The day of the performance was getting closer and closer, and everyone really had to try their best during rehearsals. There was no time for half-assed attempts at acting or script readings, they had to “imagine that today is performance day”, as their teacher had said.

They’d definitely progressed, everyone knew their lines by heart at this rate and Jongdae’s fake sneezing had improved (according to both himself and Miss Hwang). In fact, everybody had improved a lot, and they all contributed to the play in their own ways. Their combined efforts were basically what made the play what it was, so at this point nobody could afford to be absent from class.

Therefore, it was close to a disaster when Luhan didn’t show up one lesson.

“Where is Snow White?” Miss Hwang asked when everyone had entered the classroom, well, everyone except one. She looked at Minseok and Yixing, Luhan’s classmates, when she asked the question.

“He hasn’t been in school all day”, Yixing said.

“I texted him and he told me he has a fever, so he can’t come to class today”, Minseok quickly added. The teacher sighed, almost sounding a bit frustrated.

“But he’s the most important character in the play! It’s impossible to practise without him! Is there anyone here that could play Snow White for today’s lesson?” She stared at all her students, who kind of fidgeted nervously and tried to look away.

“Of course not”, she sighed again, “none of you know Snow White’s lines. I should’ve thought of that.”

Miss Hwang seemed so let down. Obviously. Jongdae almost felt sorry for her.

“I- uh…”

“Yes, Jongdae?”

Jongdae stiffened. He wasn’t supposed to have said anything out loud. And now he didn’t know what to answer.

The thing was that he believed he knew all of Snow White’s lines due to his long practise session with Luhan a while ago. However, he didn’t want to go through the humiliation of playing Snow White.

Hmm… but he would be doing the whole class a good deed if he was to substitute Luhan for today’s lesson… And possibly have the opportunity to kiss Sehun. Oh. Ohh. Okay, he had decided.

“I… can play Snow White. If no one else wants to. As long as I don’t have to wear the dress”, he said, bracing himself for his classmates laughing at him.

Except they didn’t. Baekhyun did snort once and Yifan flashed him a large, -eating grin, but other than that it seemed fine. Sehun even gave him a small smile, making his stomach flip.

“Of course you don’t have to wear the dress, it’s not your costume after all. But do you know all of Snow White’s lines by heart?”

Jongdae nodded at the teacher.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Okay, great! Turns out practise won’t be as impossible anymore!” Miss Hwang exclaimed before telling everyone to go dress up and get ready.

Jongdae nearly regretted his decision right away, because it felt utterly embarrassing to try to portray an innocent little girl in front of all his classmates. He did his best, though, skipping up on stage and humming idly on one of his favourite songs as he did so. When he left the stage after a short time he felt Sehun’s eyes following him, and even knowing that Sehun only stared at him because his character was supposed to, Jongdae still felt nervous.

The rest of the scenes turned out really well, actually. Of course, the dwarfs were six today instead of seven, but it didn’t matter much since Sneezy wasn’t that important of a character anyway. It did feel a bit awkward to act like a caretaker to Baekhyun and Kyungsoo and the others (especially since Baekhyun kept giving him these not-so-subtle knowing smirks every now and then) but Jongdae thought he dealt with it in a pretty good way. The only time he started feeling really unsure of himself was when the last scene was about to take place. The kiss scene.

Jongdae was lying on the table, pretending to be as unconscious as Snow White was supposed to be in that scene. However, he almost felt more alive than ever. His heart was beating so fast he believed it was going to leap out of his chest sooner or later, and he had to try to keep his breathing steady. It was very difficult when his increased heart rate made his chest visibly rise and sink, making him seem like the opposite of being unconscious. And Sehun hadn’t even entered the stage yet. Jongdae was hopeless.

When he did, though, Jongdae had to try to keep his eyes closed to remain in character. Which he totally failed at. He just had to open them when he heard Sehun’s footsteps come to a halt right next to him. Then, seeing Sehun’s face above him made Jongdae’s own face feel hotter and hotter. Sehun seemed a bit flustered, too, and weren’t his cheeks also a little bit pink?

Sehun flashed a small smile when he saw Jongdae looking up at him, and then proceeded to bend down, almost closing the distance between their lips. The younger’s face just hovered over his own for a couple of seconds, and Jongdae swallowed. This was pretty much a dream come true to him, so why was he feeling so nervous?

