• Title: Ready, Set, Choke (highschool!au)
• Author: nicorobin @ AFF / Tumblr
• Genre: romance, fluff
• Length: 2362 words
• Characters: Howon, Bomi, Woohyun, Chorong, Doojoon ++ Luhan (mentioned)
• Pairing: Homi
• Picture credit: aeeusobio @tumblr

 

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Howon ran around the corner, nearly slipping by a hair’s breadth but he picked up himself quickly and continued to run, not even daring to look back. His eyes caught a door on the right, and without thinking he opened the door and let himself in – he closed the door quickly without a sound and leaned on it, his breath uneven and he’s panting like crazy. Outside he could hear rapid footsteps and voices – some were calling out for his name.

 

“Where is he? Where’s Lee Howon?”

 

“Aish, he’s so fast!”

 

“Aaaah, I want to have his sweaty shirt and sniff it all day long!”

 

“Do you think he’ll sign my chest if I ask him?”

 

Howon shuddered when he heard his crazy fangirls’ talks outside the room. He’d never understand it. He’s just a soccer player at their high school. So, yeah, he’s the striker, and yeah, he’s the MVP, but really, what’s with the sign my chest thing.  

 

He gulped, steadying his breath, and he was just started to look around the room when his body went rigid and he choked on air, locking eyes with a girl standing just a few steps away from him.

 

The girl was also frozen in her place, her face looked shocked. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she’s only wearing a towel that wrapped her body from her chest to the middle of her thighs, revealing too much skin on her shoulders and her longs legs, while her hair was up into a messy bun. 

 

THIS IS THE GIRLS’ CHANGING ROOM YOU DUMB- LEE HOWON, Howon screamed on his mind, stumbling by himself and turning to face the door, ready to go out right then. 

 

“Hey, what’s this door? Do you think he’s here?”

 

Howon’s eyes widened when he heard the voice from outside the room, and he’s seriously considering to jump out through the window even though it’s the third floor, but then he heard a soft voice from behind his back.

 

“Um… You can… hide here…,” Howon turned around and the girl nodded over her shoulder, behind the lockers.

 

Howon avoided her eyes and nodded, quickly hide himself behind the row of lockers. Right after Howon squatted down, the door’s opened.

 

“Oh… Bomi-ssi, do you see Howon Oppa, you know, the soccer player?” Howon held his breath, hearing the conversation started between his crazy fangirls with the girl that hiding him.

 

So her name is Bomi…

 

“Yah, what are you talking about, there’s no way Howon Oppa is here,” another voice said.

 

“Lee Howon Sunbaenim?” this time Bomi answered, and Howon noted that her voice was a little bit raspy, a little bit deep for girls, but somehow Howon’s mind found it… appealing, if he had to say.  “Of course he’s not here… It’s a girls’ changing room, if you haven’t notice.”

 

“See, what did I say? Come on, he’s probably back to the field.”

 

“Should we wait in the front gate…?”

 

Howon heard the murmurs gone after the sound of the closed door, but he’s still squatting in his place now that he had another thing in his mind – how to face this Bomi girl.

 

“… They’re gone… Sunbaenim,” he heard Bomi’s voice and Howon jumped on his feet immediately, determined to direct his gaze to the floor.

 

“Uh, umm, y-yeah… Thank you, and… uh,” Howon scratched the back of his head. “… I’m very sorry.” He did a deep bow and dashed to the door, not daring to take a double look at the girl.

 

***

 

The second time Howon saw ‘Bomi’ was during lunch, two days later, in the canteen. He was with his best friend and a fellow soccer player, Woohyun, when suddenly Woohyun raised his arms and waved it around. “Yah, Park!” he shouted, and Howon turned his head to the direction of Woohyun’s shout. Howon choked on his food.

 

“What, Nam?” Chorong, the girl Howon recognized as Woohyun’s childhood friend from the other class, came over and was quick to steal a piece of meat from Woohyun’s lunch.

 

Howon was busy drinking his water to overcome his choke, and he peeked from the corner of his eyes nervously, only to saw Bomi stood behind Chorong, looking at him. Their eyes met and Howon almost choked again, this time on his water, but Bomi just bowed politely. Howon returned the attitude.

 

Woohyun raised his eyebrows but said nothing – he finished whatever he needed to say to Chorong and Chorong said goodbye to the two boys. Again, Bomi bowed to Howon before she left which he replied hesitantly.

 

“I don’t know that you know Doojoon Hyung’s little sister?” Woohyun asked curiously.

