Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nam-gyu hates Fridays. And he has a good reason to.

It’s the day before the weekend, so he has to spend 62.5 hours, give or take, in his house with his parents. Sounds fine, right? Wrong.

He gets no privacy, but at the same time he gets paid no attention to. He’s never able to complete work, but he has too much time on his hands. He gets to be away from his talkative friends, but he’s isolated. He’s able to do whatever he wants, go wherever he wants, but he barely leaves the house.

It’s complicated. But he doesn’t want to think about that right now. He still has about 5 hours until he’ll be home, so he’s content with that.

He’s sitting in the cafeteria, half full energy drink to his left as he’s rapidly writing and reading equations on his overflowing notebook, when he hears it. The one thing he was dreading most. Gyeongsu and Se-mis laughs blending together like nails on a chalkboard.

He sucks in a breath and prepares for the interrogations that will arise.

Gyeongsu drops into the space next to him as Se-mi and Min-su, who follows her around like a lost puppy on most days, sit opposite them on the circular table.

“Dude, do you do anything other than school work in your spare time?” Gyeongsu asks as he leans a little too close into Nam-gyu’s side.

”Your mom.” Nam-gyu answers in a monotone voice. Too easy.

The table erupts into quiet laughs and Nam-gyu hears Min-su giggle slightly. Gyeongsu groans and nods along with their laughter.

”Yeah, ok guys. So funny, so original.” He deadpans as he takes a sip of Nam-guy’s drink.

”You set yourself up for that one, honestly.” Se-mi huffs between laughs as she composes herself. Nam-gyu sees Min-su nod in the corner of his eye. God, that kid has got to learn how to raise his damn voice.

Se-mi turns her attention to Nam-gyu, and he already knows where this is going.

”Nam-gyu, have you eaten today?” She asks, her voice clearly careful and cautious.

”Se-mi,” he repeats in a mocking tone without looking up from his notes, “I have eaten today.”

”Wha-“

”An apple and a protein bar.” He interrupts her,  swapping the black pen in his hand to a pale blue highlighter.

”Whe-“

”Just before you got here.” He cuts her off once again, having already had this conversation plenty of times.

She scoffs and slumps in her seat, accepting defeat.

This is when Gyeongsu speaks up and ruins his whole mood.

“So, Nam-gyu,” he starts, and Nam-gyu can feel his eyes on his head and can practically smell the smirk on his face, “you know how we won that hockey game yesterday, and by we I mean the school hockey team?” Gyeongsu rambles as Nam-gyu nods slightly.

He doesn’t go to those type of things and barely knows anything about the sport, but he heard about it since it’s everything anyone at this school can talk about.

”Well, there’s gonna be a party at Dae-ho’s house tomorrow night and everyone’s invited.” Gyeongsu finishes as he goes to take another sip of Nam-gyu’s drink.

Nam-gyu snatches his drink back and sips it, but before he can respond, he feels another presence to his right. The smell of Brittany Spears perfume and blue raspberry vape tells him exactly who it is without having to even look up.

”Have you asked him yet?” Mi-na asks as she grabs Nam-gyu’s shoulder, to which he quickly shrugs her off.

”I was just getting to it.” Gyeongsu says as he turns back to Nam-gyu. “Do you wanna come to the party with us?”

Without looking up from his notes, he switches the highlighter from blue to yellow as he says, “no.”

The silence from the group that follows is one he’s never heard before, but as quick as it came, it was replaced by groans and Se-mi laying her head on the table.

“Please Nam-gyu, just this one!” Gyeongsu nags him as he’s highlighting notes in his notebook.

“Yeah, c’mon man. You’re always cooped up in your room, why not have some fun?” Se-mi agrees as she picks her head back up.

Nam-gyu’s never been one for party's. He’s only been to one, and he didn’t even last for 10 minutes before high tailing it out of there, so does it really count?

“Look, we’ll stop asking you to do our homework if you go.” Min-su says quietly, his eyes flickering around to everyone else as they slowly nod.

“Fine.” Nam-gyu finally mumbles as he aggressively highlights an equation as everybody cheers.

Mi-na squeals and claps her hands excitedly. “Yes! Okay, we need to figure out what you’re gonna wear and if you need any makeup…” she begins as she digs her phone out of her pocket.

