Soonyoung was looking to his friends for help. He frowned and gestured to his friends at what he should do in the position he had been put in.

Jihoon, who he had literally just met the day before, was sitting between his legs. And to make matters worse, Jihoon was talking to his friends as if he had known them for forever.

Minghao, who had just transferred and despite hearing about the whole situation the day before as well, shrugged and said, “We’re joining the talent show.”

“Dancing, right?” Jihoon asked.

Jun was staring between the three people around him. He looked flustered at who he should be keeping up with. Minghao was tugging at his sleeve, while Jihoon looked at the couple with expectations, and Soonyoung stared with pleading desperate eyes.

No one said anything. Minghao looked at Soonyoung and Jun, and decided it was best not to talk to Jihoon anymore. Soonyoung was looking at him with a pout, and saw how confused Minghao was, as if he shouldn’t have told Jihoon about the talent show.

Soonyoung looked down at the head in front of him, and saw Jihoon looking from Jun to Minghao. What was this person doing? Soonyoung couldn’t believe how far Jihoon was going to try to incorporate himself into his life.

“Sorry Jihoon,” Jun said, finally the one to speak up after the long pause, “I think you should leave. You’re not welcomed here.”

“Hmmm,” Jihoon hummed while staring at Jun, “You aren’t too surprised by my appearance, so you must know of me. That alone tells me I am welcomed here. And if you must know, I’m with Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung’s face contorted with shock and disgust. He looked to his friends and shook his head in disagreement. Jun and Minghao glanced at him and looked back down to Jihoon. Soonyoung couldn’t believe the lies Jihoon was feeding to his friends.

“Even if you are with Soonyoung. You’re not welcomed here. You should leave.” Jun said, sighing.

Soonyoung grimaced at the words of his friend. The situation he had somehow created was making Jun become angry and frustrated. He never wanted Jun to be mad. He shook his head and knew he had to deal with Jihoon, he had to get rid of the guy. Jihoon was not only stirring up his life, he was also messing with Jun and Minghao’s.

“Jihoon,” Soonyoung whispered, “We need to talk.”

Jun and Minghao snap their head up to look at him with shock.

Soonyoung looks to his friends and calms them down, saying, “Don’t worry.”

Jihoon had kept quiet, but hearing Soonyoung direct his words to him, he slowly got up and turned to Soonyoung. “Yeah, I agree. We do need to talk.”

Soonyoung sees the smirk on Jihoon’s lips and wonders what he is in for today. Jihoon reaches towards Soonyoung, and Soonyoung leans back. He didn’t want to be touched by Jihoon, it only reminded him of what had happened the day before.

Soonyoung was worried that Jihoon was going for his face, but his necktie was grabbed instead. Jihoon pulled on Soonyoung’s tie and proceeded to drag Soonyoung out of the lunch room. Soonyoung stumbled off the table and widened his eyes towards Jun.

Jun shrugged and rolled his eyes. It was clear on Jun’s face, and how he didn’t make a move, that Soonyoung was alone in this now.

Following Jihoon, they didn’t stop till they reached a deserted hallway. And even away from everyone else, Jihoon had not let go of Soonyoung’s tie. Jihoon turned to Soonyoung, who was leaning away from him, and smirked.

“What did you want to tell me?” Jihoon asked.

“Let go of my tie first,” Soonyoung said, grimacing. “I’m not a dog.”

Jihoon went quiet as he thought about what Soonyoung said. After a quick moment, he pulled Soonyoung down as he leaned up.

Soonyoung closed his eyes, tightening his lips, scared they would be touched again. Once he felt a small breath of air on his neck, his eyes opened.

Jihoon whispered to him, “You are right, you’re not a dog.

The hold on his tie loosened and Soonyoung steps back from Jihoon. Jihoon places his hands in his pants pockets.

“Whatever this is that you are doing, I want you to stay away from my friends,” Soonyoung tells Jihoon with a sigh. “They don’t deserve you bothering them.”

Jihoon grinned, looking up at Soonyoung, “You’re not telling me to stay away from you though.”

Soonyoung huffed, saying, “It’s not like I can stop you at this point.”

“So you’ve realized I’m going to be a big part of your life,” Jihoon said, his grin widening.

“Only till I can get away from this school and you,” Soonyoung said in whisper.

Jihoon chuckled, “As long as you’re alive, Soonyoung, I’m always going to be next to you.”

