Chapter Text
The day had been slow-moving, but it was almost the end of class. Flame's last period, and their subject teacher walked out for some reason. He guesses it's because of a meeting, or something of the sorts, but who knows?
Flame sits bored in class, his head resting in his hands while the sound of his classmate's chatter bouncing off the walls. Looking around, nobody was really paying much attention to him specifically.
So, he pulled his phone out began his doomscrolling session while waiting for their teacher to come back. Just a past-time thing, hopefully Mr. Wook comes back soon and finishes the rest of their lesson
Flame scoffed, closing the app and opting to just scroll around on Twitter instead of thinking too much about their “hangout”. His fingers glide against the screen, skimming through post after post and watching the minutes tick by.
Almost twenty minutes have passed by now, only a few moments away from dismissal. He held his breath waiting for Mr. Wook to return, but nobody ever walked into their room for a solid minute.
He deems their teachers to not be coming back anytime soon and begins packing up his stuff. Binders and notebooks getting tidied up back into his bag, securing his phone in one of the compartments.
Bells ringing echoed through the halls. Flame already has his backpack on and walked out the door alongside everyone else. He skims through his classmates until he spots Jaden and Mane, bickering with eachother like they were twelve again.
“You guys look stupid” he blurted out, walking between Jaden and Mane down the hall, smirking in amusement as he listened to his two friends argue over the most simple stuff “stupid is a strong word.” Mane hissed
“Not strong enough to describe you” Jaden spat, walking faster to avoid the two.
Flame just continued to giggle as they walked to the covered court's bleachers. It was the last day they could work on their completion entry, since next Monday is their submission deadline.
He trailed behind Mane, chatting quietly with his brother as they left the building and were now walking around the school's campus. “Well I'm just saying, yanno? If you really love Wemmbu, then you should shoot your shot, no?” He teased.
The other simply shook his head, scoffing silently “it's not that simple, Flame..you wouldn't get it.”
Soon enough, they took the path to the covered court, but not without Mane being incessant about taking a pitstop at the cafeteria and grabbing a few snacks. Fatass. Flame was even grateful they reached the bleachers.
“Who told you two to come late??” Wemmbu yelled, eyeing up Mane and Flame holding their cold drinks “uhm, we were dismissed late. Yeah” Flame gave a lame excuse.
“Yanno what, nobody else’ll work. You and Lomedy finish it.” Wemmbu huffed. Flame just scoffed and walked straight to their project as if nothing had happened.
The man's eyes spotted Lomedy working on the decorations around the chair, wearing Flame's red jacket. Flame followed Lomedy's hands working, to the gardener's focused face, trying to not mess anything up as best as he could.
He sat next to Lomedy, letting out a small chuckle “hey, bro.. lemme help” Flame spoke quietly “ofcourse, you can like, line the edges with ribbon” he smiled, handing Flame the gluegun.
Huh. Yeah, it seemed easy enough.
Carefully, he took the gluegun and continued Lomedy's previous work. He squeezed the hot plastic out, and pressed the ribbon on to keep it in place. They worked in silence for a few seconds, until Flame's eyes trailed to the design Lomedy was sketching on the backrest.
“What's that, bro? Like, an orchid?” He peeked over to take a closer look at Lomedy's sketch, the way his hands paused before turning to him with a slight look of being pissed off “it's not an orchid, ‘s a lotus” he grumbled.
Flame's face flushed hot red at Lomedy’s correction “but they look the same, so…” he said, his voice no louder than a whisper “they literally don't, though??” Lomedy hummed.
Then Flame realised how stupid it was to argue about plants with a literal gardener. He quickly dropped the matter and resumed gluing on the edges with a newfound embarrassment.
As he worked with quiet urgency, Wemmbu passed by him with a laid-back demeanor, and the hangout suddenly popped into his head again “by the way, Spoke wants to hang out later—” Flame was interrupted by Wemmbu “yeah, yeah, I saw the text messages. I'll come” the man with purple tips grumbled.
“Good, bro. Nice. Make sure you do, I swear” Flame grumbled.
Slowly, the decorations came together. The edges of the chair popped, and Lomedy's paint job on the, er, lotus was exceptional. Flame hummed quietly, admiring their work. Even Wemmbu looked impressed by their final work.
Lomedy was pretty far away where his bag rested, drinking water to cool off against the harsh heat. He began taking off Flame's jacket and began folding it up, like preparing to put it away.
Out of the corner of Flame's eye, he watched Lomedy approach. He went as still as possible as if trying to look like a statue.
Behind them, Spoke sneaked up quietly. His face was a mixture of impatience and a tad bit pissy. He grabbed Flame and Wemmbu by the arms, forcefully dragging them by the arms away.
“What— Spoke-! Stop, we aren't done yet!” Wemmbu tried to fight back, but Spokes' grip was firm, practically unshakeable. “Parrot's waiting at the gate..! I wanna hang out!!” Flame just followed along willingly, giving Lomedy an apologetic look as he was dragged away.
