The first time Younghoon had watched the basketball team's practice had been at the beginning of the summer break. When Chanhee had tried to teach him about some mathematical problems it had started raining, and the gym had been the closest shelter.

The reason why he kept watching the practices every Wednesday, was a student of his age.

He was about the same height as Younghoon, blond and very fit. Whenever he smiled, a cute pair of dimples appeared, being a strong contrast to his toned body.

His name was Jaehyun, but the team usually called him ‘Jae’. Without their senior Johnny and another of Jaehyun's friends, Younghoon probably wouldn't know his name until now.

He seemed to be well mannered and very nice, judging by what he had seen so far. The boy was in his grade, but sadly he didn't share any courses with Younghoon.

Even though he only saw him on Wednesdays, Younghoon had developed a small crush on the other boy. All had started with this one moment Jaehyun had looked at him and winked. He even had heard how Jaehyun's friend had whistled behind him.

But Younghoon wasn't the most courageous, so he didn't dare to talk to the other boy. He had only exchanged a few courtesies with him so far. But a whole conversation with him? No, whenever he stood close to him, he froze. His heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest and a big lump formed in his throat whenever he had a chance to talk to Jaehyun.

But lately he felt a little bit bolder.

He really wanted to talk to him.

He even wanted to ask the other boy out.

But he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of other students, so walking up to Jaehyun just to stumble over his own words while trying to ask him to talk to him in private or even ask him out was not an option.

Thus, it was a blessing to Younghoon that young, sweet, and very talkative Eric Son had transferred to his school.

Juyeon had introduced them when he had become one of the 'buddies' from the school's ‘buddy-program’ to accustom new students to their new environment.

Thanks to Juyeon and his own open-hearted self, Eric had quickly gotten comfortable in their shared group of friends. And now he was jogging towards Younghoon.

"Hyung! Hey, how are you?" he beamed at him.

Younghoon smiled back at him. Eric was so cute and always seemed to be in the best mood. Sadly, they usually only met during the basketball team’s training or some breaks because their schedules were so different since Eric was a few grades behind of course.

Seeing Eric outside of school wasn't exactly easy because they were either busy learning or Eric met his other friends or Juyeon.

"Hey Eric. I'm fine, thanks. How was your week so far?"

And then Eric started babbling.

And he babbled.

And babbled.

And babbled.

Younghoon listened patiently and nodded along even though there was no ending in sight. He corrected Eric's pronunciation occasionally or corrected him whenever he used words or idioms in the wrong way.

"Your Korean has improved."

"Yeah, right?! All thanks to Juyeonie!"

"Hyung."

"Yes, hyung. Hey, Juyeonie hyung! Hyung! Over here!"

"Hey Younghoon hyung," Juyeon greeted when he arrived.

"Hey little one," Younghoon greeted back.

"Huh, but he's your height!"

"I- it's just a nickname, Youngjae, not necessarily referring to your height."

"Ah…" he grabbed Juyeon's arm and pulled him closer, "Younghoon hyung said my Korean has improved! You're such a great help, hyung. The best I could ever ask for."

Younghoon thought to see Juyeon blush a little at that. Eric was always so blunt, but he was way too cute to care. He was probably the only new student that had taken the buddy-program (a little bit too) seriously since he was still almost glued to Juyeon's side whenever they met.

Younghoon smiled a little and let his eyes wander while the youngest was busy showering Juyeon with compliments. He stopped at Jaehyun, who was talking to another dark-haired member from the team.

"Were you looking at us-"

"Watching."

"Right, were you watching us?" Eric asked, "Or rather someone else again?"

Younghoon's eyes shot back to Eric.

Did Eric know?

"What are you talking about?" Younghoon asked.

"Oh nothing, you seemed to just-" he quickly corrected himself, "You just seemed to be distracted by some-… -one?"
"Something," Juyeon said.

"No, no, I mean 'someone'."

"Oh… You mean…?"

The younger one flashed him his brilliant smile and nodded.

"That again. Sorry, hyung, Youngjae believes that someone from the team caught your attention-"

"He's right," immediately he pressed his lips together.

Stupid Younghoon, stupid.

"I told you!"

Juyeon narrowed his eyebrows. He looked through the gym.

"Who is it?!" Eric asked.

"Pass."

"Younghoon hyung," Juyeon said.

"What's up?"

"Younghoon hyung!"

He sighed. He really had to tempt fate, hadn't he?

"It's Jaehyun," he mumbled.

"Who?" Eric asked.

"Jaehyun. That guy over there."

"Oh~!"

