He had waited five years to return it. The crumpled paper inside his pocket. But he hadn't known it'd happen as unceremoniously as this.

"Kibum," he stopped the guy as he saw him getting out of his class, making a beeline in his direction through the crowded corridor.

"Yes ?" Kibum's expression was pretty much detached when he looked up, which soon wasn't the case when he realized it was him "Oh, you."

Jinki hadn't felt so much dejected along his life before.

"Come on Jinks, coach's waiting."

Jinki felt a bump, an alarm, on his shoulder and he answered it by an indifferent glance "You lot go first."

"Why's Jinki—"

"Dude, what's stopping—"

"Go first." Jinki cut off quickly, frowning in clear annoyance to several pairs of questioning eyes "I'll see you in the locker room."

He saw them off, in their red jerseys glory and when he turned back, Kibum was glowering at him.

"I hope you do have something important enough to talk about for turning us into center of attention like this."

. Jinki just noticed how people were staring at them, and their chattering seemed to die down, leaving buzz of deafening silence around.

They must be wondering about what could possibly happen between him and Kibum, or between the football captain plus student body president, and a nobody, as Kibum painfully rubbed it in his face one time.

And seriously, choosing the wrong moment and making Kibum hate him even more as he did now was supposed to be the last thing on his list.

He must really be an idiot.

"So ?" Kibum tapped his foot impatiently, face scrunched.

Jinki sighed and shoved his hand down his pocket, fishing out a yellowish parchment and took one of Kibum's hand off the books he tucked against his chest, ing the paper into the clenched fist "Here,"

"What ?" Kibum stared at his hand distastefully "Is this some kind of prank ?"

Jinki opened his mouth to retaliate, but in the end he was too exasperated that he just let out a deep sigh and frowned "Can you stop biting my head off every single time?"

Kibum stared at Jinki for a while, apathetic, then sneered "Whatever." and his heels.

Leaving Jinki to wonder what could have really gone wrong between them.

*

"What does Lee Jinki want to do with you?"  Taemin asked when he came over to his house in the evening, borrowing his maths text book—since he always managed to lost his—and nibbling on his sweets stash.

Kibum frowned "How do you know that ? You're not even there."

"I heard people talk." Taemin said, popping a worm jelly into his mouth.

Kibum raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, not people. Jessica." Taemin clarified "Someone literally scampered to the gym to report it to her."

"Geez." Kibum rolled his eyes "I know this kind of thing would happen."

"So, what does he want to do with you?"

"Nothing." Kibum tried not to think about the parchment that was still sitting inside his school trousers "He probably just want to make my life more miserable by fueling his girlfriend's wrath."

"But, you both were—"

"Were, Tae, were." He insisted "We have never even talked to each other for more than five minutes in five years."

"I don't think he's that evil." Taemin frowned to himself "He's your friend after all. Even if—don't cut me off—it's in past tense, I don't think he, personally, would have any ill intentions toward you."

"You don't know that."

"I've said this before but, I think you just want to hate on him, Kibum." Taemin sounded oddly wistful, which irritated Kibum more so he resorted on lashing out at the brunette for emptying up his last jar of jelly worms.

*

Kibum almost couldn't believe it when he closed his locker the next noon—after shoving his P.E uniform inside and retrieving his notebook—and found who's leaning on the other side, staring closely at him.

"Hey." Lee Jinki said, smirking, tho he somehow, somewhat looked nervous.

Kibum scowled at him "What do you want ?"

Jinki raised his eyebrows, lips slowly pulled back into a straight line "You.." he started with a plainly, unmistakably confused tone "Haven't you read what I gave you ?"

"I lost it." Kibum lied easily, glancing down to poke at the crushed corner of his book.

"You're joking." Jinki stated, almost offensively that it sounded more like an accusation.

"What for ?" Kibum retorted, finally looking up to defy the squinting crescent.

But before Jinki could open his mouth to counter it, Kibum caught a flashing pastel pink from the corner of his eye and decided to notify him there's your girlfriend, while staring across the corridor.

Jinki frowned for a second before following Kibum's line of sight, until he looked over his shoulder and was greeted by the view of an arms-crossed, pompous looking Jessica not that far back.

Jinki took a deep sigh as he turned back at Kibum, arguing "She's not my—" as Kibum said "You better go before—", when Jessica practically screeched "Jinki ?!" that Jinki didn't have any choice but to grit his teeth and push himself off the locker to shut the girl up before she could make any scene.

Kibum only shook his head and scoffed at that, and was just about to go when he heard a crisp, disturbing crunching noise coming from behind him.

"Are you back on speaking terms with him again ?"

