Chapter Text
It was their first day in high school.
Freshies were clutching anxiously their bag straps. Wary eyes scanning and judging every visage they land on.
Everyone went to their respective classes they’ve been assigned to. No one knew anyone, though the ones acquainted since middle school are at an advantage to have a familiar face around a foreign place.
Kim Sunoo has Yang Jungwon, but sadly, they were separated by walls of classes. Either way, he’d still be lonely in class.
First come first serve; all the good seats would be taken if he was late. So, he did what anyone would do if he wanted a nice and comfortable seat,
Accidentally slept through the alarm and rushed to school and arrive late of course. Luck is never on his side.
Because of this, only one seat is available, and since no one else is willing to give up their seats (he didn’t ask, he knew no one would), he had no other choice but to accept his fate.
The seat itself is not so bad, he always wondered why it was empty. The second row and the second line from the right. Not really in the middle that he’d be at the centre of the teachers’ attention, but close enough to see the board and hear them clearly.
And the boy sitting beside him with his headphones on is good looking.
That boy, he will later find out, is going to be Lee Heeseung.
♥︎
Lee Heeseung is nice. Or so he heard.
Because even for a social butterfly like him who hops around each friend group like pollinating flowers, golden lustre accumulating on him, he has never talked to Lee Heeseung for the first month or so in the school.
Heeseung was far from weird, actually, one might describe him as the ace. All-rounder; gets excellent grades, a basketball player and an avid track and field team mate, confident and assured and well-known with people. Even seniors knew him and he’s only a freshman.
To put it simply, Sunoo is too humble to approach and started off as envying him. No way is someone that perfect, unless Heeseung’s a humanoid. A cyborg.
He’s got two friends hanging around him at all times, one that he knows since one of his friends has a big fat crush on him—Park Jongseong, or Jay who hates his real name.
The other one’s also a well-known name. Park Sunghoon, dubbed the ‘ice prince’ of the school due to his closed off and standoffish attitude, but his glacial façade melts when he has his violin in hand.
Equally as attractive and amazing in their own way.
Personally, Sunoo doesn’t really care about status or the so-called social hierarchy. No befriending someone for their popularity or for clout—just be nice to everyone.
However, there was an air surrounding Heeseung that made it impossible for Sunoo for approach him.
He’s just so…amazing.
Somehow, Sunoo always has this internal struggle between plucking up courage to start a conversation with him and just staying quiet because no way would he pay attention to an ant like him.
Everyday, it leaned more to the latter. With no similarities whatsoever, how is he going to start small talk?
The petite teacher, though fierce with a thundering voice, fine frown lines already forming in spite of being only in her early thirties
“I have assigned you to a partner to carry out lab experiments with,”
Out of all the 32 students in the classroom, when the teacher read out the list of names at a random, making up partners on the spot, their names came out together,
“Lee Heeseung and…Kim Sunoo!”
Sunoo from the most front lab table, Heeseung from the far back—their eyes met, and they met in the middle. Awkwardly standing next to each other in front of the materials for today’s experiment: using a trolley.
To study the relationship between acceleration and the force of motion, they would have to build a runway using retort stands, a wooden plank for the trolley that will then be attached to a long strand of ticker tape like a tail, the clapper will punch 20 blue dots on the carbon paper per second.
Figuring out the hypothesis isn’t hard; starting the conversation is. What do you even say to a person you’ve never talked to before?
“We’ve never really talked before, have we?” Sunoo shook his head promptly, then Heeseung put out his hand in front of him. “Nice to meet you, I’m—“
“Lee Heeseung,” Sunoo continued, chuckling, “You’re quite the name in our batch…and you literally sit next to me,” That made Heeseung sheepishly grin.
“Yeah, I just didn’t really know what to say, since, ya know…” Couple of seconds of shared silence then they both laugh in unison, probably thinking “damn, that’s awkward,”
“Well, I guess what you said was what you’re supposed to say,” He let out a small huff of amusement.
“I’m Kim Sunoo,” He shook his hand, their smiles finally raising on their lips as they warmed up. Heeseung cocks his head to the side.
“Let’s get this started, shall we?”
Right off the bat, there was just something about them both; their heads were one, one always seemed to know what the other wanted to do. Matched wits meant higher efficiency, and in no time the contraption was built and all they had to do was to carry on the experiment.
