Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As the president of the student council, Sangyeon takes pride in organising events for the school, no matter how big or small. Every year, before school starts, there is a mandatory open house for prospective students to visit and see if they’d like to enrol. This year, Sangyeon and his committee have been tasked to run the event, from searching for student ambassadors to lead school tours to packing the goodie bags that hopefully will give just the littlest of nudges to someone who’s thinking about joining their school.

Being in charge of such an important event is stressful, Sangyeon admits to himself. However, his committee of fellow student councillors are always of great help and they all end up enjoying themselves in the planning process and during the actual event anyway. Any time that Sangyeon feels overwhelmed by his responsibilities, he trusts that the other councillors have his back. He knows that he would do the same for any and all of them as well.

Since there’s only eight of them, they have been working extra hard to prepare for this open house. They started preparations as soon as finals were over and with only one day left to the open house, they are only left with packing the goodie bags. Unfortunately, they had many to pack.

"Alright boys! I know we have many bags to get through but don’t force yourselves, alright? If you need a break, feel free to take a break. We can always ask for more help before the actual open house tomorrow. With that being said, let’s start!” Sangyeon finishes with a clap, looking around at his fellow councillors who shout out a chorus of agreements before immediately starting.

Chanhee and Changmin are side by side, hands moving as quickly as their mouths. The only times they spend not packing are when one of them raises their hand to hit the other playfully. Occasionally, they become a little too loud, but everyone is used to it.

Juyeon and Younghoon are also talking, but they are much quieter (and calmer) than Chanhee and Changmin. Juyeon sometimes grabs an unbelievably huge amount of snacks in one hand and shows it to Younghoon, who is always fascinated and laughs.

Jacob and Kevin are probably the quietest out of all of them. They are sharing an earpiece and sometimes quietly sing along to whatever song they are listening to at the moment. Whenever they do converse, they talk in english. They don’t explicitly talk about it, but everyone is happy that the two canadian boys have each other despite being in a foreign country.

Sangyeon finally looks at Hyunjae, the vice-president.

Sometimes, Sangyeon cannot believe that he gets to work with Hyunjae. Hyunjae, who is good at almost everything (if Sangyeon had to name a flaw of Hyunjae’s, it would be that Hyunjae tends to get a little loud when he’s excited. Even then, Sangyeon doesn’t mind. He’s only saying it because he sometimes (at least once a day) sees Changmin yelling at Hyunjae to keep it down.) Hyunjae, who is always cracking jokes, especially towards the end of a long day, just to give everyone that final burst of energy to pull through. Hyunjae, who is also very serious and responsible when it comes down to it, often helping to relieve Sangyeon of his duties. Hyunjae, who Sangyeon would not be able to survive student council without.

Hyunjae, who is arguably the most beautiful person Sangyeon has ever seen.

Sangyeon remembers seeing Hyunjae on the first day of school. Sangyeon almost tripped on air when he first looked at Hyunjae’s face because wow, how can someone this good-looking be breathing the same air as him? Thankfully, Sangyeon didn’t actually trip. He looked around to see if anyone saw him slightly floundering before his eyes caught onto the bulletin board beside him, more specifically the sheet of paper asking for student council sign-ups. Interested, Sangyeon left his contact details.

In the waiting room while waiting for the student council interviews to start, Sangyeon looked at the door right as someone familiar walked in. Hyunjae scanned around the room and made eye contact with Sangyeon before looking away and entering the room, sitting in a seat a distance away from Sangyeon. Sangyeon was pleasantly surprised by Hyunjae’s appearance and secretly hoped that both of them would manage to get in.

(At the student council investiture, Hyunjae was standing right beside Sangyeon when they first received their student council badges.)

As if noticing Sangyeon’s gaze, Hyunjae turns to look at Sangyeon, smiling. He motions for Sangyeon to join him. Sangyeon’s heart skips a bit as he sits down beside Hyunjae.

"Are you secretly trying to slack off? Why are you just staring at us?” Hyunjae asks, sending a teasing smirk over to Sangyeon to let him know that he’s just joking around. Sangyeon sputters, which causes Hyunjae to laugh, his eyes crinkling prettily into crescents, his pearly white teeth showing. Sangyeon spends a little too long watching Hyunjae laugh before he realises what he’s doing and turns to start packing a bag too.

The two of them work comfortably side by side, occasionally starting a conversation but it’s mostly comfortable silence between them. Sangyeon appreciates times like this because although Sangyeon is usually also joking around, he thinks that Hyunjae understands that he sometimes appreciates company without talking (and no talking also means that Sangyeon has a lower chance of saying something embarrassing).

After a few hours of packing, Sangyeon is summoned by the principal. Sangyeon runs over the details of the open house with the principal again, just to make sure that everything goes smoothly. That takes an unexpectedly long time and when Sangyeon steps out of the principal’s office, the sky is dark. Sangyeon returns to the council room and is surprised to see only Hyunjae there, still packing. "Where’s everyone else?” Sangyeon asks, confused.

Hyunjae turns around. "Oh! I sent them back because we are mostly done and they looked really tired. I was waiting for you to be done to inform you so I decided to continue packing,” he explains.

Sangyeon tries to control the butterflies in his stomach that started soaring when he heard that Hyunjae was waiting for him, blatantly ignoring the latter part of the sentence. "So… what are you going to do now that I’m here?” Sangyeon barely gets the words out.

