The brisk run clears my mind of today's worries and I’m back to feeling somber and content. I can’t really explain why the physical activity affects me the way it does, the best word I can describe it as, though, is release. Simple as that.

As we all begin to file back into the building in a sweaty and out of breath heap, I see Jun and DK run ahead of me with something in each of their hands. You can’t be serious… I thought DK was just joking earlier, guess I was obviously wrong.

“Lee Seokmin!”

“I would rather you call me DK.” He retorts calmly.

“You’d better not take one more step!” The coach yells as we enter the locker room to change back into our uniforms.

Seungcheol, who's walking beside me, let's out a sigh and decides to speak up. “I tried to talk DK out of doing it. I told him about how he'll get caught...just like last time...and the time before that one.” He shakes his head like an upset father and continues. “He just doesn't listen to me anymore.” Seungcheol then lightly grips my shoulder, while we are still walking, and asks, “Did I raise him wrong? Why is he rebelling? Is it because he doesn’t have another parent figure in his life other than me? Do I need to find a partner? Life is too hard being a single father!”

I let out a chuckle and roll my eyes at how dramatic he's being then stop at my locker to change clothes, but not before I put in my opinion. “Seungcheol. If you wanted to have a partner...” I say while making air quotations with my hands. “...then you would have already found someone by now. I swear you are the pickiest person when it comes to relationships.”

He scoffs playfully at my remark and walks to his own locker while mumbling ‘You’re one to talk… And I am not picky!’

“Put down the bucket of ping-pong balls right this minute and walk straight to my office!” Mr. Sung begins to speak again and I look towards the entrance to see DK slowly put down a large faded blue bucket; behind him is Jun, who is trying to slip a bottle of sesame seed oil under his track hoodie while slowly moving away. “Can we have at least one week of gym class without any shenanigans from you? And how did you even get into the supply room?” Mr. Sung asks with actual curiosity in his voice. “I was sure that I had locked it before...” He mumbles the last bit as he let's DK into his office and shuts the door quietly behind him.

Man, he really does never learn.

I turn towards my locker and begin to take off my shoes and sweatpants. I scrunch up my nose at the overwhelming stench of the items and begin to consider bringing the gym clothes home to wash; they smell like death with a hint of stale cologne. Once I slip my hoodie off I bring the worn maroon fabric up to my nose. My lips are now pursed up and I shut my eyes in disgust. Yep, definitely time for a wash.

“Hi, I'm looking for Choi Seungcheol.” A quiet, almost nurturing voice begins to speak, while talking to no one in particular. Where have I heard that voice before?

“His locker is on the other side, it should be one of the last ones.” I hear Soonyoung speak up and direct the familiar voice towards Seungcheol’s location. I turn my head slightly and then the rest of my body as I notice the figure passing by me. An average height male with silver shoulder length hair, mischievous eyes and a soft smile moves in front of me.

Oh.

“Hey, Mingyu.” Jeonghan, from my calculus class, says in passing while bowing his head ever so slightly, enough to have a bit of his bangs fall into his face. I watch as he rounds the corner to the lockers towards the back.

Wait, why is he looking for Seungcheol? My face scrunches up in confusion, because yeah, this happens often; people looking for him. But Yoon Jeonghan has never associated with my close friend… Whatever, I’ll probably hear about it later on today or tomorrow for sure.

I turn around and continue to change outfits, but I'm immediately interrupted by Jun slamming his hand obnoxiously hard onto one of the lockers to get my attention.

“Can everyone just stop being so goddamn obnoxious today, oh my god!” Jihoon screeches out his last words before stomping out of the locker room with his boyfriend’s hand in his own. I watch them both leave out of the corner of my eye, but just as they’re about to be out the door Soonyoung stops the older and bends down a little to whisper something in the shorter one’s ear with a frown. Jihoon takes one look at Soonyoung face and then reluctantly turns around. “Sorry.” The word comes out of his mouth with much difficulty, but once Soonyoung is back to smiling, the two of them finally head out.

