“What do you mean I like Jeon Wonwoo??”

 Jun had to remind himself that they were in a cafeteria full of fellow students and somehow managed to keep his shock to a choke.

 “You were staring at him when we passed the taekwondo club this morning.”  

 It was Joshua who spoke up. Great. This meant he had lost his only voice of reason, Choi Seungcheol. Seungcheol would usually back him up when their friends got unreasonable, to the exception when Joshua was involved; Seungcheol would just say yes to whatever Joshua said.

 “Why didn’t you say so?” Soonyoung gushed with gleaming eyes. “I can arrange things for you guys!”

 “Ooh! As expected from the taekwondo club captain!” Seokmin chimed in with his brightest grin. “I know! We can get them locked at the taekwondo room!”

 “Oh my God, you watch too much dramas!” Seungkwan dismissed the excited duo with disapproving scowl. “Let me handle this operation,” he ended by swishing his imaginary long hair.

 “Guys!” Jun hissed and it managed to get his friends attention back to him. “I don’t like Jeon Wonwoo!”

 They all laughed. Seungkwan rolled his eyes.

 “We all saw you looking at the taekwondo room with such longing in your eyes!” Seungkwan claimed.

 Jun stuttered for a reply because Seungkwan wasn’t totally wrong. “B-But, I might not be looking at Wonwoo...” That earned him strange looks from his friends.

 “Uhm, who else could it be?” asked Joshua.

 “Jeon Wonwoo is one of the hottest single guy in this high school. Of course it’s him,” said Seungkwan with a scoff.

 “Bosun has a girlfriend,” said Soonyoung.

 “Minsuk’s a boyfriend,” added Seungcheol.

 “Kyungmin looks like that anime character you’re scared of,” said Seokmin.

 “Donghyuk’s your neighbor and like your little brother.”

 “Sungjong is your third cousin. You won’t date your cousin, right? Ew.”

 “There’s no one else!”

 Jun was about to argue with that but Seungkwan silenced him with a stern look.

 “Just leave it to us,” he said before turning to Soonyoung. “You’ll help, right?”

 “Of course! I’m the captain. Wonwoo will listen to my words!”

 “That’s abuse of authority,” Seungcheol frowned.

 “It’s for a friend,” Joshua looked at Seungcheol with glittery eyes and Seungcheol just nodded dumbly.

 The rest of the lunch was spent with Jun’s friends talking excitedly about their matchmaking plans. They were still talking even as the bell rang and they walked to class.

 “Guys, I really don’t like--”

 “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Deny all you want.”

 And with that, Jun was dismissed for the nth time today. Desperation crept into him. He wondered if he would ever be able to convince his friends of the truth.  

 He also wondered why it didn’t occur to his friends that he might be looking at the one member of the taekwondo club they hadn’t mention: Kwon Soonyoung.

 

---

   

 Jun would have been touched you know. His friends went as far as to arrange a study group just to get him together with his crush. They did bailed in the end, leaving one by one after making lame excuses of nonexistent errands to leave him alone with his crush, but still, this level of dedication was indeed commendable.

 If only they had gotten the right guy. Jun glanced at Wonwoo across the table and sighed.

 Wonwoo and him were at a gazebo in a neighborhood park. At first, the whole gang was there. Wonwoo got dragged into this, courtesy of Soonyoung’s abuse of power. If you get even just one grade below average, you’re suspended from the club. Jun scoffed at that. From what he had heard, Jeon Wonwoo wasn’t the type who needed study groups to help him keep his head above the intimidating sea of homeworks and exams. For all Jun knew, it was Soonyoung who needed to be careful to not suspend himself.  

Speaking of Soonyoung, he looked sleep-deprived today. Maybe he had been working on assignments all night long. Or maybe just binge-watching something. Typical Soonyoung. It’s not a rare occurrence for Soonyoung to stay up all night. He would get his face all puffed the next day, which he had whined about several times, but Jun actually thought he looked adorable like that. Oh, how Jun wished...

 “Oh, how I wished I was with Soonyoung now.”

 “Yeah... Huh? What?”

 It took Jun a split second to realize what happened. He looked up from his book and his eyes met the sight of a smirking Jeon Wonwoo.

 Jun blinked once before resuming to look at his book, desperately trying to calm himself down.

 “So you’re going to just let that slide?”

 “Yep.”

 “I see... I can help you though...”

 Jun’s fingers stopped midair while flipping a page.

 “...help me with...”

 “Getting you and Soonyoung together.”

 With that Jun finally gave up on pretending to read his book and looked at Wonwoo straight in the face.  

 “How did you? I mean, my own friends didn’t even...” Jun struggled to convey his confusion. Thankfully, Wonwoo seemed to understand.

 “I’m observant,” he simply said.  Jun wished Wonwoo could share that trait of his to his friends, even for just a tiny bit.

