I. alstroemeria —friendship

It all starts on Monday, half past nine, during their biochemistry classes, with Professor Lee late as usual—and Woohyun, if you ask him—he would say that the class is unnecessary and unfit for his major which of course he wouldn’t say it out loud. Not when Biochemistry is the only classes that he got to share with his best friend.

His unbelievably dense best friend. 

And who is he to complain? Not when he’s able to spend his Monday morning in the presences of his sunshine best friend, the same person that he has been drooling for the past two years, and also the same person that has been sitting beside him in all his glory, sipping a cup of fresh brew coffee from their resident coffee shop, smiling with his eyes full of mischief at Woohyun.

Seriously, Monday should be optional. 404 error request.

“So…” The other start after putting his coffee back on top of the table. Mocha, too sweet. And he’s not going to blame Sunggyu on his choice of drink for Monday can be quite a handful, but cutting down on sugar would be nice.

His eyes twitched at the thought of Sunggyu’s infamous unhealthy diet.

Woohyun watch his best friend from his peripheral view, humming a little to acknowledge his words, and for the other to continue. Sunggyu drummed his silky fingers on top of the wooden table—dismissing the noise from their surroundings—and Woohyun followed the movement with his dark onyx eyes like a deer watching his prey.

The other still looks at Woohyun and the raven wonder for a moment if he is going to ask him what he is thinking about. What has been keeping him quiet? But of course, he doesn't. Kim Sunggyu doesn't learn things by asking questions. He learns by jumping to a conclusions. It’s nothing new.

Deciding that he has enough of the show, Woohyun avert his gaze away from Sunggyu’s hands and look him straight in the eyes, “So…?”

“I think I know who your crush is.” Sunggyu chirped happily, and God, the amount of happiness is seriously illegal for Woohyun’s heart –wait

“You what?” Woohyun asked, amused. The capacity of disbelief plastered on his face is sickening and he would be laughing if the statement—the utterly ridiculous statement—comes from a complete stranger. 

But this is Kim Sunggyu. His best friend that he has been in love with. For years.

And though he knows that keeping silences wouldn’t get him anywhere, he wouldn’t choose it differently. He learned it beforehand, throughout his childhood, that love is not about feeling affectionate and having a feeling of reciprocation from the other person. 

Love is love. 

Every definition, every way of explaining it falls flat on its face as soon as the person changes due to the fact that everyone chooses to interpret it and make it a part of their lives in different ways. 

And the last thing he needs is to create a series of misunderstanding and forced Sunggyu out of his life. It's like nothing is more important than Kim Sunggyu in his lives. It is almost like he becomes the center of Woohyun’s personal universe.

And his opinion is matters, at least to Woohyun.

“And you, my dear friend, what makes you sure of it?”

“Well, I have my sources.”

“Sources… Right.” Woohyun dragged the words to emphasize his point. Because how much bold can he get to delivered his point clear to the other? Screw the feelings because who else was dumb enough to not notice his best friend’s feelings and proceed to set him up into a blind date?

Kim Sunggyu, apparently.

Honestly, what should he say at this point? Truth encompassed a thousand sacrifices, and dealing with a very definition of oblivious that is Kim Sunggyu is so hard for Nam Woohyun that every time they finish their conversation, Woohyun felt both emotionally and physically drain. Playing pretend is never easy. 

He was so close to make a private call to Meriam-Webster and change their oblivious definition to Kim Sunggyu. With a series of photo, of course.

“I know right! And it’s totally cool Woohyun! I think he will treat you rights.”

“T-Treat me… Gyu, darling, who are you talking about?” He has enough a headache for today, and he needs to finish off these conversations before their Professor came in and give him another headache-inducing fact.

“Your crush!”

“Who?”

“Lee Sungyeol!” Sunggyu takes Woohyun’s head and tilts it slightly to the right to get a clear view of Woohyun’s supposed to be crush. He keeps himself from facepalm in the clear delight to save Sunggyu the humiliation. Because really, dude?

