aversion | bbangnyu

22

Younghoon flashed a quick smile at his reflection in the mirror before frantically trying to style his hair. Since the moment opened his eyes that morning everything had gone wrong.

First, he had neglected to set an alarm the previous night meaning that he woke up at eight in the morning instead of six. Now that shouldn't have been such an issue with it being the weekend, but Younghoon's father was very strict on the boy practicing for at least an hour and half every Saturday morning. There wasn't even an option of using the school gym because the man insisted Younghoon use the court in the yard.

Younghoon had no issue practicing for the duration as his body was used to it after years of the same routine, but that wasn't the problem. Him and Chanhee had plans to go pottery painting down town at eleven o'clock.

That meant that the boy had to get out of bed, put on his basketball attire, start and finish practicing all before the struck ten. That would leave him forty-five minutes for him to shower and finish getting ready while still leaving enough time to go pick Chanhee up from his house.

Younghoon started the whole process fairly confident, but was quickly knocked down by the task of picking what to wear. Once he finally figured that out, he couldn't seem to style his hair in just the way he liked it. At this rate, one more inconvenience would prompt Younghoon to simply cancel his plans, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Maybe it was God's will or purely luck, but just as the boy was ready to call it quits, his hair laid down just the way he wanted it to. "Fucking finally..." he whispered before switching off the bathroom light and hurrying through his house.

He successfully made it past his father without the man noticing. Even if he inevitably did hear his son sprinting across the flooring, he didn't bother to question him about where he planned to go.

A relieved sigh came from deep in Younghoon's chest as he started his car with plenty of time to spare. 

✨✨✨

"Chanhee, I don't know that much about you and it doesn't feel fair."

Looking up from the bowl he had been diligently painting, Chanhee's eyebrows furrowed together. "I'm sorry—what?" He asked, not having heard all of Younghoon's questions.

Instead of giving him an answer, Younghoon began laughing. The laughing continued for several moments as he just stared at the boy next to him.

"What?" Chanhee hissed, "Why are you laughing?"

Younghoon grabbed the sheet of paper towel laying on the table and ripped a small piece of it off. He placed a light hand on the side of Chanhee's face before wiping away the blue paint smeared across his cheek.

The younger's eyes widened upon seeing the piece of paper towel which was now painted blue. "How does that even happen..." He whispered as he frantically looked at his reflection on his phone screen. After recovering his his paint induced panic, he turned back to Younghoon and flashed a quick smile. "What did you ask me before all of that?" He asked.

"Well...you know all sorts of stuff about me, you know I play basketball, I'm bad at math, and I want to be a nurse—which I've never told anybody else—but I don't know a lot about you."

Chanhee couldn't stop the smile from forming on his lips as he shrugged. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"I don't know if we have enough time for that..."

"Well as much as you can tell me."

A small hum came from the younger while he thought about what to say. Now that it was time to talk about himself, it seemed that he had forgotten everything.

Noticing the quizzical look on the boys face, Younghoon decided it would just be easier to ask a question. "What are your plans after high school?"

"I'm not actually sure what I want to do yet...but I know it'll be something involving math," Chanhee explained, his eyes fixed on the clay bowl he was painting.

"You're good at teaching..." Younghoon started, "you should be a math teacher."

Chanhee scoffed, "not everybody is fun to teach like you, Younghoon, I'm not cut out for that."

A smile spread across Younghoon's face at the fact Chanhee thought he was fun to teach. He looked down at the table and focused on the flowers he was painting on a mug.

"My mom wanted me to invite you over for dinner," Chanhee said when the conversation halted. He could see the pink hue to Younghoon's cheeks as the elder stared down at the table, but he decided to let him be.

The elder nodded, "okay—why not?"

✨✨✨

"Y'know what we should do?" Chanhee asked as the two sat in his driveway.

Reaching out to turn down the radio, Younghoon hummed, "What?"

"We should trade," He suggested, holding up the two pieces of pottery they had painted.

"What if I like mine?"

"C'mon—it'll be cute and that way you'll have something to remember today."

"Okay..." Younghoon agreed, "we can trade."

A gran spread across Chanhee's face before he handed Younghoon the bowl. "Mine is cute too..."

Younghoon examined the blue bowl with an orange cat painted in the middle. "I think I like it more than mine anyway." 

"Thank you for taking me...and paying—I can still pay you back," Chanhee said softly as he placed the mug neatly in his lap.

The elder waved the boy off, "I don't mind paying, don't worry about it."

"You make it sound like it was a date or something...I have money y'know," he muttered.

"Well..."

"What?"

"Nothing." 

A laugh came out of Chanhee at the elder's words. Leaning forward in his seat to get a better look at him, Chanhee asked, "What is it? Why do you look so serious all of the sudden?"

"It's nothing," Younghoon clarified quickly, trying to force a smile on his face.

"It's obviously something. You can talk to me about anything."

He shrugged, "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Okay..." Chanhee said softly, trying not to sound too disheartened, "that's fine."

"Boys!" Chanhee's mom yelled as she stepped onto the front porch, "Will you hurry up—me and your dad are hungry!" 

———

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