the story's nearing an end :) i thought the storyline was going to be super predictable, but none of you guys got it? but ahahaa before you start reading i just do wanna say this for once and all: my bias otp in this story is lyeol. so. idk. you can figure out the rest of the story. :DD

“Oh my God, when is he going to shut up?” L groaned-sighed to his mother, playing aimlessly with his champagne glass.

                L’s mom laughed in spite of herself, reaching over to the center of the table to grab a roll and place it on her son’s plate. “Eat something, it might take your mind off the boredom.”

                “I’m not bored,” L insisted, “I just want him to stop talking already.”

                “We’ve only been here for an hour.”              

                “And in that hour I’ve thought about suicide multiple amounts of times.”

                The woman sighed, a smile still placed on her lips. “Just bear it for a few more hours, alright? You’ll survive. The rest of the teenagers in this room are faring pretty well.”

                L looked around the room where a girl his age sitting in the top corner had her back straight and hands neatly entangled, carefully placed on the table. In another, there was a boy sitting with his side to the back of the chair, listening to the speaker with great intensity. There were obviously more, but L felt bad just watching them that he couldn’t be all that great.

                “Ugh, if only Myung came,” L groaned. “Or even Sungyeol. This is hell.” 

                “They’re about to bring out the main course meal?” his mom tried.

                L looked up to give his mother a smile, then asked, “Can I go to the restroom? I’ll just wash my face a little and wake myself up. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

                “Ah…sure. Just come back before your father gets on stage.”

It was about 5 into the evening when Sungyeol grabbed his phone and scrolled through the contacts to find Myungsoo’s name, whose number he’d gotten a few days ago after all three of them had exchanged.

                There were quite a few rings until Myungsoo finally picked up, breathing heavily. “Hi! Sorry, I don’t use my phone a lot so it was upstairs.”

                “It’s alright,” Sungyeol waved away. “You’re at home right now, right?”

                “Yeah,” Myungsoo answered, and Sungyeol could hear him take a seat. “I was trying to make myself dinner but then I discovered that I really have no idea how to work the stove, so now I’m just reheating stuff.”

                “Er…where’s the rest of your family?” Sungyeol asked in caution, just to make sure he was right.

                “You mean where’s L?” Myungsoo laughed. “Well, he and my parents left to go somewhere. I wasn’t sure, they just said they were in a rush so I didn’t wanna bother them even more by asking.”

                “Oh!” Sungyeol fake-awed. “Since nobody’s home, why don’t I come over? My dad’s at work and my mom had to bring my brother to his dance practice.”

                “Uh. Well.” There was clear hesitation in Myungsoo’s voice. “Um. I…guess so. Just saying, though, I don’t really have anything for you to eat…”

                “That’s fine! I’ll be over in a few, okay?”

                “Mhm.”

                When Sungyeol hung up, he made an awkward fist pump that he was grateful nobody saw. Just as he was about to get dressed, though, his phone rang again with a different ringtone.

                L.

                Without thinking, Sungyeol pressed the end button and went immediately to his texts.

me ; sent

you’re supposed to be at some fancy party, not calling me.

L ; just received

u dont understand, its awful here

me ; sent

deal with it. eat food. that always helps.

L ; just received

im hiding in the bathroom rn ok

me ; sent

don’t take too long or everyone’s going to think that you’re constipated

me ; sent

or that you have diarrhea

me ; sent

both are pretty much equally bad

L ; just received

save me omfg

me ; sent

good luck :D I’ll tell myungsoo you said hi.

L ; just received

your going to see myung??

me ; sent

*you’re. and yeah. I told you I was busy.

L ; just received

YOU’RE a total backstabber

me ; sent

ily. I just love myungsoo a tad bit more.

L ; just received

youre gonna regret this when they find my dead body here

me ; sent

call me when the ax murderer arrives, maybe I’ll pick up then.

When Sungyeol had arrived at Myungsoo’s house, the younger had already finished eating with the dirty dishes neatly stacked in the sink.

                “So what’re you doing?”

                Myungsoo shrugged, closing the door behind Sungyeol as he walked in. “I was reading. Doing some homework. My life’s pretty boring, I’m very well aware.”

                “I wasn’t going to say that,” Sungyeol smiled, taking off his gray jacket and throwing it on the nearby couch because he knew he could. “I would’ve asked you what you were reading and how the book was.”

                “For trying, you get two points,” Myungsoo said, walking into the living room as his friend followed. “And I was reading our science textbook. So. I don’t think you really wanna know how it is.”

