The calming sun peaks through the clouds high in the evening sky, while slowly beginning to hide away for the night to come. I lay flat on soft grass, but something is off. I can't feel the supposed breeze that's moving the tiny cream colored daisies beside me.

Strange.

I look back up towards the vast clouds and lose myself in the swirling oranges and barely noticeable blues of the afternoon sky. But everything is still strange because I don't remember coming to this... place. A forest? No, this field. Yeah, I'm not quite sure how I got here.

A sudden sound of movement comes from beside me and pulls me out of my thoughts. Cautiously I turn my head to the left, while continuing to lay down.

Pointed yet soft eyes, pale skin, and dark irises. Chocolate tousled hair and a tiny, barely noticeable, smile.

"Wonwoo" His name comes out breathless and hushed, because that's how he makes me feel. Breathless.

Beside me, also laying flat on the grassy field, is Jeon Wonwoo, the senior who I had recently met. The same person who I can't get out of my chaotic mind.

Without breaking eye contact, I feel fingers intermingle with mine and then a thumb move over my knuckles reassuringly. It's then that I realize that I've been holding my breath; what for, I don't know, but this small gesture coming from him makes my mind feel at ease.

"Mingyu... get up." His deep voice sends a shiver down my clothed back.

"I wanna lay here with you..." I reply back in a surprisingly pouty tone.

Wait, why did I just say that in front of him... oh god that's embarrassing.

"Just get up you big dumb tree!" He harshly yells out in a high pitched tone. "And let me go!"

Wait, high pitched voice? What the hell is going on?

Oh Wonwoo wants to go somewhere? "Sure where do you want to go Wonwoo?" I ask with wistfulness.

"Mingyu, I swear to god! If y-"

●●●

"-ou don't get up!"

My eyes shoot open and quickly I realize whatever just happened was all a dream and I currently have a fuming and squirming Minseo in an iron grip hug.

Well that pretty much explains everything.

Minseo then begins speaking through gritted teeth. "I'll say it one more time and if you still don't move, I will scream so freaking loud that your grandkids will have hearing problems. Now let me the go!" Minseo voice is piercing through my skull by the time I can even move myself away from her.

She scoots off my bed and steps back hastily. While patting down her, now wrinkled, uniform she's quick to speak. "God I come in here to tell you dinner's ready and you start freaking hugging me!?"

"Hey you came in here at your own risk." I accusingly say while pointing a finger. I then watch as she stares at me with an unimpressed expression.

"You really need to get yourself a girlfriend... or a dog, or anything really." She says while looking off to nothing in particular, face set in a thinking mold and now I'm the one sporting an unimpressed look. I then roll my eyes and pick up my phone to check the time.

7:29 PM

9 Unread Messages:

5 DK

1 Jihoon

2 Vernon

1 Jun

Great.

"I'll be down there in a minute." I say without looking up from my phone, but I still see the outline of my sister leaving from my room nonetheless.

Dragging my thumb across the bright screen, I begin the grueling task of actually replying to the messages I've ignored from before I fell asleep till now.

From DK:

-Y wont u answer meee

-Ok i get it our friendship means nothing 2 u

-Just kidding it doesnt bother me!

-Okay yes it does plz answer

-If u dont answer me, you wont get to know about the new and juicy gossip! It has to do with our dad ;)

To DK:

-Oh god what did Seungcheol do?

-and yeah I also have after school detention tomorrow ;_;

Maybe whatever gossip with Seungcheol is about what happened with Jeonghan in the locker room. I think to myself as I lay back onto my bed reading through the rest of my messages. One from Jihoon saying he's going to kick me in the face tomorrow when he sees me. Apparently it's because DK was annoying him and I caused him to be like that from me not replying to his many messages.

A couple from Vernon saying 'never mind, I'd rather go by myself' and 'I might just ask if I can go with him! It's time to step up!' While letting a huge smile split across my face, I send him back a message saying 'GO FOR IT! FIGHTING!'.

The last message is just Jun sending me a picture of his math homework asking for help and to actually call him when I have time. I then send back 'let me eat dinner real quick and we'll Skype about the math and you can talk to me then.'

