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I.
Art isn't anywhere close to being HYUNA’s favourite subject. She does play a few instruments, and Hyunwoo—begrudgingly—admitted her voice ‘wasn’t bad’. She even did a few small concerts in her second year, smooth-talking her way into bars, bringing in a remarkable audience. But other than song writing and singing, she didn’t have a single creative bone in her body. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the act of drawing—the thought of creating something uniquely Hyuna was nice. But anyone who knew her, knew that whatever she drew came out looking like the mangled corpse of a 90s BL manga.
So now, sat in a wooden chair, facing the back of an easel, she fidgets with the worn strings of her hoodie, bored out of her fucking mind. Even worse than having to paint a botched figure is being the muse. They were meant to switch half an hour in but Hyunwoo ‘couldn’t get her nose right’ or ‘capture the sharpness of her brows’, but really, she knew he didn’t want to foam at the mouth from boredom like Hyuna was right now.
“Stay still, Hyuna!” Hyunwoo orders, peeking his head out from behind the canvas.
She scratches her hair, huffing out a breath. “Why don't you try sitting still in a chair for an hour?”
“You haven’t been still for even the past five.”
She rolls her eyes, leaning back in her stool again, hands planted between her parted thighs.
Hyunwoo just huffs and mumbles something under his breath as Hyuna resorts to looking around the classroom for anything interesting going on with her friends. Maybe she could catch Dewey’s eye.
Let’s see.
Sua was with Mizi, Till with gay porn—acorn, she means—and Luka…
She blinks, unsure if she was seeing correctly.
Luka’s lips brushed the knuckles of Ivan's hand. Hyuna freezes momentarily, then looks away, feeling like she was intruding on something even though they’re the ones doing it in the middle of an art class! She glances back at Ivan, expecting him to be shocked, or at least a little shy. But he seems to have had no reaction. At all.
For the rest of the class, Hyuna catches Luka with his lips on different parts of Ivan every time she looked. His wrist, cheek, ear. Sometimes it didn’t even look like a kiss, really, just pressing his lips on Ivan’s skin, and then dragging down. Then he would pull away, and go back to sketching.
Was this normal? They were acting like it was, for sure. And yeah, Hyuna kissed her friends sometimes, too. She’d peck Mizi on the cheek, or wrap her hand around Dewey’s side, but that was different, more playful than anything else. This, however? It looked romantic, intimate, like they were in their own canvas of a world, and everyone else were just onlookers.
Hyuna’s surprised when Luka suddenly turns to her mid sketch, and smiles. She jumps, frazzled, and decides to keep her gaze forward for the remainder of the lesson to Hyunwoo’s relief.
When the end of the lesson finally comes, she’s thankful to get whatever she witnessed off of her mind, but she’s met with a reminder in the lunch line. She’d ended up next to Ivan, and unable to hide her curiosity, she couldn’t help but look at him funny.
“Is something wrong?” Ivan asks, when he catches her eye. She finds his somewhat unsettling before he closes them with a smile. Hyuna’s in between not saying anything and questioning him, but decides that she probably wouldn’t be able to look at either of them the same again if she didn’t.
“Are you and Luka dating?” Hyuna finally gets it out.
“No. Why would you think that?” He inquires, tilting his head like she was a pre-schooler asking why the sky was blue.
“Art class,” She whispers, shifting forward when the people in front of her move. It felt like she was talking about something taboo. She’d thought it’d be pretty obvious what she meant, but Ivan still has this lost look on his face. “He was kissing you everywhere.”
His eyebrows shoot up in understanding, and he laughs. “Oh, that. Luka wasn’t kissing me.” Now Hyuna was the one looking at him like he had the IQ of a preschooler. If not kissing, what the hell was he doing? Sniffing him to get a gist of his scent like a cat?
It must be obvious on her face what she was thinking because Ivan touches his chin before explaining, “To draw anything, you need to understand the structure first. The best way to understand is to touch.”
“So you’re saying his lips were an inch from your mouth just so he could draw it?” She drawls.
Ivan nods, and Hyuna feels a sudden rush of tiredness wash over her. She runs a hand through her hair, huffing and sweeping up a carton of chocolate milk onto her tray.
She really wished it was alcohol instead.
