The school clock had just ticked 6:45 when Lee Jihoon rushed into the school campus, his still-damp hair flushed against his forehead, backpack bouncing against his back, his short legs running as fast as they could. It wasn’t much of an issue, to be honest; besides, the janitors always clean but never pick up the students’ stuff (weird, but he won’t question it for once), but if someone else did pick up his stuff…say, a student, or god forbid, a teacher, or even worse, one of the nuns or brothers that always seem to be roaming around the goddamn school…

…Well, he’d have a more in common with a vampire: extremely pale and dead.

Jihoon had always taken care of his reputation at school. He was the editor in chief of their school paper, a member of the school’s music club, and a part of the Catholic Youth Ministry in their school—mass readers, offerors, collectors, stuff like that. Plus, he was a mainstay in the top 10 of their student body. All this gave him a very pristine reputation among the faculty (and yes, the ministry) and an awestruck reaction from his schoolmates whenever he walked by.

The thing is, keeping up with all those stuff was stressful. Sure, his best friends, Jeonghan, Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Jisoo were a breath of fresh air, but they had their own lives to lead. Jihoon needed a different stress reliever, something that was entirely his own. The notebook did that for him, and very well, in fact. It had been his go-to stress reliever for a couple of months now, and had taken to bringing it to school just a week ago so that he could jot stuff down, whenever he felt like it.

And he felt like it last night, when he snuck into the quiet dance club room during the school-wide acquaintance party. He had taken out one his pens, fixated on finishing a couple of chapters away from the noise and crowds, when Jeonghan unceremoniously stomped his way inside.

Jeonghan, in a ing high waisted shorts, sleeveless shirt, stilettos, and a denim jacket. With ing hair extensions. And a ing flower crown.

“What the .” Jihoon said. He set down the notebook on the armchair. “Hannie, what are you wear—“

“I did tell you I was planning this for a couple of weeks now, right?” Jeonghan said, sitting down to remove his strappy heels. “Ever since we found out that the theme was Coachella?”

“Yeah, sure but—“ Jihoon began, but he didn’t quite know how to continue. “Why are you—“

“My mum’s coming to pick me up!” Jeonghan said, the panic creeping into his voice. “She just called me and said she was waiting outside! I didn’t even know—oh god, please Jihoon, please help me, Seokmin said I would find you here, please please please help me—“

“Okay, fine, where did you leave your school uniform?” Jihoon said. Seriously, Jeonghan’s tendencies to crossdress were getting out of hand.

“They’re in my locker, at our classroom—oh , she’s impatient, she just texted—”

“I’ll be right back,” Jihoon promised, dashing through the general party, using several shortcuts, and finally reaching their classroom. He practically snatched Jeonghan’s lock off (the password was obviously 1004), grabbed the first bag he saw, and flew back to the club room, where Jeonghan has pried off the hair extensions, was clad in only a tank top and boxers, and was attempting to remove several pounds of makeup off his face.

“I got your clo—” he was quickly cut off by a very anxious Jeonghan, who pried the bag off his fingers and was now clawing through the contents like a bulldozer.

Time seemed to flow really fast after that. He helped Jeonghan into his clothes, wiped his face free of the makeup, and was making some finishing touches when Seungkwan burst his head into the room, telling them that Jeonghan’s mother was not only taking Jeonghan home, but the other four as well, and that they should leave immediately. Jihoon was so tired, too harried, and more sleepy than awake at this point, that he literally dragged Jeonghan out of the club room, out of their school campus, and into Mrs. Yoon’s car, where they spent the rest evening listening to her rant about “school curfews” and “stupid parties” and “kids getting ideas that they shouldn’t”. She didn’t even ask Jeonghan or his friends anything, which made Jihoon very relieved. He was too tired to bluff and lie.

And of course, this also meant that he was too tired to check his bag on the way home. And he was too tired to remember that he didn’t stuff his notebook inside his bag before they left school.

What a wonderful life he is having right now.

