The silence was suffocating. It felt like a heavy blanket was hanging over the both of us. Onew and I sat cross-legged on the floor, my school papers spread across the floor before us. We didn’t say a word, Onew looking through the papers and I staring at the wall. I sighed softly as my eyes trailed down the expanse of the wall and back to Onew’s face. He chewed on his lip thoughtfully; pushing his glasses back up as they slipped down his nose. I really liked how those glasses looked on him.

Damn, I really liked anything on him. Better yet, I liked nothing on him at all. I chuckled softly to myself at the stupid thoughts I was having. I really needed to stop giving myself false hope.

Because of my chuckling, Onew looked up from the paper and blinked a few times. It was funny to me how his eyes always seemed so small, yet when he looked up at me like that; they always seemed so big and filled with curiosity. He really looked just like… a rabbit.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” He said, his eyes crinkling up as he smiled. I couldn’t help but smile back. I didn’t even know why I was smiling. Only Onew could make me act so dumb.

“Nothing, hyung. I was just thinking about stuff I guess.” I shrugged it off and he did too.  We were silent for a few minutes until Onew looked up at me again, his eyes blurry focused on my bag.

“What’s that?” He asked, his slender pointing at the spiral notebook in my bag. I cringed. My breath caught in my throat.

“It’s just notes.” I said as I regained my composure. He nodded thoughtfully and reached forward to take the notebook out. My breath hitched again.

It that moment, I thought of a million scenarios of me wrestling Onew to the ground and taking back the notebook or other various idiotic plans. However, instead of executing any of them, I sat like an idiot watching him take my notebook filled with random thoughts out of my bag. I sat silently as he leafed through the pages, reading what I had written. I felt like an idiot. Maybe this was my punishment for not paying attention in class. If I hadn’t sat writing love letters to the boy currently reading my notebook during class, maybe I wouldn’t be at tutoring right now…. or facing the worst humiliation of my young life.

Onew cocked his head to the side, biting on the inside of his check as he spent a particularly long time reading a few pages. He looked back at me, but his gaze was unreadable. His eye lacked any scorn or laughter, yet they lacked any other identifiable emotion at the same time.

“Jonghyun, you write well.” He said simply. The notebook still laid in his hands, now slipping closed.

My breath was still caught in my throat, unable to move from the compliment and the overall situation I was faced with. What was I even supposed to say at a time like this?

“Who do you write for?” he asked before I was able to comprehend was breathing or speaking was.

“I… Myself… but.. me…” I said softly, unsure of what answer he wanted or expected. He laughed softly at this. He shook his head, adding further to my utter surprise.

“All these pages seemed addressed to someone.  Maybe someone you like?” He said, his eyes becoming smaller as he smiled at me. He said it always teasingly, but not in a taunting way. It was almost cute when he teased me.

“You’re right, hyung. They are to who I like,” My cheeks flushed slightly, I couldn’t help but look down at the ground and smile a bit in embarrassment. I heard him laugh softly at me.

“Then you should give them to who you like! They won’t do anything in your bag forever!” He kept laughing softly at me.

“Keep them then,” I said, the smile falling from my lips as I looked at him seriously. It was his turn to be surprised. I could tell he was speechless. His once small, smiling eyes became wide in shock. He blinked a few times, unsure of what to say.

“If I should give them to who I like, I can only give them to you hyung,” I said softly, afraid to look in his eyes.

Onew closed the notebook fully and slipped it into his own bag. He turned back to me and smiled. It was a genuine smile. As always, I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Thank you,” He said quietly, it almost felt like I imagined it. Then, Onew looked back down at my notes as if nothing had happened. I looked back at the wall thinking, not bothered by the fact that we were silent.

I regretted being so dumb and just giving him the notes, but at the same time, I felt that I had nothing to lose. If he didn’t like me, what could he do to me? Tell everything to everyone? It wouldn’t matter; I would still be unnoticeable, nothing but a soft breeze through the school hallways. At least people would know my name if Onew spread around that I was a creepy gay guy that hit on him. At least I would be more than just a person walking through the halls like a zombie.

“It’s getting late,” Onew said thoughtfully, his pencil tapping his chin. “You might as well eat here!”

His smile was large, and I was more than eager to accept anything he threw my way. He stood abruptly and walked out of the room. I sat on the floor still, unsure of what to do. Then, Onew’s smiling face pecked through the doorway.

“Oh, come on!” He said as his face disappeared again. I stood and followed after him. He stood in their small kitchen of the house.