Both looked at each other, “So, who’s gonna…?” Heeseung left the sentence hanging, Sunoo seemed to get what he was getting to, shrugging.
“I don’t mind catching or pushing the cart,” His hand mindlessly pushing the small trolley to his other hand to and fro, the smooth wheels glide the lab table like butter.
“I don’t know if you know this, but I’m kinda strong,” He jokingly told, but Sunoo rolled his eyes with a playful smile. The trolley’s only a pound and a half.
“Alright, Mr. Goal Shooter, but we’re not throwing a ball—you might send this off to space with your ‘strength’,” He remarked wittily. The cart was then pushed towards Heeseung from across the table, “You’ll catch,”
He watches as the smaller walked to the other side of the runway, positioning the cart in the middle, carefully threading the ticker tape through the slot and finger ready to press the switch to generate electricity through the alternating current.
He counts to three:
“One,” Heeseung notices how fair his skin was under the fluorescent lighting of the physics lab.
“Two,” Sunoo looks at the cart intently, making sure he isn’t going to accidentally push the cart askew.
“Three!”
In unison, he switched on the generator, hearing the annoying rapid ticking ringing around the lab as he pushes the cart upwards, dragging the tape along. It was then received at the other line where Heeseung caught it with his hands at the right time.
Sunoo turned it off and excitedly walked to him who’s scanning through the long ribbon of paper in his hands.
“Did we get it? Did we?” He tries to look over his shoulder, realising that he really is tall for standing on tippy toes didn’t work. Heeseung, noticing, showed Sunoo the paper; there were a trail of blue dots with decreasing lengths between each tick up to the last one.
“Deceleration,” Both said out loud, in awe with the results, catching the teacher’s attention from afar who congratulated them for being the first pair to have not only completed, but got textbook results.
They proceeded with the second half of the experiment; Heeseung letting go of the cart from the elevated end, letting the ticker tape thread through and Sunoo caught it just in time.
Once again, beautiful ticks of, this time, increasing distance in between.
All with small talk and short conversations, recording the data collected and answering the questions on the sheet their teacher distributed, Sunoo has his very own hypothesis he has made:
The more time spent with Lee Heeseung, the tighter the bond they create between them. And it’s all so scary how fast he has come to enjoy his company.
However, nothing changed in class. They were in their own separate lives, in a different social bubble—but somehow, every science experiment would end up with them as assigned pairs.
And sometimes, they never bothered to hear the teachers call them up because as soon as there’s an experiment, they naturally paired themselves without asking.
Another experiment they had to do together was to burn a magnesium coil in a crucible to calculate its empirical formula. Heeseung cleaned the oxidised surface with sand paper while Sunoo attempts to light the Bunsen burner. Key word: attempt.
In his peripheral vision, Heeseung could see his hand hesitating to press the trigger of the lighter gun, slightly shaking over the butane gas.
Is he scared of fire? He thought to himself. Sunoo is not saying anything, but do most people voice out their discomfort anyway?
“I’m getting kind of tired of sanding this,” He announced out loud. Sunoo whipped his head, offering assistance.
“You want me to do that instead?” Heeseung handed the sandpaper in exchange of the lighter gun and they changed seats. Doing their respective tasks in quiet.
Sunoo only glances as the big orange flame appeared from thin air, reduced to a small blue flame effortlessly by Heeseung.
“I know you did that because you saw me struggling,” The other chuckled airily, he wasn’t too subtle.
“I know,” He covers up nonchalantly, but he has a feeling Sunoo could see through that too.
One always seem to know the other.
Fingers tapping on the table, impatient of the results. Everyone else is slumped in their seats. It’s only a matter of time.
“It wasn’t a horrific accident or anything like that, just so you know,” Out of the blue, he clarified. Heeseung turned to him, listening.
“My sister almost lit his backyard on fire and I was petrified,” A small smile tugged on his lip because of the amusing anecdote. How was that not a horrific accident?
“And how did she do that?”
“You know how kids like to play pretend like playing house and cooking and stuff like that? She wanted to cook with real fire,”
He then proceeded to explain that they ‘cooked’ with plastic tupperwares as makeshift pots and pans and set them up like the experiment. Describing them with excited hand motions.
“And she stole our dad’s lighter. I was hesitating since, you know, I have common sense but she assured that it’ll be fine,”
“Guessing that it wasn’t?” He shot a finger gun to him.