II.
MIZI liked nature. She liked walking through fields, and feeling the grass brush against her legs. She liked it as much as Sua liked gazing at the stars in the night sky. Unfortunately though, her other half wasn’t here to enjoy it with her. Their schedules didn’t match all the time, so right now, Sua was in class and Mizi was sitting alone on a bench, her lunch box next to her. The birds sang songs in the trees around her while bees buzzed the tune. It was peaceful—or, would have been peaceful if not for all the boys coming up just to ask if she ‘needed company’. She’d smile each time it happened, and say she preferred quiet, barely able to keep the disgust out of her voice as they leered at her. But it seemed none of them could catch a hint.
It became harder to keep up a smile, and eventually, she was forced to grab her phone from her bag and text the one person she thought might help.
r u free? can you come sit with me pls?
i’m in the courtyard
it’s a code red! men!!
again
sure.
Comes the reply. Then,
is it okay if i come with a friend?
of course!
She assumed it would be Till. She didn’t know who else ‘a friend’ could be. Ivan rarely referred to them as such, not even her. So she’s surprised to see a head of curly, blonde hair trailing behind Ivan a few minutes later. She recognised him as Luka. He’s in a few of her classes, and she’s seen him with Hyuna a few times, but they weren’t exactly close. Something about him put her off, but he hadn’t done anything wrong per se, so she pushes the feeling down and smiles at them both, taking her lunch box off of the bench so that they could both sit down.
There’s peace for maybe five minutes. The eyes on her have left, all probably assuming she was dating one of the two, something that even just the idea of, made her sick. She closes her eyes for a second, willing the thought away. She turns to Ivan and Luka, noticing that they didn’t bring any food.
“You two aren’t eating?” She asks, concerned.
Ivan shakes his head. “The lunch line was full, so we were going to wait until it died down.”
“Ah! I brought some hotteok from home, do you guys want any?” She offers her lunchbox, letting them see the admittedly damp pancakes inside.
“If you don’t mind, thank you,” Ivan accepts with a smile, which Mizi returns.
He picks one up with his hands, for lack of utensils, and Mizi is expecting him to put it in his mouth, obviously, but instead he turns to Luka and puts it to his lips instead. Luka raises an eyebrow, and says something—along the lines of “I’m not a child.”—and takes the hotteok from Ivan, eating it himself.
Ivan pouts. “I was trying to be cute.”
Mizi’s a little stunned because sure, Ivan liked physical contact, but he’d never, well, fed anyone. She’s so lost in her thoughts, she doesn’t realise he’s facing her again, asking if he could take the last one, too. She blinks, gaze flickering back to Luka, who looked like he was smiling—it was hard to tell, just a small upturn.
“Sure, I’m already full anyways!” She beams, directing her gaze back to Ivan and handing him her lunchbox. She was confused to say the least, but decided to move past what just happened.
Ivan smiles at her gratefully, then attempts to feed this one to Luka. Again. He’s refused. Again.
“You eat it,” Luka says, pushing Ivan’s hand back with the back of his palm, fingers sticky with syrup. “You still haven’t eaten anything.”
“You’re the one with the insatiable appetite. I’m fine.”
Luka frowns, but still takes Ivan’s wrist with his clean hand, biting half of the hotteok. He stops for a second to chew, and Ivan’s eyes are glued to him the whole time. Mizi wants to look away, really, she felt like she was watching some weird, erotic film. It’s the curiosity in her that keeps her watching the scene. Luka then takes the other half, but his mouth lingers this time, descending all the way down to the middle of Ivan’s index, where he chomps on it.
Mizi blinks, very slowly. Ivan barely flinches, laughing like something was funny. She really wishes she could pry into his brain and find out what.
When Luka pulls away, Mizi is sure she sees traces of red on his lips before it’s swept away by his tongue.
What the fuck.
“‘I’m not a child’?” Ivan quotes, spreading his hand out and looking at the circular wound in the shape of Luka’s teeth. He was likely teasing, but Luka seemed to have dozed off already.
Ivan turns to Mizi, and she tries her best to school her expression.
“Do you have any tissues?” He says, amicably, like his blood wasn’t just promptly lickedy.
