“sehun, what do you do when you like someone?”

sehun chokes on his strawberry milk, turning his head sideways to face his friend who’s currently munching on his nutella sandwich. the smaller boy is avoiding his gaze, clearly embarrassed by his own question as he patiently waits for the taller’s answer with a pink hue on his chubby cheeks.

“uhm,” sehun starts, afraid of startling his friend who’s now red in the face and has now resorted to just taking little nibbles of his food. “is this about jongin?”

kyungsoo whips his head up at that, widening his eyes at the taller kid looking like he wants to hightail it out of the room. “h-how did you know?”

“hehe, lucky guess?” sehun laughs nervously. any other day he would have told the truth but with the way kyungsoo is looking right now, he’d rather not risk making a friend cry. poor boy is already starting to wobble his lips in fear of being found out.

thankfully, his friend appears to have bought the lie as the smaller breathes out a sigh of relief before shyly biting on his lower lip. “so,” kyungsoo starts again albeit hesitantly. “what do you do when you like someone?”

***

jongin looks up from his drawing, fingers immediately stopping when he hears someone lightly knock on his deck.

he’s surprised to be met with wide, round eyes peering up at him nervously. before getting to ask if his classmate needs something, kyungsoo hands him a slightly crumpled paper which he instantly reaches out for and takes a look at.

jongin feels another smile pulling at his lips but easily covers it up when he remembers something. instead, he looks back up at kyungsoo and asks, “what is this for?”

“i-i drew that,” kyungsoo croaks out before pausing to fiddle with his fingers. “for you.” he continues. jongin feels a blush coming but immediately wills it away before turning to face his classmate again.

jongin clears his throat. “but, uhm, i already have one.” he makes to show the one he was working on before the smaller boy approached him. his deskmate, chanyeol, seems to have only noticed as he leans closer to jongin and takes a closer look at the drawing kyungsoo has made for him.

“is that a pig?” chanyeol asks, eyebrows knitted in confusion.

jongin glares at his seatmate. “it’s a wolf.” he corrects, turning to kyungsoo for affirmation.

instead, kyungsoo looks disheartened as he shakes his head no. “that’s actually a bear.”

“oh.”

jongin moves to apologize but before he can even open his mouth to say sorry, the shorter boy beats him to it. “do you still want it?”

as much as he wants to say yes, jongin has to do the opposite. he’s a big boy who knows how to follow advices. “i’m sorry kyungsoo but i told you i already have one. maybe chanyeol wants it?” he turns to his seatmate who frantically shakes his head. “w-what about sehun?” he tries again.

kyungsoo just pouts before walking away with his drawing.

jongin sighs before dropping his head on the desk.

***

“sehun, what do you do when you like someone?”

sehun flinches in surprise, almost dropping his juice box in the process before turning to kyungsoo who’s eating his cookie with a frown.

“it didn’t work?”

“he didn’t want it.” the smaller sighs sadly. kyungsoo offers him a piece of his cookie which he gladly takes because who ever says no to free food?

“try giving him food?” he eats the cookie piece in one bite, humming in delight because boy, that was delicious. “try giving him some of these cookies? these are amazing.”

kyungsoo brightens up at that, instantly perking up at the idea. “great! i’ll make sure to bring some for you too then!”

sehun smiles before nodding eagerly.

he didn’t think he’d be getting cookies out of this but he definitely isn’t complaining.

***

jongin is just about to dig into his food when a huge cookie is being shoved in his face. when he slightly backs away to see who was handing out the treat, he sees kyungsoo sporting a bashful smile on his face.

he gives his classmate a questioning look. “uhm, kyungsoo, what’s this?”

“a chocolate chip cookie!” kyungsoo enthusiastically answers. “i actually have more on my table but sehun wants them all to himself. i don’t mind fighting him for it though. do you want more? because i can—“

“kyungsoo, it’s okay.” jongin pats the other lightly on the shoulder in hopes of calming the smaller boy down. “i don’t uhm, really eat sweets.”

as expected, kyungsoo deflates. “you don’t?”

jongin clears his throat, avoiding the other kid’s gaze. “i don’t.. sorry kyungsoo. sehun can just have them all.”

the pout reappears as kyungsoo turns on his heels for the second time that week and although jongin feels really really bad, he refrains from calling out to the shorter boy and stares at his food instead. “i would really love a cookie right now..”

jongin sulks before gloomily taking a spoonful of his packed meal.

***

“sehun, what do you do when you like someone?”

sehun sighs, not even bothering to look up from where he’s building lego blocks. his teeth hurt from eating too much of kyungsoo’s cookies anyways. “just find someone else to crush on, kyungsoo.”

in an instant, kyungsoo is squished beside him, tugging on his sleeve. “but i don’t wanna.”

“you like him that much?” he asks, sparing the other a glance only to be met with a firm nod.

“fine.” sehun relents, looking the smaller in the eye and giving him an encouraging pat on the head. “kiss him.”

“w-what? no! sehun, that’s embarrassing.” kyungsoo looks scandalized, pulling away from sehun who immediately yanks him back.

“hm, how about a hug? he looks like he needs them.”

kyungsoo seems to consider that as he bites his lip for a moment before finally nodding. “i guess i’ll do that. hugs are nice.”

