Changkyun came back to school on Friday. During the two days, Kihyun had sent him a few messages asking how he felt. Every time he got one, the freshman still couldn't believe his eyes. He wasn't used to that but he didn't mind. He liked it. He wondered what had happened that the brunette changed so much recently. If a week ago someone had told him that Kihyun would ask for his number he would think that the person was crazy. The older boy didn't care about it for such long time that Changkyun sometimes thought that he didn't have a phone at all. He even created a nickname for him: Kihyun from the stone age. But actually, he had seen the brunette was using his smartphone a lot so the older boy probably didn't want to talk to him before because they didn't like each other at first. It would suit Kihyun a lot. He was such a proud person that it was more than likely that he just didn't want to admit his mistake. But out of the blue everything has changed. Since that day when the brunette came to his house uninvited, just to check up on him, he started to be very nice and caring towards Changkyun. The ginger started wondering if someone just didn't kidnap him and replace him with a clone. Or if he didn't hit his head or something. The younger boy had also a bit more probable theory. However, he was afraid to make assumptions so quickly and he wanted to avoid any disappointments. Every time he recalled the moment when Kihyun showed up at his flat the couple days before his heart started to beat faster and there was nothing that he could do about that. The older boy's face when he saw Seokwon was just priceless. Even though he wasn't entirely sure, he somehow felt that at that particular moment the brunette was jealous. He knew well how it must have seemed like for Kihyun. Some random guy opening the door to Changkyun's flat as if it was his own, pretty ambiguous, huh? Moreover, he still couldn't believe that Kihyun really worried about him. After they had talked sincerely back then it just made Changkyun fall for him even more. Now that he could have some hope he basically couldn't wait to see him and he was thinking about the dark-haired senior more than ever. If that was even possible. He also felt those damn butterflies and he just knew that at this point he was hopeless. He was crushing on him so badly that now there was no return. The ginger felt so many emotions at the same time that he doubted that he will be able to stand it any longer. He needed to talk with someone. Did he have any friends who would understand him? Yoonho was definitely out. He was too much of a gossip and he was always making weird assumptions. The whole thing with Mrs MacDougall. The freshman will never forget him that. Now the whole school was making fun of him that he had a crush on a middle-aged teacher. Seokwon? He was a good friend but he strongly believed that Kihyun was Changkyun's enemy and it seemed that he has made it a point of honour to protect his friend from the y senior. So it would rather be a bad idea to suddenly confess that he actually liked the mean pianist. Then, he could also talk to his parents. They already knew that he was gay since he came out to them when he was 16. It was when he dated his previous boyfriend and to his surprise, they had reacted quite well. Maybe just his dad was kind of angry that his only son will never have children. But his dad might live to see his longed-for grandchildren way faster than he would wish. His sister was a bit too mature for Changkyun's liking. Besides that, his mum reacted unexpectedly well but to his surprise, last year when he had told her that he wanted to go to a TV show instead of studying at a university she brought the case out and said that 'she could accept that he was gay but she would never accept him not getting any proper education'. And by 'a proper one' she meant purely and simply higher education. So even though his parents accepted him he couldn't quite see himself asking them for advice when he didn't know what to do with his crush anymore. The only people left were Jooheon and Gunhee. But there was a thing that was terrifying him. The two guys knew Kihyun personally. Nothing could guarantee him that they won't tell everything the brunette. He didn't need any gossips or ambiguity. He preferred to talk to Kihyun one-to-one even though he already knew that Changkyun liked him. However, he felt desperate. He really needed to talk to someone about his feelings. Gunhee was only a tiny bit better than Jooheon because he didn't like their classmate. And in this case, it would be safer to tell the secret to Gunhee rather than anyone else. Finally, he made a decision. The ginger absent-mindedly walked down the hallway when he suddenly bumped into someone. He quickly started to apologise and when he looked up he saw a familiar round face with wide eyebrows. A weird twist of fate brought him to Gunhee before he even had time to think his plan out.

"You should watch your steps." - said the brunette with a smirk - "Why are you so deep in your thoughts? Are you worried because of some test or what?" - he asked him folding his arms.

Changkyun stared at him for a few seconds. He would never think that the older male would notice his absent-mindedness so quickly. Maybe he should tell him about it right away? When the thought popped up in his mind he felt a sudden wave of panic. He wanted to do that but at the same time, he was afraid of his reaction. Maybe he should re-think that?

