“Yongguk,” Himchan’s voice called for him, rousing him from his slumber. With great displeasure, he opened his eyes and looked around. His friend sat at the seat in front of him, smiling softly. He wouldn’t mind waking up to that sight more often. “It’s the lunch break,” Himchan told him.

“Mmkay,” he replied and tried to take his mind back to the world of the waking. He had had a really nice dream, but he couldn’t remember what it was about. All he knew was that it left him with some sort of longing in his chest. Himchan in front of him made it better though. As if what he was longing for was eased by the other’s presence.

“I was thinking about the plan as well,” his friend told him.

Yongguk sat up straighter. “The plan?”

“The one from yesterday.”

“Oh yeah,” Yongguk nodded. He remembered now. They had made a plan yesterday, that would hopefully work. “What about it?”

“Do you think it’ll work?”

“Yeah, why shouldn’t it?”

“I just don’t want something to go wrong,” Himchan worried and started chewing on his bottom lip.

“It’s going to work,” Yongguk tried soothing the other, wanting to stop his friend from chewing on his lips, but didn’t know if physically stopping it was an appropriate move.

“I still have a bad feeling,” Himchan said, his frown turning deeper.

“Do you want to switch places?”

Himchan nodded. “Can we?”

“If it makes you feel better,” Yongguk tried to smile reassuringly, but now he was getting worried. He knew Himchan was more than capable to take care of himself, but that didn’t make him feel better about leaving him in the lion’s den.

A chuckle interrupted his worrying. “Now you’re the one chewing your lip,” Himchan smiled, but there was still a worried wrinkle between his eyebrows. For a while they just looked at each other, and Yongguk mapped out his friend’s face once more, committing how it looked to memory. The worried wrinkle smoothed out, and instead he looked as lost in thought as Yongguk was. He wondered what the other was thinking about. Was he thinking about Yongguk, as Yongguk thought about Himchan?

Was he wondering how he had gotten so lucky to know someone like this? Was he wondering how it was possible for someone to be so beautiful, with all these quirks of manner? Probably not, but he’d like to think Himchan appreciated him as well. He seemed like he did, what with the way he acted so freely around him. It was a nice thought, that he might be to Himchan what Himchan was to him.

It sent a rush of something through his stomach. Something fond and thrilling. It was different, but he had felt this feeling grow stronger and stronger over the weeks he had known the other. He felt like he had a name for it, but somehow it didn’t seem to fit and he didn’t quite believe it. So, he didn’t try to name it and pushed the name away, reveling in the feeling instead.

A couple of giggling girls entered the room, both of them turning to look at their classmates.

“I’m surprised, Himchan,” one of the girls said. “Talking with the sleeper.” Yongguk looked at his friend, confused.

“I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned anything before now, Sooyeon,” Himchan replied back with a relaxed smile. Not the same relaxed smile that he gave to Yongguk, this one had something tense over it, as if he was hiding.

The girls giggled once more. “I didn’t want to interrupt the honeymoon,” she replied, as the other girl got something from a bag. Yongguk was still confused. Honeymoon?

“Hasn’t stopped you before,” Himchan smiled back. Yongguk felt like there was something he was missing, but he didn’t know what. Also, was this about the two of them and their friendship? Because what had a honeymoon to do with their friendship?

“I decided to be nice,” the girl answered with the sweetest, most fake innocent smile Yongguk had ever seen. The other girl giggled and the two of them were off, leaving them an empty classroom once more.

“What was that about?” Yongguk asked.

“The rumor mill,” Himchan answered.

“That’s very vague.”

“It was meant to be,” his friend grinned.

“You’re hiding something,” Yongguk frowned.

Himchan chuckled. “Nope, I’m just teasing you,” he said. “Some people believe that we are dating,” he explained.

Yongguk’s head snapped back. “What? Why?”

“We spend a lot of time together, after neither of us spent time with anyone really.”

“Is that reason enough?”

“We’re in high school, of course it is,” Himchan chuckled. Yongguk couldn’t help but smile along. That was indeed true. Him and Himchan together like that. That would be… well… he didn’t know actually. It wouldn’t be bad. It wouldn’t be weird. It would actually… but then again, they were friends, good friends, maybe best friends in some way. This other thing wasn’t something to think about.

“I heard something odd today,” Yongguk told his friends that evening.

“Something odd?” Hyosung asked, interested. They had just gone through Youngjae’s math assignment with him. He was usually right, but he liked to have an extra set of eyes to go through what he had done anyways.

Yongguk nodded. “Yeah, apparently there’s a rumor that Himchan and I are dating.”

The three faces on his screen started smiling widely, with a weird glint in their eyes. It was creepy how similar they could look, despite only two of them meeting on a regular basis.

“Why are you guys smiling like that?” he asked.

“Is it really that odd?” Daehyun smiled, sounding like it really wasn’t odd.

“Yes?” Yongguk answered, suddenly very unsure.

“You sound unsure,” Hyosung smirked.

“Yeah, because you guys all look like that! I haven’t even thought of Himchan in that way,” Yongguk defended himself. “Sure, he may be one of the greatest people out there and he’s kind of beautiful, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

Daehyun and Hyosung started chuckling, while Youngjae just shook his head at him. “Kind of beautiful?” Youngjae asked.

“Okay, not just kind of,” Yongguk gave him. “But that doesn’t mean we’re dating.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Daehyun asked with as much softness as he could with his chuckling.

“Yes,” Yongguk replied shortly. He didn’t think of Himchan that way.

“But the way you-” Daehyun started.

