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Over melting ice cream sticks, the 2 Jungs enjoy their favourite pastime, which is people-watching while speculating on relationship rumours. This is certainly a more productive thing to do instead of the homework that is slowly but steadily snowballing.
Junghyun spots a couple walking, hands interlocked casually as they chatted, blindingly bright smiles on their faces. “Oh, I heard from Taerae that Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao got together,” Junghyun remarked.
“Finally, I’m so sick of them eye-fucking each other across the canteen,” Jeonghyeon sighs, head lolling back, careful to hold tight to the dessert still held in his hand.
“You gotta admit they look cute together,” Junghyun mused as he leaned back against the table a little, basking in the light sun rays. Suddenly, he straightens jerkily, eyes following a certain pair of students. A grin spreads across his face as he points, “They’re dating. I am so sure of it.”
Jeonghyeon squints to see, recognising the duo as Ji Yunseo and Yoo Seungeon, well-known in different aspects for different reasons, Yunseo for being a student of exemplary character, Seungeon for being extraordinarily gifted in his extracurriculars.
“Yunseo and Seungeon? Please, you know them, they’ll kiss each other on the lips platonically,” Jeonghyeon argued.
“That is an oxymoron in itself.”
“Seungeon kisses anyone and everyone, look at Yujin!”
“He co-parents Yujin with Yunseo, Gyuvin, Ricky and others, of course he’ll kiss him on the cheek,” Junghyun dismissed easily.
“Okay, I am 99.9% certain they are friends, so-”
“What about the 0.1%?”
“…I’ve seen the way Yunseo looks at Seungeon and that is just a little bit suspicious, but I feel it in my gut that they are truly best friends.”
“Like you and me?” Junghyun doesn’t give Jeonghyeon time to reply before continuing, “Okay, so as I was about to say, let’s bet on it. Loser has to do whatever the winner wants.”
“…Sure but we’re gonna need boundaries. Like no cheating on exams. Or murder.”
“Cheating comes before murder?”
“I happen to value academic integrity.”
“I happen to value the sanctity of life.”
“Philosophy majors. Always using the word sanctity.”
“Engineering majors. Can’t recognise love even if it's right before their nose.”
“Wow, I actually will force their relationship apart just to prove a point.”
Junghyun makes a gasp of mock offence, “How could you interrupt nature’s course?”
Ignoring the accusation, Jeonghyeon stood, grinning as he stared down at the other, “When I win, I’m gonna make you do my homework for a day. Just to torture you or something.”
“Are you a kid? That’s so childish and it’ll backfire on you because I haven’t respected physics for quite a few years.”
There was a beat of silence as Jeonghyeon considered, before saying, “True.” He made a move to sit back down when a calendar notification chimed on his phone, announcing his two-hour lecture in five minutes.
“Alright, I have a lecture in a hot second,” Jeonghyeon sighed tiredly, collecting Junghyun’s clean popsicle stick to toss.
“Cool, it's been a good time staring at strangers. We are totally not perverts,” Junghyun chuckled, wet wipes in hand for them to clean off the stickiness.
-
Ever since Junghyun mentioned the likely dating duo, Jeonghyeon has been on high alert around them, but he’s never noticed anything different about their relationship.
They still sit side by side, so close they might as well share a chair. Still spend every lunch together, even though Seungeon’s next class is all the way across campus and he’d have to sprint over to be on time. And Yunseo still waits for Seungeon to finish up with lessons before leaving together.
Nothing out of the usual. Nothing unlike what he and Junghyun do.
But questioning their relationship was arduous, so over a coffee study break, Jeonghyeon finally broke the question to Yunseo when Seungeon popped to the restroom.
“Are you and Seungeon dating?”
Junghyun didn’t see the question coming but looked expectant at once, croissant crumbs dotting his cheek. Yunseo looked taken aback, slowly taking in the question before replying, “We’ve been dating for the past three months.”
“YES!” Junghyun practically yelled as he jumped up from his seat, overly delighted at the news, startling the other cafe goers.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jeonghyeon asked accusingly, eyes darting between a confused Yunseo and Junghyun, prancing around in joy.
“Wasn't it obvious?” Yunseo quirked an eyebrow, doing his best to suppress the budding smile on his face. “Exactly!” Junghyun yelled, grabbing Yunseo’s shoulders so roughly the other nearly went nose-first into his coffee, “It was blatant. Jeonghyeon, you owe me something now. I'll figure out what but you have to uphold your end of the bet-”
“You guys betted on this?” Yunseo cut in, aghast.
