Summer break… that’s three weeks away…, Sunggyu thought as he tapped the eraser of his pencil on his notebook. The teacher was done going over the lesson and assigned problems. It was the last week of lessons. The coming week would be spent reviewing everything and the last would be the final exams.

He placed thoughts about Junho on the back burner as soon as Monday came around. The fight that happened Friday had him worried over his sister’s safety. They were now at Wednesday and not a single thing seemed out of place. That didn’t mean he thought they were safe. He just needed to be more alert. He didn’t know what Gyuri was capable of. No one reported the fight and while he was glad for that, he just didn’t think he could relax.

Jinki approached their table that Monday however, and bowed deeply towards the red head. Sunggyu was confused while the rest of his friends looked on, unsure of what was going on.

“I’m sorry about my cousin.”

The red headed teen quickly stood up, wrapping his arms around the other’s shoulders and leading him away from prying ears. He deemed them safe enough when they were outside the cafeteria doors.

“I don’t know what he did but he told me you left Saturday because of something he said.”

“It’s fine, you don’t have to apologize for him,” Sunggyu reassured.

“What did he do?” the brunet asked, genuinely curious.

“He just… He was teasing me and I didn’t like it, that’s all.”

Jinki nodded and, even though he seemed like he wanted to ask more, let it drop, “Thanks for coming anyway. You should come over again sometime and invite the guys. We can use the pool now,” the guy smiled before he headed off towards his usual table.

He was putting up his book and notebook, waiting for the bell to ring to announce the end of another school day. He waited for the first rush of kids to get out of the classroom, checking his phone briefly before finally getting up and leaving himself. He was surprised to see Woohyun waiting outside the room.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Well, I could go and meet up with Yeunja instead…?” he made to walk away but was held in place by a firm grip on his shirt’s collar.

“You aren’t funny,” he stated, letting go before brushing past him.

“What’s up with you? You’ve been acting weird since Sunday,” Woohyun asked, hurrying his steps to catch up with the red head.

Sunggyu sighed, “I’m still worried about Yeunja.”

“I think she’ll be fine. She’s a lot tougher than she looks.”

“Nam Woohyun!”

Both guys stopped at the yell that echoed off the hallways along with the rest of the student body that was still filing out of the classrooms. The dark haired male turned, curiosity on his features. Sunggyu did too and who he saw made him frown in disapproval. Woohyun however smiled leisurely until the person was standing in front of them.

“Nam Woohyun,” his eyes landed on her reluctantly, his face instantly showing disinterest.

“Who are you?”

She scoffed before deciding to smile, “I’m Park Gyuri.”

“Ohhhh, you’re Gyuri?” he leaned to his right, looking at the side of her face before giving a slight frown.

He couldn’t see any bruise on her cheek. Sunggyu shook his head. He knew what he was looking for and he leaned in to whisper in the younger male’s ear, “Make-up covers anything.”

“Ah, you would know, right?” he teased, elbowing the other’s arm, making Sunggyu give him a glare and a push with his shoulder.

“Anyway,” she said, raising her voice to catch the guys’ attention, “I have a deal for you.”

The dark haired male raised a brow, not liking the attitude she was showing, “A deal?”

The red head sighed as he took a step back, “Don’t take long. Everyone should be waiting for us already.”

“Hey, wait!” he grabbed the older male’s forearm, “Sorry. Not interested,” he said to the girl before turning to leave with Sunggyu.

“Not even if it involves Yeunja?” the girl smirked as she threw her dyed brown hair over her shoulder.

That certainly made both guys stop again and Sunggyu couldn’t keep himself from stepping forward towards her, “Leave her alone,” he was pulled back by the hand that was gripping his arm.

“Was that punch she threw at you not enough?” Woohyun asked, amused.

The smirk on her lips fell, “What?”

“Just leave her alone, you’re better off that way,” the junior stated.

He slung an arm over Sunggyu’s shoulder and began to lead him away.

“I will if you go out with me!” she yelled.

Woohyun let out an unamused scoff but no longer turned around, “Sorry, I’ve already got a girlfriend, plus, you’re not my type,” and continued on his way with the senior under his arm.

They were surprised when Dongwoo and Hoya reached them, greeting the junior with hand clasps as they looked over their shoulder at the fuming girl that was no longer in their immediate view.

