Chapter Text
I. First Meetings
Their first meeting wasn’t really special.
Anaxa’s junior, Hyacine, begged him to come to watch one of her friend’s games. “I promise it’ll be fun,” she insisted, tugging at his sleeve in the hallway. “Come on, senior, you never go anywhere.”
“I don’t like noise,” Anaxa replied flatly, adjusting the strap of his bag.
“It’s just a game,” she said, tugging his sleeve again. “Just one game, please?”
And that’s how he found himself sitting in the bleachers of the university gym, with his notes spread across his lap.
The roar of the crowd pressed into his ears, it was unpleasant, but he endured it. If Hyacine wanted to scream herself hoarse for her friend, he wouldn’t stop her.
He told himself he would focus on his work. He had a paper due in a week, data to gather, and drafts to refine.
But his eyes strayed.
Across the court, a white-haired boy passed through defenders in one swift movement. The crowd roared when the ball left his hands and dropped clean through the hoop. His teammates clapped his back, shouted his name–
“Phainon!”
Anaxa’s pen stilled.
He caught himself watching.
He forced his gaze down, rereading the same line of text three times without comprehension.
“Senior.. you’re not even watching,” Hyacine accused, leaning over to peer at his notes.
“I’m not,” Anaxa said, deadpan.
But when the boy stole the ball from the other team and sprinted down the court, Anaxa’s eyes followed.
He watched the way Phainon grinned when his teammates cheered, the way his smile made the girls in front of him squeal. Halftime came and the players jogged to their benches.
Anaxa’s chin slipped into his palm, elbow braced against his knee, his gaze drawn like a moth despite himself.
Phainon tugged a towel over his shoulders, glancing toward the stands. His gaze swept casually, and then paused.
Anaxa blinked.
Blue eyes locked with his.
Phainon smiled.
Then he lifted his hand and waved.
Anaxa stilled, pen frozen between his fingers.
The girls in front of him screamed, shaking each other. “He waved at us!” one screamed. “Oh my god, did you see?”
Anaxa didn’t move, his chin still remained on his palm, expression neutral. But his eyes didn’t break away until Phainon’s teammates dragged him back.
Hyacine glanced at him, her brow raised. “So you are watching..”
Anaxa turned back to his notes. “It’s just the noise.”
But he didn’t leave, not until the final whistle.
And when the next game came, he found himself in the stands again. Notes in hand, chin propped on his palm.
II. First Conversation
It was 6pm, most of the department buildings were empty by now, but not the science department. Most of the classrooms were dark, only the occasional hum of a vending machine filling the silence.
Phainon had been circling the building for nearly twenty minutes.
Students whispered when they saw him, pointing, and hiding poorly suppressed squeals. He just waved and smiled at them.
When he finally spotted someone slipping out of the lab, he jogged over.
“Excuse me! Um, hi, sorry to bother you. Do you happen to know a.. small guy, with mint-colored hair? Blue eyes with a mix, kinda..” he gestured at his own face, and made an expression, “ Like serious looking?”
The student groaned the moment the description clicked. “Ugh. You’re looking for him?”
Phainon blinked. “Yes?”
“Of course you are.” The student muttered, “He’s probably still in the lab. He practically lives there. Doesn’t eat, doesn’t talk, doesn’t leave.”
The student adjusted their glasses, “Just..don’t get your hopes up.”
Phainon tilted his head, confused. “Why not?”
“You’ll see.” The student waved him off and disappeared down the hall.
Phainon walked down the hallway, until he finally found one with lights open. He took a deep breath before opening the door. What greeted his sight was a mess of papers, covering every inch of the long table.
There he saw Anaxa, who was hunched forward.
His hair tie slipping so strands of mint hair fell to his face, pen tapping lightly against a page filled with scrawled notes.
“Hyacine, if you’re going to nag me again, at least bring food–” he muttered without looking up.
But no reply came.
No playful scolding.
Anaxa lifted his gaze, and then he froze. He looked at Phainon with a faint crease in his brow.
Phainon’s smile brightened immediately. “Found you.”
Anaxa stared. “..People don’t just look for me.”
“Guess I’m not ‘people,’ then,” Phainon said. He stepped further in, as if him in a science lab was totally normal. “You weren’t at the game today.”
“Excuse me?” Anaxa asked, his eyes narrowing just slightly.
“Because,” Phainon scratched his cheek, sheepish but still grinning, “You usually are.”
The words hung between them.
Anaxa leaned back in his chair, “..You don’t even know me.”
“Not yet,” Phainon said brightly, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
For a moment, Anaxa almost laughed. Not because it was funny, but because it wasn't an answer he expected to come from him. This boy, the sun himself, stepped into his quiet world without hesitation.
“…You’re loud,” Anaxa said at last.
Phainon grinned wider. “You’ll get used to it.”