The loud whirrs of cars passing by was loud and audible as the four talked outside of a 7/11 like they were estranged brothers catching up after ten years. And if you asked any of them, it did feel like ten years, okay? When was the last time they hung out. They don't know themselves.
Their conversation shifted from recent troubles, issues with their classmates and teachers, to genuinely anything they could think of. Until it got to the point of their love life, where Parrot had a handful of stories.
“Have I told you about Theo?” Parrot asked. Flame's mind drifted to a reckless student he saw at the guidance counselor’s office often “uh, Theo Bald?” He clarified, watching Parrot nod profusely.
Spoke giggled knowingly, burying his face into the instant noodles he'd bought from the convenience store “ooh? I thought Wifies was courting you?? Don't tell me you have a new victim” he teased.
The journalist simply scoffed, shaking his head “that's the thing, though! I think.. they're both courting me, for some reason” he groaned, turning his head away from Spoke and focusing on his crackers instead “We've made little to no progress on our competition entry, they're too busy one-upping eachother for any real progress!”
Wemmbu just gave him a sympathetic look “I feel you, Parrot,” he spoke quietly, his hand scratching the back of his head. “It's the same with Jaden and Mane, for me. But atleast they're more, uh.. put-together.” he shared his troubles, too.
The ice cream in Flame's hands wasn't spared from his hungry gaze, not even getting a chance to melt before Flame licked it away. He scoffed “bro,” he put a hand on Wemmbu's shoulder “I don't give you the blessing to date my brother. At all, bro.” He declared.
“Say it to his face! Your brother's all over me at this point” Wemmbu laughed while swatting away Flame's hand, taking a bite out of his snack—siopao, his all-time favourite—and rolling his eyes.
Spoke just giggled quietly, slurping up his noodles “you three are hopeless! I'm the only one with an actual boyfriend, yanno” he boasted “Mapicc’s thee best, I swear” the boy hummed, just daydreaming at this point.
Wemmbu scoffed, rolling his eyes “I doubt. It”
As they talked about their situations and gave their best advice to one another, Flame simply stayed quiet. It wasn't his place to give relationship advice, since he'd never even had one.
Eventually enough, they'd shifted the conversation to Flame, who was unusually quiet in his seat. They asked quietly about his love life, and Flame's brain short-circuited into thinking of someone with golden eyes, and a taste for plants. He shook his head silently, about to say no.
But it didn't hurt to play along, right? They were his friends. Flame took a deep breath, and began talking.
“So like, I mean this in the most friendly way possible, but like, I've been hanging out with this boy, and—” he took a breath “like, I cringe myself out with how much I wanna talk to him, like- bro, I've never wanted to be friends with someone more than now.” He rambled.
Flame thought for a moment more before continuing his rant “like, I get a heart attack every time we walk home together, and I haven't seen anything the same since he talked about himself” a pause, then he ate his ice cream again “like, everytime I see seven my brain thinks of him. Cause his favourite number is seven and, like, things like that”
“I just, I think I really wanna be his friend. Alot, like..” he trailed off, before looking up from his cold sweet and seeing his friends’ knowing looks. Parrot looked the most apologetic, for some reason.
Wemmbu giggled silently “some friend you have, huh…” he cooed “is it the new boy? From ARG High?” He didn't even think first before guessing. Which pissed Flame off even more.
“Why're you guys looking at me like that?” Flame deadpanned.
Parrot stifled his giggle before waving him off “nothing, bro you'll know, eventually” he gestures vaguely. Spoke though, looked at him like he was holding in the most cruel laugh ever “dude, I'm sorry, like actually”
“For what???” He tilted his head, finishing up the ice cream with a puzzled look “for you being so dense..” Spoke giggled “what does that mean??” He repeated.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Then suddenly, everyone was laughing at Flame. For a moment, he thought he deserved it. Maybe he was missing something? But it didn't excuse the embarrassment he felt.
The four continued to laugh and clown at Flame, but didn't give any clue to why. Until they had to go home. He walked into a bus and continued to think quietly, genuinely clueless as to why they'd reacted like that.
Flame genuinely felt like he was missing something, but just couldn't place a finger on why, or how. He pulled out his phone to clear his mind, still lingering on the interaction and rethinking what he'd said.
He got off at his stop, walking quietly through the streets. Barely any cars had passed that afternoon, and no street vendors like usual. It left Flame with his thoughts alone as he wandered the streets to his home.
For a moment, he stopped at the entrance of Lomedy's neighbourhood, was he home? Flame hopes Lomedy got home safe. He could only wonder.
Ultimately, he made it to his house. As soon as he opened the gates, his pet dog Ashen immediately rushed to his side. The dog yipped and barked excitedly, following him inside the house.
He was greeted by Mane sleeping soundly on the couch. Flame just set his backpack down on his brother's stomach, practically throwing it at him, and walked off to take a shower.
