Inspired by Swoozie and the convo between me and Negiramen

Based off true events that are exaggerated for story purposes. But this really happened. Except for the ending. Have fun guessing who’s cloud, haha

This story is crack. Really. 

---

Tactical Cheat Forces

 

Sunggyu walked from second period to third along with his friend Nam Woohyun. They talked about trivial things that made them laugh and sometimes lapse into a kind of empty silence while eyeing other students that happened to walk by.

Because high school is a time where you’re still awkward with yourself and where to be. But you have friends, that aren’t your friends though they are and you don’t know what to think anymore besides ‘I need to get my grades up’.

You talk, then you lapse. Go in and leave. High school is weird. You’re weird. Your friends are weird, but you all admit it in an arrogant way. Wanting to be someone, wanting to be something.

But that’s not it. You just want to be you. But who are you?

Sunggyu often has these thoughts, walking beside his smart friend Woohyun. But out of the blue, Woohyun asks, “So, are you ready for today’s test?”

“, what?” Sunggyu chokes while eating some candy that was given to him by Sungjong. “What test?”

“The test in French today,” Woohyun blinked, taking some of the candy from the little box, “You forgot?”

“,” Sunggyu completely forgot. French isn’t his forte. Hell, mostly everyone in that class is lost except for the diploma candidates. (Not high school diploma, but that super smart kids diploma that shows outstanding smartness and everything with college level classes and . Yeah, Woohyun was one of them.) Half the class are true idiots while the one-third part are trying to pass and that five or six smart kids actually understanding the ing thing. “Let’s hurry.”

“Okay,” Woohyun ate more of the fruity treat, finishing for him already but Sunggyu didn’t really care. “But lemme go to the bathroom first.”

“Curse your small bladder!”

 

*

After holding Woohyun’s zipper binder that could be held like a briefcase but the latter choses to hold it like a girl, for no reason other than, ‘one time I held it by the handle but it was open and everything fell out. Never again’, the raven returned into the hallway and took his binder. Together they walked into French.

Woohyun went to the right side of the room, while Sunggyu continued to the middle row and the very back row. He was lucky, being in the back. The French teacher liked him because he was from out of the country. Even as Woohyun was from Korea as well, he keeps saying that she hates him.

But Sunggyu didn’t see how, since the er was one of those who actually learned the lessons and succeeded in this class. He gets 99%, Sunggyu gets a dumb 72%.

He sat down, sighing. Looking to the board he barely understood since the agenda is always written in French. It’s his second year and he still has no clue what the the textbook says half the time. He remembered last year he was in this class with Hoya, his childhood friend. Woohyun was still a little foreign to him so they didn’t talk much other than in P.E. but yeah, he sat diagonal from Hoya last year and together they tried to understand this together. Hoya doing better than him though, and one test they were allowed one partner. Sunggyu and Hoya went together, and since Hoya was out on a track meet, Sunggyu said he knew the latest lesson quite well. Writing most of their answers for the both of them and they touched knuckles in confidence.

Yeah, they got a D on that one. All Sunggyu’s fault.

Stupid Hoya, Sunggyu thought as he cursed the athletic other. He skipped a second year of French, well not really skipped, but he took an online course over the summer and got the credits from that. The er left Sunggyu, who couldn’t do that since he wasn’t really in any sport or diploma, in French 2.

“Feeling down?” the student in front of him turned around.

Sunggyu smiled wobbly, “Yeah, Yongguk. Maybe? You knew there was a test today, huh?”

Yongguk laughed at him under his breath, “I knew. Take it you didn’t?”

“The I did,” Sunggyu rolled his eyes, taking out the French text book and his overly tabbed French notebook from his bag. Even as he wrote every single thing in the text book into his notes, and tabbed everything, he still failed. It’s color coded and neatly written, maybe a few doodles here and there but very good notes. Actually he has the best notes in the class. Just not the best comprehension. “Cover me?”

“Sure?” Yongguk grinned. “Don’t worry, I barely studied too.”

And together, after a small chat they started to study from their notes and text books before Madam P. started the test.

