It doesn’t count, the first time Jiho and Kyung kiss, because it only happens in a dream Jiho has a few days after he started caring about the other boy’s existance. He brushes it off the next morning because Jiho doesn't think about kissing, doesn't think about beyond crude jokes, and doesn’t think about love. He's not a late bloomer or frigid or anything, but he is simple, and his mind is stuck on one track: rapping. He has no time for silly stuff like crushes or relationships.
Jiho has known Kyung for about three years - they go to school together - and he thinks nothing of the other, besides that he’s smart and a little boring. Too quiet. Until one night when he’s pushing through a sweaty crowd at a club, trying to get to the bathroom, and he hears a familiar voice ringing through the poorly calibrated speakers. Shifting his attention to the stage, he was surprised to see Kyung there with a mic in his hand. That unobtrusive nerd in his math class was there performing with this flow and a voice like he had never heard before and Jiho is suddenly very interested. He never ends up getting to the bathroom, rooted to the spot as his mind reels from the unexpectedness of the situation.
Jiho is a very studious boy when it comes to his competition, if nothing else, and he listens until Kyung is finished, becoming thirsty to know more about the other performer. He even tries to find him after his set, but the crowd is too thick and he has to bide his time until Monday, when he next has a class with him. He wastes his weekend away practicing rhyme schemes and asking his friends what they know about Park Kyung (the answer, unfortunately for him, is "nothing").
When the beginning of the week rolls around, he makes sure to attend his third period math class, walking into the room before the bell and going to sit down in front of Kyung, excitedly saying hi. He stares unabashedly - appraising the older boy and trying to marry his old assumptions with his new knowledge, the quiet geek in front of him with the confident rapper he remembers - as he waits for a response.
The only reaction he gets is a polite smile and hello before Kyung looks back down to his work, hoping to finish it before class started. That proves impossible, though, when Jiho continues staring and Kyung is forced to look up again, slowly asking what he wanted. Jiho only has enough time to ominously tell him that he had seen him on Friday night before the bell rings and he has to go to his own seat.
Kyung is filled with a cold dread, scared about what this could mean and what Jiho was planning to do. He feels like a deer caught in headlights, except he has no idea when the car is going to hit. He manages to calm down a little during class, rationalizing that maybe there wasn’t a ‘car’ so to speak at all, maybe Jiho would just forget it and leave him alone. Maybe this whole thing wasn’t such a big deal after all.
But then he comes back from lunch to a folded up note on his desk. His breathing stutters and he doesn’t even open it until he’s sitting in his next class, away from Jiho’s prying eyes, reading quickly and slumping when he sees simple instructions to exit out of the language hall after school. His heart pounds the rest of the day and he can almost hear the car horn blaring as his body skids across the pavement.
He follows orders, accepting his fate and exiting the school where instructed after 4th, not knowing what he was looking for until he feels an arm sling around his shoulders and he’s propelled forward, ears suddenly filled, first, with an apology, in case this was inconvenient for him, and then with the sound of Jiho babbling on and on about timing and enunciation and stage presence. He responds when he can, tense under Jiho's arm but mostly overjoyed that nothing bad was happening. He knows nothing about Jiho other then the fact that he’s well liked by students and teachers alike, despite his less than favorable grades and attendence.
Kyung eventually loosens up, answering Jiho's questions and asking a few of his own. They miss their buses that day and end up walking home together, still babbling about different instrumentals and lyrical compositions. They do the same thing the next day, and the day after that as well, happily ranting on and on as they slip into friendship. Eventually they start walking to school as well, snubbing their buses in favor of the cool, dark journey together. They just get so caught up in talking to each other that it’s hard for them to separate.
People wonder a little about their newfound friendship. It’s well known that Jiho gets by on his friendly nature, happily including anyone who wished to be included simply by virtue of being outspokenly kind. The catch here was how he had managed to get someone so unwilling as Kyung to respond with more then bland courtesies. Even more than how, they wonder why he would want to be friends with someone like Kyung, quiet and polite and totally the opposite of his own confident brashness.
Jiho pauses often to wonder 'how' himself. Like, when Kyung confesses to him that he's the first person to text him something other then "hey wats #32 on the hw?" Or when Kyung’s parents ask him what school project he's there for and they get excited when he says he‘s not. He sees the way Kyung changes from private and public, sees his professional side and his personal side; knows he’s the only one who gets to see both halves, and he wonders what in him made Kyung let that happen. He never wonders why, though.
As time goes by and Jiho wonders more and more, he realizes Kyung is actually really ing cool and feels a little bad for him, for his apparent loneliness. He admires his intelligence and skills and wonders why he doesn’t really have any friends, why he lives such a double life; he doesn't ask about it, though, doesn't even think to, because...it makes him happy. It means he gets Kyung all to himself.