Even though he was surrounded by them, Jongdae could only hear a faint, almost inaudible, sound of his classmates yelling and shouting. It was as if he and Sehun were all by themselves, and the other occupants of the room were miles away. All Jongdae could really focus on was the sensation of Sehun’s breathing against his face, and the strands of Sehun’s long fringe brushing against his cheek. He shut his eyes, the close proximity of the other’s face made him feel all dizzy. He then heard Sehun mumble an “okay” to himself, like he tried to get ready for what he was about to do.

Jongdae’s heartbeat was increasing more and more, and his lips were almost trembling, he was sure he was going to die of nervousness if he had to wait even more, finally Sehun took a last deep breath and lowered himself additionally, and-

“Ahem, you know that you two don’t have to kiss if you don’t want to, right?”

Their teacher’s sudden words made Sehun straighten up immediately, and with that Jongdae was brought back to his less Sehun-infused reality. His heart was still hammering in his chest and his palms were sweaty, he felt both relieved and disappointed. Mostly disappointed, though. He couldn’t believe he’d been only millimetres away from kissing Oh Sehun. He glanced up at said boy, who also looked a bit shaken, as if he wasn’t really sure what just had happened.

Jongdae could then suddenly hear his classmates louder than before. Most of them were laughing at his and Sehun’s expense, and Jongdae forced himself to smile sheepishly back at them, trying to hide the fact that his heart felt like it’d been stepped on. He thanked the heavens for the fact that he wasn’t prone to crying, because if he was, he’d probably be bawling by now.

Jongdae got up from the table and went over to Baekhyun, who was laughing and booing simultaneously, shouting stuff like “Sehun, you coward!” and “Be a man and go kiss him!”. It was embarrassing, and Jongdae punched him lightly in the arm.

“Baekhyun, please. Shut up.”

With that, he left the scene.

Luhan wasn’t the only one who was absent from class during the last couple of practise rounds. The next lesson, Jongdae found out after reading a note on the door to the classroom, their teacher was ill and had stayed home. And she had been the one telling them how important it was for everyone to be present during their lessons. Were they even able to practise without her there?

Jongdae was very early that day, so when he entered the classroom after having read the note he only saw two people in there. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were both currently on stage and wrestled each other, Chanyeol embarrassingly enough losing in spite of his bigger body size. They stopped when they heard Jongdae enter, and Kyungsoo immediately stood up, wiping his hands on his trousers.

“Jongdae! Jongdae, did you see what he did to me? You saw it, right?! He is evil, I swear!” Chanyeol shouted, pointing at Kyungsoo. The latter just rolled his eyes and kicked the air in front of Chanyeol’s face. The taller flinched and then continued gesturing to Kyungsoo’s direction as if saying “Look! I told you!”. Jongdae chose not to comment, he was pretty sure that Chanyeol was the one who’d initiated the wrestling, anyway.

“Uh, is the note on the door real or is it just a prank?” he directed the question at Kyungsoo, knowing that Chanyeol wouldn’t give away if it was a prank or not.

“It’s real! I arrived here first and it was here then, so yeah. I guess we have to practise without Miss Hwang today”, Kyungsoo answered.

“Hopefully Luhan hyung is here as well, so you don’t have to play Snow White a second time”, Chanyeol grinned, finally standing up. “I seriously thought Sehun was gonna kiss you last lesson. Lucky he was interrupted just in time!”

“Yeah… Lucky”, Jongdae said, attempting to play along. Kyungsoo gave him this sympathetic glance, oh god, don’t say he knew about Jongdae’s crush as well…? Chanyeol didn’t seem to have noticed though, which was good, because Jongdae knew he wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about it.

A minute or so later, Minseok entered the classroom, looking around.

“Is Miss Hwang seriously not here today?”

“Nope, doesn’t seem like it”, Jongdae answered him, and soon all twelve of them were gathered in the classroom, the teacher nowhere to be seen.

They decided to carry on with practise anyway, since that’d be what Miss Hwang wanted them to. Junmyun looked very proud when he was declared the substitute for their teacher, and with that he immediately clasped his hands in a Miss Hwang-like manner and told them all to go change into their costumes so that their rehearsal could begin.

Jongdae was dressing up at his usual place behind a clothes rack, and while he was putting on a pair of trousers he heard a voice that almost made him drop said trousers on the floor.

“Hyung!”

Sehun was standing in front of him, fully clothed, except for the cravat which he was holding in his hand. He was smiling a little, and Jongdae could already feel his face heat up as he hurriedly put on his trousers. Afterwards he looked up at the younger, wondering what he wanted this time.

“Uh, could you help me tie this?” Sehun waved with the piece of fabric in his hand. “It’s kinda difficult to do by myself, so…”

Jongdae tried to sigh exhaustedly, making it seem like he wasn’t as keen on tying the other’s cravat as he actually was.

