Chapter Text
It doesn’t take a genius to notice.
But Till has been avoiding Ivan recently.
After the small physical incident where Till tackled Ivan onto the ground (and Ivan swiftly convincing the teacher to not write Till up because it was a miscommunication between them), the two boys have scarcely interacted with each other for almost a week by now.
It’s early in the morning ( an hour and three minutes have passed since first class began, Ivan notes to himself) when Ivan is instructed to deliver some papers to the teachers room. By some papers, the teacher means a mountain of papers that look ready to tip over. Sua, as she’s vice-president of the classroom, is also instructed to help Ivan deliver the papers. Ivan quickly scans the room before he exits the classroom, searching for a particular figure (who would normally be drowsy and strain himself to stay awake at this point of time).
Till isn’t here today.
A perfect excuse for Ivan to visit briefly at his residence under the guise of giving him missing assignments and notes. Maybe he’ll forget his hoodie in Till’s room for another excuse to come back to his residence.
In the hall, Ivan and Sua walk quietly together. Ivan can feel Sua boring holes into him right now.
“So?” Ivan peeks at Sua, who simply sighs and pinches her eyebrows together. “I’m only getting involved because Mizi-ya feels guilty and at fault,” Sua begins, “But I want to let you know. . . you’re an idiot, first of all.” Ivan simply hums. He expected Sua to have called him a dumb homosexual for failing to bring up something pivotal between him and Till, or something similar. “Secondly, you’re a useless homosexual, so get your head straight for once and stop being a dumbass— try communicating for once to your gay counterpart.”
Ah, there it is.
“Firstly,” Ivan stops his tracks and Sua turns around, annoyance plastered on her face, “I’m not an idiot. I’m Top 3 of the entirety of the school with you, so I can’t be an idiot,” Sua scoffs at that as Ivan adjusts the weight of the stacked papers on his hands, “and secondly, Till isn’t gay. He’d be bisexual, so he’d be my bisexual counterpart.”
Ivan continues to walk ahead, Sua notably stops in her tracks. She doesn’t want to ask why Ivan thinks Till is bisexual and what other evidence he has to provide that conclusion.
Ivan promptly hears a slap and sees a red handprint on Sua’s forehead as Sua catches up to him in the hallway. “Whatever you say,” Sua mutters, “I’m just saying that you should talk to him at least.”
“Are you saying this because you care~”
“Nope. I just told you I’m saying this because Mizi-ya thinks she caused this.”
“She’s too sweet.”
“Yeah, she is. So stop tormenting her, and tormenting me in the process, and fix your gay-on-bisexual crisis, or whatever.”
The duo finally reach the teachers room. “What was the point of you tagging along with me if you’re not going to offer me a hand?” Ivan struggles to shift the weight of the stacked papers onto one hand, already knowing Sua won’t open the door for him. He hears a Pfft , and Ivan doesn’t need to look to see there’s an amused look on Sua, seeing him struggle in front of her. Nonetheless, he takes a peek at Sua, who quickly has a poker-face and she shrugs, “The teacher ordered me, and I thought you would be lonely without your friend .”
Ivan opens the door to the teachers room with his free hand. He heads inside first, not bothering to comment how Sua pronounced out the word, ‘ friend’. Sua quickly follows him into the office room. They head towards the usual cubby where his homeroom teacher sits. He stops in his tracks, seeing Till sitting on a chair next to the cubby with his head down, fiddling with his bag on his lap, and his mother is next to him, standing with her hands politely clasped together in front of her.
“I recently heard what happened in his classroom last week, and I would like to apologize for my son’s actions,” Till’s mother bows to the homeroom teacher. Of course, no secret can be kept from Till’s mom. The homeroom teacher chuckles and waves her off, “It’s alright, Till has already done his punishment – Besides, the class president informed me that it was a simple misunderstanding and it won’t happen again.”
Oh, so Till is here at school after all.
