Chapter Text
Seonghwa woke up Monday morning refreshed and thankful for the reprieve the weekend provided. He delicately styled his hair, ironed his uniform tie and shirt, and was able to eat a hearty breakfast before stepping out of the door. He got to school early, only to find a softly smirking Kim Hongjoong in his seat once again.
“Good morning, Hongjoong.” He said calmly, smiling sweetly at his tormentor.
Hongjoong raised an eyebrow. “Morning, Hwahwa. How was your weekend?”
“Good!” Feeling the urge to tease the boy, Seonghwa decided to mention the embarrassing sight he had witnessed on Friday. “I saw you on Friday, y’know. Completely soaked like a cute little squirrel rushing through the rain.”
Hongjoong’s cheeks reddened slightly.
“I…uh…yeah, I forgot my umbrella in the morning. Were you able to stay dry, though?” He stared intently at Seonghwa, strangely invested in the answer.
“Mhm. A secret admirer left me an umbrella to use.” Seonghwa responded smugly, thinking that Hongjoong would be jealous of his luck. Instead, Hongjoong smiled.
“I’m glad you got home safely.” Seonghwa frowned. This wasn’t like him…to be so considerate. Maybe he’s being sarcastic? he questioned, though he was usually able to tell. “In any case,” Hongjoong continued, “is it okay if I sit here today?”
Seonghwa weighed his options, checking the clock. Still 26 more minutes until their teacher would arrive and the morning classes would start. He could allow Hongjoong to steal his seat and achieve victory, forcibly remove Hongjoong again, or…another idea was forming in his mind.
“Why don’t we share, instead?” Seonghwa replied flatly.
“Share? How would we—AH–”
Hongjoong yelped as Seonghwa placed himself firmly on the smaller boy’s lap, taking his pencil case out of his backpack and preparing his workbook.
Wooyoung, Hongjoong’s friend and a known class clown of sorts, wolf whistled at the sight of Seonghwa sitting on top of Hongjoong, calling attention to their seating arrangement. The rest of the class blinked in surprise at the view.
“I don’t think this usually happens.” Mingi murmured to San, his seat buddy. San’s brows were deeply furrowed.
“Definitely not.” He mumbled in reply, scratching his head as he speculated.
“Seonghwa, get off!” Hongjoong hissed in his ear. A shiver traveled down Seonghwa’s spine as his rival’s breath ghosted over the shell of his ear.
“No.” He answered, his back still facing Hongjoong as he rearranged the desk to accommodate his school supplies rather than Hongjoong’s. “You chose to do this, knowing the potential consequences of pissing me off. So now, deal with them.”
Hongjoong squirmed underneath Seonghwa, fidgeting uselessly and attempting to pry the much taller boy off of him.
“Seonghwa, I was just joking–I swear I won’t take your seat again, I just wanted to get your–I mean…I just wanted to sit near you!” Hongjoong whined, hitting Seonghwa’s back lightly.
“There are plenty of available desks around mine, Hongjoong.” Seonghwa replied coolly. “You took mine deliberately.”
Seonghwa spun around, readjusting his legs so he was essentially straddling Hongjoong, his arms draped over the shorter boy’s shoulders.
And, oh. Hongjoong was incredibly flushed, his ears and neck pink as well as his face. He continued to squirm, refusing to meet Seonghwa’s eyes, his knuckles white from gripping the metal bars of the chair so tightly. Very cute, Seonghwa’s mind unhelpfully supplied.
“Hongjoong, are you okay? Did you catch a cold from being out in the rain for too long?” Seonghwa gently brushed Hongjoong’s wavy brown hair off of his forehead, checking his temperature. “Oh my god, you really are burning up! Do you need to go to the nurse–” He began to fret.
“Seonghwa.” Hongjoong said firmly. “I’m absolutely fine, just. This position is not…ideal. Can you please get off of me so I can…cool down?” He begged helplessly.
Finally, much to Hongjoong’s relief, Seonghwa climbed off of his lap.
Everyone in the classroom visibly relaxed, simultaneously thankful yet disappointed that the spectacle had dispersed. Yeosang and Yunho, along with a few others, were whispering in the back of the classroom.