Nam-gyu pauses and looks up for the first time since he sat down. “Makeup?” He asks.

”Yeah!” Mi-na yells, “Ever heard of guy-liner? And maybe some concealer, those eye bags are not doing you any good.” She says as she tries to grab Nam-gyus face but he swats her hand away quickly before replacing the highlighter with a blue pen and he begins to write more notes.

”No, I’m already agreeing to go to this stupid party, I’m not dressing up like a girl.” He says flatly as he scribbled more notes down.

Mi-na gasps dramatically at that and she shows him a picture of a man on her phone who seems to have…guy-liner. Ok maybe it does look objectively good, but he’s still not letting her put concealer on him.

”Pleeeeaaaase, Nam-gyu?” She whines as she pockets her phone. Now, all eyes are on him. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat as he clenches and unclenches his grip around the pen.

”Fine.” He mumbles just as the bell rings and he quickly packs his stuff up.

”I’ll text you my address, be there at 5! Wear something cute!” He hears Mi-na yell after him as he power walks out of the cafeteria.

He makes it to his mathematics class which he has without any of his friends, thank god, he can’t get distracted, and he thinks about the party. He’ll be there with his friends, there will be so many people there he could go unnoticed, and he can probably dig out a decent outfit from his closet, right?

—

He makes it home and immediately goes up to his bedroom. He shuts the door and throws his bag on the floor before practically flopping onto his bed.

He takes a deep breath and then reaches for his bag, grabbing his laptop out of it and opening it to continue his unnecessarily intense maths homework.

He finishes two questions (which takes longer than he’d like to admit) before his mind drifts back to the party. He hops off his bed and makes his way to his small closet which mostly consists of black shirts, varying in size, and black jeans.

He sighs before he begins rummaging through the clothes, trying to find something good to wear. That’s when he sees it. A shirt Se-mi had given him about a year ago when he mentioned he still didn’t have any other clothes other than shirts and jeans.

It’s a black backless shirt which is obviously made for girls, but he has “a girls dream body, minus the chest” according to Se-mi, so it should be fine. Because of the size of it, it doesn’t go down to the bottom of his waist like a normal shirt so it shows barely any skin with normal jeans, but with the jeans he’s planning on wearing, it may show more.

He searched for those jeans he bought (stole) a couple months ago because he had nothing better to do, and when he pulled them out of the closet, they were just like he remembered. Black baggy jeans that are so low rise you can see his fucking underwear, which is something he hates on other people, but he thinks about for all of 3 seconds and decided ‘fuck it, I’ll wear my nice underwear’ which are just his one pair of Calvin Kleins.

He lays the outfit on the bed and takes a deep breath. He nods as if there’s someone else in the room and stuffs them in his bag for tomorrow, along with his favourite cologne he held onto and barely uses (which he also stole) and black boots which he didn’t steal, but he did take them from his moms closet, but she barely notices him, so she’s not gonna notice a missing pair of boots which she has doubles - no - triples of.

Sitting back down onto his bed, he hears his phone ding with a text from Mi-na with her address.

Mi-na:

[image: 1]

thats my houseeeee

pls wear smn cute🫰

I know you’ve got it in u🩷

He actually chuckled at the last text as he throws his phone down and sighs.

Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day.

Chapter Text

He should be happy.

He should be happy and excited and over the moon, but he isn't.

He scored the winning goal yesterday and the stadium literally shook with how people were yelling and cheering and jumping. He should be happy.

Sat in the bleachers of the hockey stadium in nothing but a hoodie and joggers with a shitty chocolate-fruit-nut bar doesn't scream happy. The throbbing on his left forearm where the fabric of his hoodie rubs up against it doesn't scream happy. Nothing about him screams a happy athlete who saved their team from the one team they lost against for 3 years in a row. But he has to pretend. He always does. Especially now.

"Yo, Thanos!" A familiar voice calls from the entrance of the stadium. Kang Dae-ho, their left wing, the one who passed him the puck to make that goal last night. He's happier than the actual winner.

Thanos pockets the shitty bar and rubs his hands over his face. "Hey man, what's up?" He asks, trying his best to put on his usual mask. The cocky, overconfident, funny, charming, Choi Subong. The dickish-but-in-a-friendly-way Thanos.

"You're coming to the party tomorrow, right? You have to, you'll be the main event! Especially for the girls." Choi Woo-seok, their right defenseman, asks.

