Chapter Text
[11:23]
nikikitty : can you send me a picture? I want to prove to all of my friends that angels really do exist.
Sunoo’s phone buzzed during self-study hour, while he was looking over math problems with his friend and classmate Yang Jungwon. It was a good thing the teacher was absent during this period. He wasn’t proud of the sound he let out when his tired eyes registered what the text said, causing him to gasp. It caught the attention of his friend, who immediately looked up from his textbook.
“Sunoo hyung?”, he said, looking concerned behind his glasses.
Sunoo’s head immediately moved from the screen, which had now faded to black again, eyes wide.
“N-nothing!”
He hadn’t told Jungwon he had started talking to a guy. They had met online, however shady that sounded. It had only been about three weeks of constant texting at this point, and he didn’t want to share it yet. Too many instances of him being excited about a potential boyfriend, only to get ghosted a few days later. Now he wanted to play it safe.
Jungwon squinted at him, but eventually let it go, turning back to his textbook. Sunoo took the moment to grab his phone and put it into his blazer pocket, just in case. He had met Riki on an internet forum, and had started talking due to similar interests. Eventually, they had come to realise they were similar in ages, and that they went to schools in the neighbouring towns. After that, Riki asked him if he had other socials, and Sunoo had with some nerves shared his Instagram . His feed was pretty much just selfies and outfits, sometimes pictures of him and Jungwon, and food pictures. When he got a request from a private account that had a cartoon cat as profile, username nikikitty , he felt nervous. But when his follow was accepted and he got to finally see the face of the guy he had met so randomly, his heart had started beating for a whole other reason than just nerves. Riki was gorgeous . Brown hair falling down over his eyes, a good nose and plum lips. He didn't have that many pictures of his face, but the ones he had... Sunoo had written to the other in Instagram DMs immediately, and the rest of it was history.
Somewhere along the way, their messages had gotten flirty, and more often than not, Sunoo had to scream into his pillow when the other wrote something especially daring. Like now. Except he had no outlet for his fluster.
Sunoo swallowed, and threw a glance at his friend. Jungwon seemed focused on the math problems. Sunoo let out a breath, and reached for his phone.
When his phone lit up again, he managed to read it without making a sound, albeit struggling slightly. He glanced at Jungwon through his black bangs, and put his phone in his lap, unlocking it. He went straight to his messages, and the words gleamed up at him.
[11:23]
nikikitty : can you send me a picture? I want to prove to all of my friends that angels really do exist.
Sunoo licked his lips, thinking about what to respond. He couldn’t really snap a selfie at the moment. Without much hesitation, he opened his camera folder, and scrolled through the selfies he had there. He had overslept this morning, so he had no picture from today, but he chose the most current one from yesterday evening. It was a picture of him, lying on his bed in a white tee, smiling at the camera with his eyes almost closed. Good enough.
[11:28]
Me: I'm in class, will this do for now? Not sure if I can prove the existence of angels though. 👼🏻
As soon as he had pressed send, the message showed read. As if Riki had his chat open, waiting for him to reply. It made him smile.
A few seconds later, the response came through.
[11:29]
nikikitty : ahhhhh hyung thank u for blessing my poor eyes a literal angel
Sunoo had to try his best not to smile at that, and quickly typed a response.
[11:29]
Me : Now let me focus on my lecture before I’m caught, silly 😴😴
He let himself wait until Riki replied before putting his phone away. It came through within a matter of seconds.
[11:30]
nikikitty : oh, hyung, the delinquent 😈 texting in class 😈
nikikitty : talk to you later 🐥
He rolled his eyes, and exited the chat, slipping his phone into his pocket. When he turned his gaze up, he found himself staring right into Jungwon’s eyes. His friend had an eyebrow raised, looking suspicious.
Sunoo forced his face to stay neutral.
“What?”, he replied.
Jungwon squinted at him, but before he could say anything, the door was opened. Sunoo thanked his lucky star, as his friend turned his attention to the door, it was just one of their classmates returning from the bathroom, and he took that moment to dive his nose into his textbook. When Jungwon turned back, Sunoo refused to meet his eyes, and he heard a sigh as the other let it go.
He hoped his friend wouldn't push it, he wanted to wait before telling him about Riki and his big, fat crush on him.
