“What do you mean Wen Junhui was talking about Vernon? Like,” Hansol looks around to make sure nobody is paying attention to them and then leans in closer before finishing with, “me,  Vernon?”

Seungkwan, looking way too happy about his friend practically dying right in front of him, just let out a satisfied, “Yup! He was telling Jeonghan that he was about to go to bed when he got a notification that you uploaded a new track and that he thought it was so good he stayed up for like two whole hours listening to it.”

Hansol, quite honestly, was shocked. He didn’t know that any of his school mates knew about his rapping alter ego, much less the cute, charming junior who he had been silently crushing on since they were placed next to each other in the same history class at the beginning of the year. Hansol was a slow writer, and he was an absolute goner for the elder after the first time Junhui let him copy his notes when the teacher was moving too quickly.

Given the circumstances, Hansol should’ve been happy. His crush really admired the raps he worked so hard to create, and even had the notifications for his account. In reality, though, Hansol was terrified. The track he uploaded last night was clearly about a boy. And Wen Junhui had heard it. This wouldn’t have been a problem if he hadn’t been so deep in the closet that he could almost see Narnia.

“Hey, are you listening to me? Hansol?” Seungkwan asked, annoyed at his best friend who had apparently blanked out after he told him Junhui was his, most likely, biggest fan.

“Huh? Oh, sorry Seungkwan… What did you say?”

“Well, if you hadn’t been ignoring me,” Seungkwan started dramatically, “you would’ve heard me say that you have history with him next, right? You should talk to him about Vernon! Maybe see just how much he likes him, if you know what I mean.”

Hansol, rolling his eyes at the way Seungkwan was wiggling his eyebrows, whispered, “That is a horrible idea. What would I say? ‘Oh, you know that biual rapper you listen to on soundcloud? Yea, that’s me. And you know that song you listened to last night? Well, it’s actually about you!’ Yea, Seungkwan, I’m sure that would go over great in the middle of Ms. Kim’s lecture on the aspects of trench-warfare.”

Seungkwan stares at him with an unamused look in his eyes before saying, “C’mon, Hansol, you’re being dramatic. And that’s coming from me.”

Instead of replying, Hansol merely shoved his history textbook into his backpack, slamming his locker shut while asking God why he had to have such a crazy best friend.

Apparently, God was just determined to give Hansol a hard time, which he soon figured out when he walked into class only to see the words “paired” and “midterm project” and “seat-mate” written on the board. Hansol began to panic as he imagined having to work in close proximity with Wen Junhui for a whole month, but before he could try to desperately look around for another seat, Junhui saw him. Now, if Hansol was a stronger man, he would’ve ignored the sweet smile and shy wave the elder directed at him. If he was a stronger man, he would’ve walked right past Wen Junhui to sit beside the short, quiet junior in the back row. But Hansol was not a strong man. So he took a deep breathe before returning the smile and sitting down at his usual desk, trying to make himself look busy by arranging his notebook and pencil because he was not currently prepared to have a conversation with his crush.

He breathed a soft sigh of relief when his teacher walked in, hesitantly sneaking a glance at the junior beside him. His brown hair was down over his forehead today, looking incredibly soft, and Hansol hated the way he yearned to run his fingers through it.

The sounds of chairs and desks scraping across the floor brought Hansol out of his daydream. He looked over to find Junhui looking at him with what appeared to be a look of amusement sketched onto his features.

“Spacing out there, Hansol?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Uh, yea… Sorry, hyung.” Hansol replied, refusing to look up from his desk lest the older see the blush on his cheeks.

“Well, Ms. Kim was just telling us the details of the project. Did you hear any of them?”

Hansol’s blush only brightened as he shook his head no. Once Junhui began to giggle at his behavior, however, he began to think that maybe embarrassing himself wasn’t so horrible if it got Junhui to laugh like that.

“Well, the project is about the World Wars. We have to compare and contrast them, and explain the effect they had on the world. We also need at least three primary sources, and the whole thing has to be like ten pages. At least we have a whole month to work on it!” Junhui explained to Hansol, who was trying really hard not to stare at his lips while he was talking. Despite his efforts, Hansol was still thoroughly distracted, so when Junhui asked him for his number he let out an embarrassing splutter that was half-way between a “Huh??” and a “What?!”

Junhui giggled again, which did not help Hansol’s mental state whatsoever, before saying, “Well, I figured we would need each-others numbers so we can stay updated about this project.”

“Oh, right.” Hansol replied weakly. He took the phone the elder offered to him and input his number, and then cleared his throat, hoping it would make him sound less awkward when he said, “Yea, of course. Just, uh, just text me so I have your number too.”

And later that night, when he received a text that said “hi hansol! Its junhui :)”, Hansol totally did not think the elders use of a smiley face was adorable. And he totally did not blush when he agreed to go to Junhui’s house after school the following day to get started on their project. And he totally did not fall asleep with a smile on his face after they texted almost constantly for over an hour.