Work Text:
Byun Euijoo. Student Council President, ace of the fencing club, constant with high honors achiever and extremely kind, gentle and humble. Yes, he’s basically perfect so it’s not a surprise that a lot of the students from Greyville High School have tried to shoot their shot with him. Yet for the past three years, the guy has never accepted or entertained even a single one. He never really confirmed whether he was taken or not but everyone just assumed he wasn’t.
So it came as a big shock to the whole school when their perfect president, who has gently turned down every confession by either saying he couldn’t reciprocate because of his duties and his priorities, suddenly said he had a partner.
“Euijoo-yah, since when did you get a partner?” Fuma asks him as soon as he found the other sitting at his usual place at the library, the only other place you’re most likely to see him aside from the council office.
“Huh? How did you know that Fuma-hyung?” Euijoo looks up at him while fixing his glasses, which didn’t really have a grade. They’re not even reading glasses, no, they’re anti-radiation glasses which he is using while reading a book. A physical, hard-bound, paper pages book. At the back of Fuma’s mind, he remembers that Euijoo only started wearing it a month ago and his admirers lost their mind. He had more pressing matters to find out about, so he doesn’t really pay attention to that detail though.
“Everyone knows, Euijoo. I bet you that Yuma is running here right now and will probably arrive in ten seconds.” Fuma takes a seat in front of him and starts counting to ten.
True to his words, Euijoo heard Yuma’s voice get closer as soon as Fuma said ten. “Euijoo-hyung! Why did you not tell me you got yourself into a relationship!”
“Yuma-yah, hello. Please keep your voice low, this is the library.” Euijoo turns to the nearby students and bows his head in apology.
“Okay, but you haven’t answered me.” Yuma sits beside Fuma and this is looking too much like an interrogation, especially with Fuma looking at him with crossed arms and Yuma shoving his face in Euijoo’s direction.
Euijoo sighs, “It’s new, I didn’t want to overwhelm them.”
“Lies! You probably wanted to keep them to yourself.” Yuma raises his volume again to a level not acceptable in a library. Euijoo immediately covers his mouth and looks at Fuma for some help in controlling the younger but to no avail, the older just shrugs at him.
“How about we get lunch? And pick up Jo on the way, he’s probably in the art room. Let’s not disturb the students who just want a quiet environment and study, hmm?” Euijoo smiles while collecting his things and putting them in his bag. He shoots a look at the two that gets them to stand up and follow him immediately.
—
The lunch didn’t happen.
Euijoo received a message that he needed to do something related to his student council duties. Yuma swears he heard Euijoo let out a relieved sigh and was a tad bit more smiley when he informed them but surely not, right? Surely his kind and gentle hyung would not want to run away from his friends.
Surely.
So Yuma devises a plan. If Euijoo wasn’t gonna answer their questions, nor introduce the partner to them then he will just meet the partner himself. Of course to do that, he first needs to find out who it is. The best way to do so? Follow Euijoo, what else?
“Why am I here again?” Jo was dragged by Yuma to join his shenanigans. Three pieces of onigiri and he caught the taller one with extreme ease.
“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. We’re following Euijoo. I’m sure he’s meeting his partner.” Yuma turns to Jo with determined eyes and Jo knows this is stupid and probably, definitely, a bad idea but he’s always been weak to the older.
They see Euijoo walk out of the school gates and follow him as discreetly as possible. He walks for about twenty minutes before entering a cafe. They see him sit at one of the tables near the back and wait for about ten minutes. But before they can find out who this mysterious partner is, Euijoo looks at his phone, sighs and types something while getting up.
“Huh? What? Why? Why is he leaving?” He turns to Jo and sees him on his phone as well. He leans on the other’s shoulder and reads the message Jo got.
President: Mr. Kim asked us to gather. There’s a problem with the materials the creative committee will be using, so we need to redo the plan.
Oh, right. Yuma forgot that Jo was a part of the student council’s creative committee.
“Wait, does that mean their date is canceled?!” Yuma is dismayed. He really thought he would be able to meet the partner.
“I have to go, Yuma. What are you gonna do?” Jo looks at him, reluctant to leave the other in case he does something even dumber, and worse, alone.
“I’m disappointed. I’m gonna order a drink and stay here for a bit.” He replies with a pout and a sulking tone.
