Yoochun breathed deep, his eyes closed, calming himself, going into his zen zone. When he opened his eyes, his friend Eric smiled at him. They bowed and started to fight. The other boys in the taekwondo club were gathered around them, watching the fight with interest. Even their instructor, Jo In-sung, was watching. The class was long over but the boys had stayed behind, too engrossed in their new skills. It had become a habit for Yoochun, Eric and a few of the other boys to stay after class, playing and practicing. The best thing about that was that Jo In-sung would use those times to teach them other martial arts and fighting techniques as well.

A scrawny tall kid was in the back, sitting on the bleachers higher steps, pretending not to watch the fight, while he did his homework. He smiled at some of the moves even if he hated to admit that Yoochun was almost as good as he was. Donghae sat next to him, offering him some pineapple pieces.

-Uau, Min. Did you saw how high Chun just jumped?

-Yeahh, he’s a regular monkey.

Donghae laughed at Changmin’s tone of voice and the second he saw Yoochun winning his fight with Eric, he yelled to the entire room.

-Hey, Chunnie! Changmin here just said he can beat you! Oh, and he called you a monkey!

Changmin opened his mouth, gaping like a fish, before he recovered enough and pulled Donghae down, looking pissed off as hell.

-What do you think you’re doing? You can forget about any help with your homework!

-Come on, Minnie. My mom is making your favourite dish for dinner, you can’t get mad at me. If you do, I’ll tell her you love eating something awful like asparagus. You know she’ll just stuff you with anything she thinks you like. And I know you can beat Yoochun. I’ve been dying of curiosity to finally see you two fighting each other. Go on, show him what you’re made of.

Yoochun faced the younger kid with curiosity. He always made sure to be around when Changmin was trading help with homework for food treats because the boy’s voice was loud and he learned better from his explanations than from his own teachers. It was a wonder how the boy was able to help even the guys already at university.

Changmin got down from the bleachers, putting on a protection smirk to hide how uncomfortable he was at having everyone’s eyes on him. When he reached in front of Yoochun, the older boy just bowed and so he did the same.

The two fought hard and mean, both too proud to lose. The teacher stood close to the fight, ready to intervene if necessary before the boys could get too far and hurt each other. Even so, the man looked impressed at his two best students. He had been thinking of putting them against each other for some time now, and it was revealing more impressing than he thought it would be.

Both boys were too focused on their fight to notice the cheers and tips from the other kids. Changmin and Yoochun were even smiling at each other after a while, admitting with no words that they were impressed with each other.

A round faced boy with a smiling face entered the wide room looking for the instructor. He watched the fight with unhidden interest for a while before he approached the instructor, asking to join the club.

Yoochun caught sight of something out of the corner of his eyes. Some new kid was watching the fight with a marvelled face. With a smile, he put on his best flashy moves. He knew his higher jumps were ineffective against Changmin’s defence capabilities but, after all, they were the reason they sometimes called him a monkey and would sure convince the new kid to join their club.

Yoochun was about to laugh when the new kid turned to obviously ask their instructor to join in an eager manner, however his laugh died in his throat and a well-aimed powerful kick from Changmin almost made him black out on the floor. Yoochun felt as if his head had been hit by a damn horse or something. He just stayed in the floor blinking stupidly while Changmin was worried asking him if he was ok. Jo In-sung and that new kid also approached Yoochun.

-Yoochun, are you ok? What happened? You got distracted. That was an attack you deflected easily before.

-I… I’m ok. Yeahh, ok. I’m ok. Yeahh.

-He sounds like he suffered brain damage. – Said Changmin with a side stare at the strangely behaving older boy.

Yoochun stood up immediately, offended with Changmin’s words.

-I’m ok, see?

His head stung a bit but Yoochun put on his best face and smiled at his instructor to convince the man. With all his will power he avoided the new kid’s worried eyes.

A while later, Jo In-sung was waiting for the boys returning from their showers, the new kid next to him.

