glass | gyuricky

fifteen.

Gyuvin returned later, dutifully, two minutes past the chiming of the last bell. Ricky didn't have a class for the last period of the day, so his classroom was empty when Gyuvin showed up at the door.

"Can I come in?" he asked, hesitating in the doorway.

"Yeah, come in." Ricky got up from his chair, glanced out into the corridor, and shut the door behind Gyuvin. "How was your day?"

Gyuvin gave him a very pointed look. "It was fine. Don't make small talk with me right now, I'm begging you."

Ricky cracked a smile. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"

Gyuvin groaned. "Ricky..."

"Okay, I'll stop," Ricky relented, laughing. "Relax, Gyu, come on. You're comfortable with me, aren't you?"

"Well...yes? Is that a trick question?"

"Gyuvin."

"Okay, fine! Sorry."

"Don't apologize, just be normal," Ricky said. "Talk to me. Why did you kiss me?"

Gyuvin sighed. "Because I wanted to."

"Why did you want to?"

Gyuvin buried his face in his hands. "I don't know. I really like you, okay? It's confusing."

"What's confusing about it?" Ricky asked easily, leaning on the edge of his desk.

"Everything!" Gyuvin looked at him with an expression that was slightly incredulous, like he was wondering if Ricky was being dense on purpose. "I mean, you're my teacher. It's just...it's not allowed, right?"

Ricky shrugged. "No one's checking."

"Ricky, be serious," Gyuvin pleaded. "I didn't want to cause any problems for you. I'll get into some trouble at most, but you could lose your job."

"Calm down," Ricky answered, sounding amused. "Look, you're worrying about something that might never happen. No one has to know. No one has to find out about any of this. It's just between the two of us, right? It's our business."

"Wha...what are you saying?"

"I'm saying," Ricky continued, standing up straight so he was shoulder to shoulder with Gyuvin. Gyuvin had grown a little since September; they were almost the same height now. "That I like you too. And I'd really like to kiss you again, but only if you want to."

Gyuvin stared blankly at Ricky. "Are you pulling a fast one on me? That's not a funny thing to joke about."

Ricky let out a quiet scoff, took Gyuvin by the collar of his uniform, and kissed him. Gyuvin was stunned for a long few moments, his hands frozen by his sides, before he could bring himself to rest his hands on Ricky's broad shoulders and kiss him back.

He felt Ricky smile into the kiss, and the tip of his tongue ran lightly against the seam of Gyuvin's lips. Gyuvin let out a soft gasp, and Ricky pulled away, his hands still holding Gyuvin close by the collar. "Don't be nervous," he said softly.

Gyuvin let out an inward sigh. There was something so stunningly, unnervingly beautiful about Ricky that even being so close to him already made him nervous, let alone the fear that his having never kissed anyone else before was going to make him screw something up. "I can't," he admitted. He supposed it was an appropriate moment for him to be vulnerable.

"Don't be," Ricky repeated, quiet, but firm. He let go of Gyuvin's collar and his hands moved to tilt Gyuvin's chin up. "Look at me."

Gyuvin looked up obediently. His head was spinning, in a way that was disorientingly pleasant, in a way that made him wonder if all this was real.

Ricky's voice was soft, barely more than a whisper by his ear. "I'm already obsessed with everything you do, you know?"

Gyuvin felt a slow shiver creep down his body. When he kissed Ricky again, his hands didn't shake.

Nothing much changed that day, honestly, other than that Gyuvin went home with one new contact in his phone. As he walked down the quiet streets of the small town he'd grown up in, he thought about how many wires had to be crossed in his brain that he could have fallen so hard for someone without even having their phone number.

He sent Ricky a quick text, as he neared his house. Ricky's contact was saved simply, just his initial and nothing else. It was safer, Gyuvin never knew when someone would look over at his phone and see something. They hadn't really talked it through about what exactly their relationship was now, but whatever it was, Gyuvin sensed that a key tenet of it would be keeping it secret. Because there was a lot on the line for both of them if anyone got wind of what was happening between them, especially for Ricky.

There was something a little nauseating about it, to imagine that he had to hide what he felt in front of everyone except Ricky. There was, too, something intimate about having a secret no one else knew but them. He had yet to decide if he liked it or not.

His phone buzzed with a notification just then, and he flipped the screen up to check it.

"You got home safe?"

Gyuvin smiled, and typed out a reply.

"it's a small town, ricky."

"Is that a yes?"

Gyuvin sighed comically.

"yes."

"When are the days you have basketball training?"

"i'm disappointed you didn't already know."

"I did know. I was asking so I didn't look like a creep but thanks. Can I see you tomorrow?"

"of course, what do you wanna do?"

"Come over to my apartment. We can have dinner and paint or something."

The last time Gyuvin had been at Ricky's apartment, things hadn't ended well. They'd cleared things up with each other eventually of course, but he still remembered the sinking feeling that'd taken over him as he ran, the feeling that he'd ruined everything in a single moment.

"okay, it's a date."

"Cute. See you tomorrow."

Gyuvin slid his phone into his pocket and tried not to smile too hard.