 “What’s in it for you?”

 “Getting my routine back. Stop having your friends involving me in whatever plans they have.” Wonwoo’s tone and expression didn’t look that sour, which suggested to Jun that he wasn’t that mad. In fact, there’s a hint of amusement in his eyes. Jun was wary of getting someone he barely knew into his love life, but he couldn’t exactly depend on his friends. So after some consideration, Jun nodded.

 “Okay.” Wonwoo started again. “I need to know more about you guys to be able to help. Like how’s your friendship. And why do you like him anyway?”

 Wonwoos words stunned Jun so it took a while for him to answer.

 “I don’t know...”

 “Huh?”

 “I don’t know why I like him...” To Wonwoo’s raised eyebrows, Jun quickly added, “It was me-Joshua-Seungcheol and Soonyoung-Seokmin-Seungkwan at first. Then one day Seokmin dropped his food tray on me, we started this new and bigger group, and you know, hang out, and before I knew it...”

 Jun’s voice became smaller and he felt his cheeks heating up as he realized what he was saying.

 “...before I knew it, I keep chasing him with my eyes. I feel like I want to talk with him forever and don’t stop. I want to touch him. I mean--”  

 Jun’s face was burning by now and he struggled to look at Wonwoo.  

 “Y-you know, hold his hands, something like that...”

 “Jun.” Wonwoo looked back at him with what looked like a mix of amusement and pity in his eyes. “You’re far gone.”  

 Jun dropped his burning face to the table and whimpered, “I know...”

 “And judging by how Soonyong’s trying to get you together with me, it seems you have a lot to work on,” he heard Wonwoo said. The words, which were completely true, stabbed Jun in the heart and made him whimper again.

 Wonwoo gave him one hard pat on the back and a jovial “you can do it.” Jun replied with a muffled “okay...”

   

---

   

Taking Wonwoo’s suggestion, Jun volunteered as taekwondo club’s manager. Not that this club needed any though. The members did everything on their own, from preparation to cleaning. It’s part of their training. So all Jun could do was to provide refreshments for after practice. That’s exactly it, Wonwoo had said. The most effective way to get someone’s heart is through their stomach. That somehow convinved Jun to research on various recipes, use up his money to buy ingredients (his Mom helped, thankfully) and experimented with brand new dishes each day.

 The response was great. One day Soonyoung had even said that he wanted to eat Jun’s food forever. It was clearly a careless remark, yet it brought a smile on Jun’s face for the rest of the day. Wonwoo scolded him though. He said that Jun should’ve taken Soonyong’s compliment as a chance to start flirting.

 (Say something! 'I will make you food, if you’ll be mine forever' or something like that)

 Jun thought he’d die if he said something like that. But now he thought it might not be such a bad idea. Soonyoung was killing him anyway. The sight of Soonyoung eating was too much for Jun. How Soonyoung would close his eyes and pursed his lips before saying, “yummy!” He also took his time when eating, his cheeks and jaws moving as if he was making sure that he enjoyed every chew.

 Despite trying to make Soonyoung to fall in love with him, Jun ended up falling for Soonyoung even more.

   

---

   

Jun was feeling too self-conscious. How could he not? All of his friends plus Wonwoo were wearing simple shirt and trousers while Jun was sporting a gray cardigan over a low-neck white shirt and a pair of trousers that fitted his legs (and ) nicely. His hair was parted at the right side and styled so that it went to his left. Definitely not a look he would have in normal circumstances.

 (But this isn’t an ordinary circumstance, said Wonwoo earlier. And your neck is not low enough.)

 Jun couldn’t help feeling like running away when he first arrived earlier. He tried his best not to, so here he was at their town’s modest but quite popular amusement park with all of his friends (plus Wonwoo). They all got their tickets thanks to Joshua who got them from his uncle (poor students like them wouldn’t waste what little money they had for amusement park with friends).

His friends complimented his looks, teasing him on how he tried so hard for Wonwoo. Soonyoung joined the others in teasing him and didn’t look affected in a way Jun would like it. How happy Jun would be if Soonyoung had stared at him with somehow drunken look like Jun would give to Soonyoung (Wonwoo’s witness account). So Jun was a little disappointed, but he wasn’t giving up just yet.

During the rides Jun’s friends, of course, tried to make Jun to be by Wonwoo’s side. Refusing would only make them insist more, so Jun and Wonwoo played along. Thankfully, Wonwoo was skillful in getting the situation his way. He subtly made Soonyoung interact with Jun more. Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Soonyoung himself were having so much fun that they failed to notice. Joshua would’ve realized, but at some point he disappeared with Seungcheol and nobody bothered to look for them.  

