Well, maybe we do. - 1,328 words

it was supposed to be an innocent game of tag-slash-hide and seek. we were going to be stupid and childish for a couple hours before acting like teenagers again. (although there’s not much difference.)

the moment joshua began counting to 100, hansol grabbed my wrist. “partners?” he asked. i nodded, too distracted by his grip.

we were fine- for a while. but then, while hansol and i hid in the pantry with the door that couldn’t close all the way, joshua passed us. as soon as he left, we sighed collectively.

“too close,” i muttered.

“we should find a better hiding place now,” said hansol.

“agreed.”

our ‘better hiding place’ couldn’t be found. not until footsteps could be heard from the hallway outside the door. hansol crawled underneath the bed that sat on risers to raise it. i followed. the bed, however, was a single without enough space for us to lay side-by-side. i was forced to lay upon hansol to stay hidden. after joshua came into the room, looked for a minute, and left, hansol and i sighed yet again. i felt breath on my face, so i looked downwards. hansol and i were close. too close, i thought.

“chan,” hansol whispered (probably to stay hidden), “we don’t have time for this.”

nodding, i mentally punched myself for crushing on my best friend.

we made to leave when a shriek rang throughout the house. seunggwan was caught.

“let the games begin,” i joked.

some time later, joshua passed by our hiding place again. so we left to find a new one. hansol and i looked for a few minutes when joshua yelled: “stop in the name of the law!”

“run!” i yelled, already dragging hansol through various and randomly selected hallways; hansol kept up with my pace. as well as joshua. after finally getting out of his sight, i dragged hansol into a small closet.

“why are we-” i shushed him quietly. i found my goal after searching for a minute. a secret little crawlspace… passage… thing opened, and i pulled hansol through it.

“alright, now you can talk.” i leaned against the wall to breathe.

the first thing out of his mouth: “what was that?”

“secret passage to a secret room.”

“well,” he looked around the room, “that would make sense. … chan, I-”

yet again i shushed him. “be quiet. do you hear that?”

“what? oh. what do we do?”

“hide.”

joshua found the closet and therefore the opened passage and now was crawling through it. hansol and i, panicking, wedged ourselves behind the large armoire. “if he gets one of us, the other will seek avengement,” hansol hissed. we shook (awkwardly) on it.

somehow joshua never found our hiding place. he left the room; we followed five minutes later- and very carefully. as hansol helped me to stand in the tiny closet, a pleading voice said, “please spare me! i’m still young! we’re friends!”

“sorry, mingyu.”

they were close. hansol looked in the hallway first, and then he gestured for me to follow him. we were walking normally when seungcheol and jihoon raced past us.

“joshua is right behind the corner so run,” advised jihoon in one breath. and we took his advice. after more random turns and twists, hansol and i found ourselves in the bathroom. hansol shut the door behind us. but as he did, he tripped and fell forward. all in one moment, i stepped backwards, his hands braced himself on either side of my head, and our faces stopped centimeters apart. neither of us spoke for a long moment, staring at each other and panting. his pupils were blown wide. the curls on his head sat in y adorable disarray. blinking, i pulled myself from my trance.

“we don’t have time for this.”

someone thundered down the hallway, the footsteps closely followed by another set.

“lee seokmin, get your back here!” said joshua. when the two passed by the bathroom door, i flinched.

“you okay?” hansol asked as one hand moved to my shoulder. his face was still so close. only a couple inches or so and our lips would touch. we would kiss. i would be kissing my crush. sometimes being a coward helps (like when most of our friends were grounded for trying to fly off the roof), but right now i wished i had more confidence. “chan.”

another trance? pull yourself together, idiot. “sorry, dude. kinda blanked.”

“i noticed,” he chuckled. “it was sort of cute.”

we looked at each other in shock.

“i-i didn’t say anything.” he looked at his feet. choosing to ignore the awkward atmosphere, i sat on the floor against the bathtub and twiddled my thumbs. soon after, hansol sat on the toilet. sometimes our legs would bump or our eyes would meet, but i looked away each time.

during our time in the bathroom, wonwoo, seungcheol, and minghao were all captured and joshua killed soonyoung’s bug.

“do you think,” said hansol, “we should find a new hiding place now?”

“yeah. got any ideas?”

“a few.”

i shrugged. “then let’s go.”

because every sound turned into joshua following us, we speed-walked through the house. eventually, however, hansol pulled me into the laundry room. it was perfect for hiding. “hey, chan.” his voice was higher than normal, almost nervous, when he spoke. “about what happened in the bathroom…”

after he didn’t speak for a minute, i said, “yeah?”

“hide.” i didn’t respond, but he seemed to realize my confusion. “i heard joshua mention the laundry room.”

we found the nearest hiding spot: the gap between the dryer and wall. A basket of laundry sat on the dryer to block us from the doorway. though if josh were to come into the room, he would definitely see us.

hansol was warmer and firmer than i expected. but being pressed against a person in a space barely big enough for one can make you realize things like that. i looked up at his face; it was close, handsome, and so very tempting. a moment later, he took me by surprise. one of his hands that rested on the wall moved to my shoulder, then my bicep, then my elbow, finally stopping on my waist. his grip tightened. i shuddered. his other hand rested on my neck.

“h-hans-sol… we don’t have time for this,” i shuddered.

he smirked. “i think we do.”

then his lips were on mine. soft and unmoving, it made tingles travel down my spine and all over my body. i wanted my first kiss to be romantic, not in a laundry room during a childish game, but this was worth it. so much better than i anticipated. sadly, it ended several seconds later.

“well, maybe we do.” hansol laughed quietly.

“your cheeks are adorable. i’ve never seen you this red.”

i said, “idiot. that was my first.”

“first kiss?” he smiled just a little wider. “my bad.” his tone was smug; but i didn’t care. we were kissing again, slightly braver than the first, when i pulled away.

“it… it’s joshua.” instead of acting like a decent person, hansol disregarded the dangers and whispered in my ear:

“let’s give him a show.”

our lips moved against each other quietly. as he tilted his head, he tightened his arms around me. my own, on the other hand, hung limply by my side. smiling into the kiss, my hands were moved to hold onto his biceps. i tilted my head to the other side, barely groaning. because when i did, hansol pressed harder against me.

the door opened then. joshua looked from the entry for a minute before taking a step inside the room. while kissing i glanced at joshua a few times. finally he noticed us, and then he turned around and left.

“remember that you’re both minors!” he called. i pulled away from the kiss and breathed.

“then that, though not happening, would be legal!” i reminded him. hansol and i laughed.