“I knew he was a bad idea.”

Seungkwan’s grunt of anger mixed with the screeching “pong!” from Yangyang’s toy hammer he hit repeatedly to his own palm.

“Seungkwan, you helped them get together,” said Vernon, earning himself a glare from his best friend. He said nothing more. The squeak of that toy hammer grew louder and Vernon knew better.

It’s been about 20 minutes since Jun asked for some time alone and left the dining-room-slash-kitchen for his room. Seungkwan was surprisingly composed enough to grant Jun’s wish, but of course he had to channel his worries and frustration in some way and Yangyang’s toy hammer was just lying there on the table. Vernon sure hoped the poor thing was strong enough to stand Seungkwan’s fury.

A loud “Gege!” told Vernon that the owner of the hammer had come home. Excited steps approached the room and Yangyang showed up soon after. Almost at the same time, the door of Jun and Yangyang’s shared room clicked open.

Yangyang, backpack still sticking on his back, ran towards Jun. Jun bent his knees and let Yangyang crashed into his arms. They both laughed.

When Jun helped Yangyang take off his backpack, Yangyang looked at Jun with curiosity on his face.

“You cried?”

Jun gave him a small smile.

“I got dust in my eyes.”

Yangyang responded with an “oh”, took his backpack and ran to his bedroom. Jun chuckled before following him. Vernon and Seungkwan were once again the only ones in the room.

Vernon heard something like a low growl and turned his head to see Seungkwan’s face. He prayed to God that tomorrow Choi Seungcheol would still be alive.

Seungcheol was worried.

First and foremost, he worried about Jun. The latter greeted him with a smile as usual when they passed each other at the corridor this morning, but the way his eyes had lost their sparkle told Seungcheol that there was something wrong. Could he be sick? Or was there trouble with work? Family? Seungcheol was aching to find out but things kept preventing him to be alone with Jun just long enough to say “are you okay?”

Second, Seungcheol was worried for his own well-being. Seungkwan had been glaring at him since the first time they saw each other today, only replied to Seungcheol’s “good morning” with a grunt. Seungcheol was terrified. He had always been careful with Seungkwan (he’d seen how Seungkwan scolded a classmate for not doing the after-class cleaning duty properly, he still shuddered at the memory) and he wished God would tell him what he did to earn Seungkwan’s wrath so that he could fix it.

And third, the thing, or rather the person, that had been Seungcheol’s concern for the past few days. Seungcheol saw the guy after he finished meeting his club’s advisor and went to catch up with his friends for lunch at the cafeteria.

Seungcheol’s circle of friends in the cafeteria had grown since a few months ago. In addition to his fellow baseball teammates like Jeonghan, Jisoo, Mingyu, and Chan, there were also Jun and his best friends, Seungkwan and Vernon. Very recently they had a new addition to the group: Kwon Soonyoung, a transfer student who quickly befriended Chan through their mutual passion in Digimon, made the rest of the group comfortable with his presence by his somehow childish yet charming demeanor, and, to Seungcheol’s dismay, blatantly fell for Jun’s charm and displayed his affection for the world to see.

The transfer student was sitting next to Jun, fondness obvious in his eyes as he talked with Jun. Meanwhile Jun was laughing to whatever Soonyoung was talking about with animated hand gestures. Seungcheol was relieved to see Jun looking better, but he also felt uncomfortable burning in his chest. He tried to ignore the feeling as he joined his friends but it never subsided.

“You guys were so awkward!” Seungkwan's groan filled the baseball club room.

Jun, who was sitting on the edge of one of the benches, had his hands gripping his seat. His face was flustered, probably from having his love life discussed in front of the whole baseball team (minus Seungcheol).

“I’m sorry. I’ll eat lunch somewhere else if I make you guys feel awkward.”

Jun’s reply made Seungkwan’s eyeballs popped out even farther.

“No! You’re going to face this. Do something about it. Not running!”

“But...” Jun’s eyes were dry but his shoulders were shrinking. Vernon walked from the other side of the room to sit next to him and pat his back. Jun’s tensed body slightly relaxed under Vernon’s touch.

“What’s with your captain anyway?” Seungkwan turned his glare towards the baseball team members (all flinched except Jisoo and Jeonghan) as if they were responsible for their captain’s actions.

“Why did he had to say it as if there’s nothing between you?” Seungkwan said as he snapped his head back to Jun. It was probably more like a vent of feelings rather than real question. Seungkwan was a very sensitive person and he had trouble keeping his calm, especially regarding the people he cared about.

“You guys went on dates,” he continued. “Walks you to your part time job, study dates at the library. Like, I know you guys are pretty slow, but that’s something okay? How could he—Ugh!”

Vernon sighed. Things had been looking great for Jun and Seungcheol. After some pushing from Seungkwan, Jun finally took the first step and started something with his long time crush, the baseball club captain (who had been painfully obvious in pining for Jun too). The two started going on dates in whatever time they can make between Seungcheol’s baseball practice and Jun’s part time jobs. They also made the effort to get to know each other, whenever Jun came by to the field with lemon honey slices, when they had lunch, when they studied together at breaks. Vernon thought they were doing fine.