“they are.” sehun agrees and mentally pats himself on the back for being the world’s greatest friend. again.

***

jongin is laughing over chanyeol and his spilled milk when he feels someone lightly wrap their arms around him from behind. in his surprise, he bats the person’s arms away and moves back only to regret doing so because he’s met with kyungsoo who looks like he’s five seconds away from crying.

jongin panics, immediately stepping closer to the shorter male only to be pushed back before falling on his . which kinda hurts but kyungsoo.

“you’re mean.” kyungsoo glares at him with a wobble on his lips before stomping his way back to his desk.

chanyeol follows kyungsoo with his eyes before shaking his head at jongin. “that’s what you get for laughing at me.”

jongin ignores the comment and proceeds to making his way towards the other end of the room.

his little heart can only hope kyungsoo forgives him.

***

kyungsoo is sad.

and annoyed because sehun isn’t here and he has no one to blame but himself. he shouldn’t have drawn a bear for jongin. he shouldn’t have asked his mom for more cookies despite sehun keeping most of them to himself. he shouldn’t have hugged jongin. and most importantly, he shouldn’t have liked stupid jongin.

he’s mean and kyungsoo hates him.

once he reaches his desk, he moves towards one of the nearest corners of the classroom and sits on the floor, arms crossed above his chest. when baekhyun asks if anything’s wrong, he tells him no and resumes to pouting peacefully in his position. no one dares asking him again which is nice because kyungsoo doesn’t want to be bothered when he’s sad.

when he sees a pair of feet standing before him a couple of minutes later, he moves to ask the person to leave him alone but stops when he realizes it’s the mean kid.

he huffs as he looks up to the now pouting boy. “what do you want?” he doesn’t want to be mean but jongin was mean to him first so he supposes he deserves it. kyungsoo doesn’t understand why the taller looks sad when he was the one embarrassing kyungsoo all this time.

jongin hesitantly crouches down so he’s at eye level with the smaller, distancing himself a bit because it doesn’t look like kyungsoo even wants him there.

“kyungsoo,” he starts, trying to maintain eye contact with the other kid who mostly just glares. which makes him look more of a disgruntled cat than anything to be honest but he doesn’t dare voicing it out in fear of aggravating the little boy even more. “i really didn’t mean to do all that..”

kyungsoo still looks a bit mad, but the glare has now softened quite a bit. “then why?”

jongin bites his lip, unsure if exposing his classmate would be a good decision considering said classmate is one of kyungsoo’s closest friends. in the end, he figures he wants the shorter boy’s forgiveness more than anything.

“sehun, uhm, i asked him for advice.”

surprised, kyungsoo looks at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.

“‘what do you do when you like someone?’” jongin pauses, embarrassed. “that’s what i asked.”

“w-what did he say?”

“he told me to ignore them..”

kyungsoo remains still for a moment, too confused to respond, before smacking himself on the forehead. “he really told you that?”

“mm.” jongin nods. “sorry for ignoring you.”

“i guess that’s okay— wait!” kyungsoo’s eyes suddenly widen in realization, looking at jongin like he’s grown another head. “you like me?!” he squeaks out.

“do you not want me to?” jongin asks, looking heartbroken for a 7 year old.

“of course i do!” kyungsoo immediately reassures him. the smaller is beaming at this point, suddenly having the urge to hug jongin so he does just that, not even trying to think anymore as he clings tightly onto the other boy.

this time, jongin hugs him back just as tight and he couldn’t be any happier.

***

the next day, as soon as sehun steps foot onto their classroom, he hears his name being called out by kyungsoo who has his little chubby arms crossed above his chest.

“why did you tell him that!”

sehun is confused because what is this midget even talking about.

“i wasn’t even here yesterday.. what did i do?” he asks, looking at his friend funnily.

“you told jongin to ignore me!”

“huh,” he knits his eyebrows in confusion. “i don’t remember doing that.”

kyungsoo huffs, “you told him to ignore his crush.”

oh.

  oh

“that was you?” he cannot believe this. all along.. “i thought it was me.”

kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “are you serious.” he deadpans.

“why else would i tell him that if i knew it was you. i said that because i already like someone else.”

at that, his friend seems to have forgotten why he confronted sehun in the first place as kyungsoo starts bugging him about his own crush.

sehun knows an opportunity when he sees one so he turns to the smaller with a grin, mouthing a ‘cookie first!’ before dashing away.

  kids.

***

  “sehun, what do you do when you like someone?”

  sehun turns to the owner of the voice, surprised to see jongin talking to him. they normally don’t play around so he’s a bit lost as to why the other kid is asking advice from him. about a potential crush no less.

  “uh, why do you ask?”

  “uhm, nothing. i just thought you would know best.” jongin looks so embarrassed that any other day sehun would for it but an idea suddenly pops in his head which makes him stop and blink in realization.

  ‘he likes me huh. too bad i already like someone else.’

  “ignore them.” sehun advices, turning on his heels and leaving jongin confused.

  poor boy thought it’d make him look cool in kyungsoo’s eyes so he shrugs, repeating sehun’s words in his head.

  ‘yup, kyungsoo would definitely think i’m cool.’

  jongin has never been so wrong in his life.