“I think I’ll just finish packing, there’s not a lot left,” Hyunjae says, sending Sangyeon a look that is almost… expectant?

“I’ll stay too. I can’t possibly leave you alone here,” Sangyeon decides, mentally patting himself on the back when Hyunjae shoots him a blinding smile. He clearly made the right decision then. "Do you want to get some food delivered? I don’t think we’ll be done before dinner.”

They decide on ordering chicken, which makes Hyunjae so excited he does a little dance (that is also the main reason Sangyeon decided on chicken as well). Sangyeon mentally coos. Hyunjae does joke around a lot with the younger councillors, but when he’s with Sangyeon, it’s like he lets go even more and becomes an easily excitable kid.

The chicken is delivered quickly and they set aside the packing to dive into the boxes of chicken. The happy noises Hyunjae makes as he munches on a piece of chicken makes Sangyeon want to melt into a puddle of goo. Sangyeon belatedly realises that he has just been holding onto a piece of chicken while staring at Hyunjae eat for an inappropriately long amount of time. He flushes, glad that Hyunjae is too focused on his chicken at the moment to notice him.

"No, hyung! You can’t eat it like that!” Hyunjae suddenly exclaims, causing Sangyeon to almost choke. He looks at Hyunjae, who huffs at him. "You’re wasting precious meat! I’ve always noticed you eating like that but now I finally have the chance to teach you how to eat the right way.” Hyunjae puffs out his chest and motions for Sangyeon to copy what he’s doing. Sangyeon’s gaze zooms in on the subtle pout on Hyunjae’s lips as he concentrates on removing the bone in a piece of chicken wing.

The two boys finish up their chicken and even the packing of all the goodie bags quickly after that.

(They actually took three hours, but Sangyeon thinks even that is too short of a time to spend together with Hyunjae.)

Hyunjae insists on walking Sangyeon home, even though his own house is rather out of the way for him to do that, because "You stayed! The least I can do for you is accompany you on your way back home!” and who is Sangyeon to say no to Hyunjae?

The boys begin their journey to Sangyeon’s house, chatting all the way. As Sangyeon looks at Hyunjae, he feels his breath hitch because Hyunjae somehow still manages to look stunning while bathing in the harsh orange lights from the streetlamps. Hyunjae doesn’t notice Sangyeon staring at him, engrossed in his storytelling, occasionally touching Sangyeon’s arm or shoulder. Hyunjae has always been a very tactile person, and Sangyeon hasn’t managed to make up his mind on whether that is a good thing or not.

(Who is he trying to kid? Everything about Hyunjae is good. Sangyeon’s heart just needs to learn to not try and jump out of his chest every time Hyunjae touches him.)

Sangyeon thinks that they arrived at his house way too quickly. After saying goodbye, Hyunjae wraps his arms around Sangyeon in a hug, which makes Sangyeon’s face heat up so quickly he thinks steam might be escaping from his pores. (Also, how does Hyunjae still manage to smell good after such a long day?) Hyunjae pulls away and shoots Sangyeon a bright smile and a soft "See you tomorrow, hyung.”

Sangyeon goes to bed that night feeling phantom limbs around his torso. He snuggles his bolster extra hard, ignoring the part of his brain that whispers: "No matter how hard you hug it, it won’t feel like Hyunjae~”

༚༅༚˳✿˳༚༅༚

"Everyone, let’s welcome our new student councillors: Haknyeon, Hyunjun, Sunwoo and Eric!”

༚༅༚˳✿˳༚༅༚

It’s Hyunjae’s birthday.

It’s Hyunjae’s birthday and Sangyeon is tasked with keeping Hyunjae company until the others are done with whatever they have to do.

(Sangyeon has tried telling them to start studying earlier, the pain of cramming everything at the last minute is not worth it. He can still remember Eric just waving his hands, dismissing him. “YOLO, am I right?” Eric laughs. Sangyeon also remembers Eric clutching his hair and screaming in the middle of their latest group study session, and almost slamming his head into his textbook, if not for Jacob, who somehow sensed what Eric was going to do and held him back. Well, Sangyeon is glad that he has learned that lesson already 4 final seasons ago.)

Sangyeon is on the way to meet Hyunjae at his favourite chicken shop. He spots Hyunjae standing outside the shop, using his phone. Sangyeon moves the little paper bag he is holding towards his back as he nears Hyunjae. Luckily for him, Hyunjae seems to be very engrossed in whatever is on his phone so he doesn’t spot Sangyeon, who slowly reaches into the bag.

"Happy birthday!” Sangyeon smiles as Hyunjae flinches. A wide grin blooms on Hyunjae’s face when he spots the small cake on Sangyeon’s hand. Sangyeon almost drops the cake because he is so distracted by Hyunjae’s smile.

"Thank you, hyung,” Hyunjae says quietly, smile never leaving his face. He gently takes the cake from Sangyeon’s hands (Sangyeon pretends he is not affected when their fingers brush against each other) and puts it back into the paper bag. "Let’s eat it later! For now, I want chicken.”

Hyunjae holds the paper bag in one hand and grabs Sangyeon’s wrist with the other hand. Sangyeon tries not to physically combust as Hyunjae pulls him into the shop, happily greeting all the staff whom he is already very familiar with, since he pays a visit almost every other day. Everyone chirps back a cheery welcome and directs the duo to Hyunjae’s favourite seat. Sangyeon cannot help but feel a little empty when Hyunjae drops his hand to settle down.

