“Hey,” Himchan said over the landline when Jongup picked up his house phone. “Have you not gotten my message?”

Jongup answered tiredly, “I told you, I still don’t have my phone.”

The static went quiet for a second and Himchan replied, “Oh, right. Sorry.”

Jongup made an incomprehensible noise like an aggravated puppy, leaning against the counter and absently coiled the phone line with his finger. “It’s fine, hyung. It feels kind of good actually,” he confessed quietly. “This phone I have now is full random pictures of random stuff–”

“Like what?”

“The sky? Trees and uh, buildings,” the dancer shrugged, although knowing Himchan wouldn’t see. “There are poems too, and some notes–”

“You looked through a stranger’s phone?” the older gaped.

“Of course, I did,” he said defensively. “I wanted to know whose it is, but nothing.” Jongup sighed. “I probably won’t get it back and you know what? I like it better. I’m better off with less distractions.”

Himchan might have laughed, or coughed on something he drank, Jongup was not sure.

“I think you’re just glad you don’t have to deal with Anjae, your ex, anymore.”

Jongup flinched and chewed on his lip. That struck a chord of guilt in him.

“Yeah, that too,” he confessed after a beat. “She’s too tiring. Just because she thinks I look cool when I dance doesn’t mean–”

“Everybody thinks you’re wicked on stage,” Himchan cut in unhelpfully. “That’s why you’re such a hit with girls from other schools.”

“But that doesn’t mean I am ‘wicked’ enough to deal with them,” Jongup said hotly. “They’re so- so-”

“y?” Himchan suggested.

“Yeah. No! That was mean,” corrected Jongup, guiltily. He could practically feel Himchan roll his eyes at him but he didn’t care. Jongup disliked trash talking people, especially girls.

“And this is exactly why you two aren’t meant for each other,” the older sighed. “She wouldn’t think twice to–”

“Yeah, I already know that. Whatever,” Jongup said warily. “Anyway, did you want something? Or are you just wasting my time?”

“Show some respect. Your hyung is calling because he cares about your stupid love life,” Himchan babbled on and Jongup fought the urge to roll his eyes. He was about to hang up when he heard the older mention a word that sounded like your name.

“What?” said Jongup, whipping the phone back to his ear.

“You weren’t listening?” said the older. “I said, since Youngjae is still staying over at her place tonight, and he thinks you have a huge crush on her, he’ll probably–”

“I do not have a crush on her,” Jongup said heatedly, embarrassed at the thought of whatever Youngjae might tell you about him. “I just, I just finally officially met her today.”

“You kept staring at her,” Himchan pointed out teasingly.

“I did not,” Jongup spluttered, feeling like a middle school girl. “Tell him not to say anything stupid. Wait, tell him not to say anything at all.”

“Too bad you don’t have your phone, or you could text him yourself,” Himchan mocked. “And we both know you like her so just shut up, yeah? Even the great Bang Yongguk said you’re wasting your time with ‘dumb clingy girls’ like–”

“Yeah, I know that–”

“Anjae is a–”

“Big bully,” Jongup finished, because he did not want to hear Himchan swear because of some stupid girl. “She’s a big bully.”

Himchan snorted, “Yes, a very big bully, you little baby. So, grow up, Jongup. You look so grown up on stage, stop acting like a baby in real life.”

Jongup was about to hang up again when he heard Himchan continue in a worried tone. “…strange, I might’ve seen Bang Yongguk talking to your crush at her locker during lunch. They hugged, did you know that?”

“W-what?” hissed Jongup, horrified.

“I said, they hugged and Bang Yongguk, the most popular jock in the entire school, seemed really flustered when he walked passed me. He had this big grin on his face and–”

x

That night, your brother was still recovering from his jet lag. You were on your bed, spending your last night with Uppie’s phone. You decided to return it to him first thing tomorrow morning. Youngjae was at your study desk, going through both his and your homework.

“Do you like Jongup?” asked Youngjae quietly and out of nowhere.

Uppie’s phone slipped from your hands and fell right smack on your face. You spluttered, sitting up from the bed.

“W-what?” you asked, cradling your throbbing nose.

Youngjae twisted around in his seat and eyed you with a strange glint in his eyes.

“I said, do you like Jongup.”

You waved a dismissive hand at him and sniffled, making sure you could still breathe properly.

“He’s okay when he’s not sweaty,” you said, not quite getting his drift. “The first time I met him, he was really sweaty.”

Youngjae rolled his eyes. “You are so stupid.”

