Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey beomseok-ah”

Beomseok turned around in his chair to face whoever was calling his name.

Behind him was Kang Wooyoung, Beomseok’s crush. He knew Wooyoung for a while, he always did things for him and wanted to be nearby him. Beomseok was happy to help him with whatever he needed, even when he can be cold and mean at times, he doesn’t mind. He figured he can fix him.

He knows Wooyoung has other… priorities, but he still wants to show Wooyoung that he’s important. Trying to get him to notice him and his efforts.

“Yes, Wooyoung hyung?” Beomseok says with a smile.

Wooyoung bites the nail of his thumb as he looks at Beomseok.

“Can I see your homework? I forgot it was due today.”

Beomseok’s eyes stop glistening with hope.

He just wanted the notes…

“Oh yeah! Here you go.” He grabs the packet from his black folder and hands it to him.

He worked on it all night, he was practically about to cry and then Wooyoung just asks for it. Who’s he to deny, in Beomseok’s mind? He wishes he could be more appreciative after all the time and effort.

Beomseok waits for a thank you but doesn’t hear it and turns back around. He waits for their teacher to come back.

2 hours later

Maybe I should ask him to hang out today, I gave him my work and I was smiling. If we do, maybe I could get together with him.

Beomseok hyped himself up.

He turns around to face Wooyoung who’s on his phone.

“Wooyoung?”

He looks up from his phone.

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if you maybe wanted to hang out after school?”

Wooyoung sighs.

“I’m busy.”

Beomseok blinks at the dry response and he speaks again.

“Maybe next week?” He hopes.

“Maybe…” Wooyoung mutters.

I take that as a win!

When lunch came rolling around, Beomseok saw Wooyoung disappeared. He knew he must’ve been with his friends, smoking cigarettes and talking about Wooyoung’s next opponent. He got up from his seat and made his way to the cafeteria. Beomseok was on his way to eat with his friends, sieun and Suho.

Usually the rest of their friends are in their sports club room during lunch. Sieun and Suho are the only ones that are there since Suho practically eats 6 meals everyday.

When the man in glasses makes it to the cafeteria, he picks up his tray ready to get his food. He scans around the room and sees Suho and sieun already sitting down. He moves his attention back to his tray. When he got his food, he grabbed the metal utensils and made his way to his friends.

Sieun and Suho are talking about some assignment when beomseok approaches.

“Hey guys.”

“Hey Beomseok-ah” they both say in sync which makes beomseok laugh.

He puts his tray down and sits in the opposite side of them. They all began to eat, sieun is telling Suho to slow down so he doesn’t choke.

Sieun and Suho started to date just two months ago. Beomseok swears they were married in their past life from how much of an old couple they sound like. He finds it cute, he opens to find that kind of love and relationship with Wooyoung. Sieun is more looser when being with Suho, he lets himself be clingy and lovey-dovey. He always make sure Suho is doing well, and always cheers him up. Suho does the same for him, he makes sure sieun is sleeping and eating, he was very clingy to sieun. Everyday at school, he holds his backpack, they walk hand in hand, Suho always hugging him when break time starts.

Their relationship is so cute and healthy, Beomseok aspires to find a relationship like that.

After they took a couple of bites, Suho puts his hand on sieuns leg and they all start talking.

“So Beomseok-ah, did anything happened with you and Wooyoung today?”

Sieun and Suho both were aware of Beomseok’s crush on Wooyoung. They tried to be supportive but in all honesty they didn’t like Wooyoung. They saw how much effort Beomseok put into everything for him but Wooyoung wouldn’t even say a thank you. But they grew to be a bit accepting if it means supporting beomseok and making him feel better.

“He asked me for my homework today.” He takes a spoonful of rice in his mouth.

“Well… did he say thank you or anything?”

Beomseok shook his head as he swallowed his food.

“No… he was polite in asking though, I just wish he saw my efforts but still…”

“Beomseok listen-“

“If this is gonna be you talking about me stop crushing on Wooyoung I don’t want to hear it.”

“But come on.” Suho whines.

“You’ve been nice and there for him this whole year and he never at least says a thank you. I never even see you two hang out, unless it’s him asking for something.”

“I asked him to hang out with me!” He cuts Suho off.

“I asked him and he said maybe next week.” Beomseok is fixated on his food.

“I- are you serious?” Suho sighs in disbelief.

“Yes.” Beomseok nods.

Sieun looks at Suho who is rolling his eyes and Beomseok who doesn’t bother making eye contact.

“Listen, Beomseok I believe you and trust  you. If it’s true and you want to go out with Wooyoung, I support it.”

Beomseok’s eyes lit up at sieuns response.

“But if something is off, and if Wooyoung isn’t acting nice at all. I don’t want you to hurt yourself being with him.” He concludes.

Suho squeezes sieuns leg and looks back at Beomseok.

“I agree with sieun… we don’t want to see you get hurt and ignored by him.”

“I understand.” Beomseok says in full honesty. He knows his friends are there to help him.

After a few minutes, Suho speaks up.

“Did you guys hear we’re going to have a new student going here from ganghak?”

“From ganghak?”

Sieun nodded his head, Ganghak was one of the most dangerous schools because it revolved heavily around fighting and bullying. One of the students that rule and thrived there was Geum Seongje. He was insane, he would fight anyone with or without reason. But the other major part of Ganghak being dangerous was because it was part of the Union. The Union was made up of three schools, the idea of having Eunjang involved made Baku and suho disgusted.

“Why is he transferring here, we aren’t any better…” beomseok says, swallowing the last bit of his white rice.

“I have no idea, hm, maybe to get away from those insane bullies.” Suho remarks.

“Yeah, at least here it’s more tone down.” Sieun comments.

They finished eating and go to put their trays away. When they walk out of the cafeteria, Beomseok spots Wooyoung. As usual, he’s with his friends, cigarette in hand and phone in the other hand. Hes leaning against the wall, laughing to whatever his friends are saying.

Beomseok knows it’s not the best habit to have, smoking. But he can’t lie, he finds it attractive when Wooyoung smokes. He thinks he looks so handsome and cool, the way he wears his uniform. His shirt isn’t tucked, tie is loosened, and his hair is messy. Beomseok thinks behind the whole “bad boy” thing, he must be a kind person, that’s how he is to beomseok.

He acts polite to Beomseok, but to his friends, he always shoves them off. It makes Beomseok think that he has a chance.

While he’s stuck in the moment of staring and thinking about Wooyoung, he feels someone pull on his arm.

“Let’s go, hyung.” It’s sieun, and Beomseok snaps out of it. He sees sieun practically dragging him away.

“Sorry, I was distracted..”

“We know.” Suho replies and Beomseok scratches the back of his head.

“I don’t care if you stare at him, but don’t just stand there.” Sieun says as he lets go of Beomseok’s arm and they start walking to the sports club rooms to meet up with the others.

Beomseok nods to sieun and they make their way there. Suho puts his arm around sieun and they walk in front of Beomseok. It lets Beomseok to daydream again.

Maybe if we hang out, and we get together, I’ll be in his arms when he smokes or when we are in class together… I need to start approaching him more…

The three of them come to a halt as  they are standing in front of the door. Sieun gets off of suho’s grasp and opens the metal doors. When he does, they see Baku lying in the sofa with his phone in his hand. Gotak was sitting on a chair nearby, sharing it with Jun tae, gotak was telling him basketball tricks and Jun tae was trying to feed him a protein bar.

The trio walks inside and Beomseok closes the door. Suho ushers for Baku to move over so him and sieun could sit down. Beomseok decides to sit on the floor beside them.

“Anything new happen today guys?” Jun tae asks.

