Cliché

Chapter Fifteen: Fans

Author's Notes:

From "Not knowing what to write in this chapter"

to "biggest chapter yet"

Also, you thought there wouldn't be a fever scene?

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Alright, we have some things to get out of the way before we continue forward so let's do that first.

One: Leon did end up receiving the dance club scholarship, it was announced at the end of the trip. The guy was so happy that he almost strangled his friends in an excited fit. That meant that he wouldn't need to pay anything anymore, but his grades could absolutely not go down and he would have to do some other stuff for the club as well.

Two: obviously, Mark saw the picture John took, two days after the trip, and gave Leon hell for it. First for not being careful, second for not telling him immediately, third by making fun of him in private, knowing how shy about it he would be.

Three: Henry did ask Nick to elaborate his bi coming out, but his friend refused to say anything more. Henry was not a noisy person, so he left it alone. Sooner or later he would find out anyway. it's not like he didn't have some suspicion about it after all.

Four: Nick and Leon absolutely did not talk about the whole thing. For all sakes and purposes they were both pretending nothing happened, as if they didn't remember. On the way back they did not sit with each other, afraid of being too nervous and giving themselves away.

Five: Leon got a lot more popular after that trip. The boy didn't notice because he couldn't care less, but rumors about him appearing with hickeys after that night made him a target for a lot of people's curiosity and romantic interest. They still wouldn't dare trying talking to him that much, but everywhere he went there were attentive eyes and blushed faces. Nick hated every bit of it.

Six: The two boys did not go back to their usual banters. Not like before at least. They'd talk, if the situation asked for it, bickering like always, but they were... kind of avoiding each other the rest of the time. The shyness, the embarrassment and most importantly, the pride held them back on that.

And therefore, this is the scenario we're dealing with right now.

—

Once again, Nick was trying his best to not meet a certain red haired boy. He'd always look twice in a corridor before going through it. He'd avoid the class schedule of the kouhais, that he unconsciously memorized. He'd pretend going another way if he caught sight of the guy. He'd sweep ambients with his eyes before entering it, just to be sure.

It was incredibly childish, Nick was aware. The second-year had no need to do any of that, he was already pretending not to remember, so why would he avoid the other?

The thing is... Nick was embarrassed.

He was not shy, he had been a little awkward in the beginning of his relationships, but he was a confident person overall. So, the problem here was that the senpai had no idea how to deal with his shyness. Just by looking at Leon he could feel warmth coming up his cheeks and he really just wanted to run away.

Nick felt like a high school girl in an anime and was so annoyed at it that avoiding everything was the only thing he could think of. But well, he could not have possibly known that one of the kouhai's classes had been canceled. When he and Henry were walking around the canteen with food trays of snacks, since it was not lunch yet, they saw the three first-years there, just chatting and waiting for their next class.

The boy almost tripped himself and scrambled to the side, to the first free table he saw, and sat with his back to the younger ones, hoping none of them saw him. As much as possible, he tried to shrink down, wanting to be invisible.