Sungjong was a prideful being. He always had to be in control of everything. In games of Monopoly, he had to be the banker. When organising parties, he had to know every single detail. Even In relationships, he had to be in control. He wanted to be the one that confessed, he wanted to be the one that initiated things and controlled the pace of the relationship.

He always turned confessions down for this reason. Sungjong was pretty popular with boys because of his pretty face and delicate features, he had received many confessions but had accepted none, his sole reason being that he wanted to be the one that started the relationship.

Well, not solely because of that, there was another reason Sungjong had turned down all of the confessions. That reason was currently seated on the other side of the cafeteria, chatting to his friends with that gorgeous and semi-derpy smile lighting up his face. Sungjong was (as usual) staring at him longingly across the room, his fork mashing up the food on his plate as he just stared.

“Just confess to him already and put the rest of us out of our misery,” Hoya sighed, poking Sungjong in his side,

“What misery?” Sungjong asked, annoyed that he had to turn his attention away from the perfection that was Kim Myungsoo.

“The misery that comes with watching you pine over a guy and waste perfectly good food.” Dongwoo butted in, gesturing at the plate in front of Sungjong. The younger boy frowned and offered the plate to his friend who just grimaced, “I’m not eating it now. It looks like baby food.”

“Then stop complaining. I can’t confess to him anyway, he always turns confessions down. Just today I walked in on Song Jieun crying because he turned her down and yesterday it was Ahn Daniel. I won’t become on of those people.”

“Well, your options are to confess or keep staring at him longingly across the room until you graduate.”

“I’ll stick to the staring, thanks.” Sungjong replied, before punctuating his point by turning back to stare at Myungsoo. Myungsoo was one of the nicest views on earth - his face was beautiful and open and so welcoming and he was so expressive when he spoke. He had the reputation of a cool, chic boy but Sungjong knew that there was a lot more to him than that. Unlike most of the people that obsessed over Kim Myungsoo, Sungjong actually knew him.

-

Sungjong had met Myungsoo a year ago when Myungsoo was new at school. He had been wandering around the halls lost when he spotted Sungjong.

“Excuse me! Can you help me find my class please?” The new boy had asked and it had taken the better part of two minutes for Sungjong to find the words to reply. The new guy was hot. a sharp jaw, dark hair and the warmest eyes that Sungjong had ever seen. Literally, it was the most cliche thing in the world but those yes were like creamy chocolate - warm and soft and delicious.

He had told this to Hoya, but the older boy just laughed and said that eating eyes was cannibalistic. He didn’t get it.

Anyway, after two minutes of staring, Sungjong had replied in an overly enthusiastic tone, “Yes! I sure can.” He had then dragged Myungsoo to his class, chatting embarrassing amounts of rubbish and barely letting the new guy get a word in except his name. Myungsoo. Sungjong thought that was an amazing name.

Sungjong was pretty convinced that everything about Myungsoo was amazing. He was probably half in love with him by the end of that first day.

He didn’t actually fall in love with Myungsoo until they started hanging out. Myungsoo had started to hang around with Sungjong by default, because he didn’t know many people at the school and Sungjong was more than happy to welcome him. They had been chilling on the bleachers one day, watching Dongwoo and Hoya play a weird game of two person football, when a boy that Sungjong recognised from one of his classes had approached them,

“Sungjong, can I… Can I speak to you?” He asked, his voice wavering,

“Hmm?” Sungjong had replied, glancing up,

“Well the thing is… erm… I noticed you in class and I just… I wanted to know if you wanted to… get to know me better? Because I want to get to know you better…” The boy stammered, avoiding Sungjong’s eyes.

Sungjong stared for a moment before frowning, “I’m sorry but… I don’t really think so.”

The boy looked up and Sungjong saw tears forming in his eyes. He just turned back to Myungsoo to start talking and soon enough the boy turned and slowly walked away.

“Why did you do that?” Myungsoo asked,

“I don’t like people confessing to me. I like to be the one to make that move. Plus, there’s no point in accepting confessions from somebody I don’t know, they could be nothing.”

“So… how are you ever going to learn if they’re something or nothing unless you get to know them better?”

It was at that moment that Sungjong fell in love with Myungsoo. Well, he was pretty sure it was some point between that and the moment Myungsoo had received his first confession when Sungjong was there and he had calmly and politely declined it. He even stood up and embraced the girl, saying that there was a guy out there for her and she would find him soon. Sungjong stated that it was a bit hypocritical that Myungsoo had turned the girl down after lecturing him about doing the same thing.