-Hey, boys. Since we are all here, let me introduce you to your new colleague. This is Kim Junsu who just moved to our city.

Yoochun stood a bit on the back, staring suspiciously at the cheerful boy. He wondered if he would prove a danger with that distracting behind. Ignoring Eric, Yoochun went home alone, still too awestruck at what had happened before. The second he had caught sight of the boy sideways, a gorgeous round made him lose track of everything. In those seconds, before Changmin hit him, he had all the time in the world to admire the delicious looking curve, compare it to every he had ever seen before, boy or girl, and consider that one the winner. He also felt a little tingle down his body, warning him that he was responding ually to that view. Biting into it had even crossed his mind.

Yoochun jumped onto his bed wondering what to do if he still felt attracted to this Kim Junsu the next time he saw him. He had no qualms asking boys or girls out on dates if they attracted him but he valued his taekwondo lessons too much to mix it with his messy love life. In fact, it was because Changmin was in his taekwondo club that he had never asked the bratty kid out, even if he had lusted after him for a few weeks. With a sigh, he decided he would just do the same. Ignore that y curvy the same way he had ignored Changmin’s y long legs.

This decision proved more difficult to uphold than Yoochun ever thought possible. The new kid had decided to become friends with everybody in school (he just had to be in the same class, right?); in the neighbourhood (he just had to be his neighbour, right?); and in the taekwondo club (he just had to join, right?). Yoochun even wondered if he was being stalked. He felt like he kept seeing that tempting everywhere.

Worst of all, Kim Junsu was not only bubbly cheerful, he was shy and naïve. The total opposite of every boy or girl Yoochun had ever asked out. He doubted the kid had ever dated before.

Weeks passed. Yoochun got more used to Junsu. Junsu, however, had not yet got used to Yoochun. The guy was a puzzle for him. He could be a loyal friend, had surprising good grades at school, was liked by everyone and was very easy going. What didn’t make any sense was how he switched dates every other weekend. And it didn’t matter whether it was a boy or a girl. That made Junsu question himself. He had never thought much about it. Deciding it was about time he found out, he asked on a date one of the girls that kept flirting with him. The date went rather well, he even had his first pec. However, his heart didn’t flutter and he knew enough to know it should have.

To make things stranger for Junsu, he had encountered Yoochun with his date at the movies. The boy looked at him and his own date with murder in his eyes, which startled Junsu who could not imagine Yoochun to be so intense. Or why he was being like that. Junsu decided he would never understand Yoochun. And pushed to the back of his mind the instant when his eyes had met Yoochun’s angry stare and his heart had jumped in his chest.

Yoochun soon realised Junsu had not gone out with anyone else. And he decided not to take any more chances. One single time was already one time too many. No way in hell was he letting anyone else date Junsu. His taekwondo lessons could go to hell when he got tired of dating Junsu. He could sacrifice the easy atmosphere at the club if it meant he could have that damn that was haunting his dreams. So, Kim Junsu found himself as the target of something he was unprepared for: Park Yoochun’s flirting tactics.

Truthfully, only Yoochun thought he was flirting. Everyone else called him a greasy ert. His friends had always marvelled how he could get so many dates when he would simply walk up to someone he was interested in and just say what he wanted to do to them, which was something normally highly ual. Needless to say, it had the opposite effect on Junsu. The two of them had become friends, even if they were not very close, but Junsu had no idea what to do with the way Yoochun started to talk with him. What pissed him off the most was that the guy kept referring to his as if it was a separate entity, or as if Junsu was his and not a person.

Another few weeks passed. Yoochun had stopped randomly dating. His free time was mostly devoted at flirting with Junsu. Still the boy resisted him. Yoochun could not understand what he was doing wrong. He had used all his best lines. He was starting to even consider if he should try to steal a kiss. The worse thing of all that was that the kid was getting on his nerves. There were even times when what he noticed the most was Junsu’s lips. Or his eyes. Or his smile. Or how he was nice. Or how he was such a great company. He took to staring at the boy’s face, not just that devilish that still drove him crazy.

