Kim Jongdae has always been a little bit… extraordinary. It all began in first grade; he “accidentally” pushed a girl down a hill because his friends dared him to. His friends hadn’t thought that he would actually do it, but Jongdae proved them wrong. He loved to prove people wrong.

His teachers in third grade expected him to change, but Jongdae being Jongdae proved them wrong too. He didn’t change and stayed the same. He still pushed other pupils down of hills and poured their milk out in the sink. He had become a bully, kind of, Jongdae didn’t see himself as a bully, he just saw himself as intimidating, or something like that.

In sixth grade people thought he would change yet again, but no. Kim Jongdae simply didn’t want to change. He slowly got a reputation he had gotten quite proud of. It was a part of his identity. Jongdae the punk. He liked it and people respected him. No one dared to get near him in fear of getting hurt or getting a wedgie. He’d only given someone a wedgie once and now everyone was afraid he would give anyone who neared him one too. Jongdae had heard that the wedgie he had given the fifth grader had to be surgically removed, but it was just a rumour and Jongdae didn’t believe in rumours.

In tenth grade a male transfer student, who had resembled a girl way too much, had approached Jongdae in hopes of being friends. Jongdae had tried to scare him off at first, but later he found out that the boy was quite useful actually. He seemed like one those girly, gay metrouals who cared about make-up and what and what not to wear. Luhan, that was his name, was some sort of a girl-magnet and Jongdae liked that. Being in his teens and raging of hormones he sure did have urges and fantasises involving the other gender and Luhan was the perfect male to lure girls to them. So Jongdae decided to befriend Luhan and teach him a thing or two. Together they were the ultimate pair. Jongdae knew how to fight and Luhan knew how to get women. It actually seemed like they lived in a gangster movie if you forgot about all the school stuff they had to do.

Jongdae and Luhan lost their ity in tenth grade on the same day. It was close that they lost their ity to the same girl too, but, fortunately, they didn’t. That would have been awkward for both of them.

They stayed together until they reached the end of high school. They were both 18 when they parted. Luhan had to travel back to China and begin living “as a normal human being” he had worded it. Jongdae had to move onto university; a mathematics major. Even though Jongdae was what you would probably call a delinquent who got into fights at least twice a week and smoked cigarettes at every opportunity he got, he seemed to have a talent for mathematics and found it interesting.

When they parted, Jongdae just stayed in his bed for a week. His mother tried to feed him different kinds of food, but he didn’t want to eat anything, he just stayed put and drank water when it was necessary. After a week of mourning, Jongdae finally got up and took a shower. He dressed up in some fancy clothes and then he headed out, down to the club where he knew he would be able to get so loose from the alcohol that he would be able to forget he was sad, even if it was only for a few hours. He accidentally bumped into someone while he was dancing and the other guy got angry. The first push from the other guy, made Jongdae bump into another guy. Fortunately he was smart enough to just brush it off. Jongdae got mad at the guy who had pushed him and was quick to push back. Soon the pushing evolved to hitting and after that kicks. It had become a fight and Jongdae was clearly winning even though the other guy was much bigger than Jongdae. Jongdae would have smashed his face with his foot and gotten all the anger out, if it hadn’t been because a police officer had dragged him away from the bigger guy and handcuffed him, face facing the floor. He had just breathed out and relaxed, because he knew fighting back wouldn’t help him anyway. He had, naturally, been in this situation quite a lot of times already in his 18-years-old life.

Because of that fight he had got sentenced to 120 hours of community service and that was where he was now.

He stood outside the looming building he had never sat a foot inside before. The local library was a place where nerds went; where the guy he had given a wedgie in sixth grade went when he had no one to talk to. It was a forbidden place for Jongdae. How did the library even survive with the Internet right around the corner with even more information? Jongdae couldn’t see the purpose with having a library; no one was that old school anymore.