Still rather early in the day, Wonwoo said it’s time to use “the weapon”. Jun didn’t want to, but he was also desperate for some kind of development so he let Wonwoo take them to the haunted house. Soonyoung didn’t say anything, probably not wanting to lose face in front of his club member, but his discomfort was apparent. His face paled even before they got through ticketing. Jun almost asked them to stop going in, but Wonwoo’s stare shut him up.

Inside the haunted house, Seokmin and Seungkwan walked at the front and Soonyoung tailed closely behind. When they arrived before some kind of veiled entrance, Seungkwan and Seokmin went through without hesitating, but Soonyoung did, and Wonwoo took it as a chance.

“Soonyoung.” Wonwoo’s voice was down to a whisper and under the dim light Soonyoung visibly shuddered.

“I think it’s supposed to be this way,” Wonwoo said and guided the stiff Soonyoung to a part of the wall that had hinges on one side. Jun knew that wasn’t the right entrance and was about to stop them, but too late.

A lady (or maybe a guy disguised as a lady, who knew) with dark and extremely thick long hair came out of the hatch, her bleeding mouth warped into a crocked smile. Soonyoung let out a noise for the first time since he entered the house. It was a scream that filled the small room.  

The “ghost” went back to behind the hatch, leaving Soonyoung down on his bottom and knees. Jun hurriedly went to his side, trying to get him up. Soonyoung somehow managed to stand up, but it seemed to take all of the energy left in him, he had to let his body leaning on Jun’s to keep standing. Jun’s heart beat erratically for the first time since he entered the haunted house.

When Jun looked around, Wonwoo was gone (when did he??) and it was just him and Soonyoung. He remembered Wonwoo’s text before coming to the park today. He told Jun to hold Soonyoung’s hand today no matter what. “Do you want to be in the friend zone forever?“ threatened Wonwoo. It was enough to scare Jun, but still, Jun just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was nervous enough walking with Soonyoung leaning on him like this, let alone holding Soonyoung’s hand.

But as they proceeded further inside the house, Soonyoung started to whimper and it somehow took away Jun’s nervousness. All Jun remembered was thinking how to make Soonyoung at ease, and his hand moved towards Soonyong’s with surprising certainty. Soonyoung returned Jun’s grip before letting out a sigh (hopefully of relief) and they kept holding hands until they reached the exit. Jun let go first.  

Seeing Soonyoung’s pale face, Seungkwan and Seokmin without mercy. Soonyoung responded with a weak smile and equally weak excuse of “I can’t pull off taekwondo moves to a ghost!” He still looked tired when they moved to the next attraction, so Jun stopped him and made him sit down on a bench. Wonwoo noticed and pushed Seungkwan and Seokmin away from them and to the ticketing booth (the jolly duo had totally forgotten their original intention by now).

“You should go with them. I’ll wait here,” said Soonyoung with weary voice.

Jun shook his head firmly. “Wait here,” he said before getting a hot canned tea from a nearby vending machine. Soonyoung took the can with a smile and drank slowly.

“You want to lie down?” asked Jun as he glanced at Soonyoung.  

Soonyoung turned to him with a pout (it was so cute and Jun was starting to get frustrated) and shook his head. Jun asked him if he’s sure and was about to put his hand on Soonyoung’s forehead (in case Soonyoung got really sick) when Soonyoung’s body fell towards him. It stopped when Soonyoung’s forehead hit Jun’s chest.

“It was scary...” whined Soonyoung.

Jun almost couldn’t hear Soonyoung because of his own beating heart.

“Your heart’s beating really fast,” said Soonyoung before taking his forehead off Jun’s chest and looking up. “You were scared too?” Jun could only nodded at that.

When Soonyoung responded with a smile, Jun thought of how once again he had fallen for Kwon Soonyoung.  

 

---

 

Jun contemplated but he figured Soonyoung’s going to hear about it sooner or later, Or worse, he might not hear it until it was too late and s started to quit the club. Yes, it’s better to say it, Jun finally decided.

He approached Soonyoung during break. The club leader was on one side of the room, away from the others, fumbling with a notebook in his hands.

Soonyoung looked slightly tired, but smiled when Jun said hi. However, his expression turned rigid when Jun started to talk about the club’s practice menu.

“Why?” Soonyoung’s voice sounded cold and Jun couldn’t help but feel hurt. Despite that, Jun continued.

“I know the competition is near, but I don’t think forcing yourselves is the answer. The kids are already talking about how the practice is too hard. Maybe--”

“What do you know?” Soonyoung cut him rather loudly. Jun could feel the others looking at them now.

“You’re not even a member,” Soonyoung continued with smaller voice, but still equally cold. “You’re just here to flirt with Wonwoo.”

Jun almost choked when he tried to reply.

“Y-you’re right. I’m sorry...”

When Jun got home that day, he went straight to his room and cried until dinner.