"Yeah, obviously." Thanos says as if it's the simplest question in the world. He stands up and pulls his hood down, revealing his dull purple hair which needs to be re-dyed.

"Jesus, man. Please dye that for tomorrow," Park Yong-sik, the goalie, pleads as he feels Thanos' hair, "it's so dull, no offence!" He backtracks quickly as he pulls his hand away.

"No bro it's fine, I really do need to, don't I?" He asks as he pulls his hood back up. "I'm gonna go home, I'm done for today." He says as he begins to walk to the exit.

"Make sure you're there!" He hears Dae-ho call out from behind him.

"And wear something slutty!" He hears Hwang Jun-ho, their left defenseman, call out right as he's walking out the door. He chuckles to himself as he begins to walk down the hallway as the bell rings and when he's passing the math hallways, he sees someone slip into one of the classes before everyone else.

"Fucking nerd." He mutters to himself as he exits the building and heads to his truck.

--

Entering his house, he's hit with the stench of beer immediately. He disregards it and quickly walks to the stairs that lead to his room, passing his father who's asleep in the armchair. Thanos rolls his eyes and legs it up the stairs, stepping into his room and locking the door.

He dumps his bag by the door and begins to change, taking off his hoodie and then his joggers, changing into shorts. He goes to grab a school branded sweater that he sleeps in most nights when he catches a glimpse of last nights actions.

His forearm is littered with red, raw cuts and scars around them. He sighs and throws the sweater on, ignoring the pain it causes as it rubs. He opens his phone and goes onto the group chat where its already very active.

PuckYeah🏒

Dat-hoe: GUYYYYYYYSS the party starts at 7 so pls be there around then

                Or do what Thanos does and show up 2 hrs late🤗

Sikko: do we have to bring anything?

Dat-hoe: JS THE VIBEZZZZZ

Hwang hoe: don't say vibez that's fucking weird

Woo: yeah I have to agree with Jun-ho, that's pretty weird

Dat-hoe: well its not ur party sooooooo

Me: [reply to: Or do what Thanos do...]

       That was 1 time and it wasnt 2 hours‼️

       More like 1 hour and 45 mins

Lee Myung-gi: just say you don't wanna be there subong

Me: shut it slut

Lee Myung-gi: how am I the slut?!

Dat-hoe: LADIES

                Let's not fight🙏

That's when Thanos muted the group chat and turned off his phone. He loves his team, he really does! Well, most of them. There had been bad blood between him and Myung-gi when he joined a year after Thanos. Thanos doesn't know why but he's always hated him. He didn't do anything he's aware of that would make Myung-gi so pissed that he barley tolerated him on the ice.

That thought was quickly shoved into the back of his mind when his door handle shook and then the whole door started shaking with each aggressive knock.

"Subong!" His fathers slurred voice echoes through the house, "what did I-hicc-tell you about lock-hicc-locking this door?!"

Thanos sighs and gets up to unlock it, getting ready for either a loud ass argument or a beating. "Sorry, sir." He says quietly as he opens the door and he immediately gets shoved into the room.

"Apologies are for boys! Are you a little boy, Subong?" His father yells, his breath hot against Thanos' face.

"No, sir." He answers quickly, trying to hold the shakiness in his voice to a minimum as his father releases him and shoves him once more back against the wall. "That's what I thought." He slurs out as he stumbles away from him and slams the door.

Thanos slides down the wall and groans in annoyance as he shallows the lump in his throat. Tears are for boys. Crying is for boys and little girls. Don't forget it. His father's voice echoes in his head as he stands up and makes his way to the bathroom where he keeps his hair dye.

He's been dying his hair since he was 11, purple specifically since he was 14, so he's used to this procedure, it's muscle memory at this point. 45 minutes later and his hair is good as new.

He walks to his room and plops on his bed, shutting his eyes and letting sleep consume him (even though it's only 2:30 p.m, but he has a tendancy to sleep for crazy hours).

Chapter Text

Nam-gyu arrives at Mi-na's house at 5 on the dot. He's always been good with time management, it's one of his many relatively useless talents. Luckily she only lives a 10 minute walk away from his house so he didn't get all sweaty from walking.

