“Oh Daniel-ah, you dyed your hair pink? Damn, you really are a dare-devil..” Guan Lin chuckles as he ruffles the pink-haired boy, Daniel. He swats Guan Lin’s hand away and quickly fixes his bangs. As if on cue, Jihoon, Guan Lin’s boyfriend, strolls in and slides one of his arms with Guan Lin’s and hugs him tightly. 

“Ooo, Daniel, I’m liking the hair~~” He compliments as he glances at Guan Lin’s pouty face, chuckling at the sight. “Yah! Jihoon-ie, do you need me to dye my hair pink?!” Fake jealously rises in his voice before he snickers along too.

Daniel felt a pang of envy whenever he saw the bright couple in front of him, he was gay too but he never met the ‘right’ person. Because of that, the Panwink couple always said he was just ‘too strict’ or ‘had too many criteria’. Was it not okay to just find that person who would make him smile on the rainiest days or feel treasured and loved when he did not himself? 

A sigh escaped Daniel’s mouth and made up a lame excuse so he would not have to see the loving couple. After his ‘anyways, I... have to head to class, you know Mr Hwang.’ excuse which he always did to escape these type of situations, he walked off and tried to shake off his envy. He thought to himself by the bench near one of the school’s entrances in the chilly morning breeze before finally heading to Mr Hwang’s class. 

Glancing at his watch, he decided to get up and climb the dreadful stairs to his first class. Walking back into the school building, he heard quickening footsteps that got louder and before he could turn around, he was knocked down by a tall-figure onto the ground. 

“S-sorry!” He blurts out shyly. His gaze was focused on the floor and was trying to pick up his scattered books. When Daniel finally got a good look at him, he was about the same height as him. His skin looked smooth and silky and he could see his red-tinted cheeks that stood out. The raven-haired male had probably the best proportions in the entire school as Daniel looked up and down at the frantic figure who had quite a bit of trouble picking up his books. 

He finally snapped back into reality and helped pick up some of his books. Hmmm.. 2? Oh! He’s in the same year as me? Hmmm.. literature and business? Weird.. he probably majors in business.. Daniel glanced at one of the boy’s textbooks. He could hear the shy boy mutter to himself, “Ugh, stupid glasses where are you?” He touched the areas of the floor in hopes to find it. His glasses lands on Daniel’s vision and picks them off carefully from the floor and puts them in the boy’s palm. “Uh.. here you go..” He passes a few of the books which had dropped into the boy’s arms.

His long bangs blocked his eyes and I wasn’t able to take a good look at them. Secretly glancing at him often to see if he could get a good glance of him but to no avail.

”Hi! My name is Daniel! Same year as you.” Daniel beamed and smiled from eye-to-eye and tried to be as friendly as possible. Daniel could sense hesitance from the other but kept the hand still. He began worrying when the boy started to stare at it. Before he could open his mouth to speak, the male walked away frantically. Looking down at his feet in probably embarrassment. Daniel rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and a bit frustrated at himself.

"Ugh, whatever.. if we're fated we would meet again sometime.. I hope.." Daniel sighed and decided to walk up the flights of stairs.

~1~

"Ok class, remember to write the book review essay. It is due the day after tomorrow so don't make any excuses!" Mr Hwang announced, following that were the annoyed groans from the other students as they started leaving the classrooms or regrouped with their cliques. Daniel started walking off with his backpack hung on one shoulder. "Mr Kang, I'd like to talk to you for a second, come back here." He takes a 180-degree turrn and approached Mr Hwang in curiosity. He was never called back by a teacher and his pulse quickened, thinking he had done something terribly wrong. "Yes, Mr Hwang?" His voice shaking the slightest. 

"I'd like to ask a favour from you," Mr Hwang begins as he was arranging some stacks of wordy assignments that were scattered across his desk. "Would you mind if you could help out one of my students? He.. isn't much of a speaker but he has to do a presentation out of school as a representative. I am aware that teachers praise you for your speeches and presentations and was wondering if you could help him." I cocked my head to the side in slight confusion. "Ah. His name is Gong- ah no, Ong Seongwoo. I already set up a meeting for both of you at the library. Here is his number," Mr Hwang hands Daniel a slip of paper with numbers scribbled on. "Meet him in the library at 3pm tomorrow. If you have any questions or want to get to know him more, text him. Thanks, you may go now." 

Daniel bows at Mr Hwang before exiting the room. Fishing out his phone from his back pocket, he punched in the digits of the number and saved it in his contacts as "Ong Seongwoo". Hearing his friends call him over, he dashes to them and heads over to their next class. Once they all heard the bell, all except one of his friends started rushing to their classes in a hurry.

