Silence flooded the classroom and Changkyun froze; his heart and brain stopped working: he didn’t know if he had heard correctly or if he had only imagined it.

Go out... with Wonho? Me?

Seeing Changkyun's expression, the older boy bit his lip, regretting having asked him out that suddenly. However, he wanted that adorable boy to be his boyfriend, wanted to hug him and kiss him whenever he wanted, to have him alone for him.

Then, they heard people approaching down the hall: classes were about to begin. Immediately, both tensed up and Changkyun pushed him to get off the table.

Without looking at his face, he went quietly to his desk by the window and sat down. Wonho stared at him from the same spot as the students entered the classroom: he wasn’t going to pressure him to give him an answer soon. He knew how Changkyun was, the best thing would be to have a lot of patience and wait.

In the end, it would be worth it.

"Excuse me..." Wonho gave a small jump and turned to the girl who was speaking. She seemed embarrassed for just talking to him, “this is my desk.”

The brunette realized he was preventing her from sitting at her desk and stepped aside.

"Ah, sorry, I didn’t notice," he apologized, giving her one of his charming smiles. The girl giggled and started to play with her hair.

"Aren’t you Shin Hoseok?" she asked with interest. “What are you doing in a first year classroom?”

“I came to… talk to a friend.”

Instinctively, he looked at Changkyun's desk, just to find out that the boy was staring at them. As soon as their eyes met, Changkyun looked away hurriedly toward the window, making Wonho's lips curl into a smile.

"Do you mean that weird-? I mean, that guy?” Wonho looked back at the girl and nodded, frowning. “Ah... and I thought he had no friends," she added with a nervous laugh.

Wonho didn’t like what he was hearing, but he still kept his kind smile.

"Yeah, he's a little weirdo," he said, raising his voice for Changkyun to hear. “But, to be honest... I find it adorable, don’t you think?”

The girl was surprised; it seemed like she was going to say something, but before she did, the brunette bowed slightly and left, a satisfied smile on his face.

Changkyun continued to stare at the window and pulled on the hood of his sweatshirt. He felt his cheeks burning and he wanted to cover himself so that no one would notice.

 "Idiot," he murmured in embarrassment, a shy smile on his lips.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

When he opened the tap and the hot water slid down his body, Changkyun let out a sigh and closed his eyes. All his muscles relaxed and he began humming his favorite rap song while he washed his hair.

That day had been hard, but he wasn’t tired. He was in a good mood despite having had class until six o'clock in the afternoon, and then having been up to almost nine o'clock at night rehearsing his piano recital. If it weren’t because they were closing the faculty, he would have stayed longer.

Now he enjoyed playing the piano again: he no longer saw it as an obligation, his fingers were once again yearning to create melodies. Lately he felt more motivated, more... happy.

And, despite he didn’t want to admit it, it was largely thanks to the dummy, a.k.a Hoseok.

It had been almost a month since Wonho asked him out, and he hadn’t given him an answer yet.

He wasn’t sure of his feelings: he obviously liked him, but he didn’t know if it was enough to start a relationship with him. Sure, Wonho was a really nice person and with a big heart, but he didn’t quite know him, and the idea of being the boyfriend of the most popular guy on campus wasn’t very appealing.

Nothing had happened between them since then, however, now they had grown closer.

On the first few days, Wonho didn’t try to approach him again. He simply smiled at him as they met on campus; Changkyun used to tilt his head in response and passed by.

But that changed the morning in which the pianist returned to the stands of the sports center in search of the loneliness he needed from time to time. Wonho was training like the last time, and every time he passed him, he slowed down and ran backwards so he could keep looking at him as he went.

Even at one of those times, he winked and threw one of his heart-breaker smiles.

Changkyun rolled his eyes at Hoseok's presumption. However, he still thought that his childish, smug side was adorable; finally, he gave in and waved at him timidly, giving him a small smile. The brunette stared at him completely dazed, and because of his distraction he stumbled and fell to the ground.

Seeing this, the pianist ran down the steps to make sure he was all right. Wonho had no scratches, but he began to complain, saying he couldn’t walk and his vision was blurring. Changkyun suspected he was faking it, and even so he decided to him to the infirmary.

Thereafter, Wonho began to wait after school to accompany him to the cafeteria, or to chat for a while. The 'good morning' and 'good night' messages began to turn into long nightly conversations, which none of them wanted to end.

Yeah, maybe his good mood was due to that idiot...

When he finished showering, he dried himself and dressed in a comfortable sweater that he wore as his pajamas. He took a small towel and wrapped it around his shoulders before leaving the bathroom; he passed by the living room where Kihyun was absorbed in watching a mystery movie and headed the bedroom.

He lay on his stomach on his bed and took his cell phone from the bedside table. As he ruffled his hair with the towel, he saw that he had a new message, and he couldn’t help but smile when he saw Wonho had sent it.

"I'm bored, what are you doing?"

It was from twenty minutes ago and he didn’t hesitate to reply.

"I just took a shower"

He didn’t have to wait long to receive a reply.

"Oh... and what are you wearing?"

Changkyun rolled his eyes: he knew he was joking, the problem was that it was the third time he had asked that question in the same week. He seriously considered letting him on read and go to sleep, but he knew that the next day he would be pouting and complaining that he ignored him.

"I’m wearing my head and my limbs"

"So you're not wearing anything?"

