Chapter Text
Cheol felt like he was being boiled alive.
The temperature had nothing to do with it—it had been hot outside before the rain, but now the air-conditioned gym was actually quite chilly, not to mention the fact that he was soaking wet and missing his overshirt.
No, the thing that made him feel like the proverbial frog in a pot was Mi-ae. Surprise surprise, she was being weird and evasive again.
Go on. Say something.
She could barely look at him. She reminded him of a mouse trapped by a playful cat, hunched up like she expected the hit of a paw.
Ha! As if. He wasn’t the one who had been playing around recently. Just thinking about what she’d said before the photoshoot made him feel hot and itchy.
<<Wait!! I mean, what happened yesterday…I didn’t do it on purpose…>>
Who kissed someone on accident? It wasn’t like when Hwani knocked him on top of Mi-ae. Who grabbed someone in the middle of the road and kissed them? That wasn’t an accident!
<<It was a joke! What I did yesterday was obviously a joke! Why do you keep pestering me about it?>>
Just thinking about it…he felt the phantom water around him start boiling.
<<Wh-what I mean is…it was just a joke…and I’m sorry… We can talk about it later…>>
[Bubble bubble]
Well, now it was later. So wasn’t she going to talk?
No, apparently all she was going to do was glance at his face, suddenly turn away, glance again, turn again—
Cheol saw the shell of her ear, partially hidden by her hair. It was…red.
She was blushing.
Oh.
[Thump]
"Hey." His voice sounded loud and echoey to his own ears in the empty gym.
A sudden clunk, and a group of screaming middle schoolers rushed through the gym doors. Cheol felt his shirt stretch, and Mi-ae dragged him around a corner into the equipment room, slamming the door behind them. He nearly hit his head on the door frame on the way in.
"So, about yesterday—!" Mi-ae spun and they were nearly chest-to chest, her nose inches away from his collarbone. She flinched back, going a very interesting gradient of red from the neck up. "Yesterday… It…was a joke… Wait, no! I mean, it was a joke, but… What I’m trying to say is I didn’t mean to do it… I just…got caught up in the moment… You… You—!" Her throat sounded constricted, and she got redder and redder—
"Mi-ae." Cheol said. "Do you like me?"
Like they were standing in some kind of movie, lightning cracked outside. Rain pounded on the hot metal roof.
It was out. He’d said it.
Mi-ae’s big, round eyes locked onto his. "...huh?" The sound of rain filled the room. "What…what?"
"Do you like me?" Cheol said, more insistently this time.
For a few seconds Mi-ae looked frozen in time, like a photograph. Her mouth worked soundlessly. Cheol waited, the long moment slipping by.
"NO WAY!!"
Cheol’s head rocked back a bit, like he’d been hit.
"HEY! What the hell are you talking about?!?! What are you saying? Seriously!! That’s not funny!" Mi-ae clutched his shirt to her almost like a conservative old woman with a string of pearls. "Me? Like you? Please! Who do you think you are?? You need to wake up! What made you think that?!"
Cheol’s stomach dropped unpleasantly, like he was riding an elevator that suddenly lurched downwards.
Mi-ae's protests turned sputtering. "I-I just told you!! Th-that kiss…! It was just a joke! I even apologized! Seriously, you were the one who was okay just writing it off as an accident last time, right? Why are you so obsessed this time?!"
A angry, sickly feeling rushed over Cheol’s skin. His pot was about to boil over. "What?!" he yelled. "How is that the same thing? That really was an accident, but this time you—!!"
They both flinched. It felt like the memory of that day floated between them. The image of her face, the soft, shocked expression. The smudge of blood on her cut lip.
Mi-ae ducked her head, and she clutched Cheol’s shirt closer over her shoulders. "...That’s why you’ve been acting weird all day?" she ground out. "You thought…you thought that joke I pulled…actually meant…I liked you?"
Cheol stared at her, but she didn’t lift her head. Another long moment drifted by. He turned away, stifling a sigh. His stomach was churning.
"…So what if I did?" Mi-ae’s voice was quiet, directed at the ground.
"What?" Cheol’s head snapped back towards her.
"So what if I did!" Mi-ae finally tipped her face up, and Cheol saw hot anger written there.
What???
What did she have to be angry about? She was the one who went around kissing people as a joke. She was the one who’d lead him on a wild goose chase through the entire school while she refused to give him any answers—after he hadn’t slept a wink because she’d grabbed him and kissed him in the middle of the street! Hell, she was the one who just denied she liked him while practically laughing in his face.
"What are you—"
"Would it really be so bad if I did?" Mi-ae’s eyes were overbright. "Why can’t I like you? Would it be wrong of me?! Would it be so embarrassing?!"
A jab in his chest. No, a literal jab, as Mi-ae poked him in the sternum. What the hell…?