"Daniel hyung, I want to confess to Daehwi but I don't know how~~" Daniel's younger friend, Jinyoung, was annoyed and didn't know how to confess to the one and only, Lee Daehwi. "Heh, you like Lee Daehwi? I don't know, I haven't been in love before.." The older male responds while elbowing the younger in a teasing manner. "Hyung~ You're such a loner~~" Daniel pretends to grasp his heart in pain which couldn't help but make Jinyoung laugh. "Anyways, I'll just ask advice from Woojin hyung for help, loner~" Jinyoung ran away right after the comment so Daniel couldn't hurt him. Taking a last glance at the hyung, he sticks out his tongue and runs away further.

Jinyoung, are you three years old? Heh. Daniel unconciously smiled at the immature Jinyoung. Taking a glance at his watch, he was relieved that he had no classes for the next hour or two and decided to walk back down to his favourite spot, the benches. Once he sat down at his comfortable spot, he took out his phone and decided to text "Ong Seongwoo" abut some details.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

<           Ong Seongwoo

                                                      Hi. I'm Kang Daniel, you're 'teacher' for the presentation you are practicing for the presentation would you like to meet in advance

Um. No thanks. I'd like to get the presentation over as soon as possible. 

                                                     Oh. I see. Then, we'll settle with what Mr Hwang had set up, 3pm @ Library?

Yes. Thank you.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ouch, I guess he really can't stand people... Daniel's nerves were wracking thinking about how awkward it might be to just talk to him. Just then, he heard a faint, distant but familiar voice call out to him. "Daniel-hyung~~!" The small figure, Daehwi, started running to him and sat on the empty spot on the bench. "Hyung~ If you keep sitting here by yourself, you'll look like a loner!" Daniel just chuckles along as he remembered Jinyoung saying the same thing, his voice still ringing with 'loner~" in his head. Daniel abesent-mindedly listened to Daehwi's countless and forever-going talk about none other than Jinyoung. After a long ramble from Daehwi, Daniel pats him on the shoulder, "Daehwi, just tell Jinyoung already." he advises to Daehwi.

"Ok fine~ then can you at least be there tomorrow when I confess? Around three, and I'll get one of his friends to ask him to be at the field.. so at least when he rejects me I can run over to your arms~~" Daehwi was being adorably cute and tried to make his best 'cute eyes' at Daniel so he would have to agree.

"Sorry Daehwi-ah, I need to meet someone at the library, some tutoring for one of Mr Hwang's students..." Daehwi pouted sadly, his lips jutting out. "Hyung!! Who is it? Tell me! Tell me!" Seeing the small Daehwi jumping around like a little child begging for another ice-cream. Daniel rubs the back of his neck and replied shyly, "Ah.. his name is Ong Seongwoo, I haven't seen him before or heard the name.." The younger male immediately froze, looking at Daniel with a nervous stare or as if Daehwi was saying, 'Are you crazy?!". And true enough, when Daehwi finally spoke up, "Are you crazy?! Ong Seongwoo is like, the worst person you could meet! Rumours say that although he seems quiet and quite attractive, he once four-timed and he isnt a !" 

"Rumours are rumours, not the truth. He may be going through rough times and the poor guy must be just misunderstood.." Daniel reasons, "Can you confidently tell me that Seongwoo was like that in front of you?" Daehwi starts playing with the sleeve of his long cardigan guiltily, he always played with it when he felt guilty. "Sorry Daniel-hyung.. i-its just that even Jisung thinks so, and you know him.." He mumbles a bit softly but enough for the pink-haired male to hear. Daniel flashes a small smile and ruffles the younger's hair teasingly. "Its ok, anyways Hwi, I'm talking to Jisung at the cafe since you mentioned him, getting me all curious about Seongwoo now.." He grabs his backpack and waves back at the younger male before turning back and ambled his way to the cafe nearby.

~2~

"Daniel-ah! You haven't come here in a while!" Jisung, one of Daniel's first ever friends in college, hugged him tightly before letting him go and pushing him to a nearby chair. Jisung had graduated a few years ago but failed to pursue his passion for singing and instead worked at the cafe as a part-timer and a worked as a barista for his friend. Jisung looked at Daniel with the 'how-are-you-doing??' face, placing his elbows on the table and supported his chin with his hands. 

"Jisung.. are you aware of.. Ong Seongwoo?" Jisung nearly spat out the water in his mouth and started ranting the minute Daniel mentioned his name. "ONG Seongwoo? As in THE Ong Seongwoo?! Before you transferred here from Busan, he was the worst kid ever. He used to steal other people's food and bully the dongsaengs. Sheesh, he used to get in to so much trouble and he still does." Daniel cocked his head to the side once again like the dog-like instinct he has. "Jisung-hyung.. do you have a picture of him?" The older male shook his head profusely, his face showing clear annoyance from even talking about him. Who is this guy anyways? I would've heard from him by now.. 

