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1.
The first time Ivan asks for Till’s signature is when he needed it for their class bazaar. Every student in class was supposed to sign if they agreed with the ideas the class president proposed. And unluckily for Ivan, he was placed in charge of collecting the signatures.
It’s his first year in high school, and he’s already being placed as class president. How unlucky is that? It’s not like he doesn’t enjoy being one, it’s the useless tasks that come along with it.
Ivan sighs as he makes his way down the last row, collecting the required signatures during the homeroom period. At least he gets to talk to Till.
Wait, talk to Till ?
Ivan immediately perks up, as he realizes he’s a few seats away from where Till sits. A grin makes it’s way onto his face. All of a sudden, he is really eager to get the signatures of the other remaining students.
The said boy was staring out the window, seemingly interested in whatever was happening outside. Ivan isn’t so pleased with that. I’m more interesting. Look at me, Till. Ivan thinks greedily in his head.
He knows he’s being possessive. It hasn’t even been a few months since he first saw Till. Call it love at first sight, Ivan doesn’t care. He knew from the moment he laid eyes on the silver-haired boy he was going to pursue him for the rest of their high school years. And possibly after they graduate as well.
“You’re being delusional.” Sua told him when he got back from the first day of school that day. “Don’t scare the poor boy with your lovesick eyes.”
Ivan has tried to be discreet. But oh, how can he? Till looks absolutely gorgeous under the sun rays when they go for PE classes in the field. His hair gets tossed around in the wind yet he somehow manages to stay effortlessly beautiful. The grin on his face whenever he realizes he’s the first when they do laps around the field.
Till shines like a shooting star flying across the night sky. So whenever Ivan goes stargazing with Sua, when a shooting star crosses the sky above him, he wishes for Till to look at him upon the star.
He gets snapped out of his thoughts when a student is awkwardly tapping on his hand. “Er, Ivan?” She says, “You okay there? You spaced out for a second.”
Ivan hurriedly picks up the sheet of paper, apologizing profusely to her. “Y-Yeah! No worries! Thank you again!” He quickly walks up to the next student, and places the paper on their desk. He points to the area where the student is supposed to sign. “Sign here, please.”
Just one more.
Ivan grins giddily when the student is done signing, and practically races to Till’s desk. Till was still staring out the window, and it is right now Ivan notices Till’s eyes are shut tight.
“Till?”
No response nor a sign of acknowledgement. Ivan raises an eyebrow. Was Till sleeping?
“Till.”
Still a lack of reply. So, Ivan gently taps Till on the shoulder, and that’s when the boy opened his eyes and glared at Ivan. Ivan should be feeling intimidated under his pointed expression, but instead his heart does a flip.
Till’s looking at him .
“Do you… need anything?” A question slips out of Till’s lips, and Ivan immediately answers.
“Of course!” Ivan replies with vigor, and shows the sheet of paper to Till who is still looking at him with annoyance. “I need you to sign here if you agree with the ideas for our bazaar.”
Till stares blankly at the paper, before nodding and quietly takes the pen out of Ivan’s grasp. Their fingers brush, and a surge of electricity rushes through Ivan’s veins. Till however, pays no mind to what he just did to Ivan’s poor heart and signs the paper. “Done.”
Ivan tries to steady his beating heart. “T-Thanks, Till!” And the boy just nods, and Ivan swears his heart was going to burst out of his chest any moment.
Till acknowledged him. Ivan can’t be any more happier.
When he got back to his seat, Ivan secretly took a picture of Till’s signature with his phone and had it etched and memorized in his mind ever since.
2.
The second time Ivan asks for Till’s signature is when their group of friends make a scrapbook together. Mizi was the one who proposed the idea, and the others went along with it. Now, all they needed to do was to write their signature at the very end of the scrapbook, a reminder of their friendship.
Till thinks it’s cheesy, but he loves his friends. He loves them too much to say a genuine no. So, when Ivan finishes working with the scrapbook, he hands it over to Till and asks him to sign his name at the very back.
Till says nothing and signs his name, and the page feels warm under his touch. The scrapbook was alive with all their memories together. Most of the decorating was Mizi and Ivan’s doing, Luka and Sua being the one providing pictures, while Hyuna and Till… didn’t really do anything other than draw stupid things on the scrapbook. But hey, it got a good laugh out of the rest of his friends. That’s what matters.
When Till finishes signing his name, Ivan takes back the scrapbook and stares at it for a good while. Till watches as he picks up the same pen Till used to sign, and Ivan silently signs his name right beside Till’s and adds a tiny heart alongside it.
Then, to Till’s dismay, Ivan whips out his phone and takes a quick shot of their signatures together.
“What the hell, Ivan.”
“Research purposes.”
“Yeah?”
“…Yeah.”
It’s safe to say Till never signed anything in front of Ivan ever again.
3.
The third time Ivan asks for Till’s signature is when they got their yearbooks. It’s the last day of their final high school year, and everyone was collecting the signatures of their friends and teachers. Including Mizi.
Ivan passes by Mizi’s class as he makes his way from the boys’ toilet to his homeroom. He watches as Mizi excitedly flips open her yearbook and maneuvers it towards Sua, holding out a pen.
“Sua! Can you sign my yearbook?” Ivan swears he could see the pleading look Mizi was giving Sua, in the form of puppy eyes. And he knows Sua can’t resist her girlfriend, so he isn’t surprised when she immediately gives in.
“Okay. Where do I sign?” Sua asks, the pen ready in her hand.
“Over here!” Mizi answers, and she watches eagerly as Sua signs her name on her yearbook.
Ivan continues observing the two girls as they chatter up a storm right after, and an idea pops up in his mind. How could he forget? He does it every year. He should get Till’s signature on his yearbook as well.
