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“You’re so fucking annoying.”
Sunghoon smirks, propping his elbow on the table as he rests his chin on his palm. “I was born to annoy you, Sunoo-ya.” He grins, the curl of his lips growing wider when he sees the other male send him a glare from where he sits two tables away from his.
Sunoo rolls his eyes, the one that has his cheeks puffing out with a huff. The smaller male doesn’t answer Sunghoon’s teasing, turns around instead and gives his attention to Jungwon who’s watching their banter at the side silently.
“For someone who has a crush on Sunoo, you suck at flirting, Hoon-ah.”
The male aforementioned whips his head so quick it cracked a little, earning a wince from Jongseong who’s sitting next to him and an eyebrow raise from the person who spoke, Heeseung.
“I don’t have a crush on him.” Sunghoon says, with malice in his voice.
Him? Crushing on Sunoo? Ha. What a joke.
Heeseung and Jongseong turn their heads to look at each other, eyes dancing in mirth and a knowing smile on their lips. Seeing his friends’ expressions, Sunghoon immediately feels an eye twitch—his teasing remarks to Sunoo earlier, suddenly backfiring at him.
“You’re funny, Sunghoon-ah.” Heeseung clicks his tongue, shaking his head. The oldest male opens his mouth but decides to shut it instead, blinking his eyes. “Nevermind. I’m not going to meddle, I’ve had enough butting in people’s businesses—suffer yourself.” He says, raising both his hands, shifting his body to properly sit on Sunoo’s seat.
Sunghoon looks back at Jongseong who just shrugs his shoulders as he scrunches his nose, “Don’t look at me like that. I wish to not partake in this conversation.” He says before jumping off of the table he was sitting on to walk towards his own, three tables away from Sunghoon’s.
Heeseung doesn’t say anything anymore after that and he too, stands up to go back to his own table. That leaves Sunghoon staring at his friends, unimpressed. Now that he is alone, he ponders about what Heeseung said.
Me? Sunoo? Crush?
Sure he may be gay, he may like pretty things and Sunoo does look pretty and cute, but Sunghoon doesn’t like him! At all.
”You do,” he could hear Jongseong’s snickering voice at the back of his mind, “You like him, Sunghoon-ah. Stop lying to yourself.” He wants to give Jongseong a smack.
Sunghoon furiously grumbles to himself, grabbing his textbook for their next subject and opens it and bangs it on the table, a few of his classmates turning their heads to look at the now grumbling male. He looks up and sees Sunoo, the bane of his existence, looking back at him with a blank stare, his usually shining eyes deadpanning at him. Sunghoon snarls, gritting his teeth when Sunoo rolls his eyes at him.
Him? Liking Kim Sunoo whose primary job is to antagonize his life for the last six years since middle school? Don’t make him laugh. Maybe Sunoo does look handsome and cute and he might have most people around them wrapped around his dainty fingers, but not Sunghoon. Not him, never him.
“You’re going to eat those words and we’ll do nothing but laugh at you.” Sunghoon hears Heeseung’s words in his mind, laughing at him and his misery.
Maybe before anything else, he’ll have to drop his friends first and find another.
Their unresolved feud probably started when they were in middle school. Aside from their contrasting personalities, both Sunoo and Sunghoon are both overachievers resulting in a childish competition until they continue to be rivals in school for the top spot in academic rankings.
It has been Park Sunghoon versus Kim Sunoo since they were twelve.
Although Sunghoon’s parents aren’t keen on pushing him to be on top, telling him to just do his best and enjoy his teenage life, Sunghoon also wanted to beat Sunoo academically for his own satisfaction. This leads to Sunghoon’s one-sided beef with Sunoo in Middle school—resulting in teasing and endless jabs that gradually become mutual hate.
“That’s not even hate,” Jongseong chides, rolling his eyes. “It’s a childish act of rivalry.”
“Or unresolved sexual tension.” Heeseung comments, earning a smack from both Sunghoon and Jongseong.
“Sunoo didn’t even dislike you—you just made him hate you.” Jongseong says.
Which technically isn’t wrong. Sunghoon admits that he really did want to see Sunoo pissed off—with all his teasing remarks. He doesn't know exactly why. Maybe because Sunoo looked funny pouting with scrunched eyebrows or how cute his cheeks look while he frowns.
“Cute?” Sunghoon whispers under his breath, pursing his lips to a thin line upon realizing what he just thought in his mind. Slowly, he turns his head a little to the side and steals a glance at Sunoo who’s sitting beside him, and who’s listening to their teacher intently which Sunghoon should be doing.