***
Riki couldn’t help the wide grin that formed on his lips, as he saw that Sunoo did send him a selfie. He was currently in the cafeteria of his school, waiting for his hyungs to come join him. Yeah, his friends hadn’t actually asked to see a photo of Sunoo this particular time, even though they had been very curious about the “pretty boy” he kept gushing about. They were all very curious, but it was to be expected. Riki seldom got excited over things aside from dancing, and maybe a tv series now and then. Never people.
But how could he not be absolutely whipped? He smiled, looking at the photos even now that Sunoo had gone offline. He was so pretty . He looked like someone you would put in your pocket. (Although he had said that once, and it had not been appreciated. Sunoo had sent an angry emoji and told him that he was actually not short, it was just Riki who was too tall. Very cute).
“Oh, is that lover boy? He is cute”.
Riki got so surprised by the voice in his ear, that he immediately turned his phone screen-down into the table, just narrowly missing the plate on his tray. He quickly turned his face, and was met with Lee Heeseung, leaning down close to him. Behind him stood the rest of his friends, all looking very interested.
Despite himself, Riki pouted, feeling his face grow hot.
“Uh…”
He heard his friend Park Sunghoon sigh.
“Don’t even try, while you were looking at the photo, we could feel the love radiating from your body even without fully seeing your face”.
Riki sagged in his seat, as Heeseung moved past him and took a seat next to him. The rest followed, pulling out chairs.
Riki sighed.
“Yeah, it was him”.
No reason to try to pretend otherwise. They all smiled. Another one of his hyungs, Jake Sim, spoke.
“Well, aren’t you going to show him to us?”
Jay Park nodded, agreeing.
“I’m curious to see who made a man out of our Riki-ya”.
Riki felt his face flush, and he groaned. Sunghoon laughed at Jay’s choice of words, while Heeseung told them off.
“Don’t bully him. It’s cute, isn't it?”
Riki rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to be cute about anything.
When they all turned their faces to him, waiting for him to say something, he let out a sigh.
“Okay, okay”, he said. He sure hoped Sunoo hyung wouldn’t be upset with him for showing, but then again he had asked for a selfie using his hyungs as an excuse, so… it would probably be okay .
He picked up his phone, and clicked on the picture again. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but smile at it, but forced it down so no one could tease him for it.
Without another word, he turned the screen to the rest of the table, letting them see the picture of the boy he was hopelessly crushing on.
“His name is Kim Sunoo, he lives in the next town”, he said, forcing down the heat in his cheeks.
His hyungs let out oh ’s and ah ’s upon seeing the picture, and at that Riki couldn’t stop his smile. Yes, his Sunoo hyung was very pretty. What about it?
He even allowed Heeseung to ruffle his hair, as he pulled back his phone and put it back on the table. They all turned to their food to eat, especially Riki who was two years under his hyungs, and his break was finished earlier than theirs.
Jay spoke to him, after a moment of comfortable silence.
“Are you going to meet him, Riki?”
Riki took a sip out of his milk carton, and hummed.
“I’d like to”.
Again, he couldn’t help but smile. He wished he could be cooler about this, but it was hard when he liked Sunoo so much, despite only chatting for almost three weeks. He just knew it would be even better in real life, compared to online.
His hyungs all smiled at that, and Heeseung spoke.
“If it’s in the next town, I wouldn’t mind driving you there”.
The rest agreed.
“We could all come with, just in case he’s, y’kno, a middle-aged man”, Jay joked.
Riki squinted at him.
“Don’t say that about Sunoo hyung”.
Jake laughed. Heeseung spoke again.
“But really, we could all go. We wouldn’t bother you, of course, but maybe it would be comforting to know that we’re there, just in case”.
Riki smiled, nodding.
“Mm, maybe. I want to meet him”.
The remainder of lunch passed by with them talking about other things, and Riki felt like telling his hyungs more details wasn’t so bad. After all, if he and Sunoo hit off when meeting, and he found the courage to ask him out, he’d love for his hyungs to befriend Sunoo too. He knew they would want to, he couldn’t imagine them not liking Sunoo, and the idea of Sunoo liking his friends was nice. Just thinking about it had him smiling. He was whipped.