“come on, mike. you'll like him!” dustin insisted, trying to convince his stubborn friend to meet the new student. the boy knows how mike can be when it comes to meeting new people—like max a few years ago—but he can't let him win the battle this time.

“why do you want me to meet this guy so much?” the words were almost spat out of his mouth, a very clear disinterest in dustin's idea of meeting his new so called 'friend'.

“because,” he begun, stepping closer to mike, tugging on his sleeve to make the boy lean down a bit, “you have never seen someone like him.”

“who even is him?”

“him!”

in that exact moment, dustin pointed over to someone, a little too exaggerated for mike's liking but it wasn't important to point that out right now. not when you were there—walking through the halls as if you didn't care about what anyone thought.

“... woah.” dustin snickered at his friend's reaction, shutting his mouth when he received an annoyed look from him.

“see what i mean now?” oh mike definitely sees it. you had this different style that just made it impossible for people not stare. he's not sure if he should call you a goth or a punk, all he knows is that he feels an unfamiliar feeling to go talk to you.

“w–well why should we talk to him? we already have a group and he probably don't even like d&d.” this was an obvious excuse to not talk to you, and dustin wasn't really impressed by mike's behavior, sighing, “mike, look at him. do you really think he won't like d&d?”

even if you did like rpg, how should mike even act when talking to you? should he act cool to impress you? wait, why does he even care about that?

“dustin, let's just go–”

“fine, fine. but you just lost an opportunity to find someone as weird as we are.”

weird. mike wouldn't call you weird.

the best words he could find to describe you would be... cool. different, even. but not weird.

he should just forget about this and go to class like dustin. with a deep breath, he finally turned around to leave, accidentally making eye contact with you. it lasted long than it should've. neither of you managed to look away until dustin yelled from a few steps away

“mike?! are you coming or not?”

that was enough to snap both of your attentions to dustin, to which mike glanced at you one last time before finally catching up to his friend, “yeah, coming!”

wow.

a few days since then has passed and mike barely saw you at school. most of the time when he did manage to catch you roaming around the place, you were either late and running to class, or rushing to go back home.

he figured it's probably because of how people can act towards anyone slightly different. he can't blame you for not wanting to stay at school for too long. honestly, mike found himself trying to find you, not that he'd ever admit that anyway.

and then came the party.

mike absolutely despised those. so much unnecessary noise, teenagers doing problematic stuff that could probably get them in trouble—and that's not even mentioning the worse of it all.

people making out everywhere.

he found it so disgusting he couldn't even begin to describe his repulse to it. unfortunately for mike, his friend, lucas, didn't seem to care a lot of his feelings about the event.

“why do you want me to come? don't you have other friends?”

“mike can you stop complaining for just a second? i just want you to have some fun outside of rpg sessions.” lucas wasn't being harsh on purpose, but he also couldn't tell the true reason as to why he was dragging his friend along, “just try to stay there for a bit, then we can leave.”

“you better hold on to that promise.” he mumbled, crossing his arms as they finally arrived at the asshole's house—a nickname mike gave to the guy who would always throw parties and make fun of mike.

oh, yeah, the promise. lucas promised mike to give him something he'd love as a thank you for coming to the party with him. initially it was called a reward, but mike didn't like it so he changed it.

“come on, let's go inside.” lucas finally said, walking inside the place with so much easy and calm that mike was almost jealous. he isn't that much awkward, but he isn't the most outgoing guy either.

his plan was to just stick next to lucas until he decided to free mike from his suffering. his friend didn't have the same plan.

“i'll go talk to the guys on the pool.” was the last thing he said, not even giving a chance to mike say something about it before disappearing in the crowd of people.

stupid lucas with his stupid new friends. now mike was stuck in this place, alone, with nothing to do and—

“mike wheeler?”

the poor boy's soul almost jumped out of his body when he heard someone call him—by his full name at that. who the hell would know him in this party if not to make fun of him?

he quickly turned his head in the direction of the voice, preparing himself to someone wanting to make fun of him, yet the view he got was not what he was expecting.

it was you.

like, you you.

and you were absolutely stunning.

he never thought he'd find himself attracted to someone wearing layers of belts, lots of black and eyeliner, and here he is. wait, attracted?

“ah, uh—”

“oh, sorry, i haven't told you my name yet. i'm yn.” your voice was... angelical. in a way he hasn't heard.

what's going on with his thoughts?

“n–nice to meet you, yn.” he finally managed to reply, unable to stop himself from looking at you from head to toe, “ah– what are you doing here?”

“lucas invited me. said someone wanted to talk to me but didn't have the courage to.”

huh? why would lucas say that—

wait.

your expression now wasn't one of someone who's nervous. you were holding back a smirk, leaning against the wall with a hand inside your pocket, “someone named mike wheeler.”

“w–what?! lucas is weird like that, he sees things that doesn't exist.” mike blurted out, trying to ignore the foreign feeling inside his chest.

“what things? all he said is that you wanted to talk to me.”

fuck. you got him there.

after a second or two of silence, you burst out laughing, “oh my god, your face.” and despite the embarrassment mike felt, he couldn't help but let out a few chuckles, “it's okay to admit i caught your attention, you know?”

“you didn't caught my attention! i just found you...”

“beautiful?”

“shut up.”

maybe mike could grow used to you.