Work Text:
“Good morning,”
Meet Jisung.
Full name: Han Jisung.
Age: 18.
Birthday: September 14.
Height: 5’6—5’7 on a good day.
Current occupation: High school senior, being a menace to society.
Fun facts: Definitely failing math, drinks the pink monster before bed four times a week, will always complain about having to walk to school.
Jisung throws up a peace sign when he comes walking down the small path leading from his house down to the sidewalk. A pair of dark sunglasses rest on the bridge of his nose, the hood of his sweatshirt is pulled over his hair. He waits a little for an answer; which comes as soon as he comes into contact with his friend in the form of two shoulders bumping together.
“Good morning,”
Meet Felix.
Full name: Lee Felix.
Age: 18
Birthday: September 15.
Height: 5’7. Has accepted he will never become taller.
Current occupation: High school senior. Head secretary in the unofficial official gossiping club.
Fun facts: Definitely responsible for 90% of Jisung’s impulse control, friends with about everyone in his grade and all of their friends, the human embodiment of the sun, trades gossip for homework answers.
The smile on his lips looks lazy when he looks up from the ground. The cap on his head throws shade on his face, the freckles spread on his cheek seemed to glow a little like stars. Small strands of dark hair stick out from underneath the black cap, his T-shirt is neatly ironed and the skintight jeans are folded twice at the ankles. Compared to Jisung, Felix looks very proper, well the bar isn’t very high—to be fair.
“Why do you look like shit?” Felix chuckles a little, they had begun their walk from home towards their school, walking at an identical pace; right foot first, left foot second. Jisung kicks at rocks on the ground while Felix patiently waits for his answer. “Slept so fucking terrible,” Jisung throws another side glance at Felix, something that goes unnoticed; eyes completely invisible thanks to the glasses. “I fell asleep at like 2 AM, and then!” Jisung throws his hands in the air and shakes his head, the annoyance in his voice ring clearly when he speaks, “Then I had a horrible dream about you know who ,”
“Oh, do tell,”
“Well basically, I found myself in this room together with him, and we were like fighting and stuff, and then we ended up being in some brutal Saw situation,”
Jisung speaks with much animation, waving his hands around and yelling. Every now and again he balls his fist as if he is cursing someone; causing waves of laughter to leave his friend.
A big red building comes within their eyeshot, four stories tall, probably in need of a renovation. Jisung takes off his glasses, throws them in his backpack. It’s uncareful, no case and all, but he’s done it a million times, and will only stop once they actually break or scratch.
“So that was it, Hyunjin and I had to pretend to be best friends to make it out alive, woke up at 5 literally drenched in sweat, couldn’t fall back asleep.”
Jisung and Felix laugh, Jisung mostly in disbelief, Felix mostly at his friend, “you are the only person to wake up from a dream sweating because you dreamt of someone you dislike,” the freckled friend comment, the other shakes his head, waves his hands like what Felix said is completely outrageous. “Disliked is an understatement! Hate! You don’t understand.”
The pair of friends stop in front of Felix’s locker, the boy glance around him; “I do understand, everyone does Jisung,”
It only takes a second for Jisung to follow where his friend is looking, Felix’s dark eyes look a figure up and down, Jisung narrows his eyes. The hallway is big, you could probably put seven or eight people shoulder to shoulder and still fit them perfectly fine between the lockers.
Felix sighs, he can hear Jisung’s knuckles cracking.
As the figures come closer the hallway shrinks, suddenly it feels like you can’t even breathe without elbowing each other in the ribs.
Meet Hyunjin.
Full name: Hwang Hyunjin.
Birthday: March 20.
Age: 18
Height: 5’10”5 (Yes that half-inch is incredibly important, he will be offended if you call him 5’10)
Current occupation: High school senior, textbook popular guy.
Fun facts; Social and outgoing, incredibly charismatic, once you know him he’s one of the nicest people you can possibly meet, Jisung’s arch nemesis.
Let’s take a look at that last fun fact, Jisung’s arch nemesis. Well, Jisung is Hyunjin’s too, no question about that. Their hatred for each other runs deep in their veins, it’s second nature. Their mothers were high school rivals—just like the two boys are now, they were destined to be enemies already in the womb, why their mothers dislike each other neither one of the boys actually know, not that it even matters. As early as kindergarten, when all they knew of each other was their first names, they would pull at each other’s hair and push each other off the swings as soon as the teachers looked the other way, whenever their teachers were called in because of the frequent fighting, they would simply pull their children aside and sneer; “don’t touch him, he’s dirty,”
Jisung and Hyunjin’s eyes meet, the tall one brushes his blond hair out of his face, rolls his eyes at Jisung and turns his gaze away from him. When they have passed, Hyunjin leans towards the friend at his side and says something.
Everyone within a 10 feet radius of them can feel the awkward tension build up, half of the people around them hold their breath hoping Jisung and Hyunjin won’t start something, the other half have their phones ready in hand and secretly hope they will do just that, add a little bit of drama to their boring Tuesday morning.
