在這裡等你

Doyoung sits at the edge of his bed, hand reaching towards the table lamp. He picks his handphone and scrolls through the hundreds notifications from Instagram, mostly his friends tagging him in their vacation pictures (what even?) and some direct messages from his close friends (well mostly Ten who keeps on pestering his life).

A sudden faint ‘kakao’ sound makes his heart drops to the floor. He clicks at the yellow icon. It has been so long since he used kakaotalk who in the world sending him messages now.

Oh, it’s Ten.

Doyoung rolls his eyes.

Another message from Ten comes but then instead of replying them Doyoung’s eyes catch a 1 unread message from Taeyong.

Wednesday, 23rd September 2016

taetae07

doyoung-ah

Doyoung laughs, oh my god why doesn’t he notice this message earlier. Probably too lazy to reply because Taeyong isn’t any better than Ten, he loves to tease and annoy the hell out of Doyoung. Doyoung scrolls back to their old conversations.

Sunday, 8th August 2016

taetae07

doyoung ah~

superdo96

what

taetae07

give me that water

superdo96

it is just in front of you

taetae07

i still want you to give it

to me

;-(

superdo96

why are you texting me when i’m right in front of you

taetae07

cuz i don’t wanna talk to you

superdo96

who cares

taetae07

;-(

cruel

superdo96

lazy brat

taetae07

lazy is such an ugly word

i prefer the term

selective participation

superdo96

wtv

taetae07

doyoung

doyoung-ah

my sweet honey bunny

are you ignoring me

you cannot do this

I’M THE HYUNG

Doyoung throws his head back laughing like a little kid. He remembers that day Taeyong kicked him in the shin because Doyoung ignored him but Doyoung couldn’t care less. If Taeyong likes to annoy Doyoung, Doyoung too likes to annoy him.

Doyoung lies down on his bed; he lets his right leg hangs off the edge of the bed and he places the other leg on it. Doyoung scrolls back again through their conversation.

Thursday, 27th July 2016

taetae07

uh i had sweaty eyes

superdo96

that's what you call tears

taetae07

you don’t understand art of word

superdo96

literally no one asked

taetae07

k

superdo96

hyung

taetae07

o

superdo96

how’s your waist

does it still hurt

taetae07

yes T_T

superdo96

how bad is your pain on a scale of 0 to 10?

taetae07

it’s like 17!!!

superdo96

let me explain to you again how this works

Doyoung lets out his breath in a long sigh. Putting the handphone on his chest, he then runs his fingers through his hair. He sighs again, a mixture of distressed and sad. Taeyong always hurts his waist no matter how many times Doyoung asks him to take care of himself. He nags around a lot not because he is nosy but because he cares, however, Taeyong thought it was unnecessary and insisted on calling him Doyoung Mom. Doyoung fought back with calling him Grandpa Tyong.

“Why you called me a Grandpa?” Taeyong asked, he put his right hand on his chest and jerked it forward. His face was contorted in annoyance. Doyoung briefly pinched the bridge of his nose before pulling a warm smile at Taeyong. “Because I wanna take care of you,” Doyoung said as he looked into Taeyong’s eyes.

Doyoung picks his handphone from his chest. He is contemplating whether to send Taeyong a message or not. It is just too sudden. Is he okay? Lol.

Thursday, 1st January 2017

superdo96

hi hyung

aren’t you going to reply to me

hyung

hehe

i miss you ;(

He knows he isn’t going to get a reply now so he puts his handphone on the table lamp. He wants to sleep, today has been a long day to him. As he slowly drifting into a dreamland he thinks of Taeyong again. He is not trying to be a freak but his mind is kind of wilding writing an analogy of Taeyong and a flower.

Doyoung wants to describe Taeyong as someone as tiny as the violet’s petal. Not because Taeyong is short (and small) well he is indeed a small man (and he tends to wear his pants like a primary school kid, you can see he pulls his pant higher than anyone can think of and you can see how long his socks are). Anyway, he is like the petals of Doyoung’s life, he draws Doyoung to him with a force as great as the force exerted by the earth (well because Doyoung is the flower, of course). He snorts at his own thought. If Taeyong knows Doyoung describes him as petals he’ll be furious, Doyoung thinks, because in fact Taeyong should be the flower. Isn’t it?

In the same place, in the same time, we’re together
You can always come to me, back to your place

Doyoung has always thought everything that happens in life is coincidence. Just like how he coincidently saw his caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly when he thought the world was over for that poor caterpillar. He knelt on the ground, putting the caterpillar on a piece of newspaper. His knees were scrapped, dirt on his face. He was so content to not cry because a boy wasn’t supposed to cry, not even when his pet died – at least that was what he thought when his caterpillar out of nowhere turned itself to a silky cocoon. He sighed exasperatedly before putting it back into its plastic box. He was closed to dig the ground at the backyard when his mother – who was throwing the garbage – came across him.

