GLOW-UP

07 | steps to success

Taeil gave a long sigh.

The sky above him was a bright blue, littered with fluffy white clouds and the occasional soaring bird. Yet as pretty as it looked, it seemed to be laughing at him - like the universe always did.

Taeil scowled and muttered, "Fuck you."

"Oh, so you'd like to?"

The hateful view of the perfect sky was blocked by a broad-shouldered American in a tank top, which was a sight that made Taeil scowl possibly even more than the universe itself. It was the last straw and he shouldn't have to put up with any of Johnny's shit anymore.

"Fuck off," Taeil told him, his tone nothing brighter than downcast and miserable.

Johnny chuckled in that easy going way he seemed to go about life, and lay down on the ground next to Taeil, folding his arms to rest them behind his head. The roof of the Science Block was the perfect spot for a little bit of cloudgazing, just not with straight boys who couldn't seem to keep their mouths shut about anything.

"Go away," Taeil said, not even willing to look Johnny in the eye.

"Um, yeah gonna have to say no to that one," said Johnny dryly, in a particular tone of voice that made Taeil want to slap him.

Instead, he heaved an even heavier sigh than before. "How'd you even know I was here?" he asked glumly.

"Yuta," Johnny answered. "He said you always come up here to sulk whenever you embarrass yourself."

Taeil turned his head sharply towards Johnny. "Yuta said that?!" he exclaimed, "He is so dead." He caught the amused expression on Johnny's face and glared at him some more. "Don't look at me like that, you're dead too."

"Hey," said Johnny, in that infuriatingly reasonable tone he always used when trying to persuade you into doing something.

"No."

"What do you mean - no? I haven't even said anything yet!" Johnny laughed. "Come on, hear me out."

"I'll see you out," Taeil told him stubbornly. "Get the fuck off my roof."

"Your roof, is it?" Johnny smirked and rolled onto his front so that he was leaning over Taeil's face. "Since when did you own the entire science block, hm?"

"Go away," Taeil pouted moodily, but Johnny was right up in his face and he couldn't squirm away this time.

"I just wanna help you, Tae," said Johnny, suddenly all soft and trustworthy, and everything Taeil knew he wasn't.

That fucking nickname. He knew how to play his cards right and press all of Taeil's buttons. Because even though he was at the top of Taeil's kill list, Taeil was inevitably going to do everything Johnny suggested.

"How is publicly ridiculing me going to fucking help?" Taeil snapped.

Johnny sat up and tried to cross his legs. Deciding that it wouldn't work since they were too long to fold up like that, he tucked them up to his chest instead. "Moony," he said, "think about it for a second."

Taeil sat up too and fixed Johnny with a pointed look. "Thought about it enough, thanks," he said, lips forming a depressive pout.

Johnny watched him sniffle, cheeks still stained with tears. He felt even guiltier than before. It was all his fault Taeil was crying. Johnny reached out and brushed the pad of his thumb across Taeil's cheeks, wiping his tears, feeling the shorter tense up under his touch.

"We've gotta move on to step two, Moony," Johnny reasoned, whilst Taeil looked at him in confusion. "It's in my list of steps to success."

"What list?" Taeil sniffed.

"It's called Johnny's Steps to Success," Johnny explained, putting a lot of emphasis on the 'succ' part of the word.

Taeil snorted and rolled his eyes.

Johnny grinned now that taeil was smiling. "Get it? Now, Step One was admitting you wanna suck off Lee Taeyong-"

"Can you stop saying that out loud?!" Taeil hissed, reaching out to clamp his hands over Johnny's mouth.

Johnny caught his hands before Taeil's short arms could even reach and held them in his own. "Listen, slave," he commanded. "Step Two is even more important."

Taeil huffed, but his hands were stuck in Johnny's so he was therefore forced to sit and listen to him. "What's Step Two," he said in an exaggerated monotone.

Johnny gazed into his eyes very seriously then, with such intensity that it made Taeil slightly nervous. "Step Two," he said, "You need to man up about that video. Trust me, you have to. There's no way you can ask out Lee Taeyong if you can't show everyone you don't give a flying fuck about their memes."

"No way," Taeil whined.

Yet ten minutes before classes started after lunch, he had let Johnny Suh drag him back to where they were eating. And despite his objections, they were standing on the table (on Jaehyun's unfortunate piece of homework) and everyone - literally everyone - was staring.

"Listen up!" Johnny called out, gathering everyone's attention. "This time my friend really does have something to say."

Taeil felt his whole body shaking with anxiety. He couldn't do this. He clasped and unclasped his clammy hands behind his back, feeling his heart rate rise at everyone's stares.

"You can do this, Tae," Johnny whispered, and Taeil felt a hand envelope his, hidden from view behind their backs.

"I... I just, uh, I wanted to say," Taeil stammered to begin with, "that..."

"That you know about the video and you don't give a fuck what everyone thinks," Johnny said in a low tone.

Taeil repeated his words with a lot less confidence and vigor.

There were cameras too, and half a dozen people already putting this on their Snapchat stories (or, as Taeil once thought it was, conversational jujitsu) but Taeil felt a little safer, and a little more badass with Johnny standing next to him.

So when someone jokingly yelled, "Choke on that banana dick!" Taeil replied with:

"Yeah, yeah, must be fun being closeted!"

And Johnny felt a bubble of laughter rise in his throat.

The question still lingered in his mind - why did he even agree to help someone as problematic as Moon Taeil? Did he actually believe he could help, or was he just messing with the boy? Johnny wasn't sure, but it was becoming clearer that some part of him - very deep down inside - had started to care.

"Fuck, that felt good," Taeil grinned up at him once the lunchtime chatter had resumed.

His eyes were lit up and his face beaming, and, feeling awfully proud of himself, Johnny smiled back.

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a | n

i reolli love writing this book :)

just passing by letting you all know that i love you and you mUst have a good day starting from now, it's compulsory ♡

also i'm sad that there aren't more 2tae books, might write a main ship 2tae in the future who knows