Jongdae went through the tall and heavy doors and was met by a seemingly modern interior. Most of the library was white and it almost seemed clinical with all the bookshelves decorating the floor and walls.

He saw a beautiful young lady sitting at the counter. She looked very intrigued in whatever she was doing on the computer. Jongdae almost felt bad about disturbing her, but only almost.

“Hello beautiful,” Jongdae said nonchalantly as he lounged towards the counter. She gave him a glance and then looked back at the computer screen.  “It’s been a long time since I last saw a natural beauty like you. What do you say? You and I? We could create—“

“I don’t have time for your flirting,” she said annoyed and continued typing on the keyboard. “What do you want?”

Jongdae was stunned by how she could just turn him down like that, but he tried not to show it. “I’m here for…”

She looked up from the screen to take a look at him. She looked expectant and nodded to get him to continue.

“I’m here to…” Jongdae looked down at the counter. “To turn in for community service.”

“Ah yes,” she said and turned back to the computer, “Kim Jongdae. Follow me.”

She got up and went to the adult’s section of the library. Jongdae just followed the woman diligently like a puppy. They searched a lot of bookshelves and Jongdae didn’t know what for. At last the woman slowed down in front of a man who was busy setting up books.

“Joonmyun,” the woman called and the male looked up. “This is Kim Jongdae, the one you’ll take care of.”

The man named Joonmyun glanced up and down of Jongdae and Jongdae suddenly felt very self-conscious. His gaze stopped at Jongdae’s eyes and stared for two seconds before his gaze went to the lady. “Thank you Eunji. You can go back.”

The lady went away and left Jongdae alone with Joonmyun. The latter had stopped setting up books and had now his hand in Jongdae’s direction. Jongdae grabbed it reluctantly. The other showed him a small smile that was soon gone and far from genuine.

“My name is Joonmyun and I will be your mentor. Come to me if you have any questions,” Joonmyun soon let go of his hand, flashing a sort of disgusted look at it for a millisecond. “We will have consolations once a week and be sure to be here every time you have a shift or else I have to tell the authorities that you didn’t show up and that’s a lot of work and time-consuming for both parts, so please… just show up.”

Jongdae nodded slightly.

Joonmyun looked at him again and it seemed like he was waiting for something. Jongdae shifted on his spot.

“What are you waiting for?” Joonmyun asked rather harshly. “Set up the books in alphabetic order.”

Jongdae quickly hurried to the book cart and took the book that was closest to him. He looked at the author’s name and then tried to place it on the shelf.

Joonmyun sighed when Jongdae put the book on the shelf. “You need to check if the book is in the right department before putting it on the shelf. “

“I didn’t know that,” Jongdae mumbled and Joonmyun’s head shot to him.

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t know that,” Jongdae said a little louder this time.

Joonmyun sighed again. “Now you do. And lucky for you, all the books on the cart are supposed to be in this department so less work for you I guess. Begin again.”

And Jongdae did. He had to behave or else this community he had to do would take much longer than necessary. And Jongdae surely didn’t want that. After the experience he had with Joonmyun from only one day, he was absolutely sure that he would never spend more time with Joonmyun than absolutely required.

After a week, Jongdae had to go to a consolation session with Joonmyun. Joonmyun had almost been whipping him to get Jongdae to do at least something while he was at the library.

“So, Kim Jongdae,” Joonmyun said and cleared his throat. He wore a pair of glasses that had ridden down of his nose since he was looking down at a notebook with a pencil in his hands, ready to take notes. “Did you like your first week?”

“Does it matter? It’s not like it’ll get me anywhere for saying that I hate it,” Jongdae mumbled clearly, because he didn’t want to repeat himself.

Joonmyun nodded in agreement. “That’s true. At least you know how to use your brain.”

Jongdae snarled. “If I didn’t know how to use my brain I wouldn’t be able to major in math.”

“Oh, so you’re one of those,” Joonmyun said under his breath and did his best for not letting Jongdae hear it, but as predicted he heard it clearly.