Jo sends him a smile and an attempt to comfort him. “It’s okay, you will definitely meet Euijoo-hyung’s partner soon. Don’t be too disappointed.”
And with that, Yuma is left alone.
He orders a coffee and a cake, all while still sulking on his own. But not long after, his mood lifts up. Why? The coolest human being just walked in through the door of the cafe. “Holy, that guy is so handsome? Oh my god, is he actually wearing a uniform? Why does it look different? The styling is so amazing.” Yuma whispers to himself.
Yuma might not have met Euijoo’s partner, but he did gain a new crush. He’s still determined to meet that partner though.
—
“Yuma, I really can’t join you today. I have three essays to write.” Jo looks away from the older’s pleading eyes, he will definitely fold if he does. But the other is making it more difficult for the taller by shoving his face into him to get Jo to look into his eyes. Clearly, Yuma knows that Jo can’t resist him, so Jo resorts to closing his eyes.
Thankfully, someone comes to save Jo. “Yuma-yah, do you want Jo to be scolded by his teacher? Let the guy do his papers, would you?” Fuma walks to them and sits beside Jo.
“Then, Fuma-hyung, will you accompany me instead?” Yuma turns his sparkling eyes to the elder, full of expectation. Although unlike Jo, he is not weak for Yuma’s puppy eyes. (He is but he likes to pretend he is the voice of reason for their friend group.)
“I have to choreograph our piece for the competition next month.” Yuma can’t really push him further since he is also a part of the school’s dance club.
Yuma pouts and huffs, “Fine, I’ll go alone then.”
And that’s how Yuma found himself tailing Euijoo once again. He follows him for a good half an hour before they arrive in a park. Yuma almost thought Euijoo was going to Riverfield High School but he stops at a park and sits on a bench before checking his phone. He makes a call and Yuma tries to eavesdrop but he’s too scared that Euijoo might find him so he just suppresses his curiosity.
They wait for a few minutes before Yuma sees a tall figure approach the unknowing Euijoo. The figure has very long, waist-length and very light-colored hair. They’re also wearing a white crop top and high-waist baggy pants. “Oh my god, is that Euijoo-hyung’s girlfriend? Holy shit, she might actually be a real angel. No wonder Euijoo-hyung doesn’t want to introduce her to us.” Yuma mumbles to himself.
He sees Euijoo look up and just stare at the person with wide eyes before the other seemingly says something to him, bringing him out of his daze. Euijoo smiles and stands up while reaching for the other’s hand and leaning in to kiss the other. Yuma’s eyes widen and he fumbles while getting his phone out. “I need to show this to Jo and Fuma-hyung. They’re gonna regret not joining me today.”
Yuma takes a picture and scrambles to hide when he hears a shutter sound. But then, he realizes that it wasn’t from his phone so he turns to the side and he sees another figure, crouched very similarly to him. Wow, Yuma thought he was the only one who actually had the bravery to follow people in broad daylight.
The other notices Yuma and he tilts his head. Yuma mouths a question to him, “Did you follow that person?”
The other blinks a few times before seemingly connecting who the person Yuma was talking about. He nods rapidly and mouths back, “Did you also follow them?”
Ah, Yuma has found his comrade. He gestures to him and they get out of the area before the couple realizes they were being followed. Especially with the shutter sound that came out of the other person’s phone.
Yuma finds out that he’s named Harua, a student of Riverfield High School and Euijoo’s girlfriend’s friend. Harua looked a bit amused when he called the friend as Euijoo-hyung’s girlfriend but Yuma ignored it, chalking it up to him meeting Harua the first time and he could be reading his facial expressions wrongly. The other also refuses to tell Yuma her name, something about letting them decide for themselves when to introduce each other to their friends. As if he wasn’t just like Yuma who followed them, and even almost got caught.
They exchange numbers though, with Harua promising to answer some of his questions about the girlfriend. “I can’t believe I actually got something out of this expedition. I need to tell Jo and Fuma-hyung immediately.”
—
Yuma did not have the chance to tell the two. The whole school somehow already knows that Euijoo’s partner is an extremely tall woman with gorgeous hair. When Yuma goes to investigate how this came to be, he finds out that aside from him and Harua, one of Euijoo’s fangirls also followed him. They took a picture of Euijoo and his girlfriend walking down the street with Euijoo’s hand on her waist, guiding her through the crowd.