 

*

Yongguk used to go to the same middle school as him. They were actually a group of four. Him, Yongguk, Daehyun, and Youngjae. But Daehyun moved away right before eighth grade started and Youngjae moved out freshman year. It left him and Yongguk along in middle school for the year of eighth grade. They were close for seventh, but not as close as eighth. To confess, Sunggyu did have a little crush on the taller and much deeper voiced male in front of him. But, during their trip to Japan at the end of eighth grade year, them and eight other kids, Sunggyu rethought. He met Himchan, and roomed with him during the trip. Himchan was… one of a kind he should say. But stubbornly, he puffed his cheeks and said to himself he would keep trying.

Enter end freshman year and Sunggyu over the summer got a text from Yongguk.

[So… Do you really like me?]

Firstly, summer break just started. They had about two months until their second year of high school started and Sunggyu was going on a trip to China for three weeks with his family in about two days. If he said yes, he wouldn’t even have time to spend it with Yongguk. They were deemed the ‘most artistic’ in the yearbook before they graduated, and most of the other students deemed them as a couple already. But they were still awkward. They exchanged valentine’s chocolate secretly, and laughed. Sunggyu also stabbed him shallowly (not even a wound, more like a little prick with a needle) with a pen in science class by reflex. Not on purpose, please believe me.

It all boiled down to Sunggyu. He still liked him, actually, but it really died down during freshman year. They had no classes together, other than lunch. But lunch was awkward and Sunggyu sat directly beside him, but he faced away and talked to other friends. Later that year, Himchan joined their table. He was from another school, so he was still relatively new to our rag-tag group from middle school. But was accepted because we knew him from the japan trip.

Over freshman year, Sunggyu had Biology class with Himchan and they usually walked to that class together. It was fun rooming with him in Japan, and they also waited together in registration. But one day, Himchan out of the blue asked, “So do you really like Yongguk?”

“W-what! Why do you say that?” Sunggyu held his binder closer, walking to science with Himchan.

“Nothing, just that everyone says you two were an item from Middle school. I was just wondering where that went this year,” Himchan coughed, holding his binder.

“Ah,” Sunggyu scratched his head in the blazing hot sun of California. “No need to worry. We’re just friends, really.”

“Really?” the other looked skeptically at him, “Cause that’s not what Yongguk thinks.”

Sunggyu bit his lip, “Look, Himchan, I really don’t have feelings for him. I maybe had a crush on him in middle school, but I got over it. I don’t want to have a relationship in high school and defiantly not with him.” Wow that sounded harsh. “I guess I just wanted to know how it felt like to be liked…”

Himchan looked at him, with those eyes. Judging him, but Sunggyu could feel it was more than that. He wasn’t about to go into some stuff about destiny and fate because really, he wasn’t one to be like that. Everyone knows he’s the wishy-washy, but still predominantly stubborn about his hobbies, Sunggyu that likes all food and laughs way too much. But he knows. The fact that him and Yongguk really aren’t supposed to be more than friends.

He sighed, nearing the door to the classroom with Himchan. Though he quickly put on a smile, “It’s nothing to worry about.”

“Okay.”

And he remembered, Himchan had a girlfriend.

 

 *

So going back to the text he received at the end of freshman year, after his talk with Himchan about four months earlier, he replied. And still, he regrets his reply so deeply. Most of the things he says are lies nowadays.

[Wait until the end of summer. I’ll have an answer by then]

But he didn’t. He really didn’t have an answer. Wishing with all his might that he won’t get a class with him again (the only reason he took French was to try and be in the same class as Yongguk), he guessed god hates him and put him into the same French class with Yongguk this year. But it was only one class; he still tried to be nonchalant.

And he blew off the topic like he forgot when he greeted Yongguk. Sunggyu could see the anticipation in his eyes, but he ignored it. Played ignorant and oblivious. Yongguk, well he didn’t press for an answer and stayed oblivious as well. His reason remains unknown.

Maybe that was one of the factors that led Sunggyu to get out of his eighth grade syndrome and out of that shy shell. He became more loud and forward, blunt so to speak, with people. Very easy going and likes to crack jokes or disses to make the mood lighten.