Jongdae scrunched up his nose in distaste. “What do you mean ‘one of those’?”

The other let out a dry laugh as he repositioned himself in the chair.

They were in the lunchroom where the library staff ate and drank their coffee. Jongdae didn’t want to enjoy their company any more than necessary, so he usually found a corner of the library when Joonmyun went for a coffee break. Jongdae spent his alone time with a book and his earphones until Joonmyun found him and snatched them out of his ears rather violently.

Jongdae had talked about Joonmyun and the community service with Luhan. The latter had seemed pleased with the turn of events; he thought Jongdae deserved it. Jongdae had doubted their friendship when he had heard those words slip over Luhan’s pixelated lips and poured out of the speakers. But in the end he poured his heart out to Luhan. He told him about how annoying and harsh Joonmyun was towards him and how cute Eunji looked in whatever she wore, even though Jongdae would have preferred if she wore miniskirts instead of knee-length skirts, she had the legs and face for it.

Luhan had just laughed at Jongdae’s stupidity and told him to try and just exist beside Joonmyun and do what he would tell Jongdae to do. So that was how Jongdae had gotten through the week. He had lived with Joonmyun stepping on him, ordering him around and made him scrub the public toilet clean. At least he didn’t have to scrub it with a toothbrush as they do in cartoons and dramas because Joonmyun had said that “why make the task more difficult than necessary”. Jongdae could only agree.

“What I mean is,” Joonmyun started off. He hadn’t looked at Jongdae at all since they entered the room, not until now. His piercing stare was directly at Jongdae. “I know your type Jongdae. You’re the smart delinquent. You’re just bored and have nothing else to do, so you just wander around and eventually begin a fight and sometimes steal.”

“You—“ Jongdae interrupted, but Joonmyun was quick to retort.

“I’m right, aren’t I? You’re just bored and apathetic.”

Jongdae nodded hesitantly and Joonmyun smiled pleased.

Joonmyun let his gaze linger a little longer before he rose up from his chair. “End of session. I’ll see you after the weekend and try to have a little bit more energy than last Monday.”

Jongdae nodded and then Joonmyun left.

--

After that session Jongdae hated Joonmyun even more. Every little thing Joonmyun did or said irritated Jongdae until he had to lie about the need to pee to go kick a dumpster. He didn’t know why the older male was so big of an irritation to Jongdae, he just was. At the end of the third week, even seeing Joonmyun’s face was vexing.

“I don’t know why he treats me so badly and it’s so freaking agonising!” Jongdae complained to Eunji who was, once again, sitting at the counter with her eyes focused on the computer screen.

“I might have an idea,” she said nonchalantly and continued typing. Jongdae just looked at her with wide eyes. She only noticed after a few seconds that Jongdae was staring at her. “Don’t say some stupid pickup line now Jongdae. I’m not in the mood right now.”

Jongdae just made a sweeping motion with his hand. “I’ve moved on and it seems like you have a boyfriend, or else I would have gotten my hands on that long skirt of yours already. Back to Joonmyun treating me badly. Why does he do that?”

Eunji sighed. “I’m not really in place to say that to you. It should be something he told you himself if he wants you to know, but since you’re only working here for six weeks I highly doubt he will tell you.”

Jongdae pouted. “Tell me please,” Jongdae begged in a way he usually never begged, wait, Jongdae never begged.

Eunji sighed again. “I can’t tell you Jongdae. But what I can tell you is that you have nothing to worry about. He has treated all the other community service workers the same way. I don’t know why he treats them that way, but it’s just his way of dealing with them. And it helps, because they’re not coming back again.”

“I understand why,” Jongdae mumbled to himself.

