Chapter Three

Wild

Monday comes, for the first time in his life, Jeonghan is feeling insecure of his cooking skill. He had promised to make a lunch for Seungcheol. A simple lunch consists of rice balls with different fills (Squids, Chicken, and tuna), salad with lime dressing, and egg stir dish. He put less chili because he notices Seungcheol couldn’t handle spicy food. The time on the subway’s clock strikes seven. He is wondering if Seungcheol will eventually really come to fetch his lunch, maybe he won’t come.

Maybe.

“Oh Lord, he is so handsome!”

“Isn’t that Vernon junior’s uniform?”

“He is really cool!”

But Seungcheol comes.

Velvet tints creep up his cheek as he rubs his hands together, blowing air. And Seungcheol smiles when he finally notices the boy he’s waiting for. Waving his hands wildly, Seungcheol just ruined his cool. Really.

“Good morning!Isn’t it getting colder these days?”

“Did you wait for long?”

Seungcheol flashes his gummy smile. “About ten minutes?I thought i’ll come earlier so i can see you coming. You tie your hair at school?it’s a pity, i love when you let it loose” Jeonghan can feel his face burning despite the cold breeze. Seungcheol cups Jeonghan’s face in his palms. “Your cheeks are turning red”

“O-of course! You’re talking nonsense”

Seungcheol laughs. Jeonghan can feel the stares from the others on them, some probably thinking about how cool Seungcheol is, and some probably wondering why someone like Seungcheol would come to see a nerd like him. “Is it my lunch?”

The blue handkerchief wrapped lunch box is now on Seungcheol’s hands. “Don-don’t open it here” Seungcheol ties the wrapper again “Allright , i’ll open it at school,Oh-wait a minute”

Jeonghan watches as Seungcheol picks up the call, he would laugh and make an inappropriate remark at the person on the phone. “I gotta go now, Taehyung is being a sassy brat right now. Now that i remember, can i have your number,Jeonghan?”

Seungcheol seems to not taking no as an answer, Jeonghan’s flip phone is yet again in Seungcheol’s grip. “There,i put mine in, i’ll call you later, Jeonghan”
He shouldn’t do that, because Jeonghan put an extra effort to style his hair this morning, Seungcheol shouldn’t ruffle it.

~~~

“Seungcheol-ah, someone’s here to see you!”
He turns his head at the incoming voice, Taehyung cranes his neck to see who’s calling for his best friend. His face turns sour, lips pouting in annoyance as he realizes the raven haired girl standing on the door, waiting for the so called Seungcheol to come out. “There, your girlfriend”

Seungcheol laughs, he jogs to the beautiful girl. “Hey,what’s up,Tzuyu?”
“Did you have lunch?” the girl tucks the straind of her hairs behind her ears. “No, i just finished copying the notes”

“Let’s have lunch together, my treat” she flashes a smile. Seungcheol awkwardly scratches his neck “Actually..i bring my own lunch ,so...”
Her beautiful smile fades, disappointment clearly has taken over her eyes. “Is that so? then can’t you bring yours and eat with me in the cafeteria?”

Seungcheol turns his head at Taehyung, obviously still pouting at the scene. “Yea,sure. I’ll catch you there, okay” that small smile blooms again on Tzuyu’s face. She nods, skipping her steps to the cafeteria first.

Now Taehyung is clinging to Seungcheol like a leech, twisting Seungcheol’s arm as he snuggles and giggles like a crazy person. “Stop it,you-”
And Seungcheol gives up, letting Taehyung do whatever he wants. “Hey,sorry for the wait”

She doesn’t expect Seungcheol would bring another companion, a rather suspicious companion who is now smiling creepily behind Seungcheol’s back. They took the seat across the pretty girl. “You only ordered salads and juice?”

“I’m on diet” Girls are surely weird, why would they do something like starving themselves to just look a little bit skinnier than they already is? when he’s with Jeonghan,he can see how the ridiculously skinny Jeonghan doesn’t care about his health. His fridge is filled with ready served food, nuggets, sausage, canned beef, canned sardines, lots of cans. His mother will be crying if she knew what Jeonghan consumes every day, but that’s right, Jeonghan doesn’t have a mother, nor anyone who can remind him of having a proper meal. His sister probably just gives Jeonghan money only enough for him to take care of the house.

“JH?” Taehyung scrambles to open the wrap, when he found a sticky note stuck on top of the box. “You little-that’s mine”

Taehyung lifts both arms, surrender, as he pushes the box back in front of Seungcheol. “allright, there’s no need to be so possessive. But who’s JH? it wasn’t from your mom?”

Tzuyu’s eyes follow as Taehyung suspiciously interrogates Seungcheol. “Mom’s abandoning her handsome son alone in the house this week-”
“Then who’s JH?” four eyes land on Tzuyu who is shocked by her own sudden blurt.
.
.
.

“My childhood friend”

~~~

His phone beeped, a notification of someone sending him a text.