Though in the back of his mind, ever since that conversation with Himchan, he knew; Yongguk shouldn’t be with him, but with Himchan.

Probably he was the only one who saw it, and he signed up for marching band by accident from last year’s lingering hopes to like Yongguk like he convinced himself he did.

Maybe this was why he formed the Tactical Cheat Forces. Or maybe because he’s stopped trying so hard in school since the eighth grade. His grades dropped from a straight A line to a wobbly B line. His parents were not happy and he tried his best.(If you call GTA 5 all night long, Maplestory grinding, Pokemanz training marathons, writing dumb stories online, going into bouts of sadness of ‘Why do I even bother’ and trying to do homework only to copy the next day from some other kid, actually trying.)  Cheating, he supposed, was the last resort. As students, they gotta wake up at like five or so o-clock and take a shower in fear the water might not warm up. Most days it does but the others, not so much. Then make their own breakfast, wait on the corner for the bus about a mile away. And when they finally snap out of it, there are distractions everywhere. You see what these girls are wearing to school? It’s like, , don’t even wear clothes if you’re gunna put that on. Sheesh. And literally, they’re maturing in front of your eyes. It’s like rampant hormones everywhere and you gotta keep your pants in check because your eyes start to wander to asses and ie cups all around you.

How the does Woohyun concentrate?

Okay okay, Sunggyu admits he’s been starting at that one girl’s in history class more than he should but hell, he’s a guy too and needs some motivation to continue learning about genocide and WWII.

Back to his stupid love story, yeah. It was band training camp, a little two week thing at school where students who signed up for marching band go to re-polish some skills to be ready when school starts. Sunggyu was in band with Yongguk back in middle school, (another factor they liked each other) and, be surprised, the idiot plays flute. Sunggyu would always laugh at this, since he was a clarinetist.

Though Himchan is a flute player too.

During those two weeks at school and marching camp, Himchan and Yongguk talked right in front of him while he had no one to talk to. Being out of band for freshman year made him alienated, and he barely knew anyone. He stuck with Himchan and Yongguk out of familiarity, but he really wanted to be farther away from him. Talking to some younger students he knew in middle school, like Mir or Sungjong. Those two have been on and off.

At the last day of band camp, he walked up to the conductor. Firmly stating he wanted to quit. When asked for the reason, he lied, saying he didn’t have a stable ride home other than the bus and no one lived near him. The band teacher, abet disappointed because he was actually a really good marcher and player, let him leave.

And that was the day, the day Sunggyu realized. Himchan had broken up with his girlfriend. Yongguk wasn’t talking to him.

HImchan and Yongguk should go out.

And after that, he barely talked to them both.

 

*

When sophomore year started, Himchan was in his history class and Yongguk in his French. Actually, Sunggyu played dumb again. He knew the two were going to start dating soon. Because Himchan wasn’t a bastard like him and would confess to Yongguk, or the other way around. Besides, they were both him good friends. He couldn’t hate them. But he still feels a little empty because of it.

The Tactical Cheat Forces was formed a little after that. He was so thankful that the two weren’t in his lunch period.

The Force doesn’t even know they’re in the force. It’s pretty much in his head, but he likes to say it’s a force because it just sounds cooler. In middle school, he copied homework but it went more than that in highschool. Being tired all the time and barely understanding anything, he resorted to cheating.

But he did it wrong at first. He did freestyle cheating; where you peek at the other person’s paper. But see, you can’t do that, because random variables block your moves out of nowhere. Like in pokemanz when the other ing trainer keeps using Protect or Astonish or Headbutt so you can’t hit them or flinch. (ers) When the other person writes like brail, or so bad it’s just chicken scratch.

Tactical Cheat Forces is comprised of his friend Byunghee in the morning, usually copying homework from him if he forgot anything. Then, in Art class, he talks to Junho who is a year ahead of him. Getting tips and facts about junior year and how to prepare for it.

Then he meets with Woohyun and walks to most of his classes with him. Talking with Woohyun makes him feel happy, since they have many similar interests. Playing Maplestory or Pokemanz together, and talking about Kpop or whatever. The other problem was that Woohyun was ing smarter than him and it pissed him off. But, he shrugged and concluded because Woohyun has much stricter expectations set up on him from his parents. Sunggyu’s gave up on him.