No one would wish to spend time with Joonmyun of their own free will if they had spent two weeks working for him. Not exactly working though, Jongdae felt more like his slave. He got Joonmyun coffee and then when he came back Joonmyun just sat down on the floor and got Jongdae to do his job. Jongdae almost felt bullied, but of course Joonmyun wouldn’t bully him, right? Joonmyun didn’t seem like a bully with his glasses, tee shirt and shorts. He seemed like one of those students that would help the teacher to get better grades even though he was one of the best in the class; a true teacher’s pet. Jongdae really wanted to shove Joonmyun’s head down in the toilet like he once did in seventh grade because he had met someone like Joonmyun. A real teacher’s pet that made him angry by just showing his face. Jongdae had felt slightly bad after doing so, but he quickly forgot about it because the boy had transferred schools afterwards. Rumour had had it that he had had a crush on some girl, but after Jongdae had overpowered him easily she had completely lost interest in him and the boy was also too embarrassed to show his face again.

“Thanks for nothing Eunji,” Jongdae said rather annoyed, when the other simply replied with a ‘you’re welcome’.

The small exchange between the two got interrupted by Joonmyun and some tall guy following him around.

“Won’t you give me another chance?” the tall guy pleaded.

Joonmyun sighed and continued to set up books. “I don’t give second chances. I don’t believe in them. You’ve had your chance and you wasted it, nothing more to be said.”

Jongdae looked at the scene that was unfolding. He eyed Eunji and saw her focusing on the same thing Jongdae focused on for once.

“Who’s that?” Jongdae whispered to Eunji.

Eunji didn’t seem to want to answer the question right now and continued on watching the scene.

“But… I love you,” the tall guy sounded more and more desperate.

Joonmyun just let out a dry laugh and smirked evilly at him. “You’ll get over it, so just off and let me do my job. You had your chance.”

Joonmyun walked off and the tall guy seemed to have given up. His shoulders were slack and he looked down at the ground. When he looked up, Jongdae could see his sparkling eyes, but no tears fell, he blinked them away and then he was gone.

“Well, that was an unnecessary scene,” Jongdae commented.

Eunji just blinked and returned to the screen. “Now you know though.”

Jongdae tilted his head to the side and watched Eunji warily. “What do you mean?”

“Joonmyun is gay,” Eunji said in a serious tone and looked directly at Jongdae.

Jongdae felt lost all of a sudden. His mouth opened in a little O-shape and simply stared at Eunji. She didn’t type on the keyboard and just looked at Jongdae’s reaction.

Joonmyun couldn’t be gay. He was way too… evil and far from the gay type Jongdae always saw on TV. Joonmyun was quiet (except for when he ordered Jongdae around) and friendly (not towards Jongdae though) and he didn’t wear sequins and colourful clothes, sometimes he wore clothes that didn’t even match. Joonmyun did not seem like a homoual in Jongdae’s eyes. He had never met a homoual in real life before though, so he only based it out from gays he had heard about and the gays he saw on TV.

“He can’t—“ Jongdae began.

“Kim Jongdae!” Joonmyun’s voice could be heard screaming from somewhere in the library. Jongdae did not even dare to remind Joonmyun that it was prohibited to yell in the library. “Get your lazy over here right now!”

“He sounds angry,” Eunji commented. “Maybe he treats you like because he finds you attractive. I’ve seen the way he eyes your sometimes.” She had a playful smile on her lips and it suited her. Jongdae wanted to cry.

He quickly went to find Joonmyun with Eunji’s words turning in his head.

Joonmyun looked pissed to put it nicely. It looked like he could kill Jongdae anytime soon if he had the chance to get away with it without being put in prison.

“Get started and get me some coffee, you’re not here to laze around,” Joonmyun stated, and he had a point.

Jongdae went to get some coffee and while he stood and watched the coffee being poured down in the cup he thought about Joonmyun. Joonmyun sure did have mood swings, but they definitely didn’t go from happy to sad and the other way around, more like acrimonious, then pissed and then angry. Jongdae didn’t want Joonmyun to let out his anger on him, but that was probably what Jongdae should be prepared for, so he gave himself a quick pep talk before going back with the coffee.

