𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁? junhao

5: why can't we be like that?

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"I'm here."

Minghao hung up the call, softly rapping his knuckles against the sleek wood of the door in front of him. Not even two seconds later, Junhui's face appeared behind the viewing glass, opening the door in barely concealed excitement.

It wasn't the first time the younger had come over, but it was the first time he'd be sleeping over.

Although Minghao knew it was purely pretense-based, and that Junhui had probably organized all of these hang-outs so that it would be less awkward for them to pretend to know each other, he couldn't help but smile softly in response.

At least the guy made an effort to pretend that Minghao wasn't burdensome.

"Hello, Minghao." Junhui's mother greeted him warmly from the kitchen, taking out a tray of freshly baked cookies from the oven. "Take some cookies with you upstairs."

She of course, was entirely clueless to the two pretending to date and simply thought they were good friends - which Junhui had told Minghao was best.

He wasn't entirely sure how his mother would react if she found out he liked boys, and he didn't want to drag the younger into a potentially bad situation just because they were in a fake relationship.

Minghao simply agreed; he'd do whatever the elder boy asked of him if it meant he got to stay like this.

Safe.

After the two had headed upstairs to Junhui's room, they could finally relax. As he bit wholeheartedly into a chocolate-chip cookie, the younger of the two observed the bedroom for what could have easily been the hundredth time.

Really, it was fascinating to see how endearingly opposite the two were at the end of the day. While his bedroom back home was an unorganized flurry of color, creativity and mess, Junhui's was clean, organized and plain.

There was minimal furniture, the only real decoration being a bookshelf that had a few manga series on it and some poetry novels. Minghao desperately wanted to ask if the boy wrote poetry, yet every time he found his tongue glued stubbornly to the roof of his mouth.

Maybe it would be too rude to ask when they weren't close.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

Junhui nodded serenely, lazily smiling at the retreating back of his boyfriend.

Well, fake boyfriend.

He however, after months of this pretense, wanted to change that. At first he'd offered because he felt bad for the kid and wanted to help him out because he was admittedly attractive and also seemed to be the only other gay person in his entire damn school.

At the most, the boy expected to make friends with Minghao - and them pretending to date would purely be for each other's safety.

Then a silly little thing called feelings came crashing down on him, and now he was quite literally weighed down by the heaviness of his heart.

If he confessed... would the younger even believe him?

Junhui had seen enough to know that he didn't even know half of what the poor boy had experienced in his short life, and he certainly knew by now that the other had practically zero self esteem. To confess to him might feel like a blow from someone he trusted, if he misunderstood Junhui's feelings to be a joke.

Just then, an email sounded from his computer and he scurried over to read it.

Dude. Your boyfriend was being hassled on his way to Biology yesterday. Just thought you should know, I know you care about him a lot.

- S

Amongst Junhui's countless fake friends, a select two of them actually supported him - though they were too cowardly to be very forward about it in front of others. It was instances like these where he was grateful they chose loyalty at the end of the day.

His heart broke at the thought that whenever Minghao wasn't with him, he was immediately sought out and pounced on like he was walking around in some sort of mouse trap. The idea made his blood boil.

Fuck it.

"Minghao?"

The younger had walked back into the room, wearing a look of confusion at the strange expression the elder held.

"Mm? what's-"

But his sentence would never be finished, for Junhui was kissing him.

"Before you speak," The elder spoke after they broke apart, "I just want you to know I'm sick of this. I don't want you to be fake anymore."

"Did I do something?" The younger responded in a small voice, causing Junhui to panic as he realized that the boy's thoughts were probably going exactly where he'd expected them to.

His heart thumped wildly in his chest as his mind raced; there was no turning back now.

"Yeah, you did." He smiled softly, stepping forwards slightly to brush a loose strand of hair behind Minghao's ear.

"You made me fall in love. And I don't know about you, but I think I'd much prefer a real boyfriend than pretending I'm not hopelessly in love with a fake one."

"Are you saying..."

"Yes... and I'm sorry that I'm not nearly as handsome as your Kim Sunwoo but... be my boyfriend, Hao?"

Hao.

The nickname caused a warm, bubbly feeling to erupt in the pit of Minghao's stomach. He could barely comprehend what had just happened, and yet he found himself smiling wider than he had in years.

"You're only slightly cuter," he responded with a playful smile.

And everything felt as though it finally fell into place.

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🌸

gasp... boyfies?!