Chapter Text
Daniel went to fetch for his phone. When he got it, the ringing had stopped. He frowned at the abrupt end of his current favourite song, Flowerbomb, which was his ringtone.
‘One missed FaceTime from Lord Seongwu ’
Why would Seongwu call me?
Seongwu, on the other hand, was about to press on ‘ call’ once again when his phone rang instead.
“Hey Dan,” Seongwu answered the call.
“Ah Seongwu, what’s the matter?”
“I want to see your cats…you’re at home anyways.”
He’s really insistent about seeing my cats… Daniel thought.
“Okay okay, I just fed them. Might be a bit unresponsive, I think I raised four sloths instead of cats,” a corner of Daniel’s mouth quirked up.
“All of them are so adorable!” Seongwu was in awe as Daniel showed his cats off.
“When they have me as their owner, they’re obviously going to be adorable!” Daniel exclaimed and could be seen looking so boastful on Seongwu’s phone screen, grinning from ear to ear.
“Erhhhhhh, nah. You’re cancelled.” Seongwu said jokingly.
Seongwu tried his best to keep a poker face when he saw Daniel pouting and his eyes looked down, the urge to break into smiles and to pinch his cheeks were just too irresistible.
“You forgot what you said to me this morning?” Daniel just had to remind Seongwu of that moment.
“Stop it~ I’m still embarrassed about it. But I like how you could ‘accidentally’ compliment me.” Seongwu fired back.
“Enough about us. Back to my cats!” Daniel was clearly embarrassed too and diverted the topic.
Seongwu watched Daniel’s cats in amusement. The four cats of different ages could still mingle together happily. The fattest one, Peter, is more active than the younger cats that are just a few months old. The cats jumping up and down to/from high places such as the top of the refrigerator. Daniel placed the phone at a corner where Seongwu could almost see the entirety of the living room and the kitchen and went into his room.
Daniel entered the FaceTime frame, holding onto his fresh clothes and towel, telling Seongwu that he’s going to leave his phone here while he takes a shower.
Daniel entered the frame again, but with nothing covering his body except his bath towel, his hair still damp. Seongwu was genuinely surprised by it, a flush crept up his face, and his breath hitched when his eyes trailed from Daniel’s hair, down to his protruding collarbone with his broad shoulders, his toned chest with perked up pink nipples and
bold body lines defining his packs, then finally to the bulge poking the towel that’s wrapped around Daniel’s waist, an outline of his flaccid length and nutsack was subtly visible.
Why does it feel so hot here out of a sudden , Seongwu thought.
Daniel gave a grin, coolly left the camera frame and entered his room, which Seongwu guessed from hearing the sound of a door eased shut.
Seongwu quickly got a glass of water and downed it in a gulp, trying to get rid of the flush on his face, and to distract himself from what he just saw.
Daniel came out of his room in a white Gucci tee and grey sweatpants, Seongwu’s breathing rate rose as his eyes first captured the clothes that showcased Daniel’s figure. Daniel picked up his phone and went into his room, constantly smiling at his phone like the fool he is.
“Isn’t it already 8 pm, why is it still so sunny here?” Seongwu asked.
“Aren’t you the one stealing the sun’s job, not me. Your smile just brightens my mood, c’mon.” Daniel cheekily replied as he picked up what Seongwu meant.
Seongwu’s heart fluttered at the comment, “Stop attacking my weak heart… Anyways, you wanna get breakfast tomorrow? With me?”
“Of course I would want to!” Daniel agreed too excitingly, eyes brightening.
“Great, text you later, I gotta take a shower too…”
Daniel pouted, making Seongwu more reluctant to end the call, but he had to.
“Niel bye!” Seongwu flashed a pretty smile before ending the call.
This Seongwu is really cute… How am I going to survive school with him? Daniel pondered and sighed.
Daniel went onto Instagram, searching for Seongwu’s profile, he couldn’t get enough of looking at Seongwu.
There it is. It was the first profile that appeared when Daniel typed ‘ong’ in the search bar, no surprise.
Seongwu’s Instagram profile was pretty neat, just like Seongwu‘s physical appearance. Overall, his feed had a white aesthetic, giving off minimalistic vibes. He had some selcas that were slightly filtered so to blend in with the feed, not to make his face stand out. His poses were so natural, devoid of any form of awkwardness, anyone would think he’s a model just by looking at his pictures.
