a/n: this is a ridiculously long chapter, get ready

Sehun had dyed his hair. It shouldn’t have affected Jongdae that much, but it did. Jongdae was almost mesmerised. The light brown colour was perfect on the other, and it made him look even more prince-like, if possible. Jongdae found himself imagining how it would feel to run his fingers through Sehun’s hair more than once. As if changing the colour also would change the texture of it. Stupid. Anyway, it looked nice.

The others also seemed to approve of the change, especially their teacher who thought Sehun had done it just for the purpose of the play. Jongdae felt a sting of jealousy when she praised his new look, he wanted to be the one to shower Sehun in compliments. But somehow his mouth didn’t seem to be able to form a single word. Instead he just stood there, a little bit away from where his classmates had gathered around Sehun, simply observing the younger. He felt disappointed with himself, but then again, his opinion probably didn’t matter that much to Sehun. Stating it would be pointless.

The day Sehun had entered the classroom with a new hair colour was also the last class of practise before the performances the next week. Jongdae was already feeling nervous, even though he only had a small role in the play. He supposed he was nervous about the entirety of the play, if someone would forget their lines, if the CD player would stop working, if they lost some of the most important props. Anything could happen, and that made him feel a bit anxious.

Something that made Jongdae feel a tiny bit better, though, was the talk he’d had with Luhan the previous lesson. It was good to know that the mentioned boy didn’t have any romantic feelings for Sehun, even if he couldn’t be sure about how the younger felt. But Jongdae did feel kinda safe with the knowledge that the kiss scene wouldn’t make Luhan and Sehun start to date, get married, move to a roomy cottage by the sea, adopt three kids and a dog and live happily ever after.

Since it was one of the final weeks of the semester, Jongdae was dead tired. He had a lot, really, a lot, of exams and the fact that he had to attend this last class of practise annoyed him, because he knew he could’ve been at home studying instead, doing something more productive than this. He didn’t even need to practise, he had a tiny amount of lines and knew them and probably everyone else’s lines as well, by now.

What also made him feel exhausted was that he’d attended a party the day before - Baekhyun and Chanyeol had pretty much forced him to go. Jongdae had declined their previous invitations, feeling stressed out over all the schoolwork he had yet to do, but this time they wouldn’t have it. He didn’t understand how they found the time and energy to party during the final weeks, but then again, maybe they didn’t care about their grades as much as he did.

Anyway, Jongdae felt completely worn out and almost screwed up one of his lines much to his teacher’s dismay. Not that he cared that much, though. He’d compensate for his ty acting today with flawless, Oscar-worthy acting during the performances next week.

Said performances approached quickly, and it was the next week in no time at all. They’d decided to have them on a Friday, and because they had to work with the play the entire day they didn’t have any of their normal classes.

The play was supposed to be performed at the school auditorium, and they were performing it three times. The first time was for the other students of the school, or at least those who wanted to see it. It started at one in the afternoon, and since the play was about two hours long they’d be finished around three o'clock. Then they would perform it two additional times - at four and seven - in front of their families and whoever else wanted to come, really. Posters advertising the play were up around the area and hopefully they would attract a bigger audience.

They started really early that day with setting up the stage and carrying all the props from their normal practise room to the auditorium, and made sure they were in place. Then, it was time for their final dress rehearsal.

(They had finally found a black wig for Luhan to cover up his bright yellow hair with. That combined with the dress and some rosy blush on his cheeks (courtesy of their teacher) made him look adorably feminine, something that Junmyun was quick to point out.

“Luhan… I don’t know how to say this but… Y-you look beautiful”, he uttered while grabbing Luhan’s hand. The latter stared at him in disbelief and after a couple of seconds Junmyun suddenly let go of said hand, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“A-as a girl I mean! You look just like my type of girl! All pretty and stuff. Um”, Junmyun tried to improve the situation for him but only seemed to be making things worse. Luhan didn’t look too happy, and Jongdae had to grab Junmyun by the shoulders and lead him away from the other.)

Their final rehearsal was. A. Disaster. They’d decided to have it right before lunch, and when lunchtime finally came around Jongdae couldn’t eat a single bit of his food. He was such a nervous wreck.

During the rehearsal, Sehun had completely forgotten his lines due to him being anxious. Luhan had also been on edge, snapping at the younger when they reached the final scene and the boy’s legs didn’t seem to work as they should. It was so unlike Luhan to do something like that, so the majority of them jumped a little in surprise when it happened. Unfortunately, Minseok was just carrying the framed glass he usually had in front of him on stage to represent the mirror, and dropped it in shock.

In less than a second the glass shattered into hundreds of small pieces covering the entire floor backstage, and they had to clean it up in the little time they had left before their performance started. It was a lot of work, and when they were done at last and could go have lunch, there was only half an hour until the clock e in the afternoon.

“At least we’re lucky it was glass in the frame and not a real mirror”, Yixing had said, trying to remain optimistic. “If it was the real thing we would’ve earned seven years of bad luck.”

Everyone seemed kinda irritated and snappish after the incident, so during lunch all of them just sat by themselves, eating their food in silence. Or, in Jongdae’s case, attempting to. However, he had a hard time even looking at the kimbap he’d brought. He couldn’t stop thinking about their performance that was to start in less than thirty minutes, how it would turn out. Everyone seemed to be in such a bad mood, which didn’t help at all. It made things, if possible, worse. Jongdae really was sure that the performance would be even crappier than their previous rehearsal, and it made his stomach do somersaults. And not the good, fluttering kind either, but violent flips, making him feel like throwing up any second. Therefore he left the table, running towards the nearest toilet.