“It was super delicious! Taehyung was drolling, but i don’t give him any hehehe
I’ll call you after school, okay? class is starting”

The corner of his lips pulls when he scrolls down t find Seungcheol’s picture, holding an empty lunch box. “Yoon Jeonghan?”
There stood a girl Jeonghan never met in his life, or maybe they crossed path once or twice, but Jeounghan is sure he never notices. “Can we talk?”
She seems to be really calm outside, but Jeonghan notices how she fidgets with the hem of her skirt. “Do you..have a lover at the moment?”
Allright, this is awkward. “No”

“Then, Can you help me with something?”

“Ah,sorry, i’m Yeri, Kim Yerim. From class D”
“Yoon Jeongha-”
“i know. oh, sorry” she looks down again, sighing. “what i’m gonna ask you sounds ridiculous and might offend you, but it’s just this once. Will you come to a blind date for me?”

And the more she explains ,the more ridiculous it gets. Because there’s no way, Jeonghan will agree to go to a blind date with another boy. He realizes he’s not sure about his uality yet, maybe because he never fall in love. He finds girls to be appealing and beautiful, but he also admires some boys and it can’t be called love at all. Yeri asks for a big favor which actually Jeonghan doesn’t mind. It’s just a once meeting anyway. and so Jeonghan says yes. Yeri’s eyes are glistening in joy, she shakes his hands over and over, saying that she will definitely pay back the favor, that she owes him her life.

“I have to do something after school, sorry.”

“is that so?i want to take you somewhere, though” So Jeonghan turns down his offer, he can hear a faint sigh from the other line.

“I will make it up tomorrow, how about that?”

But Seungcheol has club practice for the next three days after school,

“Then, what about on weekend?”

Maybe weekend is a good idea after all, they can spend all day long just two of them. “Okay, i’ll call you later tonight?” and Jeonghan says all right. “Your love turns you down ,little man?” Taehyung puts his arm on Seungcheol’s shoulder. “Shut up, Tae”
He laughs,louder as Seungcheol pouts his lips. “Should we have our own adventure?”
Seungcheol has forgotten about his disappointment of not meeting Jeonghan today. Taehyung distracts him with their own outing, going to comic store, to a game centre, they even walks around the mall to droll over the newest edition of the sneakers they have been wanting to buy. “Every boys in the city wears that, we should have them” Taehyung claims, Seungcheol just laughs.
But it stops as he saw the much familiar figure inside the shop, standing near the new arrived section, still wearing his uniform. A boy about their age stands beside him, checking out the sneakers he and Taehyung just talked about.

“Hey, Seungcheol. Do you hear me?”

“Huh? what did you said?”Seungcheol turns his attention to Taehyung “I said, what about we grab some some burgers and head to my home? my brother will lend us his newest video game cd”

“Cool,i’m in”