“I found out that someone from ganghak is transferring over here.”

Baku raises an eyebrow, “wow, why though.” Gotak scoffs, “probably to get away from those insane idiots.”

“That’s what we thought too.” Beomseok comments. They all collectively agreed, and Jun tae sparks up a different conversation.

“Did anything happen with you and Wooyoung today?” All of them turned to look at Beomseok, who looked dumbfounded from the sudden eye contact.

“Well… In the beginning he asked me for my notes-“

“The ones that Beomseok worked hard on.”

Beomseok clicks his tongue at the sudden interruption.

“Yes and-“

“Did he say thank you.” Gotak asks.

“No-“

“Ai beomseok-ah, he’s not even nice to you.” Baku comments.

Beomseok purses his lip into a thin line as he looks straight at the metal lockers. He doesn’t bother to say a word as they all start attacking Wooyoung.

“Ok guys stop, let him continue.” Sieun says and Beomseok looks at him.

“Thank you, he didn’t say thank you I know, but I asked him if he wanted to hangout with me.”

“What did he say.” Baku straightened up.

“He said next week, maybe we could.”

“REALLY??” Baku shouts as gotak also shoots up.

“HE SAID THAT??”

Beomseok nodded quickly, he saw Juntae look happy, he was lightly clapping his hands in support.

“Oh my gosh, Beomseok-ah.” Baku lifts him up from his spot on the floor. “I’m actually proud, you asked and he said maybe?”

“Yeah.” Beomseok shyly smiles. Baku pats his back, “that’s amazing hyung!” Jun tae says, still sitting down.

“Thank you guys, I was thinking that after we hang out, maybe I could get together with him…”

Baku reaches out to hold his hand. “If you want to be with him, as much of a jerk as he can be, if he makes you happy then we’re happy. So if you end up together, we’ll cheer you on.”

All of his friends did have mixed feelings about Wooyoung but they all can tell that Beomseok does like Wooyoung.

“But if he does hurt you-“

“I know, you guys will make sure he doesn’t walk again.” He’d heard them say that over 20 times.

“Exactly.” Gotak says as he sits back down next to Jun tae.

-

After that, the next week, Beomseok would start his normal greetings to Wooyoung. They ways he would try to initiate conversation with him.

It was Wednesday, and Beomseok thought about asking Wooyoung if they could hang out since nothing happened in Monday and Tuesday.

He started off with his greeting when he passed by him in the mornings. He always walked around with his friends and was late to class by a minute.

“Hey Wooyoung.” Beomseok says in a sweet voice.

Wooyoung doesn’t look up but knows it’s Beomseok speaking.

“Hello.” Is all he says and continues walking while looking down at his phone.

Beomseok is used to this greeting and carries on his way to his classroom. When he walks in, he hears some of the conversation from his peers.

“Apparently next week that ganghak student is coming.”

“Do you know his name.”

“No, but I did hear that he does fight a lot.”

“That ganghak student could be from the union, imagine that.”

“I’d transfer if that were to happen.”

“I heard it’s a senior, hm, why would you transfer during your senior year to here ?”

That sentence peaked Beomseok’s interest, the new student is in their grade? It’s only been 2 months into the semester… that’s not bad.

Beomseok sits in his seat and takes out all his materials. He’s waiting for the time to pass by so he can ask Wooyoung his dying question.

The bell rings so class should be starting, his teacher walks in after 30 seconds. Beomseok counts down the minute that takes Wooyoung to get back to their classroom.

“57”

“58”

“59”

“60.”

Wooyoung shows up in the doorway, his vape is in his hand and he quickly puts it away. He walks to his seat, he’s behind Beomseok. While the teacher is sorting his stuff, Beomseok takes this as an advantage to talk to Wooyoung.

He turns around in his seat and sees Wooyoung on his phone, again.

Beomseok purses his lips into a fine line before speaking.

“Wooyoung?”

Wooyoung looks up for a second.

“Yeah?”

“Did you want to hangout today?” He almost stutters.

“Hmmm, I can’t.”

Beomseok blinks.

“Oh why not?” He asked in genuine curiosity.

“I just got some shit going on.” Wooyoung looks at Beomseok again and he winks at him.

“But nothing to worry your head about.” It makes Beomseok blush a little, he hopes Wooyoung doesn’t notice.

“Well, I hope everything gets better.” Beomseok says and he turns around in his desk.

No hangout, but he winked at me. That’s something.

“Good morning class, today we will be covering…”

-

When break time was called, Beomseok rushed out of his seat to go find sieun to talk about what just happened. He’s rushing down the hallway and pasing down classrooms.

“3,4,5!”

He walks to sieuns class where sieun has his head down.

“Sieun sieun, wake up.” He taps his shoulder.

Sieun slowly lifts up his head from his arms and sees that it’s beomseok.

“Oh hey beomseok, what’s going on?” Beomseok kneels down next to sieun who’s looking down at him with concern.

“So I asked Wooyoung today if we could hangout, he said he had some stuff going on but he winked at me and told me, to not worry about it.”

Sieuns eyes are unreadable.

“He said he was busy but told you not to worry?” Beomseok nodded which makes his fluffy hair bounce. It almost makes dieun smile.

The thing was that sieun saw that Beomseok looked happy, unworried. But he couldn’t help but feel disappointed, Wooyoung cancelled on him.

But if Beomseok happy, he should be too.

“How do you feel about it?”

Beomseok thinks as he looks up and he hums.

“Well, I’m bummed that he can’t hang out, but he smiled at me and winked, told me not to worry. I don’t know, but that made me feel a bit flustered, in a good way!”

“If it didn’t make you feel upset then, it’s nice that he clarified it for you.”

“Yeah… oh! Where’s Suho?” Beomseok just realized how Suho wasn’t around them. Sieun ignores how quickly Beomseok changed the conversation.

“He left to go to the bathroom.” Sieun says.

“Oh… well then I should start heading back, thanks for letting me  vent.” Beomseok stands up.

“Of course Beomseok-ah, if anything else happens tell me.”

“I will, I’ll see you later sieun-ah.” Beomseok says as he leaves sieuns classroom and starts to walk back to his own.

—lunch time—

When lunch time hit, all of his friends joined the three this time. All of them were at the same table, jun tae having food in his mouth while trying to speak. Suho and Baku were practically done after 3 minutes of eating, gotak and sieun were eating pretty slowly.

While they were eating and talking about stuff that happened today. Beomseok decided to tell them what happened and well…

“HE CANCELLED ON YOU, THAT MOTHERFUC-“

“WHAT?”

“SERIOUSLY HYUNG?”

Sieun rolled his eyes at the guys’s reaction.

All of them except sieun were pretty angry. Even though beomseok said he didn’t mind, they were still pissed Wooyoung cancelled it. Beomseok told him that he winked at him and told him not to worry which didn’t faze them one bit. They started saying, “he won’t even tell you why?” “Just because he winked at you doesn’t excuse what he did.”

Beomseok was getting a bit overwhelmed and told them to calm down.

“Guys truly, it’s alright, I’m fine, things happen. It’s not like we’re dating anyway…”

That hushed them up really fast.

“Sorry beomseok-ah, we just don’t want that jerk to treat you bad.”

“I know you guys don’t, but it’d alright, I trust him and maybe we can hang out another day.”

Right?

                      After school

When school ended, Beomseok, sieun and Jun tae stayed in the library after school for an hour. They decided to study ahead of time so they are free for the weekend. It was a nice time, moments that Beomseok appreciated of friendship and quietness.

It came time for them to leave, it was almost 5pm and Beomseok was starting to get hungry. They were leaving the school gates where gotak and so were chatting, so was beside his bike.

