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It was the first day of school as a high schooler. Despite his shyness, Seokmin actually felt excited to meet new people and expand his social circle. To make a good impression, he made sure that he was well groomed, had his clothes ironed to perfection, wore his favourite perfume, and combed his hair real nice. People often say that his charm lies on his bright smile, thus he also made sure that his teeth were pearly and shiny.
The morning began by a session of individual introduction by the students. Seokmin volunteered to go first and introduced himself with a happy expression. When he was in front of the class, there was a student that caught his attention due to his height, which later on Seokmin noticed that the said student was way taller in reality once he introduced himself in class: Mingyu was the name of the student.
Seokmin found that Mingyu had his own charm and immediately believed they would make a good friendship dynamics. Alas, they sat far from each other so Seokmin had to wait until the class ended to properly introduce himself to Mingyu and offer him a friendship invitation.
When the first recess bell rang, Seokmin was still copying the notes on the chalkboard onto his own notebook. The process took long enough that Mingyu had already swarmed by 4 other kids. Seokmin may be confident at times but for this matter, he felt timid to walk over and introduce himself, so he went to the cafeteria alone; hoping that someone might spot him and befriend him right then and there.
Coincidentally, not long after Seokmin lined up for the meal, Mingyu and his friends arrived at the cafeteria, then lined up as well right behind Seokmin. The hesitation rose again, doubting whether he should just go for it and introduce himself to 5 people in one go, or save himself from possible embarrassment. As Seokmin stood there, he couldn't help but heard Mingyu saying something that offended him. Because of it, Seokmin buried the intention to befriend Mingyu and opted to look for others instead. Fortunately, he was approached by Minghao and they became friends instantly.
One thing about Minghao was that he wasn't in the same class as Seokmin. So when they had to return to class, the two had to part ways for awhile before reuniting in second recess. Then another thing happened: the biology teacher instructed the class to find a study partner for the syllabus. Seokmin who was filled with doubts, accidentally locked eyes with Mingyu who was filled with confidence. Seconds later, the taller student made his way towards Seokmin and said, "hey, want to partner up?"
Seokmin still couldn't shake the offensive words Mingyu said earlier, but he felt like it would be impossible if he let Mingyu know about it; that would make Seokmin seemed like a creep for eavesdropping. Thus with a slightly unpleasant expression, Seokmin nodded. Because of this stupid partnering up thing, he had to sit with Mingyu for 2 whole hours and actually work on practices and discussions with him.
Now Seokmin is never the type of person who's capable of lying, let alone pretending. Throughout biology class, he spoke to Mingyu only when he was being asked or when it was absolutely necessary. In contrast, when other students were asking stuffs to Seokmin or that when they needed to borrow a stationery, the guy beamed with a smile reaching both of his ears.
Of course, Mingyu noticed it. His mind told him to address the matter but he deemed that it might be too reckless and premature as they just knew each other.
The bell rang, indicating that biology class had ended and English class would be commenced. Just like the previous teacher, the English teacher instructed the students to make a group of 4 as they would be working on a presentation. Learning from his mistake, Seokmin avoided eye contact with Mingyu at all costs, and shifted his body to the opposite direction instead. Luckily for Seokmin, he grouped up with Jaehyun, Eunwoo, and Younghoon.
From across the room, Mingyu observed how Seokmin was literally all smiles when interacting with his team mates. It was obvious that Seokmin enjoyed working with them and that he was much more active on discussions compared to when they had to work together. Such phenomenon made Mingyu wonder, did he do something wrong to Seokmin? Again, he felt it was too early to draw such conclusion.
The day went on, and by the end of school, Seokmin had befriended almost every single students in his class including the girls. Everyone could see that he immediately became the mood maker, the very person who never failed to light up the atmosphere into something fun and bright. Even though Seokmin avoided interactions with Mingyu (just so that he didn't have to pretend to be nice around him), there were indeed times where Mingyu chimed into the jokes and banters. He swore that he could see the way Seokmin's expression flickered and shifted.
That was it for Mingyu. That was the last straw.
The last bell of the day rang, the students prepared themselves to go home. Seokmin was putting his belongings into his bag and bidding goodbye to his newly-made friends when Mingyu suddenly came up to him. "Can I speak to you?"
That took Seokmin by surprise. He scanned Mingyu's expression and truthfully, he felt his heart beating quicker. "About what?" He hissed.
"Did I do something wrong to you?" Mingyu said straightforwardly.
Seokmin gulped down his dry throat, like a kid caught lying. "What?"
"You've been acting real nice to other kids but you barely speak to me. You side-eyed me at one point even though we barely knew each other before. What did I do wrong?"
"It's... nothing." Seokmin shrugged and continued to put his books and stationeries into his bag.
"Come on. Tell me. I won't be defensive, I promise." Mingyu begged as he sat on the empty chair next to Seokmin.
From Mingyu's voice, Seokmin could tell that he was being sincere. With round doe eyes, Seokmin stared at Mingyu apologetically. "It's something that you said in the cafeteria... it offended me..."
Dumbfounded, Mingyu furrowed his eyebrows. "Which... one?"
"The one about feelers..."
As he rewinded his memory, Mingyu's fingers were tapping on the desk, then lightly slammed the surface when he remembered. "Feelers are dumbasses? You heard that? And that what made you angry?"
Seokmin nodded.
"You're a feeler? Let me guess, an INFP?"
Seokmin nodded again.
Mingyu exhaled a long, exasperated sigh. "God... I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it. I should've known people are different and I shouldn't have generalised INFPs as dumbasses because they trust their guts more than their logic."
The other guy blinked slowly and nodded again, slower this time. "Apology accepted. But you should know that even though I listen to my guts more than my logic, I still make right decisions."
This time, it was Mingyu who nodded quickly. "Got it. Now, can we be friends?"
The bright smile that Mingyu saw today appeared in front of him. "We're friends now."