Title : Cottonmouth Romance

Pairing :  Dongwoo X Sunggyu

Word count : 1,7K

Cottonmouth Romance

13 years old Dongwoo was like all the other teenagers of his age. He wanted to make friends with other people, preferably good looking and cool ones.

Along with his new group of friends Dongwoo had braved his first year of high school without any troubles: he was very lucky. He had the best group out of the 4 new ones this year. The other guys were cool, or at least cooler than the other from the other groups. Since they were in the music group, it seemed that all the relaxed ones ended up there. Compared to the fashion addicts and gossipers in the arts classes, Dongwoo thought things couldn't go better.

The only missing ingredient to the perfect school year was a rather alarming lack of interesting guys.

Yes. Being too friendly with people, made them a little less... interesting? Not that they weren't cool or nice to hang out with. At the contrary, Dongwoo was relieved they had such a chemistry between so many persons. He just couldn't imagine himself dating any one of those crazy bastards.

It's at one random recess that this episode starts.

Dongwoo was chilling around in the lockers room with Sungjong and two or three others of his best friends. Dongwoo didn't remember what they were talking about. He could only see the guy with generous waved hair and broad shoulders go back and fro between the lockers row, obviously alternating between a few of his friends like everyone does at that age.

It wasn't the first time Dongwoo saw the guy. He had caught his eye a few weeks ago due to the light reflecting in his hair and the evident metal band t-shirts he was wearing every day. He didn't mention it to anybody, but he thought now was the right moment to do it. He elbowed Sungjong.

"See that guy?" Dongwoo pointed out, with at least the decency to try to be subtle. "The one with the curly hair and shoulders."

"Uh.. yeah. Why?"

"I think he's y." Dongwoo bluntly admitted.

"Yeah, you're right." Sungjong said, and Dongwoo was relieved that Sungjong didn't take him for a crazy piece of .

"I'll call him Bobby." Dongwoo concluded.

Naming the cute ones was kind of a ritual for Dongwoo's group of friends. Like with any other teenagers group, in fact. They all have codenames for nothing and everything. Dongwoo's group found that calling them by names other than their real one would make the conversations more subtle. Not that it really worked since the glances were more obvious than the talks.

So for the rest of the school year, Dongwoo alongside Sungjong stalked on Bobby as soon as the latter was in their sight. He would often be part of their manly night talks and yeah. It was a collective boy-crush.

During the exams week, the subject was still on. Though, the arrival of summer made things less easy. Sungjong and Dongwoo decided that it couldn't continue like that. Two months were too long to phantasm only on a nickname.

"I wish I could see him one last time. I'd like to be brave enough to ask for his name." Dongwoo casually said, throwing his pencil case in the air and catching it mid-fall as they were waiting for the last of their friends to go back home after the exam.

"That'd be awesome." Sungjong approved.

Then, like on cue, the famous Bobby passed right beside their row of lockers accompanied by his friend with short flaming hair.

"GO!!!" Sungjong hurriedly pushed Dongwoo into the direction Bobby took.

"What!? Omg! No! I can't do that! He'll laugh at me!!" Dongwoo whined.

"You said you wanted to know his name. NOW is the time!! So go before he leaves for real!!!" Sungjong pressured. And he was right. Bobby had miraculously stopped at the fountain to catch a mouthful of water before leaving himself, giving the two boys the opportunity to fight over Dongwoo's cowardness.

"Fine!! I'll go, I'll go!" Dongwoo finally accepted. He walked with determination towards the object of his mission.

The guy was juuuust about to leave when Dongwoo finally reached the fountain.

The guy stood up and Dongwoo tapped his shoulder with two fingers. (Dongwoo should never forget the contact after that. The guy had muscles like he could only dream of.) Surprised, Bobby turned around only to fall face to face with a short big mouthed male.

"Hi! What's your name" Dongwoo asked with as much confidence as his 13 years old self could gather in front of a (y) 14-15 years old. His heard was furiously beating and his arms felt weak. It was his first time facing a boy alone and seriously it was freaking the out if him.

