“What do you mean the soccer club needs more funding? We already give it 30% of all the funds we are even given for clubs! Do you realize how much that is? What do you even need that money for anyways? We have way more clubs that need funding. The art club, for example, needs funds for supplies!”

 

“Yeah, but there’s only, what, seven people in that club? We have over seventy members! It’s the biggest club on campus, of course we need to give it the most funds!”

 

“Okay, but what about the drama club? We need funds to put on a show! Especially with the cultural festival coming up!”

 

“Can’t you just reuse your old costumes and stuff? We can’t reuse our food. The cooking club gained a lot of members recently, and we need the extra funds to compensate!”

 

Jihoon could feel his patience wearing thin, fingers tapping on his desk as he waited for silence. The quarrel between all of the club representatives was going absolutely nowhere, but the deadline for all of the paperwork was the end of the week. He wasn’t so sure if he would be able to get all of the clubs to agree on how the extra funds would be distributed.

 

“Guys!”

 

The bickering continued, even after Jihoon’s call for attention. Even more annoyed, he stood up from his seat and slammed his desk with the palms of his hands.

 

“GUYS!”

 

The representatives looked over at Jihoon in surprise. Outbursts from Jihoon were rare, but it was also rare for there to be a need for it. The silence created an air full of tension, as the members waited for the next words to come out of Jihoon’s mouth.

 

“Obviously, you guys are never going to agree on how we’re going to do this, so all of you write me your reasons as to why you need the funding, and I’ll figure out the distributions.”

 

A short silence followed for the members to process his words.

 

“Do we really need to do this?” asked the assertive representative of the soccer club.

 

Jihoon sent him a glare. “Yes, Choi Seungcheol. We do.”

 

“But that’s not fair! He’s just going to use the number of members to his advantage!”

 

Jihoon sighed. “I’m going to keep everything you write down in mind, so everyone, just go home for today and think about all the reasons why you need the funds. Give your written reasons to me tomorrow. I’m dismissing this meeting now.”

 

The representatives grumbled their grievances under their breaths as they stood up to leave. As the members shuffled around to get to the exit, Jihoon grabbed a fistful of his hair. He realized that doing this would make more work for him, but unfortunately, it was the only way he would know it would work. If he knew that being president of the student council would come with so much work, maybe he wouldn’t have signed up for the position. Especially since he ended up being the only capable member in the council as well.

 

He glanced up at the empty room to find one person other than him remaining, still seated, watching him.

 

Kwon Soonyoung was the representative of the Judo club. He acted much less demanding than the other representatives, but he caused Jihoon the most trouble. Not because of any club-related issues. No. It was because of love-related issues.

 

“Another tough day, huh?”

 

“It’s just as you saw.”

 

Jihoon organized the papers in front of him and put them into the council binder. He then put the binder in the shelf it belonged to.

 

“You know, it would be a lot easier if you asked for help.”

 

“I don’t need help.”

 

“Jihoon.”

 

“What.”

 

“Go out with me.”

 

He grimaced. He had already heard the request from Soonyoung so many times before, it was almost like a greeting now.

 

The first time was when Jihoon was making a stop to all of the clubs that haven’t turned in their member applications. The applications were necessary for the students to be registered in the system as part of the club, and when applications were turned in late, it caused Jihoon a major headache. When he entered the Judo dojo, the Judo club being the last club he had to visit, he was greeted by almost having a kick land on his face.

 

He could feel how the air around him was pulled to the side and a foot just barely missed his nose. When his vision focused to the perpetrator of the kick, he saw a boy in a judo uniform smirking at him. The first impression that he had of him was that he was confident and quite charismatic. His rich chocolate-colored hair soaking wet, a sign of hard work, stuck to his forehead in thin locks. The Judo uniform was slightly open, either from excessive movement or from being put on with lack of attention, judging by his sweat, the reason was the prior, and it revealed quite a bit of skin. One would think that someone in such a shape would wear a look of exhaustion, but the boy in front of him looked nothing but exhilarated.

 

“Why didn’t you dodge?” he asked.

 

Jihoon watched him with a firm gaze, locking eyes with the boy in front of him. Something about the way the boy asked that irked him. It made him think it was no accident that he was almost kicked as soon as he entered.

 

“Why, were you testing me?”

 

The boy approached Jihoon, adjusting his uniform slightly.

 

“In a way.”

 

Jihoon kept still, allowing the boy to come closer.

 

“What for?”

 

The boy leaned in, eyes full of curiosity and satisfaction.

 

“It’s really easy to know who’s a pushover when you try to bring fear out of a person.”

 

Jihoon scoffed.

 

“So what… I passed?”

 

The boy smirked.