He pointed at the now formed group of other team members. Jaehyun was still talking to the dark-haired boy about the smaller blond boy next to him, judging by their gestures. Then they laughed and the dark-haired ruffled the younger boy's head who looked like he was about to sink in the ground. After that Jaehyun walked away from the others to his friend that sat on the bleachers a few meters away. Johnny hyung joined Jaehyun’s friend and even called him.

“Jae-Jae-Jaehyunie-baby, we’re bored! Entertain us!”, their friend called.

Jaehyun waved and smiled when he walked past Juyeon, Younghoon and Eric.

"Hey there."

"Hey."

Younghoon immediately felt himself blush. He shyly waved back and tried to smile.

"Yo, Juyeon, good shot earlier."

"Thanks."

Juyeon bumped Jaehyun's fist. The older one grinned and walked on.

"I see," Juyeon said, "Hey, are you still alive?"

"Mh…" Younghoon mumbled, "Hm-mh."

“Oh dear. That’s kind of embarrassing.”

"Oh~ Jaehyun hyung?"

“Mhm,” Youngoon agreed to Eric.

He was still staring at Jaehyun talking to his friend that watched the basketball team’s practice regularly as well. Juyeon followed Eric's eyes in the meantime.

"No, no, not-"

"I see! I'll help you with Jaehyun hyung!"

Eric turned around to face Younghoon and clapped his hands to get the older boy's attention.
"Youngjae, not him, that's not-"

"Hyung, please, I got this. My eagle eyes notice everything. How about I set you up with him?"

Younghoon cleared his throat, trying to get rid of the lump that had formed in his throat earlier.

"You think you can do that?"

"Sure!"

"No, Young-"

"Relax, Juyeonie hyung! Come on, I bet this'll work. Hyung, there's this bench close to the pool- hey!"

Another team member bumped into Eric when he caught a basketball right in front of Younghoon's face.
"What the , man?! We're taking a break!"

A slim hand caressed his waist immediately.

"Sorry kid. If Younghoon wouldn't sit in the front row I wouldn't have had to push you, to protect his pretty face."

Younghoon rolled his eyes at the other boy’s wink. Of course, it had to be Hyunjae. He was one of Juyeon's new friends. Talkative, shameless, and clingy.

"But Younghoon hyung has to sit down here so he can watch-"

"So I can watch you trip over your own feet," he quickly said in the most sarcastic way he could manage right now.

"Yeah, you really looked like an idiot," Juyeon chuckled.

Hyunjae shoved him aside for this comment.

"Shut up you little . Mark tripped me."

"Doubt it. Anyone but Mark."

"Shush. Anyway, so that's why you keep staring at me in math class? Because I caught your attention? I'm flattered that you now even come watch me here."

"Isn't that part of what a clown's supposed to do after all? Catch people's attention?"

Hyunjae clicked his tongue and raised an eyebrow.

"Ha-ha-ha. You should invest in some glasses instead of sitting in the danger zone maybe."

"It's none of your business where I sit."

"It is if I'm the one that has to protect the beautiful face of our school's pro swimmer."

"If it's such a burden to you to take care of your surroundings, you should practice your aiming and score for once instead of missing the basket every time you shoot. It's not like it's moving around on the court to make it more difficult."

"Oh dear…" Juyeon sighed.

"Hyung, Hyunjae hyung isn't bad at basketball and you know it-" Eric tried to reconcile.

"Hey, what did I do this time to deserve you ing around now? It wasn’t my fault that Jacob missed."

"Quit complaining about where I sit and I'll-"

"Okaaaay! Whatever! Don't fight! Come on, nothing happened. I think Jacob is waiting for you, hyung," the youngest was almost pleading.

"He can wait. All right, listen, I'm sorry. It's not of my concern where you sit, you’re right."

Eric nudged Younghoon in the shoulder.

"It's fine. Sorry and… thanks," he mumbled, but refused to look at Hyunjae.

"So? Who is it that you want to watch shoot some hoops, if not me? Come on, don't be shy, I won't snitch on you. Maybe I can help."

Younghoon took a deep breath. He didn't want to fight with Hyunjae but he didn't want to talk to him either. Why couldn't he leave him alone?

"Who said I was watching someone in particular?"

This time Hyunjae rolled his eyes.

"You know what? I can see, you're in a bad mood, no need to make it so obvious. Sorry for interrupting your gossip. You guys better make it quick. The break is almost over. See you in math, I guess, Younghoon."

Hyunjae sounded a bit sad, maybe disappointed. His enthusiasm was gone, and the slight smile had also disappeared when he turned around with the basketball in his arms and walked back to Jacob. He only shrugged when Jacob probably asked him something.