Cheol tried to grab the offending hand, but she snatched it away before he could respond.
"Are you embarrassed because I’m smaller than your little sister?"
What? Whaaat??
"I’m small but I’m not a child! I keep telling you, we’re the same age! I…" Mi-ae’s face was going from pink to red. She was trembling a bit. "I know I’m not tall like Seonyeong!"
Cheol was flabbergasted. Back to her again? What did she have to do with anything?? Why did Mi-ae keep bringing random other girls up? Mi-ae’s words were pinging around the conversation like a ball in a pinball machine. He had no idea what direction they would bounce next.
"I know I’m not—I know I don’t look good next to you! But even if everyone else says it, you’re supposed to…you should…why don’t you…" Mi-ae’s mouth screwed up, like she’d tasted something bitter. She was making eye contact with a part of the wall just to the left of Cheol’s shoulder.
"Who says that?"
Mi-ae’s eyes snapped back to Cheol’s face.
"What?"
"Who said that? Who was it?" Cheol pushed off of the door, feeling a burn in his chest, like freshly-stoked embers. "Who said you look bad next to me?"
<<He made fun of her just for standing next to Cheol>>
"Was it Shim Changhyeon? The guy with the mole on his face?" That piece of shit, he’d told him to watch what he said about Mi-ae—
"What? No!" Mi-ae glanced to the side, breaking eye contact.
Bingo. "Tell me!" he said. "What did he say to you?"
"N-Nothing!" Cheol couldn’t tell if Mi-ae was sweating or just still damp from the torrential downpour outside. "That’s not important! Anyways, you’re the one that’s so mad at the thought that I might like you!"
What? No he wasn’t. Sure, he was mad, but it was about her jerking his chain, not that she liked him…
If. If she liked him.
Besides, all of this was academic. Because she didn’t like him. It was all just a joke she’d pulled on a friend.
"What did he say?" he repeated. "What did he say to you?"
"He didn’t say anything! He didn’t have to!" Mi-ae actually stamped her foot. "They don’t have to! Because you—you—you—you jeeeerk!"
Mi-ae burst into tears.
What. The. Hell.
Cheol stood, his back to the door, completely at the end of his rope. Actually, he’d run out of rope a while ago. This time, his soul was definitely going to leave his body.
Mi-ae was crying, big, shuddering sobs that honestly scared Cheol a bit. His anger winked away like a candle flame in a strong wind. He’d never seen her actually, legitimately cry. The closest had been when she was running away from her parents, but that had seemed more like a tantrum. Now, Mi-ae looked small, so small, and so sad. And scared.
"H-hey—" Cheol feebly reached for her, only for her to swat his hand away. He was already literally wet, but he felt like he’d been dunked in a tank of cold water. "Mi-ae, stop crying! Please, why are you—"
"What? What d-don’t you uh-uh-understand!" Mi-ae furiously swiped at the tears, but they kept coming. "What is wrong with you, Kim Cheol? Y-y-you chased me through the wh-whole school like that because you were mad that I might like you? Is it that t-terrible?"
"No, I didn’t–that’s not why—!"
"Yeah, I kn-know someone prettier than me confessed to you already and you dumped her! Maybe it’s happened before, more than once! B-but do you know how humiliating—? Do you know how it feel—"
Cheol surged forward and grabbed Mi-ae’s face, cupping her cheeks in his hands.
"Listen to me! Mi-ae, I’m not mad that you like me!" If she did. Big if. "I’m mad that you kissed me and ran away!"
How round and wide Mi-ae’s eyes were right now would almost be comical, if not for how red her face was from sobbing.
"Why are you worried about what other people are saying? Aren’t you Hwang Mi-ae?" He gave her a very gentle little shake, then started wiping her tears with his thumbs. "Since when did you care about stuff like that?"
Mi-ae sniffled.
"And since when have you cared whether I’m angry or not? That’s never stopped you from charging on ahead before." Mi-ae blinked and another tear ran down her cheek. Cheol wiped it away, the pad of his thumb dragging against her skin. "Up until now, haven’t you done everything that you want? Then keep doing that, what’s the problem? You can—" he cleared his throat, flushing. "You can kiss me, if you want. Just—just don’t run away afterwards! Don’t run off and hide behind that guy like I’m going to hit you or something!"
Mi-ae hiccoughed. Her face was still pink, but somehow it seemed a different shade than it had when she was crying.
"Anyway, I–I don’t mind whatever you do, as long as you don’t run off and avoid me! As long as it’s you, then everything is fine! It’s good! I like everything about you!"
Quiet stillness surrounded them in the room, interrupted only by the continuing falling staccato of rain. Cheol’s face was hot. He knew he must be blushing, and the effort of maintaining eye contact after getting all that off his chest…well.