“Ah, Ivan-ssi! Sua-ssi! Leave the papers here,” the homeroom teacher pats at the empty space on the desk, seeing the duo idly standing a few steps away from the desk. Ivan sees Till jolt up, startled, as his mother turns around with a smile on her face. Ivan pretends to not notice and he drops the stacked documents onto the empty space on the desk.
“Ivan-ah, Sua-ah, it’s so nice to see you guys diligent in your student tasks! Please, continue to take care of my son,” Till’s mother bows at them. Sua returns the bow as Ivan politely smiles at her, “No need to thank us, eomma, it’s part of the job.” Sua gawks at Ivan, like he grew a pair of horns on his head. So does Till.
Till’s mother still has a smile on her face, her eye’s twinkling as she pats Ivan on his head, “And I know I can trust you to take care of Till, Ivan-ah.”
Ivan suppresses his snickering behind his knuckle, knowing that Till and Sua are sharing a look between each other in disbelief.
Is this guy for real calling Till’s mom eomma instead of the usual eomeoni???
The homeroom teacher clears his throat. “Ah, I should get going – Till, I better not hear you get into any more fights, alright? Sua-ah, Ivan-ah, please watch him over for my sake,” Till’s mother checks her watch as she quickly turns to the homeroom teacher to give another bow as goodbye. She’s gone as the homeroom teacher laughs. “I’ve heard that you guys were close! It’s nice to see that, with you youngsters,” the teacher continues to smile, already reorganizing the stack of papers that Ivan dropped on his desk. “Alright, you guys best return back to class, shoo, shoo,” the homeroom teacher gestures to the door.
Ivan, Sua, and Till stand outside the door (with Sua dragging the other two boys out of the teachers room before they get scolded for idling – seeing as the two boys only want to ogle at each other in silence). “Alright,” Sua claps her hands together, breaking the silence, “I’m going back to class, you guys better not take too long.” Sua starts walking away, deeming her job done. She shoots Ivan a final look as she passes by him, Don’t fuck this up,
and be honest .
She’s out of sight once Ivan takes a step closer to look at Till.
Till, however, is refusing to look at him.
Ivan frowns. It’s been 9,846 minutes since Till last spoke to him ( mumbled words don’t count ) and looked him in the eyes (whenever Ivan caught Till looking at him, it would be on his collarbones or his lips). Ivan isn’t sure how much longer he can handle this type of treatment. Till has never given him the silent-treatment for this long.
At first, Ivan tolerated it – he chalked it up to Till being furious at him for not mentioning the kiss (or hickey) to him. Genuinely, Ivan fails to see the big idea about it. Till was drunk, and Ivan thought it was best to save the embarrassment and not tell him about it. Isn’t that what best friends do?
Sighing, seeing how Till won’t budge, Ivan takes a step back and turns away to go back to class. How does Sua expect Ivan to be honest? Honest about his feelings towards Till? Till doesn’t even want to look at him, so how can Ivan just confess, “Hey, I’ve been hopelessly devoted to you for as long as I can remember, but I don’t expect you to return those feelings, so it’s okay! It’s best if you don’t say anything so I can avoid getting hurt haha~”
Maybe Ivan should look into doing yoga or something. (“It’s good to relax the mind, for your mind to get some clarity,” Ivan remembers Luka distinctly informing him in the student council room, “God knows my hubae needs it.” Luka had a smirk raised on his lips, and Ivan fought the urge to slam Luka’s head onto the desk. He hates how Luka can understand him on some level (at least Luka managed to be officially tied to Hyuna, meanwhile Ivan had to watch his crush pin after a lesbian for years). )
Scratch that.
Ivan would rather dive through the school window right now than admit to Luka that he followed his advice.
