Jisoo shifts uncomfortably. “I don’t know, guys. She’ll be really mad if she finds out we went past the fence.”

“You’re almost seventeen, Jisoo, when are you gonna stop being so scared of your mom?”

Jisoo presses his lips into a thin line. He’s not going to argue with Seungcheol over this again.

“Let it go, Seungcheol,” Jeonghan mutters. The atmosphere is getting thick with familiar tension. “Let’s just do something else.”

“You’ve gotta stop letting her walk all over you, Jisoo,” Seungcheol continues. “C’mon. She’s a woman. How hard can she hit?”

“C’mon, Cheol,” Jisoo mutters. “I’m not in the mood.”

“I’m just trying to look out for you, man.”

“Leave him alone.” Jeonghan pats Jisoo’s head. “We don’t have to go past the fence if you don’t want to, okay?”

“It’s fine.” Jisoo is frustrated. He doesn’t like holding his friends back from doing things, but he also doesn’t like facing his mother. Above all, he doesn’t like Seungcheol insinuating that he’s too weak to do anything about it. “Let’s just go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Let’s just get it over with.”

“If you say so.”

Jeonghan grabs onto the top of the metal fence and vaults himself over with a grunt, feet swinging over the top and landing with a thump onto the grass. Seungcheol is close behind, but his shoelace catches on one of the fleur-de-lis fence toppers and he trips, chest hitting the ground below.

“Oof. I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“Nobody asked, loser,” Jeonghan says playfully.

“Aw, man, that hurt,” Seungcheol says, feigning hurt. He stands up and dusts himself off. “Jisoo, slap him for me.”

Jisoo giggles, looking up to find Jeonghan smiling at him from the other side of the fence. The fronts of Jeonghan’s red converse are balancing on the lowest horizontal rail of the fence, making him tower slightly over Jisoo.

Jeonghan holds out a hand. “Coming?”

“Of course.”

Jisoo takes Jeonghan’s hand, feeling the callouses on the pads of his thumb and index finger. With a huff, he steps up onto the rail, and then pushes himself up so he can step onto the highest rail. He feels the metal digging into his palm, and the force of Jeonghan pulling him up, and before he knows it he’s crouching on the top of the fence and staring helplessly at his best friend.

Jeonghan steps down from the fence, not letting go of Jisoo’s hand. “Okay, now jump.”

“Do I have to?”

“Hey, you’ve gotten this far. It’s either jump now or stand there forever.”

His feet hit the ground, the force of the impact travelling from the soles of his shoes up to his kneecaps. He shivers at the sensation.

“Good job,” Jeonghan says, a little sarcastically. Jisoo pinches his cheek. “Ow, ow, ow.”

“Nice.” Seungcheol raises his hand for a high-five, and when Jisoo meets it, Seungcheol’s fingers curl around his instead. “Tricked you.”

Jisoo stares down at their hands incredulously as Seungcheol flashes him a cheeky grin. “You know, if you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just asked like a normal person.”

“You should know by now that Seungcheol’s not exactly a normal person,” Jeonghan says. He disappears behind a thick maple tree, and it hits Jisoo that they’re actually outside the fence. They’re in the forest.

“I could say the same about you.” Seungcheol squeezes Jisoo’s hand again, and they walk over to where Jeonghan is.

Seungcheol’s hand is a little bigger than Jeonghan’s was. Jisoo runs his thumb over the thin white scars on his knuckles, and Seungcheol’s lips quirk up.

“Come out, Jeonghan. We can see your shoulders.”

“Took you long enough.” Jeonghan steps out from behind the tree, pouting slightly. “I bet I can find you guys faster.”

“Are you challenging us to a game of hide-and-seek?” Seungcheol fires back, eyes glinting.

“Yup. I’m it. Thirty seconds.”

“Cheol, what if we get lost?” Jisoo says under his breath. He expects Seungcheol to scoff at him, but the other boy simply squeezes his hand again.

“Let’s hide together.”

“Get ready!” Jeonghan shouts. The sweat-stained back of his shirt is already facing them. “Onetwothreefourfive-”

Seungcheol sprints off, hand clutching Jisoo’s, but stops in his tracks moments later.

“What?” Jisoo says breathily, adrenaline pumping through his system.

“You’re counting too fast, Yoon Jeonghan,” Seungcheol shouts through the woods, “you little devil! Start over!”

“Okay, okay,” Jeonghan laughs. It echoes through the forest, fading into the distance. “One, two, three-”

“-four minutes until lunch ends and you haven’t flipped a single page.”

Jisoo blinks. “Sorry?”

Wonwoo’s holding a book in one hand- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak- and resting his chin on the other. “You’ve been on the same page for a full half hour.”

“I like to absorb the information,” Jisoo says, a little too defensively. Wonwoo rolls his eyes.

“Well, go ahead and ‘absorb the information’ from the table of contents for the next four minutes.”

Jisoo looks down at, yes, the table of contents, and flushes dark red.

“I didn’t- I mean-”

“Relax. I’m not judging.” Wonwoo shrugs. “Some people sleep with their eyes open. Like that sophomore, Lee Seokmin.”

Seokmin? Why does that name sound familiar?

