Wonwoo was spent. Now that he thought about it, he had never really done any physical activities aside from PE class. It was naïve of him to think he could pull off two hours of blowing trumpet while moving around from one side of the field to the other. More than once he thought his body would give up on him.

Yet he got through his first practice. The sound of his first play, his teammates’ casual support and understanding atmosphere, everything got him through. Coach was a bit strict, but that was to be expected.

He sat down on the grass, his trumpet tucked neatly inside the box next to him as Wonwoo was afraid to hurt it or make it dirty. From where he sat, he could see the slightly elevated land across the field, where his favorite spot belonged. To think that he used to be there, looking down here.

“Hey.”

Wonwoo turned his head to see Jun with his bright sparkling eyes. After plopping down on the spot next to him, Jun said, “I’m glad you joined our band. I didn’t know you were interested.” Like everything of Jun, the sparks in his eyes and the smile on his lips seemed genuine. Wonwoo didn’t know what to make out of it and his heart rate spiked up a bit.

“Thanks.” Jun smiled wider at his reply.

“So how’s practice?”

“It’s good. I’m a little short on stamina though.”

Jun nodded in understanding before his face lit up.

“Oh! How about we—“

Then, as sudden as he started, he abruptly stopped with a stutter. Wonwoo was going to ask him if he was okay, but Jun recovered quicker than expected.

“How about doing some running?” Jun said with smaller voice. His gaze kept going down even though he usually looked at Wonwoo straight in the eyes. “Building stamina by running regularly. I can accompany you. If you want to.”

The sight of Jun stuttering, the sound of his soft voice and the words he just said. All of them made Wonwoo felt like he was about to combust. He needed to calm down.

“No, it’s fine. You don’t have to go all the trouble,” he answered quickly, leaving a sinking feeling in his stomach. It got worse when he saw Jun looking disappointed. Or so he thought he did.

Wonwoo walked into the entrance of his house, closing the door and untying his shoes without really paying attention. His gaze was directed to the hall, but he wasn’t looking at anything. The memory of Jun from today’s practice still occupying his mind. All he could think was whether the disappointed look was just his imagination, and if it wasn’t, what did it mean.

Until he entered the living room and found his mother staring at him.

“Can you tell me why you’re cutting cram school to join a marching band?” Despite the evident anger lurking in her voice, she wasn’t shouting. Yet.

“He’s perfectly capable in maintaining his grades. He doesn’t need it.” His father said from the couch.

“What do you mean he doesn’t need it?? You don’t know that! Why bother with a school club anyway. It’s not going to be useful to get him into college!”

“He’s still in his second year. Let him enjoy school life a bit.”

His mother looked like she had lost hope towards his father. She turned to face Wonwoo again.

“Come here.”

Mother didn’t budge when father told her how Wonwoo just got home and to let him at least shower first. Wonwoo just sat on the couch, waiting for his parents to stop arguing. He kept waiting as his mother scolded him, and then when she finished with a firm “you’ll quit it tomorrow”, he felt his body becoming heavy, as if his own arms and legs were the heavy metals that chained him to the couch. So he stayed, even long after his parents left the room.

Beside him, Minghao was walking with his eyes on the notebook in his hands. More than once Wonwoo had to grab him by his shoulders to avoid collision with other students.

“You seem to like studying lately.”

At Wonwoo’s words, Minghao finally lifted his face from the notebook and looked at Wonwoo.

“Studying is still boring. And a pain in the . Though I don’t mind when it’s with Mingyu. He can give me pain in the , in other ways than teaching me to study.”

“Minghao!” Wonwoo flinched. The words evoked some images in his head that he would rather not see. Minghao’s hearty laugh eased his discomfort just a bit.

“You’re putting so much effort in this though. Can’t you just spend recess to take a break?”

“I want to cover this part before our next study session and in case you haven’t noticed, I’m really slow so I need the extra effort.”

“Then you should start attending your classes instead of skipping as usual. Studying properly in class might benefit you.”

“I can’t study with our boring teachers. I’d rather skip and get detention. I actually study better in detention. Plus it’s pissing Kang off, so more merit for me.” Wonwoo shook his head at Minghao’s stubbornness.

Wonwoo was still tilting his head over Minghao when the latter suddenly fell to the ground. Apparently Wonwoo was too caught up in conversation that he failed to be Minghao’s navigator. Now Minghao was sitting on his with pursed lips, which turned into a smirk as his eyes landed on the person in front of him.

“Hey, Mingyu,” he said with a deliberately sultry tone. His huge smirk still intact.

The student council’s secretary had a straight face, but Wonwoo saw how the eyes behind those glasses wavered. Not replying Minghao’s greeting, he bent his knees and picked up Minghao’s notebook from the ground.

“Are you going to stay like that?” he slapped the notebook to Minghao’s protruding knee. Minghao chuckled before pushing himself back up with one movement of his arms. Minghao had really strong arms and good balance, he didn’t even wobble and was back on his feet in no time.

Mingyu straightened his legs and looked at Minghao with an unamused face. Then he glanced at the open notebook in his hands, his eyes widened as a result.

“You bumped into me because you were studying?”

“You told me to master that chapter by this week.”

Mingyu raised his eyebrows. To be honest, Wonwoo used to share Mingyu’s skepticism towards Minghao’s ability in studying. But that was a long time ago for Wonwoo. He sensed that Mingyu actually believed in Minghao too, but like Minghao, he was also stubborn and kept throwing mocks at Minghao during their study sessions. It amused Wonwoo how Minghao and Mingyu looked happy as they bickered.

