{NINE.i}
{pt.3 of Highschool Lovers}
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Joohyoung swears the warmth spreads through their palms, tightly pressed against each other. Wanders through his own fingertips and straight into his stomach, where it lives on as the soft shine of a candle in...
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"I'm Jiho," fox boy clarifies first, like he's intuitively getting sick of the name Joohyoung has been calling him in his head.
They're sitting at the tables lined up along the window storefront, watching the rain pour out into the streets. Joohyoung is automatically counting up the seconds between lightning and thunder, an old habit from when he was eight and first learned about the rule. Three seconds — about one kilometer. About as long as it took to eventually bribe Minjun into becoming his friend with a free Melona ice cream.
Joohyoung feels a bit betrayed that it took so long to wiggle his way into Minjun's life. It took him way less to befriend fox boy. People who run to seek shelter from the rain are immediately friends, no matter the context and circumstances. That's just a rule of this world.
The gaps are getting shorter while their instant ramen is simmering along in the little microwaves on the counter. Hues of gray drizzle out of the clouds and fill up the empty streets.
Joohyoung didn't even ask for his name. Jiho offers it to him like it's a bowl of leftover food, a squeeze of his hand before the inevitable end of all good things that really matter. They've let go of each other somewhere between the snack aisle and the beverages, when Joohyoung reached up for the one specific bottled coffee brand he likes and fox boy scrunched his nose in disgust. He then told him he doesn't drink coffee and clicked his tongue in the disapproving manner of a tired mother when Joohyoung revealed that he was too far gone to be still affected by caffeine even at this hour.
"I'm Joohyoung." The loss of contact stings less with a new name on the back of his tongue. "You were leaving the PC room when you saw me, right? You weren't just catching some fresh air?"
"I have no one waiting for me in there, if that's what you mean." Jiho shrugs. Jiho. It's a simple name, one that feels like well-meaning nudge against his shoulder. Joohyoung likes how it rolls off his tongue. "I went with a classmate, but I left early. I'm not very good at this stuff. He was supposed to be with me last time too, but then he remembered he had dance practice and ditched me last minute, so there's that."
"Ouch." Joohyoung is suddenly glad Minjun is a slow fucker who needs multiple breakdowns and a moment of pillow-screaming until he has found something to wear in his gigantic closet. He had yet to leave his room when Joohyoung texted him mission complete. Stay home. But thank you for demonstrating invaluable loyalty and courage.
"It's fine, I barely know him. He was lonely, and so was I."
A familiar mechanic ping shoos Jiho off his seat.
Joohyoung is still pondering about his answer when spicy smelling vapor tickles his face, rising from the cup set down in front of him with a pair of single-use wooden chopsticks.
"Oh. I should've—" He's the younger brother at home, but after Kyungjoo left for university, he's become more and more aware of the little things he always did for him that Joohyoung never noticed. At home they fought about doing the dishes like every day, sure, but Kyungjoo treated convenience stores like his second home, which meant that Joohyoung just had to sit still and not be in the way.