Upon reaching it Jongdae didn’t even think of checking if it was locked, thus he was very surprised when the door didn’t open as he pulled the handle.

“I-it’s occupied!” came a voice from the other side. A familiar voice. It was a bit shaky, but Jongdae could still recognise it.

“Sehun? Are you alright?” he asked worriedly.

“Jongdae hyung?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Uh, wait a second.”

After literally two seconds, Sehun opened the door, looking down at the ground.

“I’m sorry for occupying the toilet, I… I wasn’t even using it. Here, go”, he gestured to the open door but Jongdae had his eyes elsewhere.

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you alright?” Jongdae felt the flips in his stomach being replaced by a somewhat heavy feeling, not making his mood any better. Seeing Sehun looking so troubled made him feel troubled as well.

“I’m…” Sehun looked up, and he wasn’t crying, but seemed very close to.

“C'mon, we can go somewhere else”, Jongdae took Sehun’s hand and dragged him away, not wanting to block the restroom. It wasn’t until they ended up in one of the dressing rooms backstage that he realised what he was doing, and quickly let go of the younger’s hand, feeling embarrassed.

Sehun sat down on a stool, and Jongdae followed suit.

“I… it was my fault. The performance is gonna turn out like crap and everyone’ll blame me”, Sehun said quietly and put his face in his hands. Jongdae didn’t really know what to say, he wasn’t good at this, comforting people. He awkwardly put a hand on the other boy’s shoulder.

“Of course we won’t blame you if it-”

“But it’ll be my fault!” Sehun interrupted, his voice coming out muffled because of his hands covering his entire face. “I was the one who was nervous and screwed up during the rehearsal, causing all the stuff to happen. Now everyone’s mad at me. And it’s only going to make the performance worse! I won’t be able to act, you’ll have to find another prince, I’ll just ruin everything for you guys, I’m sorry-”

“Shh, no one’s blaming you, okay. Everyone’s a bit on edge right now, and nobody’s expecting you to not feel nervous. After all, you’re the youngest and you have the least experience. It’s alright. We’ve all been there.” Jongdae mentally patted himself on the back, he was doing well. Sehun seemed to loosen up a little, too.
“And we need you. Who else would play the prince?”

Sehun looked up at him.

“You could. You’d make a perfect prince”, he said bluntly, and Jongdae felt his face grow several degrees hotter in a matter of milliseconds. A new record, probably. Sehun was still looking at him and Jongdae had to avert his eyes, looking at the wall beside them instead. White paint sure was fascinating sometimes.

“I, uh, well…” he started, “I- I couldn’t possibly do that. I’d rather play the evil queen than having to kiss Luhan hyung, to be honest.” He made a disgusted face and Sehun laughed a little, before looking down again.

“He hates me now.”

“Luhan hyung?” Jongdae asked, although it was obvious who Sehun was dramatically referring to. The younger nodded, and Jongdae continued speaking.

“Don’t be silly. The guy would never hate you. He was simply nervous, just like you, and it caused him to snap. He really adores you, y'know.”

“Really?” Sehun glanced up at him another time, and this time Jongdae’s stomach started doing these somersaults again. But for the wrong reason. Sehun seemed so hopeful, Luhan must mean a lot to him.

Jongdae had managed to ignore his nausea throughout their entire conversation, but now he felt it coming back to him. . Before he even had the chance to stop himself, he uttered the question he’d had in his head since the start of the semester.

“Yeah. Do… do you like Luhan hyung?”

Sehun almost jumped a little at the question. Jongdae felt like hitting himself in the head with a goddamn sledgehammer. Did he really just ask that?

“Well, of course I like him, but… you mean like in a romantic way?”

Jongdae nodded slowly. He’d been wondering about this for months, but now he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to know the answer or not.

Suddenly, Sehun started to chuckle.

“No, I don’t”, he said with laughter in his voice, “why would you even think that?”

It was as if someone had hit Jongdae in the head. Not with a sledgehammer, more like a very large pillow or something. Something that made him less tense.

“You’re… kissing and… stuff”, he said, feeling somewhat conflicted. At first he’d felt relieved, Sehun didn’t have a crush on Luhan. Oh Sehun, the object of Jongdae’s affections for almost a year, didn’t have a crush on Luhan, Jongdae’s friend. He could shout out of happiness. Run a mile, or something.

But then, Sehun’s reaction made him worried too. He realised that the chances of Sehun liking him weren’t better just because Sehun didn’t like Luhan. In fact, Jongdae was pretty sure Sehun didn’t like guys at all. He had to be straight, and that’s why he reacted like that. How awkward.

“We only kiss in the play”, Sehun said. “I’m not kissing Luhan hyung; the prince is kissing Snow White.”

“Yeah. It was stupid of me to ask, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Sehun looked at his watch. “Y'know what, hyung. You actually managed to make me feel better. Thank you.”

Sehun was grinning widely, and Jongdae just found himself giving the other a small smile in response. His own face was probably the same colour as Snow White’s apple by now, Jongdae was sure.

“Come, let’s join the others. There’s only fifteen minutes left and we have to get ready.” This time Sehun reached out his hand, and Jongdae took it without any doubts. Somehow, while comforting Sehun, he’d also made himself relax. His stomach felt calm. Maybe the performance wouldn’t turn out to be a catastrophe after all.