"Er... Yeah, I cannot quite focus today." - he said and laughed awkwardly - "But it's not about school."

He really started considering whether he should tell him or not. The break had just started so they both still had about ten minutes before the next class would start. Gunhee's eyes widened.

"Oh, are you ok?" - asked the brunette with a concerned face.

"I think I'll manage." - he replied and smiled wryly - "I actually need to talk about something and I thought that maybe you will be the one that could help me but..." - he stopped because he didn't know how to put it and he also looked around to see if someone wasn't listening to what they were talking about.

He sighed because the corridor was full of people.

"I don't really know what you mean but I think I can help you." - said the older boy nodding - "You can always count on me." - he added and smiled shyly.

Changkyun grinned. Maybe Gunhee truly was his good friend? He really missed the times when he still was in high school and had tons of friends. But the times were long gone and he had lost touch with most of them so maybe their friendship wasn't so real, after all. However, just as he opened his mouth to say something, the brunette suddenly jumped in fear because someone nudged him from behind. They heard a loud gale of laughter and a familiar dimpled face appeared from behind his back. It was Lee Jooheon.

"Ha ha ha, you should've seen your face, you were so scared." - gasped out the blonde in between his laughs.

Gunhee frowned.

"Since when do you think that such pranks are funny?" - he asked him flatly - "If I did something like that to you, you'd probably sit in a corner crying. Did you even think about that? No? You know what? There is the proverb 'do as you would be done by' and you should follow those words." - he said extremely quickly and glared at his friend.

Jooheon flinched and opened his mouth to say something but Gunhee turned around back to Changkyun.

"I'm sorry about that. Were did we finish? Ah, I know. So what did you want to tell me?" - he asked him looking at him expectantly.

The ginger glanced at Jooheon and not even thinking about what he was doing, he shook his head. He just couldn't do it when the blonde was listening. He had a feeling that the percussionist would definitely tell the rest of his friends about Changkyun's secret. He just seemed like a person who couldn't stay quiet.

"Er... Um..." - he stuttered out looking around in panic.

He really couldn't do that.

"I'm sorry, that's a very long story and I'm afraid that I really have to go." - he gasped out and quickly walked away feeling a little bad for leaving so suddenly.

When the ginger disappeared around the corner the brunette glared at Jooheon.

"What have you done?!" - he yelled at him and the blonde immediately made a sad face that reminded a hurt puppy.

Gunhee groaned. He was really angry. It seemed that their little friend had something extremely important to tell him but Jooheon just had to show up and ruin everything. Apparently, the younger boy didn't think about the percussionist as someone trustworthy. And it was more or less true because the blonde was always getting extremely excited about everything and when he was in such a state then it was easy for him to blurt something out. Maybe it wasn't deliberate but it was a very annoying trait of him.

"I wanted to remind you that acting cute doesn't work on me." - he said blandly.

He didn't change his angry expression but he could feel his stern facade crack. His blonde friend was exceptionally good at making others hearts melt with his puppy eyes even though he usually looked like a dangerous thug.

"Gunhee, why are you doing that to me? Why are you so mean?" - asked Jooheon pouting and tears filled his eyes. The brunette was more than certain that this time the blonde was just pretending so he theatrically rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Stop it." - he said flatly - "I'm not going to give up even if you will cry. Changkyun wanted to tell me something but you just had to interrupt us." - he added frowning again.

"I didn't mean that!" - whined the blonde - "Why did Changkyun react this way, though?" - he asked after a few seconds of silence.

"I don't know, maybe he doesn't trust you?" - replied Gunhee in mocking tone - "Or maybe only I was supposed to hear that?"

Jooheon sighed loudly.

"Why is he like this? Shouldn't friends know about everything?" - he asked in a sad tone - "Oh, no, what if he doesn't like me?" - the blonde's eyes widened as he started to panic.

"Oh my God, you're pathetic. Not everything revolves around you. Now I'm starting to wonder myself why am I even friends with you?" - he asked dramatically.

Jooheon started to whine again so the brunette was glad when their teacher suddenly appeared and started to unlock the door to their classroom.