“Bitch,” Jisung mutters under his breath, Felix pushes his shoulder and sighs again, “don’t be dramatic, he’s just walking,”
“Well he’s annoying when he walks,”
Felix wants to laugh, because the rivalry between the two classmates is pretty fun when they aren’t threatening fistfights or when they aren’t coming for each other’s throats. Felix really does find it amusing whenever his friend goes off on a 30 minute tangent about Hyunjin. Especially when Felix also has the great privilege of hearing the other side, he has at least four classes with Hyunjin’s best friend Seungmin.
Ah right.
Meet Seungmin.
Full name: Kim Seungmin
Birthday: September 22.
Age: 18.
Height: 5’10.
Current occupation: High school senior, president of the unofficial official gossip club.
Fun facts: Will trade homework answers for gossip if your name is Lee Felix, if your name is anything else it costs 10$ (Jisung would buy it if Seungmin wasn’t associated with Hyunjin). Very smart, knows just about everything about everyone and everything, probably knows where you were yesterday, who you were with and what you talked about.
“Are you gonna tell Hyunjin you became besties in your dream tonight?” Felix asks, and takes out the last book from his locker before following Jisung, who is already marching towards his own locker.
“Over my literal dead body, won’t give him the satisfaction,”
“You really think he’s gonna be satisfied if he finds out you are dreaming about him?”
“Oh you should just know,”
Truly, Felix should just know.
4th period is the best and only period for Jisung to visit the bathroom, during the first period there are way too many newly awake students; doing their makeup and fixing themselves in front of the mirror (even if the lightning sucked and it was crowded). Lunch period is unofficially reserved for the stoners, they are fun to talk to but only really if you need a break from reality and a deep conversation about existence. During the last period, the bathrooms are always filled with students wanting to escape class for a second before school ends, like another second dealing with teachers will push them over the edge.
4th period though, completely empty. Jisung doesn’t really care that he doesn’t know why, he’s just happy that is the case.
Fun fact: It’s probably because a third of the lights are broken and a freshman girl swore she saw a rat in the girls' room once. Jisung can’t even say he’s surprised, and if there is one rat in the girls’ bathroom, there is a kingdom of them in the boys’. Going there alone is thus not preferred. Death by rat is quite embarrassing.
He bends down carefully, glances underneath the stalls, the first one is empty; so is the second one; under the third one he could spot a pair of feet pacing—the heel tapping the floor with impatience.
The feet stop, the stranger faces the door; Jisung can clearly hear that whoever is in there sucks in a breath.
A second later the stall door swings open, on the other side a guy stands with arms crossed and his mouth in a frown, he is 5’10”5 and brushes blond hair out of his face.
“Took you long enough,”
“Payback for rolling your eyes at me this morning,”
Hyunjin rolls his eyes for a second time, takes a step back so that Jisung can enter the stall with him, the door shuts behind them both with a slam.
They don’t leave another second for conversation, knowing very well it might end up in a fight—despite the reason for them being here right now.
Jisung tiptoes, drags the hood off his head—Hyunjin bends down slightly to reach better, when their arms wrap around each other it is with slight caution and awkwardness—even if it itches in them both to just claw and scratch.
It’s not romantic the way they kiss, it can never be; pure physical attraction, an outlet for needs they simply can’t find somewhere else. Hyunjin would never in his life admit it, but he’s actually never met a better kisser than Jisung, and he has met quite a few. Jisung isn’t much different, he doesn’t have as many people to compare Hyunjin to, but they are all definitely not in the same league. They could never be the same as Hyunjin’s lush lips, heavy breath, and sweet perfume.
Jisung pulls away, takes a deep breath. His lips are swollen and red, Hyunjin’s hands are still on his cheeks and his eyes are unmoving.
“I dreamt about you tonight,”
A smile spreads on Hyunjin’s face, it’s proud—satisfied.
Jisung was right, he just wishes he can tell Felix.
“Not surprised, why wouldn’t you? You can just admit you think of me all day every day.” His eyes close and the smile grows, Jisung finds it absolutely insufferable.
“Fuck you,”
With a laugh and a push Jisung's back hits the stall door, Hyunjin’s hands land on either side of his face. They lock lips again—nothing tastes better than a kiss laced with pure hatred.
Their rivalry started early, before they were born even—this, whatever this is, started way later.
End of their junior year, a mutual friend had a birthday celebration, made the mistake of inviting them both. Maybe Hyunjin accidentally stumbled into the same bathroom as Jisung when the latter had forgotten to lock the door. Maybe they got into a heated argument, and maybe Hyunjin lost his patience and decided that the only way he could shut Jisung up was by kissing him.
Not a mistake on his part—25 minutes later they left the bathroom one at a time, hair askew and lips glossy and swollen, small red bruises forming on the skin by the collar of their shirts.
Don’t get them wrong, they hate each other, but they can appreciate that the other is a good kisser. So every other day, since their first time and all, they have met in the boys' bathroom on the third floor, during 4th period, Hyunjin always goes in first, Jisung follows—makes sure they are alone, and then he enters the third and last stall.
That’s where they are now,
“What time is it?” Jisung gasps for air, whispers. Hyunjin takes the phone out of his back pocket, “11:25,” He mumbles, leans in for another kiss, but Jisung turns his head and accidentally lets it land on his cheek instead. Something about it makes them both recoil and cringe—it ends up feeling a hell of a lot more intimate than intended.
“Gotta go back, you leave first,” Jisung whispers carefully, nodding towards the door behind him. Hyunjin nods too, and agrees.