It was cute scene, Beomseok hopes to have someone, like Wooyoung to be like that for him. Wait for him when he’s done with school, walk back to his house while holding hands…

“Do you need a ride home beomseok-ah?” Sieun asks, in a caring tone.

Beomseok shakes his head, “no it’s okay, I’m going to walk to the convents store on the way home. Thank you though.”

“Stay safe, hyung. Call me if you need anything.” Jun tae says as he walks over to gotak.

“Will you be okay?” Sieun mutters.

“Mhm don’t worry about it, I’ll text you when I’m home.” Beomseok reassures to which sieun nods. Both gotak and Suho say goodbye to beomseok as gotak and Jun tae walk to the right and suho and sieun ride off into the road.

Beomseok noticed it’s not super dark yet and walks to the left, heading more into the city.

Beomseok sees the neon signs everywhere as he continues to walk, he notices a convenience store that’s a few yards away.

As he’s approaching the store he notices something. The sun finished setting and he sees Wooyoung.

Is that Wooyoung?

He sees from a couple feet, Wooyoung and his friends. They look like they’re waiting to get into a club.

is this what he meant by “he has some shit going on”

He can’t believe it, he’s devastated. He truly believe Wooyoung wasn’t lying to him, he was giving him sympathy and defending him yo his own best friends. But no, he lied and he’s standing out to get into a fucking night club. He sees Wooyoung smiling and laughing as he lets out a puff of smoke.

Beomseok lets out the deep breath he didn’t know he was holding.

I’m so stupid.

He blinks, lets out a devastating sigh and turns to the left to enter the store. He pushes the door and is greeted by one of the employees.

“Annyeongseo.” He says back as he heads into one of the aisles.

He starts to think again.

Maybe it was too soon that I asked him, maybe he didn’t care, ugh.

Beomseok rubs his temple.

I should eat something before I start to think irrationally.

Beomseok grabs the plastic bowl of pink buldak ramen, he picks up chips and soda. He places the stuff on the counter, the cashier immediately starts scanning everything. When she finishes, she asks, “would you like a bag?” Beomseok nods.

“Yes please.” She places everything in the bag for him.

“Here you go, it’ll be 8,000 won.” She politely smiles.

Beomseok takes out his wallet and takes out the cash. He hands it to her and she puts it in the register to then give him back the change.

“Here, have a good day.” Beomseok takes the change and puts it in his pocket and picks up the bag.

“Thank you, have a good day.” He replies and makes his way out.

When he leaves the store, he noticed that Wooyoung is still waiting. Beomseok realized that he still had to walk down to go to his house, meaning he has to pass by Wooyoung.

Beomseok groans, he lets out a breath of air and starts walking. In Beomseok’s mind, hes still upset that Wooyoung lied but now he just wants to go home and not think about Wooyoung for the rest of the night. But nope, he has to encounter Wooyoung one final time before he can make it home.

Beomseok just looks straight forward, and walks, he doesn’t look at anything else but just walks down the road to make it home.

He definitely feels Wooyoung’s presence as he walked past the club. Beomseok closes his eyes for a second and once he knows he ls a few feet away from the place, he opens them.

He feels a weight off his shoulders and moves to turn the corner. He feels relieved and continues his destination.

What beomseok didn’t know was that someone was watching him. A particular guy with a vape and messy hair…

Beomseok arrives home, he punches the code in and when he opens the door, it’s dark inside. No one’s home for sure. He goes to find a light switch and closes the door. He goes into the kitchen and puts the bag down, Beomseok leans against the counter, head down.

He thinks back to what happened in just 20 minutes. Wooyoung lied, he was waiting for the club. Beomseok went to the convince store to buy food and when he left, he had to pass by where Wooyoung was standing at.

He didn’t notice me right? Right? Right.

Beomseok feels mentally clocked out and starts to boil some water for his ramen. He gets out the chips and soda, while the water boils he think about what he’s going to do tomorrow.

Alright he lied to me, what do I do? Maybe it was too fast to ask him and he just didn’t want to do that. Should I distance myself? If I say hi once in a while and slowly work my way up everyday, maybe we can hangout?

I don’t know what to do, but I  think I’ll distance myself tomorrow. I’ll ask sieun for advice and then I’ll talk to him on Friday.

Once beomseok is pleased with this plan, he sees the water boiling and he puts it in his ramen bowl.

                        Next day

When the morning started, Beomseok was still thinking of last night but nevertheless, he got up. He did his usual routine of showering and blow drying his fluffy and wavy hair. He put on his normal dark blue uniform and shoes. The last thing he did was put on his glasses, he looked in the mirror to make sure he looked good.

I hate these glasses, I should start getting contacts, they fall off too much.

He’s getting his stuff together as he goes down to the kitchen to make himself breakfast. He sees there is a plate covered in tinfoil and a note on the side.

“Don’t leave without eating breakfast, honey” - mom

Beomseok smiled and when got got rid of the tinfoil he saw the kimbap, it was sliced into multiple circles and a fork sitting on the side. He enjoyed the meal his mother made as he had to leave in a couple of minutes.

He wiped his lips with a napkin and washed his plate, putting it on the dry rack after. He got his backpack and his phone and shortly left the house. He locked the door and went the route he always goes to school. As he walks, he opens his phone to call sieun, he has to talk to him before the bell rings.

He clicked on his number

Ring… “hello”

Beomseok eyebrows rose at the quickness of sieun.

“Hey sieun-ah… are you at school already?”

“Hmm yes, why do you ask?”

“I need to talk to you, I’m almost there, are you busy?”

“I’m not busy, Im in my classroom, I’m not going to go anywhere.” Beneath the monotonous voice, he can tell sieun is concerned.

“Okay I’ll see you in a bit, bye.” He hangs up the phone. He puts it in his pocket and keeps walking. When he reaches the school gates, he quickens up the pace to head inside the main building.

He checks the time on his phone and sees school starts in 20 minutes, he’s got plenty of time.

Once he’s inside, he’s glad that sieuns class is closer as his class is usually at the end of the hallway. He’s going up the stairs, until he’s on their( seniors) floor. He sees sieuns classroom and jogs there.

He sees there is only three people and Sieun there. He walks up to him and sits on the empty seat in front of Sieun. Sieun wakes up from the sudden sound and sees its beomseok in front of him.

“Hey hyung, sorry I was sleeping, what’s up.” Sieun rubs his eyes as he looks at Beomseok.

“It’s okay, alright just don’t get mad what I’m about to tell you okay?”

Sieun raised an eyebrow.

“I won’t, what happened ?”

Well that didn’t last long.

“No.”

“Sieun-ah.”

“I said no, I was already mad he cancelled on you but he lied to you beomseok. It’s nothing about you moving too fast, he could’ve said something but he lied, don’t you see that?”

“I know but look maybe he just didn’t want to sound mean like I, I don’t know.”

Sieun sighs.

“Look beomseok, I know you like him and you see the good side of him that not all of us see. But I just don’t want you to be with someone who consistently lies to you. I’ll let you Give him a second chance-“ beomseok lights up.

“But that’s it,otherwise I don’t want to see you talking to him or about him.” Beomseok nods quick in understanding.

“Thank you sieun-ah, so what should I do now, I’m stuck.”

“You did say you want to distance yourself right?”

“Yes, I sit in front of him during class so I’m always near him, I need to sit somewhere else but I still want to say hi to him in the mornings at least. But I don’t know, wouldn’t it be weird?”

“I think distancing yourself is good, but if you want to sit away from him in class you need to make a genuine excuse to the teacher or something.”

“Yeah, what could I say though?” Beomseok looks to sieun for help.

