Slender legs are alternating in pedaling the white bicycle as the crankset and the wheel turns non-stop.
Cold October wind lightly kisses his dewy skin as his blonde curly fringe bounce while he pedals for his dear life. His bright lemon yellow hoody strikes a strong contrast to the still dark lilac morning sky.
He gripped the handlebar tighter as he wills himself to pedal faster.
This is Yoon Sanha, a high school student at Sucheon High School and he’s currently running late—again.

The sky was a shade lighter when he successfully arrived at his school. He ran as fast as his lengthy legs could take him and within a heartbeat, he made it to his assigned room; panting, sweating, and trying to fan his face with his hands as his golden fringe stick to his forehead.
Just as he sat in his preferred place near the window, their teacher entered the room as if on cue.
The middle-aged man scanned his students and smile a little.

“Welcome to your new section! I just want to congratulate all of you for stepping to another level of your high school life. I am Mr. Kim and I will be your homeroom adviser.”

Sanha places his bag on his seat and when he finally settled in, he pulled off his hoodie, making his curly blonde hair spring in different direction which he pats and tried to tame down.

There was a knock and everyone, including the homeroom teacher, shifted their attention to the door.

“Oh yes, I almost forgot to introduce your new classmate! He just transferred here and he’s from Eonbuk Middle School. You can come in now and please introduce yourself.”

The young man with an average height and a bony facial feature bowed and headed to the platform and face the whole class.

“Hello, my name is Park Minhyuk and I’m just new…I hope we’ll be great friends.”

Minhyuk bowed and look at Mr. Kim for further instructions.

“Welcome to Sucheon High School, Minhyuk! We are very pleased to have you here; do you have a nickname that you prefer us to call you?”

Asked Mr. Kim as he eyes the new student which was currently wearing a plain white button down long sleeved shirt suggesting that he still hasn’t got his set of uniforms. The homeroom teacher just nods, signaling for Minhyuk to continue.

“My friends used to call me Rocky and I guess that’s easier than Minhyuk.”

Suggested the young transfer student. Mr. Kim just nods once again and pat Rocky’s shoulder.

“That’s a great idea Rocky. And regarding the uniform, I’ll talk to the office so that they could give you your own set by this afternoon. For now, take your seat beside Mr. Yoon, the one with the yellow hoodie.”

Mr. Kim pointed at Sanha’s direction where a vacant seat is still available. Rocky nodded and decided to head to his assigned seat. Sanha eyes the transfer student and after a good few seconds of scrutinizing his new classmate, he gave him a closed lip smile. Rocky slightly bowed his head while returning the smile and just like that, their lessons for today started.

When the bell rang, signaling that it’s already lunch time, their math teacher decided to give his students an assignment based on the remaining few topics and right after he finished writing the assigned task on the board, he dismissed the class. Half of the class headed to the cafeteria except for a few including Sanha and Rocky. Sanha was taking out his packed lunch from his bag when he felt a soft tap on his shoulders. He looked at his back and saw a smiling Rocky.

“I’m sorry to bother you but, can you show me where the cafeteria is? I don’t have any friends to ask yet so..yeah.”

Sanha saw the transfer student bow his head as if to say sorry so he decided to shake his hands signaling that it’s ok.

“Ah no no it’s ok! I know that it’s really hard to make friends! Come, let me show you where it is.”

Sanha grabbed his packed lunch and lead Rocky to the crowded cafeteria.

“Oh wow, look at those lines…dude you’ll have a hard time grabbing your lunch in this case. How about I just share you my lunch for today?”

Rocky’s mouth gaped open both at the number of students he saw and at the offer of his new found friend.

“Would that be alright with you? Man, I didn’t know this would happen…”

Sanha just laughs and pats his friend on the shoulder.

“It’s ok! Just treat me with banana milk tomorrow! Come on, let’s go to the rooftop! It’s a nice place to hang out.”

Sanha joked but unknown to him, Rocky is already debating whether to give his friend a box of banana milk while they are walking.

When they reached the rooftop, a warm breeze welcomed them and they saw how blue the sky was. Sanha ran towards the rooftop rails as his blonde hair bounced and reflected the sunlight, making him look like a walking ball of sunshine.

“Yah Rocky, come here! Dude look at this view!”

Sanha shouted as Rocky laughed at how childish his classmate is.
They ate their lunch in silence as they face the beautiful view in front of them. You could see the whole city and the fluffy clouds just above them.

“Wow, Sucheon’s rooftop is really cool.”

Said Rocky, as he munched on his food.

“Yes! That’s why this is my favorite place!”

Sanha exclaimed which unfortunately made his voice crack. It earned a fit of laughter from Rocky and they only stopped laughing when they heard the rooftop’s gate opened. They immediately look at the gate’s direction and saw a group of boys entering the rooftop.

“Oh, hello! Would you mind if we share the rooftop with you guys?”

A velvety honey-voiced man said. His whole facial feature was extremely pretty just like a character from a comic book and Rocky can’t believe that such a face actually exists in this world. He was just cut off in his trance when he heard his friend’s loud voice replied a fast and hurried “ok” while his voice cracked. The other boys laughed good-naturedly especially the honey-voiced man and as Sanha looked at him, he could see in his eyes that he’s internally screaming from embarrassment which sent him laughing as well. The other boys settled at the other end of the rooftop while chatting loudly. Rocky can’t help but notice his friend stealing glances at the pretty man they’ve met earlier so he decided to .

