C H A P T E R  E I G H T 

Avoiding Mingyu was harder than Wonwoo thought. Despite taking different classes, somehow, Wonwoo always ran into the boy. And it wasn’t like he could walk past him because he literally bumped into the tall boy at least three times before lunch.

Wonwoo decided it was no use. During lunch, Mingyu would probably sit with him and his friends and if he avoided him there, his friends, Minghao especially, would know something is up with him. There was no way that he was gonna tell Minghao that Mingyu kissed him. Besides, Mingyu was like a cute, gigantic puppy. Each time Wonwoo accidentally bumped into him, Mingyu would get surprised and worried whether he was okay. Not only was it cute, it felt nice being worried about.

At the moment, Wonwoo is in the cafeteria, staring blankly into space while his friends animatedly talked around him. Oddly, Mingyu wasn't sitting by them or at his usual table. He didn't want to be weird but an uncomfortable feeling sat in his stomach while he thought about what Mingyu could be doing. And a few of those thoughts consisted of Jungsoo and Mingyu together, making out, causing mild annoyance to stir in his mind.

“Wonwoo!”

“Huh,” he blinks.

“You okay there, buddy?” Minghao jokes.

“Um, yeah. I’m gonna go right now. I need to get my homework from my locker,” Wonwoo says quickly. Without another word, he throws away his food and plods off.

“He seems wierd today,” Vernon quietly.

“You’re the weird one here,” Seungkwan comments, secretly worried about the boy as well.

Mingyu had no idea how he ended up in the library with Jungsoo. Seriously. All he wanted to do was cram in some more vocabulary before his English test but what do you know, Jungsoo comes walking in like the library is his favorite place. Now, the older male was teaching him tips on how to spell.

“Abysmal is spelled with an ‘s.’ It is the one that looks like a snake,” the senior says slowly, drawing the ‘s’ into a snake with a long tongue.

Mingyu rolls his eyes. “I know what an ‘s’ is,” he declares.

“I just don’t want my favorite junior to fail his test,” he winks. “It only get harder when you become a senior.”
The tips of the younger boy’s ears were suddenly hot. As much as he wants to deny it, he really liked it when Jungsoo’s attention was on him and he felt foolish to hope that maybe they can rekindle what they had a few months ago. Besides, Jungsoo is cool and smart. And then he could give Wonwoo a break.

Oh no, Wonwoo. He almost forgot.

“Uhh, hey. Look, I gotta go back to my locker right now,” Mingyu hastily say, gathering all his papers in his bag. Looks like he won’t be an A today.

“There’s still another fifteen minutes left until class starts, though,” Jungsoo counters.

“Yeah but I need to talk to my friend about a math problem from homework,” he stutters. Why the heck is he being so persistent?

“You can just ask me, you know.” Jungsoo throws his backpack over his shoulders and begins to follow him.

“I know but I have to take a ,” he utters, surprising not only Jungsoo but himself. Well, there goes all my chances with this person.

Jungsoo chuckles awkwardly. “Well, I guess I should leave you to that. We should hang out more like we used to,” he suggests.

Mingyu bites his lip in thought. Is it weird to say that he feels like he's cheating on Wonwoo? As ridiculous as it is, he feels guilty that he still likes Jungsoo a little even though he does like Wonwoo very much. It's just that with Wonwoo, things could never work out and Jungsoo at least has some interest and attraction towards him. Plus, they are both seniors meaning if anything ever were to work between them, it wouldn’t last for too long. They are about to live their lives and start college and Mingyu will need to prepare for college and exams. In short, it's pretty hopeless.

“Yeah. We should. Maybe this weekend? No, I’m going out of town and I'm studying all week… Right! I should get going now,” he squeaks, waving a quick bye before jogging to his locker.

The truth was, he had lunch boxes in his locker and that was also one reason he skipped lunch. Along with his own, there was one for Wonwoo and he almost forgot to give it to him.

Mingyu pulls out his phone with the intention of sending a text to Wonwoo to meet him but what do you know? They end up bumping into each other for the millionth time that day.

“Wonwoo! I was about to look for you. Hey, are you okay?” There was a small frown present on his face.

“Yeah, Wonwoo replies, avoiding his eyes. The shorter male felt wrong to think of Jungsoo and Mingyu negatively. On top of that, he felt stupid that he couldn't get over their shared kiss last night. Friends don't think of friends like that and it seems that Mingyu wasn't overthinking anything. For a simpleton, he sure liked to complicate things.

“Okay then,” Mingyu trails off. Now that he thinks of it, he has never never seen Wonwoo in a gloomy mood. Hopefully, the lunch box will cheer him up.

“Follow me,” Mingyu chirps. “I have something to give you.”

Surprised, Wonwoo gives Mingyu a questioning look. Suddenly, his mood goes up.

“Just come one,” the tan boy whines, grabbing Wonwoo’s wrist before dragging him towards his locker.

When they finally reach his locker on the second floor, Mingyu let's go off his wrist.

“Crap,” Mingyu hisses, spinning the dial on his lock a few times before trying his combination again.

“What are you going give me?”

“Wait. Three… Two… And tada! My mom made you one of these.” In his hands were two small boxes and a thermos cup.

Wonwoo’s heart stopped. Not literally of course but metaphorically, he felt like it did. Maybe he was just feeling extra grateful or something because there's no other explanation for why he was stiff all of a sudden.

“Wow… thanks.