It was the after party to their high school’s spring musical. They had successfully pulled off The Wizard of Oz, with no mistakes. No lines forgotten, no injuries, it had been seamless. Junghan likes to give himself the credit for most of this. Their productions were always pretty interesting considering it was an all boys school. Junghan’s best friend, Jihoon, definitely pulled off the lead role of Dorothy quite well so he gets a smidgen of credit too. It was their senior year, and so it had to be perfect.
While Jihoon rocked center stage, Junghan wasn’t a big fan of having all eyes on him. He was a bit self conscious at times and he knew he had a great voice, Jihoon had told him so himself (and compliments from him are pretty rare and always well deserved). Even so, he decided to stay in the shadows. He wasn’t the one to be in the spotlight - that was Jihoon.
Both of them had participated in their school’s musicals since they started high school, and this marked the end of their fourth and final musical season. Junghan had two years of being a light techie and two years of backstage managing under his belt, and he liked to think that he was pretty good at all of that now. 
It’s unfortunate that the skills he acquired all those years wouldn’t help him in law school any. Oh well.
So the last performance ended and as tradition, there was a gathering in the dining hall of the theater. He stood at the back of the crowd, chatting with some of his close friends (adopted children, he’d correct) who had minor roles in the production. It was like this every year, Jihoon and the other lead roles would be caught in constant chatter and praise, asking to have pictures taken with and having hardly any time to eat.
Jihoon was constantly getting notes about how well he did, and how he could make a true career from his talents. Junghan was never bitter about this, Jihoon was his best friend of course. Even though he’d never received a gift from the audience aside from some flowers from his parents, he still didn’t mind. He had the satisfaction of knowing that without him, the musical wouldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did.
“Hey, Junghan?” 
Junghan looked up from the punch he was drinking, looking towards the deep voice. “Um, yes?”
They had evenly matched height though he may have been an inch taller, and Junghan recognized him from a math class. Seungcheol, he remembered. He remembered thinking that he’d thought he was pretty handsome.
“I, um, I got you these flowers.” He held his arm out, extending the flowers. It was a beautiful array of pinks and purples, lillies and maybe even a rose or two. Seugcheol looked away, like he was actually bashful, and Junghan couldn’t help the way his heart swelled at the sight.
“No, I’m actually stage crew and we don’t get flowers from the student body but thank you?” Junghan reached out to take the flowers with a shy smile, “Or were you looking for someone else?” he said when he noticed Seungcheol’s smile falter. 
“No, no I. Those are meant for you,” Seungcheol nibbled the inside of his cheek. “I want you to know that people appreciate the work you do, even if it’s unseen. Oh jeez, you probably think this is so strange and that I’m a freak but please don’t think I’m weird, aish, I mean you probably don’t even know my name-”
“Seungcheol.”
“What?” Seungcheol furrowed his brows, wondering why he had been interrupted.
“Your name is Seungcheol,” Junghan breathed out.
Seungcheol let out a breath that he had apparently been holding. “Oh.”
“You’re a senior, like me, and we shared a math class together this year and last year too.” Junghan hated how he felt his face warm up. He didn’t want to seem creepy for knowing that information, but how else could he explain knowing Seungcheol’s name already?
“Oh, well. I hope you like the flowers, Junghan. You’ve worked really hard and it really shows, the performance tonight was, amazing,” Seungcheol took a steadying and calming breath, blowing out a puff of air. “And I really like you, Junghan.”
Junghan had been completely taken off guard, his heart started racing and he hated how his face must’ve lit up at that - but if he was so happy hearing those words, then he already knew how he felt about Seungcheol’s confession.
“Do you… maybe want to ditch the party and go get McDonalds?”
“But Seungcheol it’s, like, midnight. Don’t you have to get home?”
Junghan’s tummy growled at the mention of food however, the Chex Mix sitting on the table unable to sate his hunger.
“Chicken nuggets know not about time.” Seungcheol grinned, locking his arm with Junghan’s.
Junghan rolled his eyes, “Only if I can get an oreo McFlurry.”
Seungcheol grinned back at him, “You got it, Mr. Stage Manager~”
He let out a yelp of pain when Junghan hit him in the chest.