Pairing: Hoya/Sunggyu, Dongwoo/Sunggyu
prompt: Koimonogatari AU
rating: PG
words: 2,220

Untitled

I think our class’s

Kim Sunggyu

is probably

gay.

Hoya’s eyes track the way Sunggyu sneaks another furtive look at Dongwoo during homeroom, as if each were a stolen, precious thing. Whatever--not like it has anything to do with him; it’s just something Hoya has noticed over the past few weeks. His attention is drawn back to Dongwoo as he holds up the newest gravure magazine, raving about the latest photoshoot with his favorite model.

Dongwoo’s taste in women is refreshingly normal, Hoya thinks, and it’s a shame that this man is the object of Sunggyu’s affections. He doesn’t have much evidence; it’s just… sometimes, when Sunggyu looks at Dongwoo, there’s something in his gaze that screams ‘unrequited love.’

But if he’s being honest, it’s none of his business.

It’s still none of his business when he hears Sunggyu and Bora’s voices down the hallway and decides to hide around the corner. Hoya’s not sure why he hides, and suddenly it seems too late to just casually stroll towards them as if that had been his plan all along.

“She confessed to you?” Bora asks. Hoya hears their footsteps draw closer. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? You should try going out with her; maybe it won’t be so bad.”

“That’s not the problem,” Sunggyu replies. Hoya hears a soft sigh of disappointment, maybe frustration--at whom or what, he can’t say. “I know I wouldn’t hate it, but girls just don’t make my heart beat fast. It can’t be helped.”

They turn a corner and they’re gone. Hoya breathes a sigh of relief, but then the guilt sets in. His theory is confirmed, but only because he heard a conversation he was never meant to hear. In the end, what did this change? He should just let life move on like normal. As long as Sunggyu doesn’t actually make a move on Dongwoo, Hoya is determined to forget about the whole thing.

Except.

Except there’s no going back to normal. Things that seemed innocent enough suddenly draw his eyes, and Hoya finds himself pondering the significance of it all. A glance here, an evasive answer there--he’s drowning in the endless possibilities contained in one secret he should never have been privy too.

“Hoya?”

“Hm?”

His attention is drawn back to his girlfriend from another class, Hyojin. They’re on the roof of their school building, and Hoya had been watching Sunggyu kicking a soccer ball around with Woohyun on the field below.

She clicks her tongue at him disapprovingly. “You’re the worst boyfriend ever. I was asking if you wanted to hang out after school today.”

Hoya shrugs. “The teacher asked me to meet him in his office. If you want to wait for me, then sure.”

“Wow, so enthusiastic.” She rolls her eyes and smiles. “Of course I’ll wait for you. Meet me by the entrance after your meeting.”

Hoya discovers that the teacher called him in because of his math grades.

“You need to think about college admissions soon,” the teacher explains, holding out his latest exam with a big fat “D” on the top. “You’re great at history and your other grades are fine, but you need to do better than a D in math. Do you understand?”

Hoya nods quickly. He grabs the test from his teacher’s hand and bows, then bolts for the school entrance. Hyojin is waiting there for him, staring at the rain pouring down through the window.

“Sorry I’m late,” he says. She says something in return, but Hoya doesn’t hear it when he notices Kim Sunggyu standing in the shelter that protects the bike rack. He’s holding the handlebars of a bike, biting his lip nervously and shifting on his feet as if trying to decide what to do.

“This ,” Hyojin sighs. Hoya turns and looks at her. She nudges him knowingly. “The weather’s kind of ty for a date. Wanna head back to my place instead?”

Hoya glances between her and Sunggyu, then back at her. “Actually, I need to study. That’s what the teacher wanted to talk to me about.”

She raises an eyebrow at that. “Okay…. Suit yourself.” She shrugs. “You got an umbrella for the walk back?”

Hoya nods and they part ways. He remembers just as she’s walking through the door to pull her in for a kiss.

Hoya opens his black umbrella and heads out into the downpour. Sunggyu’s still standing there, as if pondering how long it will take the rain to let up. Hoya frowns and checks the weather on his phone. He told himself he wouldn’t get involved, but it feels crueler, somehow, to ignore him now.

