Work Text:
Nakyum is giving Inhun chocolates for Valentine’s Day, and Seungho can’t fucking stand it.
How that four-eyed, stiff, pretentious little shit ever caught Nakyum’s eye, Seungho will never understand. The very sight of him reminds Seungho of moth balls or old people or the dusty section of the library that makes Seungho sneeze. He’s lame, he’s two-faced, he sucks at soccer, he’s not the top of his class, so why does Nakyum like him so much?
He nearly couldn’t believe his eyes this morning when he saw Nakyum sneak a small heart-shaped box out of his backpack to hide in his locker. Nakyum! Timid, quiet, dorky, adorable Nakyum actually has the courage to gift chocolates on Valentine’s Day.
Seungho has seen how nerve wracking it must be to gift a boy chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Each year, several girls and boys would corner him in the halls and extend some cheap box of chocolates with trembling fingers, hoping Seungho will be their Valentine. The sweat, the nervous laughter, the skittish eyes, each trembling with courage and nerves and excitement, and Seungho relished in rejecting them. He doesn’t even like chocolate.
So, for Nakyum, the kid who stutters when teachers call on him in class, to gift someone chocolates makes Seungho livid.
He knows they’re for Inhun because Seungho isn’t a fucking idiot.
He sees the way Nakyum looks at him. Nakyum idolizes Inhun, follows him like a shadow, lingers around his locker, watches him from across the cafeteria, and Seungho knows because he’s always looking at Nakyum. He can’t keep his eyes off him no matter how hard he tries, and he spent a great many months trying.
Nakyum looks his way too, of course, and each time their eyes meet, Seungho doesn’t waver, but Nakyum ducks his head with an embarrassed flush to avoid meeting them again. Seungho stopped caring if Nakyum knew he liked him several weeks ago. Now, he stares freely. It’s liberating, really.
He likes Nakyum and Nakyum likes Inhun, and there’s a box of chocolates going to Inhun instead of him, which is why it’s his duty to destroy them. It’s the only acceptable course of action. Could he steal them, stow them away so there aren’t any chocolates left to gift? Yes, and he probably should. But where is the fun in throwing away Inhun’s chocolates when he can defile them? Much more enjoyable.
Breaking into Nakyum’s locker was the trickiest part, but he’s thankful Nakyum is of the simple variety because he made his lock code 1-2-3-4. The chocolates nearly fell into Seungho’s hands when he opened the locker. He convinces himself its destiny.
Now, he stands with a box of shitty chocolates in the empty science lab, melting the truffles beneath a heat lamp. The keys swing from his beltloop as he hums contentedly at the destruction. Being the top of his class has its perks—not that Inhun would know.
It’s unmeasurably satisfying to watch the perfect spheres and squares concave into mushy mounds, and he admires his handiwork. Inhun doesn’t deserve nice chocolates, not from Nakyum. He deserves disgusting heaps of sugary brown, their shapes indistinguishable in their delineated casings. The longer he melts them, his joy turns to ire, as he imagines Nakyum wandering the shelves of a store, trying to pick the perfect cheap box of chocolates for that nerd. It’s infuriating, and Seungho struggles to suppress that twinge of jealousy growing in his chest.
Once they’re sufficiently misshapen, he closes the heart shaped box.
As he stares at the pristine casing, he frowns. By all appearances, the box looks untampered with, its edges clean and its cover shiny. He wants it to look as beaten up as he feels.
He plops the chocolate box onto the ground and stomps on it, crumpling the flimsy cardboard on one side. It feels good to express his anger like this, cathartic, but he knows when to stop, and he crouches to pick it up and evaluate the damage.
A crumpled heart and inedible chocolates. The perfect Valentine’s Day gift for Inhun.
With a cautious glance around him, Seungho makes his journey towards Nakyum’s locker in higher spirits. If Seungho can’t have Nakyum for his Valentine, no one can. He imagines the look on Inhun’s face when he sees the state of the chocolates Nakyum gives him, or better yet, Nakyum sees them and decides not to gift them at all. Inhun doesn’t deserve Nakyum’s chocolates, doesn’t deserve to be his Valentine, and really, he should thank Seungho for—
“Seungho?”
Seungho knows that voice like he knows his own heartbeat, and when he turns to face it, he hides the small box behind his back.
“Hey Kyum.”
Nakyum clutches his backpack strap as he walks closer and sweat collects on Seungho’s palms.
He shouldn’t be here. He should be in class for another twenty minutes, he’d specifically come out here when Nakyum had art class, he shouldn’t be there, definitely not right here, so why—
“Shouldn’t you be in class?” Nakyum asks.