 

“Who?” Howon furrowed his eyebrows, still following Bomi’s movement with his eyes until the girl went out from the canteen.

 

“That girl just now, Yoon Bomi, I saw her bowed at you, so you two must know each other?” Woohyun pointed to over his shoulder with his head.

 

It took a while for Howon to processed Woohyun’s words. “… Yoon Bomi?! She’s… Doojoon Hyung’s sister?!”

 

“Yeah, you don’t know? How did you know her anyway?”

 

Howon gulped, silently praying that his soccer captain would never know about him walked in on his sister, changing – because as sweet as Doojoon was, everyone in the soccer team knew about his sister-complex. Seriously, just ask Luhan the exchange student from China last semester. Howon heard that Doojoon’s sister was assigned to tutor Luhan, helping him with his Korean, and Luhan happened to play soccer too. Let’s just say his life under Doojoon was not pleasant, with too many sit-ups and push-ups and run around the field more than necessary.

 

***

 

The third time Howon met Bomi, he wasn’t eating or drinking anything, but still, he’s managed to choke on his own saliva. Howon slightly wondered if he’s going to be like that for the rest of his high school life whenever he saw Yoon Bomi.

 

“Hello, Sunbaenim,” Bomi greeted him with the same pleasant raspy voice, bowing to him when she saw Howon studying alone in the library.

 

“Ah, h-hello,” Howon wanted to slap himself for stuttering. Bomi looked around Howon with obvious movements, and it picked his curiosity. “What? What are you looking for?”     

 

“Where are your fangirls, Sunbaenim?” Bomi asked playfully, and she covered when she laughed over Howon’s red face.

 

“Please don’t say it like that,” Howon rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.

 

Bomi chuckled a little before answering, “I’m sorry, Sunbaenim.”

 

After Bomi left him alone Howon stared blankly at his notebook, wondering if Bomi on purpose to ease him, to tell him that the walk in incident had been forgiven and he shouldn’t over think about it.

 

***

 

Finally, the fourth time Howon saw Bomi, he didn’t choke – well not immediately.

 

It was during soccer practice after school, and Howon was already drenched in sweat when Doojoon called out for break abruptly, earning relieved sighs from the players when they slumped down on the grass and tried to take a breath. Howon lift his shirt high to wipe the sweat in his forehead, and he saw Doojoon jogging to the side while shouting, “Bomi-yah!”

 

Howon glanced to the side.

 

Bomi was standing near the stone steps around the field, and she offered a drink to his brother. Howon didn’t mean to overheard or anything, but he’s pretty close to the side and Doojoon wasn’t keeping his voice low either.

 

“What are you doing here?” Doojoon asked his sister before opening the bottled drink.

 

“Can’t I visit my brother? I just want to see you play.”

 

“But you never come to my practices… Don’t tell me… You’re here to see one of them?!” Doojoon turned around and glared at his teammates – all of them who happened to hear Doojoon’s and Bomi’s conversation quickly looked away and pretended to be busy.

 

Howon jumped on his place, raising his knee to his chest in turns.

 

“Eeey, Oppa, what are you talking about. My club just ended and I saw you’re still practicing, so I thought I’ll wait for you, then we can walk home together,” Howon heard Bomi’s answer.

 

“… aaah, so it’s like that? Alright, but can you wait for, hm, fifteen more minutes? Just sit here,” Doojoon said to his sister, and Howon saw he ruffled Bomi’s hair before went back to the field, shouting instruction to them.

 

Howon was jogging to his place – the ball was in the possession of the other team – when he dared to glanced at Bomi. To his surprise, Bomi was looking at him, and she waved when their eyes met. Howon made a small wave secretly, hoping that Doojoon from the other side of the field didn’t see him.

 

Bomi pointed at him, and then she made circle movement in her stomach area before she raised her thumbs, mouthing silent ‘Jjang!’. Howon frowned, shaking his head to tell her he didn’t catch what she meant.

 

Woohyun jogged to Howon’s side and whispered to him, “I think she wants to say you have great abs,” he rubbed Howon’s stomach, smirking, and raised his thumb to Bomi’s direction.

 

The girl grinned widely and nodded multiple times, and that’s the cue for Howon to choke.

 

***

 

She was standing in front of her locker the fifth time Howon met her. Her long hair was made into a curled up bun, revealing her neck, and somehow Howon’s mind found its own way to the changing room a couple of weeks ago.

