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“Achoo!”
Jun sniffed and cleaned his nose for the nth time on the day. It was barely eight thirty and the sun had already set, the night cloudy with snow gently falling and causing anyone who was unfortunate enough to be outside in the cold to probably freeze to death. Or worsen an already existing cold while waiting for the bus, in Jun’s case.
He heard steps breaking the snow, and he didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Conrad. And judging by his face, he was about to burst into laughter upon seeing Jun wearing a big coat, his long scarf, his wool hat he got in Pyeongchang and big, fluffy ear mufflers.
Jun looked like some sort of caterpillar, he himself knew that, but it wasn’t his fault that he hated looking like that; so he had decided to leave Cricket before Conrad did so he wasn’t a teasing target. But alas, he got to see his absolutely ridiculous outfit anyways.
He puffed his cheeks at his ruined plans. “Laugh all you want, I don’t care. I’m cold! It’s not my fault you never seem bothered by the cold.”
Conrad laughed even more. “I know, I know! But most of the cold is psychological, you know?”
Jun groaned, only half of his face visible by the scarf. He pulled it down and stuck his tongue out at the blond. “Shut up. At least I’m not risking catching the flu, unlike you.”
That wasn’t what he was thinking at all. He was thinking that Conrad was looking stupidly handsome in his brown coat, making him look like a young detective about to solve a case in a misty, grey day in London. Cool and mysterious, yet his ears being a lovely shade of light, light pink gave him a cute vibe and his hair looking like sparkling gold and diamonds with the snowflakes adorning it made Jun melt, ironically. If he were less of a coward, he would kiss his friend right there.
“Excuse me? Who’s the one sneezing? Cover yourself more, man,” Conrad scolded, not bothering to check on his daydreaming friend as he fixed his scarf, so it covered all the way to his eyes. Jun opened them dramatically, waking up from his reverie.
“No!” He exclaimed in outrage, shuffling and lowering his scarf again. Conrad pulled it up again.
“Why won’t you cover up?!”
“I can’t even breathe when wearing this up to my eyes!”
“Who was complaining about his cold by the Club, huh?”
“I can handle this! Let me complain in peace!” Jun retorted, settling for fixing his scarf until it was under his nose. He sulked in silence, and if he looked like an angry caterpillar, it was his problem.
After a few seconds of silence, he felt like his nose would fall down due to the cold. But his pride was stronger than any weather, so he simply sighed and checked his phone. Texts from his mother, from his brother, Instagram mentions … nothing too much.
His checking was drawn to a halt when Conrad exhaled, his breath coming out as steam in the snowy night. He was chuckling.
“What?” Jun asked, curious.
“Your nose is red,” Conrad replied, covering his mouth as he laughed at his friend’s comically wide eyes. “Like… Rudolph, kind of red-”
“Okay, I got it! Shut it!” Jun exclaimed, feeling his cheeks burning and this time it wasn’t because of the chilly breeze. How many times would he embarrass himself in front of his friend?
It was a bad idea to turn to look at him, because the expression on Conrad’s face was… unreadable. He was smiling, yes, but his eyes… showed a different kind of tenderness. It was like a mug of hot chocolate inside a cabin in the woods. So, so sweet, that Jun felt like he’d get a diabetic overdose in no time. His pounding heart would not take it any longer.
“… Conrad?”
“Ah… nothing. It’s just…” he blinked quickly, “you look, uh… cute. Like this. Yeah.”
…
Awkward silence.
What could Jun even reply? ‘Oh, you’re cute too. Actually, you’re way cooler than I am and you make my brain short circuit more than I’d like to’ ? No, never. Did boys even call each other cute? Wasn’t that reserved for girls only? Not in his mind, of course. But what about Conrad’s?
His brain was clearly malfunctioning from the outside, because then Conrad cleared his throat.
“I… I’m sorry I said that.”
“No!” Jun jumped, a little too quickly. “I mean- I- ugh ,” he groaned. This was ridiculous. “I… didn’t hate that. I just, uh, don’t know how to respond to that.”
“… Oh. I see.”
“Yeah.” Say something! “You, uh, you look… cool.”
