Although the idea of romance doesn't really exist in the minds of preschoolers, Jaehyun knew something was special about Doyoung the moment he laid his eyes on him. 

Maybe he didn't quite have the words to explain how he felt in that moment. All he knew was that he wanted to be near him, to talk to him, to be his best friend. Jaehyun was friends with everyone in preschool, and he always showed around the new kids like Doyoung. But he didn't want to just be friends with Doyoung, he wanted to be his best friend.

In the moment when he first saw Doyoung, Jaehyun almost got distracted enough miss the ball when they were all playing whatever kind of soccer game a three year old can understand. But he managed tear his eyes away from Doyoung in that single moment, kick it into the goal, and win the game for his team. 

But when Jaehyun immediately turned back to Doyoung, he seemed disappointed. Jaehyun frowned; he must have been on the other team. 

"It was your fault Doyoung, you were too slow!" One of the other kids yelled. Jaehyun smiled hearing the boy's name for the first time, but it slowly disappeared as he watched Doyoung pout and promptly sit down on the bench. 

"Another game?" Jaehyun's friend and teammate, Johnny, asked. 

"One second!" Jaehyun responded, running over to where Doyoung was sitting. 

"Hi, I'm Jaehyun!" He introduced. Despite Jaehyun's smiling face, Doyoung didn't seem any happier. "What's your name?" 

"Doyoung," he simply responded, crossing his tiny toddler arms. 

"Do you wanna play another game?" Jaehyun asked. Doyoung just shook his head and didn't say anything. "You can be on my team?" 

"Don't be a show off just because you beat me!" Doyoung whined, standing up and walking to a bench a little further away. 

Jaehyun didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever turned him down before when he offered his friendship, so he didn't know what to do. He ended up just walking back to Johnny, frowning now himself. 

"Who is that?" Johnny asked, pointing to Doyoung. 

"That's Doyoung. He's new here," Jaehyun explained. 

"Does he wanna play? Is he nice?" Johnny asked. 

"He doesn't want to play," Jaehyun responded. "But he's nice." Jaehyun smiled up at Johnny, then looked back at Doyoung. Even though Doyoung seemed a little weird, Jaehyun still wanted to be his best friend. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was a typically lunch day for the second grade class of Morrisville elementary school. There were three clumps of kids populating the lunch tables: the boys, the girls, and Doyoung. Luckily, Doyoung had his third grader friend Yuta to sit with, but otherwise he was all alone. 

Jaehyun's lunch time was quite opposite. Everyone wanted to sit by him at lunch, everyone wanted to give him their cookies, everyone wanted him to be their best friend. But Jaehyun could only keep his eyes on Doyoung. Now that he was seven he could understand what a crush was; and Doyoung's name in cursive surrounded by hearts was written into every corner of Jaehyun's diary. But how could he talk to Doyoung? Doyoung was so cool, and he was definitely the smartest person in the whole class. 

But it made him sad to think that Doyoung didn't have that many friends in their grade other than himself. So he gathered the courage and stood up, interrupting his other friends in the middle of their sentences and making his way to Doyoung's table. 

"H-hi," Jaehyun stuttered. 

"Hey," Doyoung responded simply, as usual. 

"Do you wanna sit with me? At the other table?" He asked. 

"Yeah! Let's sit there," Yuta said, and Doyoung shot him a glare across the lunch table. 

"Awesome! I'm so glad, I mean, even though we're friends we never sit together," Jaehyun said with a chuckle, waiting as Yuta excitedly and Doyoung reluctantly gathered their lunch things. 

"We're not friends," Doyoung mumbled back, but Jaehyun didn't hear them. 

When they got back to Jaehyun's usual table, he insisted Doyoung sit right next to him. The other kids grumbled and gave Doyoung looks, but all Doyoung did in response was eat his food with his head down. 

"What is he doing here?" A kid asked, as if Doyoung wasn't even there. 