They don’t kiss again or anything, it can no longer be blamed on the heat of the moment, anything now will be way too romantic, way too intimate. Before Hyunjin leaves, he fishes out a small pack of gum from his pocket, opens it, and holds it in front of Jisung’s face. His nose is scrunched and no longer attached to Jisung he looks pretty disgusted.
“Your breath stinks,”
Jisung gasps, offended, hurries to take out a chapstick from the pocket on his hoodie. “Ok Mr. Sahara Desert,” He then motions to Hyunjin’s lips, “Kissing you feels like kissing glass ,”
Fun fact: They both lie a little. They can’t get enough (whether they choose to admit it or not).
With a grimace Hyunjin leaves, Jisung locks the stall door after him and waits two minutes before he leaves himself, checking himself in the mirror, brushing the hair into place and splashing water on his cheeks to dampen the intense red color, before leaving the bathroom. He hurries back to his classroom before his teacher goes to find him himself. Jisung sits at the desk in the back, apologizes for taking so long, and peaks at the board in front to see how much he has missed.
Something, someone , suddenly blocks his vision—a big smile, a head leaning towards him.
“Hyunjin was kissing someone in the bathrooms, just right now” Felix absolutely beams.
Alarms begin to blare in Jisung's head, his mind starts running, he wonders what question to ask first to raise the least amount of suspicion.
“Who told you that?”
“Secret source,”
So Seungmin, Jisung pretends he doesn’t know that Felix and Seungmin probably have a text conversation as long as the Bible, that contains gossip and gossip only.
“And you believe that, just like that?” Jisung looks down at the papers in front of him, pretends he knows what he’s doing. Felix jumps a little bit closer.
“So basically Ennis walked into the bathroom on the third floor and it was obvious someone was making out in there, he said they were loud, so he just turned on his heel and waited outside the bathroom cuz you know awkwarrrrddd to listen to someone make out while you try and pee, right?” Felix talks quickly and hushed, with every word he comes an inch closer. “And then a few minutes later Hyunjin came out and his lips were all red and he was like fixing his hair while coming out, Ennis wanted to linger and see who the girl was but when Hyunjin saw him he— apparently —looked very shocked, so he started a conversation with Ennis and walked with him back to their classroom, and then Ennis told my source.”
Felix looks to be very proud of the information he has just presented, he waits patiently for Jisung to answer him.
“I—I call bullshit—definitely bullshit— no one would willingly kiss Hyunjin, much less in some musty boys bathroom.”
“Whatever,” Felix rolls his eyes at him, turns back to his own things. He waits 30 seconds, before turning back to Jisung. “You know…I’ve heard you know who isn’t exclusive to girls, you know who is shameless enough to kiss a guy in a musty boys' room? Another guy ,”
Jisung gazes down at his paper again, it’s just as uninteresting now as it was five minutes ago.
“You know I don’t like when you talk about things like that. Even if it’s Hyun— you know who .” He’s quiet and serious, Felix notices the small mistake he’s made—especially considering he basically mentioned the name of his arch nemesis in a sentence without insulting and cursing. Felix nods and apologizes almost soundlessly, before facing the front of the classroom once again.
Jisung attempts to listen to his teacher, he really does. But the lead in his pencil breaks after just a minute or two, and he doesn’t have a sharpener, so he just hopes his fantastic brain will remember everything that’s being said right now.
Except he stops listening almost immediately after that. Mind wandering far, Jisung obviously knows that Hyunjin has some sort of interest in guys—Jisung is the living proof of that. But Jisung hates, hates when people talk about other people behind their back about who they like, he hates it more than he hates Hyunjin. So. A lot.
Jisung is 18 now, which means it was five years ago he kissed a boy for the first time. Crazy. He and his family lived overseas for a year, only moved back when Jisung was supposed to begin high school. During that year a lot happened, he entered puberty, his voice cracked, he grew probably six inches in one month (and hasn’t grown since) and he developed a real crush for the first time.
Poor little Jisung. Such emotions were too cruel for the young and innocent boy.
It was just one kiss—a kiss that people weren’t meant to see that people saw. Then it was a week of “Did they really kiss?” and another one with “Did Jisung really kiss him?” a third with “Is he really into guys?”.
The rest of the year was filled with what you now in hindsight would probably call cruel teasing—Jisung always defended himself, said it was nothing but baseless rumors, said it was all bullshit.
But it was always a “No I don’t wanna sit next to Jisung, what if he kisses me,” or “eww dude don’t touch me, cooties,”
It was just cruel teasing, even if Jisung sometimes dried off tears and couldn’t fall asleep without hugging his mom because he didn’t like it when he found out people talked about him behind his back. Especially not when it was about who he liked or who he wanted to kiss.
Therefore, when he came home, he decided to tell no one , absolutely no one . Except for Felix (which was more or less an accident after going on a long rant on how attracted he is to Ryan Reynolds).
Felix knows he’s self-conscious, knows nothing makes his skin crawl more than hearing the words “what, are you gay?”
Jisung glances up from his notebook again. 15 minutes have already passed, Jisung will most definitely not remember what his teacher has said, but it’s okay—he’ll get notes from someone else on the way out. He would ask Felix, but considering he probably gets 75% of his homework answers from Seungmin, there’s no point in it.