A dinosaur-looking guy was posing against the other side of his locker, munching on an apple nastily that the juice was dripping down his chin.

And to think this guy was more or less the reason of his feud with Jinki..

"No." Kibum snapped at him, moving his legs to really leave.

But the guy was so just damn persistent.

"Oh, come on. It couldn't be because of what happened when we were in middle school, right ? I told you that witch told me to write—"

"Get lost, Kim Jonghyun."

*

"You promise me you'll come ?"

"I promise ! After this game ! You know it's like an unofficial initiation since I've made it to the team !"

And Kibum really did. Did know how nervous Jinki had been because of it.

"Alright." He sighed, looking down to pat the protruding yellow belly of his Tweety costume "Then you'll come around six ?"

"Six. No more. I'll run back home and put on my costume too."

Jinki had a Sylvester costume, since they bought them as a pair for last year’s Halloween.

Kibum couldn't help but to grin imagining how ridiculous Jinki would look.

And what those stupid girls—that had been whispering, giggling and glancing at Jinki in the corridor these days—would say.

"I don't even get why's Jonghyun inviting us to his birthday party ?" Kibum voiced out his suspicion again.

It had been nagging in his mind. For all he knew, him and Jinki had never been involved into any social scene.

In the middle of hormonal, grown-up-too-fast teenager in their class, they were two of a few abnormalities that were still fighting over jelly worms.

"It's me." Jinki wiggled his eyebrows "I'm extremely popular."

Kibum decided to wrestle Jinki although he knew he'd lose.

Kibum knew something was wrong the moment he climbed the steps to the house that was written in the paper as Jonghyun's house, and noticing how festively noisy it was.

And Jonghyun wasn't exactly the epitome of popularity.

He almost turned back home after knocking —since he was cowardly like that—, but the person behind the door answered too fast, that in no time, Kibum was already looking right at a rather shocking colorful face, painted in white, red and blue like barbershop sign, with monstrously long, fake eyelashes batting at him.

"Ooooh !" The girl that looked like his eccentric 45-year-old aunt Lola exclaimed in excitement. "Kim Kibum?"

"Yeah ?" He didn't know if he was some kind of guest of honor.

"Come in." The girl opened the door wider and smiled so over enthusiastic it scared him.

Kibum frowned a little as he stepped in, while the girl giggled and scampered somewhere after telling him 'not to go too far cuz someone wants to see you'.

Kibum hadn't put his Tweety head on, but as he looked around and registered the situation, it seemed there's no need to.

The music blearing in the room was that of a y and seducing kind—but topped it with the familiar peers from his school, and the result was a poor imitation of an adult club with bunch of tryhard youngsters—.

But no one, he noted, no one had costume on.

(Unless he dared to say that these girls without proper s wearing tight dresses should count as clowns).

And the only thing Kibum could think of that moment was . I'm going to kill Kim Jonghyun.

But unfortunately, before he could slip out and run back home without anyone noticing, came an intentional, girlish clearing of throat to alert everyone of his stupid being.

"Look who's here..." Jung Jessica, in a daring red tube top and nowhere near any clown since she had really developed her body in all the right places, gave him a saccharine sweet smile.

Kibum frowned suspiciously to her.

"God, what are you wearing?" Jessica faked a sympathetic frown "I clearly wrote 'Glam and Gorgeous' as dresscode."

Kibum could understand if Jonghyun was throwing him a prank, but why did Jessica..

"But of course," Jessica dropped his nice facade to pull a choir with his minions, sing-songed "Once a loser, always a loooser."

Kibum felt a little disoriented seeing how people were pointing and grinning down to him likethis was some cliché teen flick drama, while he was still trying to understand what happened...

"Where's Jonghyun ?" He blurted out.

Jessica gave him a stare with her jaw dropping like he was some kind of an idiot "Are you really as stupid as you look?"

"Hey—"

"God. I really don't get why Lee Jinki let you follow him around."

“What does Jinki have to do with—”

As in on cue, the front door opened, where Jinki, in his handsome red jersey, was coming in while laughing with his jocks friends, oblivious to the nightmarish scene before him.

"..no way. Oh, Kibum !"

Jinki looked so happy, so euphoric that he didn't seem to notice how troubled his best friend was.

"You still got the Tweety costume, I see !" He laughed as his team mates dispersed around the room "Minho told me they're just pranking us—With 'they', I mean the.. team and the cheerleaders—. It is not a costume party ! And it's not from Kim Jonghyun either."

"Yeah. So, I was told." Kibum grunted, seeing how Jessica somehow had magically turned into a timid looking girl from the corner of his eye.

