Wait.

                Hold on.

                Doojoon blinks. “What?”

                “Wow,” Yoseob says, “the stupid from your hair must’ve leaked into your brain.” He tilts his head. “Or have you just been hanging out with Joonie-hyung too much?”

                Doojoon’s mind, to be honest, isn’t really working right now. It’s just sort of on autopilot and anything that pops into his brain will come out of his mouth unfiltered and unedited. So with Yoseob’s not-really-confession, the first thing that pops into his head and falls out of his mouth is, “I’m not sharing.”

                He knows that that statement isn’t going to be any sort of reasonable sense to Yoseob no matter which way the other boy turns it, because Yoseob doesn’t know about Doojoon’s obsession with the fact that everyone else gets a part of Yoseob and Doojoon hates that with every fiber of his being.

                But then again, Doojoon has to remember that Yoseob is a supernatural being.

                “Hyung,” Yoseob says condescendingly—as if he is speaking to a small child, “if Junhyung-hyung or Joonie-hyung or Yonghwa-hyung or Junho-hyung or anyone called me and made plans four months in advance and then you called and made plans two hours in advance for that exact time and date, I’d ditch them and do whatever you wanted me to do.”

                Doojoon stares. “That,” he says, voice a little hoarse, “is horrible.”

                But Yoseob just smiles again. “Hyung,” he says, copying Doojoon’s hoarse voice, “I’m adorable.”

                And Doojoon has no choice but to laugh.

                At school, Yoseob will pout for Joon to give him food. Yoseob will plop down in the middle of the soccer field and make grass angels for their team. Yoseob will tell girls that their hair is pretty, steal their headbands and clips from their heads and put them in his own hair and smile. He will answer the questions on the board perfectly for the teachers and then doodle a smiling tornado on the side. He will tell the lunch ladies that he likes their hair nets.

                After school, Yoseob will flop down on Doojoon’s lap and tell him his hair is stupid today. Yoseob will give Doojoon his math notebook and ask the older boy to draw three triangles for him because he doesn’t feel like doing it himself. He will wave a bag of cookies in front of Doojoon’s face and refuse to share any. He will bounce a soccer ball on his knee just to distract Doojoon from finishing his chemistry homework before Doojoon’s driver arrives. He will steal Doojoon’s uniform tie and hide it in some obscure janitor’s closet on the third floor.

                He’ll kiss Doojoon, put his arms around the older boy’s neck, and tell him that if his hair wasn’t so stupid, he wouldn’t love him so much.

                Everyone thinks Yoseob is adorable.

                Doojoon thinks he’s terrible and cruel and horrible.

                No one believes him.

                No one believes him, because no one else gets to see Yoseob the way Doojoon does, and honestly, Doojoon likes it that way. He likes it that way, so everyone can go on and think Yoseob is adorable—have that Yang Yoseob to themselves. Doojoon likes that Yang Yoseob, too, the adorable and the cute and the pretty—

                The terrible and cruel and horrible Yang Yoseob?

                That’s the one that Doojoon loves.