“I give them two weeks, tops.” Yeosang whispered to Yunho, the taller boy scoffing.
“At the rate they’re going, I give it three days!” Yunho protested, gesturing towards the concerned Seonghwa and overly flustered Hongjoong.
Hongjoong cleared his throat and brushed his pants off, grabbing his books and immediately moving them to the desk next to Seonghwa’s.
Seonghwa smirked. “If I knew the way to deter you from messing with me was to sit on your lap, I would do it a lot more often.”
Flushing slightly, Hongjoong scowled.
“You just got lucky today. Don’t count on it happening again.”
***
As if to enact his revenge, Hongjoong put his best effort into outshining Seonghwa in each and every class. He overheard Seonghwa’s discussion about their assigned reading during literature and cleverly reworded his answer, queried the teacher with more complex questions in calculus than Seonghwa could, and got the bonus question in physics correct before Seonghwa was even halfway done with solving it.
By the time lunch arrived, Seonghwa was sick and tired of his rival and wanted some peace and quiet, declining the student council’s invitation to sit with them and opting instead to eat in the school’s courtyard, on a small bench tucked into its periphery.
Much to his exasperation, Hongjoong stalked out to the courtyard a few minutes later, his eyes lighting up when he spotted Seonghwa and thus another opportunity to annoy him. He slid onto the bench next to him and pulled a thermos out of his lunch bag.
“Hi Hwahwa! What do you have for lunch?” Hongjoong questioned, bumping his shoulder in a friendly manner with Seonghwa’s.
“I thought I told you not to call me that. And it’s just a basic sandwich from the cafeteria, like the one you were eating on Friday.” Seonghwa responded, aggravated by the shorter boy’s presence.
Hongjoong started yammering about his soup and how his day had gone, all while Seonghwa shot him side glances to convey his irritation. Seonghwa’s rival was undeterred, continuing to have a conversation with him despite Seonghwa’s lackluster replies.
“Hey. Hongjoong.” Seonghwa shamelessly interrupted.
“Yes?”
“I have a question. How do you get such good marks? I never see you study.”
“Well, just because you’ve never seen me do it doesn’t mean I slack off 24/7.” Hongjoong reached over and stole a bite of Seonghwa’s sandwich, much to his dismay. “I study every day when I get home for a few hours at least, and I also study ahead during our breaks and vacation periods so I’m extra prepared when we return to school.” He explained.
“Oh.”
Perhaps too narrow-minded, Seonghwa hadn’t even considered the possibility that Hongjoong could publicly project one image and privately conduct himself differently. He had just assumed that Hongjoong was naturally smart and quick to absorb new concepts, this seemingly effortless capability fueling Seonghwa’s envy. Seonghwa had believed that he always worked ten times as hard as Hongjoong, yet they ended up with similar grades, each teacher always liking both of them an almost equal amount. To Hongjoong’s credit, maybe he wasn’t the lazy, heedless person Seonghwa initially made him out to be.
Feeling a warm weight on his shoulder, Seonghwa startled out of his ruminations, shocked to see Hongjoong’s head resting there. He seemed to be asleep, tranquil as his face muscles relaxed and the shadows of his long eyelashes stretched across his soft looking cheeks. Hm. This isn’t so bad.
Seonghwa let him sleep, unwilling to wake him up and risk interrupting the rest he likely needed. Five minutes before the dismissal bell rang, Seonghwa gently shook Hongjoong’s shoulder, rolling his eyes when his rival muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.
“Hongjoong, up.”
“Mm…I can’t…too comfortable.”
“Hongjoong. How much sleep did you get last night?”
“Two hours…I stayed up studying to beat you in…literature…”
Seonghwa froze.
“...Beat me?”
“Yes…Hwahwa…you’re so smart so it’s hard.” Hongjoong replied sleepily. Blinking wearily, he sat up when he realized he had been leaning on Seonghwa’s shoulder for support.
“Ah, sorry!” He said, seeming genuinely apologetic and embarrassed for utilizing Seonghwa as his pillow.
