Shall We Date?

Part 1

"You want me to do what?" Jungkook asks, feeling his adrenaline levels rising rapidly as he looks at his best friend in shock.
"Fake date, just until we get through senior year," Mingyu tries to smile, shoulders tense under his Football jersey.
"Gyu, I'm not sure," Jungkook drifts off, "I should get to the coding club."
Mingyu grabs Jungkook's forearms, pleading, "Please Kook, you know how much I get harassed by people and I just want to get through this year quietly."
Jungkook steps back, his proximity to Mingyu only further triggering his fight or flight reaction. He stumbles as one of his legs hits the lowest bleacher by the football field and Mingyu grabs his arms again to steady him. Jungkook tries to regulate his breathing, eyes on his taller friend's hands.
"It's okay if you don't want to, but we've been friends for so long, half the people in this school think we are dating anyway and maybe if we were together, you would get bullied a bit less." Mingyu continues talking, oblivious to the anxiety flowing through his friend.
Jungkook finally looks up into Mingyu's face and nods, slowly pulling his arms out of Mingyu's grip just to have them wrapped around him in a hug.
"Yes, thank you so much Kookie," Mingyu grins, the tension in his muscles dissolving quickly.
"Kim Mingyu!" The coach yells from the field as the rest of the football team gathers.
Mingyu let Jungkook go, taking a few slow steps backward, still grinning, "I'll text you later! Let go to the diner!"
Jungkook nods again, agreeing to meet his friend later as Mingyu turns and runs to join his team for practice. He sighs, wondering what he was getting himself into as he finally turns and walks back into the school, late for coding class at this rate.

"What happened to you?" Yugyeom asks as Jungkook walks into the coding club classroom a few moments later.
Jungkook looks up at him, "You can tell?"
Yugyeom rolls his eyes, "Of course, I can, where did you go? Normally you are the first one here after school ends."
BamBam looks up at him as Jungkook tosses his backpack onto the floor by their table, clearly interested in the answer to Yugeom's question.
Jungkook sighs, "Mingyu wanted to talk to me by the field, said it was urgent."
BamBam chuckles and Yugeom grins, "And of course, you would run to him."
Jungkook rolls his eyes, plopping into his chair, head in his hands.
"What did he want?" Chan asks, rolling his chair over to their table.
"You won't believe me if I tell you," Jungkook says with a rueful smile.
The three other boys exchange glances and BamBam grins, "What did he ask you out or something?
When Jungkook doesn't respond they all glance at each other again, shocked.
"Did he really?" Yugyeom asks, pulling his chair closer to Jungkook as the club captain walked in and called the room to attention.
"I'll tell you guys more tomorrow, I don't even know what's going on yet," Jungkook says, pulling out his laptop from his backpack. Luckily the boys seemed to accept this and quickly got their own things set up as the club meeting began.

Jungkook managed to escape after the club meeting, avoiding any questions or prodding from his great but nosy friends.
Just as he was about to turn a corner, he heard a familiar voice and stopped short, he couldn't handle Donghyuck right now. He quietly backed out and headed in the opposite direction, toward the staff door on the other side of the cafeteria, escaping out to the far side of the student parking lot.
He pulled out his phone, checking the parking lot before tapping on the text from Mingyu and reading the words from his soon-to-be fake boyfriend.

