“So you called him, huh?” Youngjae grinned from across the lunch table, wriggling his eyebrows.

The cafeteria buzzed around them, filled with bustling, probably , misunderstood teenagers with lunch trays and packed lunches. They moved around quickly to get their lunches and sit down at tables to talk about, let’s face it, stupid immature things that only matter for the few years of high school. (That is, minus the few talking about their possibility of dropping out or not graduating.)

Jongup and Youngjae usually sat with a group of friends from various classes, but Youngjae insisted on sitting away from them today in order to talk about… Well, to talk about Chris, or what he likes to call him: Jongup’s “public admirer.”

“Well, yes, but it’s not like that,” Jongup grimaced, pushing his mini corndogs around his plate with a fork.

Youngjae just continued to grin at him.

“What? You can’t seriously think he’s,” here Jongup used air quotes, “‘after my bod.’ I mean… That’s just weird. And he’s old. And he’s a dude.”

“That didn’t stop me and Daehyun,” the other male smiled, his cheeks puffing up fairly big.

Jongup thumps his friend in the middle of his forehead, saying, “This is different.”

“Ow,” Youngjae winced quietly, rubbing his forehead and asking, “How so?”

“You’re both gay.”

Youngjae only stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not gay?” Jongup tried next.

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Youngjae smirked, taking a bit of his sandwich.

Jongup rolled his eyes at him quickly, shoving a mini corndog in his mouth and roughly chewing it.

“Look Jonguppie,” Youngjae started.

Jongup looked up at him from his plate, glaring harshly.

“He obviously wants to get to know you first; even if he is gay—which honestly, I think he is—he’s not going to go in too fast or want to scare you off. Just give him a chance.”

Jongup pursed his lips to one side, considering his friend’s advice.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Okay?!” Youngjae repeated, grinning big.

“That was actually good advice.”

“Thanks,” the boy’s smile couldn’t get any bigger.

“You know, for an idiot like yourself.”

“Hey!”

Jongup ignored his friend’s offended exclaim, going back to his mini corndogs and smiling to himself.

His idiot friend was right; Chris was only going to get to know him first. Nothing to worry about.

Or at least, that’s what Jongup kept telling himself that Saturday, as he walked up to the building with the address Chris sent him. He looked down at his phone, at the text, and back up at the building.

Could this be right?

He stared up at what looked like used to be a great building. The gray, five story structure looked relatively young, maybe twenty or thirty years old. It was definitely out of its prime years, but hadn’t lost its charm or… elegance was it? Jongup couldn’t put his finger on the best word for what he saw in the beautifully stoned building.

Staring at it longer, he figured it was probably filled with a bunch of loft apartments or studio apartments, somewhat small but neat and full of possibilities.

Jongup looked back down at his phone.

This was the right address.

Did Chris live here?

He walked up to the entrance, looking to his right at the apartment numbers and buttons.

Chris didn’t tell him which number he was.

He sent Chris a quick text.

    -    I’m here, what apartment are you?

Almost immediately, Chris replied.

    -    I’ll be right down!

Jongup played with the option of replying to that text, but he couldn’t think of what to say besides “okay.”

So he left it alone and didn't reply.

Chris didn’t take long to come down, and Jongup saw him running down the stairs within a few minutes.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I wasn't expecting you so soon; you're  a bit early," he smiled, opening the door and stepping outside.

Cut off from his initial response of, "I didn't wait long," Jongup stopped to look down at his watch.

He was a full seventeen minutes early.

"Oh," he voiced, naturally coming up with an excuse. "The buses must've been ahead of schedule."

It was true, and it wasn't.

The buses were ahead of schedule, but that wasn't why he was early.

He left with what he thought was a reasonable amount of time to get to Chris's place; obviously he underestimated the bus schedules and how fast he walks when he's trying to get somewhere on time.

Now that he thought about it, he had been walking pretty fast, faster than usual.

Had he been in a hurry to get there? Had he been anticipating and worrying about the—­what was he supposed to call this thing anyway?—since Thursday night?

"Jongup?"

The Korean male smiled, jerked from his thoughts and lost.

"Yes?"

"I asked if you were ready to go," Chris said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Oh, yeah," Jongup assured him, giving his signature lost smile.

"Great, let's kick it."

Chris stepped past Jongup, closing the apartment building door behind him before walking to the sidewalk. He paused slightly just as Jongup caught up with him, .

Jongup was led to Chris's car, a small, black 2007 Toyota Camry, sitting in the middle of the apartment building's parking lot.

They climbed in silently, and Chris started the car, backing out of the spot with ease.

It wasn't until Chris pulled out of the parking lot that Jongup voiced the question that he'd been debating to ask.

"Where are we going?"

Chris looked at him and smirked.

"You'll see."

lol sorry about my long break in between posts, but I told you something like this would happen... so... you can't hold me accountable~ heehee also sorry about the long title.. I just didn't feel like coming up with something short and cute, so I went for long and snarky!

Anywho, I hope you guys read and enjoy this chapter! Thanks for sticking by me even after so many months!

And for you newcomers, thanks for stopping by and reading!

Man, this ship needs more crewmates, so please join our crew today :'D much love, chrisup lover Deaa signing off! <33