“I could say the same for you.” Why the fuck is he here?
Nakyum casts a glance towards his locker and back to Seungho again. “I just needed to grab something.”
Fuck.
“Oh.”
Fuck.
Nakyum fidgets in the awkward silence.
While they stopped being enemies, they aren’t exactly friends, Seungho’s shameless bullying ending sometime in their first year. One uncomfortable group project later and they had made their way into this tentative acquaintance territory where Seungho is obsessed with him and Nakyum isn’t scared of him anymore. Seungho giving him a nickname helped things.
“What about you?” Nakyum asks finally. “You’re never in this wing.”
“I needed to grab something for a teacher,” Seungho lies. “I’m taking the long way, so I don’t have to go back to class.”
Nakyum’s brows draw together disapprovingly. “You slack off way too much to be at the top of your class.”
“Whatever,” Seungho says. “I still get better grades than those try-hards that tutor you.” It’s the closest he can get to saying Inhun without biting his tongue.
“Inhun gets great grades.”
Seungho grins. Even Nakyum knows Inhun is a try-hard. “Not as good as mine.”
“Well, I don’t see you signing up to tutor.”
“Fuck no,” Seungho scoffs, and it suddenly dawns on him that he could’ve been tutoring Nakyum this whole time. “Actually, that isn’t a bad idea.”
“You’d make people cry,” Nakyum says, and Seungho laughs. “Please don’t sign up.”
“I’d be a great tutor.”
“No, you wouldn’t, and you know it.”
Seungho likes the idea of Nakyum knowing him well enough to make assumptions about him. He grins wider.
“You got me there.”
Another silence passes, and this time, there’s a nervous air to it, like Nakyum has something he wants to say but his lips won’t part for him. He’s adorable like this, Seungho thinks, when his cheeks warm and his hands fidget and he deliberates quietly in that tiny head of his. But with each second Nakyum stands there, the weight of the box behind Seungho’s back grows, as if each chocolate weighs heavier with his wrongdoings.
He swallows. “I should get back—”
“Do you mind waiting here a sec—”
They both speak at the same time. Seungho straightens.
“I’m sorry,” Nakyum says. “I just…one sec, if you don’t mind, I just need a quick minute—it won’t be long, I promise, it’s just uh—wait just a minute—” His words are a rush of sounds as he walks towards his locker with his head bent.
Seungho’s stomach plummets.
He’s going to open that locker and realize. He’s going to open it and realize someone stole it, and then realize that someone was him, and they’ll be back at square one, and Nakyum is going to hate him, and—
“Oh.” Nakyum’s voice echoes off the metal locker.
Seungho’s grip around the box tightens. “Something the matter?”
“Uh—no. No, nothing’s wrong,” Nakyum says, and Seungho sags with relief behind him. “I just…no, never mind. I misplaced something, that’s all.” Nakyum closes the locker and clasps the lock. It takes a moment before Nakyum faces him, and when he does, there’s an odd look in his eyes.
“You wanted me to wait here?” Seungho raises a brow. Every fiber of his being wants to run away, to rid himself of the defiled heart-shaped box burning a hole into his back.
“Oh. Right,” Nakyum says, and he scratches at the back of his head. “I forgot what I was going to ask you. It must not have been anything important.”
“I guess I’ll see you around, then.” As much as Seungho enjoys Nakyum’s company, he needs this conversation to end immediately. He needs to get this box of chocolate out of his hand.
“Yeah,” Nakyum says quietly with a small nod. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
Seungho gives an awkward half-hearted wave with one hand while concealing the other, and he quickly turns to make his way down the hall. He’ll just throw them away. This is for the best. This way Nakyum doesn’t have to face rejection or worry about Inhun’s reaction or embarrass himself or—
“Will you be my Valentine?”
Seungho skids to a stop.
He raised his voice only loud enough to be heard, but it echoes off the hallway walls, surrounding Seungho on all sides. He waits for another voice to chime in, for somebody else to answer Nakyum’s question, but it’s silent. He glances back and it’s only them.
“I—” Nakyum struggles, his initial bravery simmering into nerves. “I had chocolates,” he says. “I wanted to give you chocolates today.”
Seungho doesn’t turn around yet, stunned as he clutches the box to his chest. He listens.
“I brought them this morning, but I don’t know where they went,” he says, nerves wavering his voice. “But…but I wanted to ask you, anyways. Even without the chocolates. I was worried if I didn’t ask you now, I wouldn’t ever ask it, but now I feel stupid, and you’re not saying anything, so please just say no and let me—”
“You’re asking me?” Seungho asks, breathless.
