p e r s o n a l l y ☆ 2jae

t h i r t y - o n e

"You're doing well!" Youngjae said reassuringly.

The duo were having another one of their study sessions during lunch time; Jaebeom had been doing an old practice paper and Youngjae had been marking it for the past 5 minutes or so.

"You got 30/50 hyung, well done!"

Jaebeom took back the paper which Youngjae had marked with purple ink. He had drawn a small heart and smiley face next to the score which in turn, also made the elder smile.

"It's only because I have a great tutor," he said automatically, the remark making the younger's eyes squint sweetly.

The bell rung out signifying the end of the lunch period– and so the pair walked out of the maths classroom with warm looks on both their faces and onwards to their next lesson.

"Oh, Jinyoungie asked if we wanted to borrow some of his books. He said we could use them for our tutor session," Youngjae inturrupred as the thought passed thought his mind.

"That would be useful," Jaebeom agreed, although he felt slightly jealous at hearing the nickname escape the younger's lips.

I thought I was the only one with a nickname..

They continued to walk through the halls together until they passed a certain group of students lingering by the lockers. After laying eyes on the pair they huddled together suspiciously.

"Youngjae's even more pathetic than I thought he was."

Youngjae snapped his head around instinctively after hearing his name, only to see the students who were talking about him quickly avoid his gaze. 

"Jaebeom ah," Youngjae said in a slightly confused tone as he slowly turned his head back, "Did you hear that?"

Jaebeom shook his head– although that had been a blatant lie.
Following this he placed his hand on Youngjae's back, pushing him to walk faster and to distract him from what had just happened.

Maybe I just misheard something..
Youngjae thought to himself. He didn't like to ever assume things about people and gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. 

On the opposite end, Jaebeom had noticed recently that more people had been giving them strange stares, muttering things under their breath whenever the duo walked passed or changing their tone whenever they spoke to Youngjae compared to before. Youngjae hadn't noticed, and Jaebeom felt okay with wilfully ignoring it as long as it didn't affect the former– but things seemed like they were only getting worse.

As they entered their English class a few students were already inside, lost in their own world and not paying any particular attention to the two who had just walked in. Jaebeom was relieved about this.

They took their seats at one of the tables close to the door. Once the teacher had arrived and the students settled, the class began– and not even 10 minutes had passed before the teacher announced the next big project ahead of them.

"Everyone listen. You'll be having a group project where you'll have to write a report together analysing—"

Jaebeom sighed quietly to himself but loud enough to catch Youngjae's attention. 

"No pouting," Youngjae said whilst ironically, pouting.

"I hate group projects though. None of the others are in this class either."

Slightly whisper-shouting, Youngjae teasingly hit the elder on the shoulder, "Jaebeommie c'mon! It won't be that bad, and we can pick who we're with too."

By that point the teacher had finished her explanation and commanded the class to sort themselves into groups of three. Youngjae took this as his cue to search for their final member. As his eyes trailed the room he noticed a boy stood before them, looking around aimlessly at the sea of students.

"Do you want to work with us?" Youngjae asked, gaining their attention and flashing his signature smile.

The student scoffed slightly, his eyes angular and a scrawl on his lips, "With you?"

He looked back and forth between Jaebeom and Youngjae before turning away and muttering a quiet, "As if.." under his breath. 

Youngjae was left with his mouth slightly open and his head tilted. He searched the room for any other lone students that weren't in groups yet but by that point there was none.

"Looks like we don't have enough students. Youngjae and Jaebeom you guys can just do the report as a pair."

"Thank you Miss," Jaebeom said, feeling the awkwardness from the remaining students who were staring at him. 

Youngjae, still wilfully ignorant, refused to delve deeper into why his classmate had been unnecessarily rude to him. Jaebeom meanwhile saw the reaction stick out like a sore thumb. The teacher turned away and the room filled with chatter as the class began to plan out their group reports. 

"It's okay," Youngjae said with a warm smile before leaning in close to the elder, "It'll be more fun just doing it with you hyung."

Hearing this Jaebeom let himself forget about the anxious feelings that had been building up, focusing only on just how cute he thought the younger was, "I agree."

.

.

.

"Jaebeom? I bet you that's why Youngjae's been so sad these past few weeks."

"I don't know. I don't think they were ever friends to begin with."

"Maybe they were hiding it because if people found out Jaebeom knew we'd give him hell for it. They just pretended not to know each other much before."

"Youngjae could do so much better anyway. I don't know why he wastes his time on somebody like that."

"Jaebeom has so many fucking issues."