being a high-schooler is hard. this chaeryeong knows. having a high school crush is also hard, and this chaeryeong also knows, but that doesn't make it any easier. it's especially hard when her crush is literally the stupidest boy to exist on this earth, ever, in the most literal sense. but chaeryeong knows you can't judge a person by their grades, especially when one of the classes they have together is calc, the hardest class ever, and besides, seokmin is funny and somehow manages to make everyone laugh. everyone likes him, has a good word to say about him, and that's what really matters in a person.

unfortunately, it also would matter that he's able to read her feelings, but since he obviously can't, it shouldn't matter so much, right?

and other lies you can tell yourself, her mind supplies helpfully. any other thoughts she might have had are forcibly blown away as a heavy weight on her back sends her toppling towards the cold linoleum floor. screeches all around, and chaeryeong thinks she hears fellow classmates snickering as well as obnoxious laughter by her ear. she shoves her best friend off her back and climbs to her feet with a groan. "i've got bruises on my knee now!" she complains, dusting off her pants.

ryujin only grins and pops up. they both ignore the stares around them - chaeryeong gives a good-natured wave to a couple of the onlookers she recognizes - before heading into the classroom. a couple of students are already there, including the class president, yeji, who gives them a friendly nod. ryujin turns bright red, and chaeryeong cackles, steering her friend towards their seats in the back of the room. they sit near the window, like typical anime main characters, and chaeryeong settles down for another gay rant from her best friend.

"she's so pretty," ryujin hisses, sitting backwards in her chair. "i have a heart attack every time she says hi to us." chaeryeong calmly takes out her notebooks, and ryujin throws a glance over her shoulder. suddenly smirking, she leans an elbow on chaeryeong's desk. "oh, look who just walked in."

she doesn't need to look; seokmin's voice fills the entire room, bright like sunshine and clean linen. she can't help the heat that creeps up her cheeks and it's ryujin's turn to laugh. "hey, seokmin!" she calls, beckoning the boy over, and chaeryeong panicks, glaring daggers at her friend, who only winks. cued, seokmin approaches them, eyes curved in a smile.

"hey, what's up?" he says, and chaeryeong replaces her scowl with what she hopes to be a casual smile. "how come you're already studying, chaeryeong? class doesn't start for ten minutes."

ryujin coughs, clearly hiding a laugh, and chaeryeong nudges her sharply, keeping her attention on seokmin. "oh, well, you know," she somehow manages to not stammer out, picking up one of her notebooks and putting it down again. it's pastel pink, with cartoon bears on the front, and she feels embarrassed. "i like to be prepared."

she could have kicked herself for that lame response, but seokmin just nods, eyes sparkling with understanding. "that's why you always get such good grades, i bet," he says with a hint of wistfulness in his voice. "maybe i should study like you."

"oh yeah, chaeryeong's great at studying." ryujin has on such a wide cheshire cat grin that chaeryeong wonders how her face doesn't hurt. "if you really need help with anything, she'd probably be willing to help, won't you, chae?" her sharp elbow digs into chaeryeong's arm, and she rubs the sore spot, nodding and hoping that she doesn't seem too desperate.

"except calc, probably," she admits. "i'm not great--"

she's cut off by the boys who suddenly appear and drag seokmin away. she recognizes them, soonyoung and mingyu, two other class clowns, and soonyoung's grades are even worse than seokmin's. he meets her gaze and seems to understand something, eyes twinkling with mirth, and she scowls, ready to get up and yell at him, but the bell rings and she settles for kicking her heel into the metal frame of her chair instead.

she really would have done it, she thinks absently as mrs. kim calls roll. no one would have been surprised because whose word is it, the idiotic kwon soonyoung's or the badass lee chaeryeong's? yeah, obviously hers. people know her, people like her, and though they like soonyoung too, he's definitely known for causing trouble, and no one would complain if she put him back in his place.