"The usual?” the waiter, Chan, hops over to their table and asks. Chan spots the cake in the paper bag and gets even more excited. “Ooh! I see cake! What’s the occasion?” he asks.

Hyunjae laughs, slightly embarrassed. "It’s his birthday!” Sangyeon answers for Hyunjae.

He grins as Hyunjae covers his face and groans when Chan screeches and proceeds to announce it to the whole shop. Thankfully, the other customers there left just as Hyunjae and Sangyeon entered, so it’s only them and the staff in the restaurant. There’s a chorus of oohs and aahs as everyone moves and crowds around the table.

Sangyeon watches contentedly as Hyunjae basks in all of the staff’s attention. When Chan rounds everyone up to sing happy birthday, the blush that blooms on Hyunjae’s face is the prettiest thing he has ever seen, in Sangyeon’s very humble opinion.

Right as they finish singing (screaming?) the last bit of the happy birthday song, another customer walks into the store. Hyunjae and Sangyeon dissolve into giggles watching seven of them run back to their posts, minus Chan who acts like he has been waiting to take their orders all along. They finally order, and Chan scurries away to attend to the other customer.

Hyunjae and Sangyeon engage in light conversation as they finish the tons and tons of chicken, courtesy of Minho, the chef. When their food first came out, Sangyeon burst into laughter when he saw all of the staff holding a gigantic plate of chicken loosely arranged to resemble a cake of sorts. They even stuck a few candles into the pile. After carefully making their way across the restaurant to deliver it to their table, as if like clockwork, they all let out a loud "happy birthday Hyunjae!” before running away, cackling. Hyunjae just looks excited to have even more chicken to devour.

They end up having to pack up some of the chicken to bring back to Hyunjae’s home. When Hyunjae and Sangyeon try to pay, Changbin, the cashier, just waves them away and pushes them out of the restaurant when they persisted. "Happy birthday again!” Changbin waves. Hyunjae just sighs fondly as he thanks Changbin, wrapping his arm around Sangyeon as they make their way back to Hyunjae’s house.

(Of all the touching Hyunjae does, Sangyeon thinks that this, Hyunjae’s arm around Sangyeon’s shoulders, is the worst, because Sangyeon feels like he fits so perfectly under Hyunjae’s arm. He always has to stop himself from inching even closer to Hyunjae. In this position, Sangyeon is also constantly reminded of how good Hyunjae smells. All in all, it’s always a very trying period for Sangyeon.)

They enter Hyunjae’s house and Sangyeon is immediately greeted by Darong, Hyunjae’s pet dog. Sangyeon bends down and pets darong as Hyunjae yells out greetings, and receives muffled screams from the kitchen in response. Hyunjae’s mother walks out and engulfs Sangyeon in a hug, welcoming him. "Did you have fun?” she asks.

Hyunjae tells her all about what happened at the chicken shop while Sangyeon plays with Darong. Hyunjae’s mum laughs as Hyunjae narrates the story and leaves the boys to their own devices after he is done. They end up in Hyunjae’s room, on Hyunjae’s bed, with Hyunjae’s laptop propped on their knees, ready to watch whatever interests them at the moment.

Halfway through the movie (that Sangyeon isn’t even paying attention to because he’s so, so close to Hyunjae that he physically cannot concentrate on anything except the boy beside him. He keeps his eyes on the laptop though, because blatantly staring at Hyunjae is kind of inappropriate, even though Sangyeon thinks that he will enjoy it very much, and definitely more than the movie), Sangyeon feels a light weight pressing down on his shoulder. He carefully turns his head and tries not to scream because Hyunjae fell asleep. On his shoulder.

Sangyeon stares at the way Hyunjae’s impossibly long eyelashes rest lightly on his cheeks, looks at the way his chest rises and falls slowly with each breath he takes, marvels at how he still looks like the most beautiful person Sangyeon has ever seen.

Sangyeon slowly reaches forward to shut the laptop, careful to not wake up the boy sleeping on his shoulder. He then pulls up the blanket pooling around their waists and covers Hyunjae, who’s slightly shivering. At the discovery of newfound warmth, Hyunjae lets out a pleased sigh as he snuggles into the blanket and even closer to Sangyeon, even wrapping his arms around Sangyeon’s waist as he leeches off the older’s body heat. At this point, it is a miracle that he’s still asleep because Sangyeon’s heart is beating so quickly that it feels like he is shaking.

Even though Sangyeon initially thought that he will be kept up the whole time because hello, Hyunjae is cuddling him, sleep eventually overtakes him. Sangyeon falls into a deep slumber surrounded by all things Hyunjae.

He hears many hushed voices. There’s also a few camera shutter sounds. Sangyeon peels his eyes open to see the rest of the student council gathered in Hyunjae’s room, giggling and looking way too excited. He then remembers what position they are in and shoots up, but Hyunjae is too strong and he barely moves an inch before his grip tightens and Sangyeon falls back onto the headboard with a loud thud. That wakes Hyunjae up. He looks around the room, confused. Everyone except Sangyeon bursts into laughter.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Eric screams. They somehow whip out a cake from thin air and there’s a brief struggle trying to light the candles up before they launch into the most disharmonious rendition of the birthday song ever. Hyunjae just laughs brightly as he slightly tightens his grip on Sangyeon’s waist. Sangyeon hasn’t even noticed that his hand is still there. He can feel his face start to burn even hotter than the candle. He’s glad everyone’s too busy trying to outsing one another to pay attention to him.