It didn’t. It went perfectly alright. Of course, Sehun had been a bit tense in the beginning, and it didn’t make it any better when Luhan appeared on stage for the first time and several whistles were heard from the audience (probably some of Luhan’s classmates).

However, later on Sehun seemed to relax, and he didn’t even react when certain parts of the audience went wild during the kiss scene. A scene that Jongdae was kinda fine with, now that he knew that Luhan and Sehun didn’t have feelings for each other. Okay, maybe he was still a tiny bit jealous of Luhan’s position, but it was alright. They were only going to do it two times more, and then (hopefully) never again.

Everyone else did well too. The people in the audience flinched when Tao, or the drama queen, started shouting in rage, and they laughed when the dwarfs entered the stage. Minseok had to stand behind an empty frame instead of the glass he’d originally had, but it didn’t make any difference, really. Jongdae’s sneezes had been very convincing, too. Oscar-worthy acting, right there.

So in short, everything went as it should. They even got a standing ovation when they were done. It certainly brought all of them out of their bad moods.

“The final dress rehearsal is supposed to fail. That way the real performance will turn out a success”, Miss Hwang chirped happily when they gathered backstage. “You were all great, I’m so proud.”

Something that they always did when having a performance was to put twelve small boxes with everyone’s names on by the exit, for the audience to fill with letters, gifts, tokens of appreciation. After they were finished they went to check these boxes.

Since the audience this time had been students from their school, most of the gifts weren’t very serious. Chanyeol received a note stating that he was unusually tall for a dwarf, while Luhan’s box was filled with small flowers, and equally as many letters telling him what a flower boy he was. Tao found a small box of sweets in his, shouting in joy over actually getting something valuable. Baekhyun ended up persuading Tao to share them with him, however. Jongdae didn’t understand how Baekhyun managed to do that. He totally had the younger wrapped around his finger, or something.

When Jongdae checked his box he wasn’t surprised to find several tissues in there. Unamused, he went to throw the contents of his box into the trash. That’s when he noticed a small post-it note at the bottom of said box. It was folded in half, and his name was written on the outside. Jongdae couldn’t recognise the handwriting, but then again he wasn’t really an expert on how other people’s handwriting looked. He barely recognised his own at times.

When he unfolded the note and started reading, his eyes widened.

“Hi!
You were great today!! I really liked your acting. Actually, I like you, too. Could we meet outside the auditorium, under that huge tree, when the last performance is done (around nine, right)? I’m looking forward.”

Jongdae had to try to calm himself down. He hadn’t ever received a letter like this before, and he didn’t know what to do. Who…?

It had to be someone who knew about his orientation. After all, they attended an all boys’ school. Was this person even serious? It had to be a joke, Jongdae realised. Why would anyone write him something like that?

“Yah, real funny Baekhyun”, he said after walking up to his friend, flashing him the note. Baekhyun skimmed through the letter and grinned obnoxiously.

“Wooow, Jongdae! You have a secret admirer. Everyone!” he raised his voice and repeated, “Jongdae has a secret admirer!”

The others turned their heads towards him and Jongdae put his hands up to his face in humiliation.

“Oh my god, shut up. It was you, wasn’t it?”

“No, of course not”, Baekhyun shook his head. “Why would I do something like that?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering too”, Jongdae replied, irritated.

“Who’s your secret admirer, Jongdae?” Chanyeol asked, suddenly having appeared right next to him. Jongdae groaned.

“I don’t-” he started, but Baekhyun interrupted him.

“Well, kinda the point of having a secret admirer is that they’re secret, so we don’t know. However, he received this letter”, Baekhyun then read the note out loud for all the others to hear. When he was done, Chanyeol patted Jongdae’s back a little too violently for his liking, and someone among the others wolf whistled.

“Geez, it’s just a prank. Which one of you guys did it? It was you, Baekhyun, right?”

Baekhyun shook his head yet again, and Jongdae sighed.

“Why do I even try…” he mumbled, “Well, one of you guys is out to trick me and I’m gonna find out who, alright? And, sorry, I’m not going to that tree.”

“Aw, but you’re gonna make your secret admirer sad!” Chanyeol tried to pout but was grinning too hard to be able to succeed.

“Yeah, right. Please be quiet.”

Since they had about an hour until their next performance was about to start, they all had a break. Jongdae spent his by eating a bit of the kimbap he’d left untouched during their lunch break, as he was less of a nervous wreck now.

Miss Hwang had told them all to be back ten minutes before the play was starting, but since Jongdae didn’t have anything else to do he went back twenty minutes in advance. He would’ve been the first one to arrive if it wasn’t for Junmyun, who hadn’t left the hall in the first place. However, soon the others started to come back as well, only a few of them were missing.

“Have any of you seen the queen? I need to talk to him since he’s in the first scene and all”, their teacher asked, Jongdae finding it kind of amusing how she just referred to everyone by their roles instead of their actual names.

Yifan and a bunch of the others who had gone to a nearby convenience store on their break shook their heads.

“He didn’t tag along with us.”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Sehun or Baekhyun either”, Minseok stated thoughtfully, and Jongdae had to agree, he hadn’t seen a trace of them since their break started.

“I’ll go look for Tao”, he volunteered, “maybe the other two are with him.”

Jongdae first searched through the entire backstage area, all the dressing rooms. Then he went on to the nearest restrooms, finding no one. He realised he had to go look in the rest of the school, sighing when thinking about what a buttload of work that’d be.

