There’s an eraser being shoved into Sanghyuk’s cheek and he blinks a few times before sighing and turning to look over at Hongbin who’s got an upset scowl on his face. There’s still twenty minutes left of class and their teacher is still unaware of their lack of attention, so Sanghyuk takes that moment to hiss out at Hongbin.

"What do you want?"

"Pay attention to me,” says Hongbin in that haughty way of his that Sanghyuk hates. “I can’t see the notes clearly, are you even taking them?”

At that, Sanghyuk rolls his eyes in a very obvious manner just to annoy Hongbin. He can’t take notes and give Hongbin his undivided attention, but he shouldn’t expect much from someone like Hongbin. Instead he nods, silently, and slides his notes over to Hongbin, but the other doesn’t even spare a glance at them.

"We’re going to get ddeokbokki after this, right?"

And Sanghyuk regrets taking him to the small stand weeks ago when they had first met and he felt terribly guilty about running into the other and crushing his glasses with his bottom. It had been an accident, nothing more but he still felt bad for it, especially with the way Hongbin had stumbled around helplessly and Sanghyuk just felt so bad.

"Don’t you have cram school?" Sanghyuk asks, not wanting to spend another moment with such a snob like Lee Hongbin.

"I can’t go," he scoffs, "I can barely see the person sitting in front of me. How am I going to get through cram school?"

"Won’t your parents get mad though?"

"They won’t notice if I’ve gone or not," Hongbin grins a bit and Sanghyuk will hate to admit it but he likes it whenever that little dimple pops up.

He lets out a long sigh and finally says, “Fine. Ddeokbokki it is then, but you’re paying.”

"I always do," he replies with and it isn’t entirely true. The first time, Sanghyuk had paid.

When Sanghyuk had treated Hongbin to ddeokbokki, it was a mess. Hongbin hadn’t known how to eat it — which is dumb, Sanghyuk realizes hours later when he’s at home. He nibbled at the ends in a refined manner until Sanghyuk just told him to shove the whole bit in his mouth and chew with it closed, to which Hongbin huffed and said he always eats with his mouth closed. It was messy because Hongbin spilled the sauce all over himself and he kept dropping pieces of ddeokbboki everywhere while Sanghyuk was running out of napkins.

“You’re really clumsy, aren’t you?” Sanghyuk had said and Hongbin’s face turned a weird shade of pink.

“S-Shut up, no I am not! You broke my glasses, I can’t see properly.”

And thus began Sanghyuk’s servitude to Hongbin until the latter’s glasses were properly repaired and deemed usable again. When Sanghyuk thinks back on it (three weeks ago), he realizes he agreed to it so easily but that was only because he thought Hongbin was cute, but now — well, not so much.

"Carry my bag," Hongbin says, standing up from his seat as the bell rings and everyone else is already packing up.

"Yes," Sanghyuk says without much thought and grabs both his and Hongbin’s bags. He gets a few pitying looks from some of the girls in class and Sanghyuk wonders just how bad it looks to others.

When they reach the ddeokbokki stand a few blocks away from the school, Hongbin’s taken it upon himself to place an order for him and Sanghyuk, even remembering to get a bottle of cola and cups too.

Huh, Sanghyuk thinks, that’s new.

But he shrugs it off and takes a seat at one of the empty tables by the stand, he recalls the first time Hongbin had seen the rusty little tables and plastic chairs laying in a stack and he scrunched his face in the most young master way possible. The memory makes Sanghyuk chuckle and when Hongbin takes a seat across from him (reluctantly, he still hasn’t warmed up to the little green plastic chairs) he questions it.

"Something funny?" He asks and opens the bottle of cola, filling both paper cups to the rim. Another thing he’s still not use to doing.

Sanghyuk’s about to properly answer but he doesn’t think Hongbin will take it as a compliment (because Hongbin likes being offended and he likes to start bickering wars with Sanghyuk), so instead he shakes his head and cautiously sips from his paper cup. The other raises an eyebrow but doesn’t ask any more questions and it doesn’t take long before the ahjusshi who runs the stand comes by and places a paper tray of hot ddeokbokki in front of them. They eat the first few pieces in silence before clumsy Hongbin manages to get his hair tangled in his mouth and Sanghyuk’s back to laughing.

"Don’t laugh," Hongbin says and frowns, trying to clean it out of his hair.

"You missed a spot," Sanghyuk’s still laughing regardless and grabs a napkin to run through the strands of Hongbin’s hair, his knuckles brushing over Hongbin’s cheek and the warmth of the other’s face feels nice in this cold fall weather.

"Your hand’s cold," huffs Hongbin and he’s using that tone Sanghyuk hates.

"And your hair is getting too long," he replies with and that makes Hongbin huff again.

But it really has, Sanghyuk’s noticed that Hongbin’s hair grows at an alarming rate and the way it curls softly around his face as if framing it creates weird little flutters in Sanghyuk’s stomach that he isn’t ready to talk about. He catches himself staring a beat too long and his fingers are still covered by the thin layer of napkin that remains in Hongbin’s hair. He pulls away quickly enough though, rolling the napkin up in a ball and going back to stuffing his mouth, quickly adding in a, “You should get it cut.”

Sanghyuk can’t bring himself to look up at Hongbin so instead he just continues to eat but he can probably imagine Hongbin making a face at the way that Sanghyuk’s eating (not to mention he spoke with food in his mouth). If he did look up though, he’d probably take notice of the way that Hongbin’s face has changed to an embarrassing shade of red, but he doesn’t and so they awkwardly finish off the ddeokbokki and cola and before he knows it, Hongbin’s getting up to leave.