Then, Sieun plucked beomseoks glasses from his face.

“Tell him you can’t see, you lost your glasses and can’t see very far.”

Beomseok gasps.

“Sieun you’re a genius!” He grabs the glasses and stashes them in his backpack.

“If everyone believes that lie, leave your glasses at home ok?”

“Yes yes, this will work, thank you sieun-ah!”

Sieun slightly smiles as he speaks up. “Tell me if anything happens with you and Wooyoung.”

“I will, and also could you please not tell the rest of the guys. I’ll tell them during lunch.”

“Sure” sieun nods, “go to class.” Beomseok gets up and says bye, he leaves the classroom and starts to head on his way. But then he sees Wooyoung walking over.

Beomseok bites his lip and nonetheless keeps walking. He’s not going to say it, he’s not going to say it. Wooyoung’s getting closer and so is beomseok.

Silence.

Beomseok passed wooyoung without exchanging words or a smile. He walks past him and is almost to his class. A chill ran up Beomseok’s spine, he never ever did that before, he almost feels proud.

He shrugs it off and walks to his classroom, hoping that the teacher comes early.

The bell rings and his classmates start flooding in and soon the teacher appears. Beomseok stands up from his chair and walks over to him.

“Mr. Park?”

The teacher looks up at him from his stack of papers.

“Yes beomseok?”

“I wanted to ask if I could sit in the front row?” Beomseok didn’t notice but Wooyoung walked in as he said that.

Wooyoung quirked up an eyebrow as he saw Beomseok talking to the teacher. He remembers yesterday.

Wooyoung knew how clingy Beomseok can be, it can be alright but most of the time he’s annoyed. Everytime he wants some peace and quiet in class, he can’t get it because of Beomseok. Sure he’s nice, but he needs to learn to take a hint. He didn’t feel bad that he lied to him yesterday but he honestly didn’t want to hang out with him. He didn’t want to be mean but oh man, he rejected him the first time already.

When he saw Beomseok leaving the convenience store, he felt just a tad bit guilty. He figured Beomseok probably saw him and just didn’t say anything. Then in the morning, he didn’t say hello, which Wooyoung felt weird? Yeah he hates when he says it but it still feels weird to not hear it.

Now that he’s walking in, he wants to sit in the front? Wooyoung was annoyed of his presence but now he’s suddenly changing seats. It made Wooyoung feel a bit alleviated but also curious.

Maybe beomseok took the hint to leave him alone.

He went to sit down at his desk and hears the rest of the conversation.

“Oh? All of a sudden, why?”

“I lost my glasses, and I can’t see that far from here.”

Now Wooyoung tilted his head.

Oh shit he does wear glasses,that’s why he’s sitting away. Shit, he’s still gonna bother me then?

The rest of class time, Beomseok didn’t glance at Wooyoung to which Wooyoung felt weirded out.

What the fuck is happening?

—- lunch time

Beomseok felt weird not talking or looking at Wooyoung but he does need to distance himself from him. The trío were walking to the sports club room, where Beomseok was going to confess it all…

“HE WAS WHERE?!”

“YOU WAITED TILL TODAY TO TELL US”

“HES A FUCKING JERK”

“HYUNGG, YOU CANT KEEP LIKING HIM”

Beomseok was in shock of everyone’s reaction.

“Yelling isn’t going to make this any better.” Sieun says which makes them slowly quiet down.

“Beomseok, you want to give him a second chance after he lied to you?”

“Listen I was being a little pushy and maybe it scared him off.”

“Oh my god-“

“If I slow down, maybe I could get to take to him more.”

Baku shakes his head in disbelief.

“Beomseok-ah if he feels like that then he would tell you, he wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Yeah beomseok.” Jun tae supports.

“Guys I just want to give him a second chance, that’s it.”

“He doesn’t deserve it.” Gotak mutters.

“It was just one time.”

“You don’t know that, he could lie more.”

“You don’t know that either.” Beomseok and Baku practically fighting back and forth.

Baku sighs.

“Okay, you can give him a second chance but let me just tell you this, if he lied to you before beomseok, who says he’s gonna stop if you’re together.”

Now that like hit him like a brick, he’s right, Beomseok knows he’s right. But this is also the man he likes and sees the good in.

“I know, I just want to see if he’ll do it again and if he does, I won’t talk to him again.” Beomseok explains.

“Okay, give your best friend a hug.” Baku opens his arms and Beomseok give him a hug.

“Yah who says you’re his best friend it’s obviously me.” Gotak says.

Suho scoffs, “you? It’s definitely  me, I knew him before you.”

“Okay?”

Jun tae sighs as he smiles at Beomseok.

“You’re making a nice decision Beomseok.” Juntae says ever so softly.

“Thank you Jun tae.” He smiles back.

The next day, Beomseok left the house and left his glasses in his room. He was walking to school when he started thinking about Wooyoung.

Today I’ll say hi, just hi and I’ll go to my new seat.

He made it to the school gates and headed towards the building, once he made it inside, he walked up the stairs as usual. When he made it to the third floor, he headed to his class he tried to see if Wooyoung was there.

He was.

He was approaching and Beomseok was walking at normal speed.

“Hi, Wooyoung.” He said politely.

But… he didn’t get a response back, usually everyday he says hello. This time, he didn’t.

Beomseok looked back but he was gone.

Oh god, what did I do wrong? Did he think I was ignoring him yesterday? Did I make everything worse?

He drags his feet as he walks into class, with his new seat. He slumps down and takes out his stuff.

Now when he does look at Wooyoung, Wooyoung doesn’t glance at him.

Beomseok was pretty much sulking as lunch time rolled in. He pushed himself up and headed out to go to the cafeteria.

God how could everything go downhill in a week. Maybe i should change my seat back after the weekend.

Beomseok made it to the cafeteria and he sees his friends are sitting at the table. He grabs his tray and gets his food fast, but he doesn’t have much of an appetite today. He approaches his friends and dits down next to sieun, all of their friends began to eat, except Beomseok himself.

Sieun noticed he wasnt eating, he put his metal chopsticks down and turned to look at Beomseok. He was looking at his food, picking at it.

“Is everything okay hyung?”

Beomseok puts his own chopsticks down.

“Yeah… just not hungry.” He mutters.

“Hey.”

Beomseok looks up to sieuns concerned eyes.

“What happened, I know something happened, you can tell me you know that right?” Beomseok nodded but he doesn’t even want to think about Wooyoung and their situation. The more he thinks about it, the more he stresses about it.

“I don’t want to talk about it, I’ll tell you after school…”

“Okay, you should still eat.” Sieun pats Beomseok’s back as he slips into conversation with suho.

-

When the day came to an end, the gang left school together and walked down the school gates.

“Yah you guys hungry, let’s go for some tteokbokki!” Baku tells, everyone else agrees, even beomseok.

“Let’s go!”

They walk down, Suho, Baku and gotak walking in front of sieun, beomseok and Jun tae. There’s a pretty big gap in front of them, and they maintain that pace.

“Do you want to tell me what happened or are you not ready yet?” Sieun asked out of the blue. Jun tae perked up.

“What happened? Did something happen?”

Sieun and Jun tae look at Beomseok who sighs a bit.

“Wooyoung… didn’t say hi to me today like usual, he didn’t look at me, he just…ignored me.” He spills out. Juntaes eyes widened as sieuns fists balled up.

“I- I don’t know what I did wrong, I thought he would like the distancing but now he just ignores me. Did I take it too far?”

Jun tae rubs his shoulder.

“No beomseok-ah, you did nothing wrong. This isn’t your fault, I don’t know what’s going on Wooyoung’s idiotic brain, but he shouldn’t be acting like that towards you.”