“Watch where the fuck you are going,” Jisung sneers.
Hyunjin bumps shoulders with him, act like he never even saw Jisung, motioning at the top of his head “ you’re so short, how could I possibly see you?” Hyunjin laughs a little when Jisung huffs—obviously stunned, it’s unusual he doesn’t have anything to come with. With everyone else around them in the minuscule locker room, many eyes are on the pair.
They only stare at each other for a few more seconds, before Hyunjin turns around and peels his shirt off, hurries to change into the signature blue P.E. shirt.
“Wow wow wow,” the guy next to Hyunjin pokes his chest, the shirt is not even over his head yet. “That chick left that on you?” It’s a stray hickey, the only evidence left that someone has touched Hyunjin. Jisung spots it too, knows he is the one who left it there, to him someone could have just taken a black marker, circled it, and written: “Jisung was here.”
On his way out of the locker room, when he passes Hyunjin, he makes a deal out of sniffing the air. Turns to Hyunjin, grimaces; “Do you need gum Hyunjin? Your breath stinks all the way over here,”
They play soccer, every time Hyunjin happens to be close Jisung aims for his shins instead of the ball; Hyunjin trips the other not one, not twice, thrice.
The teacher blows their whistle seven times in total during a 30 minute, mind you, playful soccer match, to remind Jisung and Hyunjin that they are on the same team .
When Hyunjin arrives at home that evening a note lies buried deep in his bag, it doesn’t have to have a name written on it for him to know who it is, the handwriting is messy and hurried and obviously written in secret.
“Bathroom tomorrow, 1 pm”
Doesn’t have to mention that it’s the boys' bathroom on the third floor, the time is a surprise—Hyunjin understands though, it’s like Jisung wants to throw people off their track, afraid someone will catch them, Hyunjin’s gut feeling tells him he’ll never see Jisung during 4th period again.
Jisung peaks under the first stall door, it’s empty, so is the second one—he spots a pair of familiar shoes. Instead of entering the third stall with Hyunjin—he enters the second one.
“I can’t believe you let people see you,” Jisung whispers from between the walls.
“How could I have known he heard us, don’t blame me— who’s the one that’s always loud as fuck?”
“Well tell Seungmin to not run his mouth so much, Felix knew before I was even back to class,”
“Shut up, like Felix wouldn’t have found out anyway,” Hyunjin mocks the way Jisung speaks, something that makes his blood boil and knuckles crack, his heart beats a million beats per minute. Jisung leaves his own stall in a second, and stands in front of the third stall. “Open the fucking door,” he calls out. There are doodles and scribbles covering the door, mostly love declarations and initials drawn into hearts (hearts that all have been crossed over).
The stall door opens, Hyunjin stands proud on the other side—he doesn’t give a fuck if anyone knows, if anyone finds out, and it’s obvious, or maybe if he does he just doesn’t want people to know it’s Jisung, because it’s Jisung you know? He lets Jisung enter before he locks the door behind him.
“I hate you so much,” Jisung mutters, his fingers digging deep into the skin on Hyunjin’s shoulders, he doesn’t wince at all. They lock lips, they kiss because fires burn, Hyunjin doesn’t care and Jisung wants to burst into tears because he hates every aspect of what's going on—except the kiss. The kiss is okay, the kiss is the only thing making him shut up and hold back the tears and not spiral down into hell.
“You are insufferable, I hate every single atom in your body,” Jisung talks against Hyunjin’s lips, he kisses him again after every word, he wants to punch him in the face.
“Then why do you keep coming back for more?” Hyunjin asks, it’s rhetorical, more to make it obvious that he thinks he is irresistible.
Jisung stops, his breath hitches.
In the silence they hear a door close.
Close?
Wait wait wait, for a door to be closed it has to open first, that’s how it works. That’s how doors work! Either someone else is in here, or they have just gone. Hyunjin drags his face away from Jisung, they are still attached—chest to chest.
“Oh—oh no.” Jisung mumbles, “oh no—no—no,” He isn’t sure if he wants to melt into a fetal position in the corner next to the toilet, peek over the stall walls to see if he can spot anyone, or simply set up camp here— never go back out.
“Calm down,” Hyunjin says,
“How the fuck can I calm down when—”
Hyunjin pinches his lips, stops another word from leaving his mouth. “I will go out and check, everyone already knows it’s me anyways, I’ll come to get you when no one is around, just wait.”
It must be an accident, Hyunjin kisses him on the way out. His voice is soft when he speaks, it’s a bit too compassionate and sweet. Jisung has to remind himself of everything about Hyunjin that makes him furious. None of them mention the kiss, which is probably for the better. That's a box they aren’t ready to open, a conversation not for today.
Maybe 5 minutes go by, Jisung sits on the toilet seat, he taps his heel on the floor, answers a text from Felix wondering where he is “shitting, jus give me a few,”
Then the door squeaks open again, someone clears their throat. “Jisung, no one is here, hurry out,”
Hyunjin stands in the door opening, he’s holding the door open; gazing out into the hallway every other second. Maybe, just maybe it’s because Hyunjin is stressed, maybe he forgot to put up this grim and aggressive facade, the one he often bears around Jisung, but his face is tranquil and when he and Jisung lock eyes there isn’t a single trace of hostility between them.