Joonmyun was already sitting down, watching the book cart. Jongdae handed him the cup and moved on to put the books on their rightful place.

After a few minutes of silence Jongdae turned his attention slightly towards Joonmyun who was just looking at his coffee, not even drinking any of it.

“Who was that guy?” Jongdae tried carefully.

He was afraid Joonmyun would blow up and scold him for asking such a question, but he just sighed and looked up at Jongdae who was quick to continue putting up books.

“Someone who doesn’t seem to be able to forget me,” Joonmyun leaned his head against the wall. “He annoys me so much. I don’t even know how he found out I work here.”

Jongdae nodded and focused on the work in front of him. A thought struck him and before he could stop the thought it had already left his mouth. “Should I beat him up for you?”

Joonmyun laughed, and to Jongdae’s surprise it was the most genuine laugh he had ever heard. Joonmyun looked really nice with his eyes squeezed together, forming small slits, and his lips pulled back so his teeth got shown. His mouth was slightly open to let out the beautiful laugh. He covered his mouth with his hand soon after. Jongdae felt his heart swelling and his cheeks heating up. He tried to busy himself with setting up more books.

“Thank you Jongdae,” Joonmyun still smiled. “But it would be bad for you to get into another fight. You probably don’t want to stay here longer than those six weeks.”

And Joonmyun had a point. Jongdae definitely didn’t want to stay at the library more than those six weeks. So he just nodded and continued working.

There was some more silence before Joonmyun cleared his throat. “You’re actually quite good at this Jongdae.”

Jongdae just muttered a grateful ‘thanks’, because Joonmyun was acting strange. How could he be so… so sweet and nice all of a sudden? It seemed strange, but it suited him, Jongdae noted. Jongdae chanced a look at Joonmyun and saw him looking at him. His gaze was kind and Jongdae suddenly felt awkward.

He kind of hoped Joonmyun would return to being angry and pissed, because Jongdae didn’t know how to deal with a nice Joonmyun.

--

Since Eunji shared that Joonmyun was indeed gay, Jongdae noticed him more and more in a way that he probably shouldn’t. He noticed Joonmyun looking at his , or that was what Jongdae thought he did. He felt self-conscious around Joonmyun in a way that he never had when he was around girls, because he knew they wouldn’t be able to stand for his perfectly shaped body. He couldn’t really blame Joonmyun for looking at his booty either, because he knew it was good.

But when Joonmyun had obviously (for Jongdae) tried to hit on him at one of their session they’d moved to Wednesday instead of Friday, Jongdae had had enough.

“Stop it,” Jongdae had said and glared at Joonmyun.

“Stop what?” Joonmyun had smiled at him and tilted his head slightly to the side. Joonmyun had become all sugary after Jongdae had suggested to beat up the man on behalf of Joonmyun.

“Stop being so… sweet. It doesn’t suit you,” Jongdae lied.

Joonmyun pouted cutely. Jongdae wanted to kiss the pout away— Wait what?!

“Stop it! Stop it with all your gay ! I can’t take it any longer!” Jongdae more or less freaked out with closed eyes and when he opened his eyes he saw a scared Joonmyun sitting in front of him with wide eyes. After the shock his shoulders slackened and the chair he sat in looked way to big for him.

“Oh… so you know,” Joonmyun sounded small.

“Yes, I know.”

“You aren’t going to hit me, right?” Joonmyun asked and looked frightened at Jongdae.

Jongdae looked confused. “No. Why—“

“You aren’t going to yell at me either, right?!” Joonmyun looked desperately at Jongdae.

“No! Why—“

“Good,” Joonmyun interrupted and then looked up at Jongdae.

“Has…” Jongdae began and hesitated a little before continuing. “Has someone hit you because you were gay?”