III. First Confession
It was 3pm and the library was dead quiet at this time, with just a few students flipping pages of their text books.
Anaxa sat in his usual corner, buried in his research papers. His mint hair was loose from its tie again.
Sneakers squeaked against the floor, too energetic to belong in the library. Heads turned briefly as Phainon appeared in the aisle, still in his jersey with a bright smile on his face.
Phainon spotted him instantly, he always did.
“Hey, senior.”
The word drew no visible reaction from him at first.
Anaxa kept on scribbling notes, his eyes remained fixed on the text in front of him. “Shouldn’t you be at practice?”
“I was,” Phainon replied, dropping his bag into the chair across from him.
He leaned forward on his elbows, chin resting on his hand. “But I came straight here.”
“..For?”
Phainon didn’t hesitate. “So I could see you.”
That made Anaxa stop.
He finally lifted his gaze, eyes studying Phainon.
His expression showed a flicker of something that almost looked like disbelief. “..Do you need something?”
Phainon’s grin widened, “Maybe, depends?” He tilted his head, blue eyes gleaming. “Do you count as something I need?”
The silence stretched.
Anaxa leaned back slowly in his chair, looking at him with an arched brow. His tone was cool, but his gaze didn’t waver from Phainon’s. “Are you hitting on me..?”
Phainon’s answer came without hesitation, “No, I’m asking you out.”
Anaxa studied him for a long time.
His gaze traced every line of Phainon’s face as if searching for a hint of joke in the statement. “…That’s the same thing.”
“It’s not.” Phainon leaned closer. “Hitting on someone is shallow, and I don’t do shallow. I want to take you out.”
Anaxa blinked, the smallest crack in his composure. He leaned back further, “..You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.” He sat up straighter, earnestness seeping through every syllable.
“I know you show up to my games even though you hate noise. I know you’re the type who stays buried in your work until someone drags you out.” Phainon smiled, looking directly at Anaxa.
“I know your name, your department. And–” His grin softened. “I know that every time I see you, I want to keep seeing you.”
Anaxa’s eyes narrowed faintly, a defense pulling tight around him. “..That’s shallow.”
Phainon rested his chin in his palm, meeting his gaze. “It’s honest.”
The pen was caught between Anaxa’s fingers now, spinning restless. He exhaled through his nose before dragging a hand back through his hair, strands slipping even further from the tie.
“..So?” he asked softly, blue eyes bright with slight nervousness. “What’s your answer?”
Anaxa tapped the pen once, then set it down carefully. He tilted his chin, gaze steady. “..You’re persistent.”
“Persistent enough,” Phainon said, grinning.
“..I’ll think about it.”
It wasn’t a yes. It wasn’t a no either.
But Phainon’s smile only widened, as if he’d just been handed a victory.
IV. First Jealousy
The gym was alive tonight.
Phainon’s team faced off against another university. Students waved banners, banged on the bleachers with open palms, and cheered in waves that seemed endless.
Anaxa didn’t want to come.
But when Phainon invited him with those eyes and with that smile, it made him want to say yes no matter how much he disliked crowds.
“I don’t do noise,” he said with a sigh, fixing his papers. “I’d rather stay in the lab.”
But Phainon only tilted his head, those blue eyes shining like sunlight on water, and said, “It won’t be the same without you there. Please.”
Anaxa hesitated, feeling the tug in his chest that he usually ignored, the same pull that made him wander toward Phainon’s games over and over again without thinking.
Now here he was, sitting halfway up the bleachers. His notebook was open but untouched, his chen rested on his palm. Anaxa wondered if he made the right decision.
Phainon was easy to spot, as always.
White hair damp with sweat, jersey sticking to his body. Anaxa told himself he didn’t care.
But his eyes kept following.
When he ran, the crowd followed him with their eyes. When he jumped, the cheer got louder. But nothing beats the crowd’s noise every time Phainon smiles.
The girls in the front row were the loudest.
“Phainon!”
“Look this way!”
“Are you single?!”
Phainon glanced at them with a smile and a wave before running back to his team.
Anaxa should have been used to it.
He had been, mostly.
After all, it was natural. Phainon was popular, likable, the kind of person who pulled eyes toward him without trying.
And yet…
Anaxa’s gaze lingered too long on the way Phainon smiled at them. The polite tilt of his mouth, teeth shown just enough to satisfy the crowd. It wasn’t fake, but it was the kind of smile that belonged to everyone, not anyone in particular.
Something tugged in his chest, but he didn’t have a word for it. Annoyance, maybe, but softer. It wasn’t anger but kind of? Just a restless discomfort, a strange itch he couldn’t shake.
Why should it matter how Phainon smiled?
Why should it matter that half the gym screamed his name?