“Doyoung-ah, what are you doing?” she asked. Doyoung turned his face to his mother, his right hand hold a garden shovel. He stood with a slump shoulder, looking sad. “Jaebae died,” he replied shortly. His mother chuckled at her innocent son. “Don’t bury him yet. Wait for 2 weeks, you’ll see a miracle.”

He was 6 years old when he learnt that caterpillar would turn into a butterfly, and that was by accident.

It was also a coincidence when he first met Taeyong on his 7th grade. That day the weather was bright and the ray of afternoon sun fell slanting on his face that he could barely open his eyes. It’s not that kind of blistering hot, it was nice. Doyoung could see the sky was full of cotton-wool clouds. He trotted heavily and reluctantly to the class, not wanting to leave the park. He could see the other students scampered to the main building when the bell rung for the 4th lesson. He huffed, still reluctant.

4th period was for Math class and he hated Math to the core. He couldn’t understand why they need to study Math. Like, being able to solve those tricky Math questions does nothing good to your life.

He put his head on the table, face facing the tall window. He saw birds flying and chirping up in the sky. He wanted to know how was the feeling to be free like that, spreading his wings so high. Ah, it must be nice.

Doyoung’s eyes fluttered open when a warm and soft voice ringing into his eardrums, breaking his train of thoughts. It felt like when he’s listening to this voice his heart seemed to be tenderly soothed. “Hey don’t sleep,” the voice said. “Teacher Yang is looking at you, hey wake up you sleepy head,” that voice said again. Doyoung felt like something hit his head so he peeled off his face from the table and turned his attention towards his back, particularly to that voice’s owner. Doyoung gasped gently. It felt like he was looking at a magical soul, no, he was looking at unreal human. Wait that sound so wrong… Anyway that person looked like a soul laced in a pure gold, so magical, so ethereal, haha, that’s kind of a good rhyme. Doyoung was shook. He was looking at a so…. breathtaking creation. This boy radiated, and he sparkled….

And he looked so fluffy T_T

Wow!

Damn it.

“Kim Dongyoung,” Miss Yang called; voice full with annoyance. But Doyoung was too distracted by that breath-taking boy to even realised his teacher was feeling annoyed at him. That breath-taking boy wiggled his eyebrows and kept on jutting his lips, god bless Doyoung felt like fainting. What the hell he looks so cute, so puppy-ish, Doyoung wanted to adopt him and brought him home. “KIM DONGYOUNG!” Miss Yang called again, this time her voice was a bit louder. She frowned at her student’s lack of reaction. Doyoung turned his face towards his teacher so fast he felt like he had broken his neck. He saw his teacher pulling an endearing smile that would make everyone fall in love with her… but then no one can beat that boy’s puppy-ish look behind him. “Ah, yes, sorry Miss Yang,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. Miss Yang shook her head, showing her dissatisfaction on how Doyoung had behaved.

“Pay attention to the lesson,” she lectured.

“Yes, Miss Yang,” Doyoung replied, his gaze was on the floor, regretting his behaviour.

“Anyway, this is random but I think I’ve found a good partner for you. I want you to have a duet with him for our upcoming Winter Singing Competition,” Miss Yang said, pointing her index finger towards Doyoung’s direction.

“What?” Doyoung frowned.

“That boy behind you,” Miss Yang replied.

What the… that’s nonsense! Doyoung’s eyes widen comically, he plastered a disbelieve expression on his face. “No!”

He could hear a small creak of movement when a chair was pushed (or dragged?) abruptly scrapping the floor. Doyoung turned his head behind his back. The breath-taking boy was taken aback by his sudden ‘no’. And now Doyoung felt guilt rushing throughout his system. Hey, it’s not like that. He wanted to say. But Lord, Doyoung was just tight-lipped.

“I won’t take no as the answer. You and Taeyong will do the collaboration and win the competition and that’s final,” Miss Yang replied. “Okay let’s move on to the next topic.”

Ah so his name is Taeyong, wow, has he always been in this class? Doyoung thought. Not that he didn’t pay attention in this class it just for the past 3 month being a 7th grader every time he had a Math class with Teacher Yang Doyoung had always been busy keeping his mind occupied with other stuff like maybe sleeping or daydreaming. So, yeah, he didn’t remember any single soul from this class. Good job Kim Dongyoung. He patted himself, nodding in between.

Exactly at that moment he felt like someone was poking his back with a pen so he turned to that particular person just to see that person flexing the muscle of his apple’s cheeks, the corner of his mouth upturned and his eyes crinkled. It was that breath-taking boy, Taeyong. Doyoung thought he should smile back.

That was how he coincidentally met Taeyong, at least that’s what he thought but Taeyong always argued with him insisting rather it was fate that made them meet.

“Can you please stop with your coincidence theory,” Taeyong chided. He picked a fork and cut some portion of the cake before conveying them into his mouth. As soon as he takes a bite he could feel the beautiful gooey texture melting in his mouth. The cake was moist and he liked it.