                “Is this seriously what you do on Saturday nights?” Sungyeol asked with eyebrows raised, taking a seat on the couch across from Myungsoo and his…stuff.

                “You weren’t supposed to come to judge me,” the other muttered. “But yes, it is. So now tell me, why’d you come here exactly?”

                “I thought you were lonely.”

                “I’m fine.”

                Sungyeol sighed, turning himself upside down so that his legs were hanging on the top of the couch and the blood was all rushing to his face. “Tell me a story.”

                “What?”

                “L said that you and him always had fun when you were kids. So tell me about that.”

                Myungsoo crooked his head, shaking it. He then settled himself down on the ground, pushing the coffee table that separated them to the side and sat criss-crossed in the center of the living room carpet.

                “I don’t like reliving my childhood, it’s not on my list of favorite things. So how about…this. I’ll tell you a story.”

                “Anything that keeps me occupied is fine.”

                Biting his bottom lip, Myungsoo took a heavy breath in and watched as Sungyeol’s highlighted brown hair bounce. “So there are two best guy friends, right? Let’s call them…A and B. They’re, like, super close. You know, those guys that you can’t seem to separate. Anyways, so one day at school, there’s a new girl – she’s super pretty, funny, smart, has a great personality. Everybody loves her. So B saw her first, right? and then he fell for her just like” snap! “that. They talked, discussed, had tons of fun. He couldn’t tell her anything because they’d just met, but he really did like her – like, a lot. And then all of a sudden, in the next few days, B discovered that A and the girl had met, and the thing was, A had managed to ask her out on a date and now they were officially a couple and going steady. B had no idea how it happened, it just did, so in the end he had to live with it. The only problem was, he couldn’t just drop his feelings for the girl and as time progressed, he just kept falling more in love with her – all while his best friend was dating her.

                “In the end, A and B learned that the girl was going to move again because of her father’s job. A was heartbroken, but they decided to maintain a long-distance relationship because they knew they could last that much. But B was still overwhelmed with his feelings, and so he phoned her when she was getting on the plane and confessed to her because he knew that he probably was never going to see her again unless it was at her and A’s wedding. She was shocked, yeah, but she also managed to say that she had some hidden feelings for B too ever since they met. So she called A after that and told him that they should take a break because she was unsure with her feelings and she would hate to go on dating him while she was earning for his best friend.”

                There was a long pause after that and Sungyeol managed to upturn himself and sit face-up on the couch, looking at Myungsoo aggressively. “So? Then what happened?”

                Myungsoo sighed, continuing. “Then, the girl’s plane had a crash. She died, along with most of the people on the ride. She died leaving A with a broken heart both ways around and B hanging on a loose thread.”

                “What kind of ing ending is that??” Sungyeol demanded, pushing himself off the couch to sit in front of Myungsoo. “That’s so stupid!”

                “Sorry I have y stories,” Myungsoo said without an apologetic look on his face. “So tell me, then. Who’s side are you on, A’s or B’s?”

                At that question, Sungyeol gave him another look. “A’s, duh. If B could’ve hidden his feelings for that long, he could’ve done it for a little while longer.”

                “Thought so,” the younger shrugged, pulling his legs out so that his arms could wrap around them. “It’s nice to know your opinion on that.”

                “That was honestly a stupid story, though.” Sungyeol scoot over, laying himself down so that his stomach nearly touched Myungsoo’s socked feet. “Tell me something else.”

                There was a long pause and then Myungsoo looked down and asked, “Can I tell you something now?”

                “…Um, I just asked you to?”

                “No, can I ask you something?”

                “Yeah?”

Ily. I just love myungsoo a tad bit more.

                The words kept repeating themselves in L’s head, he just couldn’t get them out. Even when he was no longer in the bathroom, sitting in his chair, watching his dad make a long thank you speech. It just…it just stuck there. No matter how nonchalant he tried to sound over text, he wasn’t. He didn’t feel sane, or right, or normal, or happy, or anything.

                I love you. I just love Myungsoo a tad bit more.

                ily. I just love myungsoo a tad bit more.

                “L, honey, are you alright?” a womanly voice from the side asked him. “You don’t look okay.”

                Looking up, L found that his mother had a worried expression on her face, holding out a glass of water. He gratefully accepted it, taking a careful sip before setting it down. “Yeah. I’m alright…just bored.”

                “Well pay attention to your father, he might say something important.”

