Work Text:
It hadn’t been love at first sight. It wasn’t like something out of a fairy tale where Dongheon knew immediately and undoubtedly that he was in love.
Instead, it had happened slowly, gradually over many months. Even the realization itself hadn’t come all at once, but in pieces, and there were weeks and weeks where Dongheon was hopelessly confused by what he felt for his junior and classmate, the bubbly, popular darling of their high school’s theater and drama club, Ju Yeonho.
They’re two years apart, Dongheon a senior and Yeonho a sophomore. Even before they had properly met, Dongheon had already known who Yeonho was, as Yeonho was something of a celebrity at their school, the sweet boy with the beautiful voice who was always given lead roles in the school’s musicals and who performed several times a year at school events and talent shows. Yeonho was exuberant and soft with big, innocent eyes and big, round glasses, always smiling and laughing, always loud and happy and bright.
Dongheon, on the other hand, was invisible most of the time, and when he wasn’t, it was because most of the other kids were afraid of him, Dongheon strikingly handsome but intimidating with his muscular body and his black leather jackets and his fierce, dark eyes. The truth was, Dongheon was actually quite shy, and quite sensitive, and he had never really learned how to make friends, and so he had always just kept to himself, quiet and withdrawn, always busy with poetry and lyrics and his greatest passion in life, music.
It was a passion that he and Yeonho shared, and it was why, despite all their differences, they had ended up in the same music composition course that their high school offered as an elective. Not only that, but they had been assigned as partners for the school year, and they had both been unsure in the beginning what to make of each other, cautious in those early moments when they politely introduced themselves and their eyes met for the first time.
But from there, they soon fell into an easy rhythm, and their friendship blossomed quickly. They were simply great together, their chemistry undeniable, and as the months passed and the seasons changed and they spent hours in class and after school working on song after song after song together, their friendship grew stronger and deeper.
Dongheon soon got to know a Yeonho that nobody else knew, a boy who was not only bright and talented but compassionate and kind, accepting and supportive, someone who never gave up, not even in their hardest moments. And Yeonho was so funny, too, free and relaxed with Dongheon in a way that he had never been before with anyone else, with a sharp wit that combined with Dongheon’s own playful sense of mischief and led to many work sessions between them often dissolving into seemingly endless rounds of rapid-fire jokes where they’d clutch at each other barely able to breathe from laughing so hard.
As for Dongheon, Yeonho got to know him for who he truly was, not the untouchable bad boy who didn’t need or want anyone else, but the gentle-hearted artist with deep thoughts and an even deeper heart who cherished the emotional connection that they soon developed with each other as they time and time again found themselves at each other’s houses in each other’s rooms working into the early hours of the morning while talking about anything and everything until there was nothing they didn’t know about each other, until they understood each other so well it was like they had been together for their entire lives.
And now, the school year is almost over, there’s only a few weeks left, and Dongheon knows it wasn't magic or destiny or any kind of grand cosmic force that led him to feeling this way. It was just the two of them, alone together for all those hours with their music. It was minute by minute, moment by moment that Dongheon fell in love with Yeonho.
And today is not any special kind of day, but Dongheon had decided the moment he woke up this morning that today he would tell Yeonho everything. Dongheon would bare his heart to the sweet boy with the beautiful voice who already held it warm and safe in his hands.
But as they sit beside each other in the empty music room long after classes have ended, Yeonho focused on the keyboard in front of them, playing a few chords and muttering to himself, the afternoon sunlight from the window shining down on him so he glows like an angel, Dongheon finds himself unable to say a word, unable to move a muscle as he stares at Yeonho with shaking eyes and his heart tumbling around in his chest, the intimidating senior with the black leather jacket and the handsome face at the moment resembling a soft and fragile kitten.
Yeonho feels Dongheon’s gaze and looks at him, a gentle silence falling between them, until Dongheon lets out a quiet breath, then reaches with both hands to cradle Yeonho’s face as he kisses him swiftly and softly and both of their eyes flutter closed, no words necessary for Dongheon to say what he needs to say, and it’s a moment that, for once, is exactly like a fairy tale.