He notices the way Sunggyu’s lower lip juts out in a pout, and he thinks something weird like ‘it’s a shame; he’d be kind of cute if he were a girl’ before shaking his head and calling out to him.

“Get under,” Hoya says, holding the umbrella out a bit. He ignores the way the rain soaks his arm. Sunggyu’s eyes widen and he glances around, as if confused as to why Hoya would even be talking to him. Hoya shakes the umbrella a bit and gives him a look.

“Thank you,” Sunggyu says breathlessly after a short dash from the bike rack. “You’re Howon, right?”

“Everyone calls me Hoya.” He shrugs and they begin walking towards the school’s gated entrance. “And it’s fine. Where are you headed?”

“Oh, um, the covered shops the next street over are fine.” Hoya notices the squeaking of a wheel as Sunggyu pushes his bike along. “I work part-time at a restaurant near there.”

They walk the rest of the way in awkward silence, the only sound being the enveloping hiss of the rain. Sunggyu waves goodbye when they reach the shops with the awnings, and Hoya turns to go home.

Hoya promises himself not to get involved any further, but it’s made more difficult when some of the guys in their class propose they all head to the beach together after school on Friday. Dongwoo begs him to come and Hoya obliges, and everything’s going smoothly until he discovers that he and Dongwoo aren’t actually sitting together on the train.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, Hoya would call it the opposite of a problem since he sits next to Mijoo, a cute girl from their class, but Dongwoo is sitting in the row behind him next to Sunggyu of all people. After the first few minutes, their conversation seems normal enough, so Hoya lets himself forget about it and talks to Mijoo instead.

When they get to the beach, Dongwoo insists on taking Sunggyu and Mijoo everywhere they go, but mostly he’s desperately flirting with Mijoo, which leaves Hoya and Sunggyu standing awkwardly at the side. She leaves for the bathroom at some point and Dongwoo turns back to them with a dramatic sigh.

“She’s so cute, isn’t she?”

Hoya and Sunggyu laugh at that, but Hoya can sense the uncomfortable tightness in Sunggyu’s eyes and almost feels sorry for him.

“Sorry, but you have no chance with her,” Hoya jokes, causing Dongwoo to pout.

“I just need to show her more of my charms,” Dongwoo replies. He rubs his chin in thought. “Let’s go swimming next! I have a great body!”

Hoya laughs at that, and he thinks he feels Sunggyu shift uncomfortably next to him, but when he turns to look at him, Sunggyu’s laughing a long too. Mijoo comes back out and puts her hands on her hips, her lower lips jutting out in a pout.

“What are you all joking about without me?” she asks.

Dongwoo pushes himself off the picnic table where he was sitting and began to tug her towards the beach. “Nothing! Let’s go swimming!”

Later, he and Sunggyu are sitting on towels on the shore while Dongwoo and Mijoo play with some classmates. They talk about classes and friends, and somewhere along the way Hoya forgets that they’re both watching his shirtless friends play around in the water.

Dongwoo pushes Mijoo a little too hard, causing her to fall over. He quickly pulls her up and pats her back as she coughs and swats at him playfully.

Sunggyu smiles and laughs quietly. “Dongwoo’s a really nice guy, isn’t he?”

“Dongwoo’s an idiot,” Hoya replies, laughing at the scene. Dongwoo’s now apologizing frantically to her.

“Yeah, but still…” Sunggyu trails off, hugging his legs to his chest.

Hoya watches Dongwoo and he can kind of see what Sunggyu means. He supposes that these are the kind of things one thinks are kind or amazing about someone when they’re in love--just simple, ordinary things.

Dongwoo runs back to them, shaking the water out of his hair like a dog. Sunggyu chucks a dry towel at him.

“I think she’s falling for me!” Dongwoo says and grins at the two of them as he rubs himself dry. “I’m gonna go grab a drink. You want anything?” Hoya shakes his head and goes back to watching the ocean. After a moment, Dongwoo adds, “Sunggyu? You want anything?”