“Did you really just flat out reject her?” Dongwoo asked, laughing.

“She’s every guy’s dream, man. You sure you wanna pass that up?” Hoya joked.

They were filled in on their way out of the school.

“I doubt she’s stayed a dream for long,” he said as he waved his hand in dismissal.

“You’re not wrong about that,” Hoya smirked.

“See? Even you’ve had a piece of her,” Hoya’s eyes widened and he quickly denied any such thing when he saw the looks his best friends gave him. They were akin to disgust and disappointment.

“I swear I haven’t done anything!” he said as he held his hands up, as if such an action would prove his innocence, “It’s not that she hasn’t tried, but I just didn’t let her.”

“You don’t mean she...?” Dongwoo didn’t finish his inquiry.

The athletic man shifted his gaze from Sunggyu to Dongwoo to Woohyun. Dongwoo and Sunggyu were never really around that crowd to know anything about it. Sure there were rumors that always went around but they both thought that was all they were, rumors, nothing to take seriously.

“There’s always one. I’ve been to three different high schools and not one has been different. Besides, I happen to only like classy girls,” Woohyun said with a smile.

“Like Aecha?” Hoya asked, teasingly.

“No, like my girlfriend,” he pointed to Sunggyu.

The red head elbowed him on the ribs, effectively making him withdraw his arm in favor of cradling his side. Dongwoo laughed heartily, Hoya accompanying his friend’s giggles as they left him behind.

“You know what!? You can walk home!” Woohyun yelled.

“I always walk home, !” Sunggyu answered.

“Sunggyu… why do you refuse to ride my bike?”

It was Friday afternoon, a couple of hours after school. Instead of heading inside like they always did, they were sitting around on Sunggyu’s porch.

“Because you’re on it.”

Dongwoo giggled silently at the answer but said nothing.

“You don’t trust me? Is that it? But I thought we had something special!” Woohyun cried dramatically.

Sunggyu sighed, rolling his eyes at the male’s dramatics. He guessed he could say they were close friends now. He’s seen sides of Woohyun that no none else has and they texted a lot. Although there were times when he wished they didn’t. Somehow it always ended up with Woohyun calling him pretty or beautiful and Sunggyu wouldn’t know how to answer. He hated how such words affected him so much and as much as he liked it, he couldn’t help the uncomfortable knot that would take residence in the pit of his stomach.

“You know, I think I liked it better when we weren’t friends. You just seemed a lot more normal then,” Sunggyu said, ignoring his questions completely.

Hoya laughed, “That’s harsh, man.”

“He always tries acting cool but Woohyun is a dork at heart,” Myungsoo explained helpfully.

That kid was incredibly reserved at first but opened up in a span of a week of the impromptu get-togethers at Sunggyu’s. He was pretty shy and usually let Woohyun do all the talking. Now he got so comfortable with the group of friends that he would make fun of his own brother.

“Yah, don’t help me out here,” Woohyun said, lightly shoving his younger brother.

“What does he do? Sing while he showers?”

Myungsoo’s contained laughter amused Sunggyu but he didn’t press the matter. Woohyun only turned red as he tackled his younger brother to the floor, slapping a hand over his mouth in an attempt to keep him from ruining his cool guy image. They didn’t need to know he sang Taylor Swift or Rihanna songs in the shower. He would die of embarrassment right then and there.

“How cute. Must be nice to have a brother,” Sunggyu commented.

“Myungsoo!” They all turned their attention to the new voice.

It was Choonyei and she brought her friends along with her. She ran up to the porch and greeted everyone. Sunggyu turned to survey her friends. There were four of them, all around her age. He waved at them, recognizing them from previous times.

“Would you like to play tag with us?”

Hoya perked up when he heard that, “Tag? Can I play too?”

Choonyei lit up when she heard that and nodded enthusiastically.

“Let’s go play,” Hoya motioned to Woohyun who only gave it a second’s thought before nodding as well and standing up from the cushions that were on the floor.

Choonyei was extremely happy to have gained three more players.

“Come on, let’s go play,” Woohyun invited Sunggyu but the red head merely groaned in disapproval.

“Don’t even try. All he’s good for is looking pretty.”

The laughter that erupted from all his friends made him turn red. “Hey! Brat!” he stood, making the girl squeal and run away, leaving laughter behind.