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Jisoo protests. “I was just thinking about Seokmin- I mean, not Seokmin, I mean-”

Wonwoo raises an eyebrow. “Right.”

Jisoo’s cheeks are burning. “Um. Gotta go to class.”

“Have fun thinking about Seokmin.”

“Sh-shut up.”

He hears Wonwoo chuckle as he leaves, and he can’t stop his own mouth from forming something like a smile.

Jisoo now realizes why the name Seokmin sounds familiar.

He’s sitting sandwiched between the owner of said name, and Boo Seungkwan, as they get scolded by the vocal teacher for being in the music room during clarinet practice.

“Miss Jung is such a pain in the ,” Seungkwan grumbles, loudly, as they exit the teacher’s office. Jisoo shifts uncomfortably, looking back to see if the door is closed.

“Hey,” Seokmin says brightly, “at least she didn’t give us any misbehaviour slips.”

“I could care less about those damn slips.” Seungkwan scowls at the ground. “If I could give her a piece of my mind-”

“And you won’t,” Seokmin says firmly. “She’s our teacher; have some respect.” He turns to look at Jisoo. “Hey, sorry for dragging you into this mess.”

Caught off guard, Jisoo starts, feeling a blush creeping up his neck. “I- no, it’s my fault, I shouldn’t have been in there either.” He catches Seungkwan staring at him curiously- their gazes meet and immediately Jisoo tears his eyes away.

“Nah, Miss Jung just has a thing against us,” Seokmin sighs. “Ever since Seungkwan told her that she had more fat in her double chins than he did in his entire body-”

“To be fair, she called me a hippo first,” Seungkwan says quickly, wincing at the look of horror on Jisoo’s face. “I mean, maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but…”

“Seungkwan’s like a firecracker. One spark and he goes off- and real loud, too.”

Jisoo snorts, then covers his mouth with embarrassment. Seokmin’s face lights up with a grin.

“You liked my joke! I knew you were a good guy. Heh, anyways, my sister’s waiting for me down the block. See you guys later.”

Jisoo watches as Seokmin turns the corner, then continues walking to his own bus stop.

“He has a girlfriend, you know.”

Jisoo turns, surprised, to find Seungkwan still at his side. “Uh, okay?”

“I mean, if you really do like him, it’s not a good idea. He and Yuju are practically attached by the hip, and Seokmin is straight as an uncooked spaghetti noodle.”

Stunned into silence, Jisoo stops in the middle of the sidewalk. “Wait, what?”

“I know. He’s totally straight. I mean, I totally went for him when I first joined the club, but he’s really, really straight. As in, even I couldn’t get him.”

“No, I mean-” Jisoo’s voice cracks. “You think I like him?”

“I saw that blush, Hong Jisoo.” Seungkwan winks. “And that smile. And I heard you were gushing over Seokmin in the library.”

“Wait, time out.” Jisoo frowns. “In the library? You were there?” Seungkwan doesn’t exactly seem like the type to be able to stay quiet long enough to hang out in the library.

“No, but word travels fast.” Seungkwan winks again. Jisoo has the strange urge to tape Seungkwan’s eye open.

“Wonwoo told you?”

“Who’s Wonwoo?” Seungkwan sounds genuinely confused, and not sarcastic- at least, Jisoo hopes.

“You know what, nevermind.” Jisoo’s grip tightens on the handle of his guitar case. “I really, seriously do not like Seokmin.”

“Really?”

“And I wasn’t ‘gushing over Seokmin’. That’s just a misunderstanding.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” Jisoo snaps. He’s never lost his temper, but this loud-mouthed freshman is making him this close to doing so. “Now, don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Seungkwan seems to take the hint, uttering a quick ‘goodbye’ before scampering off into the opposite direction.

Jisoo sighs, sitting down on the bus stop bench. This is proving to be a rough year.

-5:44 pm- November 3, 2016

jeonghannie <3: i heaerd u like seokmin

I don’t like Seokmin. I never have. Did you hear this from Wonwoo?

jeonghannie <3: whos woowoo?

...It’s Wonwoo. So who told you I liked him?

jeonghannie <3: uhhh thats a secret mister ;)

jeonghannie <3: so u really dont like soekmin?

No, he’s not my type. Really. Plus, he has a girlfreidn.

girlfriend*

jeonghannie <3: oh, thats good. thats good

sdfhkjah I don’t know who’s spreading these rumours...

jeonghannie <3: yeah thats rlly weird :(

I think someone’s been listening in to me and Wonwoo at the library ;-;

jeonghannie <3: theres the old jisoo and his cute lil emojis

jeonghannie <3: heh. i miss texting u

jeonghannie <3: anyways gotta catch up on some zzzs

jeonghannie <3: talk to u later?

Sure :)

Jisoo had promised himself that he wouldn’t fall for Jeonghan’s little quirks again; that he wouldn’t show weakness. He’d be strong; he wouldn’t let the two of them walk all over him again.

But then again, Jisoo’s heart will always be a little weak for Yoon Jeonghan.

A.N.: I promised you action in this chapter but I just wrote another filler chapter again oops

Next chapter will be more dramatic than the time I got my leg stuck in the closet for fifteen minutes