"Sunggyu" The guy said. His face showed only interrogation, but he asked nothing. More precisely, Dongwoo didn't let him time to do so. With a quick "okay", he turned around tried not to run to where his friends were waiting for him with great impatience.

"Sunggyu. He said Sunggyu!!" Dongwoo whispered not too loud in case Sunggyu was still in a nearby perimeter.

When Dongwoo stepped out of the school that afternoon, he felt like a grown up man. He was a little proud of himself since he asked for someone's name for the first time. The first time. How he liked the feeling of it in his still-a-little-weak knees. He beamed at the world as he climbed down the stairs of the main entrance.

Summer would be a piece of cake after that.

A few months into second year, Dongwoo had a bittersweet surprise.

One afternoon at recess, Sungjong came arrived with big news.

"Hey guys, you won't believe what just happened!!" He was obviously excited and he knew that he others would be interested in what he would tell them. "I just had a talk with SUNGGYU!!!"

"WHAT!? WHAT!? DETAILS! NOW!" Dongwoo got excited too, because it wasn't everyday that some y older boy aboard random lower grades.

"Well, he said that he had noticed me in the crowd and that he wanted to know me" Sungjong chirped. It was true that he kind of stood out of the crowd. He had a unique face and his clothing style was different. Sungjong liked gothic and horror movies, and he recently started to listen to more brutal music groups. It was kind of the perfect match between the two of them, considering the interests Sunggyu seemed to have.

Hearing that, Dongwoo couldn't help but feel a little bit backstabbed. He was the one who pointed out the guy and also the one to ask for his name. He would have liked to have a little recognition on that point.

Though, if he thought about it correctly, Sungjong and Sunggyu were way braver than him. They'd have an easier chemistry. Not that Dongwoo was hard to get along with in the first place...

Following that impromptu encounter, Sungjong and Sunggyu saw each other once or twice out of the school. Each time, Sungjong would have new anecdotes to share, all more hilarious the ones than the others.

He would also have new experiences Dongwoo would never have the gut to try out. Pot, for instance.

When Sungjong came to school the day after he tried it for the first time, Dongwoo thought he was lucky. Not because he had tried such an illegal product, but more because he had someone to push him into it. Not that he wanted Sungjong to become a junkie! At the contrary, Dongwoo was jealous that Sungjong was brave enough to try it, like it, smoke some again, and along the way become a couple with the guy who brought him into it.

This last part had been the hardest to digest. Dongwoo had seen it coming, but he couldn't let himself believe it. He was envious.

With time, he got used to it and developed one of his maxims: never go out with your friend's exes. Hearing from the lover from the friend's point of view changed a lot of things. It also destroys the golden image one has from another person quite easily.

Sungjong and Sunggyu dated for around a year and a half.

Through these months, Sungjong brought Dongwoo along for a few nights out with Sunggyu and his friends. It turned out Dungwoo was getting along quite well with them, but there again, is there really someone who couldn't get along with Jang Dongwoo.

He remembers that one time in a cement stairway behind a fast-food. They were there, in the stairway leading to the basement of the shop. Deep in the night, four teenagers were sharing joints after a noisy crappy death metal show.

Sungjong laughed at Dongwoo for being hungry on the way back home.

Dongwoo still feel a little bad for lying to his mom about the pot odour on his jean jacket the following day.

Sunggyu was finally only a failed attempt at romance and leadless hopes in Dongwoo's teenage memories. Sunggyu was his first "I appreciate you, but I prefer your friend."

You have to have a first for everything, right?

Bonus:

Dongwoo sat in his class on Monday morning, eyes still tired from the late night he pulled reading fics in his bed. It was always hard to get used to the new college schedules.

The classroom was almost full when someone Dongwoo knew quite well took place at the same place at him at the opposite side of the room.

Sunggyu.

Dongwoo waved and saluted him. It had been a long time since their path came across each other's. It was nice to know that the other was well doing.

And so for the next few weeks, Dongwoo and Sunggyu sat side by side in their Monday morning classes.

Dongwoo still believed he was awfully good looking. But he also knew that they both were deep in the friendzone.

For a minute, Dongwoo had nostalgia of his teenage years. So far, the best years of his life.