~*~

That day Changkyun was sitting alone at the lunch break. Yoonho and Seokwon decided to go to the nearby Macdonald's and he didn't really feel like it. He didn't want to go anywhere because even though he was well now, he still felt a bit weak. The ginger-haired boy wanted to move as little as it was possible. And besides that, he had already brought his own lunch anyway. He didn't want it to waste. The freshman didn't have anything better to do so he just started to eat. He decided to maybe go to practice the glockenspiel later if there would be any time left before he started his next class. After a couple of minutes, he suddenly heard the signal of an upcoming message so he took his phone out of his bag to check what it was. They were supposed to have their mobiles turned off when they were at the university and he totally forgot to do that in the morning but he wasn't in class at that moment so it was ok. When he looked at the screen he realised that it was from Kihyun. He couldn't help to smile brightly. He looked around to check if the older male wasn't anywhere nearby because it wouldn't make sense to text if they were in the same room. The ginger totally forgot to tell him that he was already at school and he suddenly felt very bad because of that. The senior was probably was still worrying about him. However, it seemed that the brunette wasn't at the canteen at that moment. Kihyun's friends were also nowhere to be seen and Changkyun started to believe that they probably had some additional project or task that made them not show up to the lunch. Why did everyone decide to leave the building that day? Were the chocolate bars in the vending machine poisonous or what? He sighed and decided to stop overthinking everything. He should probably just read it. He laughed at his own silliness because his heart rate started to accelerate just as he wanted to open it. God, what was wrong with him? The message said:

Hi 😊

How do you feel?

I hope that you will be back soon.

And I wanted to tell you something

I feel bad that I haven't told you that before

I'm really glad that you showed me all those

rappers who are your inspiration that day when

we met last time. I really did learn a lot.

He stared at the two green bubbles in shock. Did he just indirectly thank him for the day they met before Valentine's day? Was the message really from Kihyun? Did the older male just go out of his mind? He was so surprised that he didn't know what to do for a few more seconds when he finally recalled that he was supposed to tell him that he was well now.

Hi~

I'm good 😊

Omg I'm so sorry I didn't want to worry you

but I forgot to tell you that I'm back already 😱

And I'm happy that you eventually liked it 😉

He felt that his reply was embarrassing as hell but he just didn't have any better ideas of how to word it. They talked for a few more minutes and he learned that Kihyun and his friends went to the city centre and grabbed a lunch there because they needed to photocopy something and the photocopier here at the university just broke. Changkyun chuckled when he read that. Even though the building was generally well-equipped, it applied only to those things that were connected with music. All the different equipment usually broke at least once a week. A minute later he got the next text.

I'm sorry but I have to go

Minhyuk is trying to look over my shoulder 😱

Oh wait I managed to hide it

And I have an idea

It would be better if we saved our phone numbers

as something stupid

They won't recognise us then

Changkyun frowned. He didn't quite understand why they were supposed to hide that they were texting with each other. They weren't doing anything wrong. Was Kihyun ashamed of being so soft towards him? Possible. He was a very stubborn person. It will probably take a very long time before he will admit that he really had judged Changkyun wrong. And the younger boy somehow knew that he shouldn't blame him for that because it was just hard for him. Or maybe... Just maybe... Something really has changed in the way Kihyun saw him?

You know what? You seem even more suspicious

when you're trying to hide what you're doing 😂

But alright 😉

Do you have any ideas?

Hahaha very funny 😑

Wait until they will find out

They would make fun of me till my death

But anyway

I was thinking of saving you as "fox"

Because you're a damn sly fox

You're always getting what you want

and you know what I am talking about 😒

When he read that he flushed and tried not to let out any weird noises but he eventually chuckled softly. He knew well what he meant. He was shocked that the older boy really mentioned that. Did he really hit his head or what? Changkyun also realised that he quite liked the animal concept. No one will ever find out because it will kind of function like an inside joke. No one except them two will ever get the reference.

I love it~ ❤

And I have already an idea how to save yours 😉

"hamster"

Because you look like one and you're cute 😉

Noooo

That's so embarrassing

Don't do it

And how could you just call me cute

I'm not cute

Too late 😂

It's already saved lmao

And you really are

Don't deny it

He couldn't stop smiling. He wanted to say something more but he realised that he should go if he really wanted to practice before his next class. He told Kihyun about it and he left the cafeteria after he cleaned the table.

~*~

During the next week, they continued texting each other. Changkyun agreed to use those weird nicknames and he really did find it adorable. Hiding their conversations made everything ten times more exciting. He even went further and decided to save a pizzeria n