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Honggyu was staring into the screen, head empty with no thoughts.
Though he’s seen this already with his brother–as they used to bond together with movies–it was still nice to watch a classic. A horror one, too, remembering the name to be “Scream”. He remembers the plot being really interesting, but a bit violent (it was not a bit, Honggyu had to sleep with his parents for two weeks afterwards). Making it kind of impressive that Miae was able to get it in her hands somehow. Also with the fact that it was literally impossible for them to rent it at their age.
So when Miae suggested all of the academy students watch it together, he decided to go along with it.
Who would’ve thought he’d be sitting next to Johan?!
Not that it’s bad or anything! It was just unexpected, on Honggyu’s side. For some reason, the married couple (eugh… Cheol and Miae…) sat on the floor together , side-by-side, like a married couple. What’s even weirder was that Jungwook decided to sit with the girls (Honggyu had no clue why he would be near someone like Sora). Lastly, Honggyu has barely interacted with Taekwang, so it’ll be odd to do so just for this.
Therefore, the next best option was next to Johan!
The one who he just happens to usually tease and bicker with!
…It’s not his fault that Johan was your typical nerd! Honggyu found most of his statements so geeky. Plus, it was fun to see all of the reactions he could provoke from the near-sighted guy who always keeps his guards up.
So, as he normally does, he ends up teasing Johan. This time, while they were all watching the movie.
“Look, it’s coming…” Honggyu starts ominously. “When they open that door…”
Johan snarled, making him laugh. “Ugh, stop spoiling it!”
Honggyu didn’t notice the fear and shakiness in Johan’s voice.
“AUGH!”
Right as Honggyu finished mentioning the spoilers to Johan, the murderer, “Ghostface” appeared out of nowhere. He could see Miae jump into Cheol’s lap (look! what did he say? married!), Yonghui screamed but quickly turned to normal due to interest, and Jungwook gasped, invested. Oh, and the two weirdos, Cheol and Sora, who didn’t react to it at all.
No, that didn’t mean Honggyu was also a weirdo.
Why?
“URGH! ”
Because Honggyu got scared himself as well.
Though, it wasn’t from the jumpscare.
…It was more of the fact that someone literally almost jumped him.
Johan was the one who screamed the loudest when that scene occurred. Hell, even louder than Yonghui! Which made Honggyu immediately startled from the volume next to him. He turned his gaze towards Johan, with his entire face head-on with the desk. He was even trembling, reminding Honggyu of a rabbit face-to-face with a fox.
“Hey !?” Honggyu whispered loudly. “You scared me!”
“...”
“Are you crying?”
Johan shifted slightly away towards Honggyu’s direction. Honggyu started snickering, finding it amusing. Who would’ve thought that Johan could get embarrassed?
Honggyu laughed quietly, trying not to disturb the rest. “You crying?”
He didn’t get a response back from Johan. Wow, the guy was scared to his guts just from this? No way. Which led him to do something he would later regret. Or in fact, regret this whole situation onwards.
“Honey, are you crying?” Honggyu finally teased.
And it was right after he finished his sentence, Honggyu heard a sniffle .
What?
Wait, no way he was actually crying, right?
…Right?
“Hey…” Honggyu started growing more concerned, unsure of whether Johan was crying because of the movie or him. “You’re actually crying?”
Johan immediately answered. “Shut up .”
“Wait, no, I meant it. No jokes this time.” Honggyu blurted back, in the midst of panic. “Are you okay?”
With Johan not responding again, Honggyu ended up grabbing Johan by his shoulders, forcing him to show his face.
The first thing Honggyu was faced with was the boy’s tear-stained face. He could see how his glasses were all fogged up and the slight remaining tears streaming down. Johan’s cheeks were colored with redness all over. In shame, trying his hardest to be quiet to not disturb the rest, and panting, all breathless.
The sight made Honggyu feel his own throat constrict.
He knew he messed up.
Honggyu unconsciously cupped his hands onto Johan’s face, trying to smear the tears away. If he knew it would’ve ended up like this, he wouldn’t have teased him in the first place. When he saw those sierra-colored eyes glance upwards, shocked at what the other boy was doing, Honggyu’s eyes softened even more. Not realizing what he was doing, he continued this action for a good two minutes, until he heard Johan swallow and gulp a couple of times due to how flustered he felt. Which made Honggyu really realize, making him flustered as well.
“I’m sorry! I mean, uh.” Honggyu’s unclasped his hands from Johan’s face and placed them on his lap hastily, unsure of where to put them.
He could feel his face becoming more red the more time passed. “I didn’t mean to, well, uh.”
“It’s not your fault.” Johan murmured, wiping the rest of his face with the sleeve of his shirt. “Any of it.”
They stayed silent for a few moments. Hearing sounds in the background, the horror movie seemed to continue to play and the rest of the students were still gasping at the moments. So Honggyu just assumed that they still didn’t see what was happening between the two of them. But he didn’t really care whether they got noticed or not; he felt terrible . He basically just kept teasing a kid who was crying, about crying ! He could feel his palms sweating while holding onto his pants, clutching tightly.
Continuing to not care about their surroundings, the two of them could hear each other’s individual’s breaths. Honggyu still maintained eye contact, while Johan tried to avoid looking at the person right in front of him. But, it was Johan who broke the silence first.
“S-sorry.” Johan spoke, taking the blame. “Kind of ruined the mood…” He says, as if he even did something wrong.
Honggyu quickly denied. “No! You did nothing wrong. I’m supposed to be the one apologizing!”
Looking at how Johan’s eyes widened even more, Honggyu felt his face become red. Even Honggyu was shocked at how fast he said that immediately. Seeing Jungwook and Cheol slightly turn their heads due to his volume, Honggyu shunned his face away. Breaking eye-contact with Johan in pure embarrassment.
“ Well , I mean,” Honggyu starts blabbering afterwards, trying to forget what he just did earlier. “If it makes you feel better, we can… uh, go outside?”
He meant to pose it as a statement but ended up making it sound like a question, due to him being hesitant. God, why did he even say that in the first place? Johan probably hates him. Honggyu was mentally preparing himself for Johan to lash out at him, but all he got was a chuckle.
“Okay.” Tilting his face back to normal, Honggyu could see Johan smiling softly back at him.
Honggyu didn’t understand why he felt a pang in his heart after seeing that.
“Alright,” He reciprocated the smile back, heart throbbing. “Let’s go.”
The two of them swiftly exited, not realizing that basically everyone was watching their entire scene.
“Wow,” Yonghui giggled, acting oblivious until they left the room. “That was more climatic than the movie.”
Jungwook beamed. “Right, they’re so cute.”
“Funny how I just happened to have leftover popcorn from my lunch today.”
Both Honggyu and Johan successfully escaped the room, sitting together on some random bench nearby the academy building. They also took their belongings with them, though Honggyu couldn’t really answer why they did that if someone were to ask. It was inconvenient, but for some reason, he didn’t register that it was until they were outside. It was like he couldn’t think clearly whenever he was with Johan, acting impulsively based on emotions and following the brown-haired guy like he was some puppy.
With the bag in his hands, Honggyu grabbed Johan’s hands. Tugged and held them so he could give him some of the remaining popcorn he had left. Though, the other’s hands seemed to be shaking, leading Honggyu to tilt his head upwards.
There, he saw Johan’s pink-tinted face. Why was he shy? Of what?
Though, it was cute . Honggyu suddenly felt the urge to hold him tenderly by the face again.
Wait.
What did he just say?!
Honggyu quickly released his grasp on the brown-haired boy’s hands and became flushed. God, what is making him do things that keep messing him up?! He could feel the heat flush towards his face and ears.
Oh, Johan was also probably shy because he was holding his hands.
The thought of that made Honggyu even more red.
“Uhh,” Honggyu stammered. “Now that we’re out here, could I, you know…”
Johan finished the sentence for him. “Know what happened?”
He got a nod as a response.
“It’s kind of lame but, I just don’t really like horror movies…?”
Honggyu stared at him agape, deadpanning too. He got a smack on the arm from Johan.
“Ouch! Hey !” Honggyu yelped. “What was that for?!”
Johan laughed while also half-raising a fist.
“Yeah, it makes sense why you’re confused. ‘Cause that wasn’t all of it.”
“Hm?”
“I was just mainly thinking about how I barely have any friends, haha.” Johan said plainly, stuffing the popcorn in his mouth.
…
“...What?” Honggyu asked, bewildered.
“At first, I just didn’t want to watch the movie because I was scared.” Johan kept going, while he was cleaning his glasses. “Right, but, I still went since everyone else was going. Then, I started thinking about how you guys won’t like me since I’m always so uptight and stuff, so that's also why I tried pushing out of my comfort zone. To be cool.”
Hearing Johan talk made Honggyu feel uneasy.
“Guess it failed now that I’m outside here with you.” The brown-haired boy looked towards the distance, ending his explanation straight-forwardly.
Honggyu could see how Johan was still trying to hide his actual feelings about the matter. With how he ended calmly, despite his eyes becoming shaky and his eyebrows furrowing.
This was a completely different version of Johan of what Honggyu was used to.
He didn’t like this version.
“Yeah, but it’s fine–”
Honggyu interrupted, uncomfortable. “No, it’s not ! If you feel that way, then I’ll just be your friend! And if you continue to ever feel that way, then I’ll just reassure you again!”
Making his exclamation, Johan just stared at him blankly.
“We're supposed to make you feel at home here! Wait…here? Yeah, here!” Honggyu pinched his nose bridge, thinking of how to phrase his words. “God damnit, I need Miae to explain this… But yeah, you don’t have to force yourself to do things you don’t want to do just to be friends.”
“Hey, really it’s–” Johan’s hands tried signaling Honggyu that it was okay and he could stop, but it seemed like he didn’t get the memo.
“Since if you do force yourself, well , you shouldn’t … cause, I mean, then that would mean those aren’t real friends, but,” Honggyu kept yapping away. “I promise we’re not fake… right, okay, that makes sense. Anyways, sorry that we made you ever feel that way. And for those times I teased you.”
They both stared at each other, until Johan bursted out laughing. Now it was Honggyu’s turn to slap the other’s arm.
“What’s with you ?!” Honggyu yelled, all flustered. “I just poured out my feelings !”
God, he swears his death is going to be from all the embarrassment that Johan caused him.
“ Nothing !” Johan laughed even more. “I found it cute , you know, how you just kept going to try and comfort me. Thank you. And also, I told you it wasn’t your fault back there. I literally taunt you as well. Those “fights”? I liked them, and that you made me feel like I at least had someone on my side.” Johan ended, with a genuine smile plastered on his face.
Correction, Honggyu was going to become blind and get a heart attack from how bright Johan’s smiles and words were.
How all of Johan made him feel like he was on Cloud Nine? He had no clue because, whenever Johan does something to him, Honggyu felt like he died and was blessed to go to heaven somehow.
Honggyu’s brain circuited. “Uh,”
“Mmh?”
Pull your weight together, Honggyu! This was not the time!
But god, didn’t he feel all giddy because of it.
Immediately, Honggyu stood up and tried to not face Johan.
“I-It… It seems like your feeling better, so,” Honggyu knew that it was no use to hide his face as Johan could probably see his blush from his neck, making him even more red at the fact. But he was still unable to make contact with the other.
“Yeah, I do feel better because of you, so we can go inside now.” Johan added bluntly, not realizing what his words were doing to Honggyu. Then, he stood up and suddenly touched Honggyu’s neck, making the other boy jump.
Johan asked, oblivious. “Oh, and you’re, like, really red…? Are you sick?” He continued touching Honggyu, still worried.
Who would’ve thought everything Johan just did ended up causing Honggyu to run away from Johan, feeling the most embarrassed (and perhaps in love) he has ever felt in his life, and Johan chasing him, in confusion?!
They’ll figure it out.
…Well, at least, some day.