“Sehun, you’re hopeless. Can’t even dress yourself…” he muttered while smiling playfully at the younger to make it obvious that he was only joking. Sehun handed him the piece of fabric.

“…Just do it.”

Jongdae had never tied a cravat before, but how hard could it be? Well, the close proximity to the other boy made it a tiny bit more difficult, but he would manage. He just had to ignore Sehun’s eyes on him, and it’d be fine.

He threw the fabric around Sehun’s neck, and even though his fingers were trembling he still tied the cravat without any major problems occurring (such as him accidentally strangling Sehun or running out of breath himself from standing so close to the other). At least he received Sehun’s approval, which was more than enough for him.

“It looks good”, Sehun said when he observed the result in the mirror.

“You look good”, Jongdae was about to say, but stopped himself just in time. No need to make this more awkward than it already was. Instead he just nodded in reply.

Sehun then turned to face him and stared at his face intently. At that Jongdae felt nervous, like he really wanted to hide from the younger’s intense gaze.

“H-hey, what are you-”

“Hyung, you have something… here”, Sehun then said, and reached up to his own face to point at a place by his lips. Jongdae guided his fingers to his own lips, feeling silly for having some dirt or something on his face in front of Sehun.

“No, not there, a little bit above… wait.”

Sehun removed Jongdae’s hand from the shorter’s face and replaced it with his own. He moved a little bit closer to Jongdae as he did so, and Jongdae’s heart probably stopped. Seriously, he couldn’t even breathe while Sehun removed something from the edge of his lips, so when Sehun was done and backed away Jongdae let out a huge breath. It was as if his heart really had stopped before with the way it was rapidly beating in his chest now, like it was compensating for the time it had been out of order.

Looking up at Sehun, Jongdae could swear that he saw the younger smirk for half a second. Then he just looked down at him with no particular emotion on his face. Jongdae cleared his throat, trying to move on from what just had happened.

“Do you need help with putting the crown on too, or are we done?” he said in a playful manner (or at least he tried to). Sehun gave him a look, then smiled widely.

“We’re done. Thanks for your help, hyung.” Sehun’s smile was so sincere Jongdae didn’t want to end their conversation.

“Who usually helps out with the cravat?” he asked as they afterwards made their way out of the storage room.

“Well, it’s mostly people who know about that kind of stuff, like Tao hyung and Yifan hyung. They were already done changing and had left, so that’s why I asked you.”

Of course. It wasn’t something like “I asked because you’re my favourite hyung, Jongdae” or anything. Jongdae felt that useless feeling of jealousy bubble up inside of him at the thought of Tao or Yifan getting to be as close to Sehun as he just had been. In fact, Sehun had only used him as a replacement for them. That kinda hurt.

Why was he feeling so jealous, anyway? He wasn’t usually this possessive. It wasn’t as if Sehun was his or anything, so it was completely irrational. Sehun probably didn’t even like him back anyway. Why would he?

Jongdae was just another classmate, Sehun didn’t interact with him that much. Probably because Jongdae always was so awkward around the younger, and therefore wasn’t really the most fun or interesting person to be around. He didn’t even belong among the more attractive people in the class. He wasn’t tall like Chanyeol and Yifan, he wasn’t athletic like Minseok and Tao, he didn’t have a pretty face like Luhan and Kyungsoo. Of course, he wasn’t ugly, but he certainly wasn’t attractive either. And being average definitely didn’t make gorgeous people like Sehun interested in him.

Besides, maybe Sehun didn’t like guys at all. That was a possibility. He did kiss Luhan, but only for the purpose of the play. Additionally, even though Jongdae had never heard him talk about girls like he was interested in them, he hadn’t heard him talk about boys that way either. It was a bit of a mystery, and Jongdae could only hope that the younger wasn’t straight, at least. Jongdae’s crush would feel so pointless if that was the case.

Rehearsal went by, and it actually turned out pretty okay even though their teacher wasn’t there. Jongdae kinda liked the freedom they got from their teacher’s absence. He and Chanyeol had declared themselves responsible for the sound, and they had taken the task a little less seriously than what Miss Hwang usually did. Actually, Jongdae had nearly pissed himself laughing when they put on a heavy dubstep track instead of birds chirping in the beginning of the play. Some of their classmates grew a little bit annoyed with their antics, but it was all worth it when Jongdae heard Sehun wheezing of laughter when they’d replaced the soundtrack for the more dramatic parts with the opening song of a popular children’s cartoon.

