Every day, Jaebum can feel Youngjae’s eyes on him during class. Every. Day. It wasn’t a new occurrence for Jaebum to be gawked at during class (and other inconvenient and slight awkward places), so he really shouldn’t be bothered by this. But he is bothered, very much, because Youngjae is making it really hard for him to focus on anything.

He isn’t intimidated by Youngjae, he thinks, no ing way . Youngjae is a small, teddy-bear like boy with fluffy hair and an affinity for oversized sweaters - how could anyone be intimidated by someone like that? Plus, he’s Im Jaebum, for s sake, the resident “Bad Boy”. There’s no way someone whose smile is like the sun itself could ever be threatening in any way, shape, or form.

It was just a coincidence that, whenever Youngjae looked over, Jaebum’s palms started sweating and his heart raced and his stomach tumbled… Okay, so maybe he’s a little intimidated - but who wouldn’t be when you have someone (an extremely attractive boy) constantly and unabashedly staring at you.

(At this point, even Jaebum knows that he’s just making up excuses now.)

It's starting to stress him out, and it was for that reason, that he tries to talk to Jackson about it. Yet, because it’s Jackson, Jaebum kind of (definitely) regrets bringing it up because somehow (aka; Jackson and his blabber mouth) the rest of his friends (or, more accurately, his dongsaengs) are now more than aware that the “Cool Kid” Im Jaebum has succumbed to a totally uncool, schoolyard crush.

So now, he has to live with the shame of admitting he’s got this crush (or,  as Jackson puts it, “an affection ”). It really doesn’t help that he can’t even look in Youngjae’s direction anymore without feeling lightheaded. Jaebum can’t believe how mushy he’s gotten in the last two weeks (yep, two whole ing weeks since Youngjae came and decided to up his heart).

All he wants is to get through high school smoothly, but now he has to deal with Jackson’s “ helpful love advice” - which, in Jaebum’s opinion, is not helpful at all. In fact, it’s anything but helpful because Jackson can’t even finish his “advice” without bursting into giggles - like right now.

Jackson’s hand is pressed against his mouth to stop himself from laughing as he tries (keyword: tries ) to help, but at this point Jaebum’s kind of just stopped listening and started counting down the days until he can be put out of this misery (the number’s pretty high and Jaebum’s got no hope anymore).

“Just talk to him,” Jackson huffs, leaning over the table to look Jaebum in the eyes once his giggles stop, “After the way he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off of your charming physique, i’m sure he’ll-”

“Jackson,” Jaebum interrupts, hiding his heated face in his hands. He’s doesn’t know where the blond was headed with that question, but Jaebum doesn’t want to know.

“Hyung,” Kunpimook pipes up, the first year nudging Jackson out of the way so he could push himself into Jaebum’s personal space, “I mean, Jackson-hyung’s right. For once,” he ignores Jackson’s squawk of protest and sighs, “You’re like, already really popular, so I’m sure talking to him isn’t going to turn out horribly . It’s not like he hates you or anything, you know.”

No, I don’t know, Jaebum wants to snap back, but that would be rude and Kunpimook hasn’t done anything wrong, so he just settles with sighing dejectedly. This is ridiculous , Jaebum thinks, feeling Yugyeom pat his back comfortingly. He’s really glad they chose not to eat in the cafeteria today, Jaebum really didn’t want everyone to witness his embarrassingly romance-oriented meltdown.

(Not that having Jackson, Yugyeom, and Kunpimook watching helps in any way, because he can hear them trying to muffle their laughter every time he complains. Which is ing rude, he’s allowed to have feelings.)

He just wants to go home, where can wallow (cry) about his problems like “cool kids” are supposed to do. Maybe I can run away, he groans mirthlessly - maybe if he did, he’d wouldn’t have to deal with the plethora of screaming girls and “bad boy/cool kid” expectations and the way Youngjae make him mushy inside. Ahh, that’s a nice thought, Jaebum thinks of the stress-free, expectation-free life he could lead.

“ Jaebum !”

He faintly hears Jackson hiss his name and Jaebum looks up, mouth drawn in a half-snarl, “What-”

“Jaebum-ssi?”

He pauses, his annoyed words dying on his tongue because (speak of the devil, and he shall appear) Youngjae was suddenly in front of their table, drumming his pretty fingers against the tabletop and smiling directly at Jaebum. He looked confident and assured and nothing like the shy sophomore he was in class, but that wasn’t why Jaebum was speechless.

Nope, because (aside from the fact that it was Youngjae , and he was talking to Jaebum ) Youngjae’s hair was ing pink . A light, golden-pink that made him look even softer than normal.

Jesus Christ , Jaebum actually flinches in surprise (because, wow, does that colour look good on Youngjae) and he knocks his knee against the underside of the table painfully. It takes everything in him not to squeak in pain and it probably is showing on his face because his friends are snickering and Youngjae looks like he’s biting his lip to stop himself from laughing. Great. ing Great.

He takes a breath and tries to swallow his embarrassment, hoping it isn’t evident in his voice (he’s already filled his embarrassment quota for the year, thank you very ing much). “ Yeah ,” the word is a little stressed, but Jaebum’s proud he was able to keep his voice impassive.

Youngjae, without taking another glance towards the other three at the table, declares firmly and confidently, “Do you want to get coffee after school?”

It’s at this time Jaebum actually chokes, and it’s even more ing embarrassing because the noise he just made was in no way flattering or even quiet . , , -

“Y-Yeah, I’d love to?”

Of-ing-course , he curses himself, of course it comes out as a squeaky question - he’s made himself look stupid and now Youngjae’s going to think he was a big ing joke. Just great-

“Yay, I’ll meet you at the school gates at the end of the day!” Youngjae turns on his heel and speeds away before Jaebum (or anyone else) could even open his mouth again, but Jaebum’s able to catch the way his ears were burning bright red before he ran out of sight. Jaebum knows his mouth is wide open right now (the picture of “chic and y”, really) and he probably looks like an idiot, but  he can’t help it.

Did that just happen?

He’s snapped out of his stupor by Yugyeom’s hand slapping hard on his back, and Jaebum looks up to find all three of his friends grinning at him. Jackson leans over, and with a cheeky smirk, winks at him. “See? That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

Jaebum kind of wants to slap that stupid smirk off of his best friend’s face, but he doesn’t. He’s got more important things to deal with now.

Like his coffee date with Choi Youngjae.