mrs. kim pulls up a powerpoint, and chaeryeong zones out, looking out the window instead. it's a nice day outside, with the sun shining cloudless in the impossibly blue sky, and she knows that ryujin will let her copy her notes later. newly-sprung leaves shine a special spring green on the tree branches waving in the wind, and a red bird lands on the windowsill, head twitching, before flying off again. chaeryeong tries to follow it with her eyes, but it turns a sharp corner and is lost to the world again.

she sighs, propping her chin in her hands, and returns her gaze back to the classroom. it's too late to take any notes now, so she doodles mindlessly in her notebook. unbidden, her thoughts turn to seokmin, and she turns her head slightly. he sits on the opposite side of the room, a row in front of her, and seems to be enthralled with the lesson. it's no wonder, she's long known that history is his favorite subject. on the other hand, chaeryeong just doesn't have the patience to sit down and memorize stuff that dead people did hundreds of years ago.

when the bell rings for next period, chaeryeong glances down at her notebook - filled with little hearts and stars - and quickly stuffs it into her backpack. seokmin's halfway out the door with soonyoung and mingyu, and ryujin smiles a little. they fall behind yeji while leaving the room, and chaeryeong hides a smile behind her hand at the sight of ryujin's red ears.

---

mr. shin, the calc teacher, apparently got sick and had to leave school early. though he did leave a worksheet, the class turns into a study hall, as per unspoken high school rules, and when someone suggests playing truth or dare, of course everyone joins in, even yeji, though not without a sigh and roll of her eyes. by some miracle, she ends up sitting right next to ryujin, who immediately stiffens. chaeryeong bites back a laugh and pokes her in the ribs. ryujin turns with a plain 'help me' expression, but chaeryeong knows her friend can handle the situation by herself.

the first few players all choose truth, and though it's obvious not all of them told the truth - chaeryeong knows for sure that jihoon has a crush on hyewon - but it's all in good fun, so no one calls them out on it. heejin picks the first dare, and donghyuck dares her to dance on mr. shin's desk. with a few furtive glances at the door, she does, busting out a hasty rendition of sorry sorry. the whole class bursts into laughter and applause, and someone whistles.

they're halfway through the class when it's seokmin's turn. he picks dare, but since the person asking is soobin, a quiet studious kid who never gets into trouble, he only dares seokmin to tell him a joke. collective groans from the class, but seokmin only leans back in his chair and crosses his arms. his face scrunches in deep thought, and chaeryeong tries not to stare too hard. finally, he slaps his leg and leans forward.

"i know a gay guy who sounds like an owl," he says mysteriously. chaeryeong feels ryujin tense beside her. oh no, he can't be. this is terrible, there are so many jokes out there, why did he have to make a gay joke? as long as no one falls for it and actually answers, though, chaeryeong thinks it'll be okay. she clenches her fists and feels her nails bite into flesh. a brief moment of silence, and then someone asks, "who?"

seokmin bursts into laughter, and as the joke settles in, so does most of the class. unfortunately, the kid who answered was wooseok, who's already made fun of for being slow, and he turns gradually more red as the laughter goes on, though it wasn't necessarily directed at him. and beside her, ryujin's so tense she's trembling, probably about two seconds away from going berserk and punching someone.

so chaeryeong does it for her, springing out of her seat and slapping seokmin right across the face. an immediate shocked silence falls over the class, but chaeryeong can only see the boy in front of her, eyes wide in shock and hurt, sprawled in his seat. "how," she says, voice quiet and deadly, "dare you. of all the jokes in the world, how dare you choose such a topic."

tears threaten to fill her eyes and she can't cry, not now, especially not in front of seokmin because despite his classless joke, by god does she still like him. she doesn't ask him to apologize, can't risk speaking, and instead rushes out of the classroom. ryujin finds her in the bathroom bawling her eyes out and sits down next to her. if she hears the cracking of the obfuscation of rose-colored lenses over her eyes, she doesn't comment, and they skip the rest of their classes and walk home together in the elongated shadows that the golden sun creates.

