Monday, on his way to class, Jongdae almost had a heart attack.

“Jongdae.”

He couldn’t move because he never thought he’d hear that voice say his name. It wasn’t until he felt a hand on his shoulder did he start breathing again but it was shallow and fast, just like his heart rate. He turned to see the one and only Kim Minseok smiling sweetly at him and he nearly passed out. Was this just a dream and he was actually late for school because he overslept?

“I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with Luhan and me later today?”

And then he stopped breathing once again.

“Is that a yes?”

It would really help if you could stop smiling like that. Jongdae could barely nod and somehow, Minseok’s smile got wider.

“Then I’ll see you later!” And then he disappeared but Jongdae was barely alive.

His next thought, when his brain finally realized what had happened, was to find Baekhyun.

Baekhyun picked at Chanyeol’s sleeve subconsciously, thinking about something else other than the speck of lint on his boyfriend’s shirt that was long gone. Jongdae was turned around in his chair in class, waiting for Baekhyun to answer him after what he had told him. It had almost been a full minute when Baekhyun looked up and grinned. It was the kind of grin that hinted at mischief. Jongdae was scared at first because he knew that Baekhyun was likely to come up with a plan that was sure to fail. But then Baekhyun surprised him with a question instead of advice.

“And what are you going to do?”

Jongdae’s brain stalled because he honestly has no idea what to do when he actually would go to lunch. “Uhhh. . .”

“Well you certainly can’t act like you’re brain dead.” Chanyeol whacked Jongdae on the head. “You need to be yourself. Minseok won’t like you if you don’t say anything or if you just keep staring at him like you always do.”

“I know that,” Jongdae said. “But my problem is that I have no idea how to be myself in front of Minseok. Have you even looked at him? I can’t help but stare.”

“Jongdae, excuses will get you nowhere. Now man up. If this lunch date goes well, then in a week you can ask Minseok to prom because we all know that Minseok will never ask you first.” Baekhyun laughed. “And I have a plan for that but we’ll get there when the time comes.”

“Wait, why have you already come up with a plan and haven’t told me yet? I’ve been begging you to help me for ages and now you tell me?”

“I was thinking of different ways to actually get you to talk to him first before telling you my amazing plan that Chanyeol helped me devise. So be quiet and prepare yourself for lunch. Please survive because I’d really like to use this idea and it fits you perfectly.”

Jongdae was cut off from replying because their teacher began their lesson. All he did was glare at the couple before facing the board, thinking more about what he was going to say to Minseok instead of math.

Jongdae showed up early. He was worried that they were joking but then he checked his phone and realized that it was another three minutes before the lunch hour started. He had gotten out of class with the excuse that he wasn’t feeling good-- which was partly true-- and he was instead waiting, with sweaty palms and a racing heart, at Minseok and Luhan’s table.

“Maybe it’s better that I showed up early rather than showing up late. If I had been late, I probably would have died inside of embarrassment.” Jongdae mumbled under his breath as he stared at his tiny lunch box and he realized he probably wouldn’t be able to eat.

“What would make you die of embarrassment?”

Jongdae jumped and fell off the bench. They heard me talking to myself. No, this is already going bad. Why did I agree to do this? Why why why! All he could do was look up at Minseok and Luhan from the ground, his mouth moving but nothing coming out.

Luhan laughed. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” He held out a hand to help Jongdae up. “Did you wait long?”

Jongdae tried to keep his eyes on Luhan instead, knowing that if he looked at Minseok, he’d lose track of everything. He silently cursed himself for not coming up with a better plan. “No,” was all he could say because then Minseok sat down on the same bench he had been sitting on. Does this mean we’re sitting next to each other? But then Luhan patted the spot next to him as he took his seat across from Minseok. Oh no, this is much worse. Although, he did as he was told and sat next to Luhan but took to looking down at his lunch, positive now that he couldn’t eat. Baekhyun is going to yell at me later for ruining this.

“How’s your day been, Jongdae?” Luhan opened his own lunch while Minseok silently did the same.

“I… uhhh… I- I- I… Okay.” . I’ve already screwed up.

“Just another Monday,” Minseok agreed before taking a bite.

“So, what do you do in your spare time? What are some of your hobbies?” Luhan seemed to be leading this conversation and Jongdae was perfectly okay with it.

“I . . . like to, uh, sing.” Okay Jongdae, listen to Baekhyun and man up. Stop stuttering.

“I do too! What a coincidence, huh Minseok? Maybe now I’ll have someone to sing with since you always tell me no and throw things at me.” Luhan pouted and Jongdae laughed a little.

“I don’t throw things at you until you start really whining and grabbing me. Don’t make me sit on your bed again.” Minseok didn’t even look at Luhan.

“Don’t make me leave huge messes around your house.”

“I’ll take one shoe of every pair you own.”

Luhan caved. “I never win at this.”

“Then maybe you should stop bringing unnecessary things up into a pleasant lunch-time conversation.”

Why does he seem in such a bad mood? Jongdae frowned. It was probably Luhan who wanted me to sit with them and not Minseok. It’s probably me that’s upsetting him. “Should I go so, uhh, you can discuss this better?” He made to leave awkwardly but Minseok finally looked up from his lunch and directly at Jongdae so the younger couldn’t miss it.

“No, stay. Luhan will be fine; right?” When Luhan smiled and nodded, Jongdae sat back down. “Tell me, why do you always come to the soccer games? I haven’t seen very many people come to every game and if they do, they’re family members.”

“I like to,” was the best thing he could get out before blushing a little and looking down. Dammit, hold it together Jongdae.

“Hmm, what was that? I didn’t hear you.”