He decided to head for the corridor where Tao’s locker was situated first of all, but nope, nobody there either. After sighing in irritation for a second time (he didn’t have Tao’s phone number), Jongdae remembered that he had yet to check their usual classroom. He ran there, and unfortunately, no signs of Tao. He was just about to leave when he heard a familiar tone coming from the props storage. It was very muffled, so it just came out as incomprehensible mumbles, but Jongdae was sure it was Baekhyun’s voice. As he walked closer to the storage room, he could hear the voice clearer.

“-so cute… Do you know how much I like you?… Kiss me, and maybe you’ll find out-”

Okay, what was actually going on in there? Jongdae tried to keep himself from making a disgusted expression. He never knew Baekhyun could be this cheesy, what the . He reluctantly opened the door to the props storage, and instantly closed it upon seeing the sight before him. Maybe… it was time to head back.

“Did you find him?” was the question Jongdae was met with when he joined the others again. He nodded slowly.

“Well… I guess you could say that the queen is making out with Happy”, he said, feeling satisfied when his choice of words made his classmates confused for a second or two. Then, it dawned on them.

Chanyeol and Luhan started shouting at the same time, making it difficult to understand what they were actually saying. Jongin whistled loudly and Kyungsoo made a face that looked like the perfect visualisation of the word “ew”. Yifan, on the other hand, paled a little.

Unable to calm her students down, Miss Hwang cleared awkwardly.

“Well, um, are they coming soon, or…?”

“I’m not going back there again. Let me just… call Baekhyun instead”, Jongdae said, feeling stupid over not coming up with that idea earlier. Perhaps he wouldn’t have needed to see Tao putting his hands on Baekhyun’s waist, and Baekhyun happily throwing his arms around the taller’s shoulders, grossly eagerly letting their lips meet. Jongdae wasn’t too keen on watching other people make out, especially not if it was his obnoxious friend and the guy who played Snow White’s evil stepmother.

When Baekhyun finally answered Jongdae’s phone call he sounded very annoyed.

“What do you want?”

“Is that how you normally answer people’s calls? How rude. Anyway, can you and Tao come back to the auditorium now? The performance starts in ten minutes.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure”, Baekhyun replied, then he was quiet for a second. “Wait, how did you know Tao’s with me?”

“I know everything”, Jongdae stated ominously and ended the call.

Okay, so now Baekhyun and Tao were (hopefully) on their way back. Then, the only one missing was Sehun.

Speaking of the devil (or, in this case, the prince), Sehun came rushing into the hall after a minute or so, apologising for being late. He didn’t even look at Jongdae once, sitting down next to Jongin at the other end of the room they had gathered in. Of course. Jongdae didn’t even know why he expected anything different. Maybe he had thought they’d become closer after having that conversation before. When they obviously hadn’t. How stupid of him.

When Baekhyun and Tao arrived they were met with a big applause, confusion appearing on their otherwise pretty flushed faces. The only one who was equally as confused as the pair was Sehun, who looked around with a puzzled expression asking why everyone were clapping their hands. After Jongin whispered the reason to him, Sehun probably clapped the loudest of them all, Baekhyun and Tao looking more and more embarrassed as they realised why they had received such an applause. Jongdae almost snickered, this was a nice revenge on Baekhyun for embarrassing him before.

Their second performance went just as well as the first one. Perhaps even better, since they were generally less nervous now. The audience seemed very satisfied and checking their boxes was a more exciting experience than it’d been the first time around. Mostly because a big part of the crowd had been families to some of them, so those who had their family there naturally got a nice gift or two in their box. Jongdae’s family didn’t attend this performance, instead they were going to the last one at seven, and therefore he didn’t expect his box to contain anything out of the ordinary. Jongdae waited with looking in it though, he wanted to see what the others got first.

A lot of them received a small amount of money, a snack or flowers from their families. Yixing found a cute doodle of him in his box, which he was very happy about. Luhan gained lots of flowers again, but he also received a rather interesting note.

“I’m glad you wore a black wig, because your normal hair colour reminds me of a breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, butter, and a glass of freshly pressed orange juice to the side.”

There were multiple giggles from the others as Luhan read the note out loud, looking incredibly offended. Tao laughed the loudest out of all of them, pointing at Luhan’s disgruntled facial expression.

“My hair style is funky!” Luhan tried to defend himself, and at that Jongdae couldn’t help but break out in laughter as well. Poor Luhan, trying to stay cool when everyone else made fun of him.

Jongdae once again found a couple of tissues in his box, throwing them in the trash immediately. His heart started beating a little bit faster when he found a note that said “You did well!” only to be disappointed when he realised that everyone else had received the exact same note in their boxes. Then, at the very bottom of his box, he discovered a post-it note similar to the one he’d been given after their first performance. Before he even got the chance to read it, Baekhyun popped up from behind him.

“Ooh, isn’t this from the same person as before?” he asked loudly and grabbed the note.

“Baekhyun can you stay away from my box?” Jongdae said as he tried to get the letter back, unfortunately without success. “Why do you want to humiliate me so much?” he then added, a little bit quieter. Baekhyun grinned back at him.

“Payback. You were the one who told the others about me and Tao, yeah? You humiliate me, I humiliate you back, it’s only fair. Besides, I’m helping you! Maybe, if Sehun hears about these letters he’ll get really jealous and finally make a move on you”, Baekhyun said silently so no one else could overhear them, and Jongdae kind of froze at the last words he said. He hadn’t even considered the fact that Sehun probably heard about the letter. This felt even more embarrassing now.

