The alarm buzzes loudly at its appointed time, causing its owners to whine out with annoyance. It continues to buzz until a hand slams hard on it and turns the loud annoyance off when the snooze button is pressed. The owner of the hand rubs his eyes with his knuckles as he slides his legs off the bed and gets up into a sitting position by the edge. He releases a yawn as he stretches his arms upwards. He exhales out a sigh of tiredness as he glances at his roommate, still sleeping soundly despite the alarm.

He gets of his bed and head straight to the bathroom to wash up for the day. After brushing his teeth and shaving his overnight grown moustache, he removes his clothes and a very visible picture can be seen by his right shoulder, tainted with dark lines that seem to stand out from his slightly tanned skin. The picture depicts of a middle aged man wielding a hammer but with the male’s muscular figure, the image seems to have extra contours.

The male gasps out as the cold water hits him, causing him to spasm slightly under the freezing liquid. He sighs out in pleasure when the temperature of the water slowly increases until the appearance of faintly visible steam. He lathers his body and his hair with a firm massage before washing it away.

He turns the faucet off and steps out of the showering compartment. He grabs his towel that hangs by a rack above the toilet and drains the water off his skin. Feeling comfortable bring dry again, he wraps the towel around his waist and steps out of the bathroom. He shakes his head in disappointment when he realizes that his roommate is still fast asleep.

He lifts his leg and kicks his roommate off his bed and smirks when a loud yelp is earned from the other’s lips. The roommate gets up into a sitting position by the floor as he rubs his sides to soothe the impact of the kick.

“Good Morning, Hyung.” He greets.

“Ow! You don’t have to kick me, Howon and ‘Good’ morning to you too, no thanks to your kick.” His roommate exclaims with sarcasm.

“You reek of alcohol. You went partying again last night? What time did you return?” Howon asks.

“Uhm… Haha, well I think around… uhm one in the morning?” His roommate stutters as he gives Howon a fool’s grin and plays with his index fingers. Howon returns with a glare as he does not believe his words at all. The roommate sighs out with desperation and drops his head with guilt.

“Okay! I give up. I came back around four in the morning!”

“Jang Dongwoo! We have a math test today and you’re out partying?” Howon exclaims loudly and gives the elder a stern look.

“It doesn’t matter! I’ll ace it like always since I’m a genius!” Dongwoo exclaims proudly and puffs out his chest.

“Whatever…” Howon mutters bitterly as he plops onto his bed with arms still crossed.

“Anyways, I’m going to shower now since I’m up and awake.” Dongwoo announces and starts stripping.

“W-why are you s-stripping here? Go in the bathroom and strip!” Howon stutters with embarrassment and covers his eyes.

“What’s wrong with me stripping here? We’re both guys and it’s not like you haven’t seen my awesome body though. Although I don’t have a six pack like you, but I’m content.” The elder states and continues to strip till total and skips into the bathroom.

Unconsciously, Howon fails to notice how his fingers separates themselves while the elder strips and finds his cheeks getting warmer at the sight of Dongwoo’s bubbly . He removes his hand when he hears the faucet being and water starting to pour.

He looks down at his Adonis-looking body and purses his lips. He isn’t like this in the past and looks all scrawny and thin but an event that happens in his whole life that causes him to create a mindset and changes his life. It is just a fateful encounter that very first day of high school.

He met Dongwoo.

Being someone whose existence is just plain awkward, Howon doesn’t stand out at that time. But it is simply love on first sight and he himself knows it. When he hears a rumor that the elder didn’t like people who are overly thin or fat, he works hard in building up his body with all his hard earned part time money into dieting and protein shakes. When another rumor talks about Dongwoo prefers someone who is smart, he studies extremely hard and manages to get to a position of second of his entire cohort, just below the self-proclaim genius. Likewise, when he notices how the elder love to sway his body to the music, he also takes up dance – all to make himself stand out and impress the elder.

His hard work eventually did when the elder approaches him to start a conversation. Howon makes an effort to keep his body, knowledge and dancing skills up to shape to ensure that the elder’s eyes is still on him but he has never known for a fact, until the year when they entered their senior year of a certain rumor that brings his whole world down to a halt.

Dongwoo is a straight man.

The younger simply swallows his pride and goes under the pretense that he has never known that fact. He still chases for the dream that one day the elder will return his never-revealed feelings for him. After all, there are so many guys who confessed to Howon and most of them were once straight, making the younger think that Dongwoo may be a similar case as well.

But despite the fact that he fancies the elder, he as well finds a little envy for him. Howon has the best looking body on campus but yet the elder has more onlookers and fans than him. He is the most hardworking and helpful compared to the lazy hyung of his and still the elder is much more popular. He cramps in many hours for tests and examinations and yet still maintains his second place while Dongwoo aces all his papers. The elder is a genius alright.

And at times, Howon can’t help but feel a little jealous.

To be continued in Chapter 23: Competition

A/N

Today's chapter! Slightly late but hope you all don't mind! 

I'll take some time this coming weekend to clean up previous chapters and make some edits for better scenes and viewings. 

I'll make the updates when its complete and will announce it as well but not to worry if you don't wish to read back as the plot will remain the same, with just changes and better fighting scenes only =)