“You know, you should make a move as early as now.”

Sanha’s face became a brighter shade of red and Rocky is currently amused by this.

“Woah dude, you’re actually blushing what the hell!”

Then Rocky laughed like there’s no tomorrow leaving Sanha throwing his water bottle at his friend’s direction.

“Yah yah yah! I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You have a huge crush on that pretty man, oh gee.”

“No, that’s not true”

But Rocky noticed that his friend’s blushing cheeks say otherwise so he continued.

“Yes and your face says so”

“No”

“Yes”

“No”

“Yes”

And the no-yes argument continued even when they returned to their classroom and even in between lectures and even on their way home. Apparently, Rocky’s house is just a walking distance to Sanha’s house so they’ve decided to do their homework at Sanha’s, but even there, they still continued the no-yes argument they’ve started. After they finished their homework they decided to call it a day.

“You know, we’ve only just been friends for, what? 12 hours? But dude, I can already tell how thirsty you are for that pretty man”

Says Rocky while munching on the delicious sandwich prepared by Mrs. Yoon. Sanha throws a sofa pillow at Rocky’s face in return.

“You know, we’ve only just been friends for, what? 12 hours? But dude you should stop with this argument already before I unfriend you.”

Sanha threatens but Rocky could tell that the younger one was just kidding.

“Nevertheless, I say, you should still make a move. You know, such pretty face doesn’t stay single for a long time.”

Blabbered Rocky as he points his sandwich to his friend who just pouts and contemplates on what he said.

“You really think I should?”

Said Sanha, finally, as he looks at Rocky while he plays with his hoodie’s strings. Rocky stopped munching on his sandwich and send a smirk at his friend.

“Gotcha! Ha! I knew it, you’re really thirsty for pretty boy! Since when did this start and how old is he? I don’t see him around often tho.”

Despite a blooming blush in Sanha’s cheeks, the young lover boy just nods and continued playing with the strings of his hoodie.

“Well, I liked him since I first laid eyes on him...ahhh this is too cheesy!”

Sanha covered his face in embarrassment which amuses Rocky more so he comfortably stretched on the sofa, ready for a story time, and urges his friend to continue. Seeing his friend’s eagerness to listen, Sanha decided to heave a sigh and continue with his tale.

“Ok, so, during our first year, he’s one of the active members of the performance org and I really want to join that club so much because I love playing guitar, but until now, I can’t find the courage to take the auditions and I’ve heard that they’ll be conducting another audition next week but anyway, back to my story, they conducted a mini speech in each classroom and they gave out fliers as well… when he entered the room, I swear, the light from the window just struck his face in a nice angle and I swear to god he looks ethereal at that moment—“

“Wow, you’re such a er for this dude”

Cut off Rocky as he reached for the pitcher of orange juice on the table. They’re the only ones in the living room for Sanha’s mom won’t be back till midnight because she said she’s going to a friend’s party together with Sanha’s dad. They’ve finished their assigned tasks early but Sanha begged for Rocky to stay for a while because apparently, this giant baby a.k.a pretty boy enthusiast is afraid of ghosts hence, the storytelling time.

Sanha send a pointed look to his new friend’s direction after he heard his remark.

“Do you want me to continue or not?”

Rocky just laughed.

“Continue of course!”

He said before taking a gulp of the glass of orange juice while Sanha continues to pout.

“Then just drown on that juice and stop cutting my sentences! Geez… ok, where am I?...oh yes, yeah, so, that’s the start of me, liking Eunwoo hyung. Oh, and of course you can’t see him around often because he’s our senior of 2 years.”

“Bet you have as well...”

Said Rocky nonchalantly which caught Sanha’s attention as the young lover boy pouts and tilts his head in utter confusion.

“Eh? What is ?”

Rocky burst out laughing nearly spurting the orange juice he was drinking. When he calms down, he saw his friend genuinely confused.

“Duuude, didn’t know you’re this naïve, anyway, just ask him about it.”

“But we’re not close—“

Rocky didn’t let his friend finish when he stands up and sit in front of his friend as he pats his shoulder so hard, Sanha’s face contorts in pain.

“Dude what the fu—“

“Sanha, get ready, we are going to join that club and I will help you get your man.”

Sanha just stares at his friend’s determined face; his eyes are almost blazing with an unspoken passion that left Sanha wondering why.

“You don’t need to do this—“

Rocky puts his index finger on Sanha’s lips to shut him up but he shoved his finger very forcefully that his finger almost slipped into Sanha’s nostril.

“You are my first friend and I am determined to help anyone who’s in need of my aid. I am not called “The Rock of Adolescent Love” for nothing.”

“Really? Who the hell gave you that cheesy nickname?”

“Do you want my help or not?”

So Sanha just shut up and nodded his blonde bushy head.

“Ok, so here’s what we’re going to do.”

 

Said Rocky as he illustrates a plan at the back of his notebook; only the scribbling of pen and the occasional murmurs of the two were heard.