-Hey, Yoochun. What are you doing? See, Eric? I told you he was brain damaged. He’s just staring into space as if he’s watching paint dry.

-Let him be, Changmin. His problem is heart related, even if his brain is getting in his way.

Yoochun ignored his two friends. He was busy enjoying Junsu’s smile and his laugh at something Donghae had said. The happy face made him smile as well.

-Come on, Eric. That can’t be normal. Look at him. What is he smiling about?

Eric laughed and pointed Changmin in Junsu’s direction.

-Ohhh… You mean he’s actually serious?

-Yep. But he won’t realise it even if you kick him in the head.

-Hey, we can try that.

-Min.

Changmin does his best impersonation of an innocent smile much to Eric’s amusement.

Strangely, Junsu had learned to ignore Yoochun and even returned to his normal self around the guy. He had even started to slowly admit he liked the attention. Sadly, he didn’t believe that Yoochun really liked him. Junsu was sure Yoochun just wanted to get in his pants, or better put, he wanted in his . What made him sad about it was the glimpses of a greater Yoochun he could catch. There was a better boy behind the greasy playful façade. However, the occasional over the top joke about how Yoochun loved his perky round would always make Junsu wonder if he was imagining the other Yoochun.

The day Yoochun met Junsu he received a smack to his head. It took another smack for him to understand a few things about himself and Junsu. It all happened during a weekend the taekwondo club spent away. Jo In-sung organised a two day trip that involved boats and horses.

The first day they went on a boat ride and the kids could enjoy their first attempts at fishing. Yoochun loved it because Junsu laughed all the time, making him laugh as well. And his heart would do funny things when Junsu looked at him all smiles and apparently happy to see him smile too. Yoochun cheered like mad when it was Junsu who caught the bigger fish.

-You’re lucky, you got a big one.

Junsu just beamed at him and Yoochun wondered why he was seeing stars.

That night they all gathered around the fireplace in the lodge huge living room. They grabbed dinner from a table full of food and sat around the sofas, pillows or simply on the rug. Changmin was in heaven, eager to try a bit of everything, or better, a lot of everything.

-Hey, Minnie. You skiped the asparagus! – Teased Donghae between mouthfuls of pineapple.

-Oh, shut up, Donghae. – Chuckled Changmin.

The conversation was easy and the atmosphere relaxed. It was once again one of those times when Junsu wondered how Yoochun was really like because he rather liked this version of him. He sighed and stared absentmindedly at the paint on the wall.

-Junsu, try this. It’s delicious.

Junsu looked to this side startled. A smiling sweet Yoochun was next to him, feeding him pieces of cake before going back to give his attention to Changmin’s idea of one day becoming a bodyguard or something like that. Yoochun seemed to consider it a good idea, he did love practising martial arts more than anything but he never would have the patience to teach anyone.

The next day they went horse riding. Junsu was one of the few who didn’t want to try it at first. Yoochun and Changmin however were the first ones to master it as if they had done it all their lives. The two kept a friendly competition in everything they both attempted. Yoochun couldn’t even remember he had at some point thought of Changmin as anything other than a friend.

Their little group was standing around, watching other kids’s turn on the horses. Yoochun found himself behind Junsu and it was stronger than him. Like a magnet the sight of Junsu’s captured him and before he noticed he was doing it, he finally gave in to temptation and cupped the round cheeks. Yoochun moaned in delight. In the next second an outraged Junsu had punched him surprisingly hard and backed away, glaring at him.

-How dare you? What the hell, Yoochun? Why is it that every time I start to think you might be a decent human, you go and do ty stuff? I’m not just an for you to lust after. I’m a person. I have feelings. What the hell don’t you understand?

Yoochun was too startled to even say how sorry he was. He had really not meant to do that. Well, yes, he meant it, but only with Junsu’s consent. And he was almost scared at seeing an angry Junsu for the first time ever. The usually cheerful boy was no joke and he could certainly pack a punch. Then things happened too fast. Junsu had backed away to the middle of the path the horses were racing in. Yoochun saw one of the huge horses coming exactly in Junsu’s direction and his heart stopped. Not Junsu! Not his Junsu! He loved him.