“Yeah hyung, you’ve always been nice to him and he’s the one who lied to you and is now he’s ignoring you. You should cast him away in your brain, you deserve someone better than him, he’s acting childish.” Jun tae huffed.

“Beomseok?”

“Yeah…” he says looking at the ground.

“What do you want to do?”

“I just want things to go back to normal, even if I can’t be with him, I want back to where he said hi to me and when he was just even a little bit polite.”

Chapter Text

Over the weekend his friends cheered him up, telling him to get over Wooyoung. He deserves someone better, someone who doesn’t ghost and lie.

It made Beomseok giggle, he decided he was still going to say hi and he wasn’t going to care if his response was “hi” or silence. Beomseok knows his own intentions.

So it’s 7:30, and Beomseok made it to school. He’s walking up the stairs to go to his class, the usual. But something stirs up his routine today.

He noticed that the third floor was pretty quiet, maybe it was still early, it is a Monday. He opens his phone to check the time as he’s walking down.

Suddenly…

Beomseok collides with someone and drops his phone. He seperated from the person he bumped into, not looking at their face, rather their chest. He winced and kneels down to pick up his phone.

“Im so sorry I wasn’t looking where I was-“ Beomseok mumbles until the person he bumped into is also kneeling down in front of him.

He looks up and sees the man, Beomseok freezes up. He’s quite handsome, he has brown hair that’s pretty wavy. He has black brow like glasses with gold inside, his eyes are almost black and he has a dot under his eye. He’s mesmerizing. He’s smiling at Beomseok, his smile almost looks… crazy. Similar to Wooyoung when he wins a fight.

Beomseok doesn’t realize he’s staring until he feels a hand on his chin. The guy in front of him, is holding his chin, practically raising it up so they can meet eyes.

Beomseok can feel his head lighten and cheeks turn red.his mind is shut and eyes are in shock.

“You’re cute, pretty clumsy but cute.” His voice was deep, dripping like honey. It makes Beomseok hitch.

Beomseok doesn’t know what to say.

“Cat got your tongue?” The guys smirks. Beomseok feels entranced, so he just nods, it makes the guy laugh like a maniac.

“I-I’m sorry, I should’ve seen where I was goi-“ Beomseok starts to apologize since that’s what got him into this position and he doesn’t know what do it say. But the guy shushes him anyways.

“Shh it’s okay jagiya, don’t worry about it.” He has his tongue sticking out between his teeth.

“What’s your name?”

“Beomseok, Oh Beomseok.” Beomseok nearly gulps as the grip on his chin is still there.

“Pretty name.” He then rubs Beomseok’s chin, softly with his thumb. Beomseok feels butterflies in his stomach after the compliment. He’s practically stammering.

“Thanks… um what’s your name?”

The guys moves his focus from Beomseok’s chin to look at Beomseok in the eyes.

“Seongje… Geum Seongje.” He smirks as Beomseok’s breath hitches.

Geum Seongje ?

The one from ganghak?

The one that fights-

The bell rang which not only made Beomseok snap out of his thoughts but made seongje let go of his chin.

“Don’t bump into anyone else jagi, I’ll see you.” Is all Seongje says as he stands up and walks away. Beomseok is still kneeling as he picks up his phone, hands shaking. He stands up and he sees Wooyoung from afar.

Did he see me and seongje?

He sees Wooyoung walking straight towards him.

“are you okay beomseok?” He grabs Beomseok’s hands, he lets him hold them. Beomseok quickly nods as his pupils dilate at the fact that Wooyoung is holding his hand.

“I saw you with that psycho, did he do anything?” Wooyoung asks.

Beomseok shakes his head no. “He didn’t do anything, I just bumped into him by accident.” He clarifies.

“Good, let’s get to class.” He doesn’t wait for Beomseok to respond and he just drags him. They get inside and Beomseok’s head starts to playback what happened earlier. Wooyoung drops him off at his seat and walks over to his own.

Beomseok was profusely apologizing as he picked up his phone, then he felt seongje touch his chin. It wasn’t rough, it wasn’t harsh, it was gentle. When he rubbed his chin, it was like he was caressing him.Beomseok looked pink in the face as he looked at seongjes.

Then when he heard the nicknames and compliments

“You’re cute”

“Jagiya”

“Pretty name”

“Jagi”

Beomseok covered his face with his hands.

This is the Geum Seongje they were talking about? No fucking way.

He slumps in his seat as he doesn’t know what to do. Hes never met this guy in his life, all he knows is he has an intimidating and brutal reputation. All he ever heard about seongje was that he was an apart of the union, he was one of the scariest and psychotic fighters ever. He beats people up for fun, he laughs at everyone’s faces, he smiles at the sight of blood.

Then all of a sudden he’s here? In Eunjang, he bumps into Beomseok’s and treats him like a delicate porcelain doll?

It made Beomseok shrug and groan.

What the hell did I get myself into?

-break time-

Beomseok didn’t even spare a glance at Wooyoung, all he could think about was the situation that happened earlier. He needed to tell sieun, now.

He rushed out of his classroom and practically jogging to find sieuns classroom down the hall. When he did he makes a quick left turn. He sees Sieun sleeping as usual, Beomseok runs to stand next to him and taps his shoulder a million times.

“Sieun! Sieun! Wake up! Please I need to talk to you!”

Sieun straightened up instantly seeing Beomseok’s panicked state.

“Woah, what’s wrong Beomseok-ah?” His eyes gleaming with confusion and concern.

Beomseok sits down on the chair in front of Sieun. His hands are still trembling.

“I… I think I just met… Geum Seongje.” He whispers the name and sieuns eyes widened.

“Beomseok… what did you just say.” Sieun begs for clarification.

“I- I think I met him, he wears glasses right and has brown hair?”

Sieun looks mortified and he nods his head.

“Y-Yes wait.” Sieun groans as he realizes. “He must be the one transferring them from ganghak.” He comes to a conclusion and Beomseok agrees.

“Fuck.” It wasn’t rare to hear him curse but still if he wass, Beomseok knows he’s being serious about it.

“How did you meet him then?”

Beomseok clears his throat as he’s about to explain. “It’s a weird story to be honest but, I was walking to class and I was going to say hi to Wooyoung but when I went to check my phone, I bumped into someone. He w-was pretty tall so I didn’t see his face and I went to pick up my phone. I kept apologizing but then he kneeled down in front of me and…”

Beomseok turns quiet.

“And?” Sieun raises an eyebrow, wanting him to finish his sentence.

Beomseok sighs before talking, “he… he grabbed my face.” He mutters.

“Excuse me?” Sieuns tone drops.

“He held my face, I don’t know why either, I felt  confused and I- I didn’t know what to do or say.”

“He touched your face ?” Sieuns asks to make sure he’s not making it up.

“Yeah…”

Sieun looks away as he’s processing it in his head.

“What happened after.” He spoke softly. Beomseok looks back into his eyes and continues.

“He said these things to me…” Beomseok scrunched his eyebrows. “He said I looked cute, clumsy but cute.” Sieuns face is blank but Beomseok doesn’t stop there. “I apologized to him and he called me jagiya, said my name was pretty.”

“Wait you gave him your name ?” Sieuns eyes convey a look of “are you serious?”

“Yes but that was before I knew it was him, I didn’t know what to do.” Sieun sighs and crosses his arms.

“After that he said to not bump into anyone else, jagi.”

“He called you baby?!” Sieun slams his fist down on the table, which earns them a glance from one of the students.

“Yeah..” he trails off.

“I know but then when he left, I saw Wooyoung.”