They have never been actually violent, the two of them; it’s tripping each other during PE and its harsh words in passing in the hallway, it’s an empty threat here and an empty threat there.
Jisung wants to punch the hostility back into Hyunjin‘s face, at least that’s an emotion he’s familiar with.
“Thank you,” he mumbles on the way out. It’s the most gratitude he can express.
Fun fact: Up until now Jisung and Hyunjin have been meeting each other pretty consistently for months. Every other day in the boys' bathroom on the third floor, fourth period.
Whether intentional or not, they stopped seeing each other. Jisung went there one day, but Hyunjin wasn’t there—the other did the same another day, there wasn’t the slightest indication that Jisung would show up, so he left five minutes later.
Without their semi—weekly encounters, believe it or not, being able to keep their fights at bay is hard for the two boys to do. This small fact makes it sound like their fighting ceased while they were meeting up, which it didn’t—it did though—help them overlook some aspects of each other they usually couldn’t stand.
And now, well it’s bubbling back to the surface. More vocal fights in the classroom, harsher looks in the hallway, constantly remembering that you are my arch nemesis and I am yours.
Three weeks go by, as peaceful as they can be when you spend half of your time in school fighting with someone else.
Jisung and Felix stand by Felix’s locker, deep in conversation. “Oh my fucking god and then yesterday we had a pop quiz, do you think I knew a single thing?” Jisung laughs and Felix does too, “I almost cried,” “You should have cried, that would have been funny,” “Don’t make fun of me,”
Jisung pulls the hood of his sweater over his hair after his friend asks if he ever brushed it this morning, Jisung blows raspberries at him and answers with a short and plain no. He rarely cares about things like that, hair out of place or wrinkly clothes.
Fun fact: Life goes by easier when you literally don’t give a fuck; Jisung is at least halfway there.
“I’m heading to history now, don’t miss me too much when I’m gone,” Felix sends a series of air kisses his way, Jisung catches every single one and pretends to throw them over his shoulder.
“Whatever, we have no classes together until lunch right?”
“Could meet up during free period though, if you want?”
“I’ll text you,”
“Mnmm, good luck having chemistry with you know who now, try not to throw acid at each other? You have been awfully annoying towards each other these last past weeks.”
Felix is already on his way when the last word of his sentence reaches Jisung, who only huffs, the urge to tell his friend to shut up rises, but his figure is far away when Jisung can taste the words on his tongue. He snorts, leaves towards chemistry, with you know who, it needs genuine mental preparation.
An arm lands on his shoulder, something weighs him down.
“Dave,” Jisung pushes out from between his teeth. The boy hanging off his shoulders is Dave.
Obviously.
Full name: Lee David (Lee Dave).
Age: 18.
Birthday: 28 April.
Occupation: High school senior, being annoying.
Fun facts: One out of two people Jisung knows who is actually shorter than him, might be mean but his existence gives Jisung the slightest ego boost, knowing he’s at least not the most annoying guy in the world. Has a small posse of friends who are at least as infuriating as him.
A posse of friends nowhere to be found. Interesting. Weird. Unsettling.
“I like your shoes,” Dave says, upfront, from nowhere.
“Thanks,”
“You wore them when you made out with Hyunjin, right? They are pretty unique, hard to forget,”
His smile is wide, the very opposite of nice. Jisung stops, he’s already a minute late for class, the hallways are already cleared. Should Jisung just deny it flat out? Dave is clearly right, and he knows it.
“Don’t touch me,” Jisung says, his lips seals shut again.
“Come on, don't be mean, is it a secret?”
Jisung hurries up, taking as long strides as possible with those short legs of his.
“Shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jisung can see his classroom, he has never been more excited to go to class.
“No! I just wanted to take a leak, walked into the bathroom, and heard well— you don’t want me to go into details, do you? Anyways, just took a quick peek under the stalls, I swear you’re the only person in school I’ve seen with those shoes!”
There’s nothing more Jisung wanna do than tell him to shut up again. He wants to tell him to never say a word to another living soul, he wants to beat him black and blue, he wants to throw up and then die. He does none of this. Instead, he shrugs Dave’s arms off his shoulder, throws him a nasty glare, and jogs to his classroom.
He apologizes to his teacher for being late, not that he actually cares, she scolds him and the next five minutes in class she talks about the importance of etiquette and always being on time and something something something something. It’s a lecture obviously targeted to a particular student who is always late.
Fun fact: Jisung has never once cared about such etiquette, a queen is never late, everyone else is just early.
For the next 45 minutes, Jisung is drilling his eyes into Hyunjin’s back, hoping the idiot will feel the burn through his clothes, just look back once .
Hyunjin doesn’t. Jisung curses him for being so fucking stupid.
The bell rings, their chemistry teacher preaches about how the bell doesn't dismiss them but she does, no one listens, of course.
“God you have to take up the entire fucking aisle with your bag,” Jisung mumbles when he’s by Hyunjin’s desk, it’s true that his bag is indeed taking up the very small space between the desks, but Jisung was able to walk over it when he came, can do the same now too.
Jisung’s palm lands flat on Hyunjin’s desk, he looks up at him slightly disgusted—as if Jisung's presence itself taints his view.