When the song finally ends, Hyunjae moves towards the cake as everyone sings "Tell me your wish!” (Sangyeon isn’t sure why that’s a student council tradition, but he thinks it’s pretty cute. He also mourns the loss of Hyunjae’s touch.) Sangyeon internally coos as Hyunjae eagerly clasps his hands together and closes his eyes for a few seconds before reopening them and blowing the candles out. Everyone starts talking at the same time.

"Happy birthday hyung!”

“I’m sorry we came so late!”

“Haknyeon, why are you apologising? Hyunjae clearly enjoyed his time with Sangyeon!”

"How was your nap? I bet that that was the best nap you have ever taken!”

Sangyeon wants to crawl into a hole and never come out. He can feel many pairs of eyes on him as he moves around on the bed, tidying things up, avoiding all eye contact. He can only hear Hyunjae laugh in response to the questions.

"Let’s go! We prepared a party!” someone, probably Chanhee, manages to yell over the cacophony in the room. They shuffle out of the room quickly and Sangyeon is pleased to see the living room looking well decorated with balloons and banners. He makes a mental note to thank Kevin for most probably being the one to direct the whole decoration process. He then moves his eyes over to Hyunjae, whose eyes are practically sparkling as they take in the whole living room.

For the whole night, Sangyeon constantly finds himself looking for Hyunjae, heart rate picking up whenever he spots him laughing happily or even sometimes making eye contact before Sangyeon manages to look away. Hyunjae’s eyes will always light up whenever their eyes meet, posing a real danger to Sangyeon’s whole put-together outer self since all he wants to do is hug a pillow and cry himself to sleep thinking about Hyunjae’s beautiful smile.

The time for Hyunjae to open up presents finally arrives and everyone huddles around the birthday boy, excited to see what presents the others have gotten for him. The youngest four have pooled together their money to get Hyunjae a pair of Calvin Klein underwear, to which Hyunjae cackles at before thanking the boys, promising them that he will definitely wear it often. Changmin and Chanhee got Hyunjae an oversized hoodie, and the moment he lifts it out of the box, he gasps before rubbing his face against the hoodie, marveling at how soft it is. He thanks the duo before immediately tugging it over his head, wearing it over his t-shirt.

(Sangyeon really didn't mean to look, but when Hyunjae lifted his arms, his shirt rode up, greeting Sangyeon with an expanse of milky white skin. He slaps himself on the cheek to try and get rid of that image, and receives Haknyeon’s confused look in response.)

He opens up the other gifts: a beautifully designed notebook from Kevin, who proudly announces that he came up with the cover design; a beanie from Hyunjae’s favourite line of beanies, courtesy of Juyeon; a Darong griptok that matches with Younghoon’s own Bori griptok and a gaming mouse from Jacob, since Hyunjae has been complaining about his old one not working well to anyone who would listen, and it’s usually either Jacob (because he’s an angel) and Sangyeon (because he’s whipped).

Hyunjae looks at the huge box left warily before looking at Sangyeon questioningly. Sangyeon smiles and shrugs, trying to seem nonchalant. However, he is so nervous that he can feel his hands shaking. He watches with bated breath as Hyunjae removes the wrapping paper and opens up the box.

Hyunjae screams. Sangyeon barely registers what has happened before a ball of energy rushes towards him, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you thank you thank you! I’ve always wanted an Iron Man suit but my mum refused to let me buy one! Oh no, was it really expensive?” Hyunjae worries.

"It wasn’t! I managed to find a really good deal. I’m glad you love it,” Sangyeon replies weakly, still out of breath from Hyunjae slamming right into him.

(It actually was really expensive. Sangyeon took on multiple tutoring sessions that tired him to the bone to be able to afford that. Looking at the pure excitement on Hyunjae’s face as he turns the suit left and right, showing it to the others, though, makes Sangyeon think that he would gladly go through all of that again, if it meant being able to make Hyunjae this happy.)

Before long, it gets late and everyone cleans up Hyunjae’s living room before they all wish Hyunjae happy birthday again before leaving one by one. Sangyeon is the last to leave, watching Hyunjae bask in all the well wishes. He wishes Hyunjae happy birthday as well and turns to leave, but a hand grabs onto his wrist. Sangyeon looks back at Hyunjae, who then engulfs him in another hug.

"Thank you for everything today. The boys told me how much effort you put in to plan all these. I really appreciate everything that you have done. I appreciate you,” Hyunjae whispers, chin hooked over Sangyeon’s left shoulder.

Sangyeon wills his heart to please slow the fuck down, Hyunjae is gonna be able to feel how fast my heart is beating, to no avail.

“I appreciate you too,” Sangyeon whisper-replies. “I’m really glad you enjoyed yourself.”

Hyunjae pulls away from the hug with a bright smile and Sangyeon immediately misses his warmth.

"Have a good rest tonight! See you at school tomorrow!”

Hyunjae waves as Sangyeon finally takes his leave, footsteps light on the path home.

༚༅༚˳✿˳༚༅༚

Chapter Text

"Hyung! Look! He’s wearing the Iron Man suit you got him!”

"Shut the fuck up Eric, I can see that perfectly fine.”