The second time they kiss it still isn’t really a kiss, but a mere touching of their lips as Jiho pushes smoke into Kyung's lungs. He wants to get high even though Jiho tells him it will just give him -for-brains, like he has. Kyung disagrees severely, but never corrects Jiho when he degrades his intellect, feeling like it’s not his place to try to convince him otherwise. He doesn't get high the first or even the second time he smokes, but he keeps trying; he wants what Jiho has, that looseness in his arms and legs, in his style, and the naively fearless confidence he exudes in every situation...but, more than anything, he wants to get closer to Jiho, and this gives him an excuse to ask over and over again for Jiho to press their lips together and share something with him.
Kyung has always known he was gay. He hadn’t always known of the harsh stigma surrounding his orientation, but he learned well after getting the kicked out of him in middle school and he keeps that lesson close to his heart, desperate not to up the second chance he got by transferring to a school in another area. He adopts a friendly if boring personality in high school, just doing what he was told and getting out as soon as the bell rang, working hard to be left alone. He's liked well enough, because he's always smiling, but other than to ask for help on homework, no one really talks to him, and that‘s the way he likes it. He knows that the closer other people get to you, the more dangerous they are, and so he doesn't give anyone a reason to be interested.
He was so close to getting out of public school when Jiho saw him rap at that stupid club and decided to befriend him, decided to get close to him, decided to make him fall in like-like like-love with him and he curses him constantly in his head, wondering how his resolve fell apart so quickly.
Eventually, he learns to inhale properly, getting used to smoking a pipe and passing it even as he wishes for Jiho’s lips back. They write together like this, sitting side by side on the couch and frequently pausing their frantic scribbles to laugh uproariously at some thing or another. Kyung manages to fall asleep every time, Jiho feeling the dead weight of his warm, sleeping form against his shoulder seemingly not five seconds after he had just spoken. He laughs quietly and doesn’t think before shifting his friend’s head to a softer spot, writing for a little longer before leaning back and snickering at his own thoughts, drifting off as well.

The third time they kiss definitely doesn't count because Jiho is drunk and he pukes right after, eyes watering as he wipes his mouth and goes to rest his forehead on Kyung's shoulder. Kyung isn't mad, isn't happy, isn't anything but too drunk and too high and not sure whose house he's at or why anyone gets excited about parties. He can feel Jiho's lips move against him and hears something that sounds a bit like "I think I like you" and his heart pounds and his head hurts and he doesn’t think anything except that they need to get inside, away from this mess, find a ride home. Except Kyung doesn't know anyone here that he can ask for help.
They drunkenly stumble to sit on the steps of the porch, Kyung pulling out his phone and struggling to focus on the shifting screen as he texts his sister and asks her to pick them up. Jiho’s arms are around his waist and his face is still pressed against the soft material of Kyung’s jacket, his breath moving it in waves as he mutters about how ed up he is.
They get home safely, his sister laughing at the way Jiho drunkenly clings to him and goes on and on about their future being famous rappers together, giving him a knowing pat on the back and a sympathetic look as they make their way up the stairs to Kyung‘s bedroom. Kyung lays in his bed next to his friend and wonders fixatedly about Jiho's lips on his, about Jiho's arms around his waist, about Jiho's hands clinging to his. He wonders just how much alcohol effects you. Wonders if there’s even a grain of honesty in Jiho’s drunken confession. Wonders if Jiho will remember any of this.

The fourth time they kiss doesn't count either because Jiho is asleep when it happens. He's sick, sick enough to skip school and forget to tell Kyung. He can guess anyway, and stops by on his way home. He feels a little awkward when he gets to the door and knocks, realizing he hadn’t done this in a very long time. He entertains the thought of running away as he waits, eyes roaming around the familiar space of Jiho’s front porch. Jiseok lets him in, acting as though he’d expected him, and leads him down the hall while warning that Jiho had been sleeping all day.
He gets to Jiho's room and looks at the lump of covers slowly rising and falling, listening to the soft sound of his breathing. He wonders whether he should be there, watching Jiho as he turns in his sleep, face pressed lightly against the pillow as he pushes the covers away and moans faintly.
They hadn't talked much after that party, Kyung saying he had to study and Jiho saying he had to rap, both of them actually just too chicken to make a move when they didn't know what the other remembered or what they felt or anything, really.  
He sits on the edge of the bed and hesitates, wondering if this was the right thing to do, before brushing Jiho's hair away from his heated forehead and pressing his lips against it. He lingers longer then he thought he would, cherishing the warmth of Jiho's skin and the scent in his hair, pulling away only when he hears footsteps coming down the hall. He knows he's blushing but he clears his throat and looks at the ground as he stands, hoping Jiseok doesn't notice when he lets him out the front door.

So, the fifth time they kiss is their first, technically. Everything that night happens by chance. They happen to be at the same club and end up performing together, unable to stop grinning every time they catch the other‘s gaze. It’s the first time they’ve seen each other in months and they are as excited as they are exhausted, acting like nothing ever happened. Buzzing with good feelings and stories to share, they drive around the empty streets, Jiho’s car stinking like weed as they enjoy the warm spring night.
They park at a harbor, getting out of the car and dipping their feet in the water, watching the moon slide by and clouds roll in as they mull over the time that’s passed. They talk about exams, prom, graduation, all over and done with only a month ago by now - even though it feels like it’s been years. They had spoken infrequently since that party, and then only in short, polite conversations that ignored their previous chemistry and closeness. Both of them nurse the same sick dread in the pits of their stomachs as they imagine leaving the other, suffering because they want to be honest but don’t know how to lay their feelings on the table.
Jiho wonders aloud, helplessly, which college Kyung had been accepted into, turning his eyes to the spreading ripples around their ankles instead of facing the future. He doesn’t look up when Kyung laughs or even when he starts speaking, doesn’t look up until Kyung gets to the point and tells him he didn’t apply anywhere, tells him he’s not leaving. He turns and Kyung is smiling at him and he wants to cry but instead he asks him why he would throw away his future like that. Kyung laughs again, feeling his life change as he moves his hand over Jiho’s and says everything he needs to with his lips against his friend’s.