He watches Sungyeol talking and laughing in his seat three rows in front of them, amused fill his bubble. Clearly, he has so much fun talking to his tablemate. A blonde guy that Woohyun has a personal vendetta with. But really, how Sunggyu can jump into such an absurd conclusion is beyond his imaginations.

He has never had enough interactions with Lee Sungyeol for Sunggyu to be able to make that kind of statement. Sure, they were classmates but Woohyun practically spend his entire time with Sunggyu—doing everything, or maybe nothing, all at once—eyes forever glued on the brunette to even take a notice of Sungyeol. 

“And why would you say that?”

“You hate chemistry, Woohyun. There needs to be a clear reason for you to be here.” 

It’s you, dimwit.

“I need extra credit, Sunggyu. You know that.”

Sunggyu shakes his head. “No, no no! You don’t understand. You take this class because of him, right?”

“Gyu, I’m practically glued to your sides.”

At his words, Sunggyu frowned, a stress line decorating his forehead. Woohyun can hear the way Sunggyu’s brain accelerate at full speed to tried to connect the dot and wait—oh, maybe, he will finally realize Woohyun’s feelings and—

“I know you tried to mask the feeling by staying with me always. It’s okay Woohyun, I’m cool with Sungyeol. I mean isn’t he beautiful?”

Oh heaven, please saves him.

If he thinks 'what if' could lead to forever, it might be wise to suss out if he's considered it, too, before laying his feelings on the line.

“I-I guess.”

“Yes! I knew it.”

“Wait, I didn’t say anything about liking him.”

“Woohyun, you’re my best friend. I knew you like the back of my hand.” Where’s the lie?

“Sunggyu, really. Drop this, please.”

“No worries, I’ve got his number. I can arrange a meeting for you guys later.”

“You what? Where the hell did you get his number?” There’s an overprotective sound oozing out of Woohyun’s lips that Sunggyu, in his glory, manages to misunderstand.

“Shhhh, honey, don’t be jealous. We met in theatre club and he’s one of my groupmate. We’re kind of close and he’s single, by the way.” Sunggyu clapped his hands in excitement over that single facts and Woohyun were about to replied only to cut it out when their Professor makes an appearance inside the hall and warn their head to keep their silences and stop disturbing my class.

And Woohyun has never hate someone this much in his entire life.

“Whatever you say, Gyu.”

Deciding that there’s nothing that he can do to keep Sunggyu out of his business (and feelings), Woohyun decided to keep quiet and let Sunggyu indulge in his theories. Because really, the brunette is all bark but not bite. He would let the matters go by the end of the day, and Woohyun can finally breathe in relieves again.

Or maybe not.

▪ ▪ ▪

Woohyun doesn’t know what to do with his free time, really.

As of the moment, he can’t help but spend his time waiting for Sunggyu to finish his classes—in his usual place, usual times, in front of STEM Major’s building—because his department would be stumbling with students at this time of an hour, and he needs to prevent that experiences from relishing itself. 

It’s Thursday, and Woohyun finish his last class at ten, while Sunggyu has back-to-back classes to attend before he finishes it at noon. His last class is Early Childhood Educations, and Sunggyu freaking loves the subject to his core.

Woohyun has been waiting for the past two hours for the brunette to finish his class before they proceed to the nearby cinema to kick the stress off. It’s nothing extravagant, just two bros spending their free time together. 

“Woohyun, why would you go through all the trouble?”—he still remembers the exact words of his overly-protective childhood friends after he turned down another invitation from him to accompany Sunggyu to the library to finish his last-minute assignment.

It’s hard when you only twenty-two, still a fresh adult trying to get through college while juggling between feelings and responsibilities. He only hopes that Myungsoo won’t give too much of a hard time to Sunggyu because of his incapability to confess his true feelings.