first snowfall | sunki

09: is this even home?

"Exactly." Ni-ki offered Sunoo a hand, waiting for him to hold and shake it. "We're dating now."

"Fine. It's just fake-dating anyway." Sunoo took a deep breath, pulling Ni-ki with him as they walk away from the hallway.

Ni-ki blinked his eyes in confusion as he followed where Sunoo was going. "Where are we going? Are we just going to leave Jungwon behind?" He then looked back at Jungwon before they turned to a corner.

Jungwon smiled, waving the two goodbyes before they disappeared before his eyes. His smile slowly faded away, looking at the hand he used to say goodbye. "Jungwon, that was a good chance. Why did you step back...?" He muttered to himself as he walked to the cafeteria so he can eat.

Meanwhile, the two walked into the art studio, looking for someone. Ni-ki finally removed his hand from Sunoo's grip,  watching him go to Heeseung's table. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Sunoo left his question unanswered as he slammed Heeseung's table, shocking the elder. "Take down the tweet about Park Sunghoon and me."

Heeseung munched onto his corndog silently, blinking in confusion. He looked at Ni-ki, asking him what was happening but the younger didn't answer. "Why? Is there something you want me to correct about it?"

"Delete the tweet and make a new one about Ni-ki and me." Sunoo firmly replied as he called Ni-ki to come closer, holding his hand tightly. "I couldn't stand being played with so delete it."

"It's a hit tweet though! Everyone already saw it so deleting it would be useless." Heeseung remarked as he looked at Sunoo and Ni-ki's hands clasped together. "Why are you two hanging out now, though? Weren't you like mortal enemies? Haha."

Sunoo looked at Ni-ki as he tightened his grip, raising both of their hands to show Heeseung and everyone else in the art room. "Ni-ki and I are dating."

Ni-ki watched everyone gasp lightly, talking about both of them. Most of them didn't believe so he took care of it this time. "We've been dating longer than you may have thought, haha! We fight before because we didn't want to make it obvious. Right, Sunoo?"

"Mhm~!" Sunoo smiled fakely, hitting Ni-ki's shin as he continued talking through gritted teeth. "That is true. Now, make the tweet about us."

Heeseung laughed, placing his hands next to his waist. "You know that's not how it works, right? I know you guys are just doing this to make Sunghoon jealous. All my tweets are true and trusted by everyone in the school, I can't make up lies."

"Hee, we're not lying! Come on, I'm your bestie. This will help Sunghoon learn about what he did." Ni-ki pleaded with his pouty lips, pulling Sunoo closer to him. "Isn't this enough proof? We're hugging each other!"

"No, that's not enough." Heeseung rubbed his chin with his hand, thinking about it more. "Kiss. If you guys are really dating, kissing will prove it right."

Ni-ki and Sunoo looked at each other in fear, not knowing what to do. Are they going to kiss? Everyone's watching. One mistake and no one will believe it.

Sunoo held on to Ni-ki's collar, pulling him closer to his face. He then looked at him in the eyes with dread before risking it all. He kissed the younger on his right cheek, shocking everyone even more.

"T-there! Isn't that e-enough already?" Ni-ki took a step away from Sunoo, watching everyone pull out their phones and take pictures of the two. "Gosh..."

Heeseung then pulled out his phone, asking both of them to move closer so he can take a picture of them for the tweet. "I'm going to need your photo together so I can post it with the tweet. Move closer to each other, okay? I'm going to take it now! 1, 2, 3... smile!" After taking the photo, he scanned it for a while before approving it. "I'll post it after class so no one gets disturbed."

Sunoo and Ni-ki avoided each other's gazes after such an awkward moment. "That's nice. Tag Park Sunghoon in it. I want to see his reaction. How dare he play with someone who already has a boyfriend?" Sunoo commanded, holding Ni-ki's hand as they walk away from the art room.

Once both of them were already outside, Sunoo hung his head low, apologizing to the younger. "I can't believe I'm doing this with you but I'm sorry about earlier. Heeseung needed proof and stuff... Ugh, why did Jungwon step back earlier?"

"Maybe it's because of the first snowfall?" Ni-ki replied, shrugging off all the memories that happened inside the room. "I mean, we were there together so—"

"Shut up about that. We're not gonna be together. We're only doing this so Hoonie... No, Sunghoon. We're doing this so that Sunghoon will learn his lesson." Sunoo laid his back on the wall, pulling out his phone and handing it to Ni-ki. "Give me your number."

Ni-ki scoffed, looking around just so he couldn't meet eyes with Sunoo. "Are you for real right now? We're even going to exchange numbers?"

"Yeah! We can plan about what to do in the next day and stuff like that." Sunoo smiled, taking Ni-ki's phone from his pocket and typing his number in it. "There, I already put my number. Don't change the nickname to honeybubu or some shit like that. It's cringe."

"I can't take you, oh my gosh." Ni-ki took his phone back, placing it in his pocket. He then crossed his arms, locking eyes with Sunoo. "What else are you planning to do, loser?"

Sunoo dropped his smile immediately, giving Ni-ki a death glare after hearing loser. "You can call me that if it's just us but don't do it when people are around. They will be suspicious. Anyways, Jungwon will stay in the art room for the entire night since his artwork for the winter fest is not yet finished. That means we'll have to go home together."

"Home? What do you mean? Are you intending to stay at my house tonight?" Ni-ki's jaw fell, completely shocked at how far Sunoo is planning to take this fake dating.

"Duh, I don't want to sleep alone in the dormitory. It's scary." Sunoo rolled his eyes, punching the latter's arm. "Why, loser? Are you scared too, huh?"

Ni-ki gulped, not accepting this at all. "You can do whatever you want just don't go to my house. I haven't even invited my closest friends there! If you think sleeping alone in the dormitory is scary, sleeping in my house is way worse. No, you can't sleep in my house nor even go inside of it. That's it, okay? Period." He then walked away so that he won't hear anything else from Sunoo.

"Nishimura Riki!" Sunoo screamed in the hallway as he watched Ni-ki walk away. "What's up with him? Is something wrong with that jerk's house?" He scoffed, looking at his phone. "At least I got his number. That makes it more believable for everyone."

—

After practicing nonstop for the entire afternoon, Ni-ki finally got home. Practicing nonstop is tiring but living in this house is not different at all.

Ni-ki took a deep breath, wearing a smile as he entered his house. "Mom, I'm home already—" His words got cut off as he was welcomed by a slipper hitting his face. He looked at the slipper fall on the floor after hitting him. "I haven't even entered the house..." He muttered as he entered, seeing his drunk mom walk around the house.

"Hi, mom!" Ni-ki tried his best to keep his smile, trying to avoid eye contact with his mom. "I just came home from school—"

"I don't care! Get the fuck out of my face now! Who cares if you came home from school? You don't even do anything there aside from your stupid dancing and bullying other people! How can you get a job if you don't study? Dancing is fucking useless!" His mom screamed as she threw an empty glass of liquor on the floor. "Go to your room now!"

Ni-ki couldn't do anything, after all. He just followed what his mom said and went inside his gloomy room. He dropped his bag on the floor as he opened the window, looking around the neighborhood covered in snow. "Is this even home...?" He sighed, walking to his bed not until his phone rang.

He walked to get his phone, seeing a call from Sunoo.

—⛄—
omg hi i'm trying to update consistently since the story's going well now ^__^ ror, i'm hating ni-ki's mother here, she's actually gonna cause billions of problems