“Uh, yeah!” Mizi whips around and starts digging through her bag, feeling sweat beading at her forehead.
A friend of a friend is my friend.
A friend of a friend is my friend.
III.
TILL always looked forward to physical education. People were surprised every time he said it, and he knew why. He had scrawny limbs, even though he hated to put it like that, that was the exact word Ivan used to describe him. It pushed him to show off a little whenever they got the chance to play in the gym. This time, they were playing basketball and he made sure to jump high and dunk the ball purely for that reason. He was breathing hard, wiping sweat off with his jersey as his teammates praised him. His ears were only flushed red because of the physical exertion, truly. He drops his jersey and grins before searching for Ivan, who was on the opposite team. They met eyes, and he waited for something—shock, anything.
But he just smiled—that stupid, fucking unbothered smile.
It pisses him off so badly that he cuts off Acorn, who was in the middle of complimenting his dribbling skills.
“It was nothing, let’s continue. There’s still half an hour left!” He calls to the rest of his teammates.
See, this time, he isn’t paying too much attention to anything other than where the ball was. That’s why he doesn’t see the unmoving log next to him when he dives to the left to catch it. He only realises he’s sent Luka crashing into the ground when he hears a loud thud, followed by a quieter ‘oof’.
Till squaks, hands flailing in the air, and the ball hits the wall of the gym.
Their teacher blows the whistle and everyone stops moving. As Luka sits up, Till spots a trail of blood running down his nostrils to the bow of his lips. It kept on coming in ribbons as it fell down to his chin.
“Luka, do you need to go to the infirmary?” Their teacher yells from across the gym.
The blonde presses his index and middle fingers to his nose, and starts, “I’m—”
“I’ll take him!” Till offers hurriedly, feeling overwhelmingly guilty about knocking him over (and fearful of being scolded for it). But why was he just standing still in the middle of the court? And the guy was as light as a bag of feathers!
“Okay, Till. You two go.”
“I’ll go, too, sir!” Ivan beams out of fucking nowhere. And at once, Till feels blood rush to his head. “Till might knock Luka over again on the way there. What a brute!”
Till glares at him, but he’s pointedly ignored.
Their teacher looks like he wants to say no, and Till is really hoping he does, but he just nods okay and waves his hand for them to go. He attempts to help Luka walk, but he’s just stared at.
“I didn’t break my leg,” Luka deadpans, although he looks a bit funny with blood smeared over half of his face. Ivan laughs, making Till bristle.
“Right. Sorry.” He scratches his neck, feeling his face heat up.
The short journey to the infirmary was awkward. Till felt like he was walking down the aisle straight to hell. Luka keeps a straight face the entire time, like he wasn’t even in pain at all. He doesn’t say anything either, but he doesn’t look particularly angry at Till for being the reason he plummeted face-first into the floor.
When they get into the infirmary, the nurse is absent, probably out on a break. Just his luck.
“She’s not here. Maybe we should wait for her to come back,” He suggests, feeling awkward.
“It’s fine. Ms. Shine likes me, she won’t mind.” Ivan grins, moving past him. Till looks at him and wonders why.
He’s awkwardly standing by the door, shifting from foot to foot, as Luka sits on the bed, looking like he was already falling asleep. Ivan digs through the drawer, and takes out some wipes and tissues, and sits beside him, which seems to wake the other up a little.
They’re so close, it felt unnecessary. Ivan’s hand was on Luka’s lower back, his other one dabbing away at the blood. Meanwhile Luka’s hand was resting on Ivan’s thigh. Were they close? Like, emotionally? Till had never seen them interact—he rarely saw Luka around anyone other than Hyuna, which was the only time he’d act like a person, and not the shell of one.
It’s then that Till sees it—the dart of a tongue, Ivan’s, gliding over the bottom of Luka’s stained lips to the bridge of his nose. Till almost squawks, his face growing hot for the umpteenth time that day.
Did they forget he was standing right there?
“Payback,” Ivan mutters, so quiet that Till almost misses it. He didn’t think the interaction could’ve gotten any weirder, but then Luka laughs. Like, audibly—ha, ha, ha’s.
Till still remembers the time he had nicked his finger in home economics—he couldn’t forget. Ivan had taken his finger, and tried to lick it before Till jerked away. Was this just a thing he did? Did he think normal people with functioning brains casually licked blood like anemic vampires?