   

---

   

The next day Jun took the first move and greeted Soonyoung as usual. He was sure he didn’t seem off; none of his other friends commented on him. They picked on Soonyoung instead, who seemed slightly low in spirit. Jun noticed that Soonyoung looked like he was trying to talk to him, but always stopped midway when the others started another topic or joke.

Later that day, Jun went to the taekwondo club a bit late. His homeroom teacher asked him for a favor. Fortunately, he came in time to bring the usual refreshments.

To his surprise, Soonyoung came to him and suddenly bowed down.

“I’m sorry! I was out of line yesterday.” Soonyoung said after getting his back straight again. Jun shook his head to assure Soonyoung that he didn’t mind.

Soonyoung looked at him straight in the eyes and said, “I expected you to get mad, but today you greeted me as usual, and you still come to the club, I know it’s not for me, but...” Soonyoung sounded amazed.

Jun smiled sheepishly, embarrassed both by Soonyoung’s tone and gaze. “I knew you didn’t mean it. You were just tired, that’s all.”

Soonyoung didn’t reply and stared at him for quite some time. Jun was getting scared that his own face might turn into a tomato if Soonyoung didn’t stop.

“You know...” said Soonyoung when he finally spoke again. “You’re a very nice person.” Jun could sense the sincerity both in his voice and eyes, and it made him felt like he was in cloud nine.  

But then Soonyoung turned his back and walked away, leaving the words, “Wonwoo is lucky”. Jun felt as if he was slammed down from up in the sky right to the ground below. He couldn’t bring his face to smile again, not even when Wonwoo came to him with a grin on his face.

“What did you guys talk about?”

“He apologized for yesterday.”

“That’s good, right? Why the face?”

“I don’t know... I just don’t feel like I’m getting out of the friend zone...” Jun ended sadly, but Wonwoo gave him a disapproving look.

“Yesterday after you went home, I asked him what happened. He looked upset and told me to go after you. He was almost sulking. I told him it’s his problem with you, then he apologized for venting at me.”

“...So?”

“Okay, I’m not telling this right. What I’m trying to say is, he looked pissed about you and me. Like he was jealous.”

Jun felt bubbles of hope inside him, but he didn’t want to indulge himself in them. The fall just now still hurt.

“I don’t know...”

“I’m sure that all you need is one small push! You should just confess!”

“What? No!”

They argued until it was time for Wonwoo to get back to practice. Jun was left on the side, looking at Soonyoung’s side profile while wondering about Wonwoo’s words.

   

---

   

It was finally the day of the taekwondo competition and Jun had never felt so nervous. Yes, this was worse than the day of high school entrance exam, or even the time when he held hands with Soonyoung at the amusement park. He watched the whole competition with Seungkwan, Seokmin, Joshua, and Seungcheol at the audience seat. They all cheered and sighed loudly at every development that went throughout the competition.  

When it came the time for the total score announcement, Soonyoung’s team was announced as first place. Jun saw how Soonyoung’s face lit up and couldn’t stop a huge grin from forming on his own face. He was still grinning when Soonyoung left the trophy to Wonwoo and walked in quick steps towards them. No, wait, he was walking towards Jun, going straight to his direction and pulling Jun to a tight hug.

Jun was surprised at first, but returned the hug and gave a hearty laugh. He heard Soonyoung’s “Thank you! Thank you!” in his ears and replied with excited “congratulations!”

What happened after was so fast that Jun didn’t have time to react. The next thing he knew, Soonyoung was pulling away from Jun, showing his bright-as-the-stars grin, and suddenly his face came close until Jun felt something plump and sticky on his own lips. It was Soonyoung’s lips. It must’ve been. He knew Soonyoung wore a lot of lip balm.

Unfortunately, before Jun could even react to the kiss, Soonyoung pulled away again. This time the grin was gone, leaving behind a face of surprise and also guilt.

“I’m sorry, I...” he looked at Jun while mumbling sorry over and over. Then he turned to his right. The rest of his club had caught up to him and was standing on his side. Soonyoung looked at Wonwoo and repeated the same sorry again and again.

Meanwhile, Wonwoo broke into a huge grin and said to Jun.

“See! I told you! Now go get him!”

Jun laughed at that. Jeon Wonwoo was right all along.

Soonyoung turned to Jun with a confused face. Jun thought of how endearing it was as he pulled Soonyoung’s left arm gently and kissed him. Unlike Soonyoung’s filled-with-euphoria kiss earlier, Jun’s was filled with calmness. Now that he was sure Soonyoung wanted this just like he did, he felt no rush and took it slow. He could feel Soonyoung started to relax into the kiss, replying to his own pushes and nibbles.  

When they separated, Soonyoung still looked somewhat confused. Jun gazed at his eyes and said.

“It’s always been you.”

“Oh,” said Soonyoung with one last confused look before breaking into a shy smile. “Oh.”

Jun thought of how he fell for Kwon Soonyoung yet again today.