He raises his fist hesitantly to knock on her door but before he can move his hand, the door swings open and there stands Mi-na, hair roller things in her hair and weird pads under her eyes. If she does that to him he will kill her. Or send her a strongly worded text. Either works. The girl squeals and drags him inside by his wrist, pulling the boy up her stairs quicker than he can keep up with so he has to focus on not tripping.

When he enters her bedroom, he finds Se-mi and Min-su already there, Se-mi applying mascara and Min-su watching her as if he's never seen a woman before. Dudes so down bad it hurts to watch. 

Mi-na pouts and gestures to his outfit. "Is that what you're wearing? I told you to dress nicely!" She moans as she drops onto her bed.

"Uh, no. I have an outfit in my bag, I didn't wanna wear that in broad daylight." Nam-gyu replies as he puts his bag down and sits criss-cross on the floor across from Se-mi.

"Is it my shirt?" Se-mi asks slowly as she focuses on the mascara. Nam-gyu glares at her as she glances at him, chucking as she pulls the wand away from her eye so she doesn't take her eye out.

"What? What shirt? What shirt!?" Mi-na questions loudly as she sprays hairspray in her hair which makes Nam-gyu cough aggressively. 

"What the fu- uh, you'll see. It's nothing special." Nam-gyu replies as he spins his ring around his index finger.

"Nothing speci- Kim Nam-gyu, do not call my clothes 'nothing special'. It's a black backless shirt. I specifically gave him that one 'cause his back is gorgeous." Se-mi says as she puts away her mascara, genuine hurt in her voice.

"You're lucky I'm even wearing it, it's a girls shirt." Nam-gyu complains as Mi-na sits next to him, rummaging through her makeup back.

"Uh, clothes don't have a gender. Get with the times man." Mi-na counters as she pull out a pot of white stuff.

"You are not putting that on my face." Nam-gyu says as he scoots away, looking to Se-mi and Min-su for help.

"It's moisturiser, dude." Min-su explains. "They put it on me too." He finishes sadly.

Mi-na lets out a laugh as she pulls out a pink headband thing. What are they doing to him?

Seeing his genuine fear, Mi-na explains. "This is to keep your hair out of your face, and this is to hydrate and add moisture to your face basically. Makes it a better base for this." She finishes, gesturing to the piles of makeup on her bedroom floor.

Nam-gyu shifts uncomfortablely as he nods along. "O...kay. How much of that," He gestures to the makeup, "exactly are you putting on me?" He asks, praying that it's not a lot.

"Oh, not a lot." Mi-na says and he lets out a sigh of relief. "Just some concealer 'cause those eye bags pain me to see-" rude, "and some eyeliner and maybe a bit of black eyeshadow." She explains as she hands him the headband. "Put this on or I will." She threatens.

Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and obeys, putting it on so his hair is out of his face and he catches Se-mi snapping a quick picture before she goes back to painting Min-su's nails to match her black ones.

Mi-na immediately gets to work, rubbing in the cold moisturiser and applying small dots of concealer, blending it in with a damp sponge. He has to admit, it feels nice on his face when she's blending the concealer so he relaxes slightly. Then she approaches him with the eyeliner pencil. She catches him off-guard and he flinches backwards.

"Don't fucking do that without warning me, Jesus." He snaps as he sits up again, still rattled.

"Calm down dude, I'm not gonna take your eye out." Mi-na laughs out as she places a gentle hand on his cheek to still his face. "Look up and try not to blink, tell me if it gets uncomfortable." she tells him which reassures him enough that he does what he's told, hesitantly looking up as she begins to apply the eyeliner on his waterline. He gets through both eyes relatively well, considering he's never done that before.

"Ok, a bit of eyeshadow, yeah?" Mi-na asks as she turns to Se-mi, who nods, actually looking as if she's thinking about it. What the fuck is so complicated about a little bit of makeup? "Ok, I'm not gonna put a lot but just roll with me." She says as she taps the brush on the palette.

Nam-gyu nods and she leans in, brushing the brush on his under eye softly, transitioning to his eyelid shortly after. Like before, he gets through both eyes with ease and she hands him a mirror to check out his 'new look' as she puts it.

And, he hates to admit it, but it does look really good. Like, scarily good on him. Mi-na pulls the headband off and ruffles his hair a little as she takes off the weird, slug-looking things under her eyes, throwing them in her pink trash can. He nods and flattens his hair as he puts the mirror down.