“Well, that person could also be someone Euijoo knows. Not exactly the partner. Also, shouldn’t the main concern be that someone followed Euijoo? That’s basically stalking.” Fuma says around his burger with furrowed brows.
“No, she’s definitely the partner. I saw Euijoo-hyung suck her mouth off yesterday.” Yuma butts in while taking a seat beside Jo and stealing an onigiri from the bag in front of him.
“So you’re one of the stalkers.” Fuma says while shaking his head in disappointment.
“Hey, it’s not stalking okay. I just wanted to meet her in advance, you know.” Yuma finishes the onigiri and goes to steal another one before Fuma swats his hand.
“Get your own food and stop stealing Jo’s.” Yuma huffs at him but perks up right away when Jo gives him the last onigiri anyway. He sticks his tongue out at Fuma and the older one just gives Jo a look.
Yuma takes out his phone and pulls up Harua’s contact, informing him how the news completely blew up at their school. You mean someone else was there following them? And we didn’t even notice? I need lessons from them. Is what the other sends back to Yuma and he laughs out loud. This startles the other two at the table, “Yuma-kun?” Jo calls him, probably concerned that the other has lost it finally.
“Sorry, I was texting Harua.” Yuma waves his hand to assure them that he is still in fact, perfectly sane, despite what Fuma might think.
“Harua?” Fuma latches on to the new name.
“Ah, right I haven’t told you. I met him yesterday when I was investigating–,” Fuma cuts him off, “Stalking.”
Yuma pays him no mind, “Euijoo-hyung and his girlfriend. He’s a friend of Euijoo-hyung’s girlfriend! He also wanted to meet his friend’s partner, just like me.”
Jo and Fuma share a look of horror, There’s two of them.
—
It’s been a week, and Yuma had to stop his investigation of Euijoo’s girlfriend because of dance practice. Today is his much deserved break after staying after school hours, and he invites Harua to the same cafe that Euijoo went to when he first followed him. Their drinks were great and he’s been craving their coffee after that time.
Harua, he finds, is funny, sassy and is willing to join him in his adventures. He’s been the only one Yuma has been talking to for a week, since Jo was also busy with his committee stuff and Fuma was stressed about the competition and leading their practice. He didn’t wanna add on to that. Euijoo was doing various model student stuff as well.
He enters the store and sees that Harua is already seated at one of the tables next to the window. “Harua-chan~ have you ordered?” Yuma asks as soon as he slides into the seat in front of Harua.
“Yuma-kun hello, and yes I already ordered for us.” Harua sends him a smile and as they wait for their order, they talk about random things like university plans and whatnot.
When their order arrives, Yuma takes a big sip of his coffee and chokes on it as a person he recognizes walks in through the door. It was his crush. Yes, that crush that he got when Jo left him for committee stuff. Wow, this cafe is a lucky place for Yuma.
Harua hands him a tissue and looks at him worriedly, “Are you okay, Yuma-kun?” He then looks at what Yuma was staring at and his eyes widen.
“Oh, it’s Nico-hyung.” He says and then proceeds to wave his hand to get the man’s attention.
“What are you doing?!” Yuma hurriedly taps Harua’s shoulder to stop him but too late, the guy already saw them and is walking towards their table.
“Haru-chan, I didn’t know you were here.” The guy greets Harua and ruffles his hair then looks at Yuma.
And Yuma just stares back in a daze. “Yes, I had plans with Yuma-kun today. Yuma-kun, this is Nicholas-hyung. Nico-hyung, this is Yuma-kun. He’s from Greyville.” Nicholas stretches a hand towards him and Yuma takes it, fully operating on auto-pilot. “Nice to meet you.”
Yuma barely manages to reply back before they let go of their hands. Nicholas turns back to Harua, “Well, I’m going now. I won’t intrude on you further, I need to leave right after getting my orders anyway.” Nicholas straightens up and waves goodbye to the two of them before going to the counter and ordering.
Yuma follows him with his gaze before snapping back to focus when he remembers the fact that Harua is friends with his crush. Harua observed him throughout the whole exchange and is now sending him an amused look, “Do you have a crush on Nicholas-hyung?”