After what seemed like miles of sprinting, Jihoon finally reached the dance club room. He forced himself to settle on a slower pace, walking the length of the corridor. His thoughts seemed to lighten with every step. It’ll all be fine, he told himself. No one could possible go to that room this early, right? He took a deep breath and threw open the door—

—to find that his notebook was nowhere near where he left it.

In fact, it was gone.

Jihoon’s knees felt like they would gave way. His mind went into overdrive, thinking of the many possible places or situations his notebook could’ve gotten into.

“First things first, Jihoon,” he told himself, taking slow, dragging steps into the room. “Maybe it just fell over. Maybe a breeze just caught the pages and flew it off the desk—“

“—or maybe the person who’s actually allowed to enter the room came in early this morning to practice a routine, found a random notebook on one of the desks, saw that the name on the notebook didn’t belong to any of the dance club members, and decided to pocket it for safekeeping until owner of the said notebook came looking for it.” A voice cut through his thoughts, sharp and clear. Jihoon turned his head.

Just to his left, beside the door post, a student just about his age sat lounging on the armrest of an armchair, smirking at Jihoon’s horrified expression. He held up the notebook in question.

“You’re… Lee Jihoon?” he asked, flipping the notebook open.

Jihoon suddenly found it hard to speak. Part of his mind was relieved that the notebook wasn’t gone forever, and another part was mortified that his greatest fear had come true, someone else did pick up his notebook. And even though he was too in denial to say it, another part of him was taken aback at how cute this guy was, with his baby like face and those weird yet really adorable eyes. He looks really squishy and cute and his cheeks ohmigod I want to pinch his—

“Um, hello? Earth to Jihoon?” the person in question grinned, talking to Jihoon once again.

“Oh, uh, yeah! I-it’s mine, I’m L-Lee Jihoon, please close that notebook NO DON’T READ IT—” Jihoon desperately grappled for his notebook but the student only stood up on the armchair, effectively stopping Jihoon’s attempts.

“Why not? It’s good.” The person leapt down from the armchair. “I’ve been reading it for the past 30 minutes. The fact that it’s a romance between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson was hard to get by, but I got past it. Wait…you’re the school paper’s editor in chief, right?” he asked Jihoon again, who only nodded in response.

“Oh, so that’s why it’s good. You’ve got guts though, writing a gay fanfic in a Catholic school.”

“It’s no big deal,” Jihoon blurted out. “I mean, I have a couple more of those in my laptop.” Stupid, stupid Jihoon, he didn’t need to know—

“Really? Interesting. I should read those sometime.” The person flipped another page, reading intently.

“Please, just give my notebook back, I really need to go back to my classroom—“

“And what, I don’t?” the other person grinned. “I’d like to continue reading, but I don’t think it’s finished yet so…here you go.” He tossed the notebook to Jihoon, who barely caught it due to his nerves. “I’d like to read it again when you’re done.”

“Okay, but I really need to go right now—wait, what?”

“I said I’d like to read it when it’s done,” the person repeated, coming closer to Jihoon until he could meet Jihoon’s eyes properly. “I mean, if it’s fine with you.”

Jihoon felt his cheeks blush. “Y-yeah, sure.” He stammered. “It’s fine.” The person grinned again. Jihoon noticed that his eyes crinkled whenever he did so, which only made him cuter.

“I’ll be here every afternoon, four thirty to six,” The person now said, moving past Jihoon to go out of the room. “The name’s Kwon Soonyoung.”

“Kwon Soonyoung.” Jihoon repeated softly. “Okay.”

“Good.” Soonyoung smiled. “See you then, cutie.” Then he ran away, faster than Jihoon ever could.

Jihoon took a couple more minutes to calm down. Fixed his hair and smoothed down his uniform like it actually changed anything. But actually it did.

From now on, he’d be checking the corridors for a certain Kwon Soonyoung.

Oh, and he’s definitely updating the notebook every night.#
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OMG I ACTUALLY FINISHED A STORY WHAT THE ACTUAL--

okay upvote and comment if you guys all liked it, hope you did! *waves to fellow Carats*
 

<3,

yeolhyunnie