"Looking good, Nam-gyu." Min-su chuckles as he shakes his hand, attempting to dry the nail polish. Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and looks at Se-mi painting his nails.

"Why are you painting his nails?" He asks as he tries his hardest not to rub his eyes.

Se-mi scoffs as she finishes the last nail and puts the brush back into the pot-thingy. "What, do you want some?" She asks with a cocky smile. Nam-gyu shakes his head but Mi-na interjects as she's applying...what's that called, foundation? Is that what it's called?

"Yes! You totally should, it goes with your whole look."

"How do you know what my look will be?" Nam-gyu asks as he crosses his arms defensively.

"I'm guessing you'll wear all black but you'll show a bit more skin than you usually do." Mi-na says as she blends the stuff in on her face.

Fuck. He needs to be less predictable.

He nods and huffs out a breath. "Fine. Only for the look." Se-mi nods as he swaps places with Min-su.

She begins to apply it with a steady hand as he looks around Mi-na's room properly for the first time. It's all pink (unsurprising) with plenty of posters of celebrities on her walls. Some he can get behind like BTS and TWICE, but then there are just random individuals on her walls like Lee Jong-suk and Jennie Kim. There's also, like, quotes above her bed. Inspirational quotes like "Failure is success in progress!" and "Life is ours to be spent, not be saved." He's not surprised.

 A while later, he's pulled out of his daydream/scan of the room by Se-mi flicking him on the head. “I'm done, don't touch anything for a couple minutes.” She says with a small giggle as she puts her stuff away. Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and shakes his hands.

“Thanks.” He mutters as he looks at Mi-na, doing her makeup. “So, when should I put on what I'm wearing?” He asks as he looks down to his nails, admiring the clean work.

“Uhhhhh,” She drags as she puts her eyeshadow brush down, getting pink dust on her desk. “,well we're leaving at 6:45 to be there around 7:15 ish sooooo, in like 20 minutes?” She offers as Nam-gyu checks the time on his phone, it reads 5:58. He nods and goes back to shaking his hands, not knowing when to stop since he's never painted his nails before.

20 minutes later, Mi-na's makeup is finished and she's getting Se-mi's approval before putting on her outfit. Min-su has already changed, him wearing light blue jeans and a black sweater with a white tank top underneath (Se-mi had to convince him to bring it since it's obviously gonna get hot in the party). Mi-na squeals again,–that's been her thing ever since Nam-gyu first met her 2 years ago–and she runs into the bathroom to change.

Se-mi takes her outfit out of her bag to show the boys and it's a black, low cut top with thin straps and black flared jeans that are low waisted. She also has these black boots that make her a little taller so that's great for him. He nods approvingly and Mi-na practically runs out of the bathroom to show off her outfit 10 minutes later.

She's wearing a pink top that's basically a bikini top with frills or whatever they're called on the bottom. She's also got on this tiny mini skirt which is held up with a pink, glittery belt and Nam-gyu's certain she's gonna ask for Min-su's sweater at some point in the night. On her feet are these (also pink) platform boots with the most random chains and sparkles on them. To be fair, the whole fit looks good…on her. He can't even imagine himself in something other than black or navy blue.

“Ok Nam-gyu, your turn.” Se-mi says as she ties the back of her top- wait. It's backless?! Jesus alright. Anyway, she ties the back of it and puts it in her lap as she looks at him. “What?”

“You put on yours first.” He mumbles and she rolls her eyes.

“Boys are so weird.” She says as she gets up and goes into the bathroom, coming out 5 minutes later with her outfit on. It really does look good on her. Min-su certainly thinks so, seen as he's practically drooling when she walks out. “Go on, pussy.” She says to Nam-gyu and he gets up and makes his way to the bathroom.

“Not a pussy.” He mutters to himself as he locks the door.

He takes his clothes out of his bag, taking the jeans first and pulling them on, securing them with a black belt that he threw in there last minute, so they're just below his hip bones and, yes, his Calvin Klein underwear are showing and yes, it looks sick as fuck. He pulls on his shirt, mindful of his eye makeup–never thought he'd say that in his life–and once it's on, he slides his boots on and zips them up, re-tying the laces.

He hesitantly walks out of the bathroom, entering Mi-na's bedroom and the chatter immediately stops. Se-mi's jaw falls to the floor as Mim-su's eyes widen and Mi-na squeals, again. 

