Keep Me A Secret | Dowoo

10

"Woah, careful there..." Doyoung muttered as a boy with his arms full of books almost ran right into him. "Jungwoo?" He asked softly, looking past the stack of lime green textbooks stacked up to his head.

A nervous laugh slipped out of the boy, "Hey Doyoung, can't really talk now."

"Let me help you." The elder said quietly before taking half of the stack into his own arms. "Where ya headed?"

"Chemistry." The younger pointed towards the room with his chin.

Once they made it to the chemistry lab, the teacher rushed over to take the books, "Oh my god Jungwoo, you're a lifesaver. Thank you so much!" After setting both stacks of books down, she gave both of the boys a sweet smile, "I really appreciate the help, boys." Doyoung mimicked a bow when he saw Jungwoo do it, then awkwardly followed him out of the room.

"We haven't talked in awhile, how've you been?" Jungwoo asked quietly, in all honestly he wanted to spend more time talking to Doyoung for reasons he didn't quite understand. Whenever he was with the elder, there was just this constant feeling bubbling up in his stomach and he had no idea what it meant.

"I'm pretty good—failing journalism some how—but good." The boy stated bitterly. How could you possibly fail a high school journalism class?

A small frown formed on Jungwoo's face, "Have you tried talking to your teacher about makeup work?"

Doyoung nodded, "She said to just trust the process whatever that means."

The younger couldn't help but laugh at the stern look Doyoung put on when he impersonated his teacher. "Where are you going right now?" He asked softly when he noticed the time, exactly three minutes until they had to be to class.

"AP bio."

"That's on the way to the art room, let me walk you?" For some reason, Jungwoo almost felt embarrassed to ask if he could walk Doyoung to his class. There was that strange feeling in his tummy again and he just didn't know what it meant. You're just excited to have a new friend, the boy thought.

The elder shrugged, "If it's on the way, I don't see why not."

✨✨✨

Ten raised an eyebrow when he saw Jungwoo fall into his seat as if he was in a trance. There was a glazed over look to his eyes and a small smile resting on his lips. "Did you just get a blowjob in the bathroom or something?"

The younger boys head snapped up to look at his friend, nothing but horror etched across his face, "T—Ten! Oh my god!"

"You're on cloud nine for some reason, babe...you can't blame me for trying to figure it out."

Jungwoo's eyes closed as he brought his hands up to rub his temples. "Lord, please give me strength..." He mumbled...even though he didn't particularly believe in a Lord.

Ten rolled his eyes at the boys action, but couldn't push down the curiosity rising within him, "So is it a girl?"

"A girl?" There was a look of utter betrayal on Jungwoo's face when he turned to look at his friend. Uh yeah Jungwoo, you like girls why're you so shocked? He asked himself. "No...haha, no girls, just stuff Y'know?"

The elder shook his head, "I don't know, that's why I'm asking."

"Well—"

"Good morning class!"

Much to Jungwoo's relief, as he had no idea what was making him so happy, Mrs. Ahn walked in just as excited as any other morning. "I know you still have two days to finish your projects, but I'd like to see your progress."

Just as his attitude begun to climb, it was once again thrown off a six story building. He hadn't started the project. "Ten!" He hissed quietly as he could so he wouldn't gain the attention of other students.

The elder looked up through the black hair covering his face as he rummaged through his backpack, "Yes?"

"I don't have a project to show!"

"Just say you left it at home," Ten said casually as he pulled out a quite large canvas which was decorated in a medley of beautiful paintings. There was a beaten up motorcycle painted in the corner that caught his attention, weeds and vines were wrapped around it, growing out of the broken headlines. The thing that intrigued him the most was the singular red rose resting on the seat.

Jungwoo took the painting out of his hands and held it only inches away from his own face, "How does this represent you?"

A sad smile formed on the boys face, "We can talk about that some other time, now isn't really an appropriate to tell you."

The younger's heart dropped when he remembered what Soojin had told him a few days prior. He wondered if the horrible things she mentioned had to do with a motorcycle. 

✨✨✨

All day the curiosity about the painting plagued him, what did it mean? So knowing where the elder would be, Jungwoo found himself outside of theater classroom.

Bringing his hand up to knock, he hesitated, not knowing if he should even go in there. Finally working up the courage, he knocked on the glass window which was covered in pictures of past performances to block out what was really happening inside.

The door creaked with age as it opened before Ms. Solar popped her head out. "Oh! Jungwoo, right? Come in!"

A warm feeling spread through the boys whole body the second he stepped foot into the room. Maybe it was how welcomed he was by Solar, or the familiar faces scattered around the room, but this space felt like home to him.

He quickly waved to Soojin and her friends before heading to the opposite side of the room where Ten was sitting on Johnnys lap.

"Hi...?" Jungwoo said awkwardly as he stood in front of the couple.

Upon hearing his friends voice, Ten hopped off of his boyfriend and pulled Jungwoo into his arms. "I didn't know you were coming here tonight."

"I didn't either..." Jungwoo admitted. His hands fell down to his sides when the elder let go of him, "I...I just can't stop thinking about your painting—it's probably not by business, but I can't help being curious about it."

Ten held out a finger to the boy, telling him to hold on a second before he turned around and begun a hushed conversation with his boyfriend. After a few minutes of borderline arguing, the small boy turned back around and smiled, "Can I take you somewhere next Monday? It'll be easier to explain everything there."

Although a bit skeptical, Jungwoo nodded regardless because he was itching to know the answer to the motorcycle painting. Which—if he knew then what he knows now, he would've told that Jungwoo to run away and never look back. 

———

Wow the plot is actually starting to get somewhere. 

Thanks for reading 💖