Jisung quickly changed the topic and they started chit-chatting with eachother. He was always good at changing subjects. Three hours went by, four hours went by.. Daniel glances out the newly-cleaned window and saw the setting sun in the sky. He waved goodbye to the exhausted Jisung and left to go to his dorms. His roomate was overseas in a dancing competition so he had the whole dorm to himself. Kicking his shoes off at the doorstep, he placed them out neatly and walked inside. 

Shoving his heavy backpack onto the sofa, he spots a distinct red note that was written anonymously. Meet me at 7pm at the back of the school dorm building, if you don't, I'll tell the teachers about what you did last year. Daniel flinched at the last sentence, and knew exactly what the note meant. He took a quick look at the clock hung on the wall 6:57PM, huh, I'll just go down right now and beat the person up... Daniel had a furious look in his eyes, grabbed his phone and being the smart person he was, he put it in his pocket and started a voice recording.

Pulling the door open and slipping his shoes on, he rushed downstairs thinking of countless people who would remember the incident. Panting hard from the 'exercise' he spots a tall figure wearing a hoodie, back turned towards him, not able to see the person's face. Approaching him in an intimidating manner, he grabs the person by the shoulder and forced him to face him. "YAH!" Daniel screams, the mysterious man looked up at Daniel and in that instant, he removed the grip on his shoulder amd stood in awe. W-w-what? Its the same guy I bumped into this morning?! The other male realised who he was and he dashed back inside the building, Daniel trying to catch him shortly after. Once he turned a corner, he did not see anyone in sight. Using up all his energy, he decided to give up and sat on the floor. 

Unfortunately he looked like he could not rest when he saw the same man coming from the opposite direction. Daniel stopping him from his tracks, the shy man looked at Daniel's face and immediately blushed. "YOU!" Daniel shouts furiously. At that instant, the man who Daniel basically screamed his ears out, looked at him with pure confusion and a bit scared, stepping back a little.

"I-im sorry, I-i think you got the wrong p-person.." the bespectacled man pushed up his glasses and walked briskly out of the situation with a few books in his arms. Huh? What is going on... Daniel began tousling his hair in frustration. He was sure, the man looked exactly identical, except he had a different 'vibe' and he looked too confused for it to be fake or had to be a drama major who is incredible. He also wore different clothes and he most certainly remembered the second guy as the one he met in the morning, but-. Daniel grabbed his hair once again in frustration before feeling a hard, metal object hitting him on the back of the head. 

Before he could even look behind, he fell straight forward and but seemed to feel to have fell in someone's arms warm.... Barely even able to open his eyes, he fell unconscious and drifted to sleep.

~3~

[Daniel's POV]

My head was killing me when I woke up to my eyelids still heavy. The bright light threatened me to open them and blinked a bit to get rid of my drowsiness. Once I heard people entering my surroundings, I decided to keep quiet and pretend to be asleep to...you know, eavesdrop. I listened into two people's conversation and got slightly curious and decided to eavesdrop a little longer.

[Words in italic are from one person and words in bold are another's]

"Ok, what the hell are we going to do?!"

"Uh, why are you asking me, does it look like I know?"

"Then why the heck did we kidnap him?! What if he recognized me from this morning?!"

"Oh my god can you chill? Just wait for Sungwoon-hyung's order for god's sake."

I tried not to flinch at their conversation. One of them was my eye candy? And why is Sungwoon-hyung involved? Not able to continue eavesdropping, I pretended to yawn and stretch my arms and surprised to feel a rope tied on my wrists. "Oh. Look who's awake" I absorbed my surroundings and see two boys in front of me-- wait what they look like the same person?! "W-wha-" Before I could speak, the more intimidating one covers my mouth while the other looks down at the floor. "Ong, leave, I will talk to him personally" The bespectacled man simply nodded and scuttled his way to the door and slowly closed it shut.

The man released his hand from my mouth and forced my chin up with his finger. "Listen here, a little birdie told me you like my friend who's out the door and let me make this clear." I tried to shake his hand away but to no avail. "You, will foget he existed that this ever happened if you want to live, and if you don't want that incident to get out, would you?" My eyebrows furrow at the mention of the incident. Feeling no sense of intimidation, "and if I don't? Heh, I can't imagine two identical-looking people in a relationship." I teased, the male's face turned even more angry and let go of my chin when he heard the swing of the door open.

"Welcome, Sungwoon-hyung." He bowed respectfully and I saw the familiar hyung I knew come up to me. "Aish, Daniel. Didn't Jisung warn you about him? You really are a dare-devil." He shook his head in disappointment before turning to the jerk. "Let him go, this is an exception because I know him, ok? Daniel, really, don't interact with him." Me? Interact with that jerk? You bet I wont even talk to him after he basically threatened me, not like I felt threatened. Sungwoon gave me a concerning look for a minute before signalling the male. 