A glittering tear was caught in Mi-ae’s eyelashes. "Everything?" she whispered.
"Yes!" Cheol’s heart was attempting to thunder out of his chest and gallop out of the room, out of the gymnasium, and merrily down the road.
"I can like you?"
"Yes!"
"...I can kiss you?"
"Yes!" This one came out sounding a bit more strangled. Mi-ae’s hands caught his wrists, keeping him from moving his hands from her cheeks. He realized his hands were trembling a little.
"...Then can I kiss you right now?" she murmured.
Cheol’s heart stopped. Mi-ae’s expression had gained back some of that…for lack of a better term, boldness it normally had, although the look in her hazel eyes was still very soft. Her face fit perfectly in his hands, its shape somehow familiar, like he’d held it dozens of times before.
But he did know her face. He knew her. And he knew that if he kissed her, her lips would be unconscionably soft. He knew what the shape of her mouth would feel like against his.
Cheol nodded, slowly, his mouth feeling dry. Mi-ae flushed even deeper, going up on her tip-toes, one of her hands leaving his wrist to rest softly on his chest. Her eyes went soft and half-lidded. A long moment.
"Cheol-ah?" she said softly.
"Yeah?" he breathed.
"...You have to lean down." Her whisper had the tiniest, barest hint of playfulness.
Oh.
Cheol slowly, hesitantly bent. One of his hands automatically moved to her back, smoothing against the damp fabric of her shirt. He felt her warmth through it.
The other tipped her face and—oh god, he was really doing this—guided her mouth to his.
Their previous kiss had been still, a movement-less press of lips onto his that had shocked him like a live wire. It had been so sudden he hadn’t closed his eyes.
This kiss was all little tender touches, sweetly exploratory movements. The soft catch and slide of wet skin on skin. The warmth of their intermingled breath in cold air. The wonderful, clumsy way their mouths moved against each other, their noses bumping a little. The thrilling, sweet way they tried to catch the rhythm of each other’s kisses.
He had remembered right. Her lips were unconscionably soft.
Cheol’s hand drifted to the back of her neck, tangling in the short, damp strands of her hair. It felt like every one of the atoms making up his body was tingling.
Someone (her?) made a reverent, muffled noise into the kiss, so quiet it was almost lost between them and the noise of the rain outside. Her thumb made tiny circles on his skin, just over his scar. She smelled like rain.
After a few more moments of delicious, gently clumsy kissing they had to pull back to take a breath.
Cheol’s eyes drifted open. Mi-ae’s big, hazel eyes met his, looking dreamy and bright. Her eyes twinkled like they were filled with thousands of tiny stars, putting him in mind of the countryside, of wet summer heat and cicadas and a sky bursting with a shimmering galaxy. “Cheol-ah?” Mi-ae murmured, the sweetest, most wondering expression written on her face. Her eyes were still a little red from crying, but she didn’t seem to mind.
A beat. Then Cheol felt a full-body flush take him, right to the tips of his ears. "I…um…"
Mi-ae kept blinking dreamily up at him, a goofy smile starting to spread across her face.
That was too much. He couldn’t even look at her right now. His hand on the back of her neck guided her face to the center of his chest, and he hugged her to him, squeezing his eyes shut.
What had he done?? What had they just done???
He would immolate right there. Hell, he was surprised steam wasn’t rising off of him that moment.
"I…um…I mean—"
Well, the hug ended up being a mistake, because Mi-ae started nuzzling—yes, nuzzling—happily into his chest, her cheek rubbing against his wet shirt over his sternum. Her arms squeezed his waist; she seemed almost to vibrate with excitement.
"What are you doing??" Cheol squirmed a bit, trying to pull back, but Mi-ae’s arms squeezed him tighter.
"You like me~" He couldn’t see her face, but she sounded positively giddy. "You like me—"
"N-no, I—"
Mi-ae’s grip loosened and she looked up at him, arms still loosely wrapped around his waist. "No?" She cocked her head, a small, self-assured grin on her face. "You don’t? Are you sure?"
"I—it was—" Cheol covered his face with both his hands. What was he going to say? Whatever that was, both of them knew it hadn’t been a joke .
"I like you too." Mi-ae said. Cheol felt her face land back on his chest. The press of her cheek was warm through the damp cotton of his shirt. "I like you, Cheol-ah. Everything about you. From the beginning."
Cheol’s hands drifted from his face, and he looked down at the top of her head. In that moment, she seemed…indescribably precious.
His hands gently found her again, one resting on her upper back, the other almost reflexively stroking her damp, dark hair.
"I…" he swallowed around a lump in his throat. "…I like you, Hwang Mi-ae." Mi-ae. As in love.
