7

Another day and Myungsoo stared out the window as the teacher droned on and on about the Korean War. Sure, it was important to know but nowadays, not many would even want to learn explicit details. He watched as a small finch found its way up some branches on a nearby tree, tweeting without a problem and a small cat below, stalking it.

He feels a poke to his side, and Sungyeol’s burying his head in his arms again. Pretending to sleep badly by peeking out to see if Myungsoo had noticed and then hiding again. Shaking his head, Myungsoo looked to the small note and brought it down to his lap to open carefully.

[Gotta jet right after class! Knowing u, ur phone is off. Bring Jongie home for me~ Love ur best bud ---Sungyeollie ♥]

He had to cover his mouth to laugh a little, but quickly went to a blank stare when the teacher scanned his eyes across the heads of the students. Glancing to Sungyeol again, he was holding up a thumbs up with one hand, and the other with a thumb down. Balancing them up and down to ask for his answer.

God he wanted to laugh at the effort he put, but he just nodded his head. Like a reasonable person and Sungyeol gave him the peace sign. At the exact second that the bell ran, Sungyeol upped and pat his head, yelling out, “Bye!” and jumped out the window.

A number of students quickly ran to the window, Myungsoo standing his with hands on the windowsill, trying to locate his crazy best friend. Instead of a guy who was splattered on the ground, they found a bunch of students on the floor. Laughing, with Sungyeol on top of them all.

“Idiot,” Myungsoo muttered, smiling and waving good bye to the tall crazy giraffe who bounded out the gates.

Students steadily went back to pack their stuff and Myungsoo walked up to Hyemi.

“Sungyeol’s always on a rush, don’t you think?” she laughs, noting the stunt he just pulled.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo rolls his eyes, holding up the note. “We’ll be walking Sungjong home, is that cool? Well, mostly me, but he’d be tagging along.”

“I don’t mind,” Hyemi shrugged, “Level 5 Thief.”

“Stop that!” Myungsoo huffed his cheeks, obviously embarrassed that the girl was better than him. “Watch, I’ll beat the game after this weekend.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“Hi hi!” they turned, the classroom nearly empty and Sungjong standing at the door with his umbrella on his shoulder, bag on the other. “Are my guards ready?”

“Yes, your highness,” Hyemi jokes, making them both laugh.

*

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask.”

Woohyun hummed, turning to Dongwoo who was munching on his lunch of a plate with sushi. One sourcream sushi, another ranch, then some fish and egg. He doesn’t understand how the older eats here, at the place they work in, without feeling sick afterwards. But then again, it was Dongwoo’s father that started the shop so must be in the family to be crazy. Well—not crazy, but abnormal.

“Yeah?” Woohyun swept away another bunch of bunched napkins and dirt and whatever off the ground and into his little carrier of trash. Jeez, can’t people use the goddamn garbage can? “What’s up?”

“It was a week ago or something, but I got a text from Sunggyu that you were staying over at his place. How’d that go?”

Woohyun burned his cheeks when he caught Dongwoo smiling like he was onto something. Of course he’d think more than just ‘staying over’ happened and he clearly saw through it, “No, Dongwoo! No! Nothing happened! I didn’t even know I was there until I woke up.”

“The fun was too much for you to be conscious of your surroundings?” the older whistled, popping a piece of sushi (if you can call it sushi) in his mouth. “Scandalous!”

“N-Nothing happened!” he tried again, to a failing cause because Dongwoo was already jumping up to his feet and he sighed in defeat. Plopping himself onto a stool when Dongwoo bounded around.

“Were you like this? ‘Oh, Sunggyu-hyung! Oh, gimme more!’” he laughed hysterically, bending over and bashed his eyelashes. God, Woohyun covered his face for the next one, as Dongwoo then started ing in the air, “Or were you like ‘Take it, yeah! You like that?!’” Each word laced with a thick presence of laughter and it was completely dumb.

“Neither,” Woohyun groaned, hoping to god that Dongwoo would stop. Which the older did, only after he couldn’t hold himself up with laughter doubling him over and he laid on his newly swept floor laughing to tears. So stupid, that even Woohyun found himself chuckling even as he was trying to deny it. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Boring,” Dongwoo calmed down, still hiccupping with a short and breathless laugh here and there. “So?”

“What?” Woohyun sighed; going back to sweeping once Dongwoo was finished.

“Gimme the details!” he bounced on his seat, “Duh!”

“I fell asleep on his bike and he brought me to his place instead. Must’ve gotten to my old flat and didn’t know I had moved in with you.” Woohyun dumped the trash into a bin. “Other than that, I woke up and he was cooking a feast.”

“A feast?” Dongwoo frowned. “Why?”

“He…” the younger male sighed once more, stopping his movements, “He didn’t remember what I liked for breakfast. Cooked up a storm with every possible way to cook eggs and so on.”

“He didn’t remember, huh?” the other pushed his plate away.

“No, he didn’t,” Woohyun shook his head. “Didn’t remember that I liked to wear no shirts to sleep. Put his own on me and it was terribly tight. He’s so thin Dongwoo.”

His friend didn’t respond. Looking to the clock.

“His eyes were blue,” Woohyun started again, “You…you visited him right? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“And what would you do, burst into his place and inspect him?” Dongwoo shook his head. “You know he’s on the line between mental breakdowns and himself.”

“Himself,” he repeated, his hair hanging as he tilted his head down, looking at his shoes. “That’s not… he doesn’t remember, does he?”

“I don’t think so.”

“We should tell him,” Woohyun turned to Dongwoo, finding the older hesitant. “He deserves to know, it’s his own life. He should know.”

“Woohyun, we hadn’t found out ourselves if Hoya hadn’t—“

“I know,” he looked to the clock. “Yeah, I know… but he doesn’t.”

*

“Wonder why Sungyeol ran off,” Myungsoo bit at the ice cream on his stick.

“Probably had diarrhea,” Sungjong laughs, watching the two look back at him with disgust. “Hey he always ran away to some public bathroom when he got it.”

“That’s smart though,” Hyemi bites the chocolate coating off her ice cream. “Doesn’t stink up the house full of boys.”

“That’s solved in second,” Myungsoo snorts. “Someone rips one every ten minutes.”

“If you feed Hoya curry, it’s like every thirty seconds,” Sungjong seems very proud of himself and laughs wholeheartedly. Flipping the umbrella in his hands from top to handle in a single throw.

“That’s gross guys,” she says, but still giggles along. “I would scream if my brother farted beside me.”

“He must’ve.”

“Had to.”

“What no way,” Hyemi puffs her cheeks, “My oppa has manners.”

“He did the silent kill.”

“The sneaky squeaker.”

“You two are stupid,” she laughs again.

They strolled towards more shops. Myungsoo having the stomach of a football player, wanted food. So they wandered around stands, buying little snacks with pocket money and playing games. Hyemi won in most of them, because the two boys were way out of her skill range. Surprisingly, she too had the same appetite as the beast in Myungsoo’s tummy. Sungjong called them fat, because he was fit and was very well the only one who cared about his body. He slapped the chubby cheeks of Hyemi to show them and she got all red. Myungsoo laughed his off though.

“How can you be mean to a girl?” she rolls her eyes, completely joking and just had won another game (of punching).

Sungjong shrugged, “