Chapter Seven

Maroon 

“Shut up, jerk” Seungcheol laughs as Taehyung shows up with his red hair and ridiculously short bangs. “I’m gonna use snapback for a whole month until it grows” he insists, putting on the black snapback on his head. “It wasn’t that bad, come on take it off”
Seungcheol reaches for the hat. “Hands off, you ”

“Coups!” Seungcheol turns his head around to meet the tan boy walking towards his direction. “Hello, senior Kim, long time no see”

“What’s with the sudden formality?” Jongin, the senior laughs. “Make sure to come to the club later, yeah?”
“Iwill” Taehyung nudges Seungcheol as the senior makes his way to the building. “You know Kim Kai, the captain of Pledis high basketball team?”

“Yeah, i joined their monthly training after the championship, so i know him”

“Holy , why didn’t you tell me? I thought you went to some absurd training camp in the city. I’m his fan, Seungcheol, you should’ve told me! i’m gonna ask for his signatures later!”

“And that’s why i don’t want to tell you, you’re gonna embarrass me in front of him” Seungcheol rolls his eyes. “Hey, i’m your best friend! How could you say that! I even follow you here to Pledis” Taehyung pouts.

“No,you’re not. You enroll here because of the girls” Seungcheol complains, and now Taehyung is back on his hunter mode, scanning the hallway that’s full of other new students. “See?”
“Ssshh! You’re ruining my concentration!” and in a second, Taehyung is on his new target, flirting with some girls. Seungcheol gives up and heads to the announcement board himself. It’s still early, so not that many students has arrived. He scans the list of the sport program students. Class 1-A Sport Program . He reads some other students name just in case he knows someone, well, he recognizes some names from the list, they joined the training as well. His high school life wouldn’t be awkward at least.

Taehyung is still busy showing off his Casanova persona to the girls, so he heads to the class first. By the time the ceremony almost started, he heads to the main hall with his new classmates.

From Tae
You left me! You !

From Tae
You’re gonna regret it,young man! I’m ditching you for a new best friend!

Seungcheol laughs. What a diva. The hall is filled with the students, left lane for regular program and right for sports program. Seungcheol tries to search for Taehyung among the crowds of regular kids, but his red hair doesn’t really help because some of the kids also had their hair in red. Taeyong, his new seat mate makes a joke about their headmaster’s wig which successfully made some of the kids laugh. But then they turns quiet again as the president of the student council, a beautiful lady from regular class, Jung Soojung, makes her speech.

“And for the representation of the new student, Class 1-A, from regular program,

...Yoon Jeonghan”

Seungcheol couldn’t breathe, his lungs suddenly grasp for more oxygen. It’s Jeonghan, he knows it’s Jeonghan. His brunette has faded into blonds, tied into a low ponytail. He has gained some weight, but Seungcheol knows it’s the same Jeonghan who sits under his window, the same brunette boy he kissed half a year ago.

“, that’s a dude?” Taeyong curses in awe, probably most of the students in the room did the same.

Jeonghan is here, standing less than twenty meters away from him, he is breathing the same air as Jeonghan again. After this painful time of struggling to erase the feeling, he finally meets him. Finally.

Jeonghan’s shady gazes scans the crowds as he deliver his acceptance speech, for a second Seungcheol wishes for him to catch his stares. But Jeonghan just keep talking without spare any glance. He follows Jeonghan back to his seat, and there he saw Taehyung, giving Jeonghan a pat on his back.

To Tae
Hey, meet me after this outside, urgent

Seungcheol walks around looking for a certain foolish red head to appear, his new friends has left for the class first and so Seungcheol waits in front of the building alone. He has to get a confirmation from Taehyung.

“Cheol!”

“Tae-” Seungcheol freezes. Again. Jeonghan is walking beside Taehyung. . Why does he has to appear with Jeonghan? Taehyung grins, linking his arms with Jeonghan playfully. “Yo, meet my new best friend, Yoon Jeonghan”
Seungcheol somehow expects Jeonghan to say something about this, but his calm composure doesn’t waver, he plays along with Taehyung’s game.

“Yoon Jeonghan, Seungcheol, right?” Seungcheol stares at the extended slender hand in front of him, the same hand that once circled on his waist.

“Nice to meet you” he continues.

