[#1] boy next door :: im youngmin

chapter twenty-four

"She called you a slut, okay? Because you're always with Woojin, Donghyun and me, but everyone always sees me hugging you, but then Donghyun's arm is around you and Woojin is the one you talk with the most, so they're saying you're trying to seduce all three of us and break my heart. What kind of cliche movieline is that?" Youngmin finishes, laughing awkwardly on his own.

"Why does she even care who I'm friends with, so what if I like being with guys more than girls sometimes? And besides, you guys are the best friends I could ask for."

It's half past six in the evening, they're in the elevator going up to their floor of the apartment building, and it's just now that Youngmin has decided to bring up that subject. Maybe he forgot, Yuna doesn't really know. He's been pretty busy the past few weeks because even though he said he's not going to prom two weeks later, he still has to help organize it because he's the president.

"That's sweet, but seriously, Yuna? You put me in the same category as Woojin and Donghyun?"

She rolls her eyes at him jokingly, and he laughs loudly, tossing his arm around her and pulling her close as the elevator doors open and they step out, then retrieves it again when they reach their apartment doors.

"Oh, by the way, you never mentioned to me what university you're going to."

He doesn't answer; he's busy fishing out his keys from his pocket, so she mentions it again, and this time, he just glances at her and shrugs. His answer, isn't really quite related, though.

"Do you want to go eat something first before starting on studying? I haven't even started yet, and it's exams already next week. Have you?"

"No, I haven't."

So she enters her apartment after bidding him a "see you tomorrow" and closes the door just as he opens his.

For the entirety of the week of exams, she spends most of her time studying with Woojin, Donghyun and Yerin in the library or in a nearby cafe because they got kicked out. Nobody knew where Youngmin was or what he was doing except for council duties and prom preparations, as told by Donghyun. And Yuna, she hasn't talked to him properly face to face since that one day where he got called to the office for the first time.

The week after exams, when the summer is coming in and the weather is starting to become murderously hot and humid, a knock comes on her door on one evening for her to open it and see her three friends standing outside her door wearing pajama clothes and bringing snacks and soda bottles and throw pillows in a giant camping bag.

"Let's have a sleepover!"

Well, props to the one who came up with the idea of a so-called 'sleepover' because they barely slept at all. Youngmin never arrived the entire six o'clock to five in the morning when they were all awake, either.

The first time Yuna talks to him and takes a look at him properly in weeks is at his graduation. Amazing, right? The first time you see your neighbor slash friend slash whatever who lives right in the unit in front of you is weeks after. It doesn't really make any sense, but yes, Yuna seems to have taken after Yerin's somewhat sarcastic side.

She couldn't take her eyes off of him and only noticed him the entire night to the extent that Woojin and Donghyun and Yerin were talking about her right beside her and she didn't notice.

"I didn't know he's valedictorian." Yuna says to Woojin who's sitting beside her. "Is that why I didn't saw him for a while? I guess his hard work really paid off."

"You didn't know that he was?" Woojin sounds so shocked, and she glances at him, shaking her head.

"He never mentioned anything."

It's not like they even talked at all anyway, and at some point in those weeks, she was starting to wonder what happened to him or if something came up.

Afterwards, Youngmin came running to find them, medals all around his neck and his graduation cap in his hand. His eyes sweep by Woojin, Donghyun and Yerin who are telling him the likes of "congratulations!" and "treat us meat, will you?" and they land on Yuna, who's doing nothing but staring at him and the bright stars in his eyes because yes, he graduated.

He ignores the three completely and directly walks over to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close in a warm, tight hug that she's probably missed too much over the weeks to mention out loud. She doesn't even say anything when he pulls back; she's grinning widely and they're something glittering in his eyes when he's smiling back.

"I'm finally done with high school." He says, his voice shaky while he can't take the smile off of his face.

"You survived. You really worked hard." She can't stop smiling, either.

He laughs and hugs her again, tight enough to literally lift her off of her feet, and when he places her down, there's a single tear rolling down his cheek and he wipes at it with the back of his hand, chuckling for a reason they both don't know. Then, he places his hands on her cheeks and kisses her for the first time full on the lips, right in front of everyone. It's not even that long a kiss but it feels like it lasted for eternity, and god, she can feel him smiling as he does it, while there's Woojin yelling in the background.

Then when he breaks it, he hugs her again, his chin on the top of her head before he sees his three other friends, and he opens his arms to gather them in a group hug.

"Youngmin, could you treat us food? Since you graduated and all..." Woojin says, his voice hopeful, and Youngmin just laughs.

"Whatever you want."

__________

double update today because i wrote two chapters, the time skip is pretty huge, no?
also, this has 1005 words im crying this is so long sifbshd (its probably because of all the descriptions)