Of all the people he could be partnered up with, it was the know it all prick Minghao.

Junhui groaned softly, leaning his head back on the sofa.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Jun tapped his pencil on his desk absentmindedly, waiting for the teacher to announce what this grand project was going to be. Suddenly, there was a loud crack of a ruler being hit on the desk, effectively startling everyone out of their own thoughts.

“Alright you ungrateful brats,” yelled Mrs. Park, the 69 year old woman who somehow was teaching the advanced placement class for language, “we’re going to be doing a 69 page report! It will be due 4 weeks from now, no exceptions and no late work!”

Exclamations arose from the class. Jun could’ve sworn his lower jaw broke away from his chin to drop onto the floor. Wonwoo, Jun’s childhood friend who sat in the desk next to him, spluttered.

“What the . Is this woman crazy?!”

Jun shook his head, exhaling in impending stress and frustration.

“I think she’s been crazy ever since the day she was born. And 69 pages is an oddly specific number.”

“360 no-scope 420 blaze it mOM get the camera,” recited Wonwoo in botched English.

“Never talk to me again.”

Suddenly Mrs. Park banged the ruler again, calling the class to attention. And to everyone’s relief, or in Jun's case, disgust, she suddenly turned to a sweet lady who seemed to give cookies to children. It was amazing nobody got whiplash. 

“Yes Minghao dear?”

Jun slapped his hand to his forehead. Of course it’s Minghao.

Minghao happened to be one of the smartest kids in the class, and it was obvious that Mrs. Park played favorites, so whenever Minghao asked a question or requested something, Mrs. Park was quick to comply.

The first time Minghao walked into the classroom, it was in the middle of one of Mrs. Park’s shrieked lectures. The door had opened to reveal a boy with a soft brown mullet with round glasses. He was thin, but it was obvious that he was in good shape and could beat anyone up.  

Everyone was immediately captivated, even Mrs. Park finally shut up. He bowed politely, before introducing himself in a soft accented voice.

“Hello, my name is Xu Minghao, or Seo Myungho. I am an foreign student from China and I hope to get along well with my classmates for the rest of the school year. Please take care of me.” He smiled, showing off cute dimples, before bowing once again. When Minghao raised his head, he made eye contact with Jun.

Something sparked in the air in between the two Chinese students as they held their gazes for a few seconds. It was broken when Minghao turned to the teacher, who seemed a little flustered after being caught in the middle of her rant.

Jun couldn’t stop looking, his gaze following Minghao even when Mrs. Park gruffly told him where his seat was.

Wonwoo noticed his staring and he elbowed Jun in the arm, whispering teasingly, “Ooh, Chinese love at first sight.”  

Jun shook his head, smiling dreamily.

“Nope, I think I hate him.”

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Everyone else was quick to find out Minghao was not the angel they thought he was. He was polite, but he was polite in asking for extra homework, or a test the next day. Minghao was very sarcastic, and he was the one thing everyone hated yet silently admired. A know-it-all who rubbed his scholarly intelligence in everyone’s faces.

But he seemed to have something in for Jun.

Junhui absolutely had no idea why. 

Everytime he raised his hand, Minghao would beat him to it, sending him a smirk in return to Jun’s glare. When Jun got an answer wrong, he would hear a barely audible snicker behind him. He doesn’t even know what he’s done to deserve this.  

This annoyed Jun to the point that Minghao and Jun were now butting heads in class, and Mrs. Park favoring Minghao was no help. Apparently she didn’t like Jun because of his “arrogance.” He literally only compliments himself like 50 times a week, unlike Kim Seokjin, a senior who blew kisses to everyone in the halls and refers to himself as “Worldwide Handsome” at least 100 times. A day. 

No, Jun wasn’t counting, but his “arrogant” comment tally had to be at least between that amount. But Minghao; the kid gets him fired up, for so many reasons. And it totally wasn't because the younger was infuriatingly attractive. Not at all. 

Back in the present, Jun tuned back in just in time to hear Mrs. Park’s reply to Minghao’s question relating to something about ok how the hell do we do a 69 page report in 4 weeks.

Mrs. Park replied consolingly, or at least tried to. Everyone was looking at her like she was the wife of Satan himself.

“Oh don’t worry, Minghao, you all will be partnered up. For example, I think Wen Junhui will be the optimal partner for you, as his head is up in the clouds most of the time. He could use some of your wonderful knowledge.”