“It isn’t. I turned her down because I have somebody that I’m interested in. You just do it because you’re too proud to let someone else take any initiative.” Myungsoo had replied,

Sungjong spent a good while going over those words. He was bothered that Myungsoo had somebody that he was interested in because by that point they had known each other for a month and Sungjong was pretty sure that Myungsoo was his perfect man. It was at that point that he started to distance himself from Myungsoo. He would avoid the places that they would usually meet and surround himself by other people, trying to block out Myungsoo’s hurt expression. He just couldn’t deal with the fact that he was only this boy’s friend when he wanted to be even more. Myungsoo had somebody that he liked and Sungjong couldn’t deal with that pain.

He was just too proud to let his heart break like that.

Eventually, Myungsoo met Lee Sungyeol and Nam Woohyun and started to hang out with them. Sungjong would watch the three of them laughing and playing pranks and doing stupid things and wish that he was the one there, joking with Myungsoo. It was funny, because Myungsoo fit straight in with his new crowd, they were all disgustingly attractive and popular and that was something that Sunjong just… well he couldn’t compare.

---

Now, Sungjong’s interactions with Myungsoo were pretty one sided and revolved around him staring at the other boy across the room and looking away immediately when their eyes met, which seemed to be a lot. Like the current moment, when Hoya and Dongwoo were looking over Sungjong at each other with equal looks of annoyance on their faces.

Sungjong wished he could just go up and talk to Myungsoo and let things go back to how they were for that short while last year, but that ship had sailed. They had grown apart and now Sungjong had to deal with only being able to worship the other boy from a distance.

Well, until the next week.

-

Sungjong would call it fate that led to Myungsoo and him being paired up for their science project. Well, it was either that or coincidence, but Sungjong liked the sound of ‘fate’ better. They had both been absent the previous day when their classes were assigned into pairs and so they had both been called into the office of their science teacher the next day at lunch.

“Since the two of you were absent yesterday, I’m pairing you up for your final project. I know that you aren’t in the same class, but you should have been here yesterday if you were that bothered about being grouped with a friend.” She said, before dismissing the pair with a wave of her hand.

They walked out of the classroom together in silence.

“It’s been a while.” Myungsoo finally said, breaking the silence,

“It has.” Sungjong agreed, “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good… How about you?”

“Same.”

The silence spread between them, which Sungjong found really odd because they had never been uncomortable around each other before. It was his own fault for pushing Myungsoo away though, he reminded himself.

“So… the project-” Sungjong began,

“We can meet up tomorrow, at my house?” Myungsoo asked, “Maybe at five? I can grab food then before you come.”

So they made plans to meet up and Sungjong walked away almost dizzy with the excitement and the shock of the last few minutes. Maybe he had a chance to make things right.

-

“Wait! Stop there!” Hoya shouted as Sungjong told his friends what had happened that day, “So he suggested that you study at his house and you just agreed to it?”

“Yeah, why?”

And it was at moment that Sungjong realised that he had just agreed to Myungsoo’s idea - something he never did. By principle, he should have just said ‘no, let’s do it at mine’ because he never just agreed to anyone elses plans! He, Lee Sungjong, had let somebody else take control of a situation.

Hoya and Dongwoo seemed to be just as shocked as Sungjong was at this new development.

“Why is it that even when we come up with a good plan, you turn it down straight away. When it’s Myungsoo you just accept it right away.” Dongwoo asked

“That’s because he’s in love!” Hoya replied, smirking at his blushing dongsaeng,

“I am not!” He protested, even though inside he knew that he probably was in love with Myungsoo. At least a little bit. Or maybe a lot. He would never admit to that though, not while he still had his precious pride. “I just turn down your ideas because they’re always rubbish.”

“Hey!” Dongwoo complained, before turning to hoya and frowning, “Jongie’s being mean to me.”

“Well, he has a point,” Hoya chuckled. Dongwoo pouted again before forgetting about his annoyance and chattering about pointless stuff again, leaving Sungjong to mull over the events of the next day.

---

“So I was thinking that maybe we could do something on volcanoes.” Sungjong suggested as they sat at Myungsoo’s table the following day.

“Isn’t that a little bit typical?” Myungsoo frowned, “Doesn’t everyone do the whole volcano project in science? That would get us a C at best.” Sungjong bit back a retort because he had great ideas and how dare Myungsoo shoot him down like that.

“Well maybe we could do a supervolcano. You know, like Yellowstone Park?”

“...Isn’t Yellowstone Park where Yogi Bear lived?”

“What?” Sungjong was confused, what the hell was Myungsoo talking about?

“Oh, no. I was wrong. that was Jellystone. Sorry - abstract English cartoon reference.”