"I thought Doyoung should eat with us!" Jaehyun responded excitedly. He didn't notice the way the other kids whispered to each other, giggling in secret with their eyes glued on Doyoung. But Doyoung noticed everything, even if he didn't speak.

After lunch Jaehyun didn't even get a moment to speak to Doyoung because he'd already packed up his things, almost running away until a teacher told him to stop. 

Yuta ran up next to him and gave him a confused look. "See, I told you Yuta," Doyoung spoke quietly to Yuta as everyone left for the playground. "He just wanted us to sit with them so he could make me look stupid." 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was the Monday after student council elections, and Jaehyun, Doyoung, and various other kids were stuck in a classroom for the student council meeting. 

"Why am I here again?" Doyoung asked the group. "Didn't I lose the student council president election?" 

"Yeah, you lost by a lot too," the student council secretary responded; she was the one who counted the tickets. Doyoung glared at her for a moment before looking at everyone else. 

"President gets to their vice president, right? So I picked you," Jaehyun responded. Doyoung looked surprised for a moment before rolling his eyes, but staying quiet. 

"Why did you even bother to run? Didn't you know you would lose?" The treasurer asked. 

Doyoung sighed. "I just wanted to win something, for once. Even if I knew it would never happen. Anyways, if this actually came down to smartness and not popularity I would've won by a lot." 

"That's true," Jaehyun responded. 

"Jaehyun, stop it. You won fair and square, now stop rubbing it in my face. Now, can we start this meeting? We're already running late," Doyoung spoke. 

"Alright. Let's start," the secretary spoke. They may have been fourth and fifth graders, but every single one of them could feel Jaehyun's sadness in that room. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Valentine's day was Doyoung's least favorite day at school; in fact he always prayed the holiday might land on a weekend. This year it would be like every other year; and he'd have no such luck. 

He should've been used to it by now; only receiving the mandatory gifts given out to the entire class, and even then sometimes he was forgotten. Some people got anonymous love letters, others got special gifts and messages from their friends, not him. He'd been experiencing this since kindergarten, and now he was in seventh grade. Still, he'd never adapted. 

But this year...this year was different. At the end of the handing out candy period, his pile looked slightly bigger than usual. After digging around through the cheap candy, he came across a torn out slip of binder paper, reading what it said with rapidly widening eyes. 

"Dear Doyoung, 

You've been my valentine in secret for a long time, but now I'm going to say it. You're the smartest and handsomest boy I know, and whenever I look at you I get butterflies! I like you so so much and I really wish you could be my boyfriend but I'm too afraid to admit it so I'll just give you this letter. 

Love,

Your secret admirer <3" 

"Ooh, is that a love letter?" The girl sitting behind Doyoung teased, leaning over his shoulder to read it. Doyoung looked over for the teacher's help, but he was taking a phone call outside. 

"Stop!" Doyoung whined, his cheeks red, but the girl snatched it out of his hand. 

"It is a love letter!" She cried as the entire class ran over to read it. 

"Give it back!" Doyoung whined again; this time his tone was almost at a yell. 

"No offence, but who would like Doyoung?" A boy in the class said. 

"I bet someone wrote it as a joke," someone else added. 

"Omigosh, that would be so mean," The first girl responded, passing the note to her friend to read. 

"Doyoung got powned!" A kid shouted. 

"Ew, they really do like Doyoung... I wonder who has such bad taste... I mean, no offence..." The girl reading the letter said. 

"My turn!" A third girl spoke, snatching the letter to read. 

"That's the best prank I've ever seen!" Another seventh grader yelled. 

"Stop it!" Doyoung screamed. Everyone fell silent; they'd never heard him yell before. He tore the letter out of the girl's hand and stormed to the bathroom. 

"Hey, you don't have a hall pass!" For the first time in Doyoung's life he ignored what a teacher said, making his way into a stall and locking the door. 

With the note in a crumpled up ball in his pocket, Doyoung couldn't take it any more. Years and years of this sort of treatment from the other students had put pressure on him, and now, the dam had broken. 

