His name was Song Kyungil. The captain of the swim team. The most popular guy in school. He was surrounded by noise. He had guys & girls alike at his feet. He could have anyone he wanted but he chose him.

✈

His name was Jang Yijung. The president of the book club. The one nobody noticed in school. He was suffocated by silence. He had one friend. But he wasn’t satisfied with just one so he chose him.

✈

Kyungil pulled the drenched trunks off of his legs, throwing them along with the rest of the team’s used trunks. He could already hear the girls muttering his name from outside the changing room and groaned. He was tired enough as it is.

He quickly put on his uniform and packed up his belongings, carelessly throwing his stuff into his satchel. He tiptoed across the room. He prayed that none of the girls heard his footsteps. He cracked the door open and sighed when he saw an army of his fans waiting for him. 

He pushed himself through the crowd as both the females & males tried to get to him. He stumbled through the crowd, his free hand swatting the swarm of hands reaching out for him. He was glad he was tall because he could still breathe. 

“Yah Song Kyungil!”

Kyungil breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the familiar voice and grabbed onto his friend’s arm to pull himself out of the crowd. “On the count of three, we run alright?”

“One, two, three!”

The two of them sped out of the crowd and into an empty classroom as fast as they could. They slammed the door shut and locked it. They could hear the sound of disappointed whines and cries from the crowd that was far behind now and grinned. 

“I still don’t get how all of them are so obsessed with you. You’ve been here for like three years and they still love you.” Sihyung said with a chuckle. 

“They just can’t get enough of me dude. I’m irresistible.” Kyungil boasted, a smirk playing on his lips.

“I’ll give you five seconds to run before I rip off your limbs.”

✈

Yijung traced the words printed on the page with the pad of his index finger. He scanned each word carefully as he immersed himself in the riveting tale of an old maintenance man meeting people in heaven. 

The room was empty except for him. Jaeho had left earlier to finish up his science report before the teacher gave him another month of detention. Yijung rolled his eyes when he heard the familiar squeals of ‘Kyungil’ & ‘Sihyung’ traveling through the hallway and tried to pay attention to his book. 

He found his concentration wavering. The crowd seemed to be coming closer to the classroom which meant Kyungil & Sihyung were on the move. He groaned when he couldn’t understand the sentence he was reading. 

Yijung could hear foot steps shuffling closer and his eyes kept traveling to the door. He took a deep breath as more foot steps could be heard. He jumped when two males rushed into the classroom and slammed the door shut. His jaw slackened when he noticed that the two males were none other than the two swim team captains.

“I still don’t get how all of them are so obsessed with you. You’ve been here for like three years and they still love you.” the fish looking one said with a chuckle. 

“They just can’t get enough of me dude. I’m irresistible.” the other one boasted, a smirk playing on his lips.

“I’ll give you five seconds to run before I rip off your limbs.”

Yijung took the moment of silence to cough awkwardly, earning the attention of the two males crouching behind the door.

“Oh. I didn’t know there was someone in here. It looked empty.”

Yijung rolled his eyes at the comment. He’d heard the same thing one too many times. He didn’t reply and tried to ignore the fact that now there were two pairs of eyes boring holes into his head as he tried to continue his book. 

“Hey have I seen you before?”

Yijung stayed silent and didn’t even bother to glance at the annoying stranger who he’d learnt to be Sihyung.

“Oh you’re the president of the book club aren’t you? I saw you during the club fair. Your booth was next to the toilet right?”

“Shut up you little turd.” the other one mumbled. That must’ve been Kyungil.

Yijung perked up at Kyungil’s reply. He could practically see the lasers shooting out of his eyes at his fish friend. 

“Sorry for Sihyung’s bluntness. He’s not very bright as you can see and he’s a douche.” Kyungil apologised, a small smile on his lips. 

“I-it’s fine.”

✈

Yijung pushed past the other students blocking his path. His view of the front was blocked by a large stack of books he’d just ordered from the book club and he’d been hoping to get them to their discussion room in one piece.

He wrapped his arms securely around the books but he went flailing when he tripped over someone’s bag. The brand new books were scattered on the ground, bent and dented. A lump formed in his throat as he threw himself to the ground and gathered the books, mentally apologising for ruining them.

“Hey, are you okay down there?”

Yijung didn’t even notice the voice speaking to him and continued ironing out the creases with his hands. Some of the pages were torn too. Their books. Their precious books were all ruined thanks to him not being careful. He tried to breathe calmly but he couldn’t seem to calm himself down. 

“Dude, are you fine?”

A warm hand touched his shoulder and he looked up to see the swim team captain staring at his face with worried eyes. Yijung whimpered and pushed the comforting hand away, moving back to the books laying at his feet. 

Kyungil reached his hand out to touch the stack of bent books. “Oh. Sorry for that, you must’ve tripped over my bag.” Kyungil said nonchalantly, not detecting the anger in Yijung’s eyes.

“This is all your fault. Now the others are going to be mad at me for ruining the books!” Yijung cried, shoving Kyungil’s shoulder. 

Kyungil cocked an eyebrow. How was this his fault now?

“Hey don’t blame me when you weren’t looking.”

“Well it’s your fault for putting your god damn bag in the middle of nowhere but why do I even bother with you? You’re just like every other cookie cutter person in this damn school. You wouldn’t care if a couple of books were destroyed but it matters to me and you won’t even apologise!” Yijung exclaimed before stalking off.

He took a breath of air and he could feel his face heat up. He’d just yelled at the swim team captain. He was sure he wouldn’t see the light of day again.

✈

Kyungil sighed and tossed in his bed again. No matter how much he tried to ignore the words that were thrown at him before, he just couldn’t get them out of his head. He threw his quilt off of his body and pulled on more decent clothes.

He grabbed his wallet & phone before dashing out of his house and into the night. His feet moved quickly as he searched for the nearest book store that was open. Even if he tried to deny it, he was at fault for putting his bag in the middle of nowhere and the fact that Yijung’s frustrated face wouldn’t leave his mind was also beginning to annoy him. 

He fist pumped mentally when he saw one of those large department book stores open. He ran straight for the fiction books and began to look for the title he’d seen printed on the covers of the books.

He grimaced as his hand reached for ten copies. He hesitantly placed the stack on the counter and winced when he saw the price.

“That little dude better be thankful when he sees this.”

✈

Yijung pulled at the key strung around his neck and unlocked the classroom. The sunlight streamed in and bathed the classroom with a pretty orange glow. Yijung took a deep breath and grinned. The smell of books was always calming. 

“Hey dude!”

Yijung rolled his eyes and ignored the voice calling for him. He already knew who it was without looking and Kyungil was the last person he needed to see right now. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel guilty about yelling at Kyungil. Sure he had placed his bag in a stupid place but it was still his fault for not looking where he walked.

“Will you just listen to me? The least you could do is forgive me!”

Yijung felt the anger rise in him again and spun on his heel to lash back. He gaped when he saw a stack of brand new books sitting in Kyungil’s arms. Yijung stepped forward and ran his fingers across the spines of the books.

“You bought new ones?” Yijung mumbled, still in awe.

“That’s the least I could do right?” Kyungil chuckled, placing the books on the nearest table. “Well I better be off then.”

“W-wait.” Yijung called out, his hand grabbing onto Kyungil’s and pulling him back. “I-I’m sorry for yelling at you yesterday and t-thanks for this. What can I do to repay you?”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

“Well then how bout dinner after school? That’s all I need for now. Oh and you’re name would be nice too.”

“It’s Yijung.”

a/n: should I continue this?