“Nobody can be as smart as you, sir,” you mocked him and fell back onto your bed.

“You are really blind, too,” he added helpfully.

“Yes,” you admitted in a thoughtful tone. “Yes, I am really blind.”

It was a Thursday and it was after school and you groaned. Youngjae, Himchan and Junhong were waiting by the school gate. You still hadn’t returned Jongup his phone, but you promised yourself you would definitely do it before the weekend. You thought you could immediately head home and bother your brother. However, that plan would not work now that Youngjae said they were going to get ice cream and he would treat you.

How could you say no to free ice cream?

Of course, it was against the law to bail from free food.

You were starting to like Youngjae better than Daehyun. He was giving you free food and doing your homework for you. With Daehyun, you were in Youngjae’s position, you thought grudgingly. Anyhow, you dearly hoped you were not as annoying to Youngjae as Daehyun was to you.

The back of Jongup’s hand kept brushing against yours as you all walked on. You felt a wonderful tingle spread through you, and the stupid urge to just grab his hand to hold it steady and you told yourself it was because the brushing was annoying, and that it had nothing to do with the funny feeling.

You secretly side-eyed him and caught him watching you. Jongup quickly whipped his head to the front and cleared his throat, mumbling about the weather. He was pretty quiet today, but friendly all the same. You wondered if something happened last night or maybe he knocked his head on something and lost a few brain cells.

Himchan and Junhong were bickering over a blog post they just read on one of their phones. Youngjae trailed behind you and Jongup. You would look over your shoulder every so often to see if he was still there; he promised to pay for your ice cream after all, it would be rude if he disappeared.

“I know I’m handsome and you just can’t get enough,” Youngjae said, dripping with sarcasm.

You snorted and made a face at him. You tried to elbow him when he shoved your head around. For a second, he reminded you of your brother.

“Promise you’ll buy a carrot cake for my brother?” you asked before you could stop yourself. “He let you stay after all.”

“Your bro likes carrot cake?” Youngjae asked.

You shrugged. You missed your brother. Was he still sleeping off his jet lag?

When you reached the ice cream parlour, the glass door swung opened, almost hitting Junhong in the face. Himchan yanked him to the side and Youngjae let out a horrified gasp from behind. From beside you, you heard Jongup gulp noisily.

“You!” a female voice rang out sharply. You flinched.

Three girls stepped out of the ice cream parlour. Their faces were prettily caked in makeup and their uniform skirts were way too short. They were from another high school at the other side of the neighbourhood, you guessed.

The prettiest one in the middle was glaring at Jongup, a smoothie in one hand. Her eyes flashed indignation as they flickered to you beside him and back.

She let out a high-pitched laugh.

“You left me for her?” she squawked, like you were something filthy.

You opened your mouth to tell her how rude she was being when a strong hand grabbed your shoulder and pulled you back. You knew it was Youngjae from the smell of his cologne.

“Don’t be stupid,” he hissed into your ear, so only you could hear.

“But–” you struggled, grumbling. “She’s the stupid one.”

“What’s that?” the makeup caked face girl whipped her head to glare at you.

“Nothing!” Youngjae said, voice strained. “Please, do carry on harassing my friend.”

Jongup gave Youngjae a desperate look, like a kicked puppy, while Himchan and Junhong sidled into the ice cream parlour unnoticed. You frowned at the fleeing friends. This was not right.

x

Stupid. Youngjae did not know you could be this stupid. This was clearly another Anjae slash Jongup business; it was not a place for you. Youngjae’s grip on your shoulders tightened as he watched Anjae step into Jongup’s personal space.

“Do you really think we are over?” she threatened, jabbing at Jongup’s chest and then pointing back to herself. “You and me?”

“Uh, Anjae, you were the one who–”

“You have no right to tell me that you hate me,” she hissed and Jongup took a step back. “Especially when I said I hate you.”

What the hell is this logic? Youngjae wondered and felt your shoulders stiffen. He looked down in time to see your face pale of its colour.

“Anjae, I never said I hated you,” Jongup said hastily.

You suddenly tensed up even more and Youngjae was becoming suspicious whether you had anything to do with this, or you were just reacting weirdly like usual.

“Oh, but you did.” The Anjae girl suddenly stepped back and splashed her smoothie all over Jongup’s school uniform. The customers outside gasped.

“Hey!” you yelped and Youngjae stifled a growl. You successfully shrugged Youngjae’s hands off of you and stepped forward, grabbing Jongup protectively by the arm. “That was very rude. Why would you do that?”