But he refuses to put Woohyun in his Tactical Force because… just because.

Next, you hit lunch and acutally him and Woohyun don’t sit together. They walk into the cafeteria together but they don’t eat together. Going to their middle school friends instead. Sunggyu never really thought about sitting with him, okay maybe he does, but it doesn’t bother him. They both have more friends than each other.

Hoya, Byunghee, and Wooyoung (part of the Force) sit with him at the lunch table. With that other person with Wooyoung he doesn’t know(Chansung? Not part of the Force) and to his left sat his lady friends because the cafeteria was packed and their table was huge. Two other girls sat diagonal from them and all of them had no clue who the hell they were. But Sunggyu knew them from middle school, refraining from saying anything though.

Most of his friends give him some part of their lunch because he doesn’t have money to buy his own and doesn’t have anything to bring from home. He’s very thankful, but somedays he doesn’t get anything and starves. He never asks unless they don’t finish, eating bread crusts and vegetables no one wants. Life of a high school scavenger. He also gets tips on the upcoming English class from Hoya, who smirks at him and starkly asks him how French 2 is as he hands him some part of his bread.

And to his side, Sunny, his good friend that’s a girl, gives him half her sandwich sometimes and he takes it with tears of joy and thanks her muchly. She laughs and ruffles his hair, saying he should eat more. He doesn’t like her friend though. Whatever those other two girls’ names are. One smells like complete . No joke.

Anyways, go into English class and he has a bit more acquaintances that are girls who help him on what happened in the novel they’re reading. Even as most of them didn’t read it, he scraps up knowledge and barely gets a C on their quizzes on the book. Kevin boasts about his A in the background and he has to fight the urge to throw his pen at him.

Okay, so probably the only cheating he ever does is in French. One time, he got up to turn his test in when he peeked at Yongguk’s test not so secretly. Retracing about three steps and changed his answers, then got up and turned it in. The next day, Yongguk turned around when he got into class. They’re so over each other, but still friends. Sunggyu still feels that ache in his heart though on what he did to Yongguk. Playing dumb when he knew fully well what sort of torment he put him through. Hell, Yongguk even won him a toy from a crane machine he really wanted in Japan. Spending a lot of money on it. Sunggyu still feels bad.

“You looked at my test before turning it in, huh?” Yongguk amusingly caught him, flicking his forehead. “Idiot.”

“Yah!” Sunggyu rubbed his forehead, seeing Woohyun turn his head toward him from the corner of his eye and he waved reluctantly at him. The raven quirked a brow but rolled his eyes at him. “I still got a B-, jeez, give me a break.”

“You’re so dumb,” Yongguk laughed at him, and he did too.

“Whatever, I just need to pass this class for this year and no more French!” Sunggyu pumps a fist halfway into the air.

And the taller just shook his head, going back to whatever he was doing. Sunggyu then surveys his other two accomplices that don’t even know they are his accomplices. Everyone thinks he’s some sort of smart guy, probably because his friends are smart and he’s Asian. But he’s not. More like an barely average student scraping by.

To his left was the smartest kid in their entire grade level. Seohyun. Beautiful, nice and very smart. He usually asks her for what to do on exercises in the French text book. And to his right was Teacyeon, one of the most doted on guys in his grade level. Most girls are friends with him, and yeah, he’s pretty smart too. He knows that Sunggyu isn’t that, but he still asks him for some pointers in French.

Then, right beside him is Lee Joon. The idiot barely knows French like him, and together they try to cheat most of the time. This is when Sunggyu actually feels like he knows some stuff because he’s the one giving answers to Joon. And then Joon passes it to his friend. Usually, Sunggyu is a little wrong but hell, at least their trying. Cheating or not.

Yeah, he gets an average of Bs and Cs. Sometimes Ds, and when he just accepts fate, F. He’s gotten like two or three As on a quiz in French. Those are really rare though, and only happens when Woohyun helps him.

So his cheat ring really isn’t a real one, but he likes to think of it as one. Forgetting French homework and what’s funny is that Woohyun is just as forgetful as him but he does better. Yeah, high school is a weird time.