In all the scenarios he imagined of this day, he never once considered an outcome like this. He never once considered he was ever an option, because why would Nakyum choose him? After everything he put him through when they met, after all the incessant teasing, the awkward conversations, the avoided eye contact. Why him? It shouldn’t have been him. “What about Inhun?”
“What about him?” Nakyum asks, and finally Seungho turns around to stare at him with wide, incredulous eyes. The old, frigid jealousy in Seungho’s heart thaws slightly.
"You like him," Seungho says. “I thought you liked him.”
“I grew up with him,” Nakyum says, a bit bashful. “I mean, I admire him a lot, but I wouldn’t…I don’t think about him like that. I did as a kid, but I don’t anymore.”
All of those instances where Seungho watched Nakyum, each time he found Nakyum and Inhun talking, each time he caught Nakyum looking at him, each time he felt so certain that Nakyum liked Inhun and not him, and he’d never have a chance. All those times he’d resigned himself to an unreciprocated love.
“I thought you would’ve asked him,” Seungho says, more to himself than to Nakyum. “So, does that mean you like..." He doesn’t dare let himself say the words, fearing once he said it, Nakyum would realize his mistake.
But Nakyum gives a shy nod. He keeps his gaze anywhere but on Seungho; on his shoes, on the tiles, on the lockers lining the walls. “You don’t have to say yes,” Nakyum says after a long moment. “I didn’t…I didn’t expect you to say yes. And it’s not like I have any chocolates to give you—”
“Yes.”
Nakyum’s eyes snap up to meet his in surprise. “What?”
“Yes. Yes, yes, I’ll be your Valentine.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Seungho says, and it finally sinks in that Nakyum asked him; shy, reserved Nakyum, asked Seungho to be his Valentine. Not Inhun, not some other idiot, but him. The realization makes him dizzy. It feels as if he’s floating and falling, and he isn’t sure what to do with his hands.
Nakyum chose him.
“It looks like someone already gave you chocolates, though.” Nakyum nods dejected towards Seungho’s hands, and Seungho realizes why he didn’t know what to do with them.
Seungho wavers. Of course, he had to ruin it. Of course, Nakyum notices the chocolates, and soon is going to realize he’s the kind of jealous idiot who would break into his lock and ruin his chocolates.
“I turned the person down,” Seungho lies.
Nakyum’s brows knit in confusion. “But you still took the chocolates?”
“They didn’t want them. I mean look at them.” He waves the ruined box of chocolate for emphasis. “Who would want these?”
Nakyum squints at the box, and Seungho prays to a god he stopped believing in. “Those look like the chocolates I bought.”
“You must’ve bought them from the same place,” Seungho says, hoping his sweet, simple Nakyum won’t question it further.
“Yeah, probably,” Nakyum says, and Seungho wants to kiss his adorable, simple head. He loves his mind. “I wish I knew what happened to my chocolates…it doesn’t feel right if I can’t give you any.”
“I don’t like chocolate, anyway,” Seungho says. “Too sweet.”
Nakyum looks at him in horror. “What do you mean? Chocolate’s amazing.”
“Then how about I buy you some after school?” Seungho asks.
He walks towards him. He doesn’t think he’s ever stood so close, the warmth of Nakyum’s body radiating against him and inviting him in. He wants to touch him, to feel the heat of him beneath his palm, and he wonders if he’ll finally be able to.
“But I was the one asking you to be my Valentine—”
“Maybe now I’m asking you to be mine?” Seungho grins down at him, and he allows his hand to drift out and caress a lock of Nakyum’s hair. He bends lower to whisper into Nakyum’s ear, his lips brushing the skin with the words. “Will you be my Valentine, Kyum?”
Nakyum shivers against him, and just when he opens his mouth to respond, the bell rings and they both spring backwards, as if remembering themselves. Instantly, students pour into the hallway, surrounding them in a sea of uniforms and drowning them in their chatter. Despite the growing crowd, Seungho only looks at him.
“So?” Seungho asks over the noise.
Nakyum smiles, a small shy movement that makes Seungho soften in his core, and he says: “I’ll only say yes if you give me chocolates.”
Seungho grins. “Meet me after school.”
“Here?”
“Right by your locker,” Seungho says, and before Nakyum can turn to go, he crooks a finger beneath Nakyum’s chin to place a kiss to his lips. He tastes better than chocolate. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Kyum.”
They part through the crowd of students, and Seungho can’t wipe the grin off his face, because he’s Nakyum’s Valentine and Nakyum is his, Inhun’s name forgotten with his jealousy, and he gets halfway down the hall before he realizes he ruined his own Valentine’s Day chocolates.