The Flower Boy

Walking out of the school later than I usually would, I passed the soccer field seeing our team practising. I scanned the players from the top of the bleachers to find Seungcheol. Talking to the coach, he’s sitting down at the bottom of the bleachers. Seeing Seungcheol’s expression showing slight sadness, I wonder whether soccer is becoming harder for him…
Every time I talk about his soccer career he just shuts down.
The coach stood up and Seungcheol right after him. His coach walked away as Seungcheol bowed to his moving body. I see his chest rise and fall as he looked up to the sky as if he was asking for help. I remove my gloved hands from my coat pockets and breath in them, as I start to walk away. Maybe he needs some time. I don’t want to make things worse for him. And to be honest, i’m feeling pretty shit after what those girls said to me…
“Wonah!” Crap, he’s seen me. I turn around slowly to see him jogging up the last few steps off the top of the bleachers.
“Oh, Seungcheol-ah. You were here.” I say pretending I hadn’t actually looked for him.
“Yeah, I was just talking with my coach. Do you want to have a seat? I have something for you.” He says with a small smile growing on his face, unaware of my feelings at this point. More girls, or well, the same confronted me just after school… because they’d seen me with Seokjin. Seungcheol gestured me to follow him over to the top bleacher while he ran back over to his bag by the field. This gave me time to suppress the tears choking me. Wanting to be around Seungcheol because he was my friend seemed to only bring more haters on my case constantly. What made it even worse was Seungcheol hadn’t known about the girls harassing me about him, only about the only harassing me because of Seokjin. They don’t want me to hangout around Seokjin but they won’t accept me as their friend either?
Seungcheol had made it back within ten seconds, waking me from my thoughts. Feeling something wet trail my cheek I knew I couldn’t hold it back.
“I’ve got this- Wonah, are you okay?” Staring into my lap, suppressing the tears, I stupidly look up as he asks this. Blurred by my tears, my eyes see nothing but his black hair and his uniform outline.
“How did you know?” I blink out the tears smiling through the tears. “I was so sure it was unnoticeable…”
I felt his hand rest on my shoulder. As I wipe the tears away, I look to his hand, then to him. I look into his sparkling eyes and see some sort of empathy or sympathy.
“I like… to cook.” He whispers out.
“What?” I say between snuffles.
“I like cooking… like, a lot more than soccer contracts or sponsorships.” I stop crying immediately, wanting to make sure I heard right. His expression telling me he’s serious. “What do I do Wonah?” He looks down into his hands as if he’s contemplated this question a lot.
“Why would you do all this practise then?” I ask, curious.
“For my father, he wants me to make a career out of it. I only want what makes him happy.” He confesses looking out towards the field in front of us. I look at his side view while contemplating my opinion.
“Well I can’t help you with wanting to make fathers happy because if i’m being honest, i’ve never known or cared much about my father.” I huff out, looking out to the cold afternoon air as it makes white clouds from my breath.
“I’m not sure that’s not true,” Seungcheol says, bringing my head round to face him next to me again. We stay there a moment, taking in each other’s perspectives. Why is it we are so different yet, I can be so close with him? Suddenly, he brings his hands up to cup my face, warming my cold cheeks but also raising my heart rate. “Aren’t you cold without earmuffs?” He says not looking away from my eyes, and me getting lost further into his eyes. Even further my heart beats faster as Seungcheol’s face steadily gets closer to mine. Soon I can feel his breath blowing a small wind on my face as he exhales, making me hold my breath in worry. I suddenly wonder whether my breath smells… I’m not pushing him away… Maybe it’s because of the emotional state i’m in, but I let him in. Centimetres away from his lips meeting mine, my phone starts to ring. We both turn towards the ringtone and I feel some sort of disappointment. It’s Seokjin. The one person I really didn’t want to talk to right now. I look at the bright phone screen with annoyance. “You should answer it,” Seungcheol says staring at the phone as well. “It’s for the chemistry project right?”
Crap. I can’t even tell him the truth about these stupid lessons.
“Yeah… I uhh… I just have to be at his house today.” I say pushing my fly away hairs out of my face behind my ears, looking at my gloved hands in my lap.
“Well umm, take this with you,” he says timidly offering me a container. The medium, blue topped-lid looked like it contained some sort of fried rice with something on top of it. I grab the container before he regrets telling me about his secret passion. A smile graces my face as I realise how close we’ve become that he trust me with this information.
“Seungcheol-ah. Thank you,” I say smiling at the container in my hands. I look up to Seungcheol, showing my genuine happiness at his gesture. Though his hands fumble slightly his eyes kept in contact with mine. My phone rings again and I remember I forgot to answer Seokjin’s call. As I grab my bag and put it on my shoulder, I slide my thumb across my phone screen to answer his second call. “Why didn’t you answer before?” Seokjin’s annoyed voice rings into my ear. I look back at Seungcheol to see him heading back to his teammates on the field.
“Nice to hear from you too. I’m on my way.” Also annoyed at him I end the call after stating my position.

All the way to his house, through the bus ride and everything, he called me agin and again. Most likely annoyed at the fact that I had hung up on his call. I went to knock on his door as I finally got there, but the door opened before my fist could land on the door. “You’re late.” Seokjin said pulling me through the door by my arm, swiftly closing the door behind me.
“I’m sorry geez,” I say making my way through his hallway, passing the lounge and kitchen. I bow when I make eye contact with his mother and father. They smile, and I reply the same way. Seokjin walks past me, so I follow behind him, to his bedroom once again. Just before I enter after him, I pause, thinking of the near kiss. Seungcheol seems to wander into my thought as well. It just now occurred to me that… Seungcheol might like me more than just a friend. My cheeks heat up at the thought of it.
“Are you coming in?” Seokjin snaps me out of my thoughts and I look at him with wide eyes, coming back to reality again. I walk in holding my cheeks in my gloved hands as I make my way to one of his desk chairs. “You cold?” I turn my eyes to him once again. “I’ll close the door,” he closes the door without needing an answer. There he goes again, being all caring in a odd way.
“How many of the experiments have you done now?” I say removing my gloves and changing the subject. I watch him as he walks over to the other desk chair next to me.
“Nearly all of them. I’ll need you to work out what they mean,” he says sitting himself down in the chair. My heart leaps a little thinking of all the fun analysing the experiments will be. I let that happiness seep out a little, as a smile plays on my lips. “So we can work on dates today, i’ve got an idea for something.” He said scooting his chair closer to mine. Confused, I look at him for a bit. He turns, smiling a little at me. Why is he acting so friendly? Only when we’re away from others does this side of him show….
“Can you stop smiling at me?” I feel my heart throb harder in my chest as I look concerned at Seokjin’s stupid smiling face.
“Why? Does it scare you~” He says leaning in over his chair, making me smile for some reason. I turn my head sideways in slight protest but I find myself laughing slightly, and so is Seokjin. We look at each other for a bit, realising it’s the first time we’ve laughed together. I hold the chair’s arm rests tight as I feel his breath press against my face softly as he exhales.
“Flirting tips,” he says with his smile disappearing and his eyes fully focussed on mine. Suddenly I thought about all times he’s closed in close to me. All those times lead me to feel like I actual liked when he was close to me. Only now was I realising.
“I can’t teach you about that,” I exhale out deeply.
“But I can.” Seokjin breaths out before pressing his lips onto mine softly.

Notes

ARGH IDK it was so tough deciding who Wonah feels more comfortable around!
I hope i've made the right decision (you'll find out later don't worry)!
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this episode whether you like Jin or S.Coups!
Enjoy your lives people!
<3 <3 <3