Jinki was still chirping about the game that never happened since it was only a distraction and how this was his welcome party before Kibum cut him off "I'm going home."

"Wha-why ?" Jinki seemed purely at lost "Oh. Come on, Kibum. They-We're just having fun !"

"Well, I'm glad you have a good laugh."

"Kib—"

"I'm going home." Kibum repeated, tone's dead "Are you ?"

"I.." Jinki looked across the room to where his football team huddled together, smiling almost immediately to them before he looked back to Kibum, almost pleading "I can't. This is my initiation."

"I see."

"Kibum.."

"Jinks. Come here quick !"

"You better go." Kibum said, tightening the grip on his costume's head and walked away, brushing off Jinki's hopeless stare as he went his separate way to his new, popular group.

And Kibum still heard one of Jessica's guest muttered as he slammed the door behind him.

"People like him really don't belong in our world."

*

His birthday was on Sunday.

And Kibum was pretty satisfied with the gifts he got that year.

(A nice knit sweater he'd been dreaming for the whole month from Taemin, a pack of gum from Jonghyun—it somehow found it’s way into Taemin's box—, and an entire collection of leather-bound Basford's coloring books from his parents.)

So, he's not complaining when his Mum asked him to sort out the cardboard full of his old kiddies stuffs she's going to donate to the orphanage as an errand.

Obviously, he knew he'd find things like collectible cards, a broken gameboy, parts of Barbie doll's body, even a furry spider plushy while he dug inside.

But what he did not expect was, a stack of his primary school books full of his passing notes with a certain Lee Jinki.

You should come over today. Mom's making fried chicken.

                  Cool ! You told her I would come ?

Of course I did

                  Yeay ! Then I'll let you use my new binoculars !

Really??

                   But just for 15 minutes, kay ?

Sorry, Kibum. I'm grounded for breaking the china :(

                You should tell them it's my fault!

It's okay :) I'm the one who challenged you to do it

                 :(((((((((

Kibum couldn't help but to smile a little, reminded of how good of friends they were.

Your dad really wants you to play that bad ?

              He's always been a part of school team, so...

Well, then you have to try it out in the middle school.

             Yeah, Dad said it's really hard to get in. But once I do, I'll also secure a place in high school !

Well, I know you're good, Jinki. I believe you'll get it.

             You'll be cheering for me, right?

Of course !

Except for he never had the chance to. Kibum thought with a little pang in his chest as he read.

Because while Jinki climbed his reputation up to the top of the food chain with his beautiful crowd, Kibum distanced himself from any public scene as precaution, and it's, luckily, easy to do so since Lee Taemin, the new friend he found in need and comfort at the time, also wasn't really a social butterfly. (He's more like a little bird tweeting about to catch wriggling news with his tiny beaks.)

So with that being said, they started to grow apart.

Everytime Jinki tried to talk to him, it would cause people to talk or Jessica to do things, so Kibum decided to just cut every contact with Jinki from his side, protecting himself with a coat of sharp spines and quills.

Kibum took a long, deep breath as he stared numbly to the last note about star gazing and heart-shaped pebble he was reading, before thinking just to stop dwelling on the past.

He was about to close and put the book away, when he noticed there's something odd slipped in between the pages.

A crumpled paper he forgot exist until then.

Kibum remembered it.

It was a stupid, childish thing they made in fifth grade.

To write their friendship down like it would preserve it.

They hadn't even finished the lists, seeing how they were supposed to exchange them, keeping the other's and they didn't.

They seemed to forget about what's once there.

Kibum scoffed a laugh at the irony.

But finding himself folding it carefully and tucked it into his pocket, nonetheless.

The crumpled, yellowish paper.

The crumpled, yellowish pa—

Wait.

*

Kibum found it after ransacking the dirty laundry basket (he'd have a hell lot explaining to do when his Mum found out), the as-crumpled and now-dampened paper Jinki gave him.

He flattened it carefully to read, skimming through the first three points, and honestly, didn’t expect anything less silly than his

But below them, was the new, fresh handwriting of what Jinki must have tried to convey to him.

Kibum didn’t know why but he had the urge to smile and to cry at the same time.

*

It felt weird going to the field for the first time—even though it’s just to watch from the bench, in the far back—.

And even weirder with Taemin next to him, a pink popsicle and doing an exclusive Lee Jinki commentary every thirty seconds.

"He keeps looking at you."

"He bumps into Minho for the third time."

"Why does he keep looking at you?"

"He's getting scolded by the coach !"

"Jessica's turning here ! Hide ! Quick !"