“Oh. My. God! Nam-gyu you look so good!” She all but screams as she gets up to assess his clothes. She tucks the tag in on the back of the shirt and smoothes his hair out and steps back, looking him up and down.

Nam-gyu squirms under her gaze but she smiles, wider this time.

“Ahhh! You look so good!” She repeats as she gets her phone out. “C'mon, we've gotta get a pic. All of us!” She demands as she drags Se-mi up. She picks her jaw up off the floor and helps Min-su up, who looks to the ground as Nam-gyu glares at him.

Mi-na snaps the photo and then her phone dings, a text from ‘Gyeongsu🩷’ that reads; ‘I'm outside. Don't worry I dressed “slutty”🙄’.

Nam-gyu rolls his eyes at the message as Se-mi chuckles, picking their bags up as they head out to Gyeongsu's car.

“Wassup!” He yells from the car as they approach, Min-su groaning as he gets in the back, in between Nam-gyu and Se-mi, as Mi-na sits in the front. 

“You’re late.” Mi-na complains as she buckles her seatbelt. “And that fit is not slutty!’

“Whatever. Should we listen to some tunes?” Gyeongsu asks as he turns the music he's playing up, some stupid hip hop-rap song that makes Nam-gyu want to cut his ears off, Van Gogh style.

He puts his headphones in as they begin their journey to Dae-ho's house, a 30 minute drive.

Once they get there, it's already getting dark and the early autumn breeze pinches at Nam-gyu's skin, especially his back. Se-mi and Mi-na seem to have the same problem as they wrap their arms around their abdomens, Mi-na leaning into Gyeongsu and Se-mi leaning into Min-su, the two boys wrapping an arm around the girls’ waist.

Damn, he's the third wheel? How does Min-su get a girl before him?

It's only 7:32 and the party’s already in full swing; people playing drinking games, at least 5 couples making out, and the loud ass cheering coming from the back yard which he assumes is coming from the hockey boys doing whatever shit they do at parties. He follows his friends as they make their way to the kitchen where all the drinks are.

–

Thanos has been dragged back inside after he won another drinking game outside. He wipes his mouth as he's dragged towards a girl who looks uninterested. Turns out, he's not there for her, Yong-sik is, he's just a wingman. After the girl goes off with her boyfriend (ouch), Yong-sik downs the rest of his drink and then goes on a drunken (tipsy) rant on how he's never gonna get a girlfriend at this rate.

Thanos is half listening, half scanning the crowd for a way to get himself out of this situation when out of the corner of his eye, he catches something. Or rather, someone. He sees a group of people walk in, a girl in all black walking with a boy who looks fucking terrified, a girl in all pink walking with a boy who looks too cocky for his own good, and another boy trailing behind them. His eyes lock on the last one.

He's dressed in all black, a shirt that reveals his–and he never says this, but–beautiful back that doesn't reach lower than his belly button, so as he scans the boy, he sees he's wearing low low rise jeans, held up by a belt, and his fucking Calvin Klein underwear is exposed.

Damn. If he was a girl he would totally-

He's pulled out of his trance by Yong-sik clapping him on the shoulder and asking; “You want another drink?”

Thanos nods and says, “Yeah, I'll get it, it's cool.” He follows the goalie to the kitchen and sees as the guy from earlier walks in too, with his friends. This time Thanos can see his face and he's wearing eyeliner. To avoid being caught staring, he redirects his gaze to the row of drinks and grabs a bottle of vodka, pouring some into a plastic cup and filling the rest with Coke, taking a long sip of it, the alcohol giving his throat a strange feeling.

He looks back to the guy from before and sees that he's grabbing 3 beers out of the fridge and handing two to his friends, one to the girl in all black, who he can now see has a nose and lip piercing, and the guy who's arm is around the girl in pink who he can see also has a piercing, on her belly button, that is.

Thanos wipes his mouth with his sleeve and turns to Yong-sik. “Yo, who's that?” He asks as he not-so-subtly points to the boy he has his eyes on.

“Oh!” Yong-sik exclaims a little too loud as he snaps his fingers, “Isn't that…Nam…su? Nam-gyu? Something like that. Yeah, he's like, a total nerd. Highest grades in the year type shit. Surprised he even showed up. Extra surprised that he's dressed up.” Yong-sik rambles as he takes a big sip of this berry shit.