Gyu :D: I can drive you if you don't want to catch the bus
I'll wait in the lot

Jungkook sighed, this wasn't out of the ordinary for his friend but what if it was going to be awkward this time? He looked around the lot and saw Mingyu sitting in his car, looking at his phone. He should respond to the text. He looked down and realized his keyboard was open, Mingyu thought he was typing all this time.
He turns the phone screen off and Mingyu looks up as the text bubble disappears, looking toward the school's front door and then around the lot, finally seeing Jungkook by the staff entrance.
Jungkook looks down at the pavement as Mingyu's face turns into a huge grin, honking his horn once as if to hurry Jungkook over to his car.
It does get the shorter man moving across the lot, not wanting to call attention to himself as he quickly walks over to the car and climbs in the passenger seat.
Mingyu is still grinning as he throws the car into drive and expertly maneuvers out of the mostly deserted parking lot.
Jungkook pretends to be busy on his phone as Mingyu drives them across town to the diner that the students don't frequent because of its distance from the school, fixing his freshly washed hair in the rearview mirror.
"You know you aren't supposed to be able to see yourself in that mirror?" Jungkook finally asks as they wait at a red light.
Mingyu looks over at him, they have had this same discussion so many times ever since Mingyu's parents had gotten him the car.
Jungkook rolls his eyes, "I know, I know, your tall enough to see yourself and the road or whatever," He looks back down at his phone as the light turns green.
"I'm glad you are finally acknowledging my height, Kook," Mingyu laughs as they continue down the road, turning into the diner parking lot.
"I was tall first," Jungkook grumbles under his breath, pulling another laugh from Mingyu as they get out of the car.
Sicheng waves as they walk in and sit down at the table in the far corner that they always sit in and Jungkook smiles at the quiet boy as he comes over with their favorite drinks.
"Milk and Coffee, do you guys want your normal food?" Sicheng asks in his slightly accented calm voice.
Jungkook was about to nod when Mingyu shakes his head, "I think I'll get something different today."
Sicheng and Jungkook's eyes go wide but Mingyu ignores them both, grabbing a menu from the side of the table to look at it.
"I want my pancakes like always," Jungkook says softly, smiling up at Sicheng who nods.
"Got it, oh by the way, did you get the homework assignment from math? I missed it, I had to leave the class early."
Jungkook quickly pulls out his math notebook, letting Sicheng copy down the assigned work as Mingyu studies the menu thoroughly.
Mingyu snaps his fingers and puts the menu down, "I got it!"
They both look at him and look back at the notebook, talking about how annoying the math professor is.
"Which one is that again?" Mingyu asks, butting into the conversation.
"Professor Song," Jungkook tells him slightly impatiently, "He teaches the advanced math classes and thinks he's better than everyone because he taught at the community college for a while."
"Oh, yeah, I remember you complaining about him before," Mingyu nods, and Jungkook sighs, closing his notebook as Sicheng puts away his phone with the information on it.
"So, what did you decide on?" he asks, looking at Mingyu expectantly.
They both sigh as Mingyu orders the same dish he gets every time they come to this diner.
Sicheng shakes his head, glancing at Jungkook who simply shrugs in response.
"Alright, pancakes and a burger, I'll get this right into the kitchen for you," Sicheng says almost sarcastically before walking away from the table.
Alone again Jungkook feels his nerves begin to act up and quickly grabs his glass of milk, occupying his hands with the cold glass.
Mingyu clears his throat, folding his hands on the tabletop to get Jungkook's attention, "About what I asked you at practice," Jungkook looks up, surprised at the slight edge of nerves in his voice.
"You are serious about it?" Jungkook asks, trepidation tarantulas joining his stomach with the anxiety ants already there.
Mingyu nods, "You know how I get letters at least once a week?"
Jungkook nodded, it made perfect sense, Mingyu was one of the most attractive students in their high school and he was one of the three stars of the football team. On top of that, he was kind to everyone despite his popular status at the school. It should have been obvious that he got confession letters all the time from the student body at large.
"I just want to be able to focus on my lessons and game the rest of the year, and it's so tiring to have to be turning people down all the time," Mingyu says, gaze on his ice coffee.
"What exactly do you want me to do though?" Jungkook asks, brave enough to make eye contact with Mingyu as he looks up at Jungkook.
Mingyu gives a cautious smile and clears his throat again, "What do normal couples do? Hold hands and spend time together?"
Jungkook narrows his eyes even as his cheeks flush against his will, "They do a lot more than that, Gyu."
Mingyu laughs nervously with a nod, "Your right. I guess we just figure out what we are both comfortable with?"
"What are we telling our friends?" Jungkook asks, wanting to avoid any thought of being with Mingyu in an intimate way. He was already attracted to his friend and didn't need to make it worse.
"I don't think I can trust June to keep his mouth shut, and I don't want to only tell one out of the group, so I would just tell them we are dating? You can decide about the coding kids, I won't tell you what to do, you know them better than I do," Mingyu says after only a short moment of thought.
Jungkook nods, "As much as I love Yugeom and BamBam, they are not good at keeping quiet either."
"We keep it a secrete then, the fake part of it at least," Mingyu nods, watching the ice in his coffee as he plays with his straw.
"If we want it to last the rest of the year that would be best," Jungkook agrees, watching Mingyu's fingers on the straw.
Mingyu is quiet for a long moment and then looks up, "When do you want to break up?"
Every ant and tarantula in Jungkook's stomach starts screaming for him to answer with 'never' but he swallows the words in favor of a shrug, "Did you have an idea?"
"After prom but before graduation?" Mingyu suggests that flustered fireflies join the ants and tarantulas. This meant Mingyu wanted to take him to Prom.
"That should be fine. We can just avoid each other at graduation and then still hang out during summer."
Mingyu nods, "And college next year too," He grins at the thought of the next chapter of their lives.
Jungkook swallows nervously, as long as they ended up at the same college next year.
Sicheng comes over with their food and talks with Jungkook for a few minutes before leaving as an older couple walk in the door.
"Okay we should outline the plan and things we are comfortable with and a way to announce it as well," Mingyu begins again, picking up his burger.
Jungkook takes a deep breath, inhaling the calming scent of his pancakes as he tries to calm all of the insects inside him.