“Y'know, that plan would only work if he already liked me, so it’s not a good idea. It’d be better if you did something to make him like me, instead”, Jongdae sighed, trying to keep Baekhyun from reading the note out loud this time as well. However, that was an effort gone to waste as Baekhyun opened the note and cleared his throat audibly.

“Stop being so pessimistic, what the heck, you’re not usually like this. What makes you think he doesn’t like you back?” he whispered, and before Jongdae had a chance to answer him, Baekhyun started reading, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“‘Hi,
I sent you a note after the last performance, but since I’m afraid of you not noticing it, I’m writing you a second one. Just to make sure you get my message.
I like you. A lot! And I’d really like to tell you that in person. Could you meet me under the big tree outside the auditorium after the last performance?
Please trust me, Jongdae hyung. I like you.’”

Baekhyun finished reading and Jongdae could swear his heart stopped beating for a moment. Everyone else in the room had been quiet when the letter was being read, but now there were several chuckles and a squeal (Jongdae didn’t know who it was and didn’t want to know either).

“Wow, this guy sure is dedicated, huh. Coming to both of the performances and leaving notes. He really wants to get his message across”, Baekhyun stated with laughter in his voice. “And 'Jongdae hyung’! Dang, Jongdae, the one having a crush on you is a younger guy! How does it feel?”

The only thing Jongdae could feel at the moment was everyone’s eyes on him. His face was probably cherry red by now, and he had the childish urge to run away and lock himself up in the restroom (like a certain someone had done before). But nope, he tried to stay there, reluctantly speaking up over the sounds of people talking and laughing.

“Can… Can the person who wrote this just stop? What have I ever done to you to make you wanna humiliate me so much? Seriously, who is it?” he looked around the room. “Hey, Luhan hyung, you’re laughing, was it you?!”

Luhan stopped laughing but was still smiling amusedly.

“Jongdae-yah, you have to be more self-confident. Someone could very well have a crush on you, it’s not impossible. But I agree with what you said before, it feels like a very Baekhyun thing to do…”

Jongdae immediately turned to Baekhyun again and the latter waved with his hands in the air.

“Hey, it’s not me! How many times are you gonna suspect me? I have an alibi!”

Baekhyun pointed to Tao, who nodded.

“I was with him the whole break before the second performance, and he didn’t put anything in your box! We weren’t even anywhere close to that thing!”

“And you expect me to believe that? Also, what if he went and put the letter in my box during the play, when he wasn’t on stage?”

“I was backstage the entire time! Trust me!” Baekhyun retaliated, and before anyone of those involved in the discussion (because most of the others had tired and moved onto talking about other things amongst themselves. Jongdae wished he was one of them and this conversation wasn’t about him) could say anything else Miss Hwang entered the room, managing to calm everyone down with her powers of authority.

As they yet again went on break, Jongdae decided to join Yixing who had settled himself on the edge of the stage with his legs dangling. Yixing’s calm and somehow safe company was what he needed right now. Jongdae trusted Yixing, he was sure the latter wasn’t the one who had sent him that prank letter.

Yixing hadn’t only received a picture in his box, he had also been given a bag of snacks that he gladly shared with a somewhat hungry Jongdae (he was a growing boy, okay, he was allowed to be hungry at irregular times). The two of them sat there, had a nice chat, and Jongdae almost managed to forget about the stuff from before that had bugged him so much. Almost.

Because suddenly Luhan appeared and told Jongdae that Baekhyun wanted to speak with him.

“Couldn’t he just have walked here instead of sending you?” Jongdae sighed, not very happy about having to leave Yixing and the snacks behind and instead go talk to his best friend his enemy for life.

“I… I didn’t think of that. Why did he have to ask me to come fetch you?!” Luhan’s facial expression was like a mix of being annoyed and dumbfounded. “Well, anyway, he wants to see you, and he’s over there, backstage, so you better go talk to him yourself because I’m not gonna act as some kind of mailman here.”

“Okay, whatever you say, egg yolk hyung”, Jongdae said, accepting his fate. Luhan grumbled at his new nickname.

“I should’ve chosen 'Cotton Candy Pink’ instead of 'Blonde Bombshell’”, he mumbled before joining Yixing, both of them speaking enthusiastically with each other in a very advanced level of Chinese (a much higher level than Jongdae had reached in his studies of the language).

As Jongdae entered the backstage area he looked around for Baekhyun, but found no one. Confused, he decided to shout the other boy’s name in an attempt to get him to reveal himself (he wasn’t hiding, was he? Oh, please no).

“Baek-”

Jongdae’s attempt was a failure, partly because he didn’t shout as loud as he’d planned, but also because he was interrupted.

“Ah, Jongdae hyung! You’re… here. I was looking for you”, said a voice that certainly didn’t belong to Baekhyun. At all. Jongdae didn’t really know what he felt when Sehun came out of one of the dressing rooms, walking up to him. Sehun. Of all people. Literally, what was even going on?

It all became even weirder when Sehun grabbed his arm, mumbling something about having to talk to him and dragged him into a dressing room, the same one he’d just exited. Also, the same one they both had that conversation in earlier that day. Funny.

When Sehun had shut the door and they were standing inside the small dressing room, Jongdae finally came to his senses.

“Um, sorry, but Baekhyun… he was looking for me, I think. So… yeah. Maybe I should go-”

“Baek-? Oh, no, no, that can wait! I really need to talk to you. Now.”