Ivan looks at his reflection on the window as he passes by it. “Though, if it gets his attention back on me then…” Ivan mumbles, stopping in his tracks. He can picture Till cradling his body after Ivan has lunged himself through the window– Till cussing at Ivan like usual– tears in his teal eyes, and then Ivan would have to be transported to the hospital. Then of course, Till’s mom would urge Till to go visit Ivan in the hospital and then–
“Get whose attention back?”
Ivan jolts out of his skin. Till had been walking quietly, a step or two behind him, and Ivan had failed to notice.
Till is speaking to him.
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud,” Ivan shrugs, hands snaking into his pants’ pockets, curled intensely with his nails biting into his palms. Play it cool. Play it cool . Ivan reminds himself. (Ivan desperately wants to jump up, clap his feet together, and whoop out a ‘ Yahoo! ’, and it’s definitely not because Till is finally talking to him again.)
Till just perks an eyebrow at him. “I wish I knew what went on in your head,” is all Ivan hears as Till walks ahead of him.
Not wanting to lose this chance, Ivan quickens his pace so the two could walk side-by-side.
This is fine . This is all Ivan needs, to have the opportunity to stay by Till’s side. Even if Till doesn’t choose him – even if Ivan isn’t anybody or even Till’s first choice. This is enough .
As they inch closer to their classroom door, Ivan sees Till fiddling with his hands. “We’re… we’re okay, right?” Till croaks out, halting in his steps before Ivan has the chance to open the classroom door for them.
We’re okay?
“Of course,” Ivan instinctively flashes that smile at Till, grabbing the door handle in front of them, “Nothing’s changed.”
Ivan refuses to acknowledge the flash of hurt in Till’s eyes, or how Till clenched his bag closer to his chest. Not wanting to be inquired further, Ivan opens the classroom door and slips inside, not bothering to hold the door open for Till.
Nothing’s changed.
Nothing will change .
A finger has been flicked onto Ivan’s forehead. Hard .
Ivan pouts as he caresses the abused spot on his forehead.
Thank god for his bangs to hide this injury.
“I thought I made it clear that you were going to communicate with him, Ivan-ah,” Sua hisses at him. Mizi pulls Sua’s hands into her own, “Unnie, you know how Ivan-nie sucks at expressing his feelings~”
Ivan pretends to not have heard that.
“Yeah, I shouldn’t have had expectations for him in the first place.”
Okay. Ouch.
“We did talk,” defends Ivan, flashing a glare at Sua. Sua glares back at him. She looks close to strangling him to death, which is an expression Ivan is closely familiar with (especially coming from Sua). “Then explain why Till-ssi isn’t sat with us for lunch today?” Sua gestures to the empty spot next to Ivan.
It’s been a day since Ivan practically ran away from Till. Till only spoke to Ivan 3 more times, albeit in short sentences (“The teacher sent me over to you so you can explain to me what happened in class when I wasn’t here,” Till sheepishly states, still avoiding to look at Ivan as he looks over Ivan’s shoulders and rubbing his neck in a timid manner.
“Oh thanks for the notes, by the way,” Till says nonchalantly as they’re all sitting at their usual table during lunch. Mizi is busy being fed by Sua, who has given Mizi the boiled egg off her tray. Only Ivan can hear what Till had said. “No problem,” is all Ivan replies with a faint smile on his face. He can feel Till’s gaze on him before looking away, an unreadable expression on his face.
“See you tomorrow,” Till slings his bag over his shoulders as he gets ready to exit the classroom, “Ivan-ssi.”
Ivan refuses to ponder why Till added ‘-ssi’ to his name. )
“He’s probably not hungry,” is all the excuse that Ivan can come up with. Sua just deadpans at Ivan as Mizi looks up at Ivan and notes, “Weird, I saw him grab his tray and sit with Luka-sunbaenim, Hyunwoo-oppa, and Hyuna-unnie.” Her pointer finger taps on her chin as she scans around the lunch room. “Oh, there he is!” Mizi stands up and points in a direction before Sua immediately pulls her down to her seat. “Let’s try and not help Ivan-ssi anymore, Mizi-ya, he’s hopeless,” Sua says as she brings her fingers to pinch Mizi’s cheek. Mizi only giggles.