Younghoon looked after him until he was far away enough from them so he couldn't hear them anymore. He kind of felt bad about it, but right now he had other problems to solve.

"Hyung, the was that?" Juyeon asked.

"I'm just not in the mood right now. I can apologize to him tomorrow. Okay, Eric, you think you can manage something? Would you do that for me?"

"Yes, I will. Jaehyun hyung's very nice and I'm sure he'll understand."

Younghoon nodded.

"I uh… I wanted to ask him to go to that party with me, you know, the one Jacob told us about. B-But just tell him that I want to talk to him, that would be a great help already."

"I never knew you were this shy," Juyeon said, "But you really should ask him on your own."

"Well, I'm trying," Younghoon said, "It's just that whenever I have a chance to talk to him no proper words come out. I don't know, I just freeze whenever he looks at me."

"Aw, that's sweet," Eric chimed.

Juyeon snorted, but quickly cleared his throat and nodded when he saw Younghoon raise an eyebrow at him.

"I see."

"This is exactly why I don't ask you for help but Eric."

"I don't think he got the memo."

Said boy puffed his cheeks and shoved Juyeon aside.

"Nu-uh, hyung, don't worry, I know exactly what to do! My friends all talk about this bench close to the back door of the gym. It's very nice, close to the garden and very private."

"A super private bench that everybody talks about, are you nuts?"

"Hyung, no! I never see any students there, it's between the garden and the pool somewhere, I only know it's green and has a table attached to it."

"Oh, that one."

"You mean the one where Sangyeon and Jacob got caught making out on Sangyeon hyung’s graduation?”

“Yup,” Juyeon answered.

“They’re a couple?!”

With wide eyes Eric stared at Jacob who was talking to their coach and Hyunjae. The older one probably had heard him yell, because now he was looking at him in confusion. Eric waved. Jacob mirrored it and smiled.

“Yup,” Juyeon said again.

“Are you sure this is a good place?"

Eric blinked and turned back to Younghoon.

"Wow, I didn’t know… But yes of course! It’s very nice. I'll tell him that you want to talk to him aaaand… that you're studying there. Easy. Nothing more, nothing less. No one will notice when he comes to you when the seniors leave. I'll practice with him later, don't worry."

"No, Youngjae, I think he doesn't-"

"It's fine, I got this, Juyeon hyung! Trust me, this is a good place with great timing!"

"No that's not what I mean, I mean the Jaehyun you think he-"

The youngest frowned disappointedly when he interrupted Juyeon. At the same time the coach blew a whistle.

"Hyung, I know who Jaehyun is, trust me, I'm not stupid! I'll see you later, I must practice my shots since the old coach is already mad at me, I can't risk being benched!"

Juyeon failed to hold him back.

"Youngjae! Aaaand he's gone. Great, oh damn it."

"What are you talking about?" Younghoon asked.

"I just thought he might-"

"Juyeonie, we continue!" Jacob called.

The younger one groaned.

"The-"

"Juyeon! Get your over here, or we'll continue without you!"

"Don't be so mean!"

"But Hyunjae's right, Jacob! Get back on the court, Juyeon!" the coach called.

So Younghoon shooed him away, turned him around and slapped his .

"We'll talk later. It’ll be fine. Work hard, Ju."

"But-"

"Juyeon! You're not irreplaceable!"

"Coach, that's enough, you know he is!" Jacob defended him.

"Go, go, go. Prove them wrong, little one."

“Will do, we'll talk later, I hope. I'm sorry. I'm coming!"

While the basketball team continued practicing, Younghoon took his stuff and left the gym. Once he found said bench, he sat down and pulled out his phone.

After reading the preview of his parent's messages he decided to ignore them for his own sake. Right now, he couldn't bear the stress at home. He was sick of them complaining about each other.

After taking a quick glance at the battery symbol he narrowed his eyebrows. Already at half, yet he hadn't used it after arriving at school, that was ridiculous.

Sighing, he put the phone back into his pocket and took out his literature homework. Even though Eric would tell Jaehyun that Younghoon was busy studying, he didn't even try to look busy at all. Instead, he just looked down at his phone again, this time challenging the battery life with a few videos. He even ignored the group chat conversation with Changmin and Chanhee when they asked about his family.

.

.

.

Half an hour had passed when it finally happened.

"Hey there, Eric said you wanted to talk to me. He sounded very excited, almost like it was an emergency, so I asked for a quick break. There was no time for me to refresh myself, sorry. I hope that's okay. I tend to sweat a lot."

"Oh, yes, I wanted to ask you if- uhm… hah?" Younghoon's face fell once he looked up.