“Onew, where is the rest of your family?” I said in wonder. His house was eerily quiet as soon as I came in. It was hard to not notice that it echoed when I talked from lack of not only things in the house but also people.

“Oh, it’s just me and appa. I don’t have a siblings or anything. But it is comfortable for it just to be the two of us,” He said as he stirred a pot on the stove. I nodded in understanding and leaned against the counter.

“I always wanted a big family though! It would be fun that way.” He said, a dreamy cast going over his eyes. Suddenly I felt that as he cooked, he didn’t see what he was doing. He was seeing something different, something he liked a lot more.

“It is fun that way. It’s less lonely that way,” I said without thinking. I was analyzing the tiles of the flooring, tracing the lines with my eyes.

“It’s okay. We’ll keep each other company,” I could tell that he was smiling. I smiled too.

It was nice knowing you didn’t have to be alone.

After a while, I felt comfortable in the little kitchen. Onew and I talked and laughed. I helped him wash and chop up vegetables. He told me I was a good helper. It made me happier than he realized. We ate together like old couples do. That also made me happier than he realized. I helped him wash all the pots and pans and plates we used. But, by then it was dark. The sun had already become hazy and fell from the sky. Little stars sprinkled the sky and took the sun’s place. The moon was a small crescent shape in the sky.

When Onew saw the night sky before him, he sighed softly, almost dreamily.

“It really is just the best, isn’t it?” He said to me, gazing out the window in his room.

“I guess so,” I said, not much else could be said. I didn’t have much of an opinion about the night.

“Look at all the stars. They’re just a million little suns. It’s kind of hopeful,” He mumbled, that dreamy look never leaving his eyes. “We’re kind of like that. We just have to wait like stars for our time to shine.”

I smiled at the thought. As Onew looked out the window, my eyes gravitated to his face. I studied it. That look of contentment and dreamy-daze was etched into my mind. I realized I was probably looking at him with that same type of gaze. It made me wish he was looking back at me with that look he gave the stars.

“What about the moon?” I said softly. Where did the moon play out? All the stars and the sun got to shine, but the moon was vacant of that same fire. It didn’t have the same glow.

“Well, the moon is the luckiest I think. Look at it; it gets to change every day! Sometimes it’s a little sliver, sometimes it’s full. It always gets to be out there, it just gets a makeover every time.” I nodded. He was right.

The moon didn’t really have that same spark. But, it was still just as important in a different way.

Onew walked me to the door after that. I slipped on my shoes slowly trying to spare time. I didn’t want to leave yet. Nothing particularly great had happened, but I just didn’t want to have to go home and be alone.

“Jonghyun, call me when you get home. That way I know you’re safe!” Onew said in a serious tone.  He really sounded like a dad when he talked like that.. or maybe a protective boyfriend. I preferred the latter.

“I will, I will.” I said as if I wasn’t really listening. I just didn’t want to seem to earnest. The doors behind me were already wide and open for me to leave, but it didn’t feel right to just go. I turned back to him to say good bye officially and then take my leave. But instead of just a simple good bye, I felt a warm brush against my lips. It wasn’t a long, meaningful kiss, just a simple touching of our lips. But, for some reason, that kiss set me in place. I was frozen except for the slow movement of my hand raising and touching my lips in shock.

I looked at Onew and smiled when I saw his blushing cheeks and furrowed brows in worry. It was cute seeing him all frazzled like that because he didn’t know what my response would be. I couldn’t help but to lean forward quickly and connect our lips again. Just a little harder, just a little more meaningfully, just so he knew I didn’t disapprove of course.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, hyung,” I said with a smile. He smiled back, his eyes squinting up just the way I liked it.

I left out the door with a skip in my step. I pulled my phone out quickly and called my only friend. On the third ring, he answered.

“Yes~ hyung?” Taemin cooed through the line.

“It’s love,” I said, a smirk plastered on my face.  He chuckled at my cockiness that was apparent in my voice.

“I’m guessing you hit it off with somebody?” He said, I could tell he was smiling.

“Not just somebody, it was him,” I said adding emphasis on the last word.

“The him that you can’t stop staring at, him?” Taemin said almost in disbelief.

I looked up as I walked, staring up at the stars.

“Yeah, that him,” I said as I grinned at the little crescent moon. It looked like his eyes when he smiled.

(A/N): Thank you for reading~. I get all my fanart from tumblr/livejournal/devianart.♥