“... What the hell is he doing?”

Hongki shushed his friend. Wonbin pursed his lips in annoyance, but shut up. They leaned forward in their desks to get within earshot of what was going on on the other side of the room. Hongki pushed his ears forward in hopes of catching a word or two, but to no avail. He fell back in his chair in defeat. He watched the second-year girl, a cute, small thing with bouncy hair, pout her lips in defiance as Jonghun waved her away as if she was a pest. Jonghun continued remain unresponsive to the girl until finally, she stomped her foot against the ground and stormed away.

“Harsh,” Wonbin murmured.

Hongki shook his head and clicked his tongue. Really, what was up with Jonghun today? It was beyond him. Normally, whenever a cute girl asked Jonghun to take her out, it was an immediate “yes”. In fact, on luckier days, he already had a date planned before noon. But today was different. He’d already refused three girls. Why? Hongki gnawed at the eraser on his mechanical pencil. Something must have happened. Hongki would have to talk to Jonghun about it later.

Before Hongki could think anymore, the bell rang for English class to begin, and the teacher motioned for the class to settle down and be quiet. He yawned and propped his head comfortably in his crossed arms and prepared for his daily nap.

Jonghun strode lazily into the extremely over-crowded cafeteria, his bright tomato red headphones plugged into his ears. He eyed around the room at the various lunch tables--some girls caught Jonghun's attention and they waved flirtaciously, but the boy's eyes didn't so much as flicker a bit before glancing away. It felt strange, giving them the cold shoulder. He felt the slightest bit of remorse. But if he wanted to go through with the new goal he'd created for himself, he would need self-control. And what better time than to start right now? He sighed and searched through the crowd for his usual group of friends. It wasn’t long until he caught the luminescent, platinum-blonde speck out of the corner of his eyes. It wasn’t exactly all that hard to spot Hongki in a crowd. Jonghun waved boredly and dodged his way through the congestion.

As he neared the table, he saw Hongki smirk and lean back slowly in his plastic chair, clasping his hands together and placing them behind his head.

"Funi-saaaan," Hongki drawled. The rest of the crew seemed to come alive as if they were ravenous dogs that had just noticed a large hunk of steak. Jonghun dropped his backpack on the floor and plopped into the empty seat next to his best friend. He removed the headphones from his ears and prepared himself for the bombardment of questions.

“Alright, speak up,” Wonbin commanded.

“Yeah, I’d really like to know what the heck is going on,” Min, Hongki’s long-time girlfriend, said with a hint of confusion.

“I’ve had like four girls come up to me and ask me what’s up with you.” Wonbin made a sour face. “And they were really hot.”

Hongki shook his head in scorn. Then he shrugged, switching his attention back to Jonghun. “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s noticed.”

Jonghun maintained a convincingly deadpan expression. He knew his friends were going to mention something about this whole situation. Couldn’t he just do things and not have people freaking out about it? He felt like a celebrity. No privacy. “It’s really not that serious, is it?” he questioned nonchalantly as he simultaneously whipped out the rice and kimchi lunch he had made at home earlier that morning.

“It is when you’re the most notorious player at Chungdam high school.”

Jonghun smirked. Of course he knew that, although he never showed that he did; he didn’t really like being called that. He stuffed a bite of spicy cabbage into his mouth. 

“So really, what’s going on?” Wonbin hissed through his teeth. Jonghun could tell his tolerance level wouldn’t hold out much longer. 

“Look. Maybe I’m just... looking for a change,” he said with a sigh. “It’s my life. I can do what I want.”

Hongki’s mouth formed an “O” shape. “What is this? Is Choi Jonghun getting tired of his wild, riveting lifestyle...?”

Jonghun kicked the blonde’s shin underneath the table playfully. He laughed and kicked back.

“Maybe I am. Maybe I've decided that this isn't all that fun anymore. In fact, it's pointless."

"Really?" Min exclaimed. Jonghun nodded in response.

"Hallelujah," Wonbin said, hands lifted to the air. "Someone has snapped some sense into this man." Hongki snickered.

