Chapter Text
the roles were simple: jiwoong was a bully and matthew was a nerd.
jiwoong would always hang out with his senior friends, usually by the locker, since there were lots of people to pick on near.
he didn't remember why or since when he hung out with the bullies, he just did. maybe because his brother was one of them. not that he liked it much there, tho. but it was better than being a loner picked on by them.
matthew preferred to stay in the library, getting ahead with his homework and sometimes revising before a test. not that he needed it that much, as his GPA had been a perfect 4.0 since he came into this high school.
matthew tried to avoid as best as possible jiwoong's group because, well, he was quite an easy target. short, smart, doesn't have many friends. especially since that time last year when he almost got beaten up by gunwook because he stopped them from skipping class.
and now, the situation looked about the same. he was going to his first class of the day, when he bumped into jiwoong. the younger was confused at first, but the older immediately pushed him to the ground, towering over him.
"watch where you're going, asshole" he said, his face beginning to turn pink-ish.
"yea sorry, but you really shouldn't be here much longer. class starts soon you know" matthew retorted.
jiwoong snorted. "do you even know who you're talking to? know your place, nerd"
matthew quickly took his book from the ground and slipped into the first classroom he found, luckily his own.
"dude you're like, bright red" gunwook laughed.
"just feeling a bit hot, i'mma go to the bathroom and freshen up a bit, be right back" jiwoong told them before walking away.
he locked himself in a bathroom stall and turned on the tap. he ran his hands under it for a bit.
the thing is, jiwoong kinda liked matthew. kinda. although he would never admit that he had the fattest crush ever on this dude.
they had a few classes together, but he typically stayed in the back with "the troublemakers" and the other seated in front to participate in the lesson. in the hallways, they barely bumped into each other, and when they did his "friends" would torment the younger until he left to go to the library.
how did he know he always went to the library? because he saw him, obviously. well, he's not a stalker: it was around one or two months ago, when jiwoong was starting to consider his crush for the shorty. he went to the library for a project with some girl he doesn't even remember the name of, and saw him (or barely saw him, as he was surrounded by books). jiwoong went there for the whole week and always saw matthew at the same table near the windows, far from the entrance to avoid all noise.
so, jiwoong went there from time to time to see his favourite nerd. he also went to the other side of the hallway, where the other's locker was, even if that meant he would most likely be late for his lesson. he also got timeout on purpose during soccer practice from time to time, to take a look from a nearby window inside the lab where matthew was spending his after school hours with the science club.
luckily, his friends didn't mind his weird behavior. or at least they didn't care enough to talk about it. they considered jiwoong to just have a strange personality and didn't think twice about it, before picking on another loner or girl or whoever they hated today.
"hey are you alright?"
jiwoong was so lost in his thoughts that he forgot he had been in the bathroom for far too long, half of the first period actually, the cold water still running on his hands.
he closed the tap and turned around to see matthew staring at him. shit, jiwoong thought, and immediately rushed out of the bathroom. but before he was out of the door, matthew stopped him.
"wait! i need to tell you that we have a project together and if you can give me anything to contact you i can give you the materials and everything and also if you need me i'll be in the library after school ok bye"
before jiwoong could say anything, he ran out of the bathroom. matthew's shit could wait till break time, i guess.