 

“Hey,” Howon managed to utter the word, and Bomi turned around.

 

“Oh, Sunbaenim,” she greeted him with that bright smile of her.

 

Howon cleared his throat. “Um… So, do you like cakes?”

 

“Love!” Bomi beamed and Howon reddened hearing the word, “I love cakes!”

 

“Good, good,” he said absent-mindedly, changing the leg he’s leaning on, “You see, I know this café, and…,” wow the locker behind Bomi looked very interesting, “… I wonder if you… wanttogowithmesometime?”

 

Bomi blinked, and Howon almost face-palmed himself but before he could do so, he saw Bomi’s face lightened up in front of him, “Sure! The cakes there are good? Waaah, I want to taste it! How about this Sunday, Sunbaenim?”

 

“… O-oh? … yeah. I mean, yeah, great, Sunday’s great,” Howon nodded. “So, I pick you up or…”

 

“No, no, Doojoon Oppa will be at home next Sunday. Let’s just meet at the café. You can text me the address, Sunbaenim,” Howon just stared while Bomi found a paper and a pen, and she scribbled down her phone number on it. She handed the paper to Howon and smiled.

 

Later when Howon inputted Bomi’s number to his phone, he realized he hadn’t choke earlier, and he mentally patted himself on the back.

 

***

 

Howon sat restlessly on the table near the window in the café, counting minutes to his sixth time meeting Bomi. He checked his watch, glanced at the door, and then wiped his sweaty hands to his jeans – this was actually more nerve-wrecking than his soccer matches, Howon found out. He wondered if this was a good idea, him with food and Bomi considering his choking records, but since the last time he’s succeed maybe he’d get lucky today.

 

Finally the café’s door opened and Bomi walked in. Her long hair was let loose on her back with only a simple white headband on it, she wore a white t-shirt under over-sized denim shirt combined with a white skirt. She looked very nice, especially when she turned her head, spotting Howon, and smiled.

 

Howon stood up and had the mind to pull out the chair for her.

 

The date (at least Howon thought it’s counted as a date) went smoother that Howon imagined. Howon’s not exactly the charmer type, he got nervous (and weird) around new people, but thankfully Bomi filled the conversation for both of them. Howon smiled, nodded, hummed, sometimes threw a comment here and there, but all he wanted to do was to listen to Bomi’s voice all day.

 

Bomi even laughed at Howon’s jokes – the ones that Woohyun said were lame and begged him to never retell ever again – so Howon took it as a great sign and he got more relaxed after that.

 

He almost choked, only almost, though, when Bomi smiled so softly and said, “Oppa…”

 

Holy freaking cow, is that flowers and stars behind her? was on Howon’s numb mind. He could see Bomi’s mouth moved to say something, but he couldn’t quite catch it, all he heard was the first word, Oppa, over and over again.

 

Howon flinched when Bomi reached out across the table and touched his cheek. He looked at Bomi, wide eyes.

 

The girl had an amused smile directed at him. “I said, you have something on your cheek, but it seems you weren’t listening.”

 

Howon murmured an apology and beat himself up in his mind.

 

Somehow after they ate too many cakes and drink too many ice chocolate, now Howon found himself sitting on the cinema, watching a movie Bomi picked out – something about some sick killer with horrifying scenes. Howon couldn’t help but let out some unmanly shrieks and he might be calling out for his mother during the scary scenes, but at least he could hear Bomi’s raspy voice laughing and Howon decided he didn’t mind watching that kind of movies if he could hear Bomi’s laugh again.

 

When they walked out from the cinema after the movie’s over, Howon breathed out, “Finally,” as he exhaled and clutched onto his shirt in his chest area.

 

“I’m sorry, Oppa,” Bomi chuckled beside him and patted his back, offering him bottled water, “Here, drink this.”

 

“Thank you,” Howon said, taking the bottle and drank it in one go.

 

“Oh?” Bomi raised her eyebrows and Howon turned to her curious. She grinned cutely, looking at the bottle in Howon’s lips. “Indirect kiss.”

 

Howon spurted the water in his mouth while Bomi laughed.

 

“Next time you can pick the movie, Oppa.”

 

Howon didn’t know until when he would keep on choking when Bomi’s around, but, hey, there’s next time, and people said practice makes perfect.

 

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• FINALLY I write about HOMI /crying/ He's my first OTP for Bomi and probably my number one OTP for Bomi too.
• On side note... I don't think School's First Love will happening any time soon... I don't have any idea for it...