Soonyoung’s eyes widened at Jihoon’s statement. His heartbeat quickened and his face flushed. Not wanting Jihoon to see anymore of what he was doing to him, Soonyoung yelled, “Do whatever you want!”

Turning away from Jihoon, Soonyoung runs away to hide in his next class.

“You need to talk to Wonwoo,” Jun was saying to Soonyoung.

School was done, and the pair of best friends were over at Soonyoung’s place. They were half doing homework, and half not doing homework.

“What am I supposed to say?” Soonyoung asked.

“I don’t know,” Jun shrugged, before giving suggestions, “I’ve liked you for a year, can we get to know each other better, I want to be friends maybe more than friends.”

“Wha- What if he doesn’t even like me?” Soonyoung frowned.

“You’ll never know if you don’t ask, Soonyoung,” Jun tells his friend.

“Can you do it for me?” Soonyoung asked with a pout.

Jun scoffed, rolling his eyes, “No.”

Soonyoung sulked while nodding, “That’s what I expected.”

Still sulking at the thought of confessing to Wonwoo, Soonyoung poked at his paper with his pencil. He wasn’t in the mood for homework.

Letting his gaze raise to his friend, Soonyoung smiled at the serious look Jun had on. “Junnie Jun.”

Jun frowned and looked over to Soonyoung, “What’s wrong with you now?”

“How are things going with you and Minghao?”

“Minghao?” Jun asked back

“Yeah, you know, the guy you keep kissing, he’s also in our dance team now. Xu Minghao,” Soonyoung said.

Jun sighed, throwing down his pencil, “I know who Minghao is. But why do you ask?”

Soonyoung blinks at his friend, “We’re friends. I’m taking an interest in your life. I want to know if you’re happy, so I can be happy with you. And if you are sad, I can be sad with you too. So which one is it?”

“Right now,” Jun said shrugging, “it is still the same as it was before. I am sad he doesn’t want to label us, but happy that I am the only one he wants to be with. It though, I feel as if I will never know what kind of future I will have with him.”

Soonyoung goes quiet with Jun had just told him. And seeing as how quiet he was, Jun went back to his homework. He had to take all the chances of quiet he could get, otherwise he would never get his homework done.

Before Jun could get too deep into his work, Soonyoung had one last comment to make. “Maybe, just maybe, Minghao is scared of the future as well. And maybe that is what makes him not want to label anything.”

After having a long night to think about it, Soonyoung had made his final decision. He was going to ask Wonwoo out. There was no other choice. He had to tell Wonwoo about his feelings. Soonyoung knew himself well enough to know his heart and mind would be torn if he didn’t let Wonwoo know.

Soonyoung was going to do it after all their classes had ended. He knew Wonwoo’s schedule well enough to know where he would be at the end of the day. Even if his crush was surrounded by his friends, Soonyoung had to tell him.

It was lunch time, and Soonyoung quietly sat across his friends, as they both wrote notes to each other in a notebook. He wanted to ask what Jun and Minghao were up to, but he didn’t want to bother their communication. Plus, Soonyoung was sure they were tired of him after he had pounced them to figure out a schedule to practice their dance routine.

Even though it had been only three days, Soonyoung didn’t flinch when Jihoon shows up with his lunch in hand. Jun and Minghao stops their writing momentarily to watch as Jihoon sits down next to Soonyoung and starts eating his meal.

“Soonyoung,” Jun says, getting the attention of his friend.

Soonyoung looks up from his food to Jun, “Yes?”

Jun side eyed Jihoon, who was slowly eating his food, “Is everything okay here?”

Soonyoung finally looked over to Jihoon, then back to Jun. He shrugs and tells his friend, “Yeah, everything's fine.”

Jun nods in understanding and smiles to Minghao. Without further distractions, the two go back to writing their notes to each other.

There was nothing Soonyoung really could do, in the situation of having Jihoon place himself in his life. All he could really do was keep going, and hopefully Jihoon would catch the hint that he wasn’t wanted or needed around.

Once Soonyoung was done with his food, Jihoon placed his spoon down. Looking over to Soonyoung, Jihoon asked, “You’re done eating?”

With a small nod, Soonyoung tells him, “My plate is empty.”

“Good,” Jihoon said, standing up and away from the table. “Let’s clean up and leave. I need to talk to you.”

Soonyoung looks at Jihoon’s half full plate, “You’re not done with your food.”

“It’s fine,” Jihoon said, picking up his plate, “I’m full enough.”