“You’re a pest.” The blonde eventually says—and Till wholeheartedly agrees—but he doesn’t look annoyed at all. In fact, there was a blush sitting high on his pale cheeks.
“Buzz buzz.” Ivan imitates.
That’s when Till decides it’s time for him to leave, his presence obviously not needed.
Fucking weird. Everyone in this school was so fucking weird.
IV.
Sua never liked Ivan very much. She didn’t like a lot of people other than Mizi and her big sister. But there were people she didn’t mind being around. Like Luka. They were both on the student council, so it was inevitable that they would interact sometimes. Like right now, in the library, sat across from each other. They were tasked with planning the school’s fundraiser. Yes, she’d rather be watching Mizi’s tennis match, but Luka wasn’t the worst person in the world to be working with. He wasn’t unnecessarily charismatic like Hyuna, or annoyingly persistent like Ivan.
She scribbles some doodles of stars on the edge of the paper, growing a little bored.
‘Stands — ₩80,000 (x1)
Food — ₩57,000
Flyers — ₩9,500,’ Her notebook read.
She lifts her head, and is about to ask Luka if there was any other funds she needed to write down, when a grating and annoyingly familiar voice sounds in her ear.
Ivan. She almost bangs her head on the table, would have if not for self-respect, when she sees him. Dressed in all black, save for the transparent cloth on top that glinted under the library’s lights, making Sua squint her eyes. What the hell was he wearing? Why was he even here? Sua is staring at him, incredulous, as he sets his duffle bag on the floor and sits on the chair adjacent to Luka’s.
“Hello.” He grins, resting his cheek on his hand.
“Hi. I thought you had a competition?” Luka inquires, his pen in between his lips.
A competition? Well, that explained why he was dressed like a glowstick designed by a five-year-old, who just discovered what glitter was. Ivan did do ice skating outside of school, and while she didn’t care, she still remembered because Mizi had told her. She even suggested they go to one of his shows, which Sua simply smiled at.
He must’ve rushed if he didn’t even change clothes, she concludes.
“I came back, just for you. Aren’t you happy?”
She was honestly expecting him to say something to her, but he’s focused on Luka with tunnel vision. Good, she thinks. The less Ivan spoke to her, the less stress on her.
Luka hums. “How did it go?”
“First place.” He grabs a gold medal from his pocket to show off. “Unsha was ecstatic, you should’ve seen his face. There was a cash prize after all.” He laughs like there’s some kind of inside joke Sua didn’t understand, and looking at Luka’s ever so stoic face, she wasn’t sure he understood either.
“Were you?” At Ivan’s head tilt, he elaborates. “Ecstatic?”
“It was nice to win. I wouldn’t say I was over the moon, though,” He answers seriously, then that particular, teasing tone is back. “If I said I was, would you reward me?”
“Reward you how?” There’s question, but not refusal in Luka’s voice.
“Oh, I can think of lots of ways.”
There’s a revolting grin on Ivan’s face when Sua realises he’s flirting. Not just teasing. Right in front of her. And that’s her last straw.
“Could you two get a room?” She snaps, pen close to cracking in her grip.
Ivan looks at her, mock surprise on his face. “Oh, Sua! You’re so small, I didn’t see you.”
Her eyebrows furrow, lips pursed shut. That’s why she hated him. He got under her skin all the time.
“Luka, message me if there’s anything else we need. I’m going home.” Promptly, she packs her things, gets up, and leaves. Well, she’s about to when she realises she’s forgotten her phone. Sighing, she turns back around, only to be met with the sight of Luka’s lips on Ivan’s forehead, his hand brushing his bangs back. They’re only like that for a split second—as soon as she blinks, they’re back to normal. Normal being Ivan, smiling like an idiot, sat so close to Luka that she wondered if he wanted their bodies to merge together or something.
Whatever, Sua thinks, snatching her phone and making a swift U-turn for the door. Whatever was going on between those two freaks, she decides she doesn’t care. As long as she wouldn’t have to look at the pathetically yearnful expression Ivan looked at Till with when he thought nobody was watching, she was fine.
After all, one more freak was nothing in a school full of them.