Okay, so there had been two options for this and Seungyeon was definitely not one of them. Minnie prided herself in knowing everything that happened within the school walls, so when was it that Seungyeon and Jihyo ever got together and why had this information never reached her? And how was it that neither Dahyun nor Seungwan was doing anything about this? Were they seeing the two of them talking so closely and so friendly? Minnie was convinced Jihyo was very gay and now this?

Well, as they met the day before, and this was wednesday, meaning they only had half an afternoon of classes, Jihyo thought to take the girl out already. Dahyun was all for it, they didn’t do jealous and it wasn’t like Jihyo had any romantic interest in the girl, if their long period of not dating taught them both anything, was to trust each other and learn to be their own person whilst never hurting one another with it. It might sound like something a couple of teenagers shouldn’t learn until much later in life, but they had spent so long loving one another without being able to act on it, that both did all the growing up during the wait.

It was lunch time, and Jihyo went to the cheerleaders’ table to ask the girl if she wanted to go out after classes, he knew there was no cheer practice today as well. Shuhua had caught Minnie observing from the corner of her eye, and was honestly entertained, they had no bad blood between them at all, had even had a fling in the beginning of sophomore year, only to find out neither really liked each other like that after an attempted make out session. It was weird, don’t bring it up with them. But the captain knew how much the theatre president loved keeping tabs on everyone’s lives, and seeing her not know something was a treat.

“Good afternoon, ladies. May I ask Seungyeon-ssi to talk to me for a while?” Jihyo greeted.

“Is something wrong?” Shuhua questions.

“Not at all, I just promised her a date and I’m wondering if she is available after classes today.” Jihyo was always extremely polite when talking to women.

“Ji, you know you don’t have to be so formal, right?” Seungyeon chuckles.

“I know.” He answered simply and the girls giggled.

“I’ll let you off because you are too cute and now we have dirt on you.” Elkie laughs and pinches the boy’s cheek.

“I appreciate it if Minnie never really finds out about it, though.” He whispers and the girls agree.

“Girls, stop teasing him.” Seungyeon tries to sound serious, but the girls agree it was enough teasing.

“Thank you.” Jihyo is honestly relieved. “So, I’ll pick you up at your classroom after the last class?”

“I’ll be waiting.” Seungyeon agrees and gives him a quick peck on the cheek.

Jihyo gets a very interesting shade of red on his face and neck, but he bids the girls goodbye and returns to his table, Dahyun was heaving after a laughing fit caused by the whole scene, Nayeon and Jeongyeon were making kissy faces, Tzuyu was coming back with some water for the younger Bae and Mina was giggling like a maniac. Lucky the others decided to eat outside today, or Jihyo would never hear the end of it from Seungwan and Joohyun. Now, it’s not like These ones here would leave him alone anytime soon, but they wouldn’t mind it tomorrow, whilst the others would bring it up for the rest of theirs lives, Seungwan might be toasting at Jihyo’s wedding and he’d be like “remember that time Hyo took a cheerleader on a date? Yeah, our boy did that.”.

Now, the rest of classes was fairly interesting, Minnie was visibly bothered and too prideful to come out and ask how come there was something happening she didn’t know about. She was also visibly irritated, snapping at meaningless things and huffing all the time. Jihyo really did his best to not laugh, but it was hard. Good thing Seungwan was talking about how Joohyun had made lunch for them and gushing over how cute it was, and then saying, very secretively, that the food was kind of bland, but demanding that his best friends stayed quiet about it because he appreciated the effort. Jihyo honestly didn’t care.

Everything was all that much funnier once class was dismissed, Minnie had decided to observe herself and set out to tail the boy who had been bothering her all day. She recruited the help of Soojin and Miyeon, read she dragged both with her whether they wanted to go or not, and set out on her chase. They followed Jihyo to Seungyeon’s classroom and saw the cheerleaders teasing him, then Shuhua greeted him with a tight hug (when did they become close?) and Seungyeon came out to jump on the boy and give him a kiss on the cheek.