Seungcheol looks up to meet that smile , the smile he almost forget. “Yeah, nice to meet you too” Seungcheol replies softly. The fate is just damn cruel for him.

~~~

For the whole day, Jeonghan struggles not to ask anything about Seungcheol to Taehyung – which is really hard because Taehyung is story telling him about their middle school’s day- . “He’s one tough shell, but once you know him, he’s a soft as a foam”
Jeonghan smiles, he knows. He knows this side of Seungcheol. How he actually is a softhearted baby despite how stubborn he is. “It’s weird to think about it again,that we actually get along. Now, enough with me and Seungcheol, what about you,Jeonghan?”

Me? Not much, just a pathetic bullied poor kid who has no friends .

“I'm not good at making friends” Jeonghan can feel Taehyung’s eyes soften at his reply. “I have one, his name is Jisoo. But he’s studying in England now”

And there’s a special one.

Jeonghan shakes the thought. “What about girlfriend? you have one don’t you?” Taehyung pouts. Now Jeonghan understands why Seungcheol once told him that Taehyung looks a lot like a puppy, yes he does, especially when he’s pouting like that. Jeonghan laughs. “No,i don’t”

“No way! you’re cool!” Jeonghan chuckles. “Girls love pretty boys, and i can tell they’re looking at you with lust on their eyes . Then what about someone you like?”
Jeonghan thinks for a moment, does he have someone he likes?, isn’t it Seungcheol all this time?

“I don’t have one either”.

Taehyung sighs “Liar. That was what Seungcheol always told me all this time, then all of a sudden he got himself a girlfriend”

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah, Tzuyu, they have been dating for over a year now, was it after the championship?”
So the girl Seungcheol kissed is his girlfriend. What a coincident,right?. Seungcheol has a girlfriend,a pretty girlfriend that he’s been dating for a year. It shouldn’t be hard for Jeonghan to ignore his feeling now, because he knows Seungcheol is loving someone else. A girl. He can finally give up on Seungcheol.

“How far they have gone?”

Taehyung looks pretty much surprised at the question “I don’t know. It’s Seungcheol’s first relationship, i guess it’s just kissing. He respects Tzuyu a lot, so i bet he won’t do something more than a kiss”

Part of Jeonghan wants to laugh . It’s just kissing. Another part of him wants to scream. Seungcheol kisses her. Jeonghan decided to just laugh.

“Yeah, Seungcheol seems to be a good guy”

~~~

“I will pick you at 9,okay?” Seungcheol smiles as he hears a ‘don’t be late again’ warning from the other line. “Your girlfriend?” Taeyong asks. Seungcheol just nods.
“How great, you’re popular and have a pretty girlfriend”

Seungcheol wasn’t sure when he finally falls for Tzuyu. At first it’s just a simple yes to her joke about them dating, and then Tzuyu came and confessed. And they kissed. It wasn’t love, Seungcheol goes along with it because Tzuyu might be the right person, that she can prove that Seunghceol is like any other boys. That he likes girl. He starts to accept them, Tzuyu is his support and now he knows he loves her. “I’m not popular”

Taeyong clicks his tongue at Seungcheol. “Right, you’re not. Just a little famous”
“I bet that girl have a thing for you” Taeyong points at the table behind Seungcheol which he follows. They’re sitting at the cafeteria, and it might be a little odd for himself not having Taehyung around, but it couldn’t be helped, Taehyung is taking regular program, they have more classes than sport program. “Once you make yourself the official member of the team, you’ll be having your own fan club” Seungcheol just laughs, Taeyong is not less sarcastic than Taehyung.

“Ah, do you have time afterschool?”
“Why?” Taehyung twirls the fried fries between his fingers. “I want to buy something”
He munches the fried fries fast “I’m in”
“I haven’t said anything”

“Any kind of shopping, i’m in” Gosh, He is not less a diva than Taehyung either.
Right after the last bell, Seungcheol and Taeyong walk to Taehyung class. Apparently Taehyung wants to go shopping and so they decided to go together. 'They' shouldn’t include Jeonghan. It should be him, Taehyung, and Taeyong.
“Jeonghan said he needs a shirt, so i ask him to come along, it’s great right?” Taehyung chimes.

“The more the merrier they said” Taeyong responds.

No,no,no.

“It’s okay,guys. I can go by myself”
Their eyes meet. Jeonghan seems to read his mind. “What? No way, come with us, Jeonghan, it’s our first outing as friends” Taehyung pleads, clinging on Jeonghan’s arm. His eyes meet his again, and Seungcheol looks away.

They take the subway, it was a rush hour where all the high school kids go home. For the entire way, Jeonghan only talks along when he’s asked, it’s mainly Taeyong and Taehyung chatting. Seungcheol in the other hand is quiet. Jeonghan notices that Seungcheol had become a very attractive boy, he could always find the girl’s eyes on Seungcheol, eyeing from head to toe, stripping him with their gazes. Jeonghan looks down to himself. He is till nothing compared to Seungcheol, maybe the girls doesn’t even recognize him as a male.

“We’re here!” Taehyung literally drags three of them from one shop to another. Jeonghan enjoys shopping, his sister likes to bring him along for shopping. Taeyong enjoys it too, he’s occupied by the new arrival of watch section now.

“Isn’t that you,Jeonghan?”
Seungcheol turns towards the direction Taehyung is pointing at. It was Jeonghan, posing in banner of the ‘chic n sleek’ section. Simple white sweater with a black pants and a maroon wide hat. Beautiful. Beautiful Jeonghan.

“It’s just a work” Jeonghan looks away, making himself busy with choosing himself a shirt. “Is it the reason you won’t come with us?”