“...You’re weird.” Sungjong deadpanned, before glancing down at the empty notebook in front of him, “So… supervolcano?”

“Supervolcano is good.” Myungsoo agreed, and they got to work.

---

Sungjong got home a little after seven. They had worked for two hours and Myungsoo had offered him food, but Sungjong just wanted to get home and breathe because being in Myungsoo’s presence for so long was killing him. Honestly, outside Sungjong was cool and calm and collected but inside he was acting like a rabid fangirl that got to meet her idol.

But Sungjong would never admit that to anyone, he had too much pride.

-

“What the hell is Yogi Bear?” Hoya asked as he sifted through Sungjong’s laptop history the next day.

“It’s… a show?” Sungjong offered weakly, “In English.”

“But you don’t speak a work of English!”

“I so do. Hello. Thank you. Where is the clothes shop.”

“Because that very limited vocabulary can honestly get you through a whole TV show in English. The only reason you would do something stupid like that is if it had something to do with Myungsoo!”

Sungjong just sighed and slammed his laptop shut, glaring at his best friend.

Okay, so maybe watching something just because your crush mentioned it in passing was a little stalker fangirl-like, but Sungjong wasn’t watching it solely for that reason. it was research, see, because Jellystone park was the setting and that was based on Yellowstone park. Right… right?

“You’re hopeless.” Hoya sighed, shaking his head and packing his books, “Bloody hopeless.”

Sungjong just glared lazers into Hoya’s back as the older boy left his house.

-

Myungsoo and Sungjong met up at the end of class the next day to go back to Myungsoo’s house again.

“Hey, you ready?” Myungsoo asked, as Sungjong strutted up to him in the hallway,

“Yeah, sure.”

But before they could leave the hallway, a handsome boy strolled up to Sungong and patted him on the shoulder,

“Hey. Lee Sungjong.” He said,

“Mmmm?” Sungjong replied, spinning around and recognising the boy as someone in his Korean class,

“I errr… IwantedtosaythatIlikeyou!” The boy mumbled,

“Eh?” Sungjong barely understood a word of that,

“I like you and er…. will you go out with me?”

“No.” Sungjong answered immediately, then he remembered Myungsoo behind him, “I mean… I’m not… looking for anyone… right now?”

“Oh well..” The boy winced and looked away, “Well, okay.” He ran off, leaving Sungjong and Myungsoo alone.

“I see you’re still the same then, turning people away because of your pride?” Myungsoo said after a moment.

“No.” Sungjong replied confidently, “I turned him away because I’m interested in someone else.” He echoed Myungsoo’s words from a year ago and then began the walk to Myungsoo’s, shooting a look at the other boy, “You coming or what?”

“I… er…” Myungsoo was staring at Sungjong with an unreadable expression on his face, almost as if he was doing some puzzle that he just couldn’t figure out, “I… let’s go.”

The walk to Myungsoo’s was almost completely silence. The comfort that Sungjong had felt the previous day seemed to have disappeared and had been replaced by an awkwardness that Sungjong just couldn’t understand. He hadn’t said or done anything offensive or uncomfortable that would warrant such a turn in the atmosphere and yet Myungsoo seemed almost angry about something.

The atmosphere remained tense until the end of their study session and as soon as it was over Sungjong made his excuse to leave. He couldn’t believe that just days ago he was itching to spend time with Myungsoo and now… well now the atmosphere was so tense that Sungjong just wanted to escape it.

He called a meeting as soon as he got back and Dongwoo and Hoya arrived less than ten minutes later. He told them about the awkwardness and how weird he had felt around Myungsoo today.

“Are you sure you didn’t say anything that may have upset him?” Hoya asked,

“No!” Sungjong replied, biting his lip in frustration,

“What did you say immediately before the atmosphere dropped?”

“Well nothing, except…” Sungjong thought back to the confession, “There was a confession.”

“Wait! You confessed to him!?” Dongwoo asked, looking up from the work he was doing,

“NO! No. A classmate confessed to me and when Myungsoo commented that I haven’t changed I told him that I liked someone and then he went all quiet.” Sungjong relayed,

Dongwoo and Hoya glanced at each other and nodded, obviously both having the same thoughts.  Sungjong groaned because he knew they were doing that weird telepathic thing that he hated,

“What are you two thinking?” He asked,

“We’re thinking that you’re oblivious-” Dongwoo started,

“And if you can’t figure this out yourself then you’re more of an idiot than we took you for.” Hoya finished.

“What..?” Sungjong was confused as he looked between the pair, their eyes twinkling as they grinned at him.

“Awww. Poor little Jongie can’t figure something out. What will this do to your poor pride?” Hoya teased.

“Sh...Shut up.”