"Ooooh is that a blush I see? Are you that happy? Hey Hyun-mmf”

Sangyeon slams his hand over Eric’s mouth, but it seems like he has already caught Hyunjae’s attention. Hyunjae turns around a little too quickly, making the helmet spin. Sangyeon giggles as Hyunjae struggles to put the helmet back in the correct position on his head. He must have let go of Eric’s mouth, because the brat goes "Ew, you’re actually so unbelievably whipped for him, hyung.”

Sangyeon, staying true to his hulk character, just body slams Eric, who flies onto a nearby sofa.

For the rest of the night, Sangyeon just watches as Hyunjae goes around, showing off his suit to absolutely everyone. He thinks back again to all that he went through in order to afford the suit, and he thinks that every second was worth it.

༚༅༚˳✿˳༚༅༚

Sangyeon is nervous. Very, very excited, but mostly nervous. He and Hyunjae are going to the newly-opened amusement park together, and his brain just cannot stop yelling at him that it’s a date, oh my god, I am going on a date with Hyunjae even though this is not the first time that they have gone out together somewhere. Sangyeon’s brain just won’t stop being annoying (and way too hopeful).

It was Hyunjae’s idea. He wanted to visit the newly-opened park and who was Sangyeon to say no? They meet at the train station, and Sangyeon had to stop himself from melting when he sees Hyunjae because he looks so soft wearing a fluffy baby-blue sweater. Hyunjae brightens up when he notices Sangyeon, which does things to Sangyeon’s weak, weak heart. He prays that he can survive this trip.

On the train, Hyunjae offers Sangyeon one side of his earpiece, forcing Sangyeon to move even closer to Hyunjae. With their sides lined up against each other and soft, slow music playing in their ears (and loud, thunderous heartbeats banging in Sangyeon’s chest), the two of them make their way to their destination.

When they arrive, Hyunjae is immediately excited. He grabs Sangyeon by his hand to go take ride after ride, visit the haunted house, and even buy some of the cute character headbands.

(Truthfully, Sangyeon is kind of terrified of the rides and the haunted house. However, the pure excitement Hyunjae radiates as he contemplates the next ride to go on makes Sangyeon swallow all of his fears. If he grabs Hyunjae’s hand a little too tightly as the roller coaster makes its ascent to the top or stick way too close to Hyunjae’s back throughout the journey in the haunted house, Hyunjae doesnt comment on it, and Sangyeon is grateful. He knows that Hyunjae knows, as he takes upon himself to protect Sangyeon in the haunted house, constantly pulling him close and whispering warnings to Sangyeon whenever he thinks there is going to be a jumpscare coming up.)

After going on all the rides, the sun has set. The duo decide to go play some of the carnival games. Once again, Hyunjae pulls Sangyeon along, this time to the hoop throwing stall. Sangyeon spots a gigantic Snorlax plushie as the grand prize of the stall and gasps. Hyunjae turns to look at Sangyeon, and then follows his line of sight before noticing that Sangyeon is basically drooling over the Snorlax plushie.

"Do you want that Snorlax?” Hyunjae asks quietly, with a small smile on his face.

Sangyeon snaps back to reality before nodding, slightly embarrassed. Hyunjae then huffs, looking determined as he marches up to the stall owner, paying to play a round.

One thing about Hyunjae that Sangyeon has realised over the years is that he is great at almost any game. Even if his team is losing, Hyunjae will find a way to turn the tables and achieve ultimate victory. He is not everyone’s dream boy just for his otherworldly looks.

Sangyeon holds his breath as he watches Hyunjae quickly grasp the game, from initially missing a few of the bottles to eventually getting every single hoop around the bottle. Even though he has seen Hyunjae in action countless times, he is still equally as impressed whenever he sees him in his element. The stall owner is in disbelief as he passes the Snorlax to Hyunjae, who skips back to Sangyeon with a smile threatening to split his face in half.

"Here!” he passes Sangyeon the Snorlax. Sangyeon tries to reject it, since Hyunjae is the one who won it, but Hyunjae pouts.

"But I won it for you!” he whines. Sangyeon then quickly grabs the Snorlax and hides his face with it, unable to not physically combust when Hyunjae is being this cute. He hears Hyunjae chuckle. He tries to not think about how this - Hyunjae winning a gigantic plushie for him - makes this outing seem even more like a date.

As they continue walking around the other stalls, Hyunjae asks him if he still wants anything else, to which Sangyeon vehemently shakes his head. Nevertheless, Hyunjae still tries his hand at some of the stalls, but he passes the plushies to random kids, much to their absolute delight and their parents’ gratitude. Sangyeon watches with a smile as some of the kids and parents gush over how kind and good-looking Hyunjae is, to which Hyunjae just smiles embarrassedly, scratching his neck. Sangyeon wonders how such a perfect person exists.

When they are on the way out, Sangyeon spots a mini basketball stall. There are no big prizes for the stall, presumably because anyone good at basketball can easily win what they want, but Sangyeon spots a couple bracelet prize, and he thinks that the bracelet will look pretty on Hyunjae’s wrist. He asks Hyunjae to hold onto the Snorlax plushie (which he does, and cuddles it so tightly and adorably that Sangyeon almost forgets what he wanted to do), before heading to the stall.