Ignoring his immature friends, Jonghun continued. "So, I've made a deal with myself. I'm going to turn down every single girl that asks me out for as long as possible. No matter how badly I want to say yes or how hot she is or anything."

Hongki let out a low whistle. "Wow. I'm impressed."

"You are?"

"Yeah. Now let's see how long this lasts you."

"Yah. You wanna bet on that?"

"No. No way," Hongki said immediately, slicing the air horizontally with his hands. "Knowing you, you probably have some sneaky, crazy tactic up your sleeves that'll make it look like I'm gonna win, but then bam! There goes my money. He's done it to you too, right Wonbin?!"

"Yeah. Last month during that dumb billiards game," Wonbin said bitterly, stuffing a french fry into his mouth.

Jonghun laughed along with his friends as the others talked loudly. Hongki really did know him well. They'd only known each other since near the end of middle school, but they had grown surprisingly close in that period of time. Yeah, Jonghun had friends he could talk to and joke around with. Plenty. But Hongki was the only person he knew that he felt comfortable sharing even his most personal thoughts with. 

"So anyway," Min intervened after catching her breath, "what if "the right one" comes along? Because you didn't say anything about you asking out anyone..."

"That's a different story."

"Have you ever seen Jonghun ask out a girl in your life?" Wonbin interjected. Min shook her head. Wonbin ed out a hand. "Well, there you go."

"Ah, this'll be so nice. No more random girls walking up to me and asking random crap about you. And not to mention this'll be good for you, too," he said, pointing at Jonghun who had spooned some more food into his mouth. The black-haired boy watched as Hongki looked to Min, smiled that goofy grin that always appeared on his face when he looked at her, and pulled her close. "And maybe you'll find something like what we have. That is, if your reputation hasn't been ruined enough already."

"Oh, be nice," Min cooed.

"I'm sorry, was that offensive?" Hongki murmured as he scooted closer to Min. She giggled and started kissing her boyfriend in front of everyone. Jonghun looked away and focused all his attention on chewing his food as did Wonbin. By now, Jonghun was completely used to Hongki's and Min's PDA. They'd been dating for over a year now--awhile after Hongki and Jonghun became friends--and they'd been inseparable since. And although their constant touchy-feely moments quickly grew irritating, Jonghun wasn't complaining. He was happy for them. Before Min, Hongki had been a player once, just like Jonghun. Something must have magically and mysteriously changed in Hongki when he met Min. Jonghun wondered if anything like that would ever happen to him. Maybe Hongki was right. His reputation had been soiled.

Jaejin popped into his mind. Jonghun stopped chewing.

Jaejin.

The skinny boy with glasses he met yesterday hadn't left his mind all day. His thoughts were thrown off-kilter when his name entered his head. He confused him. He remembered noticing his trailing figure out of the corner of his eye as he walked with that girl yesterday. He remembered his amusing nagging and threats. His fuming, beet-red face after Jonghun , and his retreating figure as he ran away, screaming profanities as he went. Jonghun chuckled in spite of himself. It was all so amusing. More fun than any date with a girl he'd ever been on. He was the reason he'd decided to stop the whole playboy thing.

"What's so funny?" Hongki said loudly.

"What? Ah, nothing." Jonghun was still smiling as he finished his last bite of kimchi.

Wonbin then lifted one of his fries to Hongki's mouth. "Hongki, say 'ahh'."

"What? What are you doing??"

Jonghun grinned at them. He really should tell them the truth, especially Hongki. But for some reason, he wanted to keep this his little secret. He grinned more.

Finally, the bell rang. They said their goodbyes and Jonghun left for his last class.

Maybe Jonghun wouldn’t ride the subway today. Just to piss Jaejin off. He smirked to himself again and continued with new energy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wow short chapter. Sorry ;A;

Sorry this story is moving reaaally slow lolol. I just don't wanna make it move fast like my other chaptered fic since that was a big mistake. So. Yeah. It'll get more interesting I promise lmao. ;;

Thanks for reading ;u; 

Comments are loved <3