“Right on the money. I told her that it was not a good idea but she’s strong-headed and before you know it, he took the dried leaves and put it in the pot and then—“
Right on cue, just as he was acting out the action of putting leaves in the crucible, a shot of golden fire blazed their vision, hissing, catching Sunoo off-guard as he instinctively clung onto Heeseung’s arm for protection, trembling. Funny enough, he too instinctively caught him.
But he found it hilarious how the magnesium knew when to start a hissy fit, kudos for perfect timing.
Unable to contain himself, he slowly raked with laughter as the boy feels heat rushing to his cheeks and ears. Frantically, he pried off from Heeseung, absolutely embarrassed that he had made a fool of himself.
“Stop laughing!” He puts the clay lid on, whining at Heeseung. His cheeks were glowing pink like the radiant metal. “I’m sorry, but the magnesium is a paid actor,” He croaks in between his breathy laughter.
Sunoo glared at the magnesium as if it had took his family from him, then to Heeseung as if he was an accomplice.
“You’re doing all the calculating alone,” He huffed, thick-skinned but embarrassed. That was only met with an unbothered shrug that fuelled the flames further.
“Fine by me,” He says, lifting the lid to allow oxygen in. Sunoo grunts begrudgingly; though the smiling biting through says otherwise.
Playful conversations, witty counters; Sunoo felt comfortable with Heeseung. Yet, at the same time, still he sees him in another light than him.
In class, he’s favoured by all—students, teachers—everyone knows his name and everyone wants to be his friend.
So, of course in the swarm of humans, their relationship (if you could even count a few hours in the lab as a bond) is insignificant in the eyes of the all-star.
Whatever started in the lab, stays there.
As soon as the bell rings, Sunoo is Sunoo and Heeseung is Heeseung and they live separately. So, he doesn’t ask for much. All he wants is time together.
And he gets time together in the lab, no matter which of the three sciences—Biology, Chemistry or Physics—they are never not together.
“This is sooo time consuming,” Sunoo dragged his voice, faithfully stirring the naphthalene powder in a beaker with a thermometer. The other flicked his wrist to look at the time.
“It’s been ten minutes—check the temperature,” Sunoo nodded, ducking to eye-level to the meniscus of the mercury line.
“Start the two minutes interval,” It was Heeseung’s turn to hum, pressing the button with his thumb and observe the thin hand go around to complete a full circle.
Their aim this this is to find the melting point and freezing point of naphthalene, and while other pairs had left for recess in defeat from the lengthy period of the procedure, they have decided to stay. It won’t hurt to miss a break.
Besides, none of the two budge from their seats.
“Can I ask you something, Heeseung?” The other nodded, humming in acknowledgement as he observes Sunoo checking the temp and jotting it down.
“Have you always been an all-rounder?”
“All-rounder?” He echoes, clueless.
“Yeah! You’re like, good at everything. Haven’t you noticed how people flock to you for help?” He chuckles at the end of the sentence, Heeseung always seems busy.
Not even a year in and he’s voted for all the positions a first-year could hold in all clubs he’s in. That means he looks capable of it. And he is.
“I don’t know why everyone thinks that way,”
“Are you not?” Heeseung hums, thinking about the statement for a moment before replying.
“I only really like basketball—everything else isn’t something I put effort in, so I won’t count those as something I’m good at,”
He didn’t know how much admiration did he get from Sunoo because of that one sentence. All he has to say is that Heeseung’s perfect.
From that day onwards, Sunoo looked at Heeseung a little differently.
He wanted what Heeseung had: effortless charisma, and he won’t ever have that.
So, he admires in secret.
♥︎
“A little birdie told me there’s going to be a match between Dalkom High and us,”
Sunoo casually drops as he extracted the liquid from inside the Visking tube. He turns, expecting Heeseung to be ready with the test tube. He is.
“Yeah, it’s a friendly match,” Sunoo nodded, injecting out the liquid out, and without missing a beat, the other started dropping the Benedict solution.
“Thursday, after school,” Heeseung further elaborated. Sunoo hands the glass stirrer to him, not missing a gleam he had never seen on Heeseung.
His eyes—usually calm—flurried with excitement, or maybe anticipation. It looked like it belonged to a doe. A baby doe marvelling.
“I’ll come watch the match,” He tells him, trying hard to be calm just like Heeseung always is, but he always comes off excited nevertheless.
