Violins On The Brain, You In My Heart

Kihyun disliked a lot of things.

He despised being late for class. He loathed waiting in line for his chicken nuggets at rush hour. And he especially disapproved of lairs. However, despite disliking most things that made the world revolve, Kihyun can't find the strength in himself to hate something. He thinks it takes up too much energy to mull over a thought or feeling, only resulting in more anger on his end.

He might say he hated things, like when Hyungwon gave him a personalized ugly Christmas sweater with the Grinch nursing a bad hangover accompanied by big red letters that read 'Kihyun on a Good Day'. On the outside, Kihyun said he hated it and it'll be introduced to the trash heap later that night. He lied (ironic, isn't it?). He liked the sweater and he wears it to bed regularly because the material is very soft on his skin.

Hate is a strong word that reflects emotions he rarely feels. So, when Kihyun claims he hates something, he doesn't mean it.

Until now, when he spotted two people across the cafeteria, giggling near the salad-bar. The ugly surge of jealousy reared its nasty head again and Kihyun, like all their other encounters, hated how it became a regular occurrence.

"Ki, chill out. You're killing that poor sandwich." A pair of hands covered Kihyun's white knuckles then gently pried his fingers off his now unrecognizable tuna sub. "The fish is already dead, you don't have to harm it any more."

Kihyun blinked then looked down at his finger indented bread. He squawked in realization at his ruined lunch then proceeded to clean his hands of gooey mayo. He frowned like a sad puppy as he rewrapped his sandwich in its plastic wrap.

"Could you be any more obvious?" Minhyuk snickered. He slid over his hot wings to his friend with a smug grin.

Kihyun scoffed, then stuffed his face to distract himself from Minhyuk's knowing eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, sure. It's not like you just didn't try to murder your sub because hyung was chatting it up with a girl." An angry boil roared in Kihyun's stomach. He felt his cheeks bloom with heat as Minhyuk's grin turned into a smirk. Kihyun's blaming it on indigestion from the wings and not how his friend rolled his eyes. "You practically tried to off her too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

Kihyun threw a fry at Minhyuk in a bout of annoyance. The salty weapon only landed in his mouth with no real damage done. "I wasn't staring at hyung. I was reading the poster behind him."

"Oh, definitely, because you can see the words on a poster thirty feet away."

Kihyun flopped forward onto the table with a loud groan, arms coming up to cover his head. "Can you shut up? For once?"

"Nope," chirped Minhyuk, popping the 'p' at the end of the word. "Things would be so much easier, for all of us really, if you grew a pair and told him."

A stomp of his feet and shake of his head, then Kihyun mumbled a barely audible, "No." Minhyuk sighed, just like all the other times they've had this conversation.

See, for all the things Kihyun disliked, there is an equal amount of things he does like. He enjoys cooking. He loves children, hence his pursuit in teaching. And Kihyun finds playing the piano to be a relaxing pastime.

He also really likes Hyunwoo. A lot. Too much, to be exact.

His crush on the older boy appeared sometime in his last year of high school. They went for three months without seeing each other after Hyunwoo graduated and moved on to college, which Kihyun has dubbed the worst three months of his life. He knew he felt something for his friend, he just didn't know what it was until he was gone and Kihyun was left to figure out his confused feelings via Minhyuk and internet searches, the latter being way more helpful than the former.