At least, Sunggyu doesn’t have eighth grade syndrome anymore.  Or at least, doesn’t show it.

 

*

“Sunggyu, look, it’s that guy again!”

Sunggyu covered his mouth, stifling a laugh as he and Woohyun walked to his Chemistry class. They usually saw this one dude, a freshman, on this walk. He literally looked like a pencil with a oversized eraser. He knows it’s mean, and rude, but he and Woohyun laugh silently as they watch the freshman run a hand through his hella poofy hair that makes his head look twice as big again. And he doesn’t stop. Five second later he does it again, and again. Leaving Sunggyu laughing beside Woohyun as the other judges more people around them.

They overhear a group of African American friends laughing with each other. Okay, he has nothing against people of any nationality but you have to remember there’s the cliché ones and the nice ones and the normal ones. He has plenty of friends that are African American, and they are the best people ever. But this bunch is that cliché, you think they only exist in movies, group that said: “Yo Nigga! Fro, man,” and really, they actually say that.

Woohyun overheard the line and repeated to Sunggyu, “Yo nigga!”

Sunggyu laughed, swatting the Raven’s hand down, “Yah, don’t do that. It’s not nice.”

Woohyun clicked his tongue, “Like you’re any different. Calling everyone a head and writing the y times.”

“Y-you saw that?” Sunggyu heated up, hitting the other in the arm, “Yah! I said not to look for my blog!”

“But you literally gave me your username when you drew me my Christmas gift,” Woohyun laughed. “It’s your fault for pointing it out!”

Sunggyu had drawn a fairly nice picture of some singer Woohyun liked for Christmas, but forgot and accidentally put his username signature instead of his name. Curse you online quota!

“Don’t look at it anymore!” Sunggyu whined, holding his binder that was covered with an anime character he liked on the front. “Geez…”

“Yeah yeah, alright,” Woohyun waved his hand at him. “Bye Sunggyu.”

“B-bye,” Sunggyu waved at him as Woohyun turned around to his P.E. class. He really had no reason to walk with Sunggyu more than he does. They pass by the gym before he even remotely gets to his class. Woohyun says it’s nothing, and he has lots of time and doesn’t want to be around the smelly guys in the locker room; but Sunggyu still feels bad. The idiot walks with him to the other side of the school, only to get a small two more minutes of talking in and then leave.

Sunggyu goes to his Chemistry class, without thinking about it anymore.

 

*

Getting into Chemistry, he has no right to cheat in here. Well, he could, but he respects the teacher too much for that. He tries, very hard in this class, to pay attention and learn. But usually ends up falling asleep on his notebook and his pen leaving a blob of ink on the paper. His teacher is really nice though, since he scores fairly high in the class. (A high B+, that COULD have been an A if he got one more point) Everyone in the class knows he falls asleep easily and wakes him up with loud talking and a friend shaking him awake. He really wished he didn’t fall asleep in this class (he sleeps in all classes) but it just happens.

After that, he goes to Algebra Two and . Just . Screw math, he understands jack squat in that class. Having to leech off the smart people for answers.

So yeah. Kim Sunggyu.

High school.

No.

 

*

[Are you going to play Pokemanz or ms?]

Sunggyu gets a text on a Friday, laughing since it’s from Woohyun who probably got back from his super smart kid seventh period class.

[Aren’t you tired? You should take a break.] Sunggyu never uses shortened words unless he’s trying to be funny. Because it confuses him so he doesn’t like it.

[I’m fine] Woohyun replies back to him. 
[:)] Comes in right after, before Sunggyu could even type a reply. 
[Let’s play ms. I don’t know how to talk on Poke]

Sunggyu laughs, sitting in front of his computer when he was just contemplating how to update his blog but sets it aside. 
[You can’t talk on Pokemanz unless you battle or trade with game chat on. It’s like a phone call.]

[That :( ] Woohyun sends in a reply in lightning speed. He curses at the high tech phone the other has. While he has some dumb piece of . 
[Let’s play ms :D]

The over use of emoticons was reaching Sunggyu’s limit, since he never uses them unless he actually is making that face. 
[Okay. Channel 16?]