“Leave it, Dae,” Youngjae interrupted. “We shouldn’t mess with these things.”

“Mess with what?” Yongguk asked. Himchan and him? He suddenly felt out of the loop.

“Mess with what happens,” Youngjae answered, but Yongguk still didn’t get it. Was this about Himchan and his relationship? They couldn’t know something that he didn’t know again, could they? They hadn’t indicated anything before this.

“You haven’t somehow spoken with Himchan, have you?” he asked warily, just in case.

All three of them gave him a raised eyebrow and a look of confusion.

“Clearly not, sorry,” he said. “It’s just that this almost feels like last time when you figured out the whole bullying thing and Himchan protecting me.”

“Oh Yongguk, it’s not,” Hyosung answered with a small smile. “We only have some suspicions about your side of your friendship with Himchan,” she continued.

“What?” he asked.

“Just that we might be getting replaced,” Hyosung replied with a wink.

“The horror!” Daehyun cried out dramatically. “Our Yongguk is leaving us! Jae-baby, you must come save me from the ripping of my heart!”

Youngjae snorted. “Save yourself, I got home from your place, literally 2 hours ago,” he replied.

“So cruel,” Daehyun sobbed and clutched his heart, which led to Yongguk breaking out into laughter along with Hyosung. Youngjae looked like he tried to keep his laughter back, but didn’t quite succeed at not looking amused.

“You guys are a bunch of idiots,” Yongguk grinned.

“Pot and kettle, Yongguk,” Hyosung grinned back.

Yongguk trudged to school slowly, feeling like he could fall asleep on the street. It was cold outside, but he was bundled up in a warm jacket and a scarf, so it didn’t bother him much. However, he missed the sun that was hidden behind gray clouds at the moment. It felt like it had been forever since he had had a nap in the sun. Nothing beat sleeping in the sun, feeling it’s warmth on his face, letting it kiss his cheeks. Though there was a long way to go yet, he looked forward to spring, when it came back and he could fall asleep in their backyard once more, without getting sick.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, pulling him out of his daydreams of sun and warmth.

‘Today is the day. You ready?’ it said. It was from Himchan.

Suddenly he was very awake. Was today the day? He felt a nervous twist in his gut. He thought it wasn’t until later? Unlocking the phone, he typed back, asking if it really was time already. Without noticing it, he had stopped up and looked at his screen anxiously. Himchan was typing.

‘Yeah, I’m bringing the USB as promised’

Yongguk’s eyebrows raised themselves. USB? What USB? When did they ever talk about a USB? Did Himchan change the plan?

“Yongguk!” Himchan’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned around to find the boy walking towards him. “Good morning,” he greeted him as the boy reached him.

“What’s this about a USB?” Yongguk asked, still very much confused.

“Uh, we decided it would be better to bring it just in case, Yongguk,” Himchan answered, sounding confused himself.

“When?”

“This weekend?”

“But what do we need it for? It has nothing to with the plan,” Yongguk was feeling like he was missing out on something. Did they really decide on using a USB? And for what?

Himchan chuckled. “Yongguk, it’s for our presentation,” he told him.

“Ohhh,” Yongguk nodded. That cleared things up.

“You must really be tired this morning,” Himchan grinned and started walking towards school.

“Yeah,” Yongguk sighed as he followed. “I fell asleep at 5.”

“So you’ve gotten what, almost 2 hours of sleep?”

“Sounds accurate,” Yongguk yawned for good measure. Now that he knew it wasn’t the Day, he could relax again.

“I never thought I’d be saying this, but go to sleep as soon as we get to school,” Himchan told him. “I need you in your prime condition for this presentation.”

Yongguk chuckled. “Why so eager?”

“My mom will want to know how it went, and I’d hate to say it went bad,” his friend told him. “After all those years of bad history jokes, it should pay off somehow.”

“True,” Yongguk grinned. “How come you’re coming this way, by the way?” he asked. Himchan could take this route to school, but there was another short route parallel to this one.

“Ah, you caught me,” his friend sighed deeply, and looked up to the sky dramatically. “I was hoping you didn’t notice my choice of route.”

“Do tell,” he urged the other on, grinning. Himchan was going to get on with his other friends like a wildfire, he could see it already.

“Well, my dear friend, I found myself parched from the lack of your company, ‘twas horrendous!” Himchan told him with expressive hand movements. Yongguk shook his head and chuckled. Yeah, Himchan was going to get along with his other friends really well.

Forgetting his tiredness for a while, Yongguk laughed at his friend’s silly antics as they walked the rest of the way to school. It was weird how Himchan could do that, when he had been close to falling asleep on the street just moments before. When he was with his friend, it was almost like the world faded away. It didn’t disappear, it just became background noise that didn’t matter, because Himchan was making him laugh. The look on his friend’s face was out of this world as well, which just made Yongguk focus even more on the other.

It was a unique experience and he kind of felt they were best friends already, even though they hadn’t known each other for that long. It was nice. It was exhilarating, it was-

“I see the lovebirds have decided to come to school,” a voice called loudly, which made Himchan stop mid-sentence. The two of them turned around to find the jackets standing at the school gates. They looked threatening and angry.

“What do you want?” Himchan sighed, as if the jacket was nothing more than a bothersome fly. Yongguk looked around. Almost all of the students were inside, and the bell would call them to class soon.

“I want to give you what you deserve,” the jacket smirked.

Surprise!!! I'm giving you an update already!

I don't have a lot to say, but I hope you have a nice night/day

(that rhymed, haha)

Peace out (^_^)v