                He eyed his father, who had a microphone in his hand and was the next round in probably making him have a concussion just to find something to do.

                “I’m going to the bathroom again,” he whispered to his mom, standing up.

                “You can’t –“

                Ignoring his mother’s protests, L stood up and walked toward the direction of the bathrooms where he was only a few half hour’s ago. When he reached out to push open the men’s bathroom, he realized that it was stuck.

                “What the ,” he hissed. “I don’t have the patience for this…”

                He shoved at the door again, once with his hands and the next with his shoulder. “Why can’t you ing open, oh my God…”

                It only took about four more minutes and crashing down onto the tile flooring for L to finally get his body into the bathroom.

                In front of him were a pair of muddy shoes half covered with a light teal gown that, as L’s eyes followed, went up to show a teenage girl trying to hairspray the out of her hair.

                L looked around to make sure that, yes, the urinals were indeed right beside him – so what the freak was a girl doing in here??

                “I had to hide,” she said right away as she moved some strands of her hair out. “I was running late from soccer practice and my parents cannot know that. My sister’s in the girl’s so if I go in there she’d murder me without thinking twice about it.”

                “Um. Uh. Yeah?”

                The girl stared at herself in the mirror, opening her eyes wide then closing them. “Do you know how to put on eyeliner? Most guys these days do. I need major help, because I have no idea how you get this on without poking your eye out. My sister usually does it for me, but once again, she can’t know that I’m late.”

                L stared up at the girl’s reflection in the mirror, trying to push himself up off the ground (it wasn’t working, his body was still in shock). “I think…you look fine without it?”

                “Fine,” she shrugged, stepping back and not taking heed of the compliment. “Now the high heels. Hate them. Okay, and so – HOLY ING .”

                Now having the energy to push himself up, L staggered back with a more than surprised look on his face. “Um. Yes?”

                “You’re – you’re – oh my GOD!!” She shrieked a little, stepping back and almost stepping on the ends of her dress with her dirtied shoes. “Holy , you’re Kim Myungsoo!!”

                L looked around, then back down at himself. “Um, wait, actually, I’m not –“

                “I’ve had the hugest crush on you since I saw your photo next to that article you wrote on the connections of trigonometry and logarithms and oh em eff gee I’m in total love with you!”

                (a/n: no there isn’t such thing I just made that up ok)

                “Wait I did what? I don’t. I mean. What?”

                “I. LOVE. YOU. KIM. MYUNGSOO.” She was walking up to L, holding his hands into hers and bringing them up to her chest. “It’s because of you I got an A in math and now I’m going to major in mathematical engineering when I get into college! It’s always been a dream of mine to meet you – oh my God, I’m so sorry you had to see me like this! I swear, I’ll get cleaned up. I’ll even figure out how to put on eyeliner. Holy , Kim Myungsoo, you are ing perfection and I just love you so much and omfg I’m not okay right now, not even close and you are just. I can’t believe I’m meeting you.”

“Do you –“

                Myungsoo was interrupted by a loud ring coming from the coffee table that had been pushed to the side – the home phone. It had to either be his parents of L, since all three knew that he didn’t bother picking up his phone and that the home line had a phone in each room of the house.

                “Let me just pick that up,” Myungsoo sighed, leaning over to grab the phone. He picked it up, greeting the other person with a very monotone, “Hello?”

                “You never ing told me you published some article in a magazine,” L seethed from the other line.

                Myungsoo raised his eyebrows, recalling the event but not even remotely sure how his brother found out about it. “…What about it?”

                “You didn’t tell me??”

                “It was in a teenager’s edition of KID’S MATH, I didn’t think you’d be interested,” Myungsoo tried explaining without any awkward suspicion in his voice. “Only, like, four people submitted articles so they all got published?”

                “But – you could’ve still – UGHH.”

                “…What’s going on?”

                Sungyeol, who could hear L’s screaming through the phone, poked Myungsoo on the knee and mouthed What’s going on?

                Nothing, Myungsoo mouthed back, although he did take the phone from his ear and put it on speaker.

                “Just…ugh I’ll tell you when I get home,” L groaned out, and hung up with an angry scowl.

                “What was that all about?” Sungyeol stared at the phone with a great amount of confusion.

                “Apparently my brother just found out I got an article published?”

                “Right now?”

                “Yeah…though I don’t know how.” Myungsoo put the phone back into its charger holder, then sat down with a sigh. “About my brother, though.”

                “Yeah?”