“Well, since you’re up already, let’s just all go play,” Woohyun stated as he came up behind him, grabbing his waist and pushing him forward to go down the stairs.

It was seven minutes into the game and everyone with the exception of Hoya, Myungsoo and Woohyun, were out of breath. Sunggyu was tagged already by one of his sister’s friends. His name was Niel. He successfully tagged Myungsoo in a moment of confusion and now Hoya was it. He managed to catch up to Dongwoo and now the poor pink haired male was giggling like a maniac. It was a stand-off. Both were ready to bolt at any moment but the scene was severely dampened by his best friend’s laughter.

Hoya wore an amused smile on his lips, “Why are you laughing?”

“I dunno… it’s a defense mechanism,” Dongwoo continued to giggle.

Hoya laughed at his response before standing up straight, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you three seconds to run away. How does that sound?”

“Really?” he said, giggling.

The short, dark haired male nodded, “One.”

Dongwoo quickly took off, but it was to no avail, “Two-three!”

He yelled in surprise as he felt strong arms wrap around his shoulders to keep him in place but his legs quickly gave way as his ever present laughter weakened him considerably, dragging Hoya down with him in the process. The pink haired male was on his knees while the other was squatting behind him.

“You really at this,” Hoya laughed before letting go of him, “I’m still it!” he yelled as he scanned the area.

Sunggyu froze the moment he caught his gaze. His eyes told him Hoya chose him as his next target. He was about to turn around and run when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his midsection, keeping him in place.

“What the hell!” he turned to see who it was and was surprised to see the younger male using all his strength to keep him from moving.

Apparently, Woohyun was gesturing to Hoya to go after Sunggyu and that he would hold him in place. Sunggyu struggled to remove the hands from him. Luckily he didn’t hold his arms down and it was a lot easier to pry the hands away from him that way. He narrowly managed to escape, running as far as he could from the two.

Woohyun was expecting Hoya to pass him and run after the red head but to his surprise, he felt a tap on his shoulder accompanied by a, “You’re it.”

He didn’t even have time to react. By the time he registered what happened, Hoya was far away, tending to the literally fallen Dongwoo. He was laying on the grass trying to catch his breath. The younger athletic male decided to let them be, deciding that it wouldn’t be fun to go after the weak and easy targets, at least until his eyes landed on Sunggyu.

They decided to use the whole of the Kim and Nam’s front yards as the battlefield, driveways included. Currently, Sunggyu was standing behind a car on the farthest side from Woohyun, which happened to be the Nam’s driveway. He didn’t keep the smirk from showing on his lips. Everyone was standing a safe distance away from him and almost all were in between him and the red head.

He supposed he could give a little thrill to the kids that were currently standing around.

It was amusing to see them scramble about, barely out of his hand’s reach but only because he wanted it that way. He managed to reach Sunggyu with breath intact. He put his hands on the trunk of the light grey Hyundai. Sunggyu was standing almost directly opposite of him; his hands resting on the hood.

“You’re not getting away this time,” he said, with a smile on his face.

The red head never told anyone, but for some reason, Nam Woohyun looked even more of a fool when he smiled, and that was enough to have him hum in disbelief at the threat. Woohyun did it mostly to give the older male a false sense of security, but he chased him around the car a good two times before he decided it was taking too long. Without much warning and in one swift move, he pulled himself up onto the hood of the car.

“What now?” Woohyun asked as he saw the face Sunggyu made.

But the senior didn’t answer. He took off instead. Woohyun jumped off and chased after him. He was heading to the other driveway but the junior was hot on his tail.

“Dongwoo is the safe base!” Hoya yelled, waving his arms to try and catch their attention.

“What?” the pink haired male tried to get up but was stopped by a hand on his shoulders.

“Just stay here and no one will get hurt,” Hoya said as he pinned the other’s hands against the ground.

Dongwoo seriously needed to do something about his giggling tendencies, but it didn’t matter to Sunggyu at that particular moment. He could hear Choonyei and her friends cheering for him but that was also lost in a second. All he could see was Dongwoo, at least until he tripped when he felt the same arms as before wrap around his body.

“Caught you,” the younger male said, sounding out of breath. Sunggyu could say he was a bit satisfied to hear him like that.

Needless to say, it took a couple of moments for a particular someone to catch his breath and gain enough motivation to resume the game.