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Bad boy.
Yeah, that was Chan. Totally. He wasn’t quite sure when that rumour about him started, but he could only assume it was probably because he would show up to classes always wearing some variation of an all black outfit, topped with his favourite leather jacket and chain necklace. So yeah, of course everyone begun to thought that he was that kind of guy. A bad boy, that unfortunately, all the girls seemed to love. So much, that they’d chase him after class to try to talk to him.
Which is why he was getting chased by a horde of girls today, too.
Thankfully for Chan, he was much faster than the average person. Which was just another thing to add to that bad boy image. He would typically outrun the girls and hide in a random room until they passed by, but it seemed as though the girls had teamed up and were guarding the empty classrooms he would’ve hid in. Each classroom he passed by on his escape run had a few girls waiting at the door.
Where to now? The only place left he could think of was the library, which had a no running rule. If he was going to hide there, he had to be quick. Taking a look behind him, it looked as though he had lost them during his frantic run around the building. Though knowing them, they’ll still be searching for him for a while. Hurriedly rushing into the library and gently closing the door behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief. Just gotta find somewhere to hide for now, then.
It had been a while since the last time he paid a personal visit to the school’s library, especially now with the group of girls he had to run from. He was always in a rush to escape the horde after classes that he never really had the time to come back here to settle in a good novel. And man, he missed that feeling of getting lost in a good book. Maybe he’d try to sneak in here more often to read again.
Walking through the familiar fiction aisles, he recalled the days that he did come here regularly — there was a cute, yet quiet boy always sitting in a bean bag next to him, engrossed in his own book. He couldn’t recall the boy’s name, or if they ever did exchange names, but his presence was always something Chan enjoyed. He thought of them as reading buddies, even if they didn’t really know each other. It was just nice seeing a familiar face everyday. Wonder if he still visits.
Reaching the end of the aisle, he made his way towards the taller shelves in the back. If he remembered correctly, it was around here...
Lost in his thoughts and memories, he tripped over something that elicited a soft ‘ow’, but managed to stumble his way out of a face-plant.
Safe!
Wait. ‘Ow’?
That didn’t come from an object.
Whipping his head towards what he had tripped over, his eyes met a familiar face, who simply blinked at him slowly, like an owl. It took a second for Chan to register what just happened, and who he was looking at.
His eyes darted to the familiar, beat up bean bag before looking back to the boy sitting in it, finally connecting the dots. Oh shit.
That was not how he wanted to reunite with his old reading friend.
A soft, yet slightly deadpan voice snapped him out of his thoughts, “...Are you okay?” the boy asked. He wore an oversized sweater that made his hands barely peek out from underneath as he held a book, and frankly, it made him look tiny and cozy in the bean bag. Cute.
“A-ah… Yeah! I’m fine, just fine,” he managed to stutter out. “But oh my gosh, I’m so sorry for tripping over you, what about you?” Blood rushed to Chan’s cheeks, his ears turning red. So much for that 'cool bad boy' image. He was a mess.
The brunette burst out into soft giggles. And boy, were his giggles the cutest thing he had heard. He almost melted at the sound of them.
“Yeah, I’m fine. You tripped over the edge of the bean bag, which I didn’t even think was possible,” he said in between giggles.
Chan turned several shades pinker, burying his face in his hands as he crouched down, silently groaning to himself. Definitely not the cool first impression he wanted to make.
He let out of soft sigh before sitting down with his legs crossed. He leaned forward, propping his arms up so he could rest his chin in his palms. He simply stared at the cute boy in front of him for a few moments before realizing. “Oh! I’m Chan, by the way.”
The boy nodded, setting the book down. “I know,” he paused, “the school bad boy, right?” he giggled at his own remark before continuing, “I’m Minho.”
It was just a pause, but Chan hoped that he really did remember him from back then. Chan was about to ask, when a set female voices entered the library.
“Maybe he went in here!”
“What? No way…”
“Yeah, what kind of bad boy would go to the library?”
The last comment was followed by a chorus of giggles.
Chan frantically grabbed onto anything nearby that he could hide behind, which happened to be Minho and his ridiculously oversized sleeve, and pulled him closer.
Except, he pulled a bit too hard, and Minho stumbled his way into Chan’s lap with his head finding his way on the blonde’s shoulder.
“I don't think he’s in here. Let’s go,” a voice said, followed by the library doors clicking shut.
Chan finally let out a sigh of relief, only then realizing the position the two were in. Ah. Minho was almost hugging him like this.
“A-ah! Sorry, I was just hiding from… them,” he stuttered, his cheeks flushing pink once again as he let go of Minho’s sleeve. The other finally back away from Chan’s shoulder, hiding his face as he looked away behind his sweater pawed hand. His ears were visibly red, and Chan could feel his own ears burning too.
The two sat in silence for a while. Except, Minho didn’t move out of Chan’s lap, which made it hard for Chan to stop blushing furiously and for his heart to stop pounding. He was sure at this distance and in the silence that Minho could hear it.
“U-uhm… Minho? You can go back to your beanbag,” the blonde managed to squeak out.
“Ah. Right,” the other mumbled, popping back and sinking into the beanbag behind him.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Minho spoke, “I don’t get why they think you’re a bad boy. You’ve always been a big softie and nerdy, especially with the books you read. You just read a lot in general. ”
Chan nodded, agreeing. He was definitely a sucker for cute romance stories or a good sci-fi novel. He recalled that when he came to the library regularly he would always had one of the two genres in hand.
Wait. Read?
He… remembered him? A smiled peeked out from the corner of his lips as he looked at Minho in the eyes. Minho gave him a sly smile in response.
“You’re not so bad, bad boy,” Minho teased, winking at the other.
Chan’s heart skipped a beat. Now where in the world did that come from?