[Middle School]

Jongdae combed his hair and smoothed down his clothes for the twelfth time that day, while looking at his reflection in the full length mirror in front of him. He had to look good tonight. He did not want to force the boy he was going to meet to agree to something, but he hoped against hope that the answer he would get would be a ‘yes.'

Once he was satisfied with his look, he grinned and asked the mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the handsomest of all?” Then, he pretended to be the mirror and answered his own question, “Of course, it’s you, Jongdae!” Amused by this weird behavior of his, he chuckled and shook his head. “No, mirror, you’re wrong. It’s Minseok. My Minnie who's the handsomest." Having said this, he smiled sincerely at his own reflection.

He had realized long before that his feelings for Minnie were not that of a friend's anymore. He wanted to be more than a friend.

-*-*-

Minseok hummed a song as he made his way toward the tea shop Jongdae had called him to. The latter had not told him the reason why he wanted to meet at that certain destination. He thought that, maybe his best friend wanted to treat him to dinner.

On his way, he bumped into his cousin, Taehyung, who was coming from the opposite direction.

“Hey Tae!” Minseok grinned at his cousin. The younger boy mirrored the older’s actions.

“Hey hyung! What’s up?”

“Meeting Jongdae. You?”

“Ah -- Jongdae?” Taehyung’s smile faltered just a little. He kept on smiling but Minseok knew it was not genuine.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Minseok asked, getting concerned.

“It’s nothing, hyung.” Taehyung answered with an unconvincing smile. “You’ll be late. Go on now." He tried to make Minseok leave, but the older boy was stubborn and would not budge.

After a lot of persuading, Taehyung eventually had to tell his cousin about the feelings he had hidden and locked inside him for so long.

Taehyung has always had a crush on Jongdae, ever since they had been introduced to each other by his cousin. There was just something about Jongdae that made him fall for the boy deeper the more he tried to forget him. He had never been able to end his feelings for Jongdae, despite many efforts.

“I like Jongdae, but I don’t have the courage to confront him with fear of getting rejected. I thought these feelings would go away if I stayed far from him but… they didn’t. I kept missing him more and more.” Taehyung looked away before Minseok could see tears in his eyes.

Minseok felt bad. His cousin, who he loved and adored like he would his own brother, was sharing his