Chapter Text
Sion is laying stomach-down on his bed, nervously looking at his phone. He’s got Daeyoung’s Instagram DMs open, and already pasted in a message he was going to send—his thumb just hovering over the send button. He reads over the drafted message again:
“Hey Daeyoung, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. I know this will be very random but I just need to get this off my chest. I know it’s been about 9 years since we graduated high school, but I wanted you to know that I had a crush on you from middle school to the end of high school—ever since you transferred into my class and got assigned to sit next to me.
I’m not expecting anything with this confession, I just needed to get it off my chest and out of my system, because for the last 9 freaking years since we graduated, even after all this time, whenever I think about high school or get reminded of it in conversation, you are the one thing that stands out to me. Most times, the regrets of not telling you how I felt turn into feelings of anxiety for some reason, and I tend to get reminded of it all especially on the days when my mind is not too occupied.. I’d be washing dishes, or folding laundry, or I’ll even be trying to go to sleep when I get reminded of you. As if that wasn’t bad enough, this has all kept compounding inside me that my stomach hurts sometimes, and then I start to feel a bit nauseous. I just want to move on with my life. I can’t keep living like this anymore.
Again, I don’t expect anything—matter of fact you don’t even need to respond. If you’ve actually read all that, I’m sorry for taking up your time with such a long and pointless message. Take care, Sion.”
Sion reads the message over again a few times, still not hitting the send button. His sister suddenly calls for him that dinner is ready, so he accidentally presses send as he fumbled about, trying not to drop his phone on his face.
“FUCK, IT SENT???”
“Sion, what the hell are you going on about? Anyways, dinner is ready now, so come eat before Mom drags you downstairs herself,” his sister says before turning to leave.
“Fuuuuccckkkkkk,” Sion grumbles into his pillow, while absorbing what just happened. ‘What the fuck am I supposed to do now?? I’m not waiting for him to say something—fuck this,’ Sion thinks as he hurriedly logs out of Instagram, shuts off his phone, and throws it on his bed. He figures he’ll go eat dinner to help forget what happened.
Now, Sion being someone who hates confrontation, decides that he simply won’t log back into his Instagram for a few days. He’ll just tell his friends that he’s doing a “social media cleanse–you guys should try it actually!” Hoping that Daeyoung won’t respond as Sion told him not to, Sion can forget all about the DM as if it never even happened. That should work out, right?
Except that Daeyoung does read the message, and even sends a reply.
After a few days, Sion thinks he’s gotten off scot-free and he’s all fine and dandy. So he logs back into his Instagram. Sure enough, there’s a few notifications in the DM tab. Sion gulps and taps the tab, seeing DMs from Riku and Yushi who just sent him some funny reels. He does, however, notice that the most recent DM from two days ago is none other than Kim Daeyoung himself.
“OH FUCK HE READ IT–OH MY GOD HE RESPONDED??” Sion shuts himself up before his parents or his sister can barge in and ask him what’s going on. He does NOT want his family in his business right now. Sion’s hands are shaking a bit—he’s not really sure why, and wait a minute, why does he feel his heart is beating a little faster??? He’s supposed to be over Daeyoung. Why the hell is his body reacting as if he’s running a marathon? Slowly, Sion takes a deep breath and opens the DM.
Daeyoung wrote: “Hi Sion, I’m not doing too bad, I hope the same goes for you. Sorry I just got to this now, I was pretty busy at work and just didn’t open my Instagram for a few days. But of all people, I wasn’t expecting to see a new message from you though, haha. Anyway, I read all of what you said—“
Sion quickly shut his eyes after reading the beginning of Daeyoung’s message. What if Daeyoung wants nothing to do with him now that Sion’s past feelings were all out in the open? After a few minutes, Sion opens his eyes, takes another deep breath, gathering courage to read the rest of Daeyoung’s message.
“..of course, I’m shocked to read all this. I wouldn’t have guessed you had these feelings for me back then. I always thought you were the coolest, smartest guy in class. The reliable one that was only focused on schoolwork. I really had no idea, and I’m so sorry that you never felt comfortable enough to tell me. I just can’t believe I caused you all this pain. I’m really really sorry.”
Sion could almost picture Daeyoung’s pout. The same pout he had on his face when they were in school and Daeyoung ran up to him apologizing for launching a soccer ball in the air that landed right on Sion’s head. “Fuck, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Sion puts a hand over his mouth and keeps reading.
“Do you think we could maybe meet up in person and talk? I really want to apologize to your face and do this the right way.” Daeyoung’s message ends there.
‘Oh my fucking god, why is Daeyoung being sweet and apologizing to me? He wasn’t supposed to respond! Oh my goddddd—How am I supposed to see him like this? I can’t even think about meeting up right now, my stomach is acting up just imagining it,’ Sion’s thoughts are running a mile a minute, so he lays down and lets his mind wander as he tries to come up with a response to Daeyoung. After about 20 minutes of him flailing around, silent screaming into his pillow and biting his fist, he sits up and starts typing.
Sion wrote: “Hi. Sure, we could meet.. If it’s okay with you, let’s meet at the park across the street from our high school, at the swings? This Friday, 6:30pm?” That was all Sion could manage in his current state. What he didn’t expect was Daeyoung reading and responding right away.
“Hi!! Okay, that works. I’ll see you then,” Daeyoung replied.
“Crap. How the hell am I supposed to be normal until Friday, it’s only Wednesday for crying out loud.” Sion grumbles to himself. He says fuck it and texts his manager that he’s not feeling well and will take the rest of the week off to recover, also apologizing for the sudden time off request. Laying back down, Sion realizes that he has no clue what will happen or what Daeyoung may say to his face on Friday. He smothers his face with a pillow again and screams.