He feels the weight of Hyunjae’s eyes on his back and swallows, suddenly regretting his decision. What if he makes a fool of himself? He knows he is good at basketball, and he knows that Hyunjae knows that as well, so isnt it worse if he misses all of his shots? Sangyeon shakes his head slightly, dispelling all of those thoughts. Well, it is too late now. He holds his breath (again) and shoots.

Sangyeon walks back to Hyunjae, who is watching him intently. He gently pulls Hyunjae’s hand out, and fastens the bracelet on his wrist.

"Sorry that this is nothing in comparison to this gigantic Snorlax that you won, but hey! We have matching bracelets!” Sangyeon grins at Hyunjae after he is done fastening the bracelet on himself. Hyunjae looks a little conflicted, which dims Sangyeon’s joy. Does he hate the bracelet? It feels like time passes extra slowly as Sangyeon waits for Hyunjae’s reaction. He sees Hyunjae open his mouth, and blurt out:

"If you were a basketball, I would never shoot because I would always miss you.”

Sangyeon just stares at Hyunjae, who seems to grow redder and redder as he hides his face in the Snorlax plushie. What?

"Hy-Hyunjae, what did you just say?”

He hears a response muffled by the plushie. He pushes Snorlax’s head away, revealing Hyunjae’s face before repeating his question, and Hyunjae whines.

“I-I said: If you were a basketball, I would never shoot because I would always miss you! Are you toilet paper? Because I would fight for you! I would never play hide and seek with you because someone like you is impossible to find! Sangyeon, I like you!” Hyunjae gets that out in one breath, voice getting louder and louder, before stuffing his face into the Snorlax again.

Oh.

Sangyeon cannot believe his ears. He kind of wants to scream, so he does, scaring some passers-by and earning dirty looks in return. Sangyeon does not care. Hyunjae likes him! Hyunjae also startles from Sangyeon’s scream, finally looking up. He watches as Sangyeon tries to collect himself.

“Hyunjae. Oh, Hyunjae. I like you too. You are beautiful, smart, kind, and absolutely perfect, and god knows how hard you make my heart race all the ti-.”

Sangyeon’s sentence is cut off by Hyunjae planting a quick kiss on the corner of his lips. He feels his face burst into flames, and he is comforted by the fact that Hyunjae’s face is equally as red as how he feels. The two of them just stand there, looking at each other shyly, before Hyunjae giggles. Sangyeon quickly joins in, unable to help himself, and it takes a long while before they are able to stop. When they do, Sangyeon engulfs Hyunjae in a hug, with the Snorlax squashed and sandwiched between them, and he discreetly presses a kiss to Hyunjae’s temple when he pulls away.

"So, does that mean that we’re boyfriends now?” Hyunjae asks, always the braver one out of them two. Sangyeon cannot stop the biggest smile from forming on his face as he agrees, and the blinding smile from Hyunjae he receives in return makes him smile even wider. Sangyeon takes back the Snorlax from Hyunjae, and Hyunjae holds up his arm to admire the bracelet Sangyeon put on him.

“I almost forgot! This is beautiful, though not as beautiful as you. Thank you, Sangyeon,” Hyunjae giggles again when Sangyeon sputters.

The two finally make their way out of the amusement park, Sangyeon holding on to Snorlax while Hyunjae has his arm around Sangyeon’s waist. Hyunjae hails a cab to Sangyeon’s house, and in the backseat of the cab, Sangyeon falls asleep against Hyunjae’s shoulders, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up. He thinks he feels a gentle pressure against the side of his head right before he loses consciousness.

"Hey, baby, wake up. We’re reaching your house,” he hears Hyunjae whisper, and feels his hands gently patting his face. Sangyeon opens his eyes to see Hyunjae looking at him with the softest expression. Hyunjae smiles when he sees that Sangyeon is awake, which sends butterflies soaring in his stomach even in his groggy state. The two step out of the cab, and Hyunjae walks with him to his door.

"Thank you for today, I really enjoyed it.” Sangyeon starts.

"Really? Even though you were scared almost the entire time?” Hyunjae teases. He earns a weak hit to his arm in response.

After that, the two of them just look at each other, not knowing what to say but not wanting the day to end like this as well. Sangyeon gathers his courage, quickly throwing Snorlax down as he surges forward, pressing a kiss onto Hyunjae’s (soft, soft) lips.

"See you in school on monday, boyfriend,” Sangyeon leaves behind as he quickly enters his house, slightly mortified by what he just did.

(Outside, Hyunjae slowly brings his hand up to touch his lips in a daze. Joy threatens to spill out of him when he finally processes what happened, and he skips away from Sangyeon’s house, not even caring about the stray cats that he scared because of his movements and sudden bright laughter.)

(On Monday, when they announce it to the rest of the council, they receive mixed responses. Half of them cheered while the other half groaned, pulling out cash from their wallets.

"Did you guys just… bet on us getting together?” Hyunjae asks in disbelief.

"Yeah! We bet that you guys will get together before you graduate but they thought it would take graduation and the fact that you two might have to separate before you woke up and finally confessed!” Eric answers, happily pocketing the money.

Sangyeon just laughs. He grabs Hyunjae’s hand, and Hyunjae immediately gives him his full attention. Sangyeon is still not used to being the centre of Hyunjae’s attention, not when Hyunjae always had his full attention. "It seems like we were going to be together no matter what, huh?” Sangyeon says with a smile.

"It does seem that way, boyfriend,” Hyunjae smiles as he pulls Sangyeon in for a quick peck on the lips.