I look up towards my ceiling and wait for anyone to reply. As in anyone I mean DK.

I let my ears listen the the silence of my room, but after sitting for a minute or so I begin to pick up the sounds of clanking from expensive plates and chairs being pulled out from the table. The deep tone of my father's voice can also be detected from here.

Ding~

From DK:

-ABOUT DAMN TIME MING-HOE! And I will say I'm slightly hurt that you only replied bc you knew I had some gossip...

-also looks like we'll be detention buddies ^-^

To DK:

-Get over it drama queen and tell me what Seungcheol did! And I only got detention because I was late to class!!! Not because of some stupid that you mostly do :/

From DK:

-To each their own

-Okay so you know how Scoups and Jeonghan have been Physics partners the whole year and Jeonghan has never said a single word!? Well when we were in gym Jeonghan came up to him and like said sorry and apparently it was really awkward and basically Seungcheol asked him to get some coffee after school tomorrow

-and Jeonghan said ing yes!!!

-Well not so enthusiastically like that, you know how he is, but the guy said yes nonetheless!

What the ? No one tells me anything.

Well maybe Jeonghan is exactly what Seungcheol needs. Now that I think about it, they would complement each other quite well. But I had no idea about those two having college physics together!? All I knew about that class is whatever Seungcheol has told me; that there's about eight people in there, they have to sit in groups, and the teacher's a quack. But never has he told me anything about Jeonghan being in the class with him, let alone being partners.

"Mingyu, dinner!" My mom's usually delicate voice rings from downstairs and I'm reminded that, yes, I have my family currently waiting on me to come eat dinner. I decide to not answer DK and toss my phone towards the sheets and make my way to the dining room.

●●●

"So, who's Wonwoo?" My sister's curious, but obviously venomous, voice is heard over the clank of chopsticks and moving bowls. My parents stop their conversation about some couple from a TV show and look towards Minseo, who's looking at me with a twisted smile. Now I'm left sitting in my chair confused of how she even knows who that is.

"Uhhm..." My mind blanks.

"You kept calling their name out while you were sleeping, so I wanna know who they are." Minseo succeeds in gathering everyone's full attention, while I'm still sat motionless, and not sure how to reply. I mean it's not like Wonwoo's a secret, but I kind of want to keep him to myself.

Here's the thing. If my parents find out who my new 'friend' (well that's atleast what I hope we can be) is, then they wanna know everything about them, not because they are cautious about who I hang around with, but because they're just nosy people who want to know everything about everyone.

My dad places his utensils down and looks towards me with a confused face. "Isn't Wonwoo a boy's name?" He then looks around the table for confirmation, but the entire table has gone dead silent at the tone my dad had just used. The kind of tone when you're disgusted and ashamed, but you're trying to cover it up with a lying undertone. "Why would you be dreaming about a boy?" My father's raised and judging eyebrow makes me shrink in my seat from the sheer power he holds in his stare.

My blood runs cold.

How can you forget so easily, Mingyu?

"Uhm..." Why am I feeling nervous again? Maybe because you have slight feelings for the dark haired boy and it's also the first time you've actually felt an attraction towards someone and that 'someone' just so happens to be of the same and last but not least, your dad's ing homophobic!

That's right, how could I forget...

●●●

Three Years Ago

"Mingyu sit down, there's something I need to talk to you about." My dad's voice is solemn and gruff as I step inside his vast office. There are two chairs that sit adjacent to my father's more elaborate one, in a way this just points out how when you're in this room, he has the power, how he, hypothetically speaking, is in control.

I've always hated that about this room.

"What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" I ask quietly as I sit in the much smaller chair and look at my hands like they're the most interesting thing in the world. The evening light, or what's left of it, is filtering through the wall of windows from across the room, causing intricate shadows to dance across my fidgeting hands. I watch as the gray hues mix with my pale slim fingers.

"Your friends, Jihoon and Soonyoung... " The disapproval in his voice is clearly evident.

I become stiff and I'm reminded of the (not so) surprising news the two older boys told me today when they came over after school.