They followed the two to a new ice cream place that had opened near their houses, Jihyo and Seungyeon lived in the same neighborhood, not close at all, almost on opposite ends, but the same neighborhood regardless. This shop had opened a few weeks before, and it was somewhat halfway between their houses, though Jihyo’s was  a bit further away. The girls following entered a bit behind the two, Jihyo had guided Seungyeon to a table and went to get their orders, honestly, the three girls following them swooned a little, only to come back with their ice creams, two waters and coffees, they had to be dating, right?

The rest of the afternoon consisted on Minnie grinding her teeth because she desperately wanted to know what was being said on the other table, and Jihyo and Seungyeon learning they have a lot in common and the boy promising he would get her Han Jisung’s number, one of the two nice guys on the former wrestling team who also dropped out once they learned Jihyo wasn’t part of it anymore. The other was Kim Seungmin, who Seunghee had her eye on for some time, to which Jihyo argued Seungyeon could set them up after Jisung and herself got together.

Once they were done, Jihyo insisted on walking the girl home, Seungyeon had mentioned she felt a bit stuffed, they had ordered a piece of cake after the ice cream, and wanted to walk it off a little. Minnie, at that point, was visibly frustrated, her companions had given up and decided to just go with it. They walked around for a while before they saw the ‘couple’ stopping in front of an apartment building, hugging and Jihyo getting a kiss on the cheek, both very smiley. One could see why they might be mistaken as a new couple, and that’s what our gossip trio did.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were dating Seungyeon?” Dahyun asked when Jihyo got back.

The younger Bae had been waiting so they could work on some essays together, it wasn’t anything urgent, but they enjoyed doing things in advance. Jihyo was told by papa Park Dahyun was upstairs waiting and had already made a mess of papers in the measly twenty minutes he had been there.

“I’m what now?” The big eyed boy was honestly confused.

“Minnie just posted a picture of both of you walking together with the caption ‘New couple?’ about ten minutes ago.”

“Oh, well, sorry to tell you love. But I’m having an affair.”

Both boys laugh at that, Jihyo kisses his boyfriend dearly, before dismissing himself to a quick shower. It is indeed quick, but Dahyun had the amazing ability to spread out whenever he was left unsupervised, and Jihyo came back to three times the mess of paper he had left the other boy with. 

“You are so lucky you are handsome.” Jihyo says from the door.

“Well, I must agree with that statement.” Dahyun jokes.

Jihyo crosses the room, already too used to navigating Dahyun’s mess, only to kiss the other boy very passionately. They fall into easy conversation while they get to work, and the younger boy laughs when he learns Seungyeon was interested in Jisung. Both agree to not say anything, and Jihyo shoots the girl a message asking her to not say anything either, he explained he wanted to let Minnie be led on and she agreed instantly. 

The next day, Jihyo gets to school earlier to talk to his former teammate, Jisung had switched to the basketball team and needed to work on a few pointers to actually be allowed to play, so he had been getting morning training from the coach to catch up. Nothing much, just working on his breathing and improving his stamina while running. The boy is confused when Jihyo tells him Seungyeon asked for his number, questioning about Minnie’s post the previous day. And is delighted to know the girl had asked Jihyo to set them up during that exact ‘date’. Jisung agrees to also not confirm nor deny anything about the post, and Jihyo is on his way.

Seungyeon’s reaction the the number she had received during lunch confirmed the rumors, she was so happy Jisung had agreed to it that she hugged and planted a noisy kiss on Jihyo’s cheeks, the matchmaker wasn’t fairing very well, as he got unhealthily red as everything was happening. Dahyun, who knew about everything, had been filming it all happen, for science, obviously. The other boys also knew there was no chance of something happening there, were highly entertained by everything.

Two days later, Seungyeon and Jisung were walking around clinging to each other, Minnie didn’t resist and approached Jihyo to ask, Dahyun made sure to snap a photo of the girl once she was told that no, Seungyeon was not cheating because herself and Jihyo were never really together.