“He looked a bit mad I guess, he came up to me and asked me if I was okay.” Beomseok didn’t even let that process until now, now that’s he’s thinking about it, he kind of smiles.

“He held my hands and we went back to class.” He concludes with a smile.

Sieun by now looks like a statue, he was struck by 10 different emojis and now hearing about Wooyoung. He’s just frozen.

After in deep thought, Sieun speaks.

“Wooyoung suddenly got worried about you?”

Beomseok nods his head.

“Alright..”

“Alright, just don’t talk to seongje okay? I don’t want you to get wrapped up with him and as for Wooyoung, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“I will, I just can’t help but think how worried he was.” Beomseok smiled to himself.

“Me too.” Sieun whispers.

“Okay thanks for letting me talk to you Sieun-ah, I’ll see you later but can you keep the seongje thing just between the two of us. I don’t want the rest to worry and freak out you know…” Sieun got the memo and told him he wouldn’t tell anyone.

“Tell me if anything else happens.”

“I will, bye hyung.” He sends Sieun an appreciated smile as he heads back to his own class.

Of course the situation itself isn’t resolved but Beomseok felt so good speaking about it. He felt like he could breathe better. He hyped himself up, puffs his cheeks and exhaled.

He walked inside his classroom and saw Wooyoung wasn’t back, he seats down in his seat.

Oh shoot, I forgot my glasses today, I was supposed to bring them…

The bell rings again, leaving beomseok into his new lesson.

—lunch

When the clsss was dismissed for lunch, Beomseok stood up and walked to the doorway but he turned his head to see Wooyoung. Wooyoung didn’t look at him, he got up and walked out through the other door.

Beomseok felt his heart ache but he turned around and walked out too.

This time when Beomseok was heading to the cafeteria, he was keeping an eye out for Geum Seongje. He didn’t want to bump into him after sieuns warning, he didn’t want problems or new issues to worry about, he just wanted to see his friends.

He did his usual routine of getting his food and heading over to his friend’s table. He sat next to sieun again, all his friends were more chatty than usual. He placed a piece of kimchi in his mouth and felt a bump in his elbow.

He turned to see Sieun had nudged him.

“Did anything happen.” He whispered, Beomseok knew Sieun was becoming more worried after all the things he’s been telling him.

“Nothing happened, dont worry, I know I’ve been saying a lot but I’ll tell you if something happens, in person or online.” He smiles reassuringly to sieun.

Sieun eyes go from concerned to caring. “Okay” is all he says as he goes back to eating.

So far so good, they kept eating and they were all discussing different topics.One  was their mutual disdain for Wooyoung, second was for their next planned hangout and lastly was the homework they had to do today. Beomseok did laugh a little, he felt more content at this time of day, thanks to his friends.

All of them finish eating and take their trays out, they leave the cafeteria and Beomseok is trailing behind them. He looks at his surrounding and turns his head on the left to see Wooyoung.

It’s his routine as always, he looks so cool and handsome, smoking a cigarette while talking to his friends. He knows all he talks about is fights and money, Beomseok thinks he secretly has that soft side as always. He smiled a little bit as seeing him brought to Wooyoung holding his hands. As always, Wooyoung doesn’t notice him and Beomseok doesn’t want to keep staring so he looks to the right.

He sees a familiar face, familiar glasses. He sees seongje, his eyes widen and he swears, he sees a parallel.

Seongje is against the wall, he’s either cursing or laughing at his friends. He has a cigarette in between his teeth as he laughs with the smoking coming out in stuttering motions. God, it reminds him of Wooyoung a little, until it brings him back to earlier.

The difference between Wooyoung and seongjes touches. Wooyoung grabbed his hands in panic, dragged him out and never looked at him in the eye again. Seongje, kneeled down in front of him, caressed his face, he wasn’t as rough as Wooyoung, he complimented him, rubbed his chin, said honey and baby. Their eye contact, Wooyoung’s eyes were unreadable but seongjes eyes, were the most expressive and readable.

He’s never had someone look at him or touched him like that…

“Beomseok-ah! Come on!” He hears Jun tae yell, it snaps him out of his daydreams. When he looks at Seongje one more time, he sees his smirk and his eyes on him. It makes Beomseok turn his head around fast, almost giving him whiplash. His face looks flushed and he picks up the pace, moving away.

“Beomseok-ah what’s got you so distracted.” Suho comments.

Beomseok thinks to keep just this one thing to himself.

— end of the day

Sieun, Beomseok and Jun tae don’t study after school today. They were thinking about heading home, Suho would go with Sieun and gotak would go to Jun taes house.

Baku usually goes back to his dad’s restaurant. All of them walk out of the school gates, they say their goodbyes, all of them going into different directions.

“See you beomseok-ah!” One of them yells at Beomseok as he has a more longer trip ahead of him.

“See you tomorrow.” Beomseok says cheerfully and keeps walking. Beomseok puts his phone in his back pocket and walks downhill.

The air feels a bit refreshing, the sun isn’t too bad today. Everyone would think he’d feel a bit lonely, and he does in a way. He just wants to be with someone to enjoy the weather and day like this, just them two. He looks at the buildings around the area as he heads into the city.

Today was such a hectic day to say the least, he just wants to go home and eat something. That’ll clear his mind.

next day-

Today was going to be a better day for Beomseok. He finished all his homework and had no tests to do.

He had finished getting ready and he brought his glasses back that was hidden in his drawer. He was walking down the stairs, getting some breakfast.

Today he had some leftover soup from yesterday with a bowl of rice. He thought of what he should do today, maybe him and his friends could go out later tonight. Then he thought what he was going to do about Wooyoung, yesterday did NOT go according to plan.

He’d figure he would say hi in the morning again, it’s the only plan that works apparently.

He finished eating and put the two bowls in the sink, he washed them and hanged them on the dry rack. He put on his backpack and picked up his phone to check the time. It was time to leave, he goes out the door and locks it.

He begins his normal 10-15 minute walk, he plugged in headphones and drifted away.

Once he made it, he walked inside school and heading to the stairs. But this time he stops.

What if I see him again, what do I do?

He looks up and he doesn’t see seongje anywhere, so he continues walking up until he reaches his floor. When he does, he walks faster, he doesn’t want the chance to bump into Seongje again.

He sees Wooyoung from afar, as usual. Beomseok slows down and keeps his chin up.

Now I can say hi this time.

“Hi wooyoung.” He thinks he’ll say hi back or something since yesterday he seemed worried and held his hands.

But no, Wooyoung walked past him as if beomseok was invisible. Beomseok looks back to see if Wooyoung looked at him or something.

No, he just walked away.

Beomseok put his head down as he walked into class.

Ugh why am I getting mixed signals.

He doesn’t even bother thinking about changing his seat again. He takes off his backpack and practically slams it on the table and he sits down.

This just put him in a crappy mood for the rest of the day.

-time skip to lunch-

“Come on beomseok, eating will make you feel better.” Jun tae was trying to cheer Beomseok up after he admitted that Wooyoung ignored him again.

“Come on beomseok-ah, you have to eat.” Sieun said as he pulled Beomseok’s tray closer to him.

“Yah beomseok-ah, stop thinking about that jerk and think about us. We’re going to karaoke and eat some bbq!” Baku said while he stuffed some vegetables in his mouth.

Beomseok bopped his head and straightened up. He slowly ate his food as his friends continue to chat about their plans for tonight.

“I have to be home at 8 so, don’t get carried away.” Sieun said to Suho who ruffled Sieuns hair.

This time when they leave the cafeteria, Beomseok sneaks a glance at Wooyoung and he overhears him talking about a girl. Beomseok mentally checks out, he looks down at the floor and continues walking.