“It’s fine, Hongjoong. But let’s get a move on, we have class.” Seonghwa said sternly in response, tossing the remnants of his lunch into the garbage.
***
At the end of the day, Seonghwa felt as if he would collapse into the pile of ink rollers his art class was utilizing for their newest project—print creation.
Hongjoong stood to the left of Seonghwa’s elbow, reaching for the metal trays used to make the blocks of easy-cut linoleum stationary as they were carved.
Seonghwa went to sit in the back corner, feeling a headache forming, and of course Hongjoong had to follow.
“What do you want?” He groaned.
“Not much, just your company.” Hongjoong smiled at him innocuously. “What are you carving?”
“A train station.” Seonghwa replied tersely, not in the mood for amiable small talk with his enemy.
“Pretty! I’m doing a peacock.” Hongjoong patted his carving block. “It reminds me of you.” He added quietly.
“It reminds you of me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Not telling.” Hongjoong blew a raspberry at Seonghwa.
“Oh my god, you are such a child.” Seonghwa exhaled deeply, moving the roller over his block with more vigor.
Some time passed, Seonghwa achieving elevated levels of skill as he gathered more ink on his brayer and practiced.
“You’ve got a little something right there.” Hongjoong arbitrarily gestured towards Seonghwa’s nose and cheeks.
“Do I?” Seonghwa raised his eyebrows skeptically.
“Well…” Hongjoong leaned over, a dash of deep emerald green ink on his pinky finger. He dotted Seonghwa’s nose with it, the feeling of wet ink on his face unpleasant but not entirely unwelcome. “Now you do!”
Seonghwa, once again having the limits of his patience tested, dipped his ring finger into a pot of black ink and dashed it swiftly across Hongjoong’s cheek. Leaning over to streak Seonghwa’s face with purple ink in retaliation, Hongjoong grabbed Seonghwa’s arm for support as he tripped over the footrests of one of the art stools, falling backwards towards the paint stained floor and unfortunately taking Seonghwa with him.
They landed in a tangled heap, Seonghwa once again on top of Hongjoong. Hongjoong whined from underneath him, clearly in pain as he clutched at one of his ribs. Seonghwa leaned down so as to be within hearing range, his arms caging Hongjoong against the floor.
“Are you okay?” He murmured, pressing them lower to the floor to avoid a harsh reprimand from the strict art teacher due to their self imposed disaster.
“Mm..never been better.” Hongjoong uttered weakly, grasping at Seonghwa’s shirt to gain his bearings.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you—“
Hongjoong giggled, his face flushing a deep shade of red.
“Hwahwa, it’s okay. I’m sure nothing is broken or sprained.”
Seonghwa nodded, unsure as he braced himself on the floor and rolled off of Hongjoong. The other boy seemed strangely flustered, sitting up slowly and shaking his head as if waking up from a particularly bad dream.
Offering a hand, Seonghwa helped Hongjoong up from the floor, watching as the shorter boy dusted himself off sheepishly.
Turning back to his ink project and doing his best to ignore Hongjoong’s presence by his side, Seonghwa aggressively maneuvered the brayer over his block. Irritated by the constantly shifting metal tray, Seonghwa wished he had a third hand.
Suddenly, Hongjoong’s hand wrapped around his wrist, adjusting the pressure applied to the ink roller and sliding his other hand firmly around the metal tray to keep it in place. Seonghwa blinked in surprise.
“Thank you.” He murmured, astonished.
“Want me to tell you why the peacock on my block reminds me of you?” Hongjoong pointed towards the intricate etching of the animal, its feathers splayed in multicolored spirals.
“...Why?”
“Because, although you’re quiet and cold like a peacock, when you spread your wings, you’re more beautiful than anyone.” Hongjoong said in reply.
Seonghwa’s cheeks grew pink for the first time in years, and he averted his gaze.
***
Walking home, Seonghwa shifted the piece of paper he had found left on his desk in his hands, which sported a signature and a post-it note with a smiley face on it. It was a winding and beautiful print of a peacock, displaying its colors proudly.