[Of course!]

Leaving that as the last text, he slowly logs onto Maplstory. Clicking his only character since he deleted the other ones. He’s missed 2x events twice and out of frustration, he hasn’t been playing much. That and Woohyun has been busy too. So they just called it off for a while.

He’s a Phantom, with this judgmental face he finds cute and dumb. While Woohyun is a freaking Xenon, messaging him on MS: 
[Find me]

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, making his character jump up as he left off in a place full of monsters that were level one hundred. He was grinding. (training). 
[Why?]

[Because it’s like hide and go seek]

He scoffed at Woohyun’s childish motives. [Fine. At least give me a hint]

[It’s really colorful]

Okay, being Sunggyu, who dropped playing maplestory back in middle school because his cousin came over and completely creamed him in skills, he just gave up. He barely knew where was what and what to do. He just liked playing for playing. So obviously, he knew nothing of where Woohyun was .

[Woohyun, I have no ing clue where you are]

He could hear the ‘tsk’ing from the latter. [Gyu, you shouldn’t curse]

G-gyu?! Who do you think you are? Sunggyu gasped at the monitor, his older sister passing by his room and he quickly filled the chat log with stupid short comments.

[No.]
[Dumbbbbbb]
[Stupid Woohyun]
[Find me instead]

“Whatcha doing?” his sister sipped at the coke in her hands, she’s been hanging out with her friends.

“Maple, obviously,” Sunggyu puffed his cheeks. “Woohyun’s being difficult and wants me to find him."

A new message popped up [Ew, no.]

“Well, he doesn’t want to find you,” His sister laughed at him. “I’ll join you.”

“Wait, no! Noona!”

But his sister swiftly backed into her room, already booting up her computer to join Sunggyu in his demise and probably embarrass him. His sister is better than him at Maplestory, having like six good characters and such. And over five years of playing.

[Gyu? Please find me, I’m bored]

Sunggyu snorted at the new message, [Find yourself. I’m going to train if you keep this up.]

And what gives you the right to call me Gyu? He wanted to add.

[Fine. Where are you?]

He smirked, winning. [Herb town]

 

*

[hs pls]

Sunggyu huffed at the message, shouting, “Noona, I’m right here!”

From the other room he heard snickers. His sister was being dumb and talking to him on MS while Woohyun, who made it over to them, put his character abnormally close to Sunggyu’s.

[hs pls] the message showed up again.

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, hitting the ‘d’ key and watched as his character emitted an angel that burst into the air, the effects is +0.5 more exp for the character’s party. You had to be a Bishop to do this skill but since Sunggyu was a Phantom he stole it.

[You’re nice] Woohyun messaged at him, making a smiley face with his character.

[Whatever] Sunggyu pouted at the screen.

[Did you do history hw yet?] Woohyun’s bubble popped up again. [It’s due like, tomorrow]

[Nah] Sunggyu usually says with an overly sarcastic tone at school, so Woohyun knows what the word is supposed to sound like. [No I didn’t. Did you?]

[Nope] typical of him. [He never checks it anyways]

[True] ‘He’ was their history teacher. Very nice and a good teacher, but really left it up to them to be responsible and study. [But still.]

[I’ll do it later :) ] Woohyun typed, and Sunggyu slapped his forehead for the smiley face. [I’m gunna stay up all night]

[That’s not good for you] Sunggyu snorted. Every student does it anyways.

[Est-ce que tu aime faire? C’est tu anniversaire bientôt, right ?]

Sunggyu stared at the screen for a long while before yelling, startling his sister in the other room who yelled at him back to be quiet. “ing Woohyun!” 
[Dude, how many times do I have to say it? I don’t understand a word you say when you type in French]

[That’s too bad, lol] Woohyun made a smiley face with his character again. [You should study more instead of writing y happenings]

“Sunggyu, what is he talking about?” his sister shouted from the other room.

Sunggyu cursed, typing quickly in private chat [Keep that on the down low!]

[Why?] Woohyun responded in private chat as well. [Oh, so you’re undercover]

[That’s one way to put it]

[I said what do you like to do. It’s your birthday soon]

Sunggyu felt him heating up again [You remembered?]