Doyoung felt ashamed very quickly as he began to cry hot tears at school no less, wiping his red eyes with the long sleeves of his hoodie. 

A knock on the door immediately sent him into panic mode, doing his best to silence his sniffles and wipe away his tears. 

"Yeah?" He said quietly, too upset to think about putting on his usual bitter attitude. "Are you okay?" A voice asked. Doyoung immediately groaned; he was sure it was Jaehyun. 

"Can you please just leave me the alone?" Jaehyun was immediately silenced; he'd never heard Doyoung swear. But nonetheless he was concerned. 

"But I wanna help you..." Jaehyun mumbled. Doyoung threw open the bathroom stall door, and Jaehyun was taken aback; he'd never seen Doyoung this upset before. 

"Please, leave. I know you were the one who sent it. Congratulations, your plan worked!" Doyoung said saracastically. "You succeeded in humiliating me in front of everyone. Now go. Live your life. Just don't you dare ing bother me anymore." 

"That's not-" Jaehyun started, but Doyoung slammed and locked the door in his face. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Dude, you can't ing make me join choir," Johnny spoke to Jaehyun. "I'm only coming with you this one time, and that's because you're a sad little freshman in his first week of high school, and you need an upperclassman with you to make you look decently cool." 

"Sophomores are not upperclassmen. Anyways, I just didn't want to be alone the first day," Jaehyun responded. Johnny looked over at Jaehyun. 

"You're nervous." 

"Y-yeah, today I'll see if I got into the competition team or not, plus see which freshman got a solo." 

"Only one gets a solo?" Johnny asked. Jaehyun nodded, but he was immediately distracted by a certain someone's presence walking into the room, sitting next to one of the sophomores already on the competition team.

"Is that...." Johnny trailed off, then chuckled. "No way, that can't be Doyoung." 

"That's Doyoung," Jaehyun responded dreamily. It had been a whole summer since he'd seen him; he had every right to act a little cheesy. 

"When did he get so hot?" Johnny commented.

"He's always been hot."

"Maybe to you, but not like...this. He has glowed the up!"

"He is a lot taller than eighth grade graduation," Jaehyun responded. 

"Are you telling me that you see no difference?" Johnny asked.

"I mean, he looks different... but just as beautiful as ever," Jaehyun responded.  

"You're absolutely whipped, Jaehyun," Johnny said. But Jaehyun didn't get a chance to respond, as the choir teacher began to read out the names on the list for the competition team. 

Jaehyun was immediately relieved as he heard his name, right after Doyoung's. To be honest, Jaehyun really only joined this to spend some time with him. 

He tuned out the rest of the list but listened back in when the teacher announced who would be getting the freshman solo. 

"And our winner is...Doyoung!" 

Jaehyun barely held back a cheer as Doyoung stared, in utter shock, at the cement floor beneath him. 

The teacher talked some more, mostly just about rules and procedures Jaehyun couldn't care less about. His expression remained utterly the same, pride for the boy he loved so much. Doyoung's expression remained the same as ever too, just as surprised as before. 

When they got a little break Johnny had to leave, so Jaehyun went to go congratulate Doyoung. 

"I'm so glad you got the solo! You really deserve it," Jaehyun said, trying hard to hide his blushing cheeks. 

Doyoung looked him over, squinting his eyes. "Thank you," he responded, in a sarcastic tone Jaehyun didn't pick up on. "This is just the first of me getting what I deserve. I can see you scheming, even now, and just know this: this year, I'm gonna be the one who's never humiliated. I'll be the one who wins." He turned away and looked at his shorter friend. "Come on Taeil, let's go." 

"O-okay," the short guy apparently named Taeil responded as they walked away. "What was your problem with the nice boy?" Jaehyun heard Taeil say quietly to Doyoung.