I started shifting in the chair that I was tied to when I saw the male approaching me once more with a metal rod in his hand. "WAIT NO--" My shout was interrupted by the familiar pain and darkness.

~4~

I woke up to the familiar comfortable bed and stood up after remembering what happened. When it finally hit me, my phone was still on voice record and obviously saved everything. I fished out my phone and to my luck, it was still recording. I stopped it eagerly and started playing it. I could hear my voice shout and the shy voice in the recording but right after the hit, there was nothing for minutes. I sped up the recording until I reached a certain point and listened to it. I heard the voices of the two men having a conversation but after a while, their voices get cut off and a strong ringing takes over my device.

I covered my ears in pain and quickly stopped the recording and to my dismay, the recording self-deleted?! I mentally cursed at myself and realised, Sungwoon-hyung is in the same major as me, oh my lord how could I forget? Class would start in an hour and I could totally talk to Sungwoon-hyung, especially since Jisung-hyung is his boyfriend. I punched the air victoriously and eagerly prepared for class.

I left the place 20 minutes before class and made my way to the school class building. I was less focused on my phone to see if I could find the bespectacled male again but to my disappointment, I did not. I sighed in disappointment when I was a few steps away to my classroom. Walking inside, I was eager to see Sungwoon-hyung sitting down while talking to some other guy who I had no idea who he was and some other of my classmates at their seats.

"Sungwoon-hyung!" He turned around at the mention of his name and waved when he saw me. I approached his table and leaned a bit closer so I could whisper in his ear. I whispered firmly, "What the hell happened yesterday night? You better tell me what is going on." He cocked his head to the side before his cheeks turned crimson red. "Jisung-hyung told you?" He frowned slightly and I was ready for my questions to be answered. "Okay okay~ So I might have skipped the last class of the day to spend time with Jisung but that's it okayy? Sorry gosh.." I was about to shake some answers out of him when I heard the rush of students come in and Mr. Park come in the room. Ugh, I guess I have to wait for the end of class..

[Time Skip~]

[Daniel's POV]

My eyes could barely open although it was still the first class. Mr Park had a certain way to make any class super boring and I definetely know that from experience. The glorious sound of the bell came signalling the end of the dreadful class and the students started flooding the doors. I managed to catch up to Sungwoon-hyung and grabbed onto his shoulder gently. "Sungwoon-hyung, who were those two doppelgangers or something and why did you kidnap me?!" I swore that everyone here miraculously got incredible acting skills. Sungwoon immediately burst into laughters while touching my head, thinking I had a fever. "Yah! Daniel! Are... you..okay? Do you...want...me..to...take..you to..your dorm?" He said between laughs. There was something terribly wrong going on but I could not place my finger on it.

Before I could further 'investigate' on the situatuion, Sungwoon-hyung was grabbed by his group of friends and frantically waved me off in an apologetic manner. I sighed, in both exhaustion and disappointment. There was no way that whole incident was real for this to have happened but the recording proves it so. I was in the dark, and my gut feeling was always right, something smelled fishy. I tried to recall what the so called 'Sungwoon-hyung' and that with my eye-candy's face. (which was terribly annoying)

You will forget he existed? What the hell does that mean?! Jisung warned me about hi-- Thats it! I have to speak with Jisung immediately! He was the first one to talk about this.. Ong Seongwoo. Before I could start walking to Jisung-hyung's cafe that was just a few blocks away, I heard a smal ding from my phone and hurriedly opened it. 'Tutoring with Seongwoo in 10 minutes'  Haha! I could finally meet the person i'm most curious about, he'll surely be able to spill secrets!

I dreaded to go to my class right before my meeting with this guy because I knew I wouldn't be able to focus on the lesson. Dragging my feet to the entrance of the classroom, I sat down at my seat that was at the front. 

The same boring atmosphere filled the noisy classroom as the teacher tried to hush them. Glancing at the clock that hung on the wall, Yes! 3 more minutes and I can get my answers, woop! My energy was recharged by that realisation and the long-awaited bell finally came. I dragged my chair out of my seat and sprinted out of the door, ignoring the calls from my friends.

['Ong Seongwoo's' POV]

, he can't find out.. The familiar male patted me on the shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile. "It's ok Ongcheongie~ just fake it, you honestly are one of the best actors I know!" I blushed at the compliment and adjusted my glasses. I watched as my only friend walked off somewhere and he caught glares of other students. I know I shouldn't be happy about him but... I couldn't. I shoved some of my books into my locker and closed it shut quietly. I carried my light backpack to the cafeteria to buy a water bottle on my way to the library.

"M-m-may I-i h-have a w-w-water b-bottle?" I tried to string a sentence and looked up from the ground to see a kind old lady smiling warmly at me. She gave me a cold water bottle and I passed her