Sehun seemed a bit nervous and therefore Jongdae felt very nervous as well. He didn’t know what was going to happen, and he didn’t dare hope anything. Of course, the situation would be ideal if Sehun was going to declare his eternal, undying love for Jongdae, but Jongdae was pretty sure that wasn’t what was about to happen. After all, things never seemed to go his way.

As he was standing there, feeling anxious, he spotted Sehun closing up on him. He was looking a bit more determined this time around. Jongdae’s heart started pounding like crazy when Sehun moved even closer, backing him up against the wall behind him. Holy .

Upon actually standing with his back to the wall, not being able to move any further away, Jongdae noticed Sehun was only centimetres away. Then, in one swift motion Sehun moved his arms, putting his hands on the wall, on both sides of Jongdae, trapping him. Well. This was an interesting development. Jongdae found that even though he was trembling out of nervousness, his heart was throbbing at a rapid speed and he had trouble swallowing since his mouth was so dry, he didn’t mind this position at all.

That changed, however, when Sehun cleared his throat and said three, simple words.

“You like me.”

It was said more as a statement than a question and Jongdae kind of wished that he had the ability to teleport himself away from there. Escape this situation. Perhaps even escape the country, he felt so… he didn’t even know. It was awful. Sehun knew, somehow he knew, and… what was he going to do about it?

Jongdae almost felt scared. Scared of rejection, of his classmates making fun of him, of the whole school getting to know. But mostly of making Sehun feel uncomfortable. Damage the nice little friendship thing they had going on. Maybe getting rid of every little bit of trust Sehun had in Jongdae. Now that he thought about it, it was close to terrifying.

Since Jongdae had somewhat zoned out when Sehun had asked him the question (or rather, stated the facts), the latter repeated his statement.

“You like me.”

It actually did succeed in snapping Jongdae out of his own thoughts, but he still wasn’t able to give Sehun a proper response.

“I uh, I like… what? I mean- yes? W-wait, no! Or-”

“You’re very obvious, you know”, Sehun then stated, a small smile on his lips. Jongdae felt incredibly embarrassed after stuttering out all that nonsense, but when he spotted the smile, almost a smirk, he nearly shivered. The position they were in, and Sehun’s apparent confidence, exposing his feelings like this, it was all very… absurd. Absurdly hot. Jongdae nervously his lips and looked down, he couldn’t look Sehun in the eyes.

“Hyung, you tried to change the roles, make someone else play the prince. You also tried changing the script to remove the kiss scene, and then you attempted to change the whole play to the original version since you heard there wasn’t a kiss in that one… Um, and then you interrupted the kiss during practise. Or, kept it from happening. More than once. And that class when Luhan hyung was ill, you substituted him and played Snow White, was it all just to get to kiss me? In the end, you didn’t even succeed. Hm… and… Yeah, you ran away when I and Luhan hyung were dared to make out. You didn’t seem very happy”, Sehun finished rambling, and Jongdae almost couldn’t breathe. Had he really been that obvious?

“That’s enough proof for me. And yeah, not counting all the times you’ve become all flustered when I speak to you and stuff. But, as I said. You like me, hyung.”

Jongdae’s head felt like a mess. Thoughts of Why did I do that and , I should’ve been more sneaky ran through his brain, and it didn’t make this situation any easier. He was close to mortified.

But then, Sehun had remembered all those little things. That must mean they had some kind of impact on him. Or he was just excellent at memorising things. Which wasn’t true, since he was one of the worst in the group at remembering lines. Uh.

Jongdae realised, he had to accept his fate. There was nothing he could say to deny this. He was a jealous piece of , he knew that by now, but he was also an honest person.

“Yes, I… I like you. I really like you”, he breathed out, and then, a little challenging:
“What’re you gonna do about it?”

It was all barely audible, but Jongdae was sure Sehun would be able to hear because of how close they stood to each other at the moment.

Also thanks to their proximity, Jongdae could spot a streak of nervousness visible on Sehun’s face after his question.

“I… actually did something about it”, he whispered back, “but it didn’t work out. You… kinda refused to cooperate with my plan.”

Jongdae could almost swoon, this was all so surreal. Sehun was standing so close to him, centimetres away, cornering him against the wall, bending forward a tiny bit to whisper intimately to him. Somehow, he wasn’t really sure if he was awake anymore, or his mind was just making this up in one of those strange dreams he’d sometimes have. It was really so- Wait, what did Sehun just say?!

“It- The letters? It was you? I mean, was it you who put those letters in my box?!”

Sehun nodded, and Jongdae felt his stomach tingling in an almost intense manner, as if someone was pointing one of those glitter-spreading mouse pointers that some internet dress-up games had in it. Not that he ever had played one of those games, but still. It was a valid metaphor, okay?

“But why did you-” Jongdae started, but then he realised something. Something very important. Something he definitely shouldn’t overlook. Something that felt pretty much life-changing.

“Wait. You. Y-you like me back then? 'Cause the letters, I mean, yeah, the letters.”

Jongdae didn’t even care about his totally awkward way of speaking, he was sure Sehun understood him anyway. He just really wanted Sehun to confirm what he’d supposedly written in those letters.

He did. Jongdae’s stomach felt as if he’d just jumped off the edge of a cliff when Sehun nodded. But, like, in a good way. It was thrilling, nerve-racking, but also pretty damn sensational.

“I do. I… think I like you, hyung. As I said in the letters. I’ve come to realise it recently. I really… really like you.”