The noise grated differently tonight, too loud. Each shout of Phainon’s name pressed against his ears until he found himself frowning, arms folding tighter across his chest.
And then, before he realized it, his voice slipped out.
“Phai.”
It wasn’t loud, but it worked.
Phainon’s head turned instantly. That polished smile vanished in a heartbeat, turning into something more brighter. His smile reached his eyes this time, and for a dizzying second Anaxa felt pinned by it, the full force of a gaze and smile that belonged only to him.
The squeals in the front row surged again, but Phainon didn’t glance their way.
His eyes stayed on Anaxa.
Heat crept up Anaxa’s neck before he could stop it.
Irritated by the sudden rush, he tugged a towel from his bag, then rose from his seat. Descending from the stairs until he reached the edge of the court. He held the towel out in one hand without a word.
Phainon’s grin only widened as he took it, his laugh bubbling up. “Phai, huh?”
Anaxa stilled, “…It was shorter,” he muttered, gaze shifting aside.
“Shorter, sure,” Phainon teased, rubbing the towel across his damp hair, pushing back the strands from his forehead. His eyes gleamed, still fixed on Anaxa.
“But it’s from you, so it feels different.”
Anaxa clicked his tongue softly, “..Don’t overthink it.”
“Too late.” The towel now hung around Phainon’s neck, his grin impossibly wide, voice sweetened for Anaxa alone. “I like it.”
Anaxa exhaled, as if trying to will away the warmth creeping into his ears.
Phainon smiled like no one else existed.
And Anaxa wasn’t sure if he liked or hated that.
Maybe.
V. First Walk Home
Phainon sat on the bench in the locker room. His hoodie half-zipped with phone in his hand. His fingers swiped across the screen to read the notification that had just buzzed through.
FROM: Naxa
(7:04): Can’t make it to the game tonight, still busy in the lab.
He stared at it for longer than he should’ve.
The noise of the locker room dulled in his ears. He had gotten used to looking for Anaxa in the stands, with his chin resting in his palm, notebook on his lap. His gaze flicking back to back from his notes to the game. Anaxa never cheered or clapped, but his eyes always tracked the ball when it left his hands.
And he played harder because of it.
Now, the thought of looking up and not finding him felt strangely wrong.
“Yo, Phainon!” One of his teammates smacked his shoulder, grinning. “Focus up, man. We’re winning this one!”
Phainon grinned back in reflex, “Yeah. We are!”
But when the whistle blew and the game began, his thoughts kept circling.
He glanced almost instinctively to the stands. The crowd roared, girls squealing his name, his teammates shouted encouragement. And yet, the one person he was looking for wasn’t there.
By the time the final buzzer rang and victory secured, Phainon smiled for the crowd and for his team.
But the moment the celebration picked up, he slipped away.
Not to the locker room, and certainly not to the afterparty.
He ran across campus, still in his jersey with his bag slung on his shoulder.
He knew where Anaxa would be, he always did. The science building loomed, with only a few lights open in some rooms.
Third-years’ floor. Lab 302.
Phainon slowed when he reached the door, catching his breath before pushing it open.
The sight inside made him smile instantly.
Anaxa was there, just as he pictured. He was half-buried in papers and textbooks, hair falling loose around his face. His posture was tight, his glasses slid slightly down his nose.
Phainon leaned against the doorframe for a beat, taking it in. This was what Anaxa looked like when he wasn’t pretending.
“Anaxa..,” Phainon called, finally stepping in.
Anaxa’s head snapped up, “…Why are you here?”
Phainon grinned, dropping his bag onto a nearby chair. “Because I’m gonna die.”
The disbelief that flickered across Anaxa’s face was almost enough to make Phainon laugh. “You said you couldn’t come, it felt like a death sentence.”
Anaxa’s lips pressed together, frowning now. “…You left your team to come find me?”
“They’ll manage,” Phainon grinned softly. “Besides, I said I was dying.”
There was a beat of silence before Anaxa sighed. He leaned back on his chair, “You’re ridiculous.”
“Come on,” Phainon said, nudging his head toward the door. “I’ll walk you home.”
“…Who said I’m going home?”
“I did.”
It earned him a sharp look, but after a long pause, Anaxa began gathering his things. A quiet admission that he was coming along.
They stepped out into the night together.
For a while, neither spoke.
Phainon glanced sideways at him, catching the faint crease between his brows. Even here, in silence, Anaxa’s presence pulled at him like gravity.
He adjusted his hold on Anaxa’s bag from his shoulder. “You were gonna come, weren’t you?”
Anaxa’s head turned slightly. “…What?”
“To the game.” Phainon’s eyes caught his. “You wanted to, even if you didn’t.”
For once, Anaxa didn’t fire back immediately, his gaze flickering away. “…Maybe,” he admitted, so quietly it almost didn’t reach.
Phainon didn’t need to ask for more.