The little boy sighed, shaking his head. Hoseok was a hopeless case.

"Good night, dummy"

"Okay, okay... dream with me"

There he went again with his cheesiness. Changkyun's fingers typed quickly as he held a smile.

"No thanks, I don’t want to have nightmares"

A minute later, a selfie of Wonho arrived, laying on his bed with puffy eyes and his soft messy hair, clutching a hand to his heart with an offended expression. Attached to the photo was the message "You’re a bad person".

Changkyun couldn’t help but chuckle. He felt something warm inside him and was unable to stop smiling: it was on those moments when he was tempted to accept being his boyfriend. He wanted to accept so bad.

During the last month he had been debating the same topic over and over again: how would his life change if he said yes? It was sure it would take a turn, and he was scared as hell. Scared of what his friends, his family and all the people on campus would think. Scared of the stupid prejudices that society had imposed. Scared of being different.

He looked back at the picture of Wonho, and his mind momentarily forgot all that.

He remembered the stupid, adorable laughter of the brunette, and how his eyes curled like a half moon when he smiled widely. His nervousness when he didn’t know how to follow a conversation or a joke, his excessive self-confidence, his obsession with chokers and his peculiar sense of fashion that, after all, suited him better than anyone.

Changkyun blocked the phone and closed his eyes, dropping his head on the pillow: his feelings for him grew more and more each day, and he didn’t know what to do.

He never imagined that falling in love could bring him so much troubles.

Suddenly, his cell phone vibrated again and he unlocked it, thinking it was Wonho again. His frown creased as he saw it was an unknown number and entered the chat.

"Hi: 3 I'm Minhyuk"

Changkyun was surprised: he didn’t expect to receive a message from him. Although Minhyuk tried to disguise it, the pianist knew that he wasn’t to his liking, and he still didn’t know why.

"Hello"

"I hope you don’t mind me talking to you here :D"

"No, not at all"

"Good ^^"

Changkyun didn’t know what else to say, so he decided to wait for Minhyuk to continue talking. Deep down, he knew that Wonho's friend must have a reason to send him a message so suddenly.

"I was wondering if we could talk about something real quick"

He was right.

"Yeah, of course"

Changkyun swallowed and waited nervously for the answer.

"You see... it's about Wonho"

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun's eyes were fixed on the sheet music in front of him. He rearranged his glasses and read again one of the analysis exercises he had to do for the next day.

“What does the following musical sign indicate at the beginning of the song? A, that the musical form is binary. B, you have to wait four beats. C, that Wonho has a girlfriend and he’s just playing with you.”

… Not again.

With frustration, he closed the notebook and sighed, covering his face. He hadn’t stopped thinking about what Minhyuk had said to him yesterday. Did Wonho really have a girlfriend? Had everything been a lie? Just to make fun of him?

Hyungwon looked up from the novel he held in his hands and looked at the boy sitting across from him at the cafeteria table.

"Problems with the exercise?" Changkyun shook his head. The slender boy thought about it for a few seconds before continuing. “Another… kind of problems?”

This time the pianist showed his face and looked down. Finally he nodded in silence: he had no intention of telling anyone, let alone the best friend of the cause of all his miseries. But there was something in Hyungwon that prevented him from lying to him.

"And I suppose you don’t want to tell me what's wrong," he continued, putting his book aside and leaning back in his chair. As he received no answer, he let out a big yawn as he continued to speak. “Let me guess... does it have to do with Wonho?”

Despite being an expert in hiding his emotions, Changkyun was unable to mask the affliction he felt upon hearing that name, and that didn’t go unnoticed by Hyungwon: he had just hit the jackpot.

Quickly, he stopped stretching, got up and took a seat in the chair next to the little boy.

“What happened?” he asked, putting his hand on his shoulder and looking at him with great concern.

Changkyun remained silent, debating whether it was really prudent to open up to Hyungwon. But there was a question in his heart that didn’t let him sleep at night and he longed to know the answer.

"Is it true..." he murmured, not daring to look at him, "that Wonho has a girlfriend?"

He had said it. And he couldn’t believe how little he liked to say the word 'girlfriend': just imagining Hoseok with another person made his stomach twist.

“What? Who told you that?” Hyungwon asked, frowning. The black haired boy just shrugged. “Wait. It’s because of those ty rumors?” he said, his eyes narrowing suspiciously, hoping Changkyun wouldn’t believe all the lies about his best friend.

Changkyun remained thoughtful: he had never believed in the rumors that Wonho was with someone different every day. But why would Minhyuk lie to him? He just didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Changkyun finally looked at him and shook his head, causing Hyungwon to smile.

"Wonho is not dating anyone, I’m sure of it.”

The warmth that the drowsy boy used in his words comforted him. He was relieved... but there was still something inside him that wouldn’t let him be at ease.

"Besides... do you want to know a secret?" Hyungwon began, leaning forward. Changkyun looked at him expectantly. “Wonho won’t shut up about you. I swear, he never gets tired of talking about how cute you are,” That made him sigh and shake his head, unable to not smile. “Seriously, you had to see how excited he gets when someone mentions your name. It’s been awhile since...”

However, Hyungwon froze suddenly, fixing his gaze on a spot behind Changkyun. The pianist frowned and turned to the window to see what he was looking at.

And then he saw him.

Wonho was passing by the cafeteria with a big smile... and he was carrying a girl around by the waist.