Stupidly handsome. Gorgeous. You’re the coolest guy out there.
Conrad laughed again. Oh, thank goodness.
“You don’t need to compliment me back, you know?” He asked, gently. Jun shook his head.
“I- I know, but it’s true. You look cool like this,” he affirmed, a little more confidently as he nodded in determination. “Very cool.”
Why wasn’t the bus coming to spare him from further embarrassment? Oh how he wished Lake Ontario would swallow him whole and freeze him to death. This was too awkward…
Yet all his inner turmoil stopped immediately when he felt a small, caressing warmth… on his nose.
Conrad.
Conrad was booping his nose. Conrad was booping his nose.
Everything around them froze in time. Jun swore the snow had stopped falling, the cars stood right where they were, and the clouds parted just a bit to show the crescent moon illuminating such a scene: Conrad’s tender smile, poking his nose that was even redder by now, as Jun was slowly thinking that this might be a fever hallucination.
Conrad let out a soft chuckle. “Your nose is freezing, Jun,” he whispered, his forefinger brushing against his cheekbones. “Your face is cold, too.”
Jun couldn’t speak even if he wanted to. He was too stunned to speak. And by then, Conrad grinned. And oh, Jun was sure that such a smile could rival the moonlight on how pearly white and bright it was.
Jun exhaled steam from his mouth, watching the disgustingly sweet sight he had in front of him. He blinked, touching his own face and covering himself up a bit with the scarf, unable to look away from Conrad. The blond young man smiled even more and ruffled the hair that escaped Jun’s hat, his fingers softly brushing against his nose again as his hand went down, lingering a little longer on his shoulder.
Jun was sure he’d end up boiling by now. “What…”
Conrad simply let out a hearty chuckle, as low as a whispered secret could be. “I don’t want you to get even sicker, okay?”
Jun dumbly nodded, his panic forcing him to reply anything back.
“Don’t… don’t go all cool on me, Orzel. Just because you can handle the cold without looking like… like a worm, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about your own health,” he pouted. Conrad laughed.
“Yeah, man, sure. But you won’t ever catch me being a reindeer though,” he reminded, nodding at Jun’s face. He then shook his head, looking back to the street, looking for the godforsaken bus as Jun analyzed his beautiful side profile, framed by the moonlight. Huh. His ears were a fiery pink, almost red.
“Ah, a bus is coming,” Conrad announced. Jun clenched his hands into fists. Too late to make any move. Unless…
“And you’re not going home like that,” Jun replied, frowning. “Your parents will kill you.”
“Uh, what-”
The smaller boy didn’t allow Conrad to say anything, because if he did, he would regret what he was about to do. He hastily unwrapped his scarf, revealed his embarrassing blush and with no time to waste, wrapped it around Conrad’s neck. He refused to look into the other’s eyes as he secured it with a simple half knot. He fixed the foldings of the other’s coat, brushed the remaining snowflakes off his hair, and pulled the scarf over Conrad’s mouth. Jun quickly stepped back, and barely had time to realize that the blond’s blushing ears were even pinker, the color spreading to his cheeks at a great speed.
“Uhm… yeah,” he mumbled, staring at everywhere but Conrad’s face. The cold was biting into his face and he hated it. “Just… stay warm, okay?”
Conrad blinked twice, dumbfounded. “Uh… okay…”
Jun nodded. “Good. This is my bus, so… uh… see you tomorrow, I guess.”
Conrad nodded, his expression not changing. “Ye… yeah. See you tomorrow, Jun.”
Jun waved at him shyly before going up in the bus, quickly taking a seat after all was done and digging his face inside his hat and bag.
What had he just done?!
He didn’t even look outside the window in the middle of his panic, where the moon was still the main light source for the now soliloquy that was Conrad at the bus stop, frozen in place and holding the scarf that the shorter guy had just lent him with no early notice. How could he even react to that?
The only thing Conrad could think about was Jun’s reddish nose, his adorable blush and his sparkling eyes which gleamed even more than the witness that was the moon. And if Amelia teased him for looking as if he saw a ghost when he arrived home, he didn’t even notice.
Bruce, he texted before falling asleep. It’s getting worse.