Don't run away from me

ch.1

//seokmin;

"How long are you planning to keep staring at that post?" Minghao's voice, with a malicious tone, wakes Seokmin from the daydream he was having with his eyes open.

Seokmin startles, feeling embarrassed, and quickly hides his phone in his pocket within seconds, avoiding Minghao's intense gaze from his right side, feeling a slight headache forming.

"Dude, we're literally in the middle of class. How can you do something like that?" Mingyu approaches from Seokmin's left and joins the whispers.

Seokmin nudges his friend and signals him to be quiet and pay attention to the class, a gesture that Minghao aggressively rolls his eyes at, followed by a long sigh.

After the class ends, his friends don't stop teasing him as they had been doing already since the past two hours. Walking along the hallway, Seokmin is practically the target of their jokes, avoiding the looks that his friends' giggles draw towards them.

"When will you admit that you're in love with him, hmm?" Mingyu wraps his arms around Seokmin from behind, causing him to let his head hang down, too tired to react.

"How can you even say that to him when YOU are in love with W-"

Mingyu startles and quickly covers the Chinese boy's mouth with his hand, silencing him and preventing him from uttering the next words.

Seokmin is completely disconnected from what's happening around him, so he doesn't catch the entire sentence. Plus, it's nothing new for the two of them to tease and be at each other's throats every day. That's how they've been since high school.

In a short while, the group of three boys arrives at the cafeteria, looking for a table to occupy. After losing at rock, paper, scissors, Seokmin is the one who has to bring lunch for the other two boys. As he reaches the line, which is longer than usual, Seokmin feels a push from behind, bumping into the person in front of him. As if his day couldn't get any worse already.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to, I was pushed from behind." Seokmin bows slightly, politely apologizing before looking at the person in front of him.

"It's okay, don't worry. Seokminie?"

Seokmin immediately recognizes the voice, his pupils dilating as he makes eye contact with the boy in front of him.

"Joshua hyung?"

As if he wasn't already amazing enough, Joshua smiles widely, his eyes forming a crescent shape. Fleetingly, Seokmin admires all the details of his face, from his nose, eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, to his lips. He feels a wave of warmth washing over him, his heart racing in his chest, and the same feeling settling in his stomach that he always has when they meet. Joshua playfully taps his shoulder and then looks at the three trays Seokmin was carrying.

"Oh, are you that hungry?" Joshua's adorable laughter makes Seokmin's knees weak for a moment.

"Ah, that. I lost at rock, paper, scissors, and now I have to bring lunch to Minghao and Mingyu." Seokmin chuckles slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed, trying to hide it by running his hand through his bangs, pushing them back.

Joshua looks at him, blinking rapidly, then nods and gives him one last smile before paying for his order and stepping aside. That's when Jeonghan and Seungcheol also notice Seokmin.

"Oh, it's Seokmin!" Jeonghan says excitedly and gives Seokmin a big smile, to which Seokmin returns the gesture with a short bow.

"Leave him, babe. Let's go find a place to eat before all the tables are taken." Seokmin rolls his eyes at Seungcheol, mimicking him from behind, thinking that no one would see him until he hears Joshua's chuckle and immediately freezes. His heart beats even faster in his chest, feeling himself blush like in an animated cartoon.

"Later, Seokminie!" Joshua waves at him and quickens his pace to join his friends.

Seokmin curses his friends a thousand times for everything that happened and after finishing paying for all three trays, he hurries to the table only to notice two boys laughing uncontrollably. Apparently, they had watched the whole scene like a comedy movie.

"Haha, not funny tho." Seokmin puts the trays on the table and sits down, starting to eat.

"You looked exactly like a robot next to him!" Mingyu leans on Seokmin, being a habit when he laughs too hard.

Minghao's cheeks are red from laughing so much, and Seokmin is convinced that this is the first time in their 6 years of friendship that he's seen him laugh so enthusiastically. Seokmin continued his meal ignoring his friends teasing for the rest of the break.