Jisung leaves the classroom, a minuscule sticky note lays in front of Hyunjin, he snatches it and puts it into his pocket the second he sees it.
4th period, bathroom as usual
Fun fact: Hyunjin really really likes Jisung’s handwriting, even if it’s always messy. Won't admit it to his face but he saves every single note Jisung has written to him for no other reason other than that he likes to admire the writing. He has a bunch of “ 4th period” s,“ at 11:15 ”s, and “ your breath stinks. c u later tho? ”s hidden in a drawer in his desk at home.
4th period, bathroom as usual.
Jisung regrets not specifying the time. 4th period is free today, he’s meant to study with Felix, but with a “sorry, can’t today” and nothing more he found himself in the musty bathroom not even ten minutes into the period.
God, Hyunjin might not even be here for another 30 minutes for all he knows.
He spends the first ten minutes on the toilet in the third stall, legs stretched and mind occupied with the game on his phone. It’s quite the only thing able to keep him sane.
The door creaks open two times in these ten minutes, but Jisung is confident none of them are Hyunjin, clearly, he’s still sitting in the stall alone. No Hyunjin to be seen. Fuck Hyunjin.
Three knocks on the stall door shake Jisung out of his unwavering focus, he’s on his feet instantly, he doesn’t say a word, but unlocks the door and is ready to greet Hyunjin with the complaint of taking so long.
“See, told y’all his shoes were so unique I could spot them in a crowd.” Dave’s smile is filled with cockiness and it’s unbearable. He’s followed by that posse of friends Jisung hates so much.
“Dave.”
“Waiting for Hyunjin?”
“No, I’m taking a dump,”
Jisung goes to close the door again, but Dave puts his arm in the gap and pushes it open.
“What’s your problem dude?” Jisung asks, but he’s afraid to meet the others' eyes. Dave’s two friends tower over him and Jisung can’t help but see them as two brainless lackeys, serving no purpose but to make Dave feel better about being a nobody.
“Wanted to talk about you and Hyunjin,” he says, weighing on his heels a bit, brainless lackey number one laughs a little.
“It’s so none of your business,” Jisung manages to push past them, but it’s unclear if they let him go past or if his willpower and strength are just at its’ max. It doesn't really matter because brainless lackey number two is standing like a wall in front of the door.
“I don’t need the saucy details, just curious about how you two got together…” with every word he’s backed one step closer into a corner. Soon enough he comes into contact with the tiles on the walls. They are cold. Goosebumps rise everywhere on his skin.
“We are not together. I hate his guts,”
“But you are still sticking your tongue down his throat,”
“Don’t talk about me like you know me,”
“I’m not, just observing facts,”
“Shut up,”
“No I don’t think I will,”
“Fuck off,”
Jisung has never been a fighter, he threatens Hyunjin every other day but the two have never been in a fight even remotely physical. Yet, pent up with frustration and anger; a surge of violence flowed through his body and with a scarily powerful push Dave’s back hit brainless lackey number one's chest.
His entire face turns red as if he’s been seriously offended. Half a second has time to pass before he’s back in Jisung's personal space. Hands gripping at the blue fabric of his hoodie, slamming Jisung's head against the wall behind him. Jisung pulls at Dave’s clothes too, or rather he pushes, tries to get away from him.
It’s accidental, at least Jisung thinks it is, but his knuckles crash with Dave’s cheekbone.
Fun fact: When you don’t know how to fight it hurts like hell to punch someone, faces are surprisingly hard.
And with a failed punch, Jisung meets his punishment. It’s just three punches, one on the nose, one lands straight on his cheek, and the third looks like a failed uppercut, it grazes the underside of his chin slightly—it’s enough for Jisung to bite his tongue and for his mouth to pool with blood.
Brainless lackey number two says something about “calming down” and “it’s not that serious.” Makes Jisung want to laugh, he’s not the one with blood running down both nostrils and a serious bruise already forming on the side of his face. Lackey number one grabs Dave by his arm, drags him back a little when he sees the short boy load up another punch. His fuze is basically nonexistent and whether this all started because of cruel teasing or a more sinister (and probably homophobic, Dave definitely muttered one or two slurs during the commotion) reason Jisung is actually not sure of, it clearly doesn’t matter either.
His stupid lackeys might be brainless but at least they keep Dave back, Jisung might have to thank them if anyone for finally pulling him away. Exiting the bathroom while Dave bitches about his cheek throbbing and how he didn’t expect Jisung to freak out like that .
The bathroom turns awfully silent, Jisung can only hear his blood rushing, his heart beating, the numbing pain spreading across his face becomes too apparent now.
Jisung spits into the sink next to him, it stains crimson, he spots actual splatters of blood on the yellow tiles that are on eye level with him, he winces, forgets about his face for a second—wets half a dozen of paper towels and begins to clean off stains from both walls, floor, sink, and face.
A series of “fuck” float through the air as Jisung throws one bloodstained paper towel in the trash after the other. It’s all fine, it’s cool. He’ll text Felix, tell him he’s going home, he can tell his parents he fell on his face skating. Sure he hasn’t touched that skateboard in like four months but they probably won’t question him.
The door creaks, Jisung hates that sound. He lunges for the stall door, but he manages to spot that it’s Hyunjin in his periphery.
“Jisung?”