“We did, because Lee Jeong here didn't believe you were dating when you two were clearly head over heels in love.”
Yunseo chuckled, “That's funny, Seungeon only suggested this so we could have a double date-”
Jeonghyeon, who was taking a grumpy sip of his drink, nearly spat it out into Yunseo’s face. Junghyun finally froze, blinking carefully as he processed Yunseo’s words.
“What, aren’t you together?” Yunseo twisted, trying to get a look at Junghyun, who was still gripping his shoulders.
Jeonghyeon’s head jerked up to face Junghyun, who, weirdly, had his gaze casted to a side, as though to avoid Jeonghyeon’s eyes,
At that moment, Seungeon returned, refreshed and ready to continue his literature homework when Junghyun grabbed him and announced, “We need to piss.” While Seungeon babbled and protested against being dragged to the toilet right after he just finished his business, Yunseo glanced over at Jeonghyeon, who looked stunned.
“I…really hope I didn’t just…” Yunseo trailed off, evidently apologetic, “But you two…It was your fault too! How could you guys act like a married couple when-”
“We do not look like a married couple,” Jeonghyeon retorted at once, ears reddening, earning an eye roll from Yunseo. “First, I said act,” Yunseo corrected, “Second, it’s a figure of speech. Having said that, ‘look’ may be the more appropriate word. I mean, you guys are always together, like you’re joined at the hip. Junghyun waits two hours for your stupid physics class to end every Wednesday so you can have dinner together!”
“You do that too!”
Yunseo threw his hands up in frustration, “I do that so I can be with Seungeon!”
“Me too!”
“Oh yeah? Can you use that big engineer brain of yours and tell me what the difference between my relationship with Seungeon and yours with Junghyun is?”
“...Yeah.”
“You two definitely need to talk,” Yunseo advised, after a beat of silence as Jeonghyeon stared into his cup, “Get…whatever you two have going on sorted out.”
-
“Mun Junghyun, if you don't tell me where we're going I swear I will-” Seungeon was cut off mid-sentence when he collided into Junghyun's back when the other abruptly came to a stop but continued dragging poor Seungeon. They were unfortunately standing in the middle of nowhere, a children's clothes shop to their side and a gaggle of identically dressed teenagers rushing past them in constant streams.
“Sorry,” Junghyun apologised, evidently distracted with his thoughts all over the place. Seungeon scoffed lightly, frazzled by the confusing but rather humorous situation, “I didn’t catch much but…I gather I misunderstood you and Jeonghyeon’s relationship.”
Flustered, Junghyun hurriedly clarified, “We aren’t together. At all.”
Seungeon cocked his head, “Hm, you guys should be.”
Junghyun gaped at Seungeon’s straightforwardness, while the literature major laughed, “Judging by the shade of red that you are, I'd reckon something is going on. How do you feel about him?”
Pausing to carefully select his words, Junghyun slowly answered, “He's my best friend.”
“And?”
“I don't want our relationship to change.”
“You are being really vague right now, can’t you answer the question?” Seungeon asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Taking a quick look at Junghyun’s helpless expression, Seungeon decided to stop teasing and be a little more serious, saying, “Sure, there is a possibility that he may not feel the same way. But, honestly, there is also a chance the opposite happens.”
Junghyun didn’t respond so Seungeon slipped his phone out, a knowing grin on his face and said cooly as he typed, “I’ll ask Yunseo to, uh, chase Jeonghyeon out. In the meantime, think about it, yeah?”
-
Seungeon kindly got Yunseo to grab Jeonghyeon and leave the cafe first so the two wouldn’t have to awkwardly stare at each other for the rest of the afternoon. That left Junghyun to collect his things and restlessly mull over the predicament he had found himself in at home.
Of course he'd love to be with Jeonghyeon. He'd date him in a heartbeat. Jeonghyeon was his best friend. Heck, he wasn’t special, anyone would date Jeonghyeon. Jeonghyeon was gorgeous, of course. That face with the 125° jawline.
Then again, the thought of maybe Hanbin or Keita asking him out was irksome. He knew he wouldn’t be able to even fake it for more than two days.
But if it was Jeonghyeon…
Shit, maybe he should actually go profess his love for his best friend. And get rejected (maybe). And then go die in a ditch so no one finds him. As he considered the easiest way to change his identity or perhaps get a concussion, his phone buzzed lightly.
Jeonghyeon that I love and care for a lot
You won the bet so I owe you something, right?
