freedom ;; xdinary heroes

three

Lunch time drew near, and Jiseok was quick to pack his things when the bell rang. His friend, Jooyeon, shouted after him in confusion, but Jiseok quickly peeked back into the class. "I'm meeting a friend, I'll be back now!"

"What?! Friend?!"

Jiseok scurried down the corridor, glancing into the other classes of his grade, keeping an eye out for the blonde hair of the boy he had met the day before. Fortunately, a lot of students had the standard brown or black hair, so it would be easy to spot him.

"Jiseok?"

He yelped, turning around quickly. His eyes brightened at the sight of the blonde mop of hair he had been looking for. "Jungsu."

"What's up, looking for someone?" Jungsu asked, standing beside Jiseok with his hands behind his back.

"You."

Jungsu was quiet for a bit, his ears flushing red as he cleared his throat and looked away. "W-well, you found me. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, I just... wanted to hang out," Jiseok smiled, holding his hands out in front of him. "I-I can get you something in the cafeteria! If you'd like, of course. Unless you had plans, then I'll just—"

"N-no!" Jungsu's face was quite red already as he nodded. "I-I kinda had plans, but... if you'd like—"

"No, then we can rearrange for after school," Jiseok said with a cheerful nod. "W-we can, uhm...—"

"Yah, Jungsu, let's get going!"

"I'll meet you at the lockers after school," Jiseok told him quickly. "We can head to Starbucks and then to the skate park. Sound good?"

Jungsu nodded, waving as he ran to catch up with his friends. His heart was thumping in his chest — Jiseok spoke to him. He screwed his eyes shut — did he really have a crush on the guy he had literally met the day before? He hated how quickly he developed a crush on a guy. Would his friends make fun of him for it? Would Jiseok ever even like him back?

"What were you two talking about? Your face is so red," his friend asked, laughing as he pinched Jungsu's cheeks. "Who is that? Your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend, don't be ridiculous!" Jungsu exclaimed, cheeks burning still. "He moved into my neighbourhood recently, so I'm just being nice to him."

"Is he new?"

"No?"

"Hm..."

•

"You sure you don't want to come?"

Jooyeon nodded, lifting his backpack onto his back. "I have band practice. We're performing for a showcase, and we're covering a Day6 song for some reason. I really wanted to cover of Master of Puppets, but no~ it's too hardcore for a bunch of 13-year olds~! Tch, they're just boring."

Jiseok just chuckled, shaking his head. "Have fun at band practice. I'm heading to class C now. See you tomorrow."

Juyeon waved his hand as Jiseok left the class in excitement. He was excited to spend time with a new friend. He knew his extrovertedness would be useful eventually. He never really had difficulty settling into new friend groups, but seeing as Jungsu was a more reserved person, he'd modify himself a little to accommodate Jungsu.

He found the blonde boy waiting outside his classroom. As Jiseok approached him, he noticed how fair and pretty Jungsu was. He had very androgynous features, making him both handsome and pretty. Either way, Jungsu was just wildly attractive — Jiseok wondered how pathetic he looked beside someone so gorgeous.

"Jiseok-ssi, hello."

Jiseok waved his hand as he neared the other, grasping his hands together nervously. "I'm shaking, I don't know why, haha! You're just a friend, so why am I nervous?"

"I'm not going to bite!" Jungsu joked, laughing with the shorter boy. "Just relax. We can meet the others at the skate park later. What are we getting?"

"I wanted to head to Starbucks," Jiseok suggested, shaking his hands to get rid of his nervousness. "My best friend has band practice today, so I'm all on my own today. Maybe just the two of us together will be fine, hm?"

Jungsu's heart skipped a beat at those words. "Y-yeah..."

"Oh, maybe Hyeongjunnie will be okay with joining us? Maybe you'd feel awkward with just me—"

"No!" Jungsu's cheeks flushed red at his sudden outburst, retracting his hand from Jiseok's wrist quickly. "Uh... Hyeongjun prefers to do his homework directly a-after school, s-so we can meet him at the park later."

Jiseok frowned, slowly nodding. "O... kay? That's fine by me, then. Let's go."

Jungsu felt like an idiot. Was he that desperate to be alone with Jiseok? It didn't even mean anything. They had only become friends recently, so it felt futile, wanting to be alone with him all the time. Jiseok probably didn't even care if they were alone or not — and neither did Jungsu, but he oddly didn't want Hyeongjun to be with them.

It felt as if he would somehow ruin his chances with Jiseok.

•

"You sure you'll buy?"

Jungsu nodded proudly as he opened Apple Pay on his phone, putting it against the card machine to pay for the drinks he and Jiseok had ordered. "I'm fine with it. Think of it as a welcome into our neighbourhood."

Jiseok was giddy, almost jumping up and down in excitement as the payment was processed. "Thank you, Jungsu-ya."

"Don't mention it," Jungsu smiled, taking their order ticket and walking to the side with Jiseok. There was a moment of silence before Jungsu cleared his throat. "So, uhm... what do you think of Hyeongjun?"

Jiseok hummed, not knowing what to say with that conversational prompt. "He's a great guy. Very quiet, but hilarious when he speaks. Got a feeling that we'll be good friends."

"... Hyeongjun likes guys. I'm just putting it out there."

"I know, he told me," Jiseok chuckled. "He said it to 'not make me uncomfortable if I eventually found out', which doesn't even matter because I don't really care about that kind of thing. As long as you're a good person, I'll be your friend. Don't care about orientations or whatever."

Jungsu chuckled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Would you ever date a guy?" he asked with a joking tone. Of course, deep down, he was extremely serious. It was crucial information — he had to know if he had a chance or not.

"Oh, yeah — recently broke up, actually."

Oh.