“Well, sadly, yes,” Joonmyun’s voice dropped as well as his gaze. “When I was your age I was like you Jongdae.”

The mentioned male simply nodded and let the other continue.

“I also beat people and smoked, just like you. But then… my friend, or I don’t think you can call him my friend, he was more like my companion, got us involved with something a little bigger than simple high school bullying.”

“Like what?”

“He… he contacted some dealers and got some weed. We smoked it and then smoked a little more and a little more. In the end we were in debt to them and did some small home robberies for them and even dealt some of the drugs ourselves. And well… they didn’t exactly treat me nicely after finding out that I was gay. They… they beat me up, leaving me in a pool of my own blood in an alley. My friend didn’t come to help me, I don’t even know if he knew they had beaten me up, but I don’t really blame him.”

Jongdae merely stared at Joonmyun. He didn’t say a word; he just stood up and was about to leave the room when Joonmyun’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“I don’t want the same thing happening to you,” Joonmyun looked genuinely concerned.

Jongdae shrugged the hand of his shoulder.  “It won’t happen for me,” Jongdae said calmly.

“I’m just warning—“

“No Joonmyun!” Jongdae snapped. “It won’t happen to me since I’m not gay!”

And then Jongdae stormed out of the library.

--

It had been a long time since Jongdae had been out drinking. This time he was alone too, just like the last time where he’d gotten in trouble. It was different now though. He was at a bar instead of a club and he made sure to sit where the bartender was only a yell away. He didn’t buy any fancy drinks like the party beside him; he just stayed true to his beer.

Joonmyun’s story had been turned around in Jongdae’s small head. He could either choose to believe it or forget all about it and just think that Joonmyun’s was playing a prank on him. Jongdae wanted to believe, but he couldn’t get himself to do it, so in his confusion he had ran off to the bar in hope of finding his answer at the bottom of a beer bottle. Unfortunately, a few more beers had to be drunk, because he didn’t find any answer at the bottom of the first beer nor the fourth beer. It was when he asked for his eighth beer that the bartender gave him a concerned look.

“Do you want me to call anyone to come pick you up?” he asked as he slid the beer over the counter towards Jongdae. Jongdae had slight difficulty with finding out which one of the two beers he saw was the real one.

Jongdae laughed as his hand found the beer. “Call Joonmyun, he seemed concerned.” And then he laughed again and magically had no difficulty with fishing his phone out of his pocket and handing it to the bartender.

“Jongdae, for God’s sake,” Joonmyun’s voice was distant for Jongdae’s ears as he slowly woke up, his head resting on top of the counter. “It’s two in the goddamn morning and you’re out drinking on a Wednesday.” He shook his head slightly.

Joonmyun thanked the bartender and grabbed Jongdae by the arm to drag him out of the bar and out in the fresh air. Jongdae yanked his arm away from Joonmyun’s grip and somehow lost his balance in the process because Joonmyun let go. He almost fell down on his , but fortunately didn’t because his body seemed to be able to cooperate with him.

“Where do you live?” Joonmyun asked and watched Jongdae warily; ready to catch the other if he was going to fall.

“Don’t wanna go home,” Jongdae muttered blurrily, swaying a little bit from side to side. “Can’t I crash at your place?”

Joonmyun nodded without questioning him and walked in the direction of his apartment and Jongdae followed, still swaying a little bit. Joonmyun constantly cast glances over his shoulder to see if Jongdae was still with him, had fallen over his own legs or had his head down in a dumpster, throwing up whatever was in his stomach. To Joonmyun’s surprise Jongdae was right on his heels.

“You look cool,” Jongdae complimented out of nowhere. “Not at work, but right now you look cool.”

“Thank you, but I’m just wearing sweatpants and a jacket,” Joonmyun just brushed it off since it was a drunk man speaking.