[Well, it’s not that hard of a date]

er, yes it is! Sunggyu fought the urge to bang his head. [I want to get a French tutor]

He typed it as a joke, since he really does need help with French but to his surprise, the message back was completely out of it.

[I’ll tutor you]

 

*

“And this, you just need to memorize. Remember that the infinitive only works with Tu, Nous, and Vous. And Appelle changes the ‘L’ count with nous, and vous. While these are to be put into Expremon-nous.” Woohyun explained, scooting closer to him on the rug, pointing in his notes. “You have good notes, now just remember them.”

“Y-yeah.”

One month ago, Sunggyu joked that he needed a tutor for French to Woohyun over MS just to be stupid but the idiot actually took it into account and invited him over for study sessions after his seventh period. Sunggyu took the city bus A toward his house, but it was still rather worth it as he was getting Bs on the tests. Woohyun’s a er, that’s what he is.

“I don’t see you working,” Woohyun reached over to the table, getting some snack to eat. “It’s really easy.”

“Yeah, to you it is,” Sunggyu huffed, trying to do extra expressions Woohyun told him to make up. “French just contradicts itself.”

“Just think of how much better with would sound and look if it was done another way and you’ll be fine,” the Raven smiled at him. “like so, ‘Quand j’etais jeune, j’avais jouer aux billes.’”

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me you face,” Sunggyu scrunched his nose. “What the flux capacity did you just say?”

“I said, ‘when I was little, I liked to play with marbles’ see? Just try to make it sound like it should.”

Sunggyu grumbled, going back to his notebook and staring hard at the words, “You make it sound nice, stupid head. Can’t do it if you don’t even know what it means in the first place…”

“What did you say?” Woohyun sat back down again, beside him after drinking whatever. “Are you bad mouthing me?”

“No! I’m doing the damn exercises!” Sunggyu snorted, wiggling his pencil in thought while trying to write a paragraph in French.

Woohyun chuckled, and strangely it sounded way too husky for the Woohyun he knew. But he turned his heard, yelping a little when the oaf’s face was right beside his. “Are you getting it?”

Sunggyu frowned, trying to will his body temperature down. This was not going to be like middle school where he completely wasted an entire year from another guy’s life. “I-I’m fine. Gimme space.”

“But right here and here,” Woohyun leaned in more, pointing to some part of the notebook he was writing in for mistakes, “are wrong.”

Sunggyu could only inwardly panic and look away and around the room, “Ah, is that so. I’ll change it.”

As he was erasing the spots, Woohyun didn’t move at all. “Are you sure you even know how to change it?”

The idiot’s smirk was taunting, and he flicked the other’s forehead with heated cheeks, “Jesus, lemme try on my own before I ask for help.”

“Okay okay,” Woohyun sat back, picking up his DS and started playing Pokémon. “You better help me with this then.”

On contrary to Woohyun, Sunggyu was much better at Nintendo games. He beat the out of Woohyun in other games and he started over just to be on equal grounds with the latter. Since Woohyun whine about him being ahead. Well, he was ahead by about seven years of experience.

“Yeah yeah, just train your team first,” Sunggyu waved him off, fixing one sentence to what he thought was right. “You can worry about EV training once you breed for IVs.”

“What…?”

“Later.” Sunggyu laughed. “I’ll help you after this.”

Woohyun shrugged, looking back at him, “Yeah, this part’s wrong.”

“Yah!” Sunggyu abruptly turned his head toward Woohyun again, but stopped since their proxcimity just suddenly became too close. He leaned back after what felt like moments of eye contact and covered his face with the notebook. “J-just be patience, geez.”

“Y-yeah.”

 

*

After that, he realized how much easier it was to talk to Woohyun than it was with any one of his other friends. They stopped in pauses between their conversations but it was a silence that they both felt a little weird in. They spoke at the same time to continue without the silence, laughing at each other after that.

Making fun of other students that walked by and impersonated them, then judging pretty much anything from seagulls to personal stories.