Yuma’s eyes widen, he looks back at the aforementioned guy just to make sure he’s far enough to hear Harua before turning to the younger and swatting his arm. “Don’t say that outloud. I just think his style’s cool.”
Harua does not believe him one bit, “Uhuh, sure.”
—
Harua and Yuma planned another hang-out for today, but this time, he’s bringing Jo and Fuma with him and Harua is also bringing his friend. Euijoo said he had prior plans and couldn’t come.
They decide to go shopping for clothes and eat, maybe watch a movie if there’s anything good showing right now. He messages Harua that the three of them are almost there and Harua sends him a picture of the mall entrance, saying they’ll be waiting there.
He pockets his phone and drags the other two by the hand to where he can already see Harua’s silhouette. “Harua-chan~ how are you?” He calls out and hugs the younger as if he didn’t see him just half a week ago.
“Yuma-kun, I’ve been well.” Yuma lets go of Harua and the other drags the boy beside him in front, “This is Taki.”
“Huh, that’s a familiar name. Do you know Koga Yudai?” Fuma asks the boy as soon as he hears his name.
“You know Kei-hyung?” Taki asks him back, eyes round in the coincidence of meeting a potential acquaintance.
“I often meet him at competitions.” Fuma supplies, “I’m Fuma by the way, nice to meet you.”
“And this is Jo, and I’m Yuma! Nice to meet you.” Yuma says to Taki while gesturing to Jo.
“Nice to meet you all.”
They finish the pleasantries and head inside the mall and into various clothing stores. They end up forcing Fuma to try out different outfits, something about taking the chance to force him to go shopping while they can. Harua and Taki go with it and Fuma finds himself feeling like a father of four suddenly. Harua and Taki are both lovely, so he lets it be.
They’re in their 4th clothing store when they see a familiar figure holding at least seven shopping bags standing in front of one of the fitting rooms. Yes, it’s the very person who turned down Yuma’s invitation because of his prior plans, the beloved student council president Byun Euijoo. And the commitment he had turned out to be a date with the fabled girlfriend, who just got out of the fitting room with what seems to be various tops hanging on the crook of her elbow.
Yuma lets out a dramatic gasp, rapidly tapping Jo’s arm with excitement. “It’s Euijoo-hyung! And his girlfriend! Oh my god, I can’t believe this!”
Taki at the side looks confused. “Girlfriend…?” Harua looks at him, signaling him to keep his mouth shut. Taki just becomes even more confused.
“Huh.” Fuma reacts. “Wow, she’s actually real?” He mumbles to himself in wonder. Well, it’s not like he doubted that Euijoo had a partner, but he did doubt the picture that got passed around in school.
Euijoo and his partner are still oblivious to whatever is happening to the other group. The white-haired removes the mask covering their face and passes it to Euijoo for safekeep. “Let’s go pay, I think I’m done here. I’m getting hungry.” They say to Euijoo as he takes the one his partner decided to buy while the other holds on to the ones they plan to return.
They turn to bring back the clothes to where they got it and he locks eyes with the group, and Yuma. Who is looking like he just saw someone rise up from the dead and said that they’re taking Yuma back under with them. “Oh, Harua-yah, Taki-yah. I didn’t know you had plans today?”
Euijoo looks up from the clothes he was organizing and sees his friends standing just a few meters away. “Fuma-hyung, Jo, Yuma. Nice coincidence, meeting you here.” He sends them a smile as he slips a hand around his partner’s waist to walk closer towards their friends.
“Haru-chan.” Yuma calls for the younger’s attention while still keeping his gaze locked on the couple ahead.
“Yes, Yuma-kun?” Harua had a hard time keeping his tone innocent and not full of amusement, like what he is feeling right now.
“Am I dreaming or is that Nicholas-san with long blonde hair coming towards us with Euijoo-hyung leeched onto him?” Yuma slowly turns to Harua, looking like a robot malfunctioning because of system overload.
“Yes Yuma-kun, that is Nicholas-hyung.”
Euijoo and Nicholas reach them and wave. “Fuma-hyung, Jo, Yuma, this is Nicholas. My boyfriend. Nichol, these are my friends.” Euijoo introduces them, while Yuma is still processing.