“Awwww, poor baby.”

“I invite you over here and give you food and you don’t even help me.” Sungjong pouted.

“Look, just confess to him.” Dongwoo interrupted. He glared at Hoya as if to tell him to stop teasing, “He’s obviously jealous.”

“Jealous?” Sungjong repeated,

“Obviously. He got upset when you told him that you liked someone. That’s jealousy, for sure.”

“No… No. You’re mistaken. He doesn’t like me. he told me last year that he liked someone.”

“Jongie, that was a year ago. He could have changed his mind since then. You’ll never know unless you confess.”

Sungjong was dumbfounded. Could Myungsoo actually be jealous? Is that why he had been acting so weird and angry around him? Maybe Hoya and Dongwoo were wrong and reading too much into it.

Sungjong didn’t get it. He had never been in this situation before. He had always told himself that when he eventually found someone that he liked enough, he would confess. Kim Myungsoo… well, he was pretty sure he liked him enough so why did the thought of asking him out make Sungjong feel sick to his stomach? All he could picture was Myungsoo’s face twisting into a sneer as he turned him away.

No. Myungsoo was nice, he would do it politely, right?

By the time Sungjong escaped from his thoughts, Hoya and Dongwoo had left. Typically they had taken the snacks with them as well, but this didn’t shock Sungjong because that was just like them. Sungjong just dragged his gloomy self back to his bed and tried to sleep,despite the fact that it was barely 8pm and he didn’t usually sleep this early.

-

“Did you know that the Lake Toba eruption 70,000 years ago bottlenecked the human population. There were only enough humans left to fit into a football stadium.”

Myungsoo was saying something intellectual about volcanoes but it was going right over Sungjong’s head. Sungjong was just too distracted by how fluffy Myungsoo’s hair looked to care about anything else right now. It seemed that the possibility that Myungsoo liked him back had gone to Sungjong’s head, now he couldn’t concentrate on anything.

“Sungjong?” Myungsoo’s voice shattered his thoughts,

“Hmmm?”

“...Did you hear me?”

“Errr… yes. Eruption. Boom. Death. Doom. Panic?”

“Well… I guess that isn’t exactly incorrect…” Myungsoo sighed, “What’s up with you today? You can’t concentrate at all.”

“I just… I have something on my mind.”

“Want to talk about it?” Sungjong looked up, shocked at the offer. He wished he could just tell Myungsoo what was on his mind but he knew he’d probably get laughed at and turned down ruthlessly.

“No. But thank you for the offer.”

Myungsoo didn’t reply, instead he chose to go back to his book on supervolcanoes (they were actually quite interesting). Sungjong turned back to his own research. They sat in silence for a while, thankfully more comfortable than the previous day’s silence.

“Sungjong, can I ask you something?” Myungsoo was the first to speak. Sungjong sat up and looked inquisitively at the other boy, wondering what he could want to ask,

“Hm?” He replied,

“Well… last year. After I first started school here. Why did you stop talking to me?”

Sungjong sat rigid, allowing the question to sink in. He wondered why Myungsoo was bringing this up now and what on earth was he supposed to reply. ‘Hey, I stopped talking to you because every second I saw you broke my heart a little more?’. Yeah, that would go down a treat. Not.

“I…” He started, searching for some lie that he could tell to get him out of this situation, “I guess I… got bored of you.” He cringed at his words, realising almost instantly that he had just made the current situation even worse than it was.

“You got bored of me?” Myungsoo hissed, an almost threatening look entering his eyes,

“No… I mean yes but…” Sungjong sighed and gave up trying to defend himself,

“You know what, Sungjong? Get out of my house. If I’m that boring. I can do this project alone. Whatever.”

Sungjong opened his mouth to protest but he was shoved out of the door by an extremely annoyed Myungsoo. He fell onto the floor outside and sat up, nursing his throbbing behind.

. He had really messed everything up.

-

He can’t remember the walk home. He was pretty sure that it was a numb, cold walk made even worse by his gloomy disposition and pissed off feeling. He was pretty sure that if there had been a cliff on the walk home, he would have thrown himself off it. Thankfully, cliffs were pretty rare in Seoul, so he avoided that risk.

Usually, he would call Dongwoo and Hoya at a time like this, but Sungjong was pretty sure that they would just laugh at his misfortune, eat his food and then disappear. So Sungjong just sat down on his bed and went over and over the events of the day in his head.

He knew that he had two options now. One, he could keep his pride and just let Myungsoo think he hated him. That wasn’t an attractive prospect. Two, he could beg for forgiveness and look like an idiot. That would involve sacrificing his pride and dignity and that wasn’t an attractive prospect either.

