Chapter 6

With the brand new realization that he apparently had a crush on Kyung, Jiho was now making his way to school. He didn’t know what he should do now. Should he continue like before to gain Kyung’s sympathy at every possible occasion he got? Or should he be a little bit more subtle? But what for? As things were right now, he could estimate himself lucky if Kyung as much as he acknowledged him. And for all he knew, Kyung was straight anyway. But then again, Jiho had never even considered himself being gay either and had happily dated girl after girl. After further thinking, he came to the conclusion that crushing on one guy wasn’t enough to consider himself gay. Right?

Before he knew it, he was already standing outside his classroom, ready to get in and face the mass of people who were as nameless as the people he saw in the streets every day to him. But then, there was this one person that made everything different. The moment he laid his eyes on Kyung, who was currently listening to music while rocking lightly in his chair, eyes closed and an almost unnoticeable smile on his lips, he knew that Hyuna was right. And for the first time he noticed how his heartbeat accelerated just a little bit and something in his stomach tightened just enough for him to notice. For the first time he felt his throat go slightly dry at the sight of Kyung’s delicate figure and peaceful face.

He eventually made his way over to his desk, never taking his eyes off the redhead. There were still twenty minutes left before their teacher would come and start the first period of the Monday everyone hated so much, and Jiho was set on fixing Kyung for the time being when he saw the last person he wanted to see at the moment approach Kyung slyly like a fox (in Jiho’s eyes).

“Hey.” Nichkhun softly shook Kyung’s shoulder to get the younger’s attention.

The latter jumped in shock in his seat before looking up. A polite smile appeared on his lips the moment he saw who dared to interrupt his morning routine of doing nothing at all.

“Hi. How’s it going?”

“Fine, and you?” While engaging in small talk, Nichkhun subtly (or not so subtly, again, from Jiho’s perspective) placed his hand on Kyung’s shoulder and squeezed it a tad bit too tightly for Jiho’s liking. Kyung however seemed to not notice anything and happily blabbered on about his breakfast (which made Jiho inwardly squeal like a high school girl). This continued for a good ten minutes before Hwayoung arrived and placed herself next to Jiho (who had a hard time remembering her). She then proceeded to engage in the same small talk with Jiho, with the difference that the latter wasn’t really paying attention. He was too preoccupied imagining various ways to get rid of Nichkhun. Drowning him in a pool of acid didn’t seem too bad to him. But where would he get enough acid to fill a pool?

“So?” he suddenly heard from his right and turned to see Hwayoung looking at him with a questioning look on her face.

. She just asked me something, didn’t she? Ugh, what should I say. Somehow, this problem seems familiar.., Woo Jiho, you need to learn to pay more attention. Uh, she’s still looking. Just say yes. Agreeing with someone is never wrong.

“Yeah, sure.” He nodded, satisfied with his answer after his inner monologue.

“Really? Cool. It’s a date then.” Hwayoung winked at him and was about to stand up when a hand pulled her back by the wrist.

“Wait, what?”

“Sunday. The Museum? You just agreed to go with me.”

No. No, I didn’t.

“Uh, listen, there seems to be a misunderstanding there, I-“ but before he could finish his sentence he got cut off by a oh-so-familiar(-annoying-) voice.

“Oh~ would you look at that? Seems like Mr. New Student is getting around, isn’t he? Hyuna wasn’ enough for you it seems.”

Kyung looked worried at his “new friend” and tugged slightly on his sleeve, whispering.

“Nichkhun, what are you talking about?”

Nichkhun’s smirk that followed sent chills through Jiho’s body and he apprehended what would happen next.

“Coincidentally I know she came to your house Friday night. You live alone, right? I know your parents still live in Japan.”

Suddenly the entire class was silent and everyone looked at the scene happening in front of them, all thirsty for some gossip.

“So what? Science projects don’t do themselves, you know, Nicholas?”

“It’s Nichkhun.”

“Like I care.”

“Whatever, if it was anyone else I’d believe you but it’s Hyuna we’re talking about, you won’t be able to convince me that nothing happened between you two.”

“What’s it to you anyways?” Jiho gritted through his teeth. He had unconsciously stood up and was now only inches apart from Nichkhun, fists clenched and ready to punch the other so hard it would rip that ugly smirk from his face.

“Oh, nothing, I was just concerned about Hwayoung, I mean, who knows what kind of disease you caught from that chick.”

Without a second thought about the consequences, Jiho’s fist collided with Nichkhun’s jaw, earning a loud gasp from the onlookers.

“You’re such a ing asswipe, what exactly do you know? You’re all talk but do you have any proofs of what you’re advancing? This chick you’re talking about is as much of a as you are of a nice guy. Can do the math?”