'We're dating!' Soonyoung had said so proudly, as he wrapped a thin protective arm around Jihoon's petite shoulders. 'Yep, this idiot is now my boyfriend, so don't get any ideas Mingyu.' Jihoon's voice was laced with fondness and tranquility as he looked up at his new boyfriend and at that moment I was truly envious.

" ... The two are dating, aren't they?" My father forces out of his mouth, like it's some vile he wishes could just be swallowed down.

While continuing to look towards my hands, I answer with a yes sir.

"I'm only going to say this once and if you decide to disobey me there will be major consequences. I do not want those two in my house again, do you understand?"

If there is one rule in this magnificent house, that feels like anything but home, it's that you never disobey or break the rules set by my mom or dad, I was taught that at a young age and never forgot since.

"Yes s-."

"Look at me when you answer" My father cuts in immediately.

I look up almost timidly and sit up a little bit straighter. "Yes sir." He then looks more pointedly at me.

"Now don't get so upset, I'm not saying you can't... hang out with them... just don't do it here. Those two are different from you and me." He says while lifting and moving his hands in wayward motions, almost as if he's trying to throw in some logic.

That's bull! I think exasperatedly to myself.

It's on that day I figure out that my father, despite his gentle nature and most of the time quiet demeanour, is a homophobe, and a big one at that. It's on that day that I figure out the flaw in my father and it's on that day I lose most of the respect that I had left for him.

End Of Flashback

●●●

It's so quiet in the dining room, when my father tries for my attention again.

"Well. Are you going t-"

"Oh, stop with the bickering you two and Minseo stop teasing your brother." My mother cuts him off and I let out a shaky breath I didn't know I was holding.

Everyone slowly begins to eat again, while I decide to stop. My hands are shaking too bad to hold food properly on my utensils anyways.

"So honey, what are you gonna do while we're all away for the weekend?" I'm thankful for my mom's sudden diversion because if not I feel like the atmosphere would have gone further south than it already has.

"Probably just... hang around the house and maybe watch a few movies, I'm not sure yet." I say lowly while moving around some pieces of kimchi and eel sprawled across my plate. I then place my chopsticks on the table, while bringing my hands down onto my lap.

The conversations for the rest of dinner are absent of Wonwoo's name and the atmosphere continues to stay a bit stuffy from the judging tone my father used with me. I'm not saying this is how dinner usually goes but it's pretty close; Starts off normal, sister hounds me for something, my father and, most of the time, my mother judge me heavily for it, then I'm left feeling ten times ty-er when I leave the table, from when I arrived.

Yep. Normal dinner at the Kim's residence.

●●●

"Okay I think I have it now. Jeez, you are like this insanely smart child prodigy. No seriously, like I'd be ed for midterms if you weren't here to help me." Jun lets out while stretching his arms tiredly over his head and soft cracking can be heard on the other end of the skype call. I cringe at the strange sounds and let out a chuckle at his unnecessary praise.

It's about eleven o'clock when Jun and I get done with our 'mini Calculus tutoring session'. These sessions usually consist of me pretty much teaching everything we've learned that week, crammed into a three hour skype call and a whole bunch of patience on my part.

I sit back in my squeaking desk chair, and look at some notes I'm currently in the middle of arranging.

"It's really not that hard, you just need a different view when learning things, a different grasp." I remark back, tapping my pencil on the mahogany desktop and I run my eyes over the words I've just written. I listen to the shuffling sounds in Jun's skype call as he packs away all of his papers and notebooks. Then just as he settles back down in his own desk, I remember the texts from earlier.

"Sooo, you need to talk to me?" I keep my eyes down casted on my finished notes and give him some room to talk.

"Oh, uh. Yeah it's about earlier, you know. in the hallway." The timidness in his voice is clearly evident. I don't even need to look up to know that he's probably scratching the back of his neck, because that tends to be the number one little habit of his when Jun's in a serious situation. "I just wanted to say, thank you again. I know it probably didn't seem like it at the time, but you really did help me a lot with what you said." He takes a calming breath and continues. "I know this may sound a little weird but, I really, really, really, like this guy. From his cute accent, to his soft ey