Ivan rolls his eyes before looking to the direction where Mizi pointed too. He was hoping his eyes had deceived him when he saw familiar silver-hair standing in the lunch line, next to curled blond-hair and two tufts of brown-hair.
Till sitting with Hyuna and Hyunwoo is normal.
Till being sat next to Luka – now, that’s not normal.
( “I don’t understand how you tolerate that guy,” Till complained once before.
School had ended for the day, and luckily, Ivan had no class-president duties. Till had suggested that Ivan head over to his house, claiming it’s been a while since Ivan had visited his residence, and that his mother missed him. “Ivan-ah!” Till’s mother exclaimed when she saw him at the doorway, who was taking off his shoes before he stepped further into the residence.
Till scoffed as his mother smothered Ivan into a hug, “Eomma, you don’t get this excited when I come home from school.” Till’s mother's head snapped at Till, and Till immediately shut his mouth. “Eomeoni, it’s been a while~” Ivan patted Till’s mother on her back as a way to deescalate the situation. “I’ve told you to call me eomma, you know I see you like my own son,” Till’s mother sighed as she pulled away. Her hand caressed Ivan’s cheek before she pinched the skin. “Look at you, you’re too skinny!” Ivan chuckled as Till pulled his mother away from him. “Eomma, we’re gonna head up to my room,” Till grumbled as he dragged Ivan to the direction of his room. “Okay~” Till’s mother threw a thumbs-up and flashed a wink to Ivan before adding, “I’ll call you boys down when I’ve made some snacks.”
Till waved away his mom, eyes rolling, “Yeah, yeah, got it eomma, thank you.” Ivan waved goodbye to Till’s mom before Till shoved him into his room.
They’re inside Till’s room – Till is sprawled out on his bed as Ivan is sat on the floor, his back leaning against the mattress.
“I bumped into that lunatic when I was passing by the student council room,” Till continued. He, then, rolled over, lying on his side with his elbow supporting his head. Till only peeked at Ivan, eyes squinting at him, “He strangely reminds me of you.”
Ivan has never felt so offended.
Ivan’s head whipped to Till, opening his mouth to defend himself before Till cuts him off, “Sorry,” Till glances at Ivan before looking away, his hand covering his mouth as he adds, ”You’re more tolerable than he is.” Ivan shouldn’t be beaming at that, but he is. “At least you have the decency to fake your politeness to everyone – he’s an asshole to everyone,” Till rolled onto his back, eyes staring into the ceiling, “except to the Hyun-twins.”
Till sighed, arms stretched out in front of him, his hands sprawled out to the ceiling. Ivan only watched him, waiting for Till to continue on his ramblings about Luka. “You’re not going to ask me what happened?” Till’s hands drop onto his stomach, the skin there peeking out as the uniform has ridden up a bit.
Ivan gulped.
“I can only guess what happened if Luka-sunbaenim is involved,” surmised Ivan, eyes darting away from Till’s exposed skin. Ivan has decided that Till’s closet is more interesting to look at from afar.
Till chuckled before he sat up, throwing his legs over the edge of his bed. “Bastard told me to call him ‘hyung’ ,” Till sneered, his fists clenched onto his bed sheets. Ivan couldn’t help but widen his eyes in shock. “I only talked to him a couple times, so I don’t get why he wants to be close all of a sudden,” Till spitted out, “I don’t even call you hyung, and we’ve grown up together, so why should I call him hyung?”
{ Ivan recalled the one time that he called Luka ‘hyung’, primarily as a joke. Ivan had instantly regretted it as they gawked at each other in silence. They quietly agreed to never use such familiarity between them. }
What is Luka up to? Ivan can’t help but think, Maybe I can convince Luka to go into the school’s gym closet, lock the door, ‘coincidentally’ lose the key and all copies of it, so Luka can’t escape. He won’t have access to his medication for his weak body, so he’ll have to succumb to his illness.