Well, technically he was. Back in Incheon, he had modelled for numerous brands, such as home shopping websites, and online fashion catalogues, which were locally based.
Seongwu took up modelling as a part-time job while juggling with his studies at his previous school, the salary had made his wallet thicker and his bank account balance had more zeroes, but he chipped in some money for his new apartment in Seoul, so that his parents need not to spend so much money on him, lessening their financial burden. His family lived comfortably, they never had any difficulty when it comes to money, because of the fact that they all have good saving habits, or maybe too thrifty, as per what Seongwu would usually say if he were to share about his family.
Daniel felt like a complete creep when he thought of screen capturing Seongwu’s selcas.
“There’s nothing wrong with it...right? Just like saving the pictures of my favourite idols?” He tried to convince himself. He still did it nonetheless.
He created a new album in his phone gallery, ‘Ddeongwu’, where he moved the screen captures to.
—
kakaotalk
jisungie
You
Hyung~ I’m not meeting you guys in the morning
I’m getting breakfast with Seongwu
jisungie
okay then… u lose out on free gummies tho
You
What sort of bribery is this >:(
jisungie
i’m kidding, go have fun with seongwu, it’s good to get closer with ur seatmate,
makes pair/group work less fussy
You
Alright, good nites hyung
—
Seongwu woke up the next morning, doing the same old routine.
He did something out of his usual routine, though.
He took two packets of banana milk out of his refrigerator before he left his house — one for himself, another for Daniel, of course.
Since it was earlier than the usual time he took the bus, there were more vacant seats than usual when he boarded the bus. He took his seat that was next to the window, and placed his bag on the seat next to him, reserving a seat for Daniel as he had learned that Daniel would take the same bus too.
—
The bus stopped as someone flagged for the bus at a bus stop, to signal to board. A tall, broad-shouldered student boarded the bus. As to Seongwu’s expectation, it was indeed Daniel. Seongwu immediately waved to Daniel when he recognised the bunny-tooth smile. He took the bag and placed it on his lap, then tapped the empty seat to get Daniel to take that seat.
“G’morning, Seongwu hyung. Did you have a good sleep last night?”
“Yeah, I did! I dreamed of being a photographer, going to Santorini and taking beeeeeeeautiful pictures there. Ah, I’d really love it if I could go there,” Seongwu was all smiles, really excited to share about his perfect dream.
“Wow, I learn a new thing about you, that sounds like a great hobby. Do you actually do it as a hobby?” Daniel tried to make it seem like it was new information to him, clearly knowing about Seongwu’s hobby after stalking his Instagram feed.
“I’ve been doing it for about four years already. Although I don’t have the money to get a high-end DSLR, I do own a gorgeous camera which is also affordable and takes nice shots. I have a blog dedicated to my hobby and also upload some onto my Instagram. Oh, by the way, do you have one? I’ll follow you! Pass to me your phone.”
Daniel without hesitation passed to Seongwu his unlocked phone. Seongwu went into his Instagram and searched for his own profile.
“Oh! You’re already following me? Since when? Your profile isn’t on public and your profile picture isn’t even you. Why didn’t you tell me so? I would’ve returned the follow,” Seongwu was pleasantly surprised that Daniel had been following Seongwu.
“Uh……….yesterday? I don’t really like putting my Instagram on public as I post stuff that I would only like my friends to see. I don’t wanna be like a popular cat page, you know.”
And the duo continued talking and bickering around for the remainder of their bus journey to the bus stop near their school.
—
They’ve had their fill for breakfast, and they began to walk towards the school gates to enter their school.
“Hey guys!” a familiar voice called out, and quick footsteps were heard, which were getting closer to Seongwu and Daniel.
Daniel immediately recognised Jisung and waved enthusiastically to him, who was panting although he sprinted for a relatively short distance, noticing the absence of the younger guy, Daniel asked, “Where’s Woojin?”. Seongwu greeted Jisung with a smile.
“After we ate, he realised that he forgot to bring out his mathematics textbook from home, so he ran back home to get it. Not gonna cover his ass if he comes late,” Jisung answered Daniel’s enquiry. Daniel then nodded in response.