Jisung's breath is heavy, he shuts the stall door behind him even if it’s just Hyunjin.
“Open the door,”
“No,”
“Seriously,” Hyunjin pushes on the door, Jisung never locks it and it doesn’t take much effort to open it, even if Jisung is half-heartedly fighting against it.
He slips into the stall. It’s the same stall they have been meeting in every other day for months but today it’s tiny, can barely breathe in it, Jisung backs into the wall again, away from Hyunjin as if he fears him.
“What happened?” Hyunjin reaches for his chin, angles it so he can see the shallow cut better, almost but not really dried blood stains on the tips of his fingers.
“Nothing,”
“ Who did this to you?” Hyunjin’s voice carries murderous intent, but for the first time in his life; it’s not directed towards Jisung.
What is Jisung supposed to say? That he fell on his face while skating? Makes him want to laugh—even if the situation doesn’t allow it.
Instead he cries. The tears roll down Jisung’s cheeks, they are big; they reflect the yellow luminous light above them.
Fun fact: Jisung isn’t a crier, never cries, not even to Titanic, and he watched it twice .
“Dave knows abo— about— us— us you know,” He points in between them, “I wanted to tell you immediately but I knew we wouldn’t be able to talk privately.” Jisung’s a stuttering mess, after every word something on Hyunjin’s face shifts. “And then he came here with his fucking friends and cornered me and I fucking panicked.”
It takes a second but then Jisung sees what it is, anger, like a fire that just has been set ablaze is raging within him.
Hyunjin pulls him into a hug that’s so quick Jisung doesn’t have time to process it even happened.
Then he’s off. His temper isn’t very good, believe it or not, it’s definitely the worst between him and Jisung.
“No— please don’t” Jisung pleads, following Hyunjin without questioning it. He knows where the tall boy is going.
The hallways are still empty, Hyunjin halts and asks, “Do you care if they know, really?”
Jisung thinks for too long, ends up just blurting out the answer that comes to mind, “No,”
The only answer Hyunjin really needed.
It doesn’t take long to find Dave and his stupid and brainless posse of friends, they are hanging out in the cafeteria, taking up a table in the corner, he has a girl by his side, pressing a small cola can to his cheek, from far away they can’t hear properly what she's saying, but they don’t doubt she’s babying him, filling his ego to the max. She is also the only girl to do this, Jisung wouldn't call her taste in men bad, it's just horrible, trashy, and appalling.
Hyunjin approaches them, normally, considering Hyunjin’s fair amount of popularity, they would all greet him with different levels of enthusiasm.
No, today Dave’s face pales, as does his dumb brainless lackeys. Even if it’s not as obvious. The girl is the only one who greets him with a sweet smile and uncaring voice, she probably doesn’t even know what has happened.
Out of breath Jisung reaches them too, mutters out “Hyunjin,” as if his helpless voice would convince Hyunjin to just turn around and let it be.
Hyunjin scrunches up the fabric of Dave’s shirt in his fist, he leaves an equally red bruise on the other side of Dave’s cheek, it’s more powerful, and it will definitely be a mark that stays for a week longer than the one Jisung left. Everyone around them gasps, of course, it comes out of nowhere, no one knows how to react. Dave the most. He’s so baffled that all he can say and mutter is incoherent words and sounds.
“Hyunjin,” Jisung sneers, reaching for the back of his jacket, to drag him back. He wants so bad to be angry, wants so badly to curse him out and tell Hyunjin to fuck off and not do this—but he can’t. It’s so hard to consider Hyunjin remotely as an enemy when this might be one of the top 3 nicest things anyone has ever done for him.
“I don’t want you to touch Jisung ever again.”
Dave raises to his feet in a split second, the girl by his side yelps and drops the can of cola onto the hard floor—something breaks and it spills all over the tiles by their feet. Dave looks ready to fight, his knuckles crack and turn white. If it isn’t for one of the brainless lackeys grabbing his elbow he probably would have lunged towards them before they had time to even take a breath.
Hyunjin grabs Jisung’s wrist without thinking, only looks back on Dave and his friends once before half walking half jogging out of the cafeteria, “Let’s go,” he says, like they aren’t already running. Dave shouts and cries out after them, they can both hear his shrill voice behind them, it never really trails off; a not-so-nice indication that Dave is maybe or maybe not stomping after them.
“Fuck your locker, let’s go!” Hyunjin repeats, like they haven’t sped up enough for them both to heave for air.
“Easy for you to say, at least you’re wearing a jacket!” Jisung’s lips are pressed together, Hyunjin is still holding his wrist, but it’s gentle and careful.
Fun fact: Hyunjin seems to genuinely care, it makes Jisung's stomach flip.
They run and they run and they probably look like maniacs, one still has blood smeared underneath his nose and the other has blond hair sticking to his forehead and bruised knuckles.
They finally stop in an alley two blocks from school. Jisung has never once run the mile in P.E. and he regrets it now, Hyunjin doesn’t look equally as disoriented, but he’s definitely out of breath. Jisung begins to open his mouth, but the frequent buzzing of his phone disturbs his train of thought.
Five unanswered messages, two missed calls.
“dave is having a breakdown in the cafe LMFAO” 9 minutes ago.
“god it would have been so fun 2 see,” 8 minutes ago.