Better yet, Ivan remembered that his family has a big kimchi pot – big enough to dispose of a body. It’s just a matter of what manner Ivan should get rid of Luka. Hyuna would be furious, but Ivan will try and convince her that it’s for the greater good .
Ivan is spurled out of his thoughts as Till’s foot poked at him. “Did you ask him to bully me, or something?” Till sounded very annoyed. His foot continued to jab at Ivan’s knees. “No, why would I do that?” Ivan frowned, catching Till’s foot in his hands. Ivan can’t help but peel the sock off Till’s foot as Till murmured, “‘Cuz you always like to make my life difficult.” Ivan hummed as his fingers inserted themselves between Till’s toes. Till yelped, trying to snatch his foot away from Ivan’s hands. “You’re such a weirdo,” Till hissed, “Stop holding hands with my foot!” Ivan can’t help but laugh as Till tried to wiggle his foot out of Ivan’s grip.
A knock on the bedroom door is heard.
“Snacks are ready!”
Ivan released his grip on Till’s foot, which caused Till to stumble back into his bed. “Crazy bastard,” Till cursed, reaching for his fallen sock to clothe his naked foot. Till’s eyes shot daggers at Ivan, who simply beamed at him. “Coming, eomma!” Till hollered, and he instantly is up from his bed, reaching for the door knob.
“Remember to wash your hands, you freak,” Till muttered before he slammed the door shut behind him.
Ivan did not wash his hands that day. )
Ivan’s eyes squint at the scene in front of him – Hyuna is laughing, her arms thrown around her brother next to her. Hyunwoo shoves her off of him, also laughing, as he brings his chopsticks to his mouth.
As if on cue, Luka inches closer to Till and he whispers something closely into Till’s ear.
Uncomfortably close.
Unexpectedly, Ivan can only watch in terror as Luka’s hand hoovers over Till’s lips, wiping away or smudging whatever was there.
Ivan almost snaps his chopsticks in half.
Mizi follows Ivan’s gaze as Sua kicks Ivan under the table. “Oh, I didn’t know Luka-sunbaenim and Till-ah were close together,” comments Mizi. Ivan’s lips tightened, eyes refusing to look away, as Sua taps her finger on the table. “See, Till-ssi is going to become a part of Hyuna-sunbaenim and Luka-sunbaenim’s throuple if you don’t talk to him properly,” Sua says matter-of-factly.
Mizi stands up, walks over to Ivan’s side, and she hovers over Ivan. Cusping her hands over her mouth, Mizi leans down to Ivan’s ear, “Unnie told me that you think Till-ah is bi.” Ivan looks at Mizi, confusion written over his face. Right , he forgot he mentioned that to Sua yesterday. Mizi continues to whisper as Ivan takes a sip on his grape juice, “Why doesn’t Ivan-nie try to crossdress and get Till-ah’s attention that way?”
Ivan stills before he coughs, trying his best to not spit grape juice out of his mouth onto poor Mizi. Swallowing the juice (burning his throat in the process, Ivan can feel tears coming as it blurs his vision), he continues to choke loudly, practically hacking his lungs out, which gages the cafeteria’s attention for a second before the ambient chatter continues. Mizi only giggles as she pats Ivan on the back in consolation. Sua looks on in horror.
After a minute or two of Mizi simply patting (or rather, smacking) Ivan on the back, Mizi slides back in her seat. Sua brings her spoon full of soup to her lips as she asks her girlfriend, “What did you say to him?” Ivan grabs the napkins on the table, dabbing the tears away from his eyes and on his cheek, as Mizi merely confesses, “I told Ivan-nie to dress like a girl to get Till-ah’s attention again.”