But Taeil's words went in one of Jaehyun's ears and out the other. Even though Doyoung's response was a little weird, Jaehyun could interpret it the way he wanted: that Doyoung would get everything he deserved because he gained some confidence. Of course, Doyoung has always been a little weird. But then again, Jaehyun was a little whipped. 

~~~~~~~~~~

During the winter break of junior year, Doyoung was in a place he'd never thought he'd be. Jaehyun and himself were sat together in Jaehyun's bed, snuggled under the covers, laptop playing holiday movies propped up on Jaehyun's stomach. Their long limbs were intertwined beneath the warm covers, and their mugs of hot cocoa were steaming on the bedside table. Doyoung's head rested in the crook of Jaehyun's shoulder and Jaehyun had an arm wrapped around his waist. It was the slightest of touches but it made Doyoung feel warm; it made him feel safe. Doyoung didn't think he'd ever been happier. 

"I'm sorry," he spoke. Jaehyun paused the movie and gave Doyoung a concerned look. 

"What for?" He asked worriedly. 

"I'm sorry for wasting all that time. We could've been together but I was too busy hating you," Doyoung said. "But I mean, maybe if you told me you liked me earlier I would have come around more quickly," he added with a chuckle. 

Jaehyun sighed. "I-I did..." 

"When?" Doyoung asked, looking up at Jaehyun. 

"I-in seventh grade....I wrote you a love letter on valentine's day. I swear, I spent two hours trying to figure out the right thing to say to you... but you had such a negative reaction that I didn't want to admit it was me who wrote it." 

Now it was Doyoung's turn to sigh. "Wow....I feel pretty guilty now." He chuckled sadly. "I was kind of an to you sometimes." 

"I never noticed," Jaehyun responded. 

"Well, that's because you're crazy. I wasn't always the nicest to you... so I'll apologize. But you have to know, I wasn't being mean just for the hell of it...I really thought you were always just trying to embarrass me and bully me in some weird manipulative way. I didn't really trust people when I was a kid since I got bullied, so when you were nice to me I always thought there had to be some sort of...malicious intent behind it." 

"I still should have tried to ask you out again or been more obvious...it's both of our faults that we didn't get together sooner. And just so you know...." Jaehyun said, moving his laptop off the bed and pulling Doyoung in closer to him. "I promise I'll always protect you from now on. I'll never let anyone treat you that way ever again." 

"You're too sweet," Doyoung responded, burying his face in Jaehyun's chest. "And you know, it's okay if we missed some time. We have each other now." 

Jaehyun smiled brightly down at his soulmate, placing a kiss to the top of his head. Doyoung reached out from under the covers to grasp Jaehyun's slightly bigger hand, sighing this time out of contentment. 

"You know, now that we're on the same side, we'll really rule the school," Doyoung said. 

"We always were on the same side," Jaehyun responded. 

"So cheesy!" Doyoung whined loudly, tackling Jaehyun into the bed. Jaehyun laughed and took Doyoung down, the two boys giggling and playfighting like they were little kids again. 

But unlike little kids Jaehyun placed a kiss on Doyoung's lips as soon as they were close enough, Doyoung smiling against his mouth. Doyoung smiled and kissed him back, but Jaehyun pulled away. As he did, he stared into Doyoung's eyes, captivating him just as much as they did when he was three years old and knew nothing of what was to come. 

"Love you," Doyoung responded with a softness Jaehyun had always dreamed would be reserved just for him. Jaehyun gently pushed Doyoung's black hair out of his eyes, tracing his fingers over the planes and curves of Doyoung's face. 

"I love you too," Jaehyun responded, placing a peck on Doyoung's nose. "Always have, always will." 

Doyoung rolled his eyes. "Give me a real kiss!" 

And of course, Jaehyun did. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: hey guys! Sorry for the angst in the first part of this chapter...even I had a hard time writing it. Doyoung is my ultimate bias so it was pretty painful writing about him getting hurt! Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying this story as it comes to its close. Only three chapters left! One more couple left (do you guys remember which one), the finale, and the epilogue! I really hope you all have enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. If you liked it, don't forget to subscribe, upvote, and leave a comment! I respond to every single one. 

Thank you all so much! Love, RainbowDonkeys