God ing dammit.

He didn't beat 1.2 million cells for this. 

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

So now he was here, at Minghao’s house, to do this stupid report he didn’t care about.

What Junhui was dreading was meeting the boy's parents. Thankfully that was resolved when Minghao pointed to the empty driveway and said that his parents were at work. 

Oh thank God. He didn't have to meet the people who made the ethereal looking boy. Not like he was gonna marry Minghao or something ahem what? 

Okay but not like he's gonna admit it, but he liked how cozy it was. And how "Minghao" it was. 

He quickly shook those thoughts away when Minghao came back with a couple sheets of paper.

Minghao stopped in front of him before throwing them onto Jun’s lap. Jun stared at what seemed like calendars before squinting in disapproval back up at Minghao.

“What are these?”

Minghao scoffed, pushing up his round glasses. “If you take a look, you’ll see I’ve drawn up a work schedule which lays out when we’ll be working together on the oral report.”

Taking a paper, Jun looked at it, scowling.

“A work schedule?” He asked in disdain.

Minghao sighed. “Yes Wen Junhui. And it’s even is color coded so YOU can even understand it.”

Triggered but having no comeback, Jun turned his focus back on the paper. Suddenly he registered something that was written in tiny and neat handwriting in each square.

“Wait wait wait, it says we’ll be working 3 hours for the next 4 weeks?!” There is no way Jun’s brain with 2 braincells could handle it, and there was no way he was hanging out with Minghao for that long.

Minghao smirked a little.

“Wellllll, I thought working 4 hours a night was too much for your smallish brain to handle.”

Junhui snapped.

“Well excuse me, but my smallish brain can handle plenty. It’s my smallish Chinese eyes that are gonna have trouble cuz they are gonna have to look at you.” Jun stood up, poking at Minghao’s chest. “And yeah, I said it, they gotta look at YOU.”

Jun smirked in satisfaction at the surprise in Minghao’s expression. However Minghao immediately recovered.  

“Well actually the human eyes are technically just receptors that pick up visual images which make no sense until deciphered by the brain, which in your case, is smallish.” Minghao primly retorted, crossing his arms.

“Ugh why do you always have to one-up me all the time?! L-like what, you get happy from making me look dumb?” Jun complained, throwing his hands in the air.

“Well who said I think you’re dumb? Maybe I don’t think you’re dumb. Maybe I think you’re really smart, maybe I just-” Minghao stopped abruptly, and something extraordinary happened. He blushed. 

Jun watched in something akin to fascination as a light pink spread prettily across Minghao's cheeks.

Oh , that's cute. 

But he was curious. Jun pressed forward, wanting to know what got Minghao so flustered and hung up.  

“Well maybe you just what?”

“M-maybe I just like you or something!” Minghao blurted out. A couple seconds passed before they realized what was said, and Minghao slapped his hand across his mouth. He dropped his eyes from Junhui's to stare holes into the floor.

What the actual hell just happened? And what's worse, Junhui actually finally understood the meaning of butterflies in the stomach. 

Jun was blushing as much as the boy standing in front of him.

“M-maybe I just like you too,” Jun said softly, before he could stop himself. Something flared in his chest when he saw Minghao’s gaze dart back up to his face.

An adorable and pretty smile formed on the face of the other Chinese, and some old sass tinged Minghao’s next question. “Oh really?”

Jun’s mouth was turning up in a beginning of a grin, and he fired back. “Yeah, maybe I liked you for a really long time, but I didn’t realize it, cuz I hated you so much.”

There was another brief pause.

“So are you saying you like me or not?”

“Are YOU saying you like me or not?”

“Well I’M saying I like you.”

“Well then I’M saying I like YOU.”

“FINE.”

“FINE.”

Jun crossed his arms, and Minghao did the same. They had a stare down for a moment, red faced and on the brink of laughter.

“Well then I guess we’re boyfriends.” Minghao snarked.

“One condition!” Jun snapped, holding up one finger.

“What?”

“I GET TO BE THE BOYFRIEND.”

Wait what?

Jun's face burned a brighter red in mortification when he realized his mouth reacted faster than his brain. 

Minghao stared at the older in confusion, before ultimately breaking down into tinkling laughter that rang in Junhui's ears. 

Junhui couldn't help but smile sheepishly at the sound. Then he one-upped Minghao, pulling him close and effectively shutting him up. 

By punching him on the lips. With his own.