 

“With flying colors.”

 

Jihoon crossed his arms.

 

“What if I was just too shocked to move?”

 

The boy shrugged.

 

“You didn’t look shocked”

 

Jihoon’s gaze didn’t falter.

 

“Well I can’t enter a dojo without expecting some flying fists to come at me.”

 

The boy paused, his mouth opened slightly in surprise. He chuckled before letting out a full laughter. He offered his hand as a greeting, and Jihoon hesitated for a moment before grabbing it.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

“It’s bad manners to ask for someone’s name before sharing your own.”

 

The boy laughed again.

 

“Okay, okay. I’m Kwon Soonyoung. And you are?”

 

“Lee Jihoon.”

 

“Okay, then, Lee Jihoon,” Soonyoung hadn’t let of Jihoon’s hand. He pulled Jihoon towards him and then dipped his head near his ear. He lowered his voice in both pitch and volume. “Go out with me.”

 

The next few time he heard those words, they were in passing. If the two of them were coincidentally in the same halls, Soonyoung would always whisper in Jihoon’s ear, uttering the same thing again and again. And every time, Jihoon ignored him. He didn’t have a hobby of hanging people who joked around like that. When Soonyoung asked him so easily, there was no way he was being serious. Even Jihoon knew that much.

 

Jihoon packed his bags to leave the room. There was no reason to stay now that he had dismissed the members. He packed silently as Soonyoung watched him, and only when he stood up to leave did he speak to the Judo representative.

 

“Why would you want to go out with me?”

 

Soonyoung propped his hand up to rest his chin on his palm. He smiled as if he were amused.

 

“Wouldn’t people normally ask that the other way around? If you asked for the reasons you should want to go out with me, I would have given you all of my good qualities as reasons.”

 

“Don’t worry, I know what I asked.”

 

Soonyoung watched him intently, starting a mini staring contest without any signal.

 

“Hmm, why would I want to go out with you? Simple. I like you. Do I need more of a reason than that?”

 

“But why would you like me?”

 

There was a still moment, Soonyoung still watching him with challenging eyes, and Jihoon glaring in defiance.

 

“Because you’re like glass rose?”

 

Jihoon let out a huff of air as he left for home, deciding that he didn’t need to entertain Soonyoung any longer.

 

“What is that even supposed to mean?” he grumbled as he left Soonyoung to be the last one in the room.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The meeting room was noisy today as well. Jihoon had barely even commenced the session before the club representatives burst out in argument. However, Jihoon had less patience than the day before.

 

“Will you guys PLEASE SHUT UP?”

 

He suddenly had an audience of startled club representatives. He could see Soonyoung near the back, smirking. He didn’t spare him more than a second’s glance.

 

“There’s no reason for you to fight. Just hand me the papers you wrote, and I’ll deal with everything.”

 

The members looked at each other and slowly did as told. One by one, they dropped off a sheet of paper on the desk in front of Jihoon, and then, they were seated as before. Only much more calmly.

 

“Okay, good. Now, funding aside, let’s talk about preparations for the cultural festival.”

 

When the meeting was adjourned, Jihoon had a rough idea of how everything would work. He wrote notes in case he would forget them, and all he had to do was paperwork. More paperwork. It seemed that paperwork was all his position had to offer, but he grit his teeth and pulled through. It was his own choice to be in the student council, after all.

 

He was the only one left in the room when he started reading the papers that the club representatives sent in, the others having long been dismissed. He looked through the papers and noticed that most of them had a full page of reasons. He sighed as he began his work. He had gotten through a quarter of them when a can of coffee was place on his desk.

 

“Soonyoung, what are you doing here?”

 

Soonyoung grabbed a chair and pulled it to the front of Jihoon’s desk, so that when he sat down, the two were facing each other, sharing the same desk.

 

“I thought maybe you wanted some help.”

 

“I’m fine, I can handle it. Just go home.”

 

Jihoon kept his attention on the papers in front of him, reading and taking notes. He could feel his arms tiring from all the writing already, but he had to power through. This was something he brought upon himself. Soonyoung must have noticed his wavering hands though, because he place his own hand on top of Jihoon’s to stop him from writing.

 

“What are you doing? I need to finish these.”

 

“Jihoon.”

 

Jihoon finally looked up. Soonyoung was watching him closely.

 

“What?”

 

“Rely on me a bit, will you?”

 

Jihoon put down his pen.

 

“Why should I?”

 

“Because I’m offering help? Because you need help?”

 

“Not a good enough answer.”

 

“How should I answer, then? Because you shouldn’t have to shoulder all of this yourself? Because even if you try to hide it, you’re really tired of all this? Or maybe because I want to be someone you can rely on?”