“Joonmyun! Joonmyun!” Jongdae suddenly yelled and it made Joonmyun snap towards Jongdae. He was near a bench and he sat down giggling, looking a little bit too comfortable for Joonmyun’s liking right now. He walked over to Jongdae and just stood in front of him.

“We should get home, it’s cold and you shouldn’t get sick,” Joonmyun mentioned to get Jongdae off the bench again, because the latter looked like he could fall asleep any second.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Jongdae confessed and focused somewhere behind Joonmyun and looked serious. “Why are you so kind all of a sudden? You used to be all y around me before and I could deal with that. But now you’re all nice and I don’t know how to handle that because my body reacts so strangely whenever you’re nice to me and I don’t like it because I feel like throwing up. It’s so disgusting. And Joonmyun,” Jongdae looked up at Joonmyun, still serious, but then his face suddenly lit up in a big grin and he laughed out loud while continuing, “the filter is gone! I can’t shut up and I talk about useless things. Sorry Joonmyun.”

Jongdae’s eyes watered up and Joonmyun grabbed his arm and got him up from the bench.

“C’mon Jongdae,” Joonmyun said softly. “We need to get you to bed.”

--

When Jongdae woke up, he had no idea about where he was. He looked around and squinted his eyes when he looked towards the window. He moaned in pain when his brain began pounding from the light coming from the outside and quickly laid back down, covering his head with the blanket he had been sleeping with.

“Oh, you’re awake,” a voice he instantly recognised as Joonmyun’s, filled his ears. “Swallow the painkillers I’ve put on the table. I’ll go make some breakfast.”

So Jongdae stuck his head out of the blanket and noticed the glass of water and some painkillers put neatly on the coffee table next to the couch he was lying on. He reached out and got the water and pills and quickly downed them. He tried to fall asleep again afterwards, but realized that he wasn’t able to because of the rustling coming from what was probably the kitchen. He grunted to himself, hoping that Joonmyun didn’t hear him.

He threw his legs over the side of the couch and got to stand up, but he became dizzy and tried to steady himself by placing a hand on the armrest of the couch and closed his eyes. While having his eyes closed the smell of toasted, white bread made its way to his nostrils. He probably should have felt nauseous by the smell, because that was how he usually felt whenever he smelled food while having a hangover, but strangely enough he didn’t feel like throwing up on the soft carpet he was standing on. He pulled himself together and opened his eyes and headed towards the rustling. He found a Joonmyun looking into the small fridge, his held high into the air. He looked up at Jongdae when the latter had settled down in a chair, instantly putting his head in his hands and closing his eyes once again.

“You don’t look good,” Joonmyun mentioned cheerfully, much to Jongdae distaste.

Jongdae grunted before responding. “You didn’t drink yesterday, so shut up.”

The younger chanced a glance at Joonmyun and noticed the small smile he had on his lips, liking it a little bit more than he probably should and quickly closed his eyes again.

Joonmyun just hummed and went back to preparing breakfast.

The sound of two plates hitting the table replaced the few minutes of silence and then Jongdae looked up. It wasn’t anything fancy, not that Jongdae was used to fancy, but he appreciated the two slices of toasted toast bread with butter and strawberry jam; that was all he needed at the moment. Nothing about the toast was especially good, but it wasn’t exactly bad either. It was average, just like if he had made it himself.

After drinking some more water and finishing the first slice of bread, Jongdae’s head felt a little clearer, the painkillers also helped a lot.

Joonmyun cleared his throat and got Jongdae’s attention. “Is there a reason why you didn’t want to go home yesterday?”

The younger cleared his throat and looked down at his hands that had come down to rest in his lap. His fingers fidgeted around. “My parents don’t like seeing me drunk, and I don’t like getting scolded the day after.”

Joonmyun hummed and took another bite of his bread. “Parents never like to see their kids drunk. I’ve been scolded many times for coming home early in the morning and messing up the bathroom.”