Anjae rolled her eyes and spat, “This is between me and him, not some third wheel rebound,” she lifted her chin and stared down at you.

Passersby were stopping and turning around to watch the ruckus. You didn't seem to notice.

“Yeah, okay, but you didn’t have to be so rude about it,” you rolled your eyes, softly pushing Jongup behind you. “Just because a boy doesn’t want to fight with you doesn’t mean you can dump your drink on him.”

Youngjae facepalmed. In the corner of his eyes, he could see Himchan and Junhong slowly re-emerging from the ice cream parlour to witness this spit battle. The Anjae girl looked aghast and lost for words at your statement. One of her girls fidgeted, looking slightly worried at the crowd of watchers that were gathering around them.

“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?” Anjae shrieked.

You looked like you were just slapped on the face and Youngjae did not know how to save you. Jongup was standing there like an idiot, red drink stains on his shirt with your hand around his elbow. The crowd was growing larger and there were even people whipping out their phones to take videos. Youngjae wanted to die.

“I’m a human being, just like you,” you said angrily as if this was extremely obvious. Your hand slipped off of Jongup and you folded your arms over your chest. “Since we are all human beings, we should be humane about the things we do!” You gestured at Anjae and Jongup indicatively. “And I, I don’t think dumping drinks on people and harassing them are very humane of you.” You stomped your foot like a small child, raising your voice. “As a concerned fellow human, I just wanted to let you know because it seems like nobody had ever told you this before,” you said loudly, as if hoping the louder your words were, the better they would make their way through Anjae’s thick skull. “Okay? So, for the sake of humanity, just act more human. Yeah?”

There was a stricken silence as Youngjae’s jaw dropped and Anjae struggled to find a retort.

Out of nowhere, somebody in the crowd decided to clap, followed by other witnesses of the very humane spit battle. Youngjae quickly closed his mouth; he hadn’t realised it was open.

The claps grew louder and so he started clapping too—he had no idea what else to do.

He saw Junhong and Himchan hanging onto each other in fits of laughter on the steps of the parlour. Somebody in the crowd whistled and hollered something like, ‘go humanity!’ Anjae stomped her foot and let out a frustrated shriek before stalking away, pushing past the people who were recording her downfall. She shrieked again and, along with her friends, tried to knock the phones out of the watchers’ hands as many as possible as she pushed through them and disappeared out of sight.

For a second there, Youngjae thought you were going to chase after Anjae and he almost yelled, but you merely crouched down on the street, all the while you were grumbling and helping people pick up their phones. You were probably apologising to them like an idiot that you were. The people didn't look very upset and you just nodded at whatever they were telling you and stepped away again.

Youngjae watched as you turn around to Jongup, eyes widening at the crowd on the other side. It was like, you’d just noticed these people although they were there for almost the whole argument; you’ve only seen them now.

Gods, you were absolutely blind, Youngjae thought but couldn’t help but be proud with how you handled yourself.

“I– what?” you breathed, unsurely, taking a confused step back. Encouragingly, Youngjae pushed at Jongup to help you with that.

x

“Hi,” Jongup greeted shyly, stepping closer to you.

Behind Jongup, Youngjae gave you a knowing wink.

“Hi.” You breathed, baffled.

You did not know what this was, this thing that blinded you all your life, but the world was suddenly open to you and somewhere in the back of your mind, you thought you might not need Youngjae to do your homework for you, that maybe, you could scrape by if you studied enough. Maybe, you weren’t stupid. Maybe, you were smart—just a different kind of smart. And maybe, you should finally finally stop looking over Jongup’s shoulder so that you could see this cute boy with a warm heart who was right in front of you.

“How’re you doing?” Jongup asked softly, half-moon eyes forming crescents, his smile was kind and full of adoration, and he had a stupid red stain on his shirt.

You smiled back. “Just fine. You?”

He stepped closer now, hand brushing against yours. This time, this time, he took your hand and held it in his own.

“Never better.” Jongup laughed, and snatched you into his arms and held on tight like you were a winning prize; his damp shirt seeped into your uniform, reminding you of the very first time your eyes had opened just to notice him.

Just him.

And you wondered if it was like this…

…to have been blind, and to finally see again.

a/n:
i hope you enjoyed this story despite my horrible fluff writing.
thank you for reading; please do upvote if you liked it even a little!
i will be posting an epilogue chapter a bit later.
love always,
mini (epione)