That night, Kyungsoo was on his bedroom floor, didn’t realize that he had been reading the same paragraph from his History book for the past 10 minutes. His anxious mind kept wandering over to Chanyeol… and everything that happened earlier that afternoon.

He couldn’t believe how quickly things had escalated: to him waiting for Chanyeol, to Kris hyung sitting next to him, to him explaining to hyung why he couldn’t go to the big game on Saturday, to hyung being understanding and kissing him on the cheek…

Now, it sank in.

The basketball team captain had kissed his cheek in public, even with Coach Shindong—who was busy overseeing the plays—and the other players—who were in the middle of a very heated practice game—there.

He hadn’t even had the time to react when the basketball zoomed past Zitao’s hands… and onto Chanyeol’s head instead.

He’d immediately dropped everything and rushed across the court as the players and the coach hovered over him. He’d pushed against the much taller and bulkier guys to get to Chanyeol, who was sprawled on the floor and out like a light.

He’d called his name repeatedly, in all possible intonations, from angry to annoyed, from loud to soft. A couple of minutes had passed before Chanyeol finally came to, much to his relief, but his best friend was quite disoriented...

... so out of it that he’d told Kyungsoo he loved him.

Twice.

Chanyeol had still been unconscious when his family arrived at the hospital. While reluctant, Kyungsoo had left with Coach Shindong, who drove him home. Thankfully, Yoora noona messaged him an hour later that Chanyeol was allowed to go home after the check up.

The doctor did recommend for him to skip school the next day, though—a Friday—so Kyungsoo volunteered to bring his homework for him.

He wondered if he should text him, though. Was Chanyeol feeling well enough to text back?

Kyungsoo pulled out the small blue paper that he’d used as a bookmark in distraction. It all started with this 10-line poem that he’d received this morning, and he had been itching to ask if Chanyeol knew anything about it.

The poem itself was concise, and a little vague. He immediately recognized the pattern, though:

Deep brown eyes

Owl-like gaze

Kindred guise

Youth ablaze

Unsung affection

Needing fruition

Grappling my fears

Silence abides

Onset of your tears

Out my heart confides

It was his name. The poet had used Kyungsoo’s name as the first letter of each line.

Kyungsoo recalled a time, about two years ago, when Yoora noona was accepted in Chung Ang University, in the College of TV Broadcasting and Entertainment. He had salvaged the congratulatory cake Chanyeol attempted to bake for his sister (they really should have just bought one).

As they were waiting for Yoora to come home then, Chanyeol had spontaneously spun a very short poem:

You are my

Only one sister

Over the

Rainbow is my

Admiration for you.

          --saranghaeyo!

And noona had thought it was pretty clever of Chanyeol to have used the letters of her first name in the poem. Chanyeol could be seen beaming from the praise for hours on end.

So did Chanyeol write the poem for him? Was it… a confession?

“I love you, Soo.”

“I know, I know,” Kyungsoo soothed, smiling in amusement.

“Ani… I really love you.” Then Chanyeol’s eyes drifted shut. “Jinjja…”

The second admission from yesterday actually sounded… real.

Or did Kyungsoo just want to believe it was real?

He rolled over on his back, thoroughly frustrated and anxious. Good luck to him falling asleep tonight.

He gave up on trying to study, as nothing else was registering, anyway. He pulled out his cell phone and stared at his screen for a while.

He had set a selca of him and Yeollie of their first plane ride together, an overseas school trip as sophomores where they were joined an outreach program to fly to the Philippines, and that was the happiest, most memorable two weeks of his life so far.

He’d had that selca as his home screen for a whole year, and not even Chanyeol had any idea.

He couldn’t remember when exactly he started feeling something deeper than friendship for Chanyeol. Kyungsoo just knew that he would want to date someone tall and kind, who loved music…

Even if he wasn’t a girl.

His mistake was, when he had admitted to Chanyeol about feeling attracted to the someone of the same —and Chanyeol had already assured Kyungsoo that it was perfectly okay—that perhaps Kyungsoo should have been more clear with him.

Chanyeol had been encouraging him to go out with Kris hyung all this time, when in fact…

It was Chanyeol whom Kyungsoo wanted to date in the first place.

But would he be scaring his best friend away?

Kyungsoo couldn’t risk losing his best friend like that. It would devastate him.

He sighed, as he typed a generic message, repressing an overflowing of emotions; of wanting to express his worry and need to be beside him.

Hope you’re feeling better, Chanyeollie. Sleep well.

And even as the clock inched closer to midnight, Kyungsoo received no reply.

~ * ~ * ~

At school that Friday morning, he checked the trial equations he had asked Jongin to solve the previous afternoon and his classmates managed to get three out of the five right. Jongin later admitted that Minho had to help him.

Kyungsoo only smiled at him kindly. “So I’m not such a great tutor after all.”

“Ani, ani, don’t say that!” Jongin instantly disagreed. “You are. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. I’m just…” The taller boy lowered his gaze. “I’m just not the kind of person who would grasp complicated things, especially Math.”

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you.

Those were the exact words he’d told Yeri.

“Or maybe I’m just not the right tutor for you,” Kyungsoo told him, patting him on the arm, as Teacher Kim Junmyeon entered the classroom and began roll call.

During lunch time, Kyungsoo was the one who sought Yeri out, much to the younger girl’s delight. Red Velvet made space for oppa in their table, seeing that he was by himself.

“I thought you were going to continue to avoid me,” Yeri said shyly, as Kyungsoo sat next to her.

“A-Ani,” Kyungsoo answered, shaking his head as the younger girls offered him the red velvet cake that they were eating for dessert. “I just… want to tell you that…”

“That we’re going together to the orphanage on Saturday?” Yeri guessed eagerly.

“S-Sure, no problem,” Kyungsoo replied, blinking in surprise as Joy took a picture of him with Yeri on her phone.

Yeri cheered, her cute eyes crinkling with happiness. “Would you like me to pick you up from your house? My dad is driving me.”

“Uh, my house is much farther away. I guess I can… meet you at the train station, if you don’t mind taking the train.”

“Araseo, oppa,” Yeri replied, getting excited. Suddenly, she realized something, her gaze flickering over to the entirety of the cafeteria hall. “Why are you alone, though? Where’s Chanyeol oppa?”

“He’s not feeling well today.” Kyungsoo didn’t want to elaborate, not sur