Seungcheol takes a last glance inside the shop, but Jeonghan is not there anymore. Maybe it wasn’t Jeonghan after all.

~~~

Days change, Jeonghan fulfills his promise. They met in Jeonghan’s house, Seungcheol insisted. “You can ride a motorcycle?” Seungcheol grins, leather jacket, navy jeans, and full face helmet. Jeonghan almost mistook him as a delivery man. “Hop on” he hands another helmet. “Is this even safe? you aren’t legal yet, what if we got caught by police?”

“It’s okay,i got my brother’s license” It doesn’t make sense at all, sure Seungcheol and his big brother share the same feature, but anyone can tell that they’re two different person. “But your brother’s more handsome, they won’t believe” Seungcheol frowns and Jeonghan laughs.

“Just get on already”

Ignoring the fact that Jeonghan’s life in the hand of a thirteen years old-almost fourteen- teenager with no license, he gets on, putting his hands on Seungcheol’s waist, yet praying for his life. Jeonghan couldn’t believe where Seungcheol is taking him, they ride to the city. Five hours riding. Jeonghan can feel his and waist sting when he gets down the motorcycle. “Since it’s weekend, i think we should go somewhere further.”

“And you take me to a hospital?”

Seungcheol laughs, ruffling Jeonghan’s soft brown hair “I want you to meet someone”

The hospital in the city is huge, this is the first time he ever went to the city. All his life, Jeonghan only spend his time in the town. Seungcheol only smiles when he see how Jeonghan is amused by everything in the hospital. But Jeonghan soon realized and stops looking around, blushing to himself.

“Seungcheol hyung!” a kid smashing himself to Seungcheol, who easily lifts him to his arms. The boy squeezes the elder to hard that the nurse had to remind him. “It’s okay, nurse Kim,I see you have gotten really strong, Mingyu”
The later grins. Then his eyes shifts to Jeonghan, eyeing the long haired boy from head to toe with his round eyes.

“Pretty noona”

Seungcheol bursts into laugh, while Jeonghan flushes red at the young kid’s words. Seungcheol walks closer, Mingyu wants to touch Jeonghan. “He’s Jeonghan hyung,Mingyu,not a noona”
Mingyu gapes, as if it’s the first time in his life he ever know a reality he just couldn’t believe. “I don’t mean to upset Jeonghan hyung” Mingyu suddenly in verge of crying when he saw how red Jeonghan’s face is from close. “No,no,i’m not angry, it’s just..embarrasing”

Both of them then smiles. Mingyu likes Jeonghan a lot, he grabs Jeonghan’s hair, asking if he will look pretty if he grows his hair like Jeonghan did. “You want to grow your hair this long?”
“Wonwoo-hyung from the D section doesn’t want to play with me when i said i want to marry him,he said he will marry the long haired noona doctor. Maybe if i have long hair,he will marry me”

“It’s because he’s a boy,Mingyu-ya. Of course you can’t marry Wonwoo” Seungcheol who is observing Jeonghan and Mingyu saiys. “But i like him a lot”
“That’s not the way it is,Mingyu. Boys can only like girls”
Mingyu burst crying, hot stream of tears fall from his eyes. “I can’t marry wonwoo-hyung? But i can play with him forever if i marry him” his small hands grip Jeonghan’s shirt tight. Seungcheol sighs, Mingyu can be really stubborn and a crybaby. “Mingyu-ya,even if you can’t marry Wonwoo, both of you still can be friends, you don’t have to marry someone just to be together” Jeonghans’s hands rubs on the younger’s back. “Really?” he looks up, face still wet form all the crying. Jeonghan wipes his face gently.

“Then i can still love Wonwoo hyung and together forever! Just like Jeonghan-hyung and Seungcheol-hyung,right?”

Jeonghan can feel his heart stops beating for a moment. He immediately turns his gaze on Seungcheol who has the same surprised expression on his face. The pair of round eyes still staring at the long haired boy, waiting for an answer.

“Yes,just like me and your Seungcheol-hyung”

.

It was awkward at first, both of them doesn’t know how to deal with the situation. Seungcheol decided to act as if it was something trivial, but Jeonghan couldn’t do that. The undescribed expression on Seungcheol’s face when he said those words to Mingyu still lingers. But Jeonghan is too scared to explain anything, maybe because there’s nothing to explain in the first place. Seungcheol still comes to Jeonghan’s house to hangout, sometimes Seungcheol asks him to make him lunch. But as the time comes to the end of the semester, both of them has to focus on the exam, they’re going to hit their last year soon. To make things worse, Seungcheol has his region’s championship coming up on the winter break, he spends his time studying and practicing while Jeonghan is alone with his usual boring day. Seungcheol will occasionally texts and calls, but they gotten lesser as the exam is reaching within a week.

For the first time, not any of Seungcheol’s name displayed on Jeonghan’s screen for five consecutive days. Jeonghan never really has the initiative for calling or texting Seungcheol first, and he feels bad about it, no, he feels awful. Maybe Seungcheol has gotten tired of his cold and lack of initiate on this friendship, maybe Seungcheol finally realized Jeonghan is not worth any of his time. Jeonghan is insecure, but Jisoo is there. Jeonghan finds him fine and too kind for christ’s sake. After the date, Jeonghan finds out that Jisoo did that only to avoid a specific boy chasing after him. And hell, there’s no way Jisoo is actually into boys. He’s a avid church boy and the problem is, there’s a persistent boy crushing on him, he didn’t budge when Jisoo said he said he didn’t have any feeling or when he said Jisoo had already seeing someone. Jisoo hate to break anyone’s heart, but he couldn’t take it anymore, so he asked his cousin to set a date with someone who will make the boy believe Jisoo is seeing a boy, a gorgeous boy any straight boy will fall in love with.

It’s Jisoo’s name again that appears on his screen, they’re texting about this bookstore Jisoo went to. And Jeonghan will replies back with a simple sentence to make Jisoo keeps texting him.

From Jisoo
You’re bored, aren’t you?

To Jisoo
Why would you say that?

From Jisoo
Just feeling, you know, you can say it,Jeonghan
I feel bad for dragging you on and on

To Jisoo
Sorry,i’m not in the mood lately

From Jisoo
I see, then text me if you need companion okay?

Jeonghan doesn’t reply again. Now he’s feeling much more awful. He’s just the worst.
He curls up himself on the bed, wondering if he’s too much of an for both Seungcheol and Jisoo. They’re literally the only two person he gets along with. He should‘ve just try a little harder to keep them. It won’t hurt to try.

To Seungcheol
Hey, how was the practice going?
I kinda want to see you

~~~

I'm in shock, there are actual people reading this story T_T

Thank you guys, you're all awesome! 

The pace is kind of slow since i want to picture their development, but i also don't want to drag things up so it wouldn't be that slow. I added meanie couple here,they’re just as cute~ 

There might be some rated chapters(ehem I kinda want to write it too haha) and there might be won't any (what if I gone too far and I spoiled their innocence?).  I'm in a dilemma -_-.  But let's just go along with the flow for now, I'm feeling good today,  so I might be updating this faster, see you again hehe

With love,

Deerchoding~