They walked into the school campus together and talked about what they had for breakfast, how did they spend their time after school. Jisung asking about the new kids’ adjustments to Seoul and the school, and so far how many schoolmates have they conversed with, accompanied with some gossiping where Jisung tells them whoever’s had 4 partners at once, who are the ones receiving numerous love letters underneath their desks and in their lockers, the bullies in school, typical teenager gossip.
They bumped into Jinyoung and Daehwi, the duo goes to school together like it’s a daily routine. The group walked in two rows, Seongwoo and Daniel in front, Jisung, Jinyoung, and Daehwi at the back. Daehwi gave a side-eyed glance to Jisung and raised his brows, to which Jisung returned with a nod, acknowledging Daehwi’s suspicions about Seongwoo and Daniel.
They all giggled and bantered their way to their classrooms, where they began another energy-draining school day.
—
The group of friends that gather for meal breaks have all agreed (unbeknownst to Seongwoo and Daniel) during their lunch break that Seongwoo and Daniel are not in love with each other yet , but they definitely find each other attractive and do look like a good match akin to how a starch molecule fits into the active site of an amylase. and that they shall monitor the duo's progress before deciding to intervene.
The aforementioned duo returns with their food trays filled with their lunch, casting curious glares and furrowed their brows at the rest of the group that had suddenly gone silent at the knowledge of their return. Seongwoo and Daniel brushed it off by making facial expressions that said “Well, whatever,” and began eating, facing each other across the table.
Seongwoo picked up a piece of breaded shrimp with the metal chopsticks he brought from home (Seongwoo uses utensils he brought from home so to be environmentally friendly , at least that’s what he told his mum) from Daniel’s plate, “Do you mind? You can’t have it, right?”
Daniel’s eyes widened slightly, surprised to how Seongwoo knew about his food allergy, and then shook his head in response to Seongwoo, “How did you learn about my allergy? I’m honestly surprised because I don’t tell people about it since no one would ask,”.
“Ah, you have forgotten about it. You told me during our call last night! Scatterbrain,” Seongwu mocked at Daniel’s forgetfulness and gently slapped his arm that laid out on the table. Daniel’s eyes looked down and he jutted out his lower lip, faking a pitiful pout at Seongwoo and caressing the spot where Seongwu had playfully hit. Seongwu ruffled Daniel’s jet black locks after witnessing such an adorable sight.
They went back to happily eating their lunch, of course, the rest of the group did, too.
—
fast forward to a month later
Mid-term tests are around the corner. Being the total opposite of academically-inclined, Daniel had been staring at his textbooks blankly for the past 30 minutes, wasting away a perfect Friday night, he doesn’t make his own notes either. He brought his hands to his hair and ruffled it violently in frustration. Rooney, his orange tabby, seemed to realise that her owner (or brother, according to Daniel himself) was clearly in distress. She jumped onto his desk and brushed her head against his arms, to elicit pets from Daniel, which she knew would be good enough to lighten whichever nasty mood he was having.
As expected, Daniel’s hand had lifted off reflexively from his ruffled hair to Rooney’s head, petting her lovingly, while she purred and meowed.
Daniel’s free hand roamed his desk for his phone, picking it up to call “ Lord Seongwu ”.
Daniel knew he would be his hotline for a study buddy, after finding out that Seongwu apparently scored very well for class quizzes, when asked how he studied, he revealed that he made notes and also studied them often bits by bits with any short period of time he had, such as during commutes back and fro school and queuing for food. Maybe Daniel would begin to do better in school if he actually used the time he had with Seongwu on studies instead of babbling about games that Seongwu would never play.
“Seongwu-ya… help me… I’m about to die from procrastination,” Daniel whined into his phone.
“What do you want me to do about it, like hit you on the head with the thickest textbook we have to get you to be productive for once? (Chuckles) Oh, the biology one, I wouldn’t mind,” Seongwu responded wittingly.
“Noooooooooo, come over to my place, study with meeeeeeeee, you could cuddle with my kitties,” Daniel dragged his words to add a tinge of cuteness.
“Cats? Oh hell yeah, I’m coming over right now, cook a gooooood bowl of ramen for me,” Seongwu spoke in a higher pitch, with an excited tone.
—
“knock knock.”