He was about to launch a kick at his classmate when the teacher barged in, not gracing his students with a single look and walking up to his bureau. Slowly, all the other students started regaining their respective places and pulling out their books. Nichkhun, who wasn’t really injured thanks to the teacher’s interruption, stood up and angrily stomped to his place, the smirk finally gone from his face. Jiho as well sat down again, still boiling inside. Five minutes into the lesson the students all seemed to have already moved on and concentrated on the lesson, except for one.

*

Because of his teacher being involved in some weird robbery story, Yukwon had the first period free. Instead of catching up with sleep like he usually would, he decided to pay classroom F a visit, because he knew for a fact that Minhyuk always had the first period on Monday free due to some scheduling error that the teachers were too lazy to correct. He had waited for almost an hour in front of his friend’s house in the morning, starting from before the sunrise, just to be told by the latter’s mother that he had already gone through the backdoor.

He had enough of being ignored now.

When he arrived in front of classroom F he suddenly got nervous. What if Minhyuk didn’t want to be his friend anymore? That was very plausible. But why? Had he done something wrong? Whatever it was, he was going to find out the truth, even if it hurt.

“Excuse me, is Lee Minhyuk here?” He asked a random guy sitting closest to the door.

The latter just nodded and pointed towards the other end of the class, where Minhyuk was half-hanging out the window with a gloomy aura surrounding him, which made everyone else keep a few steps distance from him.

Yukwon gulped as he could almost see the dark clouds around his friend. He decided to approach him nonetheless.

“What’s wrong with you? You could scare a yeti away with this face.”

Minhyuk turned away from the window in surprise at this oh-so-familiar-and-lovely voice. He was admittedly surprised to see his cute best friend looking at him with the most adorable smile ever. As much as he had tried avoiding him, as soon as he laid his eyes on him again it was all in vain, and he knew he couldn’t stand it for long to ignore him anyways. So he decided to just play it off and act as if nothing had happened.

“You actually believe in yetis? Judging you.” Minhyuk said playfully and the bright and happy expression that appeared on Yukwon’s face at that moment made his heart do a double take and his cheeks burn.

The younger one on the other hand felt a ton of worries drop from his heart when Minhyuk didn’t send him away. Maybe it was true what Suzy said, he just had a bad day and the backdoor incident was just a bad coincidence. But as much as he tried to convince himself that this was what happened, he still had doubts.

“So, why were you hiding from me lately?” he asked half-jokingly, hoping that Minhyuk would laugh at him and tell him he was seeing things. But instead, the latter’s face fell again and he bit his lip.

“Sorry. I can’t tell you. But I promise it’s not your fault or anything. You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just…”

“It’s just that what Minhyuk? My best friend is admitting that he’s been ignoring me purposely and he can’t even tell me why?”

Minhyuk was taken aback by the younger’s sudden outburst. He couldn’t remember the last time Yukwon was angry – because such a time did not exist in memory.

“I’m sorry…” he said again.

Yukwon suddenly felt apologetic for getting mad at his friend, even though he had a good reason. But seeing Minhyuk almost on the verge of tears made his heart clench in a weird way, which was what made him hug Minhyuk out of the blue. He tightened his hug when he felt Minhyuk’s arms immediately wrap around him as well.

They parted after realization that they were still in a crowded classroom hit them. To lighten the atmosphere again, and to make the moment less “gay” (A/N: if only he knew…) he snickered.

“Hm, could it maybe be that you were jealous?”

To his surprise his hyung cutely pouted at him.

“Yeah, so what?”

“Oh really?” Yukwon asked, still believing himself in a joke.

“Yes, I’m jealous of you two dating!”

The younger, who now realized the seriousness of the situation, widened his eyes in shock.

“So…you..you like Suzy? Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? Because you were jealous of me?”

“What? No! No, I don’t like Suzy, not at all. I like you, ok? Now it’s out, I like you and I’m jealous of that because she gets to date you but she doesn’t even realize how lucky she is-“ he was cut by Yukwon tugging him out of the classroom. Only now did he notice all the round eyes staring at him and he mentally cursed himself.

*

Taeil was currently overwhelmed by joy. When Jihoon had grabbed his hand so naturally while walking him to school, he had made his decision; he was going to ask the younger out. He was honestly surprised at himself for gathering so much courage, but the warmth from his left hand and the general atmosphere just gave him that confidence boost he needed. For some reason he knew it was the right thing to do. He just wasn’t quite sure of when and how yet.

They arrived in front of the school and Jihoon turned to face Taeil without letting his hand go.

“So you’re starting only on second period every Monday, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Alright. What time do you finish?”

