{With an earnest heart of days long past
You’re a gift that the sky has given}

It’s times like these that Kyunghoon is most thankful he has Heechul. Moments where, without the older man, he would be lost & most likely to have given up.

Kyunghoon supposes he should’ve expected this….should’ve expected Nam-Joo would find out sooner or later. But what he did not expect was for her to spread it all throughout the school. When Kyunghoon & Heechul had first gotten together they both agreed that they would keep the relationship to themselves. Not for the sake of saving face for Heechul because everyone already knew he swung both ways. It was more for Kyunghoon. The younger was afraid of how peers would see him.
Kyunghoon wasn’t as popular or anywhere near as attractive as his classmates had deemed Heechul. But that isn’t the approval he needed. Frankly, he could care less. The Min’s parents already knew he liked guys & were fine with it as long as he was still able to get a job but that’s the part Kyunghoon feared. Would he be turned down if people knew?

This is the part that relays to Nam-Joo. She was one of the heirs to her father’s company &, being friends with the heiress was a quick trip to a well paying job that would get his parents to stop breathing down his neck. Unfortunately enough for him & his hidden uality & relationship, Nam-Joo had fallen for him.

“It’s because of your boyish dimples.” Heechul had laughed when Kyunghoon came to his home, panicking because he had no idea what to do. Instead of coming out right then & there he foolishly decided that he’d just go with the flow & pretend he knew nothing, that he & Nam-Joo were just normal friends, normal soon to be partners in the workplace. That was until Nam-Joo decided to do some digging.

Kyunghoon being his usual, approval seeking teenage self, had Instagram. He would post pictures of he & his family, friends, & of course, pictures of Heechul, some tasteful & some not. Knowing it’d be best, Kyunghoon kept his to private, only letting his close friends & a few family members see whatever he posted. But somehow his bulletproof plan had been weaved around.

Heechul had reasoned it was most likely Nam-Joo had payed one of them to let her see for some background check type of thing. But Kyunghoon refused. He trusted his friends & instead told his lover that it was more likely she had hacked into something or maybe they followed one another & he had just forgotten.

Either way….Kyunghoon was very royally screwed.

The following week at school Nam-Joo made no action to speak with Kyunghoon which took him & everyone who knew her (aka the entire student body) by surprise. Many said ‘I though they were together’, ‘Do you think he cheated?’, ‘Wasn’t she going to ask him out soon?’ But Kyunghoon had different thoughts.

‘Was she disgusted with me now?’

‘Will I be able to find a job?’

‘What if she & the entire Kim family bad mouth me & all those I’m related to?’

‘Maybe I’ll have to leave Korea. Go to a completely new country so everyone forgets my face!’ All of these & more were flying through his head from one class into another. Each day when he woke up to the times he would lay his head down for sleep. It was truly tiring but alas, Kyunghoon had gotten himself into this, right?

“You’re thinking about her again aren’t you?” Kyunghoon jumped slightly, well, as much as he could with his face mushed into his boyfriend’s shoulder. He sighed, fiddling with his fingers.

“Yeah….I’m just worried about what’s gonna happen.” The younger mumbled to which Heechul chuckled lightly & shook his head. “It’s not funny! I’m being serious.”

“I know, I know. But you need to calm down, ssamja. I’m sure everything’ll work out.”

“But what if she-” Heechul lifted Kyunghoon’s chin, forcing him to look up, he pressed a finger to the boy’s lips.

“I don’t want to hear another word, Min. If Nam-Joo is as homophobic as you seem to think then that’s on her. Although, that has nothing to do with whether or not you will be able to get a job in Korea.” Kyunghoon huffed, opening his mouth to rebuttal. “Nu uh, none of that. So what? You’d just have to get an online job or work in another country & that’s fine. Both of us know I have the funds to take you anywhere.

‘But I want to be able to take care of you every once in a while.’ Nonetheless, he knew Heechul was right. He knew that either way it didn’t really matter if Nam-Joo & her family ruined him. It still didn’t sit well with the young Korean.

{I’ll always stay by your side, let’s be each other’s stars}