He blinked.

The guy in front of him grinned and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He wore a purple basketball jersey and fitting shorts, so apparently, he was part of the school's team. The boy looked handsome, too, with a lovely smile, wide eyes, and plump lips.

But the guy in front of Younghoon was not Jaehyun.

He was one of the seniors that played in the same team as Jaehyun did. Younghoon had seen him only a few times and he never even caught his name, so he didn't seem to be part of the usual line-up to him.

That was the guy who was talking to Jaehyun earlier when Younghoon had pointed him out.

He mentally slapped his forehead.

"Oh wait, now I remember you! You're Kim Younghoon, right? From our swimming team! You guys are great, Younghyun’s friend Chan told me about you. He seemed very impressed by you. Is it true that you won national competitions when you were still in middle school?"

What on earth did Eric do? This must have been a mistake.

"Uhm, I- yes that's right, but- sorry, I- may I… May I ask for your name?" Younghoon stuttered quietly.

"You ask your friend for me, but you don't even know my name? Wow, uhm… I'm Kim Jaehyun, class three-three. Former captain of the senior basketball team and now I'm the co-captain. On Wednesdays I'm also the second coach of the junior team, as I’m about to graduate soon, and I want to teach kids how to play basketball as a part-time job during my studies. Our new captain is your friend, right? Jacob Bae?"

Younghoon swallowed dryly.

"The juniors’… coach? And your first name… is Jaehyun?"

"Yes? So, why were you looking for me? Can I help you with something? Is it about the basketball team? You wanna join us? Dumping the pool kids already, I see," he flashed him a happy grin, "You have great physics, not gonna lie, bet you'd make a good player. Instead of always watching us you could join us for once, what do you think? I can ask the coach if that's fine with him."

Younghoon really started to regret asking Eric for help. He knew Eric wasn’t fluent in his mother tongue yet, so what on earth had made him think it was a good idea when he agreed?

He should have asked Hyunjae for help or Juyeon but they would have probably made fun of him. Gosh, he should have asked Jacob. But Eric had been so passionate about all this that, with him, Younghoon hadn’t felt too embarrassed talking about his crush.

Was this what Juyeon had meant? Did he try to warn Eric about the shared name of two team members? Or had the younger one just misunderstood him?

“N-No, I-”

His senior laughed.

"I'm just kidding! Man, you really seem nervous. Are you okay? You look a little sick, I hope you don't have a fever or something."

Younghoon indeed felt his cheeks heating up. How humiliating. He never considered the chance of two Jaehyun’s in the team. That had seemed absurd. That really was ridiculous. Who would have thought of this?

"I'm sorry, no, this is very embarrassing now, I think I made a mistake-" he tried to defend himself with shaky words.

"You- oh!" Jaehyun slapped a hand over his mouth before he kept talking, "Oh my God, sorry kid, but do you have a crush on me or something? Is this why you wanted to meet me here? In a more private place? The kids babbled something about the ‘confession bench’ or something like that. Hey, don't be shy. It's fine, I don't mind. It's okay if you find it a little awkward to confess to a senior. We've all been there."

"Say again?" Younghoon’s eyes widened.

They heard the coach call for Jaehyun near the gym. The elder boy scratched the back of his head. Younghoon was too perplexed to respond properly. What really bothered him was the basketball team's seniors leaving the gym one after another now.

"Uh- I'm sorry, I must leave now, the junior's training usually is an hour longer than the senior's training on Wednesdays, but I'm already taken anyway and- you're really handsome, really cute, I see why my cousin and her friends talk about you so much. They always like the swimmers, but you seem to hold their attention way longer than the others, but- wait wow, oh my God" he shook his head, "I have a girlfriend. I'm very sorry but you'll find someone who'll like you back. We can talk anytime if you need some help, okay? I can be your wingman, yeah?! Okay, great, bye, I really must leave now, or the coach kicks me out!"

He wasn't even done talking when he was already running away.

"What… the ?" Younghoon mumbled once the other was gone.

Now his senior, Kim Jaehyun… thought that he had a crush on him, and the younger students even talked about it? How embarrassing could his life become?

He really needed to talk to Eric. The younger one seemed to have misunderstood him.

Thus, he took his phone, but once he opened the messenger it immediately died. Frowning, he turned it back on, but the device seemed not to be in the mood to work properly today.
He sighed.

Well, then he had to talk to Eric once he was home and had recharge his phone. Going back to the gym was not an option, not after this incident. Besides that, coach Bang would probably rip his head off if he was late for practice, especially because the coach didn’t know that Younghoon skipped the extra hour of training.