“Hello, nice to meet you. Although I think I’ve met Yuma-ssi before? The other day at the cafe you and I often go to, he was with Harua.” Euijoo looks surprised at this news, and turns to Yuma. “Oh really? I didn’t know Yuma knew one of your friends.”
Nicholas shrugs, “Me neither, I didn’t know he was your Yuma.”
“Nice to meet you as well, Nicholas-ssi. It’s nice to finally meet Euijoo’s partner that he didn’t want to let us know about.” Fuma reaches a hand out for a handshake and Nicholas takes it with both hands. Jo also greets Nicholas and they exchange pleasantries for a short moment before Nicholas turns to introduce Harua and Taki to Euijoo.
“Euijoo-hyung’s partner is a guy?” Yuma suddenly blurts out.
They all turn to look at him in confusion and Yuma realizes what he just blurted out. Nicholas’ eyebrows furrow and his tone suggests that Yuma should be careful of his next words, “Yes, I am very much a man. Is that a problem?”
Yuma scrambles to explain himself, sputtering and panically throwing his arms around to deny what the other might’ve misunderstood from his question. “No! No, there’s no problem with that. I’m literally gay, I can’t have a problem with that.”
Fuma sighs and covers his face with his hands, feeling chagrinned on behalf of the other. “Sorry about him. He was just very convinced that Euijoo had a girlfriend, not a boyfriend.”
Euijoo looks back at them with bewilderment, “Why? I never said I was dating a girl.”
Jo pulls up the post that made the whole school believe that their student council president had a tall foreign girlfriend and showed it to them. “Someone took a picture of you two and everyone just assumed Nicholas-san was a woman, with the hair, clothes and all that.”
Nicholas cracks up at this while Euijoo facepalms in utter disappointment at his schoolmates.
“Oh this is gold. Your whole school thought I was a girl.” At this point, Nicholas was hanging on to his boyfriend’s shoulder for stability while his legs went weak with how much he’s laughing. “My shoulders are literally broader than you in this picture.” He adds while wiping a tear that formed on the corner of his eye.
“Euijoo-hyung could’ve been dating a buff woman for all we know. We don’t judge, okay.” Yuma says in a low voice while pouting at them.
“You judged me to be a woman just because of the wig and crop top though.” Nicholas points out with a smirk and Yuma couldn’t really come up with something to defend himself. And everyone in Greyville. So he just crosses his arms and partially hides behind Jo.
Harua goes to pat his shoulder to comfort him but the other shoots him a glare, “Don’t touch me! I can’t believe you let me think Euijoo was dating a girl.” He exclaims while swatting the younger’s hand away and using Jo’s body as a shield, from Harua this time.
“Yuma-chan, I’m sorry.” Harua uses his eyes to ask for forgiveness. He knows people can rarely, if not never, resist his eyes when he starts weaponizing them. Coupled with a soft voice and a slightly sad expression, it should be a done kill.
Now, Yuma is mad. He got tricked and was embarrassed in front of his crush, and his crush’s boyfriend who is also his best friend, and he felt a little stupid but damn, Harua is cute. Yuma may act like he doesn’t like his friends, but all those acts are done jokingly. Yuma is also used to being the one that his friends can’t say no to, so he’s got absolute zero, negative even, resistance to the weaponized cuteness being done to him right now. A few more nudges by Harua and he couldn’t take it anymore, “I forgive you Haru-chan, don’t do it again.” He says while scratching the younger’s chin and pinching his cheeks.
Harua nods but Taki can see that he absolutely does not have any plans of not doing it again. He shudders at the thought of being Harua’s new target and sends a prayer for Yuma.
The couple just looks at them, amused. Nicholas, still leaning on Euijoo, turns his head to whisper to his boyfriend. “You know, Harua and Yuma look cute together. Yuma is so evidently weak to Haru-chan.” He says with a giggle.
Euijoo looks at him, and back to the two then to Jo, who was watching the two right beside them and hums. “I don’t know, I kind of wanted Jo and Yuma to end up together. Yuma can go to a dangerous forest, get lost intentionally and Jo will still follow him if he asks.” Euijoo remembers the time Yuma was dragging Jo by his necktie and the younger didn’t even say a peep, just smiling widely and following their mischievous cat-like friend. Euijoo has never seen him smile that wide before, and he still doesn’t know the context of that event.