They chuckle as the rest of the council groans.)

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Sangyeon wakes up to his usual alarm and immediately wishes he hasn’t. He can feel his head pounding and his nose is so blocked that he can barely breathe through it. On top of that, he can feel his back sticking to his bed sheet because of how much he is perspiring. He sighs. With a soft groan, he slowly sits up on his bed, looking around slowly for his phone. He grabs the device and a towel from his wardrobe before shuffling out into the living room.

After laying the towel down on the sofa, he settles on top of it, finally unlocking his phone. He winces at the brightness of the screen, which momentarily intensifies the pounding in his head, and quickly adjusts the settings. From there, like the responsible student that he is, he messages his teachers that he will not be attending school today, and then sends a message in the third-years student councillors’ chat, asking everyone for their help to take notes and collect any given homework for the classes that they share.

He then finally opens up his chat with Hyunjae, the only unread message being good night and sweet dreams babe, I’ll see you in school tomorrow~❤️ from Hyunjae. Unable to stop a smile from blooming (it’s just a text, he knows. Although he is always ready to shower Hyunjae with all of his love and affection, he has not gotten used to Hyunjae doing it in return. He doubts he ever will), he replies woke up sick today, love. I’m sorry I wont be able to see you today (and most probably for the next few days) :((( love you and I miss you already ❤️ before promptly passing out.

Sangyeon wakes up for the second time that day somehow feeling even worse. He opens his eyes blearily and is immediately confused. Did he not go to lie down in the living room instead? Why is he back in his bed again? He also feels a cool towel on his forehead, which he pulls off his forehead and holds up, staring at it in even more confusion. Did he get that for himself? Was he that functional in the morning?

Just then, he heard someone tutting. "Why did you take it off?”

Sangyeon turns his head slowly towards the source of the sound, and sees Hyunjae walking up to him. "Oh. I’m hallucinating? Am I that sick? Is my brain really conjuring up a Hyunjae in my room because I miss him that much?” he mumbles to himself.

He sees imaginary-Hyunjae blushing as he gently takes the cool towel from his hand and places it back on his forehead. Oh. Imaginary-Hyunjae is as pretty and gentle as real-Hyunjae. Sangyeon mentally thanks his brain for giving him some sort of relief in the form of a Hyunjae. He does not thank his brain for what comes out of his mouth next.

"Hey, imaginary-Hyunjae. Can you please come cuddle me? I really want to ask real-Hyunjae to come over but I can’t possibly infect him, he’s too perfect to suffer. I’ll just have to settle for imaginary-Hyunjae then. Oops, you’re right there. Can I please get some cuddles?”

He sees the blush on imaginary-Hyunjae’s cheeks grow even redder and coos. Imaginary-Hyunjae then climbs on the bed, face still red, and gently wraps his arms around Sangyeon’s shoulders, with one leg thrown on top of Sangyeon’s legs. Exactly how he wanted it. Sangyeon sighs, content, and mumbles out a "Nighty night, imaginary-Hyunjae. You even smell as good as real-Hyunjae? Tell him I love him,” before falling asleep again.

Hyunjae wants to scream. Sangyeon is usually not very vocal about his affections, always preferring to show it through actions. Hyunjae understands that that is his love language, so he cherishes every moment of Sangyeon being verbally affectionate even more. He feels his heart swell uncontrollably as he looks at Sangyeon sleeping peacefully, his head laying on Hyunjae’s shoulder. (Sangyeon has also never asked for cuddles, although he always readily complies when Hyunjae is the one to ask. Hyunjae already knows that he will remember this forever)

As cute as Sangyeon is sleeping, he does need to take some medicines. After rushing here from school, changing his bed sheets, carrying Sangyeon from the sofa and changing his sweat-soaked shirt (Hyunjae was a blushing mess during this process, even though he made sure to sit behind Sangyeon and only look at his back. Who knew Sangyeon’s back was also this pretty? The worst part was when Hyunjae realised he probably should wipe Sangyeon down before he put on the new shirt. His hand was shaking so badly he’s surprised Sangyeon didn’t wake up, even after sleeping through the whole journey from the sofa to his bed. Sangyeon really didn’t go to the gym almost religiously for nothing), Hyunjae left the room to go get medicine before returning to that. Sangyeon’s blabbering made him forget that he was supposed to take the medicine first. He takes a deep breath before gently patting Sangyeon’s shoulders, internally relieved that Sangyeon wakes up immediately since he hasn’t fully fallen asleep yet.

"Hey babe, I’m sorry but you should probably take your meds before you sleep again,” Hyunjae whispers, smiling at the confused look on Sangyeon’s face. His face visibly brightens up when he sees Hyunjae, which makes him actually want to explode.

"Oh hey imaginary-Hyunjae! You’re still here!” Sangyeon smiles dopily.

Hyunjae chokes. Right. He’d almost forgotten about that.

"About that. I’m the real Hyunjae, actually. I don’t know how I can prove it to you, but I really am here,” Hyunjae admits, embarrassed. Sangyeon coos at him before the words catch up in his fever-addled brain, and a look of horror overtakes his face.

"No! Why are you here! I’m gonna pass this sickness to you! Noooooooooooooooo,” Sangyeon wails, wriggling to the other side of the bed in order to put as much distance in between them as possible. Hyunjae chuckles. He always finds Sangyeon adorable, but sick-Sangyeon is especially endearing.