Jongdae just nodded and ate some more. He could feel Joonmyun’s gaze resting on him and he wanted to look up, but didn’t dare. Jongdae already felt a little bit intimidated by Joonmyun, and looking into his eyes after just having woken up with a headache and slight nausea, probably wasn’t the best thing.

“You said some pretty interesting stuff yesterday,” Joonmyun mentioned nonchalantly as he grabbed his own plate and brought it to the sink to wash it up. “And you acted a little bit… different than usual when we came home.”

Jongdae couldn’t remember a thing. Nothing at all. He didn’t even remember calling Joonmyun, not even if he was the one who called him, he wasn’t sure about that either. He couldn’t even remember how he got to Joonmyun’s place.

“Uhm,” Jongdae wiped his mouth with his hand to get away stray breadcrumbs, “what exactly did I… say?”

Joonmyun didn’t remove his gaze from Jongdae. “You said I looked good in sweatpants. You also said your body reacts strangely whenever I’m nice to you. Does your body react strangely now?”

His blood was boiling. Not because he was angry, but because he was blushing. He was blushing all the way down of his neck. His gaze was fleeting, focusing anywhere but at Joonmyun. His heart was pounding slightly faster and he could feel his pulse in the tips of his fingers. Jongdae’s body was definitely reacting strangely, but Joonmyun didn’t have to know that.

“N-no it’s not,” Jongdae stuttered and Joonmyun obviously didn’t believe him, because a smug smirk was gracing his lips.

“I don’t quite believe you I have to admit,” Joonmyun turned around again and grabbed the counter and leaned slightly back. “Youth nowadays, always lying to the elderly.”

Jongdae just stayed quite and looked down, not wanting to look at Joonmyun’s back at all. But he may accidentally have sneaked a glance at his back and it wasn’t because he was disappointed with his broad, but still slightly narrow shoulders.

Jongdae quickly ate the rest of his toast bread.

“You were also kind of strange when we got home,” Joonmyun continued after clearing his throat. “I put you on the couch and then when I was about to leave you, you grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.”

Jongdae was finally looking at Joonmyun and Joonmyun was nearing the sitting Jongdae at the table. Jongdae first looked at his eyes and then at his lips. Joonmyun’s lips weren’t plump like Eunji’s, nor were they looking just as soft, but that didn’t stop the thought of kissing Joonmyun running through Jongdae’s head. Jongdae rapidly tried to get the image out of his head, because imagining Joonmyun like that definitely wasn’t something Jongdae defined as “being straight”.

Joonmyun leaned slightly down to grab Jongdae’s plate, but didn’t leave and looked directly in Jongdae’s eyes. “You know what you told me?” Jongdae was frozen in his spot and just shook his head, like an obedient kid would. “You said you liked me. You know what else you did?” Joonmyun had placed his other hand behind Jongdae on the backrest of the chair, trapping Jongdae more or less. A faint blush was on Jongdae’s cheeks and couldn’t remove his eyes from Joonmyun. Joonmyun was too intimidating and Jongdae finally came to realise that Joonmyun hadn’t lied. Jongdae did believe that Joonmyun once used to be like him, he had that sort of aura when he was serious and tempting. He knew how to be enticing and serious at the same time.

Joonmyun realised that he wasn’t going to get any response from Jongdae, so he continued. “You pulled me in,” Joonmyun leaned in and Jongdae froze even more, eyes wide open, “and kissed me.” And just as Joonmyun finished speaking their lips met. 

A/N: So I finally finished this~ I'm so happy I actually finished this even though I couldn't see an end ;; 

I began writing this after I finished my French written exam/test (which I got 12 (same as A) in and finished with one a half hours left) so I'm happy with how it turned out~ I had had the idea stuch in my head for quite a while ^^

But now I have summer vacation so that means I'll hopefully be able to focus on Bottom Star from now on :3 (psst I've thought about making a spin off from Bottom Star with the SuChen couple, but not sure if I'm gonna make it :x )