Junghyun hesitated, thumbing the edge of his phone as he considered.
Mun Junghyunie
Yea
Jeonghyeon that I love and care for a lot
Okay
What do you want me to do?
He was going to regret this. He'd have to drop out of school and go live as a hermit in the mountains. But this was the chance of a lifetime. Since he didn't have to wallow in the embarrassment of doing it in person.
Mun Junghyunie
Date me
Junghyun threw his phone across the room, wincing at the dull crunch he earned but stayed curled up in the corner of his bed, staring at the phone intently as though Jeonghyeon would pop out of it. He waited a good seven minutes before warily going over to flip his poor phone over, greeted with fifteen messages on the cracked screen.
Jeonghyeon that I love and care for a lot
What
Wait
Is this a joke?
i'll throttle you if this is a joke
Im kidding but
Mun Junghyun
Come back here
You serious?
Answer me
I will actually go over to you right now to get you to reply me
Jyngjun
Im coning over
Dont bother lokcing the door
I know wherr your spare key is
You are nit allowed to run and wway and hide in the mountains
The last few messages looked like they were written with one hand and no eyes. Junghyun didn’t even have time to freak out before his doorbell rang. He cursed Jeonghyeon’s long fast legs but went to open the door meekly.
Jeonghyeon was in the midst of trying the door knob, surprised when Junghyun opened the door so willingly. The man was flushed, chest heaving as though he sprinted over and then climbed all five flights of stairs to the dorm.
“Hey,” Junghyun squeaked out, his hands still resting on the door handle.
“Hey, yeah, okay,” Jeonghyeon managed shakily, breathless, “Say it again, to my face.”
“It's past midnight, did you run here?”
“My dorm's a block away, it's fine.”
Junghyun carefully moistened his dry lips, as Jeonghyeon composed himself and waited expectantly.
“What about just two weeks?” Junghyun choked out, “Dating I mean. For two weeks.” Jeonghyeon processed that carefully, then replied, “And what do we do after the two weeks? Pretend like nothing happened?” Jeonghyeon sounded almost angry, hurt.
“What if this doesn’t work out and we don’t stay friends?” There were a lot of “whats” being asked, too many questions to consider.
“Does it matter? Right now, in the present time, I want to be with you. Not just for two weeks, longer than that. I just need your confirmation.”
“I do like you. I like you so much it’s ridiculous.” Junghyun promptly buried his face in his hand to avoid Jeonghyeon’s gaze.
“Then let’s do it. We’ll work it out. We always do.”
The door opposite Junghyun’s creaked open, and a groggy Taerae appeared. “Can you guys confess quieter next time,” Taerae complained grouchily. “Sorry,” Junghyun whispered back.
“Congrats, though,” Taerae added, an unmistakable expression of glee on his face, “Now excuse me as I go the fuck back to sleep.”
They burst into a fit of silent giggles as Taerae shut his door, just a few moments of laughing with each other in secret as only the night watched them. “You should go home and rest, you have a ton of classes tomorrow,” Junghyun gently reminded. “Yep,” Jeonghyeon sighed, considering for a second before he leaned in and kissed him, short but sweet.
“Love you,” Jeonghyeon greeted, before hurrying off, cheeks hot, as Junghyun stayed standing there, unable to conceal his smile.
-
“So, did you hear?”
“Hm?”
Yunseo and Seungeon were nestled at a picnic table on campus, notebooks and stationery scattered on the table, abandoned. Instead, their attention was on frozen yoghurt cups and watching an informal game of ultimate frisbee a couple metres away.
“The two Jungs confessed. Junghyun asked him out over text,” Seungeon announced, carefully scraping at his dessert.
“They’re idiots,” Yunseo sighed, shaking his head. “I saw it coming,” Seungeon announced, “I knew they’d pull something stupid like this.”
“Ah, but in the end, it was our fault for assuming,” Yunseo lamented, mildly sheepish. Seungeon rolled his eyes, “You can’t blame us. Remember the way Lee Jeong was when Mun Jung had that presentation on the death penalty? It was revolting to watch him fall in love listening to deterrence and retributive justice and what not.”
“Wow, we actually changed the trajectory of their lives,” Yunseo joked. Seungeon sighed dramatically, “They really should thank us, honestly.”
“We should have bet on it,” Yunseo chuckled, “Maybe something like how many days it would have taken for one of them to confess.”
“We should have,” Seungeon mused, before he gasped, pointing forward, “Jay and Jongwoo. I am so certain they’re t-”