Hoya looks over at that. Sunggyu’s cheeks go pink, and his eyebrows go up as if he’s surprised Dongwoo’s asked him at all. “Ah--er, no, I’m fine.”

Dongwoo shrugs and runs to the vending machines on the street lining the shore. Sunggyu hugs his knees tighter to his chest as the tips of his ears turn pink in embarrassment. Hoya stops himself from laughing at the last moment because, God, it was Dongwoo of all people. But if he laughs, then he’ll reveal that he knows Sunggyu’s secret, and, besides, it isn’t nice to tease people about the person they like.

Hoya decides that Sunggyu’s not that bad. It’s not like he can help who he falls in love with, Hoya reasons, it’s not like any of us can. Sunggyu’s a quiet, funny guy, and he’s actually been a lot of fun today. It’s kind of a shame he’s gay, Hoya thinks, because girls probably like him a lot.

It’s already dark when they’re on the train home. Mijoo’s watching videos on her phone next to him and he can hear Dongwoo snoring behind him. As they approach the station, Hoya turns in his seat to wake Dongwoo up.

Except.

Except Dongwoo’s head is on Sunggyu’s shoulder, and Sunggyu’s playing with Dongwoo’s pinky finger, gazing at him with an expression of adoration so pure that Hoya feels sick. Sunggyu gasps and jolts when he realizes Hoya’s looking at them and it wakes Dongwoo up.

Dongwoo hasn’t noticed a thing, and Sunggyu curls into himself facing out the window for the remainder of the trip, his face red and his expression grim. Hoya groans and ponders what he should do.

The longer he sits there the worse he feels. He thinks about Sunggyu sitting directly behind him, probably close to panicking because Hoya caught him. He’d thought about what he’d do, if Sunggyu ever made a move on his best friend. He thought he’d be angry or disgusted, but he finds that he’s far more disgusted with himself.

What’s wrong with it?

Hoya struggles for an answer. He can’t find it in himself to condemn Sunggyu for the painfully gentle look he’d been giving Dongwoo. He can’t find any of the disgust or resentment he knows should be there. It was just, love, pure love, and what was wrong with that?

He was far more uneasy when he thought of what Sunggyu must think of himself now.

Hoya waves goodbye to Mijoo and Dongwoo and breaks into a run to catch up with Sunggyu. He broke off quietly from their group and was walking down the sidewalk with his shoulders hunched in on himself.

“Wait!” Hoya shouted. Sunggyu stopped walking and wrapped his arms around himself. Hoya grabbed his shoulder and forced Sunggyu to turn and face him.

“Do you like Dongwoo?” he blurts out, and immediately winces at that accusatory tone. Sunggyu shifts uncomfortably on his feet and nods.

“You know Dongwoo’s straight, right?”

Hoya lets his arm drop and Sunggyu scuffs his shoe on the pavement. With a small, quiet voice, Sunggyu replies, “I know.”

“I won’t tell.” Sunggyu looks straight up in surprise at that. Hoya shrugs and rubs his neck in embarrassment. “I mean, as long as you don’t attack him or anything…”

“Of course I won’t,” Sunggyu replies indignantly, his face reddening and his hands curling into fists at his side. “You’ve been watching too much TV.”

“Okay,” Hoya said. “Then I won’t tell. So don’t, like, I don’t know… worry yourself to death over it, okay?”

Sunggyu bites his lip uncertainly and nods. “Thank you, Hoya. That’s… really kind of you.”

Hoya’s heart breaks at the way Sunggyu speaks, as if Hoya’s just done him some great deed. It’s nothing, he wants to say, please don’t act like I’m your hero for keeping a secret I should have never known in the first place. Instead, he says none of these things and settles on nodding.

Sunggyu flashes him a brief smile and goes on his way. As Hoya’s walking the opposite direction to get home, he thinks of that flash of pink lips, white teeth, and for the first time in a long time, his heart skips a beat.

****************************************************

I’m planning on writing a continuation of this when I’m not so swamped with school work. And, yes, it will actually end up being HoGyu by the end in case this left you wanting for more.