There are only two kinds of people in Jeon Wonwoo’s plain high school life; those who talk to him and those who do not.

Those who fit into these categories apparently can be classified into smaller spectrums. For instance, people who belong to the first category are divided into three groups: first one, Wonwoo’s extremely small circle of close friends. Wonwoo is not the life of the party, not the one who attracts all eyes with loud, lively talks. Not the one that cracks jokes, not the one that herds people into some kind of situation Wonwoo can’t care less, basically not the center of anything. In fact, Wonwoo leans more to the quiet side, preferring serene silence and definitely not craving for attention. He generally dislikes the haste loudness carries, and even more to the spotlight when pairs of eyes examine him with much intensity Wonwoo can’t help relating to a specimen under a microscope.

But this doesn’t mean he is antisocial. Yes, he’s not too keen about social interaction, but he is human after all. He’s got a few trusted friends, those which he can trust with his deepest darkest secrets, and can trust him with theirs- like Soonyoung. Said boy is the friend he has known longest, the most contrasting with him in terms of personality, yet the one that understands him the best. They’ve known each other since diaper days, and probably will continue on their friendship until dooms day.

Secondly, Wonwoo’s casual friends, a ring twice larger than his first circle. Here are the people he keeps contact with but never bond with them personally. He maintains both good image and relationship when it comes to these people, so that he comes as friendly, but still respectable. At first Wonwoo aims for the I’m-approachable-let’s-be-friends-with-everyone concept, but quickly fails in his early school days as this is not working for him. As much as he tries to become a social butterfly like Soonyoung, he can’t bring himself to open up. So he altered his concept into something like I’m-still-approachable-but-stay-in-your-lane-everyone façade resulting in all people interacting with him in a friendly manner, considering him as a friend, invite him to hangouts (which Wonwoo doesn’t really go to, but hey he’s invited, this speaks for itself) but to Wonwoo, as much as he appreciates them, still doesn’t have the courage to strip himself raw for them to see.

Thirdly, people who’s got business with Wonwoo. This is probably self-explanatory, mostly includes girls from his various classes that somehow got involved with him through school projects. Usually Wonwoo just talks to them throughout the length of the project, and never really chat with them after that, only bidding a few good mornings here and there when he encounters them. To some people that deem Wonwoo interesting or just plain nice will advance to Wonwoo’s second category, casual friends.

Moving on to the latter category, those who do not speak to him. There’s not much contrast in the numbers between the first and second category, so it’s fairly safe that Wonwoo’s position in the school’s social structure is not that low, quite an achievement for a resident nerd like he is. But in all honesty, Wonwoo doesn’t really care. He doesn’t chase fame nor does he beg to be invited to the parties that kingkas host. As long as he’s got enough friends he’s comfortable with, the others just become a blur of ‘those he never speaks with’ and he’s content with his life choice.

Among the blur of faces and names, lies one Wonwoo’s quite familiar with, Kim Mingyu.

Kim Mingyu is the resident bad boy with boisterous laughs, roof-breaking confidence level, and head full of carefree mischief balanced on his shoulders. He is a constant topic in not only Wonwoo’s life but the entire 3000 students of their public school’s talks because who doesn’t know Kim Mingyu?

Despite Mingyu and Wonwoo going to the same middle school, Mingyu remains a distant figure in Wonwoo’s life. They’ve never interacted, heck even Wonwoo never had the chance of being classmates with him. For Wonwoo’s knowledge is that, he always hears Mingyu’s name popping in random conversations even since middle school. This doesn’t change even until high school, with the only knowledge Wonwoo can say sure is that he is still a nobody to Mingyu. Wonwoo is not popular to start with, and was even lesser known in middle school, so that’s understandable.

The only thing that counts as Wonwoo relating to Mingyu is the fact that they go to the same church. Wonwoo sees him in the altar numerous times, donned in an acolyte attire buttoned up all the way to his neck, such an uptight sight that is close to one of a mirage if he’s at school.

