Lee Howon had always been the student who rushed through things, who didn't find value in tending to minor details. It was advantageous because he always got things done in life and kept on track with everything. Some people (his mother) would say that it's a flaw of his, but some people (his grandmother) also claimed that it required great talent to speed through things yet still achieve the positive results that he did. Limitation or not, Howon felt that life was simply way too busy for him to take things slow. However as the years passed, he found that he was never really able to truly enjoy what he did. He had been so caught up with the routine of rushing through things for the sake of getting it done, he found it particularly hard to stop.

...Which was why he was incredibly envious of his best friend Jang Dongwoo.

He had met Dongwoo during his early, bowl-cut years of middle school, when he still had his oversized spectacles which slid down the bridge of his nose every five minutes. Back then Dongwoo was the new student who had just moved in from Seoul, whom, Howon had heard, that he was sent to Busan to live with his grandparents because "he was too troublesome" (what type of ‘troublesome’ wasn’t specified). At face value, many students thought Dongwoo was "cool" when he first came, not only because he was from Seoul, but also due to his unique exterior. He had a sharp gaze, a lean build, slightly gel-ed hair and a minute slouch usually associated with the "Bad Boy" type of image. Undeniably, Hoya's impression of Dongwoo went to the type of badasses who took drugs, bullied weaker people, and stole cigarette packets from the local convenience store. But boy was he wrong.

From his little observation post at the back of the classroom, Howon found that the boy was actually extremely easy-going and friendly. He also had a distinctly loud laugh and occasionally let out blaring whoops when excited (which was pretty much all the time), making his presence somewhat hard to ignore even if you stood a block away. Howon had also seen Dongwoo voluntarily wiping the blackboards after the bell on numerous occasions, or offering to help a student carry their things when their arms were full.

On the other hand, Howon also saw how Dongwoo's parents might have found him slightly "troublesome". Dongwoo...he did things his own way. He talked on end during class (with no intention of disturbing the class...though their teachers did take it that way and routinely sent the boy to detention everyday) and was always late for class (again, earning him another detention slip from homeroom). He also never handed in his assignment on time. It was always at least a day or two late, but Dongwoo defended his position saying that it was because he was not done vomiting out all his effort on to his assignment yet; a gross analogy that never failed to make Hoya gag.

When Dongwoo first plopped next to quiet, hardworking Hoya one day, everybody was shocked, including the boy himself. Out of all the people who wished to befriend with the popular Dongwoo, the boy who had silently observed from in his little corner of the classroom was, in some ways, chosen. He wasn’t completely ecstatic when Dongwoo decided to cling to him 24/7 starting from that day,...yet it wasn’t like he wanted the boy to leave his side either. The ambiable boy's company was somehow comforting, as Hoya never really did have many close friends up until middle school. They soon became close friends and were inseperable.

Through all the years of friendly skinship and teasing, Hoya had managed to loosen up a teeny bit because of Dongwoo. But no matter how hard he tried to rid himself of his habits, he remained that person who rushed through things. As the years passed, he grew curious as to how Dongwoo could take his time through everything without worrying too much about the consequences. 

“Dongwoo, we’re gonna be late!” Hoya called from his spot on Dongwoo’s front yard, letting the smooth pebble fly from his hand and hitting the glass of the window with a sharp clink. The boy's window was already horribly dented from all the years of having pebbles being chucked at it every day at 7AM sharp.

A sign with the words ‘WAIT’ scribbled on it with a black magic marker was then taped to the window and Hoya chuckled, tossing the last pebble in his hand, watching as it bounced off the deepest depression on the window. Bullseye. The window slid open and Dongwoo’s messy mass of bed hair peeked out.

“Yah Lee Howon, I said wait a moment. My window’s gonna break soon if you keep that up. You're going to have to pay damage costs.” Dongwoo stuck his tongue out and slid the window shut again. Hoya poked his tongue back at the empty windowspace and sighed as he sat down on the freshly mowed grass. It felt umcomfortably prickly through the thin material of his school trousers. Impatiently, he moved his buttocks around before deciding that the grass was not particularly comfortable anyway and went back on his feet.