“Oh really? Let’s see what’ll happen with them.” Nicholas wraps his arms around Euijoo’s neck in a loose hug before letting go after a second and pulling away from the other. “Let’s go pay, my hunger is back.”
“Are you finally done flirting.” Fuma comments in a flat tone as soon as the two latch off from each other. Euijoo gapes at him with a slight blush on his face, looking even more like a fish, but out of water. Nicholas sputters in embarrassment while whispering to Euijoo, “I am not helping your friend with Kei-hyung.”
If it can be called whispering, because it was definitely loud enough for everyone to hear it, even for the three messes on the side. “Oh?” Yuma says, whipping his head so fast in Fuma's direction.
Fuma looks away, acting nonchalant like he didn't hear anything. “I'm going to the food court and find seats for us. Just meet me there.” He even pulled out his phone, pretending to be busy but Yuma could clearly see him opening the pokemon tcg app.
Well, if it's Fuma, being on the pokemon tcg app could definitely be considered as busy.
But Yuma is not having that.
“Hyung! Fuma-hyung! You're not running away!” He then looks at Taki, “And you! Tell me all about this Kei guy.”
Yuma clutches Taki's wrist as he runs off to follow Fuma out of the store. Jo and Harua look at each other, exchange a knowing glance and follow as well leaving the couple to just stare at their backs. “They make no sense.” Euijoo comments.
“They don't.” Nicholas agrees with his hand snaking around his boyfriend’s waist, his favorite thing to hold onto. Euijoo wraps his hand around the other's shoulders and pushes his head towards him to give his temple a light kiss.
“I'm gonna go pay.”
—
It's been a week since the mall incident and Euijoo is finally free from Yuma's… brilliant ideas. Instead, the guy is now focused on Fuma and how he's supposedly gonna be his cupid and get him to be together with Taki's pseudo guardian. What's worse is that he got Jo in the plan, which isn't really a surprise since Jo is always dragged to his plans, as well as Harua who introduced another ‘agent’ for their mission. It's this tall guy with a face who looks like he was carved personally by a deity, Maki. So now there's four of them, plus Taki who got forced to join in because he had the most information on Kei. If you could call it forcing, because honestly? He was incredibly willing, muttering something about getting a step-father or whatever.
And because Nicholas was once Yuma's crush, he also got information about how the group also has a side quest— help Maki trap Taki into dates. Maki knows that the other is aware of his feelings, he's highly emotionally intelligent and he even flirts back sometimes but Maki has no idea why he still hasn't said yes whenever Maki asks him to be his boyfriend.
“Why do you know all of this?” Euijoo asks Nicholas in bewilderment.
The couple is currently at Greyville's cafeteria, eating lunch with Nicholas in his full ‘Goddess Fit’, as his friends call it, which is the long blonde wig, crop top and some make up. It was a shock to the whole school to see the rumored girlfriend of their student president actually be a man with a deep voice and incredibly sharp eyes. People have been shamelessly staring at them for about an hour now, ever since Nicholas stepped inside the school gates and as they got food in the cafeteria.
“I told you, Yuma gives me updates. I don't know why, I didn't even ask for it. He even added me to their group chats. The one with Taki, and the one without.” The blonde says animatedly while taking a bite of his strawberry shortcake. No, it didn’t come from the cafeteria, Greyville isn’t that good of an institution. Euijoo bought it for him knowing the other would be visiting.
“Speaking of, you wanna go somewhere after class?” Euijoo asks him while handing him a tissue to wipe the cream off of the side of his mouth. Nicholas doesn’t take it and just leans forward, signalling for his boyfriend to do it for him. Euijoo does and Nicholas swears he hears a cut off squeal somewhere in the corner of the cafeteria.
Euijoo was hoping for a more normal date with his beloved now that Yuma has set his sight on another person but it looks like he was too optimistic. It’s gonna be a bit of a ride for the two of them, but Euijoo doesn’t really care as long as he can peacefully spend time with Nicholas.
Nicholas smiles at him, his signature smile that offsets all the intimidating aura he gives off, the smile Euijoo loves to see the most. “Mm, what if we stay at my home today? I miss just watching and chilling.”
“Sure, anything for you.”