“Oh— Wait, I’ll get that for you,” Sanghyuk says and he quickly stands to grab Hongbin’s school bag.

“Just—” Hongbin pauses and his back’s facing Sanghyuk, “I got it.”

There’s something in the other’s voice that shakes and then there’s something else completely different that makes Sanghyuk want to pull Hongbin safely in his arms but he suppresses that urge. Instead he tries to grab Hongbin’s bag again but the other pulls it away, huffing in that annoyingly cute way.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sanghyuk asks, brow furrowing inwardly at what a child Hongbin is being.

“You’re the one who said I should grow it out!” Hongbin shouts and he’s more than embarrassed by now, quickly walking away from Sanghyuk and trying hard not to attract any attention from anyone passing by.

“What are you even—” Sanghyuk stops and then he recalls earlier into their meeting when he had made a side comment about how Hongbin would be able to pull off long hair, and Sanghyuk lets out a groan, “Are you serious right now?” Sanghyuk keeps up with Hongbin’s pace, running at first to catch up before walking in stride with the other. He tries hard not to just grab Hongbin’s arm and pull him towards himself, it’s a gesture that wouldn’t be taken well with Hongbin.

“Just go home already, I’m picking up my glasses tomorrow anyways.” Hongbin’s trying to walk faster but Sanghyuk keeps up easily. “You’re free now from my tyrannical reign.”

And Sanghyuk doesn’t even know if he’s supposed to cheer or if confetti will pop out somewhere or something, but he frowns and he walks up to face Hongbin in the front. “I’m walking you home.”

Something must have snapped in Hongbin because he stops abruptly and almost walks right into Sanghyuk’s face. “Why are you so difficult?” He asks himself and pulls Sanghyuk into an empty alley, away from the public’s eye.

“Me? You’re the one always acting like a little prince and demanding things and—”

And oh my god is Lee Hongbin kissing me? Sanghyuk’s mind goes into a frenzy and all he can process is LeeHongbinLeeHongbinLeeHongbinLeeHongbin. It’s an overwhelming feeling at first and Hongbin just plain  at kissing, but Sanghyuk likes it so much that he easily melts into it  with a giddy bubble blowing up in his chest. He pulls away though, more shocked than pleased than he’d liked to have looked and belatedly he thinks .

And now his mind is thinking, oh no. Hongbin’s on the verge of tears and his face is redder than Sanghyuk’s ever seen before and everything in his body just screams stupidstupidstupid and he hadn’t meant to pull away, he was just so surprised he didn’t know what else to do.

“This is why I told your to go home,” Hongbin sniffs and , he looks so cute that Sanghyuk just feels even worse than he did when he had broken his glasses.

“I’m—” Sanghyuk takes a breath in, “That surprised me.”

Hongbin doesn’t buy it and turns to leave, patience run far too thin for one day. But Sanghyuk won’t allow that (at least not so easily) and the only viable solution he can think of on the spot is to throw his arms around Hongbin’s receding back, wrapping his much taller form around him and Sanghyuk swears he can feel Hongbin’s heartbeat with his chest pressed to his back.

“Uhm,” he starts and then pauses for a second to see if Hongbin will fight his hold. He doesn’t. “Can I kiss you?”

“Don’t,” Hongbin says, his voice hard. “Don’t keep forcing yourself for my sake because you feel guilty.”

“I don’t! I mean, I did, a little at first. But—” sputters Sanghyuk, his tongue halting in his mouth as he feels Hongbin stiffening in his arms. He thinks about how lately he just automatically does the things for Hongbin, how it takes longer than three weeks for him to grow accustomed to something he hates (it’s been five years and he’ll never not cringe at the thought of his dad’s homemade kimchi jjigae, the man cannot cook) and that in the last three weeks, he has grown a particular soft spot for that one tone Hongbin enjoys using that Sanghyuk figures he doesn’t even hate at all.

“But, what?” asks Hongbin, he’s using that ing tone and Sanghyuk’s head swims from the sound of it.

“But I think I like you,” he says haltingly, yet his voice is ever so clear.

Hongbin doesn’t seem to have anything to say immediately, his face red and obscured from Sanghyuk’s sight so the younger male anxiously bites the inside of his cheeks, praying to God that Hongbin doesn’t turn to punch him in the face. After possibly the longest minute in history, Hongbin slowly mumbles out something in a soft voice, but Sanghyuk can’t hear a thing.

“What?”

“I said,” the softness in his voice has easily left already, “you can… kiss me.”

There’s a snort about to escape Sanghyuk’s mouth, but he holds it in and in a breath of air as quickly as he can before bursting out into laughter at the childish behaviour of Hongbin. It’s cute, it’s what makes Sanghyuk like him.

Kissing Hongbin still because the former has absolutely no idea what he’s doing but the enthusiasm that seeps out from his lips onto Sanghyuk’s is enough to make it worth it and besides, Sanghyuk figures that with enough (and a lot of) practice, he’ll like it all the more.

(Even after Hongbin gets a new pair of glasses, Sanghyuk greets him every morning with a hand already reaching for his schoolbag and another lacing together with his fingers to hold as they walk to school. It’s embarrassing, but Hongbin stops complaining after the third day and Sanghyuk teaches him to properly pour cola in cups and how to tie his own tie and even how to kiss better.)