He sighed and rolled over a few times, screaming into a pillow before finally deciding on a course of action. He would ignore Myungsoo from now on. A confession would only end badly.

What he didn't know was that somewhere a few blocks away, his two frustrated best friends were plotting on their own.

-

Hoya and Dongwoo watched as their best friend walked into the cafeteria at lunchtime. They were already seated with their meals ready for the drama that was about to unfold. They watched Sungjong order his food and make his payment before he began to walk to their table.

“Hey! Lee Sungjong!” The shout resounded across the hall and Sungjong turned to find the voice. He narrowed his eyes when he saw Lee Sungyeol, Myungsoo’s best friend strutting at him.

“What?” He asked,

“Come with me.” Sungyeol said, grabbing his hand and pulling Sungjong out of the room, his lunch falling onto the floor as he did so,

“My lunch!” Sungjong complained,

“This is more important than lunch! This is life or death.”

Lee Sungyeol always did have a thing for dramatics.

Sungjong just followed Sungyeol into the male toilets. He knew that any protesting would just go ignored.

“Sit.” Sungyeol said, gesturing to a cubicle,

“Wha-”

“Sit!”

Sungjong obeyed and sat on the toilet seat, cringing when he thought of all of the germs he was picking up.

“Okay. I’ll make this quick. You didn’t get bored of Myungsoo, you like him. He got hurt because he likes you. Done.” Sungyeol stated. Sungjong just stared. Myungsoo liked him? Hoya and Dongwoo had been right? But if Myungsoo liked him then-

“Then why didn’t he confess to me?” Sungjong exclaimed,

“Because you have too much pride and would just turn him away!”

Ahhh. So that was it. This was all Sungjong and his stupid pride’s fault.

Then there was only one thing to do… he had to find Myungsoo and confess and just hope that Lee Sungyeol was not playing one of his stupid pranks on him.

“Go get ‘em, kid!” He heard the older boy shout when he ran out of the bathroom.

-

Sungjong ran to the cafeteria, scanning the room for Myungsoo before finally laying eyes on him sat at his table, with Hoya and Dongwoo. He narrowed his eyes and began to march in that direction.

“Hey. Myungsoo!” He called. The dark haired boy turned and his eyes widened when he saw Sungjong,

“Sungjong!”

“What were they saying to you?” Myungsoo asked as he reached the other boy, “Whatever it was, it was probably a lie.”

“So you don’t like me?” Myungsoo asked.

Sungjong stopped walking and stared at the boy in front of him,

“What?” He whispered, pretty sure that it was inaudible,

“So, you don’t like me?” Myungsoo repeated, staring at Sungjong,

“I-”

“Because I like you, Sungjong.” Myungsoo stated, still holding the other boy’s gaze, “So do you like me?”

Sungjong’s heart felt like it was going to explode out of his ribcage, it was beating that hard. This was the moment that he had been waiting for, the moment when he would confess to Myungsoo and-

Wait a minute.

No… Everything was ruined now.

“I do like you.” He started, “But I can’t go out with you.”

Sungjong watched the smile slip from Myungsoo’s face at his words,

“What?”

“I can’t be with you.”

“Why?”

“Because…” Sungjong glared, “Because you messed everything up by confessing first! That’s my role.”

Myungsoo’s smile returned to his face and Sungjong felt a surge of annoyance. What was this idiot smiling at?! He’s just ruined their only chance at dating!

Then he felt Myungsoo’s lips press against his.

Oh.

“You and your stupid pride.” Myungsoo whispered as he pulled back, ignorant to the gasps and whispers spreading across the busy cafeteria,

“You have to let me confess.” Sungjong started, “It’s the onl-”

He was cut of by Myungsoo’s warm lips pressed against his again and Sungjong let himself relax into the kiss, smiling because this was all he had imagined and more. Even if their first kiss was quick and shocking and in the middle of a cafeteria full of gossiping high school students.

He pulled back and looked into Myungsoo’s eyes, returning the smile.

Sungjong was a prideful being. He liked to take control of every situation.

But maybe, just maybe, he would let Myungsoo have this victory.

AN: So this pile of cliche fluff is dne and I'm sorry, you know it's all I can write! This is my first Myungjong and I know that Myungsoo is a little out of character. Sorry! 

Also, sorry for the wait. I had this almost finsihed and then stuff in my life started going wrong and this kind of took a backseat, then I decided to do a complete rewrite so... here it is!

Oh and volcanoes, because I am obsessed with them. When I'm older i want to be a volcanologist xD

My first Myungjong, especially for Annyong-unnie! <3

(Pssst. I love comments. hint hint)