Chapter Text
The last two weeks had flown by. After that evening at the park, Jisung and Hyunjin became close again. Everyone was shocked when the two walked into rehearsal hand in hand, laughing together about something one had said.
Mr. Park didn’t say anything, but he was immensely relieved when rehearsal began and it became obvious that the two had practiced their lines together. He had no idea what was ever the problem between the two, but was glad they had finally worked it out.
Mr. Park had pulled Hyunjin and Jisung aside after the last rehearsal before the performance, telling them about the play that would be held in the spring. Auditions were coming up in a few weeks after break. If they wanted, they could be the leads again, he told them with a smile.
When Jisung told Minho about this after the fact, as soon as he mentioned the name of the play Minho found it hilarious, bursting into laughter for a minute before he explained.
In the play, the two leads were mortal enemies.
Jisung told Hyunjin about this while they shared a cheesecake at the cafe. It was their favorite place to go together these days.
“And then you have to kill me!” Jisung had said dramatically while he waved a bit of cheesecake around on his fork. Hyunjin giggled for a moment, as he watched him.
“Let’s do it,” He smiled at his boyfriend, who grinned.
They were going to have so much fun with this.
* * *
As the crowd burst into thunderous applause, the cast lined up to take a bow. Hyunjin found himself standing next to Jisung, who took his hand and squeezed. Despite all of the last minute drama that usually accompanies school theatre productions, Hyunjin felt that everything had gone really well.
As the cast began to head offstage, Hyunjin glanced at Jisung, who smiled brightly at him, and suddenly they were seven years old again.
* * *
The sun shone brightly from above the playground, and he could hear the birds singing on that beautiful summer day.
Jisung raced over to Hyunjin as soon as he arrived at the playground. Hyunjin looked up, his face splitting into a grin as he saw Jisung running towards him. He held out his arms as the other crashed into him with a hug.
They laughed as they both fell over, the sand from the playground breaking their fall. The two were all knobby knees and bright smiles, free of any care in the world.
Hyunjin loved calling Jisung a little squirrel, pointing to his chubby cheeks as proof, and he named every squirrel at the playground after him. Whenever they got tired of chasing after the little Jisung squirrels, the two sat together on the swingset and watched them climb through the trees at the edge of the forest.
Then they would usually have a swinging competition to see who could swing higher, which Hyunjin normally won before Jisung took a flying leap off the swingset, launching himself across the park. Hyunjin always carefully got off the swing before chasing after him as he laughed.
Playing with Jisung at the park was Hyunjin’s favorite part of the day, and he looked forward to it all day at school. He told Jisung this once, and Jisung laughed happily before saying he felt the same.
What Hyunjin never told Jisung, though, was that whenever they played together Hyunjin felt like he really had butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. He didn’t know what that meant, but it was nice.
Their mothers always watched them from the park benches, smiling fondly as their kids played together. Best friends, they called them.
Hyunjin liked calling Jisung his best friend.
* * *
Hyunjin looked around at the cast around him, smiling as he saw all of their friends there with them. After the performance the whole group had decided they would get dinner together before having a movie night at Felix’s house.
Hyunjin was so happy as he thought about this, but his mind was brought back to the present, when Jisung pulled at his hand as he led the way offstage towards the rehearsal room.
“The whole cast gets cheesecake after the performance,” Jisung reminded him excitedly, “and we’re gonna be first in line!”
The End