“Around 8…”

“Okay I’ll pick you up.” Jihoon smiled at him sweetly, which encouraged the shorter further.

Okay, now, now’s the moment. You can do it, Lee Taeil, you can do it.

“Are you okay?”

“I can’t do this…” Taeil muttered, all of his courage leaving him at once.

“W..what?” Jihoon seemed shocked and Taeil swore he saw the his eyes begin to water. This was all he needed to grab the younger’s shoulders and lift himself on his toes to plant a quick kiss on Jihoon’s cheek.

He profited form the surprise effect to quickly run into school while shouting.

“At 8, don’t forget! I’ll have something to tell you!”

Jihoon smiled watching the shorter run into the building and a blush appeared on his face as he thought about Taeil’s word again.

I’ll have something to tell you!

“Me too…”

*

Yukwon had been dragging his hyung for almost five minutes now, not giving him a single look, as they both kept quiet. He stopped when they arrived on the roof, which was completely empty due to the cold weather. The redhead couldn’t supress a shiver that run down his spine when the chilly air hit his skin. After another minute he turned to Minhyuk again, but carefully avoided looking in the taller boy’s eyes.

“Is…is it true?”

Minhyuk let out a long and tired sigh. He had already gone this far so might as well get it over with. Of course he was scared, even terrified. He had been friends with Yukwon for years now, and even though he had found himself falling for him, he also still considered the other his best friend over anything. A part of him was hoping that Yukwon would throw himself at him, dump his sad excuse of a girlfriend and that they could be happy forever. But as much as this part of him hoped, it also knew that this was just his wishful thinking. Of course he contemplated playing it off as a (admittedly – very bad) joke but after all Yukwon deserved to know the truth. The younger had always been honest with him, no matter how embarrassing what he had to say was.

“Yeah.”

There was another long period of silence.

“I can’t believe it…I…I had no idea.”

Of course you didn’t. I made sure of that.

“I’m really sorry but…can you give me some time? I need to think for myself a bit.”

“Sure.” Minhyuk nodded and headed in the direction of the rooftop door when he noticed Yukwon wasn’t moving from his spot and had instead sat down on the floor. He quickly headed back to the younger and laid his jacket on his shoulders. The redhead looked up with a faint smile on his face. When Minhyuk almost reached the door again he heard a soft voice call his name.

“Minhyukie! No matter what…you know I’ll always love you the most, right?”

Not knowing how to react he stood there frozen for a moment before his feet automatically carried him back to Yukwon once again. He crouched down to his level and instinctively cupped the younger’s face in his hands. He couldn’t help but notice the warmth meaning from his cheeks and the way their eyes suddenly met made his insides melt into a puddle of feels.

“You know…I didn’t get to say it properly yet, but…I love you.” He chuckled lowly, his own face flushing as well. “I love you, Kim Yukwon.”

And with that he gradually closed his eyes and leaned in to press his lips against Yukwon’s. He honestly did not expect the other to respond to the kiss, especially not so quickly. And when he did, he felt that this was the best decision he had ever made. Once they were out of breath, they parted, but their lips reconnected almost immediately again. They continued exchanging chaste kisses and pecks for God knows how long, not even letting the sudden ring of the bell disturb them.

*

Once the school bell signalled the end of first period, Jiho was the first out of the room and on the way to his next class. He heard quick food steps following him and slowing down to a normal pace once they reached him. He looked to his left and saw the last person he thought he’d see.

“Sooo…” Kyung started, stubbornly looking in front of him. “It was pretty cool how you stood up for her against Nichkhun.”

Jiho was debating whether he had trouble hearing or was having hallucinations. What did he have for breakfast again?

“I know she’s a nice girl, she used to have dance classes with Minhyuk and they got along pretty well.”

“Oh.”

“I still don’t like you.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

“Good.” Even though his words were sharp, Jiho noticed the slightly softer and less hostile tone Kyung used towards him.

He decided that for today that was enough and let a small smile spread on his face.

*~*

I'm baaaaack! But what's even more important: Block Beeeee is baaaaaaaaaack!!! AHJKNTEHBTJKBE

Even though it's just a pre-release, I was hyperventilating for a while. If you haven't watched it yet, shame on you! No, just kidding, if you have,'t watched it yet, do it now.

If you wonder why I was gone for so long (I"m pretty sure most people don't care anyways) I don't have time rn, I'll make an explanatory blog post or update this or something tomorrow^^

I had this chapter ready for a few days now and didn't plan to upload it until in a few days, but this gors well with the pre-release so just have it now^^

I LOVE YOU ALL (if there's still anyone interested in this OTL) and see you soon!