Doyoung rolled his eyes. “It was a coincidence! If you didn’t ‘hey don’t sleep’ at me at that time I wouldn’t even noticed you.” Taeyong brought the fork (with a cake on it) closer to Doyoung’s left cheek. Slightly frowning Doyoung swatted Taeyong’s hand away from him with a ‘what the hell’ all over his face.

“Isn’t coincidence technically fate,” Taeyong claimed, plastering his animated face. He pushed the chair slightly and walked to the counter to get his Iced Green Tea and Doyoung’s Iced Americano. Doyoung didn’t understand why Taeyong liked Green Tea it tasted so bad!

Doyoung retreat his arms from the table and leaned back into the chair. His black jacket was ed, revealing his white t-shirt inside. He ran his fingers through his brown hair leisurely, resting his eyes outside the café. Tall buildings blocked the sun, wild mix sounds of car horns on the busy roads, and students walked down the street whistling happily.

The sound of guitar getting tuned caught his attention back to the café with Taeyong wooing at the back. Taeyong strutted to him holding their beverages while his eyes were still on Taeil. “Taeil hyung is so beautiful,” he exclaimed. He pulled out the chair as he sat. “Good at cheerleading, good in singing.” Taeyong pushed Iced Americano towards Doyoung. “y, and has everything,” Taeyong added with a mixture of snorting while sipping his tea. “But, “ Doyoung retorted, “his height is a bit…” He put his thumb and his index fingers together, making a ‘pinch’ gesture.

“Yah! Do you want to die!” Taeil shouted across them, feeling like they disregarded him completely. He was sitting on a round chair on the small stage. “You are short too Lee Taeyong shut up.” He clenched his teeth, annoyed. Both Doyoung and Taeyong muffled a sound of somebody getting choked, holding back their laughter.

“I’m going to perform too next week. I’m so gonna tell Hansol hyung to save the spot for me,” Taeyong said. Taeil and Taeyong were the regular part-time singers, who sang in this café, and the pay-check was quite good.

“Are you going to rap again,” Doyoung crossed his arms. Taeyong nodded.

“Let’s perform together.”

“No,” Doyoung blocked Taeyong’s face with his palm. “No, I’m not gonna perform with you.”

“Ah! Why?!” Taeyong glowered at him with a frown all over his face. He took out his textbook and a pen from his bag. “We did win first place during our 7th grade, you and me, you sing and I rap.”

“No. Still no.”

“Headass.”

“Unless you try to sing too then I’ll give a shot.”

“I hate you, you know my voice .”

”Your voice is nice, you just need to practice. Let’s do ballad, okay?”

“You’re always, always singing ballad! I know it’s a nice song and since you also already know that, you should stop singing ballad.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes. He had always been rolling his eyes whenever he’s with Taeyong.

“You should try something else like singing rock, or even dancing,” Taeyong said, hands flailing. Doyoung slipped the ear bud into his right ear, twirling his pen in his fingers. Doyoung patted Taeyong’s arm and wiggled his index finger. “Not in a million years.”

“You at dancing.” Taeyong smirked, hands crossing his chest.

“So?”

“I can teach you.” He rested his chin against his hands.

“NO!”

“Okay, if you don’t like that, then try cross dressing instead!” He pinched his bridge nose. “Stop doing only ballad,” Taeyong said. “I know your voice is amazing omg I feel like crying but you should broaden your variety.”

Doyoung yawned as he arched his back, stretching both his arms widely. He glanced up to Taeyong. “Even if you say all this, I still wanna sing ballad.”

“Okay then, if ever you turn out to be a famous singer one day I’m gonna pop up at your concert and yells ‘stop doing ballad!!!!’ until you want to hideunder the ground.”

The tingle of the bell snapped both of them. At the entrance Sicheng and Jaehyun simultaneously had ‘what the s’ expressions. “Hyung, don’t do that,” Sicheng said. “You’re gonna embarrass yourself I swear to God,” Jaehyun added.

They sauntered towards Doyoung and Taeyong. “Do you need our help to move out your thing to your new house later?” Jaehyun asked.

“Nah, we’re completely okay. I’ll be his big help,” Taeyong replied flatly.

“Call us anytime if you need extra men,” Sicheng said, beaming. Doyoung popped a piece of chocolate into his mouth. “It’s okay. Just go study for your college entrance exam,” Doyoung replied. He stood up and patted Jaehyun’s head. “We’re going now.”

Jaehyun put a quizzical expression on his face. “You’re going already? I thought we could hang out.”

Taeyong laughed as he stood up. “We’re going to be late if we don’t start now.”

Sicheng and Jaehyun nodded, bidding them a goodbye wave.

Both of them walked towards the car parking while still bickering over their life. As they got into the car Doyoung pulled his seatbelt while Taeyong pressed the car’s starter button and the engine roared to life. He put his foot on the accelerator pedal and