Heeseung’s small smile stretched wide, Sunoo thinks he’s hit bull’s eye. He wants him to see the match.
“I’ll look for you in the crowd,”
A flicker of flame was ignited from the strike of a lighter gun hovering over the Bunsen burner to heat up the water bath.
Sunoo knows that the boy won’t ever let him start a fire by his own again, joking about it might give him childhood trauma flashbacks.
“I know nothing about basketball though,”
“It’s alright,” Heeseung carefully submerges the tube in the bath, “Just cheer for me,”
He could feel a strange rattling coming from within, warmth blanketing his skin.
Does this mean he’s special? He can’t help but smile.
“Okay,”
As the solution slowly turns into a brick red precipitate, they too have gradually grown closer.
♥︎
“So, have you made up your mind?” Jungwon asks, they were queuing behind a pair of friends who are probably in university.
Jungwon wanted to go to the café to study together, and though they take different classes, it was no harm in joining in.
“What does it mean when someone asks you to cheer for them?”
“Boy, pick a drink first, will you?”
“Mint choco latte and that pistachio pastry,”
“Ew! Mint choco? What’s wrong with you,”
“Hey, don’t scrutinise my taste! Anyway, answer my question,” Jungwon blinks twice.
“Well, given no context, I think they like you,” No one has ever seen a human being turn beetroot red so fast before, Jungwon was surprised.
“No, no no no—we’re like, barely friends,” Seeing him so flustered was something new for Jungwon, he was chuckling nervously. One of his eyebrows quirked,
“Who says that you can’t like a stranger?”
Sunoo averted his eyes away, “We’re not strangers,” Just lab partners, he wanted to say, but that will give away Heeseung’s identity in this situation.
“Then he likes you enough to be friends with you,” Jungwon replies, finally reaching the front of the counter.
Friends with Heeseung; does he consider me as a friend? His heart did it again, a flutter.
“Do you have anything to do after school on Thursday?” He asks after taking their drinks. Jungwon looks up as he thinks for a while.
“No, why?”
So that’s how Jungwon is dragged to the game.
Squeezing and shuffling their way in at the bleachers of the gymnasium as other students began filling the seats, waiting for the game to begin.
From the third tier, he could see their school’s team in red bibs stretching and warming-up as their coach, a P.E. teacher watches with eagle eyes.
The visitors were in blue at other side of the court, listening to their coach briefing, probably motivating them.
Sunoo doesn’t do contact sports, he finds it less enjoyable than what he likes. But here he is, about to witness his first basketball game.
All the players took their places, he spots Heeseung near another player, and as soon as the piercing whistle was heard, everyone started cheering as they passed the ball, chasing, blocking, jumping. They were fast, but so was their opponents.
Both were equal in terms of skill, everyone was on the edge of their seats as they see the sly and slick tricks, smooth throws and amazing athleticism being displayed.
As much as an amazing spectacle the players are, Sunoo couldn’t take his eyes off of Heeseung.
The way he glides, catching the ball with sticky fingers, cat-like reflexes, swooping and stealing the ball from his opponent’s hand.
He goes for it, the goal, and he shoots.
It goes in—
They score a point!
The whole gym roared his name, clapping and shouting. But Sunoo was in awe, too amazed to react. Heeseung was another being in court, it was as if he was dancing.
A few more scores happened after the court change, the current score was 2:3.
They were falling behind, probably tired. They made substitution, but Heeseung stays on court, holding on so strong as he prances around, showing no mercy as he tries to take the ball.
A team member managed to snatch up and tossed the ball and he caught it in mid-air, racing to the hoop.
Hands were waving around in front of him to distract, to block—but he shoots it high, circling the rim.
They were chanting his name over and over like a mantra: Heeseung, Heeseung, Heeseung—he was subconsciously doing it too, hands balling into fists. All eyes set on the ball, time slowing down further.
It went in.
The crowd cheered in chorus.
“HURRAH! HURRAH FOR HOME!”
They sang, some were banging empty water bottles for noise, some were squealing.
In the end, it was a tie. A close save.
He saw the team huddling, patting each other on their backs before shaking the other team’s hands, good game.
As they retire to the side, Jungwon taps Sunoo on the shoulder.
“C’mon, let’s go home,” Everyone else were standing, slowly walking to the exit. Following suit, he picked up his water bottle and walks out.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard a loud call of his name.