Before anyone had time to react Yoochun had jumped on Junsu, pushed him to the ground and covered him with his body. Junsu screamed and tried fighting back, not understanding what the boy was doing. Then a huge shadow and loud noises made Junsu scream scared. And above him, Yoochun screamed as well, apparently in pain. He blinked at the boy above him. Yoochun had his eyes closed, his face crunched in a mask of pain. Junsu’s breathe stopped as he waited to see if he was ok. Around them other screams were heard. Someone caught the runaway horse that had just trampled them both.

Long seconds passed. Finally Yoochun opened his eyes and looked down at Junsu, worry in his voice and eyes.

-Su, are you ok?

-Yeahh.

-Are you sure?

-Yes. You saved me. What about you?

Yoochun got up from Junsu, disguising his own pain, to make sure for himself that the boy was not hurt. He felt like he was holding his heart in his hands. Junsu had almost got hurt. The boy was looking curiously at him, it was a strange look he had never seen and couldn’t identify.

Junsu’s heart was fluttering like mad. The other Yoochun was real, he had not imagined him. The greasy ert that annoyed him to pieces was just the façade. All the fantasies Junsu had entertained of having Yoochun prove how much he liked him, well… Yoochun had just outshined all of them. The guy had completely overlooked his own safety for his sake. Junsu felt suddenly nervous and insecure. He didn’t know what to do now. He couldn’t tell himself anymore that Yoochun didn’t like him and he sure as hell had to admit he liked him too.

With a daring move, uncharacteristic of him, Junsu gave Yoochun a soft pec on his cheeks and decided he would let the flirty boy keep having the initiative. He figured all he had to do was stop running, Yoochun would surely catch him. Sooner or later. He hoped sooner. That pec had just felt wonderful but he was too shy to try more.

Yoochun gaped at Junsu like a fish, his eyes incredibly opened wide. The blush on the shy boy was even more puzzling. He brought a hand to his cheek wondering if he was imagining things. Did Junsu had just kissed him? Yoochun suddenly smiled like a happy fool. He was unaware of the way his eyes were glowing and showing how much he was happy. This was a different look. Junsu felt sure he was probably the first person to see Yoochun looking like that. He looked absolutely sweet and adorable. And in love. With him. Junsu smiled back, his own eyes sparkling.

They gazed into each other’s eyes, unaware of the people around them. It was impatient Changmin who finally spoke him, waving a hand in between their almost approaching noses.

-Ok, you two. Enough lovey-dovey for now. Even I have figured you two are head over heels for each other. You have all the time in the world to be in love later. You, Chunnie, doctor, now. You probably have broken ribs.

Yoochun was torn between kicking Changmin and hugging him. Had he just said Junsu liked him too? He anxiously looked at the shy boy who smiled sweetly at him.

-I’ll help Yoochun, Minnie. After all, he got hurt because of me.

When he tried to move to show he was ok, Yoochun almost collapsed to the floor as he was suddenly aware of the pain on his side. It was rather likely he did have a broken rib. Junsu grabbed him on the opposite side and he gladly used the boy as support. As they walked away, Yoochun tried his luck, lowering the hand he had on Junsu’s back just a little lower than necessary, two of his fingers already feeling a soft curve in the boy’s lower back. He didn’t dare move his hand any further, he already knew he would have one black eye he didn’t need another. Junsu said nothing. Yoochun smiled, his greasy smile back in place as if it had never left his face.

Junsu sneaked a sideways glance at Yoochun. He almost chuckled as he saw the greasy mask fall back in place. However this time he didn’t mind it. He was glad he was the only one who would get to see the more profound Yoochun. He was willing to wait until the boy felt secure enough to let him in. The sneaky hand on his lower back told him it might be an interesting ride he was getting himself into. But the flutter to his heart told him it would be worth it.