                “I don’t know if I should be saying this…”

                Sungyeol rolled his eyes, shoving Myungsoo out of the way. “Just tell me. Nothing you say about L would change my ideas on him.”

                “Well…what if I told you he had a major crush on you?”

                “…What if I told you I had a girlfriend?”

                Myungsoo froze, looking horrified. “What?”

                “I’m kidding,” Sungyeol laughed, not even fazed by what had just happened. “Calm down, you look like I just told you I killed someone.”           

                “But – wait, are you not surprised? I just told you that he – had a…??”

                “Oh, I already knew,” Sungyeol shrugged.

                “What.”

                “I mean, I guessed. But I knew, you know? He was a bit more than obvious.” Sungyeol sat up, bringing his legs together to sit criss-cross to place his elbows on his knees. “And I had this crazy dream, I think I told you about it. But it was awful. And from that, I kinda just pulled out that he had a really big obsession with me.”

                “Does he know?”

                “Nope,” Sungyeol shook his head, a thin smile on his lips. “I wasn’t even completely sure that he liked me until now – but now that I know for a fact, he’s not going to know anything.”

                Myungsoo squinted, trying to figure out what Sungyeol meant. For the most part, he had had this night-confession put out completely. He was supposed to tell Sungyeol about Sungjong, and he did – in a different context – and if Sungyeol chose L, then it’d work out. And he did chose L, so Myungsoo was almost positive that he’d also like L if he knew that the guy liked him.

                It was all because the sooner they got together, the sooner Myungsoo could put away with the craning for Sungyeol in his heart. So he had to make them work out, whether he wanted to or not.

                (But at the moment, this whole thing wasn’t working out well at all.)

                “…What’s that supposed to mean?” Myungsoo asked, the only thing going through his mind being that Sungyeol and L should’ve gotten together by now because they both had a knack of confusing him to death.

                “I don’t like him,” Sungyeol said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

                “Wait, hold, what do you mean by that –“

                “He’s not my type.”

                “You have a type?” Myungsoo screeched.

                “Yeah.” Sungyeol thought about it for a second before looking the other dead in the eye. “Modest guys who put everybody else’s feelings ahead of themselves, but are able to be selfish once in a while. Nice ones that have the ability to make you smile but are still funny. Non-experienced guys are also the best because then you have the chance to be their first in everything.”

                Myungsoo blinked for a good minute before demanding, “Where the freak are you going to find a guy like that??”

L felt like crying as he was dragged by the girl out of the stall. She’d put on her high heels and was now only half an inch shorter than him, but she’d given up on the eyeliner.

                “I need to show you to my parents,” she said excitedly, ditching all her stuff into a corner and pulling L out of the bathroom. “You’re going to love them, Myungsoo. They’re really good at math, too.”

                Weakly laughing, L nodded as he clutched onto the little bit on sanity he had left (which was down to a zero at this point). “Y-yeah…”

                “So what’re you here for?” she asked in a hushed voice as they reached the room where all the people were placed and another man was on stage.

                “Um…my dad’s the new recruit?” L didn’t really know how to answer the question. “And um. What about you?”

                “Oh, my parents are over there!” she pointed to the table in the corner where L had seen the prim and proper girl around his age sitting before. “My dad owns the photography company that’s in charge of all the advertisements and demos. He basically takes pictures of everything for them. And my mom’s the math person, she makes sure the dimensions are perfect – oh you’re going to love her!”

                In his place, L stopped, forcing the girl to stop as well.

                “What’s wrong, Myungsoo?”

                “Did you just say…photography?”

SOBBING I WAS WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE "SOMEONE HAS TO APPEAR TO HELP L WITH HIS CAREER" BUT THEN NOBODY DID AND I WAS LIKE YAY DID I REALLY WRITE SOMETHING THAT NOBODY'S GOING TO GUESS??

but yes.

i'm serious, i started out this entire story planning for lyeol (the first draft and this) to happen. but now. i don't know. since i feel like this is a pretty good near-end, idk. i write what i want on the spot so these things that come out can never be planned...

btw the girl. she still has no name. just sayin'.

i'm a really anticlimatic writer, sorry lol <3333

oh right and the entire flashback scene i did the last chapter. what i was trying to show was that MYUNGSOO AIN'T ALWAYS SUBMISSIVE. HE'LL TAKE CHARGE AND DO THE LITTLE THINGS HE CAN TO MAKE THINGS TURN TO HIS SIDE. HE HAS SOME SELFISHNESS INSIDE HIM TOO YOU KNOW.

ok that's all lol

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