So Ivan follows his heart, and when he returns to his classroom, he plops down in the empty chair beside Till and shoves the yearbook in front of his face.
“What the fuck?” Is the first thing Till spits out as he stares incredulously at the yearbook. “What do you want now, Ivan?”
“I’m so glad you asked, Till.”
“I’m not.”
“Still glad.”
“Hurry up, dammit.” Till says that, but he scoots closer towards Ivan until their shoulders brush, and Ivan smiles. He’s so cute. Ivan thinks as he ruffles Till’s hair.
“Well…”
“Admit it already.”
“Can’t you have guessed by now?”
“I’d rather hear you say it.”
“Alright. Fine.” Ivan pouts, and Till resists the urge to just— reach up and squish his cheeks.
“Till, sign my yearbook for me?” Ivan asks, flipping to an empty page at the back of the book. He asks Till the same thing every year, and this year is no exception.
“Hm. No.”
…He still gets the same reply every year.
Ivan continues his persuasion anyway. He isn’t going to give up that easily. “Please?”
“No.”
“Pl—”
“No.”
“Why noott?” Ivan whines, crossing his arms. Just like a child. Till muses as he shakes his head, amused by his boyfriend’s behavior.
“It’s just a no.”
“But why?”
“Because it’s a no.”
“Come on, Till. What am I supposed to do after high school without my boyfriend signing my yearbook? We won’t get to hang out as often after today, isn’t that just sad? Aren’t you sad by this, Till? I just want your signature so I can rememb—” Till silences Ivan as he covers his mouth with his hand, and Till ignores his burning cheeks.
“Okay, okay! Shut the fuck up. People can hear you, you know?!” Till hisses. Ivan stares at him for a moment, and Till feels a wet sensation on the palm of his hand seconds later. He immediately withdraws his hand with a disgusted expression. “Did you just fucking lick me?”
“So what if I did?” Ivan challenges, which causes Till’s cheeks to turn maroon.
“You’re gross.”
“I only do these things when I’m with you, Till.”
“I’m offended.”
“Wha—? But why??”
“Think, genius.” Till rolls his eyes, “Pass me a pen and I’ll sign your shitty yearbook.”
Ivan’s eyes light up comically bright, Till has no idea how. He looks away from the sheer brightness of that toothy grin of his boyfriend’s, and tries to cool down the heatness of his cheeks.
Ivan passes him a pen, and Till signs. A few minutes pass, and Till is still holding on to the yearbook. What’s taking him so long to sign his name?
When Till returns back his yearbook, Ivan flips it open at record speed, curious to what his beloved was doing that took him quite a while for a simple signature. When Ivan’s eyes land on a drawing of a penis instead of Till’s absolutely beautiful signature, his smile wilts away a little and his excitement dies down.
But his eyes find something else. Till had written down words in his yearbook.
What’s the point of signing if we’re not going to part anyway? It’s not like we’re going to break up immediately after graduation. You don’t need my signature.
Ivan grins, but is still a little disheartened Till didn’t leave his signature in his yearbook. He continues reading what Till wrote down.
Next time, try getting my signature on something else. -T
Ivan raises an eyebrow. “Where else am I gonna get your signature?”
Till replies with, “Think. Use that brain of yours.” Which raised more questions than answers.
“But how am I supposed to—”
“You have the brain of a genius. C’mon.”
“But I don’t know…”
Till sighs, but it’s a fond one. “Seriously?”
“Just tell me, Till.”
“Figure it out yourself.”
4.
The fourth time Ivan gets Till’s signature is when he needs it on a letter.
When Till wakes up in bed in the morning, the other side is cold but Ivan’s distinct smell lingers. The smell of floral shampoo, the one Ivan loves to use. Till rolls to the other side, burying his face into Ivan’s pillow.
It takes him a good four minutes to reluctantly get out of bed and start off his day. Their apartment is empty, since Ivan had a meeting in the early morning and left at the crack of dawn. Till yawns as he enters their shared washroom and stands in front of the sink and begins to brush his teeth. And his skincare routine, of course.
When Till finishes, his front part of his hair is pulled up in a pink headband, which Mizi graciously gifted him when they had a best-friend-only day a year ago. He’s been using it ever since, and occasionally lets Ivan use it too. Till exits the washroom and makes his way over to the living room, and he spots numerous letters stacked on each other on the coffee table in between the sofas.
Till sits down and reaches for the yellow post-it note Ivan must have written down before he left. On the note, it says:
Breakfast is in the kitchen, just heat it up in the oven and you’re good to go. Also, I know you probably won’t be in the mood to sign the letters so early in the morning, you can sign them whenever you want. Just get them all signed before I get home, okay? I already signed them all last night when I got home and you were already fast asleep. See you later, Till. Love you!!
Till smiles softly. He’s been doing that alot unconsciously ever since they got together. He averts his gaze to the letters he was supposed to sign by tonight. There were alot. Till groans, but gets his pen ready to sign them anyway. But not before he eats his breakfast, especially when it’s Ivan’s cooking.
Till gives the letters a quick glance before hurrying to the kitchen:
Guest,
We are very pleased to invite you to share with us a celebration of love and commitment.
Wedding Day!
5 April XXXX
Ivan ♡ Till
XXX Anakt Garden, KR
𝐼𝓋𝒶𝓃 • _____
Till settles down with his breakfast on a plate, and picks up his pen. Few pen strokes later, Till places the first completely signed letter in a new pile. It was now:
Guest,
We are very pleased to invite you to share with us a celebration of love and commitment.
Wedding Day!
5 April XXXX
Ivan ♡ Till
XXX Anakt Garden, KR
𝐼𝓋𝒶𝓃 • 𝒯𝒾𝓁𝓁