And it was when Kibum pushed himself back up, after painfully dropped into his knees to hide after Taemin's warning, did he realize how disgraceful and embarassing the whole thing was, that he grunted "What am I doing ?"

Taemin shrugged nonchalantly, finishing his popsicle with a loud sound "Proving Jinki's love for you ?"

An Ugh was the only thing he could muster.

Kibum looked across the field once again after a while, to Lee Jinki who seemed to have already gathered himself, and working hard on the game, with his perfectly sculpted face drenching in sweat, and Kibum decided he couldn't handle it.

He dropped his gaze to the cemented floor before tugging Taemin on his sleeve "Let's just go."

"But he's looking at you again ! With this sad, agonized, kicked puppy fa—"

"Taemin..."

"Alright. Alright." Taemin threw his hands up in defeat "Thought it’s the reason why we’re here."

*

Kibum didn't know how Jinki always managed to find him alone.

But he was in the middle of walking to Taemin's class after school ended when someone caught his wrist and pulled him into the hidden part of the corridor wall.

"Did you come to my practice yesterday?" Jinki asked right away, that Kibum could only let out a "Huh?"

"Did you come to my practice yesterday?" Jinki said once again, emphasizing in important points.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kibum lied almost naturally, as he looked away and tried to free his wrist from Jinki's grip instead.

When he succeeded, Jinki's face was contorting in a way that showed him he was in great pain, and it caught Kibum off guard.

Just give it to him. Kibum heard himself saying, hinting at the piece of paper in his pocket that suddenly weighed a ton.

Jinki still looked like someone was burning him at the stake when Kibum quietly glanced to him, that he finally sighed, cursing at his own fickleness as he pulled the note out of his trouser's pocket and shoved it into Jinki's hand, without so much as a word.

Kibum didn't wait for Jinki's reaction as he turned away, taking a deep breath and decided to just go back on his little walk to Taemin’s class, trying to chase out the anxious thoughts running on his mind.

He’d die in embarassment if Jinki just meant it to be another prank and he’s just naïvely responding..

He’d rather dig a hole and never come out to see the sun shine anymore..

If only the earth would open and swallow—

"Kibum !" Jinki seemed to catch up with him in just four long strides, racing to his side and stopping right before him.

Kibum looked up to Jinki, with what he hoped to be an unperturbed expression.

"Is it true ?" Jinki asked at once, with an expectant tone in his voice.

And this time, Kibum was aware that he wouldn't get away by pretending to be oblivious anymore. So, he just shrugged a little and said "Well, I'm not the one who likes to pull a prank."

The next thing he knew, his face was pressed against the firmness of Jinki's broad chest as the guy laughed in relief to his ear, and all in all, seeming to try to crush him to death in his powerful hug.

"Jink—" Kibum said in a muffled voice "Are you—Craz—In front of—" in the end, he stopped struggling after realizing it was futile.

Jinki only let him go after a while, just to stare at him with a soft smile playing on his lips, and with his both hands were still pretty much glued to Kibum’s sides.

Kibum couldn't help but to frown a little warily, whispering in a low voice to warn him "What are you doing?"

Jinki just shook his head, his lips as he searched the feline eyes "Something I should've done a long time ago."

Then, completely ignoring the fact that they were still standing in the school corridor with thirty or more people watching them, Jinki leaned in to kiss him.

*

After a short moment that felt oddly like some passing hours—or even several summers—, they pulled apart to realize that it had gone eerily quiet around them.

People seemed to wait with bated breath, until suddenly, there's a loud crash and curse from the crowd, where everyone turned to see Jung Jessica, fuming and red in the face.

She made a grand gesture of stomping her foot and huffing at them, before dramatically turning on his heels and ran out of the scene by shoving people aside.

They turned to look back at each other before the first murmur started, Jinki tried to say "She's really not my—" when Kibum muttered an Oh it and pulled Jinki in by his collar to crash their lips back together.

The silence finally erupted into deafening cheering, wolfwhistles and several hearts dropping.

While in the middle of all that, Lee Taemin was watching this whole scene involving his bestfriend and his bestfriend's bestfriend (or more than that now ?) whilst munching on a big bar of chocolate fudge and nodding in approval, before saying with an unmatching solemn voice "I in' love high school."

*

In the end, Kibum and Jinki got their happy ending (although it should wait until the end of the detention they earned after an inappropriate behavior in school),

While Jung Jessica would start to fall for Kim Jonghyun after the boy comforted her when she was bawling her eyes out on the school's rooftop.

(And Lee Taemin, too, would soon find a liking to share his jelly worms with a certain Choi Minho.)

Because, just like your high school days, wasn't love supposed to be illogical and a little silly ?