Ivan is busy patting away the juice that trickled down to his chin before he hears the clatter of a spoon falling on the table. Covering her mouth, Sua chokes on her soup. She chokes, although quietly, as Mizi panics and pats her girlfriend on the back (gently), handing her water.
“Thank you,” Sua croaks out as she takes a sip and sets the water cup down. “I’m sorry, Unnie,” Mizi whimpers. Serves her right , Ivan thinks to himself as he slurps from his grape juice. “No, it’s not your fault – it’s just, your idea. . . is interesting, is all,” Sua weakly smiles at Mizi before she leans over into her girlfriend’s ear.
If Ivan is a useless homosexual for Till, then what does that make Sua? Ivan ponders, wondering if he should risk calling her a pathetically-in-love lesbian, the next time that Sua calls him out for being a dumb homosexual. He trusts in his reflexes to dodge her claws.
“I just don’t want to see Ivan in a dress, that’s all,” Sua whispers loudly into Mizi’s ear. Ivan can’t help but gently stomp on Sua’s foot under the table. Sua shoots a glare at Ivan as Ivan just smiles at her. “I think Mizi’s idea is good, but I don’t want Till to pay attention to me because I dressed femininely,” Ivan states. He would want Till to come to like him just for him – not because he dawned on a wig, put on some makeup, and wore a dress. It would make Ivan feel guilty. Mizi only goes, “Ohh, that makes sense, ” as she nods and grabs some napkins to dab at Sua’s lips.
Though, if Till really wanted to, Ivan supposes he wouldn’t mind dressing like a woman for his sake. I can pester the lesbians for make-up tips, or I can ask Hyuna-sunbaenim for some advice to dress chic-ly and go into vocal training to soften my voice and –
“Yah, Ivan-ah,” Sua deadpans at Ivan, “Stop thinking, nothing good ever comes from your ideas.” Ivan pouts before he feels Sua’s foot jab at his shin, “And stop pouting . Just talk to Till-ssi,” Sua’s foot kicks Ivan’s ankle for the last time before she gets up from her seat. “Mizi-ya and I are going to the bathroom real quick, we’ll be back,” Sua brushes down her skirt before she holds out her hand for Mizi to grab. “W-We are?” Mizi is very confused as she inserts her hand into her girlfriend’s palm. Sua only squeezes Mizi’s hand once before Mizi blushes. “We’ll be back, Ivan-ah!” Mizi waves at Ivan as Sua drags them out of the cafeteria.
Ivan rolls his eyes as he rests his elbow on the table, waving back at Mizi. Are lesbians that horny ? Ivan shoves that thought to the back of his brain as he sighs into his palm. His arms fall onto the table, and his head flops down onto them.
Just talk to him, huh .
Ivan will get to it when he has the courage to. He’ll need to prepare a script and plot out every possibility of how the conversation would go. It’ll take at least two days to get it all written down and for Ivan to memorize the list.
Peeking his head up to see what Till (and the others) were up to, Ivan sees teal-eyes staring and widening at him. Ivan flashes a lazy smile, waving at Till, who almost falls out of his seat. He watches as Hyuna smacks Till on the head, and Luka turns his head to Ivan, throwing up a peace sign and sticks his tongue at him (Ivan has decided that ‘Operation: Luka-Fermenting-In-Family-Big-Kimchi-Pot’ will need to happen, soon ). Till breaks eye contact to swat Hyuna’s hand away. Ivan’s smile immediately turns into a frown.
Before Ivan looks away for good, Till looks back at Ivan and also waves timidly at him before glancing off to the side. His ears are turning red.
Cute .
Suppressing a chuckle, Ivan looks away and buries his face further into his arms.
It’s unfair how Till has such a chokehold on him.
He stays in that position before he hears the bell.
Mizi and Sua had, in fact, abandoned Ivan to play gay-hooky in the girls’ restroom.
Scoffing to himself, Ivan sits up as he grabs his and his friends’ trays to put them away on the rack. Lesbians are inherently more horny , Ivan thinks to himself.
