rewrite the stars - jaywon

chapter 10

"Why are you so smiley today? It's making me, like, extremely uncomfortable."

Heeseung eyed Jungwon warily through from behind his glasses. Jungwon didn't even know why he had those. Heeseung had perfect vision.

"What? I can't even be happy without you getting on my back about it?" Jungwon hissed back, taking care to keep his voice below a certain volume.

They were in the library for Jungwon's free period. He had learned from past experience that he couldn't speak too loudly or he risked being ratted out and subsequently kicked out.

Heeseung snorted, not even bothering to follow Jungwon's lead and maintain a level of solemnity. Jungwon was perturbed-- Heeseung was skipping his Government class and hiding out with Jungwon. He had all the more reason to avoid detection.

"You're never this happy unless you're planning some prank or something. I want in. So, spill."

"I'm not planning anything," Jungwon said, his cheeks heating.

If he was, he'd be happy to share his plans with Heeseung. The truth behind his smile was almost too embarrassing to even think about, much less to consider sharing aloud.

The truth was Jungwon had been thinking about getting Jay to smile the other day. He'd thought about how Jay had felt to the touch. And the memory of those moments was all it had taken to lift Jungwon's mood and make him grin.

In retrospect, Jungwon should have turned Jay down again that morning, when Jay had offered to drive him to school. He'd unknowingly committed himself to an entire car ride spent contemplating how easy it would be to reach out and bridge the gap between them. It had been torture.

And Jungwon had thought he'd at least be safe to fantasize in study hall.

"Oh my God... if that wasn't your I'm-working-on-a-prank-smile...," Heeseung looked horrified. Jungwon frowned, already not liking the direction this was headed, "...Did Sunghoon do something?"

"Sunghoon?" Jungwon's frown was fixed on his face. He couldn't fathom why Heeseung was bringing Sunghoon up out of the blue. He'd thought, for a moment, that Heeseung had been about to tease him about Jay.

"Geez, Jungwon. It wasn't that long ago. Don't act like you don't remember your Sunghoon-smile."

Jungwon straightened out of his perpetual slump to shoot Heeseung a look. He wasn't acting. Heeseung shot him a look right back.

"You used to smile like that after Sunghoon called you cute or said your voice was nice or whatever. I haven't even forgotten it."

Jungwon's cheeks grew warmer as he recalled with sudden clarity how obvious he used to be about his crush on Sunghoon. He'd known it hadn't been entirely subtle, but he hadn't realized that even Heeseung had known about it. If Heeseung had noticed, the crush had to have been common knowledge.

"Sunghoon didn't do anything!" Jungwon snapped, crossing his arms tight over his chest.

A student at a nearby holo-table looked through the translucent design she'd been working on to glare at him. She shushed him, aggressively enough to make him flinch. Jungwon quickly apologized, then turned to glare at Heeseung.

Heeseung snickered, unbothered by Jungwon.

"If it wasn't Sunghoon, and it's not a prank you're planning...," Heeseung slapped his hand onto their table, and Jungwon could practically see the lightbulb go off above his head as he lit upon another alternative explanation for Jungwon's smile, "The 'bot!"

"What about Jay?" Jungwon turned away from Heeseung, put out. Heeseung seemed to be completely oblivious when it came to everything except Jungwon's love life.