It was like pulling teeth. Jongdae was so embarrassed by now but it was all in his head. He was just overthinking everything. “I like watching you;” he realized what had come out of his mouth when it was too late to take it back. His eyes went wide and he looked at Luhan who had a sly smirk on his face. “I mean- I…”

“I heard you.”

Jongdae looked up and saw Baekhyun at another tree, hiding behind it with Chanyeol’s head right above his best friend’s. “I’m sorry but I need to go.” Grabbing his lunch, he bowed before he practically ran away.

He didn’t even stop when he got to Baekhyun and Chanyeol, he just kept going until he was on the other side of the schoolyard and far away from Minseok.Throwing himself on the ground, he hid his face in his hands. He didn’t look when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder; he knew exactly who it was.

“Baekhyun, I screwed up. First, I couldn’t stop stuttering and then I outright admitted I liked Minseok and I just left. That’s all that happened. And there wasn’t much room for error but somehow I always ruin it. I’m so embarrassed, I don’t think I can ever look at him again.”

“It’ll be okay. I’m sure it went fine and you’re over thinking things. Did things look like they were going bad, Channie?” Baekhyun sat next to Jongdae, leaning on him as his form of support.

“It looked like a normal conversation to me.”

“See, normal. Don’t worry about it, it’ll be fine. Just act like nothing happened.”

“How can I when they’re probably laughing at me?”

“They’re not laughing right now,” Chanyeol said and Jongdae looked up. “Luhan looks angry, at least to me.”

Despair hit again. “He’s probably mad that I left. They were nice enough to invite me to eat with them and I left so abruptly.”

“After school, do you want to get some ice cream? I know it’ll make you feel better. And I’ll even pay this time.”

“You say that every time and yet Chanyeol always pays,” Jongdae pointed out to which Baekhyun just shushed him. “Fine, we can get ice cream.”

“You didn’t have to push him like that. Now look at what you’ve done. He’s sitting on the other side of the yard and looks really upset.” Luhan hardly got angry, only when people sat on his bed or took his things without asking. But he wasn’t going to let Jongdae get hurt because Minseok happened to be in a bad mood since he found out he failed a test. “I think you should go apologize.”

“I didn’t think he would even agree to have lunch with us!” Minseok rarely raised his voice but it only made Luhan angrier.

“But that’s not an excuse for embarrassing him like that. You’ve known for years that he’s had a crush on you and you do that to him. It wasn’t nice now go apologize!” Luhan almost screamed the last few words but managed to calm down enough. “I shouldn’t have to tell you to do it. Don’t talk to me until you’ve said sorry.” Luhan stood up and went back inside the school, leaving Minseok feeling terrible about himself and all alone.

For the rest of the school day, Luhan completely ignored him. Minseok didn’t realize that Luhan was pretty much his only friend until he noticed that no one spoke to him until he talked first. It was agonizing. Minseok was left alone with only his thoughts for three more hours and he wasn’t happy about it. He couldn’t stop thinking about how rude it had been of him to make Jongdae repeat himself, even though Minseok had heard him well enough the first time. He just wanted to see what would happen the second time and that obviously didn’t turn out well. As time passed, Minseok just felt worse and worse until he left the classroom without permission which he knew he was going to regret later.

Aimlessly, he checked all the classrooms for Jongdae or at least his friends but there were only ten minutes left of school and there weren’t many places left where Jongdae could have been. But then he remembered that the younger had said something about singing and Minseok knew that Jongdae would most likely be in the music room then if he wasn’t to be found in any of the other second year classrooms.

He heard Jongdae before he saw him. The door to the room was shut but that didn’t stop Jongdae’s voice from carrying out into the hallway. Minseok stopped in his tracks because he had never heard anything like it. It was like hitting a brick wall, his voice was that strong. And then, it stopped. Minseok knew he shouldn’t walk in, so decided to wait until Jongdae came out.

When he looked at his phone, it said that there was only two minutes left and then heard the door open. Looking up, he saw that it was Jongdae. He smiled and Jongdae just turned around and went back into the room. Sighing, Minseok went after him.

“Jongdae wait,” he called after him. “I just want to talk to you.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to listen to you after completely embarrassing him today.” Baekhyun blocked Minseok’s path to Jongdae, who had disappeared into a practice room.

“I came to say sorry for it. Just let me talk to him.”

Baekhyun seemed to think about it for a moment before stepping away. “But just so you know, if you hurt him one more time, watch your back.”

With a small nod, Minseok went into the practice room and watched as Jongdae tried to hide behind some chairs and a music stand. “Please stop;” Minseok’s voice was soft and Jongdae just looked at him, eyes full of hurt.

“You embarrassed me.”

“I know and I wanted to tell you sorry. I shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you. It wasn’t because of you either,” he only added that part when Jongdae looked more hurt. “It’s not your fault, I promise.”

“Okay, I believe you and accept your apology.” Jongdae sat in a chair and it was quiet.

Why does he still like me after all this time and what I did to him earlier?

Minseok just looked at the younger boy’s profile and realized he was quite handsome and he didn’t know why he hadn’t acknowledged the boy before. But after hearing him sing and watching him at lunch earlier, he knew Jongdae was a sweet person. Suddenly, Minseok found that he was actually wanting to return the feelings. So he sat down next to Jongdae and reached over to hold his hand without saying a word.

Jongdae seemed shocked until Minseok turned and kissed the boy’s cheek and started laughing when Jongdae just looked at him with wide eyes. “Do you . . . like me too?”

“I think I’m starting to,” he whispered, looking at their hands. He was about to say something else when he heard something outside the window of the room.

Baekhyun burst threw open the door and looked like he wanted to scream. Instead, he just said in a high pitched voice “You two are so cute!”and ran back out into the main room.

Jongdae laughed. “I guess we broke Baekhyun.”