He watches the other male through his peripheral vision—watches as Sunoo’s pinkish lips protrude in concentration. And Sunghoon doesn’t realize that he was staring if Sunoo didn’t whip his head to look at him with eyebrows creased and with narrowed eyes. The taller male flinches in surprise, averting his gaze away immediately. He breathes deeply as he looks forward, watching the back of their teacher’s head.
Sunghoon could feel Sunoo’s eyes on him—could feel the other male’s burning gaze for a few seconds before feeling him turning away.
A quiet sigh escapes his lips.
Not only had he thought of Sunoo being cute , but he got caught staring at the said person by the said person.
What a fucking bad day.
“Why can’t you just admit that you like him?”
Sunghoon glares at Jongseong, aiming a punch to his friend but not actually doing it. Heeseung snorts at the youngest male’s antics, shaking his head, finding Sunghoon’s reaction to talking about Sunoo so amusing.
“Why would I like him? I don’t!”
Jongseong raises an eyebrow, “You totally do, dude. Have you seen yourself whenever you stare at him? No, of course not. So you really have no idea what you’re talking about.” He says, turning his head towards Heeseung who’s already nodding his head in agreement.
Sunghoon’s left eye twitches at Jongseong’s words.
“Have you ever thought that maybe the reason why you liked teasing Sunoo all the time is because you like him? And you like having his attention all to yourself?” Jongseong asks, effectively shutting Sunghoon’s mind to blank.
What.
“What?”
Jongseong’s eyebrows shoot up, observing Sunghoon’s reaction. And judging by Sunghoon’s face—Jongseong probably hit a nerve. Heeseung gets up from where he’s lying down on Sunghoon’s bed and points a finger towards their accused friend.
“Oh my god, you do.” The oldest male gasps.
“I don’t!” Sunghoon denies, almost shouting. His eyes widened at his own reaction. Both of his friends stare at him in surprise.
No one speaks, gazes still fixed to each other.
“You do.” Jongseong manages to say after a few minutes of complete silence.
After that day, Sunghoon has been fully aware of everything that revolves around Sunoo now. From the time he goes to school, from every move he makes inside the classroom, from catching himself staring whenever Sunoo talks with his friends, and to having his heart fluttering whenever he hears the male’s laugh echoing inside their room.
Maybe he does like Sunoo, he agrees to Jongseong, unfortunately. Just a little bit. Like the size of his pinky.
But seeing Sunoo up close once again when his seatmate is sitting on his table, seeing his cheeks bounce and his long eyelashes flutter, Sunghoon thinks and realizes that the tiny crush he feels for the male isn’t that tiny anymore. He feels his cheeks warming and his heart rattling inside his chest. The mere thought of liking Sunoo makes him nervous.
“Why do you keep staring at me?”
Sunghoon freezes, his hands hovering over his table where he’s fixing his things.
“What?”
Sunoo tilts his head to the side, his sharp eyes staring at him. Sunghoon inhales sharply, fidgeting under Sunoo’s gaze. Although he’s a lot taller than the other male, he can’t help but feel intimidated with how Sunoo stares at him. All with his pursed lips and blank expression. And how could Sunghoon tell the truth behind his excessive staring? How could he admit that he likes Sunoo in a not so rival way and definitely not in a friendly way.
“I…” Sunghoon trails off, swallowing the lump on his throat. Sunoo continues to stare at him, as their classmates slowly walk out of their room. Sunghoon sees Heeseung and Jongseong standing a few feet away from them, a little awkward by the door.
Sunoo clicks his tongue and shakes his head, turning his heels away from him. Sunghoon panics—doesn’t know why—and grabs the smaller male’s wrist to pull him back. Mind going blank, Sunghoon gasps out,
“Your cheeks are cute.”
He feels Sunoo tense up in his hold. Sunghoon’s eyes widened as he realized what he had just said. Sunoo whips his head back to look at him incredulously, eyebrows furrowed. “What the heck did you just say?”
“I–wha–“ Sunghoon stammers, letting go of his grip on Sunoo’s pale wrist.
The other male turns his body to face the taller male again, stepping nearer Sunghoon who steps back in surprise in retaliation—surprised to have Sunoo in his personal space.
“You said what? ” Sunoo mutters under his breath, eyes narrowing.
