IF NI-KI IS A GIRL •hoonki short au•

three

The dance club decided to take Sunoo’s idea as a part of their performance, disregarding the different opinion from Sunghoon claiming that the majority gets to decide. Ever since that discussion, Ni-ki started appearing at the school wearing blouses and skirts- changing into his usual training attire of sweatpants and a shirt with fake foamy breast later every dance practice.

Surprisingly enough, Sunghoon is not avoiding him anymore. They would casually have conversations at lunch while waiting for Jungwon and the third year male began greeting him at the hallways with a full smile now.

It was like a blink of an eye and Sunghoon changed his treatment towards Ni-ki, they are now…kind of friends.

“Is it not uncomfortable?” One time, in the middle of practice, Sunghoon randomly asked Ni-ki.

Jungwon turned the music off and called for a three-minutes break, everyone else was busy doing their things and Sunghoon just happened to stand behind Ni-ki- starting a conversation.

Ni-ki looked behind him, “What?” he asked, confused.

Sunghoon looks down from Ni-ki’s face to his chest, eyeing the fake breast. The younger boy felt himself blush as he immediately covered his chest with the towel.

“Stop staring,” he whispered, shy. “And no, it’s not uncomfortable. It’s not like it’s the first time I wore this, I’m already used to it.”

Sunghoon laughs, “What is there to be shy about? That’s fake.”

Ni-ki felt offended. He himself didn’t understand the reason why he felt that way. It was true that the breast was fake, but does he really have to say it?

He fell silent and as if his energy suddenly drained and he became very unmotivated. When the practice started again, the assigned dance leader would always call him for his mistakes and the routine would repeat all the way from the start- to the point that even Jungwon got annoyed at him.

All because Sunghoon called his breast fake. Why is he even affected?

Ni-ki slumped down at the far corner of the room away from everyone else, except Sunghoon followed him.

“Did I offend you?” Sunghoon asked, approaching him. He handed out a cold bottle of water to which Ni-ki had ignored. “I’m sorry.”

Ni-ki didn’t respond but he decided to take the water from the older boy, not even trying to glance at him. Instead he immediately turned around and left the practice room with no other words said.

The next day, he received a gift from the third year male on the staircase. It’s a yellow hair clip with a cute duck design. Sunghoon handed it to him personally, once again apologizing for what he said yesterday.

It was a new start.

From that day on, Sunghoon started throwing him praises every time they crossed paths in the hallways. He would greet him with a full smile and would sit beside him at lunch every possible chance he could get. Ni-ki and Sunghoon started having longer conversations and the positive changes between them are not a secret to everyone, especially to Ni-ki’s family.

“Who were you texting?”

Ni-ki quickly turned his screen off and hid the phone under the dining table, innocently looking up at his Heeseung-hyung.

“No one, I’m just checking if there’s any homework I haven’t done,” Ni-ki lied.

“I already checked it for you, you were done,” Jake said, eyeing him curiously.

“So, who is it?” Heeseung asked again.

A nervous laugh escaped Ni-ki’s lips, “It’s Sunghoon-hyung,” he finally confessed.