Hypnagogia

STRAWBERRY_KISS

When Mark was angry, it sure showed. His sharp features would finally come into use and it would become very clear how much taller he was than Donghyuck. His dark eyes would become stone cold and the high school student would find himself drowning. The older boy was able to make air disappear with his glare, eyebrows furrowed and mouth twitching downward in a glower. His muscles tense, fists clenched, body almost poised to fight. But he would never lay a hand on the honey haired boy while in this state. In fact, Mark would merely talk. Never make any moves to instigate a physical fight, no matter what Donghyuck did. And if he felt himself go over the edge, he would walk away. That's exactly what happened.
The younger teen sat in the upper corner of the bleachers, hunched over in thought. His hood was up and way over his face to cover up who he was to the players on the court who were practicing. This at least gave him so time to go over everything without becoming an 'accidental' target for the boys.
He mauled over what Mark had said the last time. He tried to look back at the time they spent together and prove his childhood friend wrong. Prove that their time was rejuvenating and recharging for the both of them. But nothing came to mind except that fight. Which in the end drove the dark haired boy away and him back to the more familiar headset. He soon realized that whatever came out of that long weekend was nothing close to refreshing. Donghyuck could only recall seeing Jaemin's face more than Mark's and he hardly could remember what he even did with the college student besides just adding another room in the house to entertain him and plopping the device on his head.
"I'm pretty sure that he was more jealous than I ever will be."
The sentence repeated like a broken record in the tan boy's mind. There was some understanding that came within him. That, yes, maybe he could have looked over and tested out those codes before going straight to programming Jaemin. Or, maybe he made an error and didn't go over it to check. But he couldn't just try and solve that now. All the sites with the similar question had recommended just restarting the game and recode it correctly the next time. Donghyuck didn't have that time. Not when he was relying on it every day. Hell, by the time he could actually recheck every single line of code he would already be broken down.
'I'll just have to go through it, not invite anyone. That will help...'
"Hey Donghyuck," The soft whisper of his guardian angel snapped him out of his troubled mindset. Jaemin sat beside him with a concerned look on his visage. "Are you doing ok?"
"Shouldn't you be ignoring me?" The honey haired boy hissed, not making eye contact as much as possible. But he was naturally drawn to his face. "I mean after all I did. I lied to you, acted like someone I wasn't. Isn't that enough of a reason to stop talking to me? You'd think that all these rumours and bullying would drive you further away from me."
A large, warm hand took hold of his, fondly caressing his palm. Donghyuck tried not to blush and confirm any of the gossip to be true but it was hard to fight the redness.
"I think confronting the stalker was the right thing to do. However everyone assuming the worst wasn't exactly the best outcome. I do feel a bit weird, having been so oblivious to all the minor things you did."
Yes, cause skipping classes, vandalizing properties, pranking nearly everyone, being a neighbourhood disturbance at midnight and doing some pick pocketing and shoplifting  was minor. Of course it had been about a month since most of those things even happened.
"But I think something about you has changed."
"Me?" His eyes widened. "I mean for the worst maybe..."
"No no," Jaemin smiled gently. "I mean for the better." His grip got a little tighter on Donghyuck's hand and it took everything not to completely go into tomato mode. "Like, you had the decency to wait for everyone to leave the classroom when confronting your stalker."
"It didn't much help."
"You were really hardworking when we were finding out more about her."
"It was for my own benefit."
"You seem to really care about that kid, Jisung."
"He would be lost without me."
"You also are really kind to me."
The tease froze. 'Shit.' He bit his lip. 'He caught me.'
The pink haired boy breezily ignored the pause, shifting closer to the smaller boy. "You may not know, but you happened to really cheer me up with all that's going on right now." He interlocked his fingers with Donghyuck's. "And it had pretty much given me a lot of hope after I was sure that I wouldn't be able to do anything productive in my life again. So I'm determined to help you as much as possible." The athlete leaned in closer. "You can tell me what's been going on in that interesting mind of yours. I'm all ears."
Gulping, Donghyuck felt butterflies of uneasiness flutter in his stomach. They did't go away when he gazed into Jaemin's pretty brown eyes, blinking and waiting for him to talk. And in the end, the star student was right. He did end up trying to help with the sickness that happened to befall the poor teen. He tried to distract him, in a way, but he wasn't really looking for a favour in return- he just wanted to be noticed more. Letting in a deep breath, the tan boy decided to just let everything out. In hopes that maybe it could all fall into a perfect situation like in stories.
