As Friday ended, Leeteuk was amazed at how it was becoming like any other day. Kangin and Heechul were almost fully incorporated into their nerd group. There were still jokes that Kangin had to have explained to him or times when he’d look at Heechul with a sour face, but all in all, their interactions were pleasant.

Heechul caught up to Leeteuk as he was leaving the building. “So are we doing something tonight?” He asked as he walked backward in front of Leeteuk.

“Yeah, we can.” Leeteuk chuckled at him and kept watch that he didn’t run into anything walking like that.

“You want to go now, or you want to go home and drop stuff off first?”

Leeteuk weighed his options. “We can go now, my stuff isn’t that heavy.”

Heechul grinned. He moved when Leeteuk motioned that he was close to something on his left side and kept walking backward. “So what do you feel like eating?”

They were getting stared at as they walked across the grounds of the school in the direction of the city. Leeteuk laughed softly at Heechul. “Ddeokbokki sounds really good.”

Heechul smirked. “Ddeokbokki is still your favorite food too hm? You want to do street food and sit on a corner somewhere, watching people?”

“Street food yes, I don’t care where we eat it.”

Nodding, Heechul finally turned to face forward as he walked with Leeteuk. “Do you have a lot of homework?”

Shrugging as he thought about it, Leeteuk smiled. “The usual. Some problems to solve, a report to write. Easy stuff.”

“You sure you don’t need help with it?” Heechul teased.

“Just because you’re a straight A student doesn’t mean I’m not.”

“Oh that changed then?” Heechul smirked. “I remember you needed help with almost everything.”

“Hagwon changed that. Studying more than playing with you changed that too.” Leeteuk frowned.

“Yah, don’t bring that up anymore. Only think of good things about me now.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Leeteuk laughed.

Heechul chuckled and walked them toward a strip mall that always had food carts out in front of the shops. “Anything with your ddeokbokki?”

“Water?” Leeteuk shrugged with a laugh and stopped by Heechul to look at the cart’s menu.

Ordering for them, Heechul paid as well and handed over Leeteuk’s container, taking his own. Leeteuk looked around and found an empty bench outside a nearby shop that they could sit at to eat. Heechul carried their drinks in the pockets of his hoodie and followed Leeteuk over.

They didn’t say anything for a while, too busy with their food. Heechul was sitting as close as he could to Leeteuk without cuddling him outright. As his stomach started to fill, Leeteuk’s mind turned to , causing an immediate blush since his crush was right next to him. Looking down only brought his attention to Heechul’s thighs and looking up all he could see were girl’s long legs. He cleared his throat and Heechul raised a brow at him.

“Food too hot?”

Leeteuk coughed and wished he could thank him for a likely excuse. “Yeah. I haven’t eaten any in a while.”

Heechul laughed at him and got up to toss his empty container in the garbage. Heechul pulled his legs up tailor style under him, sitting comfortably and looked at the people. “So you never think about dating anyone?”

Leeteuk stared at him with half a ddeok hanging from his mouth. “What makes you ask that?” He managed around a full mouth.

“Because I never see you with anyone and the one girl that hangs out around you, you’re clearly not interested in. So what is it?” Heechul looked at Leeteuk.

They used to talk about girls and having girlfriends all the time when they were younger, but Leeteuk’s heart had never been in it. He’d always wanted it to be only him and Heechul forever. As a kid it had been innocent, just wanting the comfort of Heechul’s friendship always, but now it was turning into romantic wants as well. Leeteuk sighed. “Well, it’s not like I don’t think about it.” He played with a piece of ddeok. “It’s just I don’t think I’ll ever get what I want, so I gave up even trying.”

Heechul chuckled. “You gave up easily back then too.”

Leeteuk nodded. “Even though you were mean to everyone, you had an easier time making friends. I didn’t have that way with people you do, still don’t. I’m fine being alone though. I don’t need to find a girlfriend or have a wife. I can take care of myself.” He smiled and finished his food, getting up to toss his container.

Heechul watched him, a little smirk on his face.

“What?” Leeteuk asked as he turned back to Heechul. He smirked back, a question mark hidden within it.

Heechul shook his head. “Nothing. I just think you really took the nerd thing to heart while I was away.”

Leeteuk laughed and shoved his shoulder as he sat back down.

Moving to rest his back against Leeteuk’s shoulder, Heechul draped his legs over the armrest of the bench and sighed contentedly. Leeteuk smiled and brought a foot up onto the bench, relaxing against Heechul as well.

“So I know you can’t say, but what’s this thing I need to be careful of?” Leeteuk asked.

Heechul had closed his eyes and purred softly in reply.

Leeteuk nudged him gently, “Yah, don’t fall asleep on me.”

Pretending it was too late for that Heechul didn’t answer, instead making soft snoring sounds.

“Idiot,” Leeteuk sighed and rested his head against Heechul’s.

Heechul grinned and was quiet for a while, enjoying the warmth of a good meal and good company. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could just pause the world right here, get rid of everyone else and just be us? How it used to be when we were kids.”

Leeteuk remembered the feeling of sinking into their imagination creations. The whole world seemed to melt away around them as they became their pretend incarnations. “Yes,” He said simply. “I wish we could do that all the time.”

“Would you miss anyone?” Heechul asked softly with a smile.

“Maybe. But if there was you, I wouldn’t miss everyone so much.”

Heechul chuckled.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Leeteuk pouted.

“I’m not, it’s just that I was kind of thinking the same thing.”

Leeteuk blushed again, his heart rate picking up. “Heechul?”

“What?”

“I- I miss things like this.” Leeteuk was so close to confessing, but he didn’t want to ruin their mood.

“Me too. I forgot how cuddly you are, even if you’re bony.” Heechul snickered.

“Same to you, Skeletor.”

Heechul laughed and moved off of Leeteuk, stretching. “I really will fall asleep if we keep that up.” He smiled.

Leeteuk nodded, covering a yawn. “If we could melt the world away, I’d request a cuddly nap, right here.”

Heechul laughed. “Then we could run around and pretend to be Heenim and Leeteuk?”

Leeteuk chuckled. “Oh, speaking of. You remember drawing them a while ago?”

Frowning in thought, Heechul shrugged. “Not really?”

“Well you did. And you crumpled up the paper to throw it away. It didn’t make the garbage and I found it. It was awesome and I still love your art.”

Heechul smiled. “My simple little cartoons.”

Leeteuk smiled as he nodded.

“Hey, you want to catch a movie?”

Leeteuk shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Is there anything out we could see?”

“I don’t know, let’s go see.” Heechul stood up with a grin and held his hand out for Leeteuk’s.

Leeteuk couldn’t help but feel like some kind of Disney Princess looking up at Heechul like that, but he chuckled and shook off the thought, taking his hand and following along.