Kim Mingyu is noted for wrecking havoc, for pulling the biggest, oddest pranks no one have ever think of, for playfully ‘bullying’ a large percent of their school population. Kim Mingyu an existence who is noted for his pretty face and sleek pushed-up hair that is in the color of saturated night sky, who has legs 1.5 times longer than Soonyoung’s, who charms everyone with his half-lidded sultry eyes and sharp canines. Kim Mingyu who is noted for scoring highest for math and physics in the latest mock test, and is the MVP for their basketball final the following day. Kim Mingyu which knows no fear, yet knows how to piss all the teachers off, and most importantly knows to defy rules as much as his hair defies gravity.

None of the teachers like Kim Mingyu, more like they’re so done with him. Kim Mingyu is such a juxtaposed existence, earning both the title smartass and which never sounds right in one sentence to Wonwoo’s ears. Wonwoo’s only experienced one class with the boy, a small sum of 1.5 hours and he totally gets why MIngyu is such a menace in teachers’ eyes. When the teacher was teaching all sorts of stuffs in front of the class, Mingyu leisurely opened his full course meal, ate it noisily with no care to the world, and didn’t stop through all three warnings given from the teacher. At the fourth warning, all chill had left the poor teacher so that he sent Mingyu to stand outside class.

Guess what? Instead of diligently standing outside and reflect like he should have, he played around with some of his friends that had late recess and didn’t show up for the next one hour of class. If Wonwoo were a teacher, he would despise Kim Mingyu with all his might too. Fortunately, Wonwoo isn’t a teacher, so he got no beef with Mingyu because so far it’s all good. Mingyu has never bothered him, and Wonwoo sees no point in hating someone that doesn’t give your life negative impact.

Though he never says it out loud, he doesn’t like the way some of his casual friends describe Mingyu. Trash of society, menace, bad influence, douchebag. How can they say that? He perfectly understands if they are directly facing difficulties with Mingyu’s nature, but some of them Wonwoo knows well enough to deduce that they are not, in any way affiliated with Mingyu.

Okay, it’s still quite tolerable, because maybe they’ve got friends that are disadvantaged by Mingyu’s existence, but what Wonwoo can’t wrap his finger around is when there are some of his casual friends that Wonwoo knows hangs out with MIngyu on nearly daily basis, and yet still hate on him. And after venting their minor-est to their major-est worries about Mingyu to Wonwoo’s ears, they still play with him the very next day.

Maybe, Mingyu is not so distant afterall.

Wonwoo can’t help but feel that they’re eerily similar, if it’s not even more pitiable in Mingyu’s side. Maybe behind that intense dream tree bad-boy façade lays a small bean with deep insecurities? Maybe MIngyu shuts himself completely, wrapping his inner real thoughts and personality in layers of boast and bluff. What if in reality Mingyu is just a lost kid like Wonwoo who can’t open up well, who can’t express their loud opinions? The only difference is just how their facades turn out to the people of the outside world, with Wonwoo being a tupperware with double lids, while Mingyu being a cleverly painted starbucks cup.

But these are just what ifs, a series of hypothesis that Wonwoo has been working on in the back of his mind for years without him even noticing. Because in reality, Wonwoo has never got the chance to talk with MIngyu directly, to actually hear his voice speaking to him instead of hearing his yells in the distant.

Until one chilly day, when fall is about to end its glorifying golden hues and pass the baton to the lazy winter that reduces everything into stick thin existences under fluffy snow, Wonwoo meets Mingyu.

Still with the same dreamy lidded eyes and swept charcoal-blue hair,

Still with the long legs and bronze golden skin,

Just three hours away from Seoul, with a cigarette dangling loosely in between his chapped lips.

a/n: the deep philosophy behind wonwoo’s character description comes from this meme, while mingyu's... I just can’t think of anything so I threw in random phrases that I sounds c_oooooo^oool in my opinion but it kinda turns out weird so im sorry heuhuhe, anyways thanks a lot for reading :))