Sehun wasn’t going crazy, was he? With the way he was greeted by Jongdae’s small little wave every day, or the way Jongdae’s hand would linger across the back of Sehun’s seat. No, he certainly wasn’t going crazy. He could tell that he was sane, especially when he accepted Jongdae’s high-fives with a friendly smile because that is the territory that the two fell within. Sweet, delicious friendship.

Yet as much as Sehun despises where he stands, he temporarily ignores it because he now gets to sit alongside his radiant hyung and bask in his natural warmth. In fact, every time Jongdae enters the classroom and complains about the cold, Sehun has to bite the inside of his cheek, trying to not prove Jongdae wrong by saying, “But it can’t ever be cold around you, hyung.” He sighs, miserably taking in the fact that it has already been three weeks and none of his attraction has faded out.

Jongdae doesn’t alleviate the circumstances either, as he’s taken a liking to calling him “Sehunnie” ever since Seungwan’s unexpected visit to the classroom.

“Sehun!” she had called out to announce her entrance, waving his neon pink notebook in the air. “You forgot this at our table!” she exclaimed, profusely waving it to compensate for the loud pre-bell noise. To her luck, however, the commotion immediately attracted everyone’s attention and enveloped the room in a cloak of silence – Sehun had no way to ignore her at the moment.

Hit with deep pangs of embarrassment, he shyly walked up to the door to claim his notebook and sat back down, wanting to bury himself alive with his humiliation. It wasn’t the fact that he had an overenthusiastic friend or that he even had a pink notebook to start with, but just the sheer trip to Seungwan and back to his seat felt like a walk of shame. Needless to say, Seungwan was not yet finished.

“Aren’t you going to say thank you to your friend?” she questioned loudly, noticing an absence of gratitude from Sehun.

“Thank you, Seungwan,” Sehun said begrudgingly, and now he truly felt like a public spectacle. He guessed that most of class wasn’t judging him, though, seeing as how the volume returned to its natural state once Seungwan left. The silence, however, would remain in his mind, and Sehun had never disliked being younger so much.

Fortunately, Jongdae had come to rescue his dignity, saying “It’s okay, I really like that shade of pink.”

“You don’t have to lie to make me feel better, you know.”

“I know, but I mean it. It’s cute, and it totally suits you.”

Sehun had almost choked on Jongdae’s relentless flattery. “D-Do you really mean it? I mean I needed this notebook and it was the only color left so obviously I had to pick this one and I mean you know pink isn’t really a societal way of saying ‘I’m a man’ but you know the color was really nice and my friends liked it too so I thought oh well why not because you know…” Sehun continued to ramble on and on.

“Don’t worry about the color. It’s not like anyone cares,” Jongdae replied with an understanding smile, and Sehun immediately thought that he was the sweetest creature in the world and that he did nothing to deserve this sort of treatment. Not many people in general withstood Sehun’s nervous ramblings as Jongdae did.

“This is cute, too,” Jongdae pointed out as well, directing his finger at the haphazard doodling that Seulgi and Seungwan did all over the cover of the notebook. Using black Sharpie, the two had apparently decided to demolish the front while Sehun had lost it, only adding more to his current embarrassment. The cover was infected with bubbly hearts, squiggles, and the name ‘Sehunnie’ fit into the random spaces.

“I didn’t do any of this,” Sehun weakly refuted, feeling as if he had no more walls to defend himself. He would’ve loved to curl up into a ball in that moment and hug the ground until he melted into it.

“I know you didn’t because of the handwriting, but the ‘Sehunnie’ written all over is cute in my opinion. Maybe I should call you that from now on, if that’s okay with you.” Jongdae’s smile was now reaching his eyes, and Sehun just wanted to capture his face in the moment and squeal over how attractive it was.

“I’m totally alright with that,” he managed to say with calm nerves.

“Well, I’m happy then. I get to call you a special nickname!”

Kill me now and turn me into a lifeless wall, Sehun had begged to some ethereal force.

~~~

It’s later in the week when Sehun is sitting at the lunch table alone, patiently waiting for Seungwan and Seulgi to arrive. He sits in place calmly, twisting a strand of hair with his finger and blankly staring into his phone, although it greets him with nothing interesting at the moment. He just finds it better to look like he’s busy doing something rather than appear like an abandoned child.

An arm soon brushes against his back and he’s expecting Seungwan’s cheeky face to yet again about the notebook, but he’s in