There were a few moments of silent swaying, the only noise during their embrace the rap-rap of rain falling outside. Although it sounded like it was slowing to a drizzle.
…He wanted to kiss her again. Jeez, what was wrong with him? Almost sixteen years of mostly avoiding physical contact with the opposite sex and now he just wanted to grab her and plant five, no, a dozen kisses all around her face. He wanted to kiss her mouth and her soft cheeks and that silly little spot between her brows she’d warned him he had a habit of crinkling on his own face.
He cleared his throat. "We should…um…we should probably see if we can head back," he said, his voice a bit scratchy.
"Okay," Mi-ae squeezed him once more and pulled back, smiling shyly up at him. Cheol swallowed and turned, opening the door a crack. "…So, does this mean we’re dat—" Mi-ae started.
"Shhh!" Cheol covered her mouth with his hand, looking frantically around through the open door. No one there, phew. The people outside must have headed back already.
He suddenly became conscious of the feeling of Mi-ae’s mouth against his palm. He could feel the shape of her smile. Her eyes crinkled a bit.
"…" Cheol squirmed internally.
"Hmm?" Mi-ae’s voice vibrated through his palm, and he snatched his hand away.
"…! Um…" Cheol’s heart was going a million miles an hour with the strength of a freight train. He shut his eyes and looked down, defeated. Hell, what was one more thing today? "…Yeah. Sure. We’re dating."
"Yay!" Mi-ae giggled, throwing her hands in the air like she’d won a race at the sports festival. She spun in a little circle, then grabbed his arm and plastered herself against his side.
"…You’re so childish…" Cheol murmured.
"Yeah, but you like me~" Mi-ae squished her cheek against his arm. "You’re my boyfri— "
Aaaaaaaa ! Cheol couldn’t take this. He covered her mouth again with his free hand, flushing. He checked again before they emerged into the gym proper—the coast was clear.
"Okay, come on." He uncovered her mouth and tried to slip his arm out of her hold. "And we shouldn’t…not at school…"
"Okay~" Mi-ae sounded playfully disappointed. "…Can I hold your hand at the academy then? That should be alright, right?"
"What? No!" Oh god, he could just imagine. What would Honggyu say? Hell, what smug expression would he have to endure from Jung-wook? "What is with you? You can’t just do that stuff in front of people!"
"It’s holding hands." Mi-ae looked up at him like he was the biggest, most immature idiot in the world.
"Oh, like that’s all you’d do!" Cheol bristled. "You kissed me in the middle of the street—"
"That wasn’t my fault!" Mi-ae turned bright red, swatting at his arm. "If you didn’t want to get kissed, you shouldn’t have taken your shirt off and leaned into me and touched my lips and stuff! It wasn’t my fault! It was irresistible, like, like gravity!"
Of all the adjectives he’d think to use to describe himself, irresistible was pretty low on the list. No, it wasn’t even on the list. It was somewhere lower. Like hell.
"Oh?" he said, fighting valiantly to keep his flush from deepening. "I thought it was just a joke. I thought you were playing around. But I was just irresistible, huh?"
"It was irresistible, it was! Like, the whole atmosphere…with the moonlight and your…eyes…" She waved her hand in front of her face, evidently trying to convey whatever nefarious thing his eyes had been doing. "It was the mood !" Then she glanced shyly up at him, a pink blush scattered across the bridge of her nose.
God, she was so cute.
"Uh-huh." Cheol had to look away, smirking a bit. "…It looks like it’s stopped raining," he said, easing open the glass door. "We should head back."
"Okay." Mi-ae walked beside him, clutching his shirt around her shoulders a little more securely. There were a couple moments of companionable silence as they crossed the parking lot, then turned by a vacant building. The smell of fresh rain filled the air, mixed with summer-hot pavement
Mi-are broke the silence first, halting in a small puddle. "Hey, lean down."
"What? Why?" Cheol complied anyway, stopping and turning a bit to face her.
"Because I want to kiss you again!" She grabbed his cheeks in her hands and planted a quick kiss on his mouth.
I said not at school!
She grinned up at him when they pulled apart, and it occurred to Cheol that he’d been wrong about her. All his preoccupation with Tae-uk and the Goguryeo bullies and keeping her safe, but in reality she was the dangerous one here.
He was in so much trouble.
"It was the mood again~" she giggled. Her thumb stroked his scar again, almost shyly. "…And because I like you." She looked up through her damp lashes at him.
"Ah." A third voice. Cheol and Mi-ae whipped apart. Mi-ae held her hands behind her back like a naughty elementary-schooler caught red-handed.
Jisu stood at the edge of the building, regarding them with an inscrutable expression. His blue eyes glanced from Mi-ae to Cheol and back again.
"…Seriously, what did you do to Lucifer??" He said—and yawned widely.