I turn my head and look at Jun, who has now changed clothes, with an amused raised eyebrow. “Now that you have pissed Jihoon off, can I help you, lover boy?” I nonchalantly ask. Jun puts on his own amused smirk and leans his back against the maroon lockers.

“Yes, yes you can.” My laughter begins to fill the air, because he's being lame again.

“And what might that be?” I ask while sitting on the bench to tie my shoes.

“Okay so when is the soonest you can introduce me to the beautiful,...” Oh man he's about to start this again. “Breathtaking, fascinating, exquisite, gorgeous, wonderful, and oh so soft, Minghao?” He asks in a hopeful voice. He lets out a quiet chuckle and looks back up at me.

I shut my locker whilst swinging my backpack onto my shoulders and begin to walk towards the exit just as the bell rings. I then turn to make sure Jun is following and I see him close behind with his own bag in hand.

“Hmm, well I only see him first period, so tomorrow or perhaps Monday.” I say while jokingly my chin as if I have an overgrown beard. “You’re pretty eager for someone who you just found out existed literally an hour ago.”

Looking out of my peripheral vision to see his reaction, I notice that he's actually contemplating if he wants to be introduced to the Chinese boy tomorrow or Monday. “Um, which do you think would be better?” He asks with an unsure tone and slowing down his pace just by a little. “M-maybe I shouldn’t introduce myself…” This makes me a bit concerned because Jun is, for the most part, a very confident and straightforward person. So seeing this rare side, leaves him completely vulnerable and open for everyone to see.

I first met Wen Junhui when when I was twelve years old. The day itself sticks out vividly in my memory; it was during the summer I was going into the seventh grade.

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Jihoon, Soonyoung, and I were all messing around in the town's local park. I remember the weather was excruciatingly scorching, and I'm talking, like, blazing hot. So you could probably imagine just how sweaty, sticky, and all around disgusting the three of us were, and if anyone were to get a first impression of us at that moment, it would’ve been terrible from the first glance. And with the summer came any and all terrible allergies one could think of, you named it I had it; snotty/congested nose dribbling down my face, itchy eyes, and lots of sneezing... So, let's just come to a conclusion that at that moment, I was probably the most repulsive looking little kid within a five mile radius. Well, I say little, but I was quite tall for a twelve year old; by that age I was already towering over most of my peers and friends.

We decided to play hide and seek, and to decided who got to be the seeker we played one fair round of rock, paper, scissors. The winner of the round was Soonyoung, but for some reason Jihoon was determined to play the seeker, so he started to argue that Soonyoung had cheated and the whole situation snowballed from there and became a huge unnecessary mess.

After twelve more useless rounds of rock, paper, scissors, Jihoon had finally won and claimed his seeker position. So, with great frustration and a sweaty forehead I went and hid. I ran with all I had, like I was actually running for my life. Well with Jihoon’s competitive nature and how fired up he probably was then, he might’ve just hunted us down like a lion with his prey.

I continued to run for around what felt like an eternity but was only a mere three minutes, until I had finally found a hiding spot in the tree line near the edge of the park. I settled halfway behind a bush and I remember the bush being a different color than the rest of the bushes around me, but I didn't put much thought into it. So anyways, I chilled in that spot for a while, maybe around ten minutes or more and then I noticed a figure a few yards ahead coming towards my direction.

“Are you an idiot… You know that’s poison ivy, right?” And those are the first words Jun had ever spoken to me.

“...Are you sure?” I Questioned, while I unknowingly scratched my forearms.

“I’m pretty sure...and you’re it!” He had said while dragging his hand quickly across where I had just scratched my arm. Turns out while I was crouching in a bush, for God knows how long, Soonyoung and Jihoon had became friends with Jun and invited him to play. Funny how kids can make friends so easily and then those special few follow you throughout the rest of your life.

That day ended with me being severely itchy for three days and I had also transferred my poison ivy to Jun, Jihoon, and Soonyoung. Jun may have known the plant was in fact poison ivy, but little did he know that it could very easily be spread.

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