roses. ∥ 2jae.【paused】

一

''What is that?''

It took Youngjae a moment to realize that Yugyeom was talking to him, leaning over his shoulder to gaze inside his locker. An orange rose was lying on top of his books.

''A rose,'' Youngjae said, taking the flower to inspect it further. ''obviously.''

He turned and twisted it in his hands. It just looked like a totally normal rose to him, nothing poisoned or something like that. Weird.

''Oh,'' Yugyeom started, a cocky smile spreading on his lips. ''Maybe someone's got a crush on you? I bet it's Betty from class A!''

Ah. How Youngjae missed his teasing throughout the holidays. Yugyeom has always been his friend since Kindergarten. They techincally grew up together, if you look at it from that perspective. There was nothing they didn't know about each other, always able to talk about every little matter. It was a friendship that came straight out of a fiction, or so Youngjae thought.

''No,'' Youngjae shook his head in disapprovement. ''Not as long as my name is Choi Youngjae.''

''Oh, come on, don't be such a pessimist!'' The younger said, hitting Youngjae on the back in a brotherly manner.

How right he was. Youngjae was a pessimist, especially in romantic terms. The only relationship he ever had was back then, when he was still a 12 year old, innocent boy. Or at least his teachers and parents liked to call him that.

It was with the neighbor's daughter, Ashley her name. She was very pretty. Back then Youngjae barely had experience nor did he know what he actually wanted. When he looks back at it, the two of them were more of good friends than a couple, if you ignore that one awkward kiss they shared when his parents weren't home. It was an interesting experience. Did he actually love her? He didn't know.

Yugyeom then watched as Youngjae snapped the magnificent flower into two halves only to throw it into the nearest trash bin. He still didn't believe in true love.

~~

The sound of students chattering way too loudly and the smell of sweaty bodies and cheap cologne in the classroom. Something that Youngjae definetly did not miss. He looked to his side and was greeted with the smile that never failed to make him feel comfortably warm and safe inside. He was glad that Yugyeom decided to take english classes with him together.

The both of them didn't exactly sit too far away from each other either, no, to be exact they were just one seat apart. This made it rather easy for them to talk with each other during class. Good to kill time, but definetly not positive for their grades. But Youngjae could worry about that once a test is upcoming.

Then the class went silent. Finally, Youngjae thought. He was close to getting a major headache already. He took a look at the door and thats when he saw the reason why; his teacher arrived, punctual as ever.

"Good morning class." She said and the whole class answered with a monotone 'morning'. Everyone then sat down on their respective seats.

After that, the teacher started the lesson. She began by going through some stuff from the recent lesson, stuff Youngjae didn't get at all. When she continued by going through some new vocabulary Youngjae gave up completely. He rested his head on the desk, not paying attention at all anymore.

While others started to write down some stuff into their notes, Youngjae let his mind drift away. He could just ask Yugyeom later if he could copy his notes.

But something was still off. Youngjaes back was tickling in a strange way. It was like someone or something was watching him. He looked to his left, thinking that it was probably Yugyeom's fault but no, he was still concentrated on writing. Creepy.