Ah should he answer? He scratches his scalp and reads through them.
“U WEREW THERE? HELLO?” 6 minutes ago.
“HYUNJIN PUNCHED DAVE? U AND HYUNJIN HUH????” 6 minutes ago.
“OH so ur screentime is 14 hours a day and u decide not to answer me now. see u in hell.” 4 minutes ago.
Jisung’s sure it’s best not to answer.
He pockets the phone, squats down, and lets his head fall between his knees. Hyunjin leans against the wall next to him.
“I don’t want you to touch Jisung ever again,” Jisung repeats, letting himself both scoff and shake his head. He looks up at Hyunjin, thin eyes staring back at him. A few seconds pass before the latter averts his gaze, the tips of his turning bright red.
“Shut up,” Jisung is sure Hyunjin didn’t mean it in the way his mind is tricking him into believing, like almost lovingly, caring, whatever. No, it’s probably more like “no one is allowed to hate him more than me!”
“God I can’t believe I cried in front of you,”
“You looked kinda…”
“Don’t you fucking dare say cute.”
Hyunjin laughs a little, sinks down to Jisung’s level. ”I wasn’t. I don’t know what I wanted to say.” His voice is quiet, he draws shapes into the dust and grime on the ground. A circle and a heart. “I’m sorry…” Hyunjin continues, “maybe I shouldn’t have…punched Dave. He just drives me nuts. You don’t get how bad I wanted to put him into place when I saw you. Don’t get me wrong either, I hate you,” He snickers, Jisung too. “But I— don’t want you getting bullied and stuff.”
“‘Cause you’re the only one allowed to bully me?”
“Something like that.”
They resort to silence, the air turns awkward and tense, and Hyunjin wonders if he should tell a bad joke or make fun of Jisung's crying face; maybe it’s too soon, he doesn’t know. Then, out of nowhere (or not) Jisung sucks in a breath and opens his mouth.
“Thank you,”
Jisung turns to Hyunjin. Hyunjin turns to Jisung.
“But I hate you, I hope you die on your way home, don’t forget that.” Jisung defends, he stretches his legs and dries off the last remainders of blood and tears off his face. He’s ready to call it a day, simply go home, forget today happened, tomorrow he and Hyunjin will go back to hating each other like normal, they will bump shoulders in the hallway and curse at each other across the classroom. Jisung bumps his shoulder against Hyunjin’s, now.
“Oh my god— you wanna kiss me so bad you look stupid,” Hyunjin leans forward, away from the wall. Jisung backs away from him, hits the wall opposite where they sat, his heel hits a trash bag on the ground and he winces a little. Hyunjin follows every step he takes.
“Coming from you, I can literally see your eyes begging for it,”
They attach to each other for a second. Just enough for Jisung to pretend he’s standing in the musty boys bathroom on the third floor, under the nasty yellow lightning and always a little afraid someone will walk in on them. But everything is exactly like it should be, Hyunjin and Jisung detest each other—they just can’t get enough.
“Enough now,” Jisung says and pushes Hyunjin away from him. He dries off the stupid taste of Hyunjin off his lips. Jisung is about to say something else when he’s interrupted by the other’s phone ringing.
For some reason, Hyunjin answers.
“Me and Felix have Jisung and your stuff, where are you? We are coming.”
“Alley behind Orio Pizzeria,”
“You guys are going on my fucking nerves. All this tea you are sitting on and I can’t even talk about it just ‘cause I’m your best friend. Consider yourself lucky.”
Hyunjin mumbles out some incoherent response. Then Jisung and Hyunjin spend a good ten minutes in absolute silence, the former sits curled up against the wall again—freezing, while the other paces around and kicks every rock he sees, he thinks about offering up his jacket to Jisung, but that’s not what you usually do for your enemies.
“Explain!” Felix arrives first, throws the jacket on Jisung's face. “Cannot believe you are the secret girl Mr. Hot Guy has been kissing in the bathrooms!”
“Hey don’t call him hot, don’t give him the confidence,”
Hyunjin pushes his shoulder and tells him to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine, they argue for a second before Seungmin interrupts them with a cough, insinuating with his eyes that they have no choice but to tell them everything .
The four take up the entire sidewalk when they walk. Ultimately deciding to ditch the last few hours of school. Jisung and Hyunjin take turns explaining and going over details, most of it against their own wishes, only being able to talk about every kiss if they followed it up by exchanging an insult or two. Both Seungmin and Felix seem to love it, their fingers twitch as if they want to write down everything word for word, nodding and laughing.
It’s not so bad. Even if Hyunjin and Jisung end up parting with the promise to stay enemies (and with the unsaid promise to keep on meeting every other day in the musty boys' bathroom on the third floor, preferably during fourth period).
Seungmin and Felix stay up until 2 AM discussing the very interesting turn of events over text.
They make a bet to see how long it will take for their two friends to subdue their hate for each other. Seungmin believes it will take at least three months, Felix is much more optimistic, he is sure they will sit together at lunch at the end of the month.
(Fun fact: Felix wins the bet. The four of them do end up at the same table just after three weeks, after another few weeks they are seen holding hands when they think no one sees, after three months they can sometimes be seen kiss in the hallways instead of in the musty boys' bathroom, even if every kiss is still followed up by a no longer as serious insult.)