The scene raises a peculiar suspicion to someone in another pair of glasses.

-end of the day-

The gang were heading to their favorite place to karaoke, actually Suho and Baku’s favorite place to karaoke. It was around 5pm, the sun was setting, it was a nice warm hour.

Golden hour made them look like a heartwarming memory, it was a beautiful scene. A group of seniors, having fun and cheering up their friend in their uniform. Beomseok loves moments like this.

“Let’s go get some drinks, Beomseok-ah!” Jun tae had put an arm around Beomseok. They had made it to the building and sieun, Jun tae went inside to a different direction to get some sodas.

“Text me what room you’re at.” Sieun tells Suho. Suho nodded and gave him a peck on his temple as he walked away.

They head down to the vending machines where Beomseok clicks a button and talks to them.

“You make me feel so single when I see you and Suho.” Beomseok jokes, leaving Sieun in denial.

“No, no, we don’t even do a lot of affection in public.”

“Yeah, the kiss on the temple definitely wasn’t anything.” Jun tae comments which makes Beomseok laugh and Sieun roll his eyes.

They were carrying a total of 6 sodas, a lot of them different flavors. Baku liked orange soda, Jun tae liked lime soda, Sieun chose Coca Cola, gotak wanted melon soda, Suho got apple flavored soda and Beomseok got strawberry soda.

Suho told them they were in room 6, Jun tae led the way as they trail behind them with sodas in hand. Once they find it, they dump the sodas on the table and while Baku and Suho have the microphones in their hand.

2 hours later—

All of them leave the karaoke place, Baku is trying to clear his throat after singing his heart and throat out. Gotak swears he’s got some hearing damage from hearing him and Suho scream the lyrics out. Jun tae was laughing on the way out as he kept replaying the moments in his head.

Sieun shakes his head at they make their way to get some Korean barbecue. The city looked more fuller when they left the karaoke room. Beomseok could see a lot of people from Eunjang and there were many students from other schools.

They made their way into the restaurant and surprisingly it wasn’t that full so they were able to get a table.

“I vote that gotak pays.” Baku declares.

“Yah saekkiya I never agreed to that, we are all paying.”

Juntae giggles at the stupid fight.

15 minutes in, Baku and Jun tae start grilling some meat as the rest of them chat.

“Sieun-ah.” Beomseok grabs sieuns attention.

“Yeah?” Beomseok nudges him to come closer.

“Did the rest of the guys figure out it was you-know-who that transferred here?”

Sieun thinks for a second.

“I don’t think so, I haven’t heard anyone them talk about it. I’d figure they’d be the first to-“

“Hey guys.”Suho says a little loud to get everyone’s attention which also interrupts sieuns and Beomseok’s conversation in the process.

“Apparently the new ganghak student transferred here yesterday.”

Sieuns eyebrows furrow, he was thinking that he was listening in to their conversation.

“Do you know his name?” Gotak asks as he chews on a piece of meat.

“Well… I heard it from someone but maybe it’s a rumor, I don’t know. But people think it might be Geum Seongje.”

Beomseok practically almost faints from the information that came out of suho’s mouth. His face turns pale and he looks at sieun with his widened eyes. Meanwhile sieun looks confused and bites his lip.

“GEUM SEONGJE? Nah no way.” Baku says in denial and Jun tae nods.

“No fucking way, Geum Seongje? Why would that saekkiya come here? I thought he fucking ruled ganghak.”

“It’s what I heard, I don’t know if it’s true.”

“I really hope not.” Jun tae mutters.

Sieun and Beomseok didn’t say anything and hoped the rest didn’t notice that. One of them hoped someone will switch the topic and atmosphere of the room. Luckily Gotak did which Beomseok thanks him so much in his head.

When they finish eating it was around 7:45, sieun and Suho had to leave right now. They said their goodbyes to each other and walked off. Gotak and Baku felt pretty energetic right now, they were planning on playing some basketball.

“Hey Beomseok-ah you want to come? We’re gonna shoot some hoops.” To be honest, he didnt want to today, he grew a bit of fatigue from eating.

“I’m okay, you guys go on, I feel kind of tired from eating.” He laughs lightly.

Gotak nodded his head in understanding, all three said bye to Beomseok as they departed their ways. Gotak was between Baku and Jun tae and had his arm around Jun tae. Beomseok said goodbye to them and walked the other way.

He looked around and kept walking, it got brother and brighter thanks to lit up buildings and neon signs on every store and restaurant. He let himself get lost in it, seeing the bright purple and blue lights. It made the city look pretty and breathtaking, made Beomseok feel loose and feel himself.

He stops walking and looks at one of the bigger buildings, one of the apartments. It’s ginormous and you could see each window have light, red light, yellow light even a blue light.

I wish I could live there and watch the city everyday…

As he still stands there in the sidewalk, he doesn’t even notice a couple of guys from ganghak sitting and standing nearby.

“Whats got you zoning out jagi?” A voice whispers into Beomseok’s ear.

Huh?

Wait…

Beomseok blinks, regaining back his focus after hearing that voice. He turns his head around… oh god. It’s Seongje.

Beomseok breath hitches as he sees Seongje standing right next to him, face is really close. He has a cigarette in between his two fingers and he brings it up to his mouth.

“Did I scare you?” Seongje starts to laugh, the smoke leaving his mouth. Beomseok looks down at the cigarette in seongjes mouth and back at him.

“Uh… sort of…” Beomseok says quietly as he’s uncertain of what to say due to seongje, due to their close proximity, due to everything in the air right now.

“Heh.. sorry jagiya, I saw you standing there all zoned out… you look pretty when you look lost.”

Beomseok’s lips slightly open as a small gasp leaves his mouth. He sees seongjes proud smirk. He takes another hit from his cigarette.

“I was just um… looking at the buildings, I thought they looked cool.” Beomseok says as he lowers his head down.

But then, he feels his face go back up. A hand on his chin again, the same gentle and caring touch. Seongje tugged his chin upwards. Beomseok began to blush again as his lips were slightly pouting, he couldn’t even think to speak.

“That’s okay jagi…” Seongje flicks his cigarette away. “You should stay with me… we can look at the buildings… all night long.”

The butterflies came swarming in his stomach and Beomseok’s brain. He looked like a fool, an idiot standing there. His eyes were slightly wide as he replayed the sentence in his mind.

“That’s okay jagi… All night long…”

“…. All night”

Beomseok felt his mouth getting dry before he gets the urge to speak.

“Um… thanks but I should be heading home…” Beomseok look down even though his head was still tilted up.

“No worries, beommie…” he leans into his ear, “I’ll see you at school.” Beomseok can practically feel the smirk. He nodded dumbly and seongje lets go of his face.

He glanced at his side to see the people that were with Seongje. They had vapes or cigs in their mouth, phones in hand. Some were smirking at Beomseok and some were laughing with Seongje.

Oh fuck…

He walks away, fast, he doesn’t even look back, he just wants to disappear.

Once it gets dark where he’s walking down, the more sure he is that he can’t see seongje and his friends. He lets the cold air take all the stress and anxious thoughts in his mind away.

He turns the corner and that’s when he finally feels relief of being alone.

Hes thinking back to seongje again, his hands on him, the nicknames. Oh god, he doesn’t even know this guy, and he’s pretty sure he doesn’t even know him.

Fuck what am I going to do? Should I tell sieun? I’m screwed…

—on the other side

Seongje is sitting on a sofa where his best friend is next to him. He has a desk and a small desk lamp perched up as he does his homework.

Seongje was deep in thought, practically smirking thinking about earlier.