“Yeah, let’s see if you can do that,” Mingyu scoffed.

Minghao’s smirk became wider. “And I shall collect my prize then.”

Mingyu’s composure faltered at Minghao’s reply. He was visibly flustered. Even after he put his hand over his face to (supposedly) fix his glasses, his face still looked slightly flushed.

“I’ve never agreed to that.”

In their previous study session, Minghao demanded a kiss if he could answer all the questions correctly in Mingyu’s self-made mock exam at the end of this month. Mingyu had firmly refused. Minghao (as always) didn’t listen.

“You’re scared that I win.”

“There’s no way you can do it,” replied Mingyu. It occurred to Wonwoo that Mingyu might had said it on purpose. Minghao had shown multiple times that he did better when Mingyu told him he was incapable.

“Give me your hardest questions,” challenged Minghao. The confidence that exuded from his whole body convinced Wonwoo that Minghao could do anything if he wanted to. Hell, it even made Wonwoo feel that he could do the same.

“Mingyu?”

Another voice came from behind Mingyu. Three guys Wonwoo recognized as fellow sophomore students were looking at them with raised eyebrows. When Mingyu saw them, he practically shoved Minghao’s notebook to Minghao’s chest then left without even giving Minghao another glance.

“What man, you’re hanging out with him now?” Wonwoo heard one of the guys spoke as they walked away.

Mingyu’s awkward laugh came after. “Pfft. No. We just bumped into each other.”

“The dude’s stupid enough to bump into anything, huh.” The guy laughed and the other two joined him. Mingyu did too.

Wonwoo couldn’t see Mingyu’s face when he laughed, but he could see Minghao’s. And it broke Wonwoo’s heart.

He met Minghao again at the corridor after school. Wonwoo was in his sportswear and Minghao gave him a quick glance up and down.

“I thought you said no practice today.”

Wonwoo nodded. “I’m just going to do some running.” To Minghao’s raised eyebrows, Wonwoo continued, “I need to build my stamina.”

Minghao hummed and walked alongside Wonwoo. When they arrived at the field, Wonwoo did some basic stretching and started to run first. He was already halfway through the first round and was surprised to see Minghao catching up to him like it was nothing.

“You don’t have to,” Wonwoo said between his uneven breathing.

“I need this.” The small smile on Minghao’s face made Wonwoo’s chest squeezed a little more. “Besides, you need me. You’re doing terrible.”

Wonwoo certainly wasn’t used to running. He had Minghao taught him the proper breathing and posture, so at least he felt a little bit more comfortable. Minghao was patient, matching his slow pace and encouraging him.

He was planning on going for 3 rounds yet somehow he made it to 4, though now his feet was starting to give up on him. Minghao told him, “Past that corner and we’re done”. Wonwoo made it to that corner somehow. After the goal was behind them, they walked for another round to cool down.

His body unwound and the sweat that covered him didn’t feel that sticky anymore. Now sitting on the ground, Wonwoo thought of how the run made him feel good, not just from all the sweating. There’s this satisfying feeling that he never thought he’d get from running.

“Thanks, Hao.”

Sitting on his left, Minghao hummed without turning to face Wonwoo. Minghao kept his gaze in front of him, but Wonwoo wasn’t sure that Minghao was looking at anything in particular.

“Minghao.”

Minghao hummed again.

“Why do you like Mingyu?”

Minghao finally turned to face Wonwoo. He had his teasing smile on.

“He’s smart, cute, and also hot. Really hot,” he said playfully. Wonwoo squinted at him but he just laughed.

“But he hurts you.”

“Nah,” Minghao shrugged before rubbing his chin with his left hand. “I might be a masochist anyway. You know, I won’t mind trying that kind of play with—oh, come on, you prude.”

Wonwoo didn’t stop frowning. Minghao looked at him with glee before dropping the playful look from his face. The nonchalant vibe slowly disappeared. All that’s left were a small smile and a pair of pensive eyes.

“We’ve talked before. Once, when we were freshmen.” Affection made way to Minghao’s eyes. “I guess he wasn’t as smart as he is now. The others were quick to see that I’m bad news while he flopped down next to me at the cafeteria.” He stopped for a chuckle. “We didn’t talk much, just random stuffs, and didn’t talk again for the whole year, nothing in common, right? But...”

When Minghao stopped, he had this look. Inexplicable and somehow sad, but also very beautiful.

“Sure you’ve seen it yourself. How he helps others in council and other situations. He’s a good kid.”

“He’s not always good.” Mingyu did tried to ignore Minghao’s existence in front of everyone, as if associating himself with Minghao would harm him somehow. His reputation maybe? Wonwoo didn’t know. Why would that matter when the fact remained; Mingyu hurt Minghao.

Yet the affection never left Minghao’s eyes. Even though his smile was sad, his eyes didn’t change.

Wonwoo sighed and leaned back, letting gravity pulled him to the ground. He stayed like that, enjoying the way the grass tickled his skin as he basked in silence. It felt like an hour had passed when he opened his mouth again.

“My mom told me to quit the band.”

“Are you quitting?”

Wonwoo spent a few moments glancing at Minghao from the ground. When he finally opened his mouth, he said, “You won’t stop pursuing Mingyu.” He didn’t ask because he knew the answer.

“Nope.” Minghao returned his glance from above. “You won’t quit the band.” It wasn’t a question either.

“Nope.”

At that moment, Wonwoo felt himself breaking into a grin without even intending to do so. Minghao was grinning too.