Jihoon doesn’t actually mind pizza all that much. But the attention Seungcheol gives him in the form of pouting and begging makes keeping up the facade worth it to him. It’s a wonder that the older boy hasn’t realized yet, after four years of Jihoon always giving in- and almost always eating a slice of whatever they get- but as long as Seungcheol continues his attempts at aegyo, Jihoon will continue acting. As per usual, it only took until they got to Jisoo’s car for the younger to give in to Seungcheol’s whining.

“But!” Jihoon stopped, turning around in the doorway of the beat-up minivan to face Seungcheol, “No sausage. That is disgusting and I personally don’t want to have a heart attack before I graduate.”

Seungcheol chuckled, ruffling the smaller boy’s hair, “Of course, Jihoonie, if that makes you happy.”

Jihoon smiled in response, choosing to ignore Hansol’s muttered, ‘God, you’re like a married couple’ as he crawled into his seat. Seungcheol, instead, chose to flick his forehead as he shimmied past, “You have no room to talk, kiddo. Seungkwan has you so whipped it’s almost vomit-inducing.”

“I am not whipped! And anyway, we’re just friends!” The blush spreading across Hansol’s cheeks told otherwise, but Jihoon kept his mouth shut, choosing to instead giggle softly, waving Seungcheol off when he asked what was so funny.

“I wouldn’t tell Kwannie that,” Junhui added as he climbed into his respective seat, throwing a wink at his seatmate, “He seems to think otherwise.”

Hansol spluttered, his head whipping towards Junhui at the speed of light and his eyes widening, “R-Really?”

Seungcheol cracked up at the reaction, his laughter practically shaking the seat that he and Jihoon were sitting on. The younger could feel himself chuckling softly at both Hansol and Seungcheol as he shifted towards the latter. Seungcheol threw his arm over the back of the seat and around Jihoon’s shoulders, a movement so casual and normal for him, Cheol was never one to be scared of skinship, but the action still made Jihoon’s stomach tie in knots.

Usually he was thankful that both Soonyoung and Jisoo had cars so that their entire horde of friends didn’t have to cram into one tiny vehicle. For one, it was significantly less illegal, and it was also just more comfortable. But all the excess space provided no excuse for “accidental” cuddling with Seungcheol in the backseat. The first year they hung out, the idea of having no escape when his friends questioned why they looked so comfortable bothered Jihoon to no extent, and he would often brush off Seungcheol’s actions because of it. Over the years though his friends, for the most part, accepted it. Seungkwan being the only exception, as he had a habit of winking and making kissy faces when Seungcheol wasn’t looking. But as long as Seungkwan was in the other car, Jihoon let himself relax into Seungcheol’s side.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, though Jihoon couldn’t find it in himself to complain from his spot against Seungcheol’s side, Jeonghan finally slid into his usual spot in the passenger seat, his hair and shirt far too disheveled to be caused by simply be running late. Jisoo joined shortly after, throwing a simple hello over his shoulder as he turned the car on and pulled out of the parking lot.

“Nick’s, right?” He asked, looking into the back of the car in the rearview mirror for confirmation.

“Hell yeah!” Seungcheol threw his other fist, the one not rubbing distracting circles into Jihoon’s shoulder, into the air at the mention of his favorite restaurant. Nick’s was a small pizza shop located on the far side of town, nearly twenty minutes away from their school. It was run-down, dirty, and probably the least Italian place Jihoon had ever been to, but his group of friends loved it. And so he put up with it like the amazing friend he was.

Jihoon sighed, definitely not resting his head against Seungcheol’s shoulder. Hansol was already passed out in his seat, head leaning against the window and swaying back and forth with every bump in the road. Junhui had his headphones in. His lips were mouthing along to the lyrics as he played some sort of game on his phone. Jihoon’s eyes moved to the front of the care, settling on Jisoo and Jeonghan’s hands intertwined and resting on the divider between their seats. Jisoo’s thumb was rubbing circles into the back of his boyfriend’s hand. Jihoon watched as Jeonghan smiled at the other, leaning over to whisper something into his ear, probably something ridiculously cheesy as it had Jisoo blushing as he smiled briefly at the long-haired boy. The sight made him feel sick, not necessarily in a bad way though. He remembered when the two older boys had both been in their secret crush stage. They were both ridiculously obvious, but it took them weeks to confess to each other. Needless to say, it was stressful for their entire group of friends.

Jihoon stole a glance at Seungcheol. He was staring out the small window in the back of the van, turning to smile at Jihoon as he felt eyes on him. Jihoon smiled back, holding Seungcheol’s gaze until it got awkward, then he looked down, blushing. He hoped he wasn’t as obvious as Jisoo and Jeonghan. He hoped that he (and Seungkwan- that damn brat) were the only ones aware of how painfully into Seungcheol he was. There couldn’t be a worse way to ruin someone’s senior year than to suddenly announce that you were possibly a little bit in love with them, so Jihoon would keep quiet. Plus, crushes always faded right?

“Hey,” Seungcheol’s deep voice snapped Jihoon out of his thoughts, and he turned to face him, “You’re really okay with tutoring me, right? I won’t force you.”

“It’s really okay, I don’t mind. Plus, it’ll be a nice way to spend a lot of time with you before you head off to college.” Jihoon smiled, he could feel it spreading through his whole face, as his smiles so often did when he was talking to Seungcheol.

“Ah, right, college.” Seungcheol frowned slightly and Jihoon elt himself wanting to reach up to smooth the worried creases on the older boy’s forehead, “I haven’t even started thinking about that. I guess I should though, huh?”

“Maybe a little bit. Don’t stress about it too much, though- you have almost a full year.”

“True,” Seungcheol sighed, running a hand through his hair. He paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something before he leaned closer to Jihoon and lowered his voice, “Don’t tell anyone this, but I don’t think I’m ready for this whole real world thing. I mean, I can’t even get good grades in high school. How am I supposed to do well in my classes and take care of myself? I know all the younger guys look up to me a lot, they think I’m all mature and put together and ready to go. But I’m as much of a kid as they are, Ji. I’m not like Jeonghan or ‘Soo. I swear they’ve been ready to grow up since birth, or something like that. I tried to raise a pet lizard once, you know, and it died less than a week after I got it because I forgot to feed it. Human bodies are a lot harder to take care of than cheap lizards.”

Jihoon tried his hardest to keep his face neutral, though all he wanted was to wrap his arms around Seungcheol and hide him away from the world. It meant a lot to him that Seungcheol opened up to him about things like this, but it always made the younger’s heart sink to hear what was hurting the poor boy so much.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” He reassured the older boy, “ You’re Choi Seungcheol- master of making the best out of ty situations. And if it’s really bad, I’ll just have to move in with you and be your housekeeper.”

Seungcheol smiled at that, ruffling Jihoon’s hair fondly, “I’d love that more than you’d ever believe, Jihoonie.”

Jihoon doesn’t even have the will to stop his heart from speeding up at that.

A/N: whooo!! another completely un-betaed and really mediocre chapter. it's fluffy af though so hopefully that makes up for it. thank you for 78 subscribers and 600 views!! i'm hoping to have another chapter up by the end of the weekend to make up for not updating for so long