"Well.... Mark had come back for the weekend.." He started, heartbeat quickening with the realization he was actually going through with the plan. "And, we had a fight over the VR game that had just come out. He kept saying that the program that I had put in was acting all strange and said I should fix it or get rid of it." He inwardly flinched and apologized for calling VR Jaemin an it. "But you see.... the program was the only thing that was really helping me through the week, and I'm afraid if I try to restart the game and reprogram it.... than I will have to try and survive by myself. And I know I can hardly do that right now." He let out a shaky breath, and looked up at the roof so his tears wouldn't be compelled to fall.
Jaemin was silent for a moment, thinking over the little monologue Donghyuck had just said. However he didn't seem to let go of the others hand. There was no emotion in his face for those few seconds which caused the older boy to go into silent panic. It vanished as soon as he was ready to pull back and he was surprised to see the pink haired boy beam.
"That's a great problem!"
"W-what?" He was dumbfounded. "What do you mean that's a great problem? What's that supposed to mean?!"
"It means I can totally help you out with it!" The broad shouldered teen stood up, unknowingly dragging Donghyuck up with him. "You see I'm a pretty good programmer. I bet I could find a way to scan over the coding and edit things in and out for you!" He started climbing down the bleachers as he brought the stumbling student down with him.
"Wait! Wait! It's I didn't even bring me VR to school!" The honey haired boy protested, hood being blown off by how fast they were both going.
The whispers and small gasps completely went over Jaemin's head as he continued to make turns and twists around the school halls. They had suddenly burst out into the foyer, the two large doors of the entrance looming in front of the two. The straight A student turned his head back and his grin got wider. "Well I guess you'll have to lead me to your house than!"
With those words, he practically threw Donghyuck out the doors with no intent to get their bags in mind. The cold air hit his face and the shocked teen yelped, pulling the hood back over his head and yanking at the drawstrings. He couldn't even catch a break to take a breath because Jaemin was at it again and pulled him away from school property. In a few seconds they were on the streets of the suburban city, casually walking around and not paying attention to questioning looks of the passerby's. In contrast to usual, Donghyuck wasn't feeling so confident, instead Jaemin seemed pretty brazen as he waved and smiled to criticizing people. It was like they traded places.
    "You know we're skipping school right?"
    The taller one glanced at him, his smile staying as bright as ever. "I know! It's my first time to do it without having parents permission!" He sounded so childish when saying that, the other couldn't help but smirk a bit. "But it's better to tackle this problem as soon as possible right?"
    The honey haired boy shrugged. "Guess so. Anyways, we should have turned left a few minutes ago." He snickered. "We totally missed the street to my house."
    The walk there was extremely relaxing, the best it's been in a while. Donghyuck hadn't minded the lot of adults who were looking at them rather disapprovingly for missing class, it was way better than being called out by one of the students who happened to be in his school. During this time, the two were having some kind of discussion about how the program was acting, so they could figure out what was wrong and fix it by the time they arrived. But he wasn't really paying attention to be honest, the usual school skipper was to busy admiring how nice it was to be somewhere else with Jaemin. It really almost felt like a date. He was convinced he could simply peck the boys red lips and get away with it or just outright cling to the others arm and have no comment about it.
    'Maybe I don't need VR Jaemin if I have the real one with me...'
    It was too late to go back on the decision however because the taller student was already whistling at the interior of his house. Donghyuck must've been too lost in thought and instinct to notice they had already arrived. The pink haired boy made a swift beeline to the to helmets that were placed on the couch. It seems like he forgot to put them away after the heated argument with Mark.
    "Are you sure you don't want a snack or something beforehand?" He closed the door behind him, approaching the younger boy who was already positioned to pretty much drop the device onto his head.
    "While I'm doing very hard work I'm sure you can just get some snacks from your house." Jaemin's hair moved around as the weight of the VR settled atop. "They do give our brains the illusion of sustenance."
    "Wow big words." Donghyuck snorted, taking a seat as well and picking up the helmet. "Are you trying to prove your fit for the job or something?"
    "Certainly."

[VIRTUAL ROOM//HYPNAGOGIA]
[ENTERING]
[LOGGING IN= SUN_FLARE]
[CONFIRM]
{YES            NO}
[NEW PLAYER LOGGING IN...]
[ACCEPT STRAWBERRY_KISS REQUEST TO JOIN?]
[CONFIRM]
{YES            NO}
[STRAWBERRY_KISS ENTERING....]