---

seokmin finds her the next day to apologize. "you're right," he says, eyes rippling like the ocean in its uncertainty. "that was a tasteless joke to make, and i can't take back the words, but..." he trails off, swallowing. "i can try to make it right."

dear god. chaeryeong looks up at him and has an itching urge to push back the lock of hair that falls onto his forehead. she still likes him, wants to excuse the hurtful joke as boys being immature and stupid and her heart whispers hey, he's apologized, but loyalty to her best friend has her drawing up her spine with a long inhale.

"it's good that you know you were wrong," she says, and marches past him into the classroom. ryujin sits looking out the window, occasionally responding to yeji, who sits on top of her desk. at the sound of chaeryeong's approach, yeji looks up with a smile. she is really pretty, with slanted eyes and sharp features, and chaeryeong can tell why ryujin likes her.

"you know," she says as chaeryeong sits down. "seokmin apologized to me. he went around the whole class, actually, though not everyone took him seriously." she pauses, gauging chaeryeong's reaction. "i think we were a few of the people who didn't react."

chaeryeong's not sure how to respond to that. she glances at ryujin; her best friend has a smile on her face. "uh," she says blankly, and ryujin laughs. "i mean, great for us?"

yeji chuckles. "before you're too freaked out--" she leans in close-- "i know you like seokmin." chaeryeong jerks away in surprise, but yeji beckons her back. "no, no, it's not obvious and i'm not going to tell anyone." chaeryeong glares at ryujin, who only shrugs with a grin. "i'm just saying that he's not a bad dude. ryujin said you were really ed yesterday after he made that joke."

"it was dumb." chaeryeong scowls. yeji nods in sympathy. "i don't know if i want to like him or not."

"he's not a bad guy," yeji repeats. "people make mistakes, and most people i know wouldn't be so genuine in apologizing as he is." she jerks her chin towards the door, where seokmin still stands outside, apologizing to classmates as they enter. most people just accept the apology with confusion, but some people laugh. seokmin himself looks genuinely apologetic, and chaeryeong's heart thumps painfully in her chest. ryujin nudges her softly.

"i knew it," she says. the bell rings, and yeji goes back to her seat. "it's okay, he apologized to me and i forgave him."

she did? a huge weight lifts off chaeryeong's chest. ryujin's eyes are knowing, and chaeryeong sits up a little straighter in her seat, sneaking a glance at seokmin, who's already taking notes. maybe she'll pay attention in class today too.

---

"yeah dude, i liked you a lot." he looks down at the water, crashing against the boulders in the middle of the river. "i was really scared you would never talk to me again."

"so you did that for me?" she doesn't know whether to be flattered or offended. "not because you were really sorry?"

"no, i was! sorry, i mean." he grabs her hand, holding it close despite the summer heat. "it was a stupid thing to joke about. i could probably argue that i was young and dumb, but there's really no excuse. i was still dumb, though."

she laughs, leaning against him, and he pulls her in. "i'm glad you asked me for help in calc. otherwise i really would have never talked to you again."

he hums, tracing fingers over her arm. "well, at least i made one right choice in my life, even if i had to make a wrong one to get there." she rolls her eyes. six years have passed in the blink of an eye, and she and seokmin cycled through a tension-filled friends-to-lovers cycle before finally graduating college and moving in together. there were times where she wanted to give up on him, but she's glad she didn't.

he clears his throat, running fingers through her hair.

"so when's ryujin and yeji's wedding again?"

heyo sorry this was short and probably not as sweet as you wanted (also if you don't ship ryuji i am very sorry ;; i am not aware of what ships are popular nowadays lol) but uhhhhhh nonetheless i hope you like this!!! 

idol appearances and mentions:
- itzy's ryujin and yeji
- seventeen's hoshi, mingyu, woozi
- izone's hyewon
- loona's heejin
- nct's haechan
- txt's soobin
- pentagon's wooseok

yeah they're all different ages but shhhhhh idk my new popular groups uwu i am O l d pls give me a pass lol