Thanos nods along as he keeps his eyes on this Nam-gyu. Dumb idea, it turns out because before he can even react, he turns and his eyes find Thanos’, giving him a confused look as he turns away. Thanos blinks and takes another gulp of his drink before he begins to walk back outside, intentionally brushing past Nam-gyu(?), smelling a scent of strong cologne as he makes his way outside.

–

Nam-gyu sips his beer as the purple haired boy brushes past him, getting a whiff of some weird cologne that he can't quite place the scent to. Gyeongsu makes a weird excited noise as he grabs Nam-guy's arm.

“Yo, do you not know who that was?” he asks excitedly as Nam-gyu shakes his head and pulls his arm away. He hears the others around him chuckle and sees Se-mi put her head in her hands. “Bro! That was Choi Subong…Thanos?” Nam-gyu shrugs. “He scored the winning goal last night!”

So he's one of the hockey players. Of course he is.

Nam-gyu sighs and says, “You know I don't follow that shit man, I'm just here for the drinks.”

“No one expects you to know who they are, book boy. Let's party!” Mi-na yells as she grabs Nam-gyu and Gyeongsu's wrists, dragging them to the huge living room and she begins to dance, Se-mi and Min-su follow, dancing awkwardly until they all get into a weird rhythm in between all the other teenagers.

But Nam-gyu can't help but think of Subo- Thanos. The way he was looking at him before Nam-gyu even looked his way. Not with rudeness or disgust, but with curiosity. He hates to admit it, but he hopes he runs into him again…

Chapter Text

1 beer and 3 cups of punch. That's all it took before Nam-gyu was stumbling to the backyard. The huge backyard, actually. A huge pool with like 25 sun beds surrounding it. Ok, maybe it's like 10 but he can't see straight so who can blame him. What was in that punch? Past the pool is like a ton of grass. Like a field. Are they farmers or something? There's probably a couple fucking among the trees in the distance.

Nam-gyu walks(?) to a corner of the backyard that's obstructed by the umbrellas of the sunbeds, so no one could necessarily see him unless they were looking. He leans on the wall and takes a few breaths to ground himself.

He can handle his booze...he can! Maybe if he'd eaten in the past 4 days he could handle it a little better- oh yeah, he lied to Se-mi yesterday, but it's fine. He has a pretty good alcohol tolerance on a good day, but maybe that punch had a bit too much vodka in it. But he's not wasted. He can talk without slurring his words too much, he can think rationally, make his own decisions like the one he made to come out here. See?! He's not that drunk. Think of it as just very tipsy.

He pulls his phone out of his back pocket to check it because he doesn't want to go back into that stuffy party just yet.

22:48

Noona: hey where'd you go (5m ago)

Instagram: @MinaBee tagged you in a post (3h ago)

Instagram: @SeoulSchoolDrama added a post (7h ago)

Nam-gyu taps on the oldest notification, opening Instagram to a post by some idiot who runs a 'school drama' account. The post is a picture of the hockey game 2 nights ago, the team celebrating around one player who's taken his helmet off, a wide smile spread across his face. 

Wait. The purple hair...oh shit. That's Thanos. The guy who was staring earlier.

He scrolls down and reads the caption of the post;

Choi Subong (Thanos) scores the winning goal in Thursday’s game against Yongsan International School! A sly pass to the center from left wing–Kang Dae-ho–gave him an opportunity which will go down in this school's history forever. The first win against Yongsan International in 3 years! 

Nam-gyu reads over the caption and nods. He has no clue how hockey works and can barely comprehend what the team are wearing in that picture but he guesses it's a huge deal since there's a party.

He pockets his phone and leans his head on the wall behind him. The cool breeze calms his body down as it flows across his face and abdomen, his ab muscles twitching slightly at the feeling. He hears footsteps approaching but he keeps his eyes shut, hoping they'll get the hint that he's not in the mood to talk and piss off.

That does not happen.

–

Thanos needs air. He's overwhelmed and hot and his sleeves are rubbing his arm too roughly. He needs air.