That was until Soonyoung came to their school and fell for Jun in the most cliché way possible (Vernon swore he could see hearts in Soonyoung’s eyes when Jun picked up Soonyoung’s scattered books from the floor). It shouldn’t had been much of a problem, but when Soonyoung visited the baseball field (looking at clubs to join, he said), saw Jun giving the usual lemon honey treat to Seungcheol, and asked if they were dating, that was when things got awkward. To Soonyoung’s question, Seungcheol got flustered and stuttered that they were not a pair of boyfriends. Vernon remembered the disappointed look in Jun’s face, which he was sure Seungcheol had missed because of busy being flustered.

“Seungcheol is never the confident type, despite being captain and all,” said Jisoo suddenly. Until now he had stayed silent with his ever carefree vibe, seemingly unaffected by Seungkwan’s burst of frustration. Vernon didn’t expect Jisoo to say anything so he was surprised.

“He probably thought that it was presumptuous of him to declare anything.”

“You guys haven’t really talked about it, right?” Jeonghan chimed in, to which Jun slowly shook his head. Jeonghan nodded with a look that said “I knew it” and continued, “Sorry that he’s so stupid, he needs you to spell it out for him, but if you really want it, you need to go get it.”

The atmosphere seemed to have soften and the room was quite for a moment before Mingyu said, “Wow you guys say wise things.” His mouth forming an O-shape as he clapped softly. Beside him, Chan muttered about how such careless remark could make Jeonghan and Jisoo’s heads even bigger than they already were.

Meanwhile, Seungkwan looked like he had finally cooled down.

“I guess they’re right. You already knew he’s an idiot, and if you want him anyway, you need to act.”

Seungkwan walked closer until his legs almost touching Jun’s and dropped down to meet Jun’s eyes.

“We’re rooting for you.”

Jun smiled and Vernon was relieved.

It was one of the rare days when Jun didn’t have to work and the baseball team practice was off, so Jun waited at the end of the hall. He wasn’t sure that Seungcheol still wanted to walk home with him, they hadn’t been talking much since things got awkward, but Jun waited anyway. He’d only been standing there for maybe a minute when he heard Soonyoung’s cheery voice.

“Jun! Going home?”

Soonyoung had the edge of his lips so high that his cheeks were pulled along until they almost reached his bright eyes. It was adorable and Jun wanted to pinch those cheeks, but he didn’t want to do anything that might give the wrong impression so he just nodded.

“Are you free? If you do, maybe we can go downtown? For a date, I mean.”

From the few days he had known Soonyoung, Jun had figured out pretty quickly that Soonyoung wasn’t exactly the subtle type. His frankness had surprised Jun many times, including now, but it didn’t upset Jun. In fact, Jun appreciated that kind of honesty since he didn’t have it in himself. But he had decided to whom he’d give his heart so there’s no way he’d say yes.

While Jun was struggling to make his brain think of a way to decline without being too hurtful, he heard a panicked “no!”

Jun turned his head and his eyes widened at the sight of Seungcheol. The latter glanced at him, got a flustered look on his face, and quickly turned his gaze towards Soonyoung.

“I mean, he can if he wants to, but uhm... I don’t think he wants to, because uhm... We, Jun and I, have been going on dates, and I think he likes it? So we’ve been dating, not dating dating, though I’m going to ask him if he wants to, like dating, as in together, as in... Uhm...”

Seungcheol started not with the most confident way and he gradually sounded less and less confident until he ended with incoherent mumbling. His forehead was gleaming with sweat, eyes wandering everywhere but Jun’s direction, his cheeks flushed. Jun thought of how everything looked endearing.

“I’m sorry Soonyoung, but I’m going home with Seungcheol. See you tomorrow?” Jun said with a hope and a smile. Soonyoung looked surprised but smiled nonetheless and replied with a “see you” before walking away. Moments later Jun and Seungcheol started walking too, both not saying a word. Jun stole glances at Seungcheol and saw the look that Seungcheol always had before a game.

When they were far enough from school and entered the residence area, Jun broke the silence.

“Yes,” he simply said. Seungcheol let out a confused “hmm?” next to him.

“You were going to ask me, right?” Jun stopped on his tracks and turned to face Seungcheol. His heart slamming itself against his ribcage, almost painfully, but not at all unwelcome. “To date me, as in be together, as in be boyfriends.”

Seungcheol nodded, looking half-amazed, half-excited. Jun couldn’t help but smile at the adorable sight.

They resumed their steps, bodies leaning closer to each other than they were before. When they took a turn at the next junction, Jun took Seungcheol’s left hand. Seungcheol tensed for a second before squeezing back. They walked like that until they arrived in front of Jun’s apartment building.

When Jun’s mom unexpectedly appeared through the entrance, Seungcheol immediately let go of Jun’s hand and greeted her (albeit looking nervous), introducing himself as Jun’s boyfriend (warm tingle travelled through Jun’s body when he heard the words coming out from Seungcheol’s lips). Jun’s mom invited Seungcheol for tea and Seungcheol politely refused at first, but he eventually gave in.

So that’s how Seungcheol joined his family in their small dining table, having some tea and snacks while Jun’s mom bombarded Seungcheol with questions. Instead of being nosy, it was like she was excited to get to know about Seungcheol so Jun felt happy, although she might be a little bit too excited. And to think that Seungcheol was meeting his family so soon after they started dating, Jun felt a bit sorry for Seungcheol.

“Gege.”

“Yes, Yangyang.” Jun turned his attention to his brother who was sitting next to him.

“You’ve been smiling so long, your cheeks will get stuck.”

“I guess they will.”

He smiled again and so did Yangyang.