Sunghoon shakes his head, refusing to repeat what he said. No way in hell he’s going to say it again. Sunoo pulls back after a few more seconds of staring at the taller male, maybe realizing that he’s not going to get any answer from Sunghoon. Sunoo huffs, gives Sunghoon a pointed glare before turning back for real and walking out of the classroom with heavy footsteps.
The taller male remains frozen, unable to process what just happened. Only when Heeseung and Jongseong hurry to him and smack his head that he breaks from his trance. Sunghoon looks at his friends who are looking at him weirdly, probably confused by what they just witnessed. Sunghoon admits that he doesn’t have an answer to that if ever they ask him.
“I have no idea what came up to me either so please let u just drop this.” Sunghoon begs.
Heeseung snorts, “Okaaaay…” He says. “We’re just going to pretend that we didn’t see that.” Jongseong nods his head in agreement to Heeseung’s statement. Sunghoon sighs, reaching up to massage his forehead, a sudden wave of headache creeping up his head.
True to their words, his friends don’t talk about the incident after. The only thing that has changed is Sunoo’s constant (not so discreet) staring at him during break time. Sunghoon feels nervous and could feel himself sweating every time he catches the other male looking in his direction.
Sunghoon reciprocates the staring though. He would look at Sunoo during class, observing his cute expressions and reactions. Listen—you can’t blame him! Sunoo has the most adorable and prettiest features in a person he has ever seen! And only to realize this now , now that they’re on their last year in high school and will probably not see each other again after graduation (which Sunghoon doubts because their fathers are good friends), is such a bad thing.
Sunghoon could have been admiring Sunoo sooner and could have been a little braver to pursue him.
Which he could—but it’s probably too late now. Now that Sunoo already hates his guts after being a menace in the smaller male’s life for so long.
“But you may never know.” Jongseong shrugs his shoulders, sipping on his Iced Americano.
“He hates my guts.”
“Again, you may never know.” Heeseung helpfully supplies, biting on his pizza slice.
Sunghoon looks at Sunoo who’s talking to Jungwon and Jaeyun. He could see the male’s eye smile from where he sits, a sigh leaving his lips. He rests his cheek on his palm, staring at Sunoo.
“You’re a goner.” Heeseung says, laughing at his friend.
He is. Unfortunately so.
Sunoo’s just so cute—Sunghoon wants to pinch his cheeks and bite them.
“Please say sike.” Jongseong pleads, grimacing. Sunghoon looks at his friends who wore disgusted expressions on their faces, only then he realizes that he has probably said it out loud. Disclaimer: Sunghoon is not serious about the cheek thing—it’s just a thought and an urge. Not that he’s going to do it.
“ Ow!”
In fact, he was wrong!
See this is what happened: they were on a break and most of them were having snacks in their classroom because it’s almost three in the afternoon and a lot of them were famished—and Sunoo, god forbid, happened to be eating steamed buns. STEAMED BUNS! Literally the shape of Sunoo’s cheeks! And you know how weak Sunghoon is. So yes, Sunoo eating steamed buns, cheeks puffing, Sunghoon not thinking straight—he bit Sunoo’s cheek.
A few of their classmates turn their heads towards them while their friends look at them in surprise—more on Sunghoon. Heeseung who has a hand on his mouth, fails at suppressing his laughter, same as Jaeyun who’s sitting beside them.
“Did you just bite my cheek?” Sunoo asks, palm still holding his cheek. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Yeah. What the hell is wrong with him?
The thing is, there’s only one reason why he did that. It’s because, “Your cheeks are cute.”
They hear choking somewhere, not sure if it’s their friend or some random classmate. Sunghoon feels a little braver today—staring at Sunoo’s eyes in challenge, with the younger male glaring at him. Sunoo has pulled back his hand from his cheek and Sunghoon could now see how pink his cheek has gone—making him fight the urge to bite the soft flesh again.
Sunghoon doesn’t know if the reddening of Sunoo’s cheeks is because of his biting or because of blood rushing to his face. Either way, Sunoo looks adorable sputtering, with eyes blown wide.
And if Sunghoon enjoys the way Sunoo looks at him with his wide eyes and still reddened cheeks, no one has to know—his friends probably already know anyway. And if he likes the way Sunoo looks shy and embarrassed when Sunghoon smiles at him a little too sweet, maybe the whole confessing his hidden feelings for Sunoo will have to be rescheduled at a later date.
For now, he will do everything to slowly turn Sunoo’s distaste to him to attraction all in a natural phase. Oh, and probably enjoy pinching Sunoo’s adorable cheeks in the process.