“What’s got you so happy? Something happen to you?” Baekjin asked as he looks up from his work, seeing Seongje drift his eyes to him.

“Yeah… something happened…something sweet.” His gummy smile comes to show.

Baekjin took one more look at Seongje before scoffing and looking back down.

Psh… psycho

-the next day

“GUYS WE NEED TO TALK!” Baku and gotak ran to sieun and suho’s class.

Sieun saw the twos panicked state.

“What’s wrong, what happened?” Suho asks as they have his full attention.

“I can’t talk about it here, we have to go to the club room now!”

“But it’s lunch.” Suho protested.

“Eat later now GO! I’ll get beomseok and Jun tae.”

Gotak runs off to go get Juntae and Baku runs to find beomseok. It was easy to get beomseok as he was practically in the door way.

“Hey beomseok-ah we got to go right now! It’s an emergency discussion let’s go!” He shouts as he gives no chance for beomseok to respond. He just grabs Beomseok’s wrist and drags him out.

Beomseok is confused as ever but tries to keep up wherever Baku is dragging him to. When they end up outside and going to their usual club room, they start to slow down.

“Baku what’s-“

“Hold that thought beomseok-ah, get in.” Baku opens the door so Beomseok and himself can get jn. Once they are, Baku closes and locks the door. Sieun and Suho are sitting together in the couch, and gotak and Juntae are next to them.

Baku and Beomseok end up sitting on the floor, leaning against the lockers.

“Alright what’s going on?” Suho asks. “What was the emergency.”

“Okay, so me and gotak were walking to go outside.” Gotak nodded his head as a sign of proof.

“And we saw Geum Seongje!”

Oh no….

Beomseok’s blood ran cold, his eyes widen and he looked at sieun to see if he heard the same thing. Sieun did look back at him, his expression half being “just hold on” but also “don’t panic.”

They heard Jun tae gasp and Suho squeeze his eyes shut as he face palmed.

“So the whole fucking time, it was Geum Seongje transferring here.”

Suho says as he slumps into the couch.

“Yeah.” Gotak agrees with disappointment.

Jun tae decided to ask something.

“What did seongje do again?”

“He’s in the Union, he’s a fucking psycho, all he does is beat up people for fun. He smiles and laughs every time he sees someone with a bloody nose. Hes screwed up.” Gotak explains as he scratches his head.

Beomseok looked back at sieun who was tying to tell him by his eyes to not worry about anything yet.

“So stay away from him tae.” He interlinks his hands with his, tae says “I will.”

“All of you should, otherwise you’ll be his punching bag.” Baku nodded his head furiously.

“And if he talks to you guys or does something, tell us. We’ll put up the fight.”

The rest of the them nod in agreement while beomseok fidgets with his fingers.

Should I tell them? What would they do to him or what would seongje do to them? Is it too late? Would they get mad?

“Seok, Beomseok, Beomseok!” Beomseok shakes his head as snaps out of his thoughts.

“Uh yes?” Beomseok turns to gotak who was calling his name.

“Are you okay?” The rest of the gang start to look at him. “Yes, I’m fine” he waves off.

“What should we do about seongje though.” Suho says, sieun wanted to kick him in the shin. Beomseok faces Suho now.

“Unless he starts something with us, we should just ignore him. If he talks to you guys or touches you, tell us and we’ll fight back. That idiot thinks he’s so smart and funny, he’ll try to provoke us.”

Honestly Beomseok couldn’t take it anymore, he wanted a switch in conversation now. Everytime they talk about him, it just gets worse.

Geum Seongje is supposed to be intimidating, crazy and brutal. His friends are talking about getting into a serious fight if he talks or even puts an arm on them. He’s already done that to Beomseok TWICE. The only person he’s discussed this with was sieun and he’s pretty sure he doesn’t know what to do either. All they can do is keep it between them too.

Technically seongje hasn’t done anything wrong to Beomseok. Well yes, he touched his chin and said words to him. But he was gentle, soft and he was calling him baby and honey. It’s not like he pushed him to ground or started to curse him out. Beomseok didn’t want his friends to start a fight since seongje was just being nice to him. It’s too much trouble and seems unfair.

It was still odd to Beomseok too on the other hand. He never met seongje before, pretty sure he’s never seen him in the past. All of a sudden he bumps into him and calls him jagi?

“Guys let’s forget about him, let’s go eat.” Suho tries to brighten up the mood which does work. They all start to get up and head towards the door to get out.

Sieun takes this opportunity to talk to Beomseok.

“You guys go eat, I need to talk to Beomseok about something.” Suho comes to his side at an instant.

“Is everything okay.” He whispers into sieuns ear. “Yes, it’s just a small conversation, we’ll come back quickly, don’t worry.” Sieun says to him and Suho gives him a kiss on sieuns knuckles.

“Come on let’s go.” Gotak enforces Suho to hurry up as they are about to close the door.

When it does close, they both sit back down on the couch, facing each other. It’s just them two, silence surrounding them.

“What do I do sieun-ah? You heard what they said.” Beomseok groans as he covers his face in his hands.

“Beomseok, do you want to tell them?” Sieun genuinely asks, he wants to know what Beomseok wants.

“A part of me wants to, I- I don’t want to lie to them but also if I tell them, they’ll just attack seongje instantly. I know what seongje is doing is weird but, he hasn’t hurt me and I feel like Baku and gotak won’t listen.”

Sieun nods his head, thinking about a resolution.

“You could wait, unless he does something more striking, then you could tell the others. If he continues what he’s doing, you could prove it to the others that he’s not harming you so they don’t try anything and you won’t keep it away forever.”

Beomseok likes that idea, he could work with this.

“That’s a good plan sieun-ah, I think I will, I’ll still tell you if anything happens between us.”

Definitely…

“Please do, now let’s go.” His voice goes back to being monotonous as they leave the room together and go to the cafeteria.

When they’re walking, Beomseok starts to gather his thoughts.

I know I didn’t tell sieun about yesterday… it’s not a lie what im keeping. It’s pretty much what happened on Monday but how was I going to explain it??? I reacted so stupid and naive, I looked like a cherry when I came home…

Seongje really became an obstacle for Beomseok. His routine went the same anymore, and now 25%. Of his brain was thinking about his moments with Seongje. A crazy sadistic fighter is suddenly being nice to a polite and introverted guy?

-next week

By next week, Beomseok started to feel better. He didn’t encounter seongje for the rest of the week. The school actually felt a bit weird as some days it would be loud and in and other days would be quiet. Beomseok thought it was the effects of having Seongje around.

Beomseok was still trying to talk to Wooyoung and get there “normal” relationship back. Every time he passed the halls, Wooyoung didn’t look at him and every time he said hello, Wooyoung would ignore it.

Beomseok didn’t let that kick him down, he said in his mind “he’s probably busy or dealing with something.”

So today when it was time for lunch, Beomseok had an idea to gift Wooyoung something.

A candy won’t hurt…

When Wooyoung left the room, Beomseok checked if everyone else left and when they did. He placed the strawberry flavored candy on his desk. He smiled to himself and left the doorway.

Today, his friends weren’t going to get lunch and they were going to spend time in the club room. When he was walking outside, it was pretty quiet and there was a faint smell of smoke that Beomseok could breathe. It wasn’t out of the ordinary as pretty much 50% of the guys smoke at this school.

He was by himself as he walked to see his friends. It was pretty cloudy outside and quiet, Beomseok could only hear his footsteps.

Out of the blue, Beomseok gets pulled out of his daze when he gets turned around by someone. He felt someone’s hands on his shoulders when he gets spun around.

He looked up to see who it was.

“Hey jagi.” A sinister smile comes to show.