He walks outside and decides to go to the first place he sees that looks like it'll hide someone. As he's walking over he finds that it, in fact, can hide someone because he's sees the silhouette of someone leaning on the wall. He's about to turn around and go find another place to chill when he recognizes those low low jeans. He steps forwards a little and finally realises that it's Nam-su...Nam-gyu? Whatever his name was. He looks like he wants everyone in a 10 mile radius to piss the fuck off but Thanos doesn't.

He approaches the boy, whose eyes are closed but he looks as if he can sense him. Or hear his footsteps, either one. As he gets closer, he watches as his abs twitch as another breeze rushes past them. Nam-su opens his eyes with a glare, looking Thanos up and down before rolling them.

"If you want me to boost your ego any more, you're shit outta luck." The man says, his voice deeper than he expected, but not deeper than his own.

"Uh, no?" Thanos begins, confusion lacing his voice. "I just saw you earlier and thought you looked cool, wanted to say hi." He explains, raising one hand slightly in a small wave. "Nam-su?" He guesses, praying it's right. If its not he will kill Yong-sik. 

The man in front of him scoffs as he pushes off the wall. "Gyu." He corrects. Fucking Yong-sik.

"Sorry, Nam-gyu." He says with a smile as he steps closer. "I haven't seen you before. Are you new?" Thanos asks hesitantly.

Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and shifts his weight from one foot to the other. "No, dude. I'm in the same grade as you." He says sharply. "We're the same age." He speaks slowly as if Thanos is hard of fucking hearing. Dick.

"Damn, ok sorry. I just haven't seen you around, we're probably in different classes or something. No need to be so rude." He says as he crosses his arms, the sudden movement stinging his left forearm but he keeps a straight face.

The other boy rubs his hands over his face and sighs. "Sorry man, I feel like shit. Didn't mean to be a dick." He apologises with a sincere look on his face when it's out of his hands.

Thanos laughs lightly and nods. "It's cool."

They stand in awkward silence as Nam-gyu leans on the wall again. Thanos follows, leaning on the wall not too far from his new...friend?

Nam-gyu soon breaks the silence, chuckling as he says, "So, you thought I looked cool?"

Thanos rolls his eyes. "Who's got a big ego now?" He asks as he turns his head to the shorter man. "Yeah, I...I like your fit." He admits as his eyes trail down to his exposed abdomen and those underwear. What are they doing to him?

Nam-gyu nods and turns to him, leaning his shoulder on the wall. "Yeah?" He asks with a cocky smile. "You look alright too, but I'm definitely more stylish." Thanos let's out a small gasp. Who is he to judge Thanos' lime green shirt (white long sleeved shirt underneath, obviously) and his wide blue jeans?

Thanos scoffs and shakes his head. He's about to deny it when he locks eyes with Nam-gyu and holy mother of-

He needs to calm down. Why is he getting flustered by a man with fucking eyeliner of all things, giving him these puppy dog eyes? He swallows, watching as Nam-gyu's eyes track his bobbing Adam's apple. In the end he gives in, nodding as he looks up at the sky, trying to focus on the stars and not the heat pooling in his stomach.

"How long have you played hockey?" Nam-gyu asks. When Thanos looks back at him his head is leaning on the wall again.

"Basically forever." He replies, scratching the back of his neck as he speaks. "My dad wanted me to play a sport, be more of a man, and I wasn't good at anything until I tried hockey. I must've been 7?" He explains.

Nam-gyu scoffs as he spins a ring on his finger. His hands look so pretty. How hadn't he noticed that before?

"What?" Thanos asks, dragging his attention away from the other man's hands.

"'More of a man'," Nam-gyu repeats, "sports don't define who you are. Don't make you more of anything." He says, the tone in his voice expressing more of how he feels than his words did.

"Tell that to my father." Thanos chuckles. Nam-gyu looks at him with a look of...pity?! "Don't look at me like that." He threatens, his voice low and gruff as Nam-gyu just seems to stare.

Thanos goes to snap again, wanting to tell the other man to get his eyes off him or get the fuck out of his corner. But he doesn't. He stares back, eyes darting from the smaller man's eyes to his lips over and over and-

His dad would kill him.

If he found out his son was flirting and having the urge to kiss another boy?

This would be the last night of his life. This would be the last dumb fucking high school party. He'd literally be dead.

But the fear of rejection and his father seem to go out the window–along with his self restraint–because before he can even process what he's doing and give his brain a chance to say 'hold up, what is going on?', he leans in and kisses Nam-gyu. