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"... And I just don’t see why you wouldn’t want to help me hide rotten eggs inside of all of our pe teacher’s plant pots." In front of a messy array of snack wrappers, scrap paper, and chewed pencils, Hyuna rests her elbows, laces her fingers, and leans her head on her hands. "But anyway, I have a new proposition."
Till is scribbling absent-mindedly, and Ivan is chewing on some artificial fruit-flavoured gum. The latter replies for both of them: "What now?"
"Well, I think it would be soooo cool to stay at the school overnight."
"Ugh…" Till rolls his eyes in the way that someone has just learned to roll their eyes does, moving his pupils jaggedly at the top of his vision. "Why would we want to stay at school any longer than we already do?"
"Is this because of those haunted rumours that have been spreading recently?" Ivan asks, blowing a bubble to hide his joy at Till’s suddenly spooked face.
"Hell yeah." Hyuna grins, absorbed by her own pride in thinking of the idea. "That every year, on Valentine’s day, the ghost of a girl comes to the school—"
"S-Save it for the night!!" Till almost yells, nervously smiling broadly. "I mean, we totally have to do it… so tell the story. Uh. Later."
"Omg, really? You’re up for it?" Hyuna smirks as Till shrinks back in his chair. "I thought you would chicken out, but since you’re so eager…"
"Yeah, really!" Till nods, putting an elbow around Ivan. "Ivan’s a chicken, though. I want you to come just to see you get scared!"
Ivan’s eyes go wide, but not really in fear. "Of course, I’ll come. I’m not scared."
"You suuuuure ?" Till leans closer, pulling a lazy attempt at a scary face.
"Y-yup!!" Ivan tinges pink, shoulders going stiff.
Hyuna bursts out laughing. In response, Till laughs at Ivan. Hyuna thinks them both silly and cute.
Ivan hears the janitor push his knackered cart through the halls. Ivan squats behind a rack of lost clothes and a few drawers of cleaning supplies, and braces himself as the store cupboard door opens. The janitor bumbles around for a bit, tiredly taking out a mop, some cleaning chemicals and a bucket. Ivan notices he’s wearing some headphones; the sound is quietly leaking from them, bass playing all grainy. He puts his items in the cart and trundles off again.
A few minutes later, Ivan hears a “thunk” noise from the hallway. After listening out for any signs of the janitor, and then double checking by peaking his head into the hallway, he scurries up to the hallway window and peers outside into the dark night. From behind the low brick wall, he sees two people emerge and start waving at him. He can identify Hyuna by the long hair and leg too mechanically stiff and thin to be flesh and bone. He identifies Till because he’s trying to inconspicuously cling to Hyuna in fright. Ivan shows a haughty grin he knows they can see in the moonlight, and Till angrily stamps his foot. Hyuna makes a “ hurry up ” sort of tumbling gesture with her hands, followed by holding her elbows in a “ it’s freezing out here ” kind of way.
Ivan retreats back to the storage cupboard and hauls a thick rope to the window. He opens it from the inside and lets down the rope. Till, being the lightest, climbs up first. He unceremoniously hauls himself over the window ledge.
“Asshole.” He whispers.
“Scaredy-cat.” Ivan replies at his usual volume. Till frantically looks around and draws a finger to his lip to tell him to shut up. Ivan ignores it, knowing the janitor is far off.
“I’m assuming they didn’t realise I was gone?” Ivan asks with a hint of cynicism.
Till shakes his head. “I just called out, ‘We’re home!’ and no one bothered to check it was the both of us.”
Ivan suddenly feels a tugging on the rope. “Come on!” Till hastily grabs on, and they both hold it steady enough for Hyuna to slide inside.
“Pretty great plan on my part, eh?” Hyuna self-congratulates. “But kudos to you on keeping hidden, Ivan.” She says just before being elbowed by him. She smacks him on the head in retaliation, and a fight ensues.
Till nearly rolls his eyes but opts to tug on Hyuna’s shirt sleeve instead. “C-can we go now?!” He whispers. “They’re gonna find us!” Ivan falls off of Hyuna and saunters up to Till while Hyuna breathes a “Sure, sure.” Hooking an arm through his, Ivan starts walking down the corridor. Till hesitates but, in favour of feeling safe, says nothing and sulkily follows him. Hyuna trails behind and the group falls into silence.
Hyuna exhales in boredom, but beings to form a leer and rubs her palms together the same way that a scheming and moustache-twirling villain would. “Guys? I think I felt a hand on my shoulder…”
Till turns his head back uncertainly, creasing his eyebrows, but seeing Ivan walk forward undeterred, he ignores her.
“It’s said that the girl who haunts this school tries to get your attention by grabbing you. A decade or two ago, she wrote an anonymous note for her crush, asking them to meet her at the school at night on Valentine’s day. But the crush had no interest in girls, and couldn’t make it the meeting time anyway.”
(Ivan’s fists curl slightly in annoyance, because he thinks Hyuna is making fun of him. Till fearfully shrinks toward Ivan, who notices it but doesn’t react. Hyuna finds them both endearing.)
“The girl is devoted, and despite being impatient, and waits all night. Even as thunder starts to brew, she waits in the pouring rain unwaveringly. Eventually she falls asleep at their meeting spot in the early hours of the morning. And the thunder gets worse and worse until she’s struck by it in her sleep.”
“Poor girl.” Ivan remarks indifferently.
Till turns to him and uses his free hand to wrap around Ivan’s upper arm, half in passionate agreement and half in worry. “I know, right?!”
Ivan smiles coyly and Till grimaces in disgust, but stays clinging to him.
Hyuna slyly creeps up behind them and quickly grips their shoulders. Till nearly jumps a foot into the air in fright, and squeals in terror. Ivan doesn’t even flinch, but snorts at Till’s reaction. Hyuna’s begins to cackle as they all hear the unmistakable sound of a not-far door bursting open.
“Shit!” “Fuck!” Hyuna and Till whisper in unison. They try to run away from the noise as silently as possible, dashing down the halls in a combination of ghost story chills and the new horror of being discovered at school after hours.
They arrive at the cafeteria. Ivan, still short pre-puberty, wriggles into a corner between a large rubbish bin and a vending machine. Till freezes in a panic, so Hyuna hoists him into the bin and closes the lid, empty but still thick with the stench of muck, much to Till’s dismay. She herself then stands pin-straight behind a thick column.
Not seconds later the janitor peers in, having slowed his pace in order to search thoroughly. However he doesn’t do a good job of it, because he hastily scans the room, puts his headphones back on, and wanders back out.
No one dares to move till the loud rattling of the cleaning cart has faded. Ivan surveys the room through the thin gap between the bin and vending machine. Seeing no one but Hyuna just beginning to peek around the column herself, he twists back out of the hiding spot. As Hyuna walks over, he hauls the bin lid off and Till immediately rockets upward, inhaling fresh air as desperately as a fish out of water.
He scrambles out of the bin and swings a punch at Hyuna. “That was fucking disgusting!!” He whisper-yells.
She looks off to the side and doesn’t retaliate. “I did it impulsively ‘cuz you were panicking.” She looks back at the bin with a revolted frown. “My bad, sorry.”
Till huffs and pouts. “It’s fine.”
Meanwhile, Ivan wanders over to the rows of fold-up seats and slumps into one of them after checking the surface for gum. “I’m exhausted.”
Till sits down next to him. “At least you weren’t shoved into the most toxic fucking enclosed space.”
“Oh!! Wait here, I’m gonna get something.” After jogging over to the cafeteria doors and sneaking a look down the corridor, she zips out.
“What??” Ivan looks on in confusion. He turns to Till and repeats himself. “What??”
Till shrugs. “I think she’s just going to her locker, I remember it being outside here.”
“Why would you know where her locker is?”
“That’s where she keeps the cigs. And her spare lighter.”
“ Cigs ? You’re trying to sound older than you are.”
“Am not!”
Ivan giggles, and says in a sing-song voice, "Are too! ”
“Fucking whatever. See if I care." Till shifted in his seat a little. " Ew! I think I sat on a piece of gum!!”
“Rookie mistake.”
“Oh my god, shut the fuck–”
They both startle as Hyuna jogs back into the cafeteria, holding her hands behind her back.
“Hey! I think we can talk normally now, ‘cuz I saw the lights switched on in a classroom in the other block. I think his silhouette in the window, too.”
“It still feels wrong to…” Ivan comments, looking at the vast and dark hall usually filled with obnoxiously loud chatter and bright, fluorescent lights.
“I agree, but…” Till takes a deep breath to calm his nerves. “Can I touch, uh, your face?”
“Of course?” Ivan asks, not even slightly deterred by the odd way Till asks, or the fact he was sitting in literal rubbish minutes ago. Till puts his palms over Ivan’s eyes. “Oh.” He says, disappointedly.
“The fuck you mean, ‘Oh?’” Till snaps.
“You can look now!” Hyuna chimes. Till recoils his hands as if they’ve been burnt.
On the table in front of Ivan sits a homemade cake with thirteen candles in it. The cake is slanted to one side, and is coated in icing and sprinkles that have melted a little bit in what was probably Hyuna’s musty locker. Each candle is lit, and flickers in the dark, making the cake look eerie.
Ivan begins to drool. “How did you make this…?”
“We’ve been saving up. Plus, Till’s the one who made it, not me.” Hyuna ruffled Ivan’s hair affectionately, and he smiled honestly.
“Till made it?!” Ivan exclaimed.
“It’s nothing. Now try it.” Till said as dismissively as possible, but sitting on the edge of his seat. Ivan was already inhaling the cake. “Hey, hey!!! At least appreciate my hard work!!”
Between bites, Ivan manages, “It’s shweet! … But it’s alsho fluffy!! … I mean, it’s little shtale … but I really like it!”
Till exhales in relief. “I’m glad.”
“Success!” Hyuna threw her hands up in celebration, before wrapping them around the two younger kids. Till bristled but didn’t shove her off, and Ivan just kept scoffing down cake, and even licked the paper plate clean for icing. Later, he insisted on bringing it back with him so he could sniff it.
Till and Ivan snuck back in through their dorm window, and settled into Till’s bed because Ivan said “It’s my birthday.” and Till said “You’re so fucking spoiled.” but let him in anyway. And after they both fell into the peaceful rhythm of slow, light and sleepy breathing, Till opened an eye to see if Ivan’s were still open. They weren’t. He could smell his unbrushed teeth and obscene amounts of sugar on his tongue, and Till didn’t care. He tilted his head up and pressed a light kiss to Ivan’s chin.
When Ivan still didn’t open his eyes, Till grinned and shut his own.
(He didn’t hide his affections because he didn’t think Ivan would return them. He hid them because Ivan had recently learned to gloat, and Till had recently become unsure of himself, and the adults would look at them weirdly for both being boys and question them about it back-handedly and patronisingly, and the other kids would find it funny, even, and Ivan would become so possessive Till wouldn’t be sure if he’d ever be able to talk to anyone else ever again.)
Naturally, Ivan was still awake and barely disguising the giggles of a sugar high and a probably requited love the entire time.