Dongwoo had taken an extra long time to wake up, and Hoya was getting increasingly worried they were going to be late. He checked the purple wristwatch (yes, purple). 7:15AM. They had 15 minutes left before the school bell signaled the beginning of another school day. He was starting to consider the prospect of taking off without his friend when Dongwoo burst through the front door with a piece of wheat bread stuffed in his mouth. His hair was flying in different directions and his uniform was hastily thrown on, some buttons buttoned at the wrong gap, “I’m here, i’m here, i’m here.” Dongwoo mumbled with much difficulty due to the bread hastily stuck in his mouth, coming to a stop in front of Howon.

Unable to accept his friend’s messy attire, Howon took a few good minutes fixing pieces of Dongwoo’s hair and clothes despite the urgent need to get to school on time. The older boy did not complain and happily gobbled up his bread.

“Shanks.” Dongwoo smiled through his bread, grateful for his friend's meticulousness.

“‘Shanks’ my , did you sleep at four last night finishing the lab or something? Now we’re gonna be late!” Hoya grabbed Dongwoo's arm and dragged his friend onto the main road, taking up a fast pace. Dongwoo struggled to keep up and he varied between jogging and fast walking to keep up with Hoya’s long strides.

“Slow your horse, man! We’ve been on time for the past 2 years, why can't we be late for one day?” Dongwoo complained.

“What makes you think I would want to do that?” Howon's eyebrows furrowed in genuine confusion. 

“Because of me! because before we became biffles, Lee Howon, i actually used to be the only student who managed to be late for every class every single day, hello~” Dongwoo retorted, and thankfully this finally made Hoya slow down a bit.

“...your point is?”

“That maybe, just maybe we should try doing things my way! You’ve been dragging me to school everyday up until now, and now it’s my turn to let you taste ‘me’”

“Well that sounded wrong on so many levels.” Hoya grinned.

“...and you're on the highest level of wrong, you ert. It's all in the mind, my friend. Things are dirty only if you look at it dirty.” Dongwoo smiled, jostling the younger boy, happy he was able to loosen the boy up. He found it a bit scary how Hoya was so uptight all the time, which lead to some irritating temper tantrums at times, “...so?”

“...Well...” Hoya glanced at Dongwoo who was pleading him with ridiculously widened eyes, “...fine.”

Dongwoo howled and cheered like a banshee, and Howon reached over to try and cover his mouth, but to no avail,“For once I am free from the uptight clutches of Lee Howonism!”

Hoya snorted, “Uptight clutches? Lee Howonism? You make me sound like a dictator, hyung."

Dongwoo only cackled in response.

"Besides, who told you to befriend me 5 years ago when you first came to Busan anyways?”

Dongwoo latched onto his arms and blinked up at him, “Aw, don’t be like that, I enjoy being friends with Hobaby more than anything.”

“How are you older than me again?”

Dongwoo shrugged, “Well, how are you younger than me?"

Howon narrowed his eyes at his hyung’s childishness and Dongwoo let out another one of his infectious laughs, leaving Howon with no other choice but to break out into a grin as well.

“So, how exactly do i ‘taste’ you.” Hoya asked and Dongwoo snickered.

“Well first...” Dongwoo who still have his hands onto Hoya’s arm slid one hand down toward’s Hoya’s hands, a sly smile on his face. For a split second, Hoya’s heart sped up, thinking Dongwoo would hold his hand, but the feeling turned into something more of fear than anticipation when Dongwoo’s hands grasped onto his purple digital wrist-watch instead, “...I’ll have to take away this!”

“No! Not my watch!” Hoya struggled as Dongwoo unlatched the object from his wrist with little difficulty, and held it up in the air, grinning triumphantly.

“Too bad!”

“I need that!” Hoya whined and watched in horror as Dongwoo stuffed the watch deep into his school trousers.

“Nope, not with me you don’t.” Dongwoo shot him a smug grin.

“Please, for the love of God, don't break it.” Howon huffed childishly.

“Don’t worry it’s safe with me...see? You’re already worrying, and that’s not me at all.” Dongwoo reached out a finger and bopped the tip of Howon's nose. Howon narrowed his eyes and pretended to bite the intruding finger. He actually did like his wristwatch a lot, and now it felt like his wrist was stripped or something.

“Now, second rule of tasting me, you have to stop worrying about small trivial things and smile!” Dongwoo pushed the edges of Hoya’s mouth upwards, which fell back down again.

“How though?”