 

“...”

 

“Jihoon. Go out with me.”

 

What made Soonyoung think that now was the time to ask that? What made him keep trying so hard to win Jihoon’s heart? Why was Jihoon’s heart faltering every time he said those words?

 

“But why? Why do you want me?”

 

“Because you’re-”

 

“Like a glass rose, yeah, you told me that already. But what does that mean?”

 

Soonyoung folded his hands together, but kept his gaze on Jihoon.

 

“Well, first of all, it means you’re sturdy. You are solid, and you know what you want and what you’re doing. You hold yourself up high, not letting anything bring you down. But at the same time, you’re fragile.”

 

“What do you mean I’m-”

 

Soonyoung held his hand up to signal that he wasn’t done speaking.

 

“You’re carrying so much weight, that you might just collapse any minute. I’m not saying you can’t handle this, but you’re only human, just like the rest of us. There’s going to be a point where everything becomes too much. That’s why I want you to rely on me, so that doesn’t happen. Once glass shatters, even if you put the pieces back together, it won’t be the same. I want to be the one to protect the rose from crumbling.”

 

“But-”

 

Soonyoung held up his hand again.

 

“And lastly, it means that you’re beautiful.” He reached out to Jihoon’s cheek, and Jihoon let him. “Stunningly beautiful. So much so that I fell for you the moment I saw you.”

 

“... so you actually like me?”

 

Soonyoung covered his face with his hands in built up frustration before slamming his desk.

 

“Oh my god, yes, Jihoon! Yes I like you! Why would I go through all this trouble to ask someone out if I didn’t like them? You might be smart, but, Jesus, you’re thick-headed. What did you think I was doing all this time?”

 

“I don’t know. I didn’t think you were sincere.”

 

It all happened in barely a moment. Soonyoung stood from his chair to grab Jihoon’s face with both hands and then pulled himself in, landing a firm kiss on Jihoon’s lips. It was unexpected, and Jihoon stiffened from shock, but without realizing it, he relaxed into the kiss. When Soonyoung pulled away, Jihoon’s hand was on his shoulder. Jihoon looked at it, wondering when he put it there, and then he glanced back up at Soonyoung. He tugged slightly on the shoulder he was holding, and Soonyoung closed in to kiss him again, more gently this time. They separated once more.

 

“Do you believe me now if I say I’m sincere?”

 

“I don’t know… I think you have to kiss me again.”

 

And so they kissed again, a little longer. Jihoon could feel how Soonyoung treated his lips tenderly, as if he really were just a fragile object. A treasure.

 

“How about now?”

 

“Kiss me again.”

 

He already knew the answer, but he didn’t want anything but to kiss Soonyoung, right then and there, for as long as he could, slowly savoring the gentle touches. He wanted to engrave the memory of the moment he never expected he would desire. The feeling of wanting, of being wanted, and having your wants granted.

 

Jihoon pulled away, taking a deep breath before looking up to Soonyoung.

 

“What… does it entail? Going out with you, I mean.”

 

Soonyoung grinned.

 

“Just love me.”

 

“... That’s all?”

 

“That’s all. Oh, wait, there’s more.”

 

“There’s more?”

 

“Rely on me when you need help.”

 

“Jihoon…”

 

“Alright.”

 

Soonyoung paused.

 

“What?”

 

“Alright, I’ll go out with you.”

 

“Really? That’s great! I mean…” Soonyoung rustled his hair. “Of course. I’m glad.”

 

“Just… I have a favor I want to ask…”

 

Soonyoung’s face showed an expression of shock from Jihoon’s hint of a request. Jihoon was surprised himself, wondering if this was the first time he would ask anyone for help.

“What is it? I’ll do anything!”

 

“So, these papers…”

 

“You want me to help you go over them?”

 

“No, that’s not really necessary,” Jihoon cleared his throat. “So I have to sort out a budget for the clubs, and I already know that none of the club representatives are going to accept the budget I propose.”

 

“Mhmmm. And what do you want me to do?”

 

“Well, I was thinking, since you’re a black belt and all, that they wouldn’t want to argue against you.”

 

“What are you saying?”

 

“I want you to reveal the budget plans. And when I say that, I mean I won’t be there when you do. I’ll be gone from school. I wouldn’t want to face the wrath of the representatives.”

 

Soonyoung stared incredulously at Jihoon, who started packing his bags.

 

“Wha… but… you think I can face them?”

 

“You’re Kwon Soonyoung, captain of the Taekwondo club, ultimate black belt. You’ve managed to capture my heart. What can’t you do?”

 

Jihoon winked as he left the room, leaving Soonyoung in a mess of emotions.