Things did start to get a little out of hand when they reached the last scene, probably because most of them were tired by then. Instead of doing things according to script, they improvised and came up with some kind of alternate ending, where every character in the entire play were on stage. Baekhyun, or Happy, immediately walked up to Minseok the Mirror and asked if he was beautiful, only to be answered with a roll of the eyes. Tao, or the queen, strolled around on stage looking at the dwarfs with interest, and then suddenly threw his arms around Jongin, asking if he could bring one of the dwarfs home with him. Jongin looked terrified for real, and Kyungsoo had to go pry him off of Tao’s grip, all while still trying to stay in character as Grumpy.

So yeah, things started to get out of control a little bit, so it was no surprise that people went wild when the kiss scene was about to happen.

One’d think that Jongdae had gotten used to the kiss by now, since he had already witnessed it, but he really hadn’t. Quite the opposite, actually. It was as if it got worse every time he had to watch the two pushing their lips together, and it certainly didn’t get better now when half the class were shouting “Make out! Make out!” at the top of their lungs.

Sehun’s facial expression was hard to read, but Luhan did look a bit annoyed.

“What do we get if we do it?” the older asked.

“You… get to make out?” Jongin tried, and Luhan rolled his eyes.

“We’re not doing it unless we actually get something out if it, right Sehunnie?” he said and nudged Sehun, who shrugged. Jongdae swallowed. When had Luhan started to call Sehun by a nickname like that? How close were the two of them, even?

“I’ll buy you bubble tea after school! How does that sound?” Chanyeol said, and Luhan eyed him.

“And ice cream.”

“A-and ice cream”, Chanyeol repeated, and Luhan sat himself down on the table, grabbing Sehun by the shirt collar and pulling him closer.

“That’s a good deal, right Jongdae?” Chanyeol then said good-heartedly and slung his arm around Jongdae’s shoulder. When he received no response from the shorter, he turned to look at him.

“Jongdae?”

The mentioned boy vaguely heard Chanyeol’s worried tone, but he was concentrated on the two in the middle of the stage. Just before Luhan’s lips collided with Sehun’s, the latter looked at Jongdae intensely with an unidentifiable expression. Jongdae’s stomach was already a bit unstable from that, and when their lips actually touched he felt like he was going to throw up.

“I… need to go the toilet”, he said to nobody in particular as he fled the room, ignoring Chanyeol’s shout of surprise from behind him.

Jongdae took a deep breath when he had left the classroom. He sat himself down on a bench, feeling tears about to form in his eyes. How stupid. He almost never cried and now he nearly did, for a really dumb thing too.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming up behind him. . He didn’t want anyone to see him in this embarrassing state. Unless it was Sehun coming to declare his undying love for him and apologise for not having said anything before, or something.

Of course it wasn’t Sehun, he thought when he heard the voice accompanying the footsteps.

“Jongdae-yah?”

It was Luhan. Of all people. Jongdae forced himself to reply, voice feeling a bit shaky.

“Y-yes?” He tried as hard as he could to resist the urge to cry while Luhan sat down next to him on the bench.

“Are you feeling well?” the older asked, and Jongdae nodded.

“Yeah, I was… I only needed some fresh air, the classroom was feeling a bit cramped, I guess”, he lied, and Luhan eyed him somewhat sternly.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Huh?”

“You know, you’ve been acting pretty strange lately. Especially around the, uh, kiss scene. It seems like you’ve been trying to, well… keep it from happening, or at least avoid it as much as possible. And… hey, are you crying?!” Luhan suddenly exclaimed when he looked at Jongdae. The latter flinched at the words and immediately directed his fingers to his cheeks. They were indeed wet. Jongdae wiped them with his sleeve. This felt humiliating.

“I’m… I’m fine”, he said, wanting Luhan to continue talking.

“Are you sure?” Luhan put his hand on Jongdae’s shoulder and suddenly his face was all up in Jongdae’s personal space, so the latter automatically backed away a little bit. He then nodded, hopefully he didn’t come off as too rude, and Luhan gave him a worried glance before continuing.

“Well, uh… this kinda further proves my point that you’re acting strangely. You just ran away from the classroom and now you’re crying?! Really, I couldn’t go on kissing Sehunnie, I had to check how my friend was doing. And I realised that free bubble tea and ice cream aren’t worth it if you have to break someone’s heart in order to get it”, Luhan said and sounded determined. Jongdae blinked a few times, then it dawned on him what the older meant.

“Hyung…” he started.

“Yes?”

“You’re so… cheesy. God.”

“Wha- hey, I’m trying to be a nice friend here, okay? Don’t make fun of me!” Luhan was almost offended, and Jongdae laughed a little, wiping his eyes again.