“Well, I personally like to list out everything that is good in life, think positive!” Dongwoo spread his arms out wide enthusiastically, but the uncertain frown remained on Hoya’s face. He tilted his head, trying to conjure up something that was good in life, but his mind remained blank.

Dongwoo noticed and threw an arm around Hoya’s shoulders, leaning onto Hoya’s muscular frame (Through their years of friendship, Dongwoo had somehow persuaded Hoya to work out with him and now he wasn’t the skinny kid that he used to be. His acne cleared up too, but perhaps that was Proactiv's doing), “Buddy, it’s not that hard! See, the sun is shining nicely today, we are young, that plant there is growing really nicely, there are no cracks in this sidewalk, and hey, the best thing is that you have me as your friend.” Dongwoo smiled cheekily, “...isn’t that already like, 4 incredible reasons to be happy about?”

“That would be 5 reasons.” Howon corrected with a small smile. Dongwoo beamed at the positive response.

“Okay next step, walk slowly.”

“What? Isn’t this pace already slow enough?”

“Nope, slower.”

An idea in head, Howon abruptly started walking in complete slow motion, each movement taking five seconds to complete. Dongwoo started laughing maniacally and Hoya let out a satisfied grin, because that was the reaction he had wanted to see.

“That’s a bit too slow, Lee Howon. Here, this pace will do.” Dongwoo grabbed his arm once again and sped them up a bit, taking up a leisurely pace that Hoya was unaccustomed to.

“Relax, Hoya.” Dongwoo shook his arm and Hoya tilted his head, he was relaxed...what was Dongwoo saying? After few more steps, and his friend was repetitively his arm, a weird attempt to get Hoya to "relax". Hoya started chuckling at how cute the older boy looked, petting away at his arm.

“Jang Dongwoo, i am relaxed. Are my muscles too firm for you?” Hoya laughed, and Dongwoo looked embarrassed, cheeks flushing red. Howon hears an amalgamation of something resembling Yeawhateveryousaymm come out from under Dongwoo's breath. He smiled and shook his head at the boy's antics. Suddenly, Hoya felt the older boy’s hand snaking down his arm and he wondered what his hyung was up to now. He didn’t have another watch on, so where exactly was his hand going? The hand slid further and further south, past Hoya’s wrist and then it slipped into his hand, the fingers lacing through Hoya’s and giving a small squeeze. Hoya’s breath got caught in his throat, and he swore his heart had literally skipped a beat before he allowed his hand to close around Dongwoo’s as well, returning the tiny squeeze.

They walked in a comfortable silence, their arms swinging together between them. Gradually, Hoya feels himself relax even further, melting into the comfortable atmosphere. He was even more surprised when he started walking with a bounce, some sort of spring, in his step. Where was this even coming from?

Dongwoo noticed and broke out into a full grin, bumping his shoulder against Hoya’s, “Somebody’s enjoying this” He singsonged.

“No...it’s...silly.” Hoya muttered, his relentless pride getting the best of him. The older boy could only roll his eyes in reply and pressed closer to Hoya, whose heart suffered another burst of energy before a fuzzy warmth encased his entire body.

On that day, Hoya and Dongwoo was approximately twenty eight minutes late for class, and Lee Howon was given the first ever detention slip in his life (he clearly remembered the way their classmates had raised their eyebrows as he took it from Park sungsaenim, Dongwoo standing proudly by his comrade with a detention slip of his own). Although he had broken a life-long habit for the first time, he was surprised to find that he didn't feel much different. The world continued to spin, the sun rising by dawn and setting by dusk. Everything stayed the exact same. Maybe...just maybe, slowing down in life wasn’t all that difficult. With Dongwoo by his side, it didn't seem all that bad either.






a/n. Hello all, newish author here (I say newish, but its complicated to explain how i'm "newish", so let's just leave it at that, haha). I've always been reading fanfics, but a recent Literature course in school prompted me to (re)cultivate my interest in writing. So here I am!

This was actually supposed to be teeny weeny itsy bitsy drabble to try out writing about this adorable couple (inspirit here! holla), but it flourished into this...which is why the fic’s idea itself might be quite silly, but eh, it wasn’t even supposed to be this long. hope you all enjoyed it!

may or may not be posting more things on this account, but for now I will be creeping around and reading (as usual)

comments and constructive criticism are well appreciated :---------)