They were expressly asked to start early on Wednesdays because Chan, the coach's son, always got the keys from his father, but because of the basketball team's practice Younghoon skipped said extra hour lately. And now the official training would start in the next five minutes and Younghoon still had to get his bag from his locker, so he quickly shoved his stuff back into his backpack and went to the school building.

On his way he passed by a group of girls looking at him curiously. One of them, that Younghoon knew from his math class, whistled, but another one that he knew from his science class quickly shut her up.

“Jinah, it doesn’t look like Younghoon got lucky.”

“Never thought he would hit on taken guys,” a third girl said.

Great. The first people that had witnessed this conversation. Perfect. Oh, how private this place had been. No wonder Jacob and Sangyeon got caught.

“Never thought you would hit on guys in general,” Jinah said, “Quite a brave move. Sorry that he turned you down. I bet there would have been others that wouldn't have done that.”

She winked and chuckled.

“He didn’t- what are you talking about?” Younghoon tried to defend himself, “He didn’t turn me down because I didn’t even hit on him, what the ?”

"Of course, you didn't."

Sighing annoyedly, he quickly walked past them and tried to ignore any other of their comments on his awkward meeting with Kim Jaehyun.

On his way to his locker, he tried to keep at least a little bit of the confidence he had built up for his planned confession. It worked out well at least until-

"Your training starts now? I thought all the clubs would end at the same time except for the kid's basketball practice and you were just skipping it every Wednesday."

"As if you don’t know. What are you still doing here?"

"I needed my textbook for math and now I’m waiting for you to answer my questions."

Younghoon bit his lips. He really wasn't in the mood for Hyunjae.

It wasn’t that he really disliked the other boy, he just… didn't really like him. Usually he had no idea what the other wanted or whether he was making fun of him yet again or not, but as long as Jacob, Juyeon and Eric liked him, he was willing to tolerate his presence in some of the breaks they spent together. He spent most of his time with Chanhee and Changmin anyway.

When they met with Juyeon and the other's during the breaks he usually even tried to avoid contact with Hyunjae. They rarely talked because Younghoon didn't know what to talk about to him anyways. All he knew was that the other boy frequently glanced at him almost shyly, just to come up with any new insolent antics afterwards. To him Hyunjae wasn't a friend but just a friend's friend. An acquaintance.

"We officially start later on Wednesdays because the coach has his second office hour because he’s the liaison teacher, but I probably told it Juyeon five times, and you listened at least three times. But yes, I do skip an extra hour of training, that’s right. However, the other days of the week I stay late to work on details with Chan and a few other members. Anything I can do for you? If yes, make it quick, because I'm already late."

"Oh wow, what crawled up your ? I thought out of Juyeonie’s friends you were the nicest after Jacob, but today you're really trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?"

Hyunjae leaned against the locker to his left.

"I'm very sorry if I hurt your feelings, but like I said twice, that’s none of your business," Younghoon mumbled annoyedly and slammed his locker shut.

He shouldered his gym bag and turned around to leave, but Hyunjae held him back.

"I assume your date with Jaehyun hyung didn't go well? Did he say anything inappropriate, or did he upset you?"

For a second Younghoon stood still.

How did he know about it? Had Eric told him? Had more students witnessed this awful conversation than the girls from earlier?

"Do I have to repeat myself? It's none of your business. Jaehyun hyung wasn't mean or anything, Eric just made a mistake and sent the wrong person. That's it. Now go bug someone else. Please."

Hyunjae followed him down the hall.

"I can help you, if you tell me who you want to confess to."

"No thanks. And no one said anything about confessing."

"You sure? Jaehyun hyung thinks so because when I came out of the shower, he was talking about you and so were the kids. Well, he wasn’t gossiping but you know how much people like rumors and how much they love to intentionally misinterpret any kind of information you give to them."

"Let him talk. It wasn't him I wanted to talk to, that's it."

"So, who do you want to talk to?"

"Neither Kim Jaehyun nor you right now."

Hyunjae ran a hand through his damp hair.

"Okay, ouch. I didn't even do anything, and I already apologized for my behavior earlier. I just saw you walk in here and you looked a little upset, so I wanted to check on you. Jinah and her friends are probably just jealous because you didn't ask any of them or-”

“I don’t care about Jinah and her friends.”

He could almost hear Hyunjae swallow. Then the other boy nodded slowly.

“Figured. Hey, you know- you can talk to me anytime if you want to or if you… need some help. Seriously."
Younghoon had noticed the change in Hyunjae's tone, but he didn't want to think about the other's reasons for his concern.

He was probably just messing with him yet again.

"Thanks, but not now. I can handle this."