Skaters 101 (but without the skating)

Inside Yanhan's brain

Yanhan is sprawled across his bed, limbs splayed across the pristin white sheets. He stares up at the picture stuck to the ceiling above him, the smiling figure of Jung Hoseok, his bias, fingers perched atop his head to make him seem like a bunny of some sort, smiling down on him (like an angel). Yanhan's eyes drifted over his pixelated face (He tried downloading the picture 720p. But, even that wasn't able to catch every detail of Hoseok's splendour), examining every fibre of muscle and skin.

How did he do that? That thing...smiling...what was it?

Yanhan attempted to pull his lips into a smile, mirroring Hoseok's with his fingers.

It hurt.

Smiles were everywhere. Good humored ones thrown across the classroom as Javier cracked a joke, a shy smile curling the lips of Shoma as Evgenia passes him an earphone, a dreamy one spreading across Nathan's features as he strums his guitar, and even, a coy smirk creeping up on Patrick as he struggles to contain the excitement of seeing his OTPs develop. There were also the more family-feeling-ish smiles, the playful grins of the Shibutanis as they plan another vlog or the proud beam of a mother over his son getting an A+ on his English test. (By now, no prizes goes to who the pair were.)

Yanhan had spent hours in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to teach himself a unnatural emotion. After much squinting and eyebrow raising, the best he could come up with was a leering grimace. So how did people manage to make this action, this tugging of facial muscles near the lips, seem open and friendly?

Even Vincent could manage some sort of half hearted, mocking smile. Why couldn't he?

Vincent...His thoughts led him over to the quiet Asian boy, who had recently turned seventeen. Meeting Vincent was one of the best things that happened to him. Finally, someone to sympathise with him, someone to confide in, not that they did much speaking. He sometimes wondered if they were twins born to different mothers. A very long overdue twin. He chuckled dryly to himself as he remembered their age gap. And then it dawned upon him, a possible reason why Vincent did not have many friends. Was the age gap...truly too large? Yanhan tried to imagine himself as a sixteen year old, entering a school where the students ranged from nineteen to thirty.

Small wonder.

Fortunately there was such a thing as Yuzuru, who befriends the unapproachable of all individuals. And Shoma swung 'round for the ride as well. Yanhan was now convinced that although Shoma and Vincent rarely interact with each other, behind those deliberate missed gazes and cold demeanours, the two secretly sympathised with each other. He was relatively sure that the pair could get along quite well if locked in a room together for a few hours. He had actually contemplated conniving a similar plan with the help of Snooki, as a desperate measure he could pull off if Vincent had continued living without friends.

Yanhan chuckled to himself, reminicsing the old days.

How desperate he felt to try to set Vincent up with a couple of his classmates. (That sounded pretty wrong, now the sentence had formed properly in his head.) How he would spend countless nights confiding in Snooki, Vincent's social circles the main staple of their conversation. How he tried his best to remove all the incriminating notes that he presumed would severe bonds between Vincent and Yuzuru. And how after everything he had went through for Vincent's sake, to be repaid with a hefty push into the river flowing through the park and past their school.

Now, after flipping through the past and analysing his own actions. Yanhan felt rather sheepish and stupid to have gone to such extents for Vincent's social life. He should have trusted that with time, Vincent's cold exterior would melt away by the warmth of friendship. He shouldn't have worried, adding a few unnecessary grey hairs to his head. (Sometimes, he also pondered the concept of Yuzuru's motherly instincts taking root and flourishing in him.)