“Wow,you look good, Jeonghan” Taeyong compliments. Seungcheol doesn’t know that Jeonghan works as a model or that Jeonghan is interested in modeling. But Jeonghan kills it, he looks good. No, he looks perfect.
“Then,you have model discount, right?” Jeonghan nods “Only for the same brand though” Taehyung doesn’t need any more explanation as he drags Taeyong along to the ‘chic n sleek’ section. And now it was both of them alone, Seungcheol’s eyes are still on the blond, picking out two shirt with similar plaid pattern, one in maroon and one in mauve green. He thinks hard to decide. His eyes wander back again at the shelf, probably hoping to find another choice that isn’t so hard to pick.

“Maroon” It was a slip of word Seungcheol himself doesn’t even realized he had said that out loud. And Jeonghan is as equally surprised.

“Maroon looks better on you”

And Seungcheol walks away.

~~~

Taehyung is still talking about his new shirt, continuously thanking Jeonghan for giving him his model discount. Of course Jeonghan wouldn’t mind, first of all because he wouldn’t have that much money to afford the clothes even after discount. He only buys the shirt because his sister asked him to accompany her to one of photo shoots this weekend, and there’s no way he would shows up wearing some baggy shirts and worn out jacket.

“Isn’t that Tzuyu?”

They look around at the group of girls walking to their direction. Tzuyu smiles upon finding that Seungcheol is there. “What is this? you didn’t tell me you want to go shopping. We can go together” she laughs.

“You didn’t forget me, right?” Taehyung asks the now even more beautiful girl from what Jeonghan remembers. “No, of course. Please take care of this stubborn boyfriend of mine again, Taehyung” Seungcheol laughs this time, ruffling the top of the girl’s head softly. Taehyung introduces them to the girl and her friends. They sure are pretty and nice, Jeonghan wonders if he could fall in love with them if he tries hard enough like Seungcheol did.

Jeonghan hates this situation, he doesn’t like crowds and this sudden outing suddenly doubled in scale with the girls joining. He sits at the furthest seat from the window, hoping to give him easier access to run away if he could find a timing. They like Jeonghan, Seungcheol can tell, not to be a self center narcistic bastard, maybe because they know he’s taken by Tzuyu. Seungcheol could understand it if they fall for Jeonghan and wants to know him more, because that mysterious aura is still around him just as he remembered it. Making people wonders about what’s behind that beauty.

Jeonghan squirms on his seat a few times, feeling more uncomfortable as the conversation still around him.

“We should do it more often, it’s fun”

Taehyung suggests, and dear Lord, Jeonghan wishes he won’t be a part of Taehyung’s ‘we’. Even when people looks at him with pity for his loneliness, Jeonghan can defend himself, he likes being alone, and scarily he even prefers to be alone. “Jeonghan is a top student, we can do a group study too sometimes”

“Really? that’s amazing,we really should do that sometimes. I’m not good at science, you can teach me, Jeonghan?” It was uncomfortable, both for Seungcheol and Jeonghan. They exchange a short glance before Jeonghan smiles to Tzuyu.

“Seungcheol is good at science too”

Seungcheol hasn’t used to hear his name from Jeonghan’s lips, but strangely it sounds more familiar than any other people calling his name. “He doesn’t want to teach me, he wouldn’t allow me to study in his place”
“That’s suspicious,Seungcheol” Taeyong breaks the atmosphere with his joke and the rests laugh.

“I just don’t like the feeling of someone else’s in my room” he defends, his eyes meet Jeonghan’s again for the God know how many times it’s been already. Tzuyu’s face falls for a second but Seungcheol fails to see.

“So you never been to Seungcheol’s house either?” Tzuyu weakly shakes her heads. Jeonghan suppresses the urge to laugh at the poor girl’s face. It’s wrong, but Jeonghan really wants to mock at her. For a short moment he feels like a victor, satisfied and proud. Even when reality hits him that whatever things he and Seungcheol have done together in the past wouldn’t change anything, he still smiles.

“This talk is making me hungry. Oh,you don’t eat anything else,Jeonghan?” Taehyung shows his concern as Jeonghan only order himself a lemon tea and a teriyaki burger.

“I’m good”

“Extra spicy?”Seungcheol squints his eyes at his newly arrived teriyaki burger in front of him. “Oh, i will have his instead” Jeonghan says to the waiter who immediately switches their food. “Sorry Seungcheol, i forgot you don’t like spicy foods” The girl apologizes. “No,it’s okay” he shifts his gaze to Jeonghan.

“Thank you” not sure for what, maybe for the food, maybe for remembering the fact that he couldn’t handle spicy foods. Maybe for simply being there. Seungcheol doesn’t know

~~~

I just want to say thank you guys, for reading and following the story,for the subscribers and also for the kind words you gave me, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well ^^

And I want to apologise, because Seungcheol is taken, for this meantime probably(?).  I'm also frustrated, I just want to lock them in a room really, but they're 15 in the story and it's kind of inappropriate (yet) to do 'things' hehehe

I’ll try to update tonight, (I'm feeling good today so,yeah gonna update it soon) 

See you later guys~

With love, 

Deerchoding ~