He turns around to see a familiar face, wearing a blue bib with a brazen grin plastered across his thick lips, a small mole under. It looked like someone he was close to in primary school.
Wait, no way!
“Ni-ki?” He called out, eyes widened from surprise. The tall boy wiggled his eyebrows, arms akimbo and chest puffed.
“Missed me?” He said, playfully cocky.
Sunoo smiles, evidently still shocked, it’s been a while since they met.
“Dalkom,” He points out, pertaining to the emblem on his school jersey. The boy hummed.
“Areum,” Sunoo slowly nods, hesitant.
One thing he didn’t like mentioning his school is that it’s a reputable school, one of the top high schools where intakes were difficult yet everyone wants to go to. It’s the school they both wanted, but only one of them got accepted.
He knew how much he had worked just to get in the same school together, but to no avail, it just wasn’t his call.
He braces himself for a sudden cold shoulder or harsh words spoken to him. After all, it was understandable to be mad at the situation they’re in; separated by school at opposite sides of the state.
Instead, he sees Ni-ki approaching him slowly, a grin on his face.
“You should’ve just told me—I wouldn’t be mad!” He wrapped Sunoo in a bear hug, reuniting with his old best friend. Admittedly, Sunoo was still guilty, but he feels better about it now that he didn’t mind.
They pulled away, Ni-ki immediately teasing him about how short he is as he is effectively still growing taller even in the short school break and Sunoo just has to deafen his ears.
“Fancy seeing you here, I didn’t know you like basketball,” He commented, ruffling Sunoo’s hair, Sunoo knows he hates it when people do that to him.
“I don’t. All I did was watch the ball,”
“Sunoo,” Another voice called, both of them turned to see Heeseung jogging towards them, and Ni-ki turned back to shoot him a hard glare.
“That’s the ball?” Heat races to his face.
“Shut up,” He glared at him before quickly, fixing himself as the male got closer.
After watching the match, all Sunoo could think of is how cool Heeseung is, and while his hair was wet from all the sweat, bangs sticking to his forehead, he somehow manages to look attractive, maybe even more.
“You saw me?” He asked, then instantly regrets it, thinking it made him look desperate. Heeseung replies with a smile, sweeping his hair back to reveal his bare forehead and he swears he’s weak in his knees.
“Of course I did. I was waiting for you,” The way he was looking at him makes him feel his pulse pounding through his fingers. He opens his mouth to reply when he hears someone clearing his throat.
“I’m literally right here,” Ni-ki announces his presence. Heeseung smiles at him, “Hey, good game today,” He stuck out his hand for him to shake, to which the other hesitantly shook, eyeing him with suspicion.
“Yeah, good game…” He turns to Sunoo, giving a lopsided smile as he gestures to the exit with his thumb.
“Gotta go—I came by bus,” He nodded, waving as he runs out the door, the two watches.
“Who’s he?” Heeseung questions, turning to Sunoo who was still watching the boy queuing to get on the Dalkom High bus.
“An old friend from middle school,” Seeing as the smile never left his face, he wonders about him, growing more curious.
The tall boy substituted one of his teammates for the final half time, his skill is quite a show too.
It wasn’t really his place to bother people with stupid requests like asking Sunoo to cheer for him, let alone question why that boy was looking at him like a criminal.
He never really dabbled on personal conversations since he always felt like they’ve known each other already, but he has forgotten that they are just started talking a few months ago.
“Hey,” He calls for Sunoo’s attention.
When Sunoo looks at him, his eyes always have a sort of glitter, maybe it was his imagination, but he only ever sees it in his, does everyone see it too or is he crazy?
“Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it,” And every time, he notices something new about the boy—this time, his eyes form crescents from the jelly rolls underneath.
So he lets it wander inside, all the questions, it’s better if it stays in.
“You know what, Heeseung? I think I learnt something new,” Sunoo chirped, making Heeseung return back to reality. He looked at him and his fox eyes are on him. Sunoo continues.
“Maybe I do enjoy watching basketball,”
Heeseung was exhausted, but smiled.
Right now, it’s best to stay right where they are and not get attached.
None of these people stick to him and nor do they want to. Most of his friends aren’t actual friends, he feels. They feel empty and are actually just riding on reaping the benefits of befriending Heeseung.
But Sunoo’s making it hard not to—he’s just a little bit more special than the rest.