Sunggyu laughed a lot with Woohyun, and it was light. He felt much better, better than when he convinced himself he liked Yongguk. It was so easy to start a conversation when Woohyun moved from his seat to the empty desk behind him in French, striking up a conversation about Kpop or some drama he watched the other day. Singing some random lines while trying to do the dance in the desk, reducing Sunggyu into a bundle of giggles from the stupidity.

Yongguk stayed facing forward when he talked to Woohyun.

One day, Woohyun said he lost the stylus for his DS for unknown reasons. Sunggyu rolledhis eyes, telling the story about how he lost his original one too. It was about two years back, when the 3DS was just released. Sunggyu got it, but he let his Nonna play in their parents room. He was trying to get it back when she flicked the system in his hand, the stylus flying out of the socket and landed who knows where. They searched the entire night but couldn’t find it. Sunggyu had to buy a set of seven to get a replacement. In case any crazy happenings happened again. So, one of those pens was given to his good friend Henry. He gave him the dark blue one.

Remembering Woohyun liked orange for unknown reasons, he brought the orange stylus to school the next day. Nonchalantly waving it off as ‘I have loads. You can have this one. I don’t even use it anyways’.

He has the red one.

 

 

 

***

It's been so long. Really. Two years? People can change in two years. It's sounds short in retrospective, but living it can be quick or a drag. For Sunggyu, it was rather pleasing. Messing with Woohyun that is. The smart might as well go to ing Stanford. Sunggyu will be happy enough to get accepted into college. But they had a rather bleak, but satisfying high school experience.

After strange adventures at school, trying to become better in French but remained a little average even after Woohyun’s tutoring, which is still going on even after he was done with the credits (Woohyun just wants to mess with him); Sunggyu sat on a bench trying to consume some cotton candy at the fair. He came with Woohyun, who was tending to his younger brother. The two trying to win this stuffed bear the younger one wanted.

Woohyun came back to his spot on the bench under a tree, his brother running around trying to find his mom after winning the bear which Woohyun didn’t get.

“What a sad older brother,” Sunggyu joked, knocking Woohyun’s shoulder playfully. “Hecka showed up by your bro.”

“Whatever,” Woohyun clicked his tongue, taking Sunggyu’s cotton candy and tried to angrily eat it, but it was kind of hard to see the anger from such a cute and fluffy treat.

Which made Sunggyu burst into laughter, “You’re such an idiot!”

“Yah! Compared to me you’re lesser!” Woohyun pouted.

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, standing up and doing a reference dance to one of the MVs they liked to joke about and together they laughed some more.

“You’re so cute,” Woohyun said between laughs.

But Sunggyu froze. Out of all the compliments put downs he’s got from the other, this was a first. He stared at Woohyun, who stopped laughing and realized what he said as well.

“U-uh—“

“Um…”

They lapsed into a silence, with Woohyun shuffling in his spot and Sunggyu turning to look at the sorry merry go round.

“Hey, Gyu,” Woohyun called after him.

He turned, “Yeah?”

“Are you still using the Tactical Cheat Forces?” the cheeky Woohyun returned, grinning up at him. And he decided he likes both flustered and stupid Woohyun.

“No,” Sunggyu said proudly, hitting his chest while nodding. “I’m a clean man on a road to the better!”

Woohyun laughed at his stance, “So dumb. So cute.”

Sunggyu paused again, blinking, “Y-you said it again.”

“O-Oh, I meant, well,” Woohyun scratched the back of his head. “You don’t like it?”

Sunggyu thought back. To his original encounter to love and how he shied away because he thought he was incompetent. When he wasted other people’s time. When he didn’t know what he was doing. With Woohyun, the other let him laugh freely and easily. He liked it. A lot.

And he thought, well, why the not?

“I like it,” he smiled, chuckling a little with his eyes turned to crescents and laughing at Woohyun who blanked. “Yeah, I like it.”

Woohyun waited for a few moments, then got up from the bench and crashed him into a hug, while laughing, “I like it too!”

 

Cause screw you, old Sunggyu thoughts. Why not try something new?

Forget about the old you. The old school days of mistakes.

Forget about the Tactical Cheat Forces.

This something makes you, Kim Sunggyu, happy.

And that something is

Nam Woohyun.