“Sorry. It’s really nice of you. Thanks for caring.”

Luhan nodded.

“So, because of that, there’s a thing I wanted to ask you”, he took a deep breath, “Uh, I… I don’t know how to say this, but, well… do you like me? Like… like like? And that’s why you’re not feeling well about that scene? I’m terribly flattered but, uh… I-I’m definitely not judging you or anything, I mean, I like guys as well, so don’t think I’m grossed out by you or something, and I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want to, but-”

“Hyung, calm down!”

Jongdae was almost laughing at how wrong Luhan was. The situation was close to comical, and Jongdae found it difficult not to smile even though he had recently been crying.

The older of the two directed his eyes to Jongdae and looked at him confusedly.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t like you that way”, Jongdae continued, trying his best not to burst out laughing. For some reason Luhan’s puzzled expression made it really hard for him to do so.

“Phew”, Luhan then breathed out, “that’s a relief, because I don’t see you as anything other than a friend, either. A very precious friend, but still, just a friend. So… this was awkward.” He smiled a bit sheepishly at Jongdae, but then he looked like he was hit with something (realisation perhaps?).

“But then, wha-” Luhan started, but Jongdae interrupted him.

“Sehun. I like Sehun”, he said and looked around carefully, as if the mentioned boy was standing right behind him and listening to their conversation. He wasn’t.

“Ohh. Right. I see. That’s why you ran away. That’s why you’ve been trying to stop that scene”, Luhan seemed to let the realisation sink in.

“Wait, were you the one who called me?!” he added as an afterthought.

“Well, yeah. Sorry”, Jongdae saw no point in hiding anything anymore, he had pretty much told Luhan everything by now.

“You better be, I thought Miss Hwang was gonna kill me!” Luhan exclaimed.

“It’s your own fault for not having your phone on silent mode, you know.”

“Not if you’re calling me on purpose in the middle of class! But whatever, back to the subject. Do you think he returns your feelings? I heard from Minseok that you played Snow White when I was ill, and according to him, both of you seemed a bit flustered over the kiss scene…” Luhan wiggled his eyebrows once, then looked at Jongdae expectantly.

“Uh, I don’t really think- Wait. So… you don’t like Sehun?”

“What? No!” A frown overtook Luhan’s face. Jongdae felt very confused.

“But… you’ve kissed him! More than once! And you said he was attractive”, he stated, and Luhan rolled his eyes.

“Jongdae-yah, we’re only kissing because the script tells us to, haven’t you understood that? And yeah, I said he was good-looking, but am I not allowed to think someone looks nice without being attracted to them? You look pretty nice yourself, but as I said before, I don’t like you that way. Besides, Sehunnie is like a little brother. A cute little brother.”

“A little brother who’s both taller and looks more mature than you”, Jongdae added, trying to ignore the flattered feeling he got from Luhan casually calling him good-looking. Instead he focused on the relief he was experiencing thanks to Luhan’s explanation.

“Well, even if he - as you say - looks more mature, I have the more mature personality. And I’m manlier than he is. He’s still just a baby”, Luhan replied proudly. Jongdae snorted.

“Don’t you think he likes you, though?” Jongdae then said a bit anxiously, and Luhan shrugged.

“Well, I wouldn’t know that. You know how he is, he’s good at hiding his feelings sometimes. But I don’t think so?” He sounded like he genuinely didn’t know. Jongdae sighed, and Luhan patted him on the back.

“Just do your best! He’ll probably realise what a cute guy you are, if he hasn’t already!” After that, Luhan gave him a stern look before continuing to speak.

“But don’t try to sabotage the play, alright? From what I’ve noticed, you haven’t done anything bad, but it’s still not okay.”

“I-”

“You know what? Jealousy is an ugly thing, Jongdae. Good thing you’re so handsome”, Luhan exclaimed and patted Jongdae once on the back again. Then he went back to the classroom, leaving Jongdae half confused, half relieved.

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a/n: luhan enters, says some weird stuff, then leaves (hello yes i am alive and updating!!!!!! yeA)

as you may have noticed, there are some small changes to the fic. firstly, i've made chapter titles for all the chapters, hopefully they make sense. secondly, i finally finished making the poster and i've uploaded it (PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OMG i know my editing skills leave much to be desired, but still. pls)

also, another thing, i didn't realise the fic title is kind of a pun since sehun's family name is oh, lmao. i was just thinking of the neon bunny song when i came up with it haha

hope you took the time to read this unnecessarily long author's note, and i wish you a nice day/night wherever you are ^^