Someone bumps into Ivan, and the stranger and Ivan can only watch as the water cup he had placed on top of the trays stumble, threatening to spill over.
Ivan quickly fixes his arm’s balancing.
The student that bumped into him profusely apologizes to Ivan, head bowing and all. “It’s not a problem, don’t worry about it~” Ivan laughs it off, a steady smile on his face as the student– Acorn, was it?-- kept his bow at a ninety-degree angle. “Acorn-ssi, just be careful of your surroundings~” Ivan still has the practiced smile on his face as Acorn’s face immediately looks up at Ivan. Beaming, Acorn bows to Ivan again before he places his tray on the rack, practically sprinting away from Ivan.
Lesbians are useless . Ivan continues in his thoughts as he puts away the trays onto the rack. Abandoning their homosexual friend in his time of need .
Whatever, he doesn’t need lesbians to help him. He can figure this out on his own. For his own gay pride.
(Ivan doesn’t point out to Mizi, who’s on her knees and apologizing to Ivan in the classroom, that her lip tint is smudged and her collared-shirt is rumpled. He sees Mizi’s lip tint smudged onto Sua’s neck – as if someone tried to rub the substance off.
Ivan smirks at Sua, who quickly looks away from him, her ears reddening as she fixes her own collar-shirt. “It’s okay, Mizi-ya~ I know you didn’t mean to leave me behind,” Ivan coos as he places his hand on top of Mizi’s grasped hands. Sua immediately snatches Ivan’s hand off of Mizi before she helps her girlfriend off her knees. “Don’t apologize to this freak, Mizi-ya, he deserves to die alone,” Sua pets Mizi on her head before shooting daggers at Ivan.
Ivan wishes he could flip her off, but Ivan has an image to uphold.
Instead, all he can do is mouth out, “Pa-the-tic Les-bi-an,” to Sua.
He barely dodges his own bag that has been thrown to his head. )
Ivan tries to catch up to Till afterschool. He just needs one more word, a sentence, to be muttered to him. Ivan feels like he’s a dehydrated man in a desert, and Till is that hidden oasis that will bring relief to him. Just one sentence, even cursing is fine. He needs to hear Till’s voice.
“Ivan-ssi!” He hears an unfamiliar voice behind him. Ivan scowls. He hadn’t even made it that far from the classroom. Acorn waves at him before gesturing to their classroom, “The teacher needs your help with something!” Ivan masks his annoyance with a smile before he turns his head to Acorn, “Okay, got it!” Ivan takes a step toward the classroom before he stops briefly, looking at Till’s silhouette getting farther from him.
Ivan will have to try to talk to him tomorrow.
He has to .
It’s lunch time the next day when Ivan is shoved into the school’s supply closet.
A scrawny figure is pressed against him, cussing profusely. Ivan has never been bullied in school before. (No, Sua’s blatant detest for him, or Till’s cursing at him, don’t count).
This is a new experience.
Ivan turns his head to see what’s going on, and he spots Till’s face smothered into his back and catches Hyuna and Hyunwoo at the door. “This is for your guys’ own good! Thank your noona and hyung later!” Hyuna shouts before she slams the door shut.
Ivan hears keys clinking together as the door is locked from outside.
“Noona, do you think this will work?” Ivan hears Hyunwoo inquire faintly as they walk away from the supply closet. He hears nothing but the jingle of keys being put away somewhere. “It’s gotta work,” Ivan can already see Hyuna shrugging, hands behind her head nonchalantly, whistling leisurely like she didn’t trap two of her hubaes in a closet.
The sound of her whistling is gone as Ivan turns his body around to face Till. Till has sunk to his knees, his face burying into his bag that’s wedged on his lap.
Well.
This puts them in a rather awkward position.
Now, Ivan is forced to talk to Till, and he hasn’t finished memorizing his script.