"Well, you’re not gonna get rid of me anytime soon. Your parents have asked me to take care of you when I told them you were sick, and I can’t fail them now, can I? Now be a dear and take your medicine, alright? You can go back to sleep afterwards,” Hyunjae replies, smiling even wider when he sees a pout forming and deepening on Sangyeon’s face. He’s really gonna miss this side of Sangyeon.

Hyunjae prepares a glass of water and slowly feeds Sangyeon the medicine, the latter just accepting it wordlessly. When Hyunjae looks up at Sangyeon’s eyes after making sure that he has swallowed the medicine, he finds Sangyeon looking at him with nothing but pure adoration in his eyes. Unable to hold back any further, Hyunjae surges forward to peck Sangyeon on the cheek. When he leans back, he is satisfied to see Sangyeon slowly turning red, although he belatedly realises that that probably isn’t good for his fever.

"Alright, back to sleep!” Hyunjae announces as he gently pushes Sangyeon down, tucks the covers around him and places a fresh cool towel on his forehead. He leans down to leave a kiss on top of the towel before straightening his back and slowly walking backwards, ready to go prepare something for Sangyeon to eat when he hears, in the smallest voice possible, "Can you stay with me at least until I fall asleep?”

Hyunjae just really wants to scream. What was he supposed to do? Say no?

He quickly rejoins Sangyeon on his bed, his heart stuttering when he sees the unfiltered delight on Sangyeon’s face when he realised that Hyunjae isn’t going to leave him so quickly. They settle back into their original position, now with Hyunjae gently combing his fingers through Sangyeon’s hair. Sangyeon goes to sleep with a sweet smile, which is mirrored on Hyunjae’s face. Well, Hyunjae thinks, the food can wait for a bit.

After laying with Sangyeon for about an hour, Hyunjae slowly extracts himself from Sangyeon’s limbs before making his way to the kitchen. Sangyeon’s mum has sent him a recipe for a simple porridge that she makes for Sangyeon whenever he is sick (Hyunjae is kind of envious that Sangyeon’s mum gets to see sick-Sangyeon more than him). She initially advised against it, knowing that Hyunjae has not really cooked anything in his life.

"You can just buy something from outside. He’ll still love it because it’s from you,” the text from Sangyeon’s mum reads. Hyunjae tried (and failed miserably) to control his blush. He insisted on making something himself because he wants to be that kind of boyfriend for once. A porridge should be simple to make, right?

Wrong. Hyunjae barely manages to prevent the smoke alarm from going off as he frantically opens up all the windows and fans the burnt smell out. He prays that Mrs. Lee still likes him after he almost set the kitchen on fire. In the middle of all this, Sangyeon pads into the kitchen, swaddled in his covers.

"Babe? What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

"Why are you up? Let’s get you back to bed, yeah?” Hyunjae rushes to Sangyeon, gently nudging him towards his room. He grabs onto Sangyeon when he stumbles. They slowly make their way back to the room before Hyunjae helps Sangyeon get comfortable on the bed again. “I woke up and you weren’t here. I missed you,” Sangyeon answers meekly.

Hyunjae feels another surge of affection and he slides onto the bed again, cuddling Sangyeon. "I’m sorry babe. I tried to make your mum’s porridge but I severely overestimated my cooking capabilities. You’ll have to settle for store-bought porridge and a useless boyfriend.”

Sangyeon lands a soft kiss on Hyunjae’s shoulder. "You are the most perfect boyfriend I can ever ask for, what are you even saying? Thank you for wanting to cook for me, but you know that I’ll love anything from you, even if it’s store-bought, right? I’m kind of glad I found something that you are not good at, actually. You are so good at everything else that it’s unbelievable. I love and appreciate you, my bad-at-cooking boyfriend.”

Hyunjae just squeezes Sangyeon tighter and hides his burning face in Sangyeon’s hair. “I love and appreciate you too, babe,” Hyunjae whispers.

Hyunjae leaves to go get food after he made sure that Sangyeon is asleep. He ends up feeding Sangyeon, who claims that he is so sick that he does not have the energy to even hold up the spoon.

(It is funny that he thought he had to come up with an excuse to get Hyunjae to feed him. He was gonna do it anyway, even thinking of how to wrap Sangyeon up in a blanket burrito so that he is left immobile and can only accept food if Hyunjae feeds him. Hyunjae is enjoying this opportunity to baby Sangyeon way too much)

After eating, Hyunjae just spends the rest of the day cuddling with Sangyeon, unable to resist his pout and grabby hands after he came back from cleaning the dishes. Sangyeon’s parents are out of town for the week, so Hyunjae took his caretaker role very seriously, occasionally providing updates on Sangyeon’s condition, and always making sure Sangyeon takes his medicine on time. That night, Hyunjae falls asleep with a warm and snuggly Sangyeon in his arms.

(Sangyeon flushes crimson when Hyunjae recounts the day. He claims that he doesn’t remember any of it, accusing Hyunjae of exaggerating the details. Hyunjae pouts and Sangyeon is even more flustered, immediately apologising. When Hyunjae doesn’t budge, Sangyeon peppers featherlike kisses all over his face, giggling. Hyunjae eventually breaks, and joins in the giggling as he engulfs Sangyeon in a bear hug, rubbing his face on his shoulder.

Man, is Hyunjae really, really glad that he decided to join the student council)

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