“Why can’t we talk here,” Soonyoung asked, still not getting up.

“We’re not to bother your friends,” Jihoon said in final statement, “And it looks like they are busy as it is.”

Jun stops his writing and looks over to Soonyoung, “We can stop writing if it bothers you guys.”

Soonyoung shook his head, “No, it seems important, whatever you guys are working on. If this talk with Jihoon doesn’t take long I’ll be back, otherwise I’ll talk to you guys later. Okay?”

Without looking away from Soonyoung, Jun nods. There was worry in his face, and Soonyoung didn’t like to see that, “It’s fine Jun, I can take care of myself.”

Jihoon, still holding his plate waiting for Soonyoung, says, “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dare hurt a hair on Soonyoung’s head.”

“Just keep writing, I’ll be fine,” Soonyoung tells his friends as he gets up.

Taking his plate, Jihoon leads them to the drop off of their dirty plates. After cleaning up, Jihoon leads him to the hallway they were in yesterday.

Soonyoung didn’t care enough to worry about what Jihoon wanted. He never knew what the art kid wanted, and guessing was never good enough.

Stopping close to where they were yesterday, Jihoon stood in front of Soonyoung.

“What did you want to talk about?” Soonyoung asked, looking down at the glaring Jihoon.

And instead of answering, Jihoon walks forward, backing him into the wall.

“Ji-Jihoon, what are you doing?” Soonyoung stutters out, unaware of what he should do in this kind of situation.

But Jihoon doesn’t stop. He pins both his arms on the wall, barricading Soonyoung in. Without answering the flustered Soonyoung, Jihoon places his forehead on Soonyoung’s chest.

With his fast beating heart, Soonyoung stays in his position. The always confident Jihoon was quiet and small in front of him.

“What’s wrong?” Soonyoung asked, “Is everything okay Jihoon?”

“I’m not going to lose you to him,” Jihoon says finally.

Soonyoung sighs, placing his hands on Jihoon’s shoulder to push him away, “You need to stop this.”

“No matter what,” Jihoon says, lifting his head to look Soonyoung in the eye, “You’re going to be mine in the end.”

“Jihoon,” Soonyoung said, shaking his head.

Lifting his hand to caress Soonyoung’s cheeks, Jihoon smirks, “You’ll see. No one is more perfect for you than me, and no one is better for me than you.”

Soonyoung walks out of Jihoon’s reach, “I think this is enough for today. I can’t do anymore of this today.”

Without looking back, Soonyoung tries to drown out Jihoon’s words, but they still come, “You can keep running Soonyoung, but one day you won’t be running anymore.”

Despite the conversation Soonyoung had with Jihoon, he still planned to go on with telling Wonwoo about his feelings. Pushing away all the frustrations Jihoon had given him, he thinks of the boy who had filled his heart and mind for the last year.

Other than Wonwoo, there was no one else Soonyoung had eyes for. He knew for a fact how wonderful they would be together. They would be grossly cute, like Jun and Minghao, writing love notes to each other. Together, they could talk about their shared love of music. Soonyoung had dreamed of hearing their laughs and giggles mixed together, and wanted so badly to have them sharing inside jokes and secrets.

He wanted all this with only one other person, Jeon Wonwoo.

Soonyoung breathed out a nervous breath and watched as Wonwoo walked out of the music room alone. This was perfect. He waited as Wonwoo made his way closer to him. And when Wonwoo was close enough to hear him, he finally spoke up.

“Wonwoo,” Soonyoung said his name, “Is it okay if I had a word with you?”

Wonwoo blinked, looking around the hallway, confused, “You want a word with me?”

Nodding, Soonyoung said, “Yes.”

After a beat of consideration, Wonwoo nods as well, “Okay. What do you have to say to me?”

“I- I’m- My name is Kwon Soonyoung,” Soonyoung got out, “I’ve liked you for a while now, a year to be exact. And I- I wanted to ask if you want to go out with me.”

Wonwoo frowns, staying silent throughout the whole confession.

His quietness left Soonyoung flustered. He could already see the outcome now. His face flushed with embarrassed heat, knowing his heart was already hurting from the expected turn down.

“Are you serious?” Wonwoo asked Soonyoung.

Soonyoung’s face turns even redder than possible, “I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now. I really like you.”

Another moment of quiet ensued. It made Soonyoung wonder if the best thing at the moment was to just walk away.

“Okay,” Wonwoo replied finally.