with his arms folded and the book poorly hidden in between, sungjae keeps a look out to make sure ilhoon doesn’t catch him. he rushes into the restroom and hides himself in one of the cubicles.

perfect.

he takes a good look at the spiral notebook in his hands. the cover has a brown wood-like texture, and the name ilhoon intricately carved onto it. sungjae smiles gleefully, like a thief on a successful venture, admiring his stolen treasure. the smile turns into awestruck, when he flips over to see the beautiful drawings that fill up the pages.

portraits of people from various angles, left and right profiles. close up sketches of eyes, capturing minute details, like eyelashes, wrinkles and freckles. shaded drawings that seem like they’ve been brought to life. random sketches of hairstyles, made up of a maze of pencil and cautious shading. drawings of lips, capturing the glistening from a lip gloss, or the smoothness of a matte lip cream, or even the creases on untouched and chapped lips.

sungjae flips through the book in astonishment. he would’ve never imagined such works of art being done in the midst of class time. every drawing is so beautiful and detailed, and it’s odd to imagine a cold and distant person like ilhoon was the artist. yet again, sungjae wonders what kind of thoughts go through ilhoon’s mind. to have the flair for art, especially portraits like these, does it not require him to have even an ounce of compassion? or empathy?

his train of thoughts was disrupted when the school bell goes. sungjae had been sitting in the cubicle marveling over ilhoon’s drawings for so long that a whole hour had gone by. he gets up, the book in one hand, mind in a whirl. he’s walking back towards the classroom, when he catches the book's owner waiting at the front door.

oh no.

his eyes are fixated on the book as sungjae inches forward. ilhoon laughs to himself in disbelief. sungjae gulps as he tries to think up his best excuse, but he is give no chance to. ilhoon snatches the book over forcefully, and without a word, he turns to walk back to his desk. sungjae takes in a deep breath.

“but why?” he half-shouts across the classroom, garnering not just ilhoon’s attention, but all his other classmates’.

“your drawings are so beautiful, i looked through all of them, why would you want to hide such talent? it’s such a shame! yes i took it without your permission, but it was because you were being so secretive and arrogant for no reason and i had t-”

“shut up!” ilhoon yells. the class falls into an immediate silence. ilhoon had never spoken up in front of his classmates before, needless to say flare up and cause a scene.

he turns to face sungjae, tears of anger and frustration cooped up in his eyes, “do you really think this is what you should do on your first day at a new school? poke your nose into someone else’s business and embarrass me in front of the whole class? so what if i’m arrogant and secretive and i’ve got no one to talk to? you are in no place to judge me and humiliate me like that! and i don’t need your worthless, fake compliments, so mind your own damn business!” before sungjae could react, ilhoon barges out of the class. silence fills the room, like tranquility after a rainstorm.

sungjae is overcome with guilt, like he had intruded a personal space that was strictly out of bounds. as if he took things to his own hands and ruined it. as if he tried to help ilhoon open up, but caused him to shut himself in more.

he’s left with this guilt he never asked for.

ilhoon sits motionlessly on the steps of a secluded stairway. he never imagined those words coming out of him. the instantaneous burst of anger wore him out, and he’s left feeling lifeless, horrible and mean. no one has ever shown such a strong interest for his artworks, and he has never been complimented for the hours of effort he puts into every single sketch. now that someone does, he lashes out at them and puts them down? he realized sungjae was just trying to be nice, yet he thwarted the facts and made him look bad.

he wished there was a way to apologize.

the next day, ilhoon steps into class. the atmosphere’s still uncomfortable. usually everyone’s chit-chatting, cheerily involved in their own conversations. some of the guys would be fooling around, the girls gossiping. none of it happened this morning. the stillness in the air remains, as if the fight just broke out.

he glances over to spot sungjae’s empty seat.

why do i even bother, it wasn’t completely my fault either. he took my book, so why should i be the one feeling guilty? and so what if i’ve got the heart to apologize? he probably won’t accept it anyway .his internal monologue drives him nuts.

“i’ll accept it.”

ilhoon jumps at the voice that answers him. he turns and sungjae greets him with a soft smile.

“how did y-” ilhoon’s still baffled. he was sure he said it all in his head. he’s confused as to how sungjae somehow heard his thoughts. the taller boy smirks.

“i’ll accept that apology of yours, and say my part. sorry for yesterday, i should’ve respected your privacy. we’re good now, right?”

there’s a puzzled look on ilhoon’s face. it felt like sungjae took the words out of him, as if he translated his thoughts into words. strange. and stranger is the fact that the whole class has turned to look in their direction, all grinning at the reconciliation. there’s a sense of glee in the air now, like a rainbow that emerges after a rainstorm.

as like the painless walk down the top of a summit, after the treacherous journey up; as like the burden lifted, after an intense . (the fight wasn’t that dramatic, but you get the point.) the two finally find time to have a purposeful conversation. the sky slowly darkens as evening approaches. ilhoon and sungjae make themselves comfortable, seated on the school tracks. not that comfortable, but the mood’s right.

“honestly, that fight was stupid.” ilhoon admits.

“yeah, i was just being nice wasn’t i? your drawings are so beautiful i just felt the need to compliment you.” sungjae seems to use all the right words at all the right timings. ilhoon blushes slightly.

“it felt… odd, to finally have someone appreciate my artworks …” ilhoon mutters under his breath, trying not to look in sungjae’s direction.

“but why are you hiding those talents of yours?”

sungjae later learns that ilhoon’s parents are pushing him to attend law school, that he is also equally gifted in his academics. scoring good grades and topping the ranks are a norm for ilhoon. since young he’s had such scholarly capacity, and his parents felt it would be a waste if he doesn’t made use of it. to do well at school means he has got a good future ahead of him. not everyone is as lucky as he is.

“but it just isn’t what i want. i don’t want to attend law school. i have no interest in it.” ilhoon laments. he is caught in between the expectations of his family and his true interest— drawing.

sungjae’s eyes are shut, fingers on his chin. he nods as if he’s thinking to himself. he found the answers.

“ah! now i get it!” sungjae exclaims, his eyes wide open.

ilhoon stares at him in confusion, for the second time today.

“so when you were walking up to get that math assignment and thinking ugh whatever, it wasn’t because you were being arrogant. you just didn’t care for the good grades, because you wished that same recognition could be reflected on your artworks! and this morning you were going to apologize to me, because you realized i was the first one to give you that recognition! my god!” sungjae finally catches his breath. he claps for himself. well done sungjae.

ilhoon interrupts.

“ugh whatever…?”

shucks.

“how did you… know that?”

sungjae realizes that in the heat of the moment, he had revealed his own supernatural ability—the ability to read thoughts.

 

author's note: that was... a lot BSJSSJS and in case you haven't caught on yet, the text in italics are thoughts! i would love to know if the flow of my story is okay and if i wrote coherently enough... so do leave me comments and feedback! thank you for reading and see yall in chapter 3!