Jeonghan swore up and down that he didn’t have a crush on Seungcheol. He didn’t. It wasn’t a crush. It was something more intense, something uncontrollable. Obsession felt more accurate.
But no one could ever know, not the classmates who watched their daily battles in awe, not the teachers who had long since given up on keeping them apart, and definitely not Seungcheol. Only Joshua, his best friend, was in on the secret.
No one else could know, though. To the rest of the world, Jeonghan and Seungcheol were enemies. They bickered like cats and dogs, glaring at each other in the hallways, exchanging sharp words during class, and arguing over the smallest things.
“Why do you even bother with him?” Joshua asked one day after school, watching Jeonghan sulk in their favorite corner of the library. “You act like you hate him, but you’re literally obsessed. It’s so obvious.”
Jeonghan’s face turned red as he buried it in his arms. “I don’t hate him. I just… I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
Joshua rolled his eyes. “What’s complicated? You pick fights with him just to hear him talk to you, and then you blush like a lovesick puppy afterward. I swear, if he knew, he’d-”
“He doesn’t know!” Jeonghan cut in, sitting up suddenly. “He can’t know. Ever.”
Joshua snorted. “Right, because you glaring at him and calling him names totally hides the fact that you’re in love with him.”
“I’m not in love,” Jeonghan mumbled, though his cheeks betrayed him, heating up at the thought of Seungcheol.
Their fights started on the first day of high school.
“Can you stop being such a know-it-all?” Jeonghan had hissed in the middle of class when Seungcheol answered a question Jeonghan didn’t know.
“Can you stop being so annoying?” Seungcheol shot back without missing a beat, earning a laugh from the other students.
From that day forward, it was war.
“I think he hates me,” Jeonghan sighed dramatically in the library later, slumping over the table where Joshua sat quietly reading.
“Good,” Joshua replied without looking up. “Then maybe you’ll stop being so obvious.”
Jeonghan groaned, burying his face in his arms. “I’m not obvious.”
“You literally glare at him every time you see him,” Joshua said flatly. “And then you blush when he looks at you. It’s pathetic.”
“I’m not blushing!” Jeonghan argued, though his burning cheeks betrayed him.
Joshua smirked. “Sure, keep telling yourself that.”
By sophomore year, their fights were legendary.
“Jeonghan, can you stop following me around?” Seungcheol said one day in the cafeteria as Jeonghan trailed him to a table.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Jeonghan retorted, plopping down across from him.
“Then why are you here?” Seungcheol asked, raising an eyebrow.
“To keep you in check,” Jeonghan said smugly. “Someone has to.”
Seungcheol rolled his eyes. “You’re impossible.”
“And you’re just stupid” Jeonghan snapped, though secretly, his heart raced at the attention.
Seungcheol, on the other hand, was no fool. He saw through Jeonghan’s charade.
Every glare, every snarky comment, every fight, it was all too calculated, too deliberate. Jeonghan wasn’t just his enemy. He was something else entirely.