“Oh my god”, was all Jongdae seemed to be able to say at that moment.

“Yeah”, was all Sehun seemed to be able to reply.

It was silent between them for a little while, and then Jongdae’s brain decided it was time for him to say something really stupid. Obviously.

“You like guys?!” he uttered in a shocked manner, and immediately regretted it. Way to ruin a nice moment, yay. Sehun didn’t seem to mind much, though, since he only laughed a little.

“Well, I like you, so yeah”, he said, smiling amusedly.

“…Right.”

Another moment of silence passed between them, this one a lot more awkward than the previous one. Then, something dawned on Jongdae. Why didn’t he ask that before?

“Why couldn’t you just walk up and tell me instead of writing those letters and everything? I mean, I had no idea it was you who sent them. And what’s with the whole 'meet me under the tree’ thing?”

“Well… Uh. You weren’t supposed to figure out it was me. You were just supposed to do as the letter said and meet me up at the tree, but since you didn’t want to do that, I had to tell you directly instead. I just thought it’d be romantic to confess under a tree in the evening…” Sehun pouted disappointedly, and Jongdae smiled at the sight. It was adorable.

“Also, I really like to make you flustered, and you became like that when you read the letters. It’s cute”, he continued, and Jongdae was pretty sure that his heart was beating so loudly that even Sehun could hear it. Hear what effects he had on Jongdae. The fact that they were still standing so close to each other didn’t help at all. Sehun had at least dropped his hands from the wall, no longer completely cornering Jongdae anymore. But they were still so near each other, almost chest to chest. Jongdae could just reach out his hand and-

“Can I touch your hair?”

“What?”

“Your hair. Can I touch it?”

Sehun blushed, Sehun really blushed, and Jongdae felt like that embarrassing question totally was worth it.

“Y-yeah, sure, but why?”

“It just… looks so nice. Kinda fluffy. And brown. I’ve wanted to touch it ever since you dyed it”, Jongdae stated truthfully, and then lifted his hand to carefully run his fingers through the light brown mass of hair. It was soft, just like he’d imagined it. Soft and nice.

“Hyung… I wanted to know, um, what do you think about it? You never said anything after I dyed it, and I just… want to hear you opinion on it, I guess?” Sehun asked, a red colour still visible on his cheeks.

“I like it”, Jongdae answered while continuing to feel the strands of the other’s hair between his fingers. “It looks good on you. You look all prince-ly.”

“Nice. Thanks.”

Sehun smiled and Jongdae smiled back, lowering his hand. Then, he took a deep breath.

“I guess I have to ask this now, so we get it done”, he said, surprisingly not feeling very nervous at all. “Oh Sehun, will you be my boyfriend?”

Jongdae took Sehun’s hands in his, and could feel that they both were shaking a little. Sehun nodded.

“Yes”, he replied, looking Jongdae in the eyes briefly before looking down.

“Kiss me, then.”

Jongdae couldn’t believe he said that so confidently. He was being just as cheesy as Baekhyun right now. Maybe he just couldn’t wait to finally get to feel those lips against his.

Sehun looked up, then down again, then up another time, fixating his gaze at a point a little bit above Jongdae. He then bent down just a bit, his lips. It was very cute.

“Why are you so nervous? You’ve kissed before, you have nothing to be nervous of”, Jongdae said, swinging their hands back and forth, trying to lighten the mood and make Sehun less shaky.

“Yeah, but that was with Luhan hyung. That’s a different thing. I’m kinda used to it now. This… is something else.”

“You don’t want to? We don’t have to if you don’t-”

“No, no, I want to! I just… I’m not that good. That’s all.”

“Ah, but Luhan hyung said you were alright”, Jongdae recalled, then chuckled a little and made a grossed out expression. “Ew, I’m gonna kiss the same lips that’s kissed him! Wouldn’t that be like indirectly kissing Luhan?”

“Oh god, hyung, shut up”, Sehun said and shook his head, but Jongdae could see a tiny smile on his mouth (a mouth he really felt like kissing now). Sehun seemed to spot him looking at his lips again and leaned forward a little bit.

“Alright…” he muttered, and bent down some more. To close the distance between them, Jongdae had to stand on his tippy toes to reach the other, taller, boy. He felt excited, but unfortunately also a bit nervous. Actually, he was sweating like crazy. Gross.

“Wait”, he therefore mumbled just as their lips were about to meet, and loosened his hands from Sehun’s. After wiping his palms on his trousers he intertwined their fingers again, and this time, nothing could stop them from finally getting to kiss each other.

Jongdae’s insides were boiling when he felt Sehun’s lips against his. He was finally doing this, and it was better than any dream, any fantasy he’d ever had. The other boy’s lips were soft, slightly wet since Sehun had them out of nervousness before, and absolutely overwhelming. Jongdae felt as if all of his senses were being taken over by Sehun, he could touch him, hear him, see him, feel his scent, and now also actually taste him. It was a thrilling experience, and sadly it didn’t last for long.

Someone opened the door to the dressing room, almost violently, and the two of them automatically broke apart. However, it didn’t seem like they were fast enough.

“Guys, it’s only ten minutes until the next- Oh my god, Jongdae!!!” Luhan shouted excitedly, cutting himself off. Jongdae changed his mind about Baekhyun, maybe Luhan was his enemy for life after all. Walking in on them like this, interrupting that very important kissing session they’d just started. He would probably run off and tell everyone about what he’d seen.

That’s actually just what he did.

“Look at you! Oh my god, you actually hooked up with Sehun, I- I have to tell the others!” Luhan stated before dashing off, heading to their usual meeting place where their other classmates were waiting. Well. Jongdae probably deserved it.

“Maybe… we should go back now if it’s already ten minutes to seven”, Sehun said and Jongdae nodded before starting to laugh slightly.

“What is it?” Sehun asked, sounding a bit confused.

“I’m just happy. I finally got to kiss the prince”, Jongdae uttered and laughed again. Sehun smiled back.

“Does that make you the princess, then?”

“Sadly, no. I’m just a simple dwarf with a hopeless crush on the handsome prince”, Jongdae shook his head and looked down dramatically, and Sehun took his hand, holding it tightly while they made their way out of the room.

“Well, there has to be something special about that dwarf since the far-from-handsome prince would pick him over the princess any day.”

Jongdae smiled.

“That was incredibly smooth.”

“I know”, Sehun replied smugly, leading both of them back to where the others waited, still wearing that stupid, smug grin on his face when they reached their destination. He was adorable, and Jongdae also couldn’t keep himself from smiling, not even caring about his classmates’ hoots and whistles welcoming them.

(Baekhyun attacked Jongdae almost immediately, demanding to know what went down in that dressing room. Apparently, he hadn’t been looking for Jongdae at all, it was just something Luhan had come up with to get Jongdae to go backstage and meet Sehun, without suspecting anything. Sehun had been too nervous to go get Jongdae himself, so he sent Luhan instead. For some reason. Anyway, Baekhyun was thrilled to find out that Sehun had been the one who wrote the letters (“I told you it wasn’t me!”) and was, thankfully, happy for Jongdae. Like, genuinely happy. Maybe Baekhyun was alright, after all.)

As the last performance finally started, Jongdae felt a little bit nervy. It was probably because he saw this performance as more important than the other two, mainly since his family were in the audience. His legs were also still a bit shaky after his previous encounter with Sehun. His boyfriend. Jongdae couldn’t stop the smile spreading across his face at the thought.

“You awake? We’re up next!” Chanyeol said loudly while waving his hand in front of Jongdae’s face, making him jump a little and rush to find his place in the line of dwarfs.

“He’s in love”, Yixing said and Baekhyun snickered, giving the older a high-five. Jongdae just rolled his eyes.

Despite his nerves, Jongdae managed to act just as well as he’d acted during the previous performances (hopefully his parents were proud of him). Actually, everything went as it should. Except for one little detail at the end. At the last scene.

It wasn’t anything major, not something that affected the outcome of the performance. It affected Jongdae, though. In a positive way.

It happened when they reached the last scene, the infamous kiss scene. Sehun bent down while standing beside Luhan’s, or Snow White’s, death bed, aiming to kiss the other awake. All the people playing the dwarfs were also on stage, therefore a lot of them noticed what Sehun did just as he was about to press his lips against Luhan’s. He looked up straight at Jongdae, smiling slightly and giving him this indecipherable look before bending down additionally and-

He didn’t kiss Luhan. He just hovered with his lips above the other boy’s, without letting them touch. Then, when Luhan pretended to wake up, Sehun looked up at Jongdae again and flashed him another smile. For some reason, Jongdae felt incredibly touched. It was as if Sehun already was taking this whole boyfriend thing seriously, not wanting to kiss anyone else. Perhaps it was only to make Jongdae feel better. If that was the intention, Sehun had succeeded. Jongdae smiled back at Sehun, and in no time at all, the final performance was over.

It was as if a weight was lifted from Jongdae’s shoulders, no more anxiety about performing the play for a while. Though, he also felt a bit sad that this was over. They had worked so hard the entire semester, and those drama classes he’d had throughout the year had really been the highlight of his weeks. Now, the whole thing was done and over with.

When they received a big applause from the audience, they all joined hands, bowing. Conveniently, Jongdae stood next to Sehun and instantly put his hand in the other’s, seeing Sehun flash him a gorgeous smile at the action.

Jongdae felt as if it was the final scene of his own fairy tale, he reached his goal, he got the prince in the end. And what a fairy tale it had been. A strange one, sure. He had gone through so many obstacles on his way to reach his goal, he had done so many stupid, embarrassing things. Most of it out of jealousy. However, if he hadn’t done all that, the prince might’ve never noticed him, found out about his feelings. So he regretted nothing.

Feeling Sehun’s hand in his, seeing the other boy smile at him, Jongdae believed that it had been worth it. It had absolutely been worth it all.

~The End~

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a/n: wow this chapter is a MESS, lol. but, the story is finished! did you like it? what didn't you like? tell me what you think! (i hate to be begging for comments so you absolutely don't have to, but i would be very happy)

(i managed to squeeze in my otp in it as well. why did i do that)

also, sorry for taking so long to update! i've been awfully busy lately, mainly with school but also with other things. additionally, i guess i lost interest in exo a little when the whole Tao Thing happened and the guys did their comeback without him. tao is my bias (well, he and chen, obviously. but tao will always be no 1) so therefore the whole comeback felt kinda... meh. however, i gradually gained interest again after a while (i'm pretty sure i'll always be a huge fan of exo /siGHS) and i could finally finish this ;-; hopefully the ending is satisfying enough to be worth the wait ^^

this was a terribly long author's note, but i hope you liked the fic!

(i... might make an extra chapter about sehun's perspective in the future. would any of you be interested in that?)