optical ↠ the boyz

twenty

Another day meant another day filled with thoughts of them. It was growing tiring for the girl, who seriously had three crushes?

But she soon realised there was more to these crushes than the butterflies in her stomach and the spring in her step.

For with them, she would tremble upon her words and stumble upon her feet which would lead her to them almost every time.

She wondered how she had dealt with such feelings before, but she soon realised that they were nothing compared to this. The closest she had felt to this was towards the boy who lived across the street.

But those feelings vanished for her, and appeared for him.

He watched as his best friend grew to become a softer person, and he knew more than anything that it was because of Nari.

"I don't think I've ever seen you do work in this class," Hyunjae says to the boy beside him, who had his head almost buried into the pages.

It was rare to see him actually try hard, and Sunwoo didn't quite know why he was bothering so much either. Although, he did, but it was too complex to think about.

"I need to do it," he grumbled, looking over at Hyunjae. "Next year is our final year."

"Yes, it is," the boy nods as his friend places his head back down towards the pages. "What are you planning to do?"

Truthfully, Hyunjae had it mostly figured out. His parents, and he too, wanted him to go and study further, ideally at university.

"University," Sunwoo said as though it was something that was expected to come from his mouth. "What?"

"I've never heard you say that, is all," Hyunjae blinks a few times, as the boy just nodded and turned back to his work. "Where did this come from?"

"Huh?" The boy replies, still looking at the pages.

"When did you decide this?" Hyunjae quizzes, making Sunwoo feel flustered but nonetheless, interrogated.

"Recently," he replies casually, attempting to mask the annoyed expression on his face.

He was easily aggravated, so to say. But he found it all the more irritable that his closest friend seemed to be judging him by the words he was saying, quizzing him on details that shouldn't matter.

The two stayed mostly silent throughout the class, their minds ticking away at different things.

Sunwoo remained agitated, whilst Hyunjae was in deep thought about his reasoning for the sudden alternative future path.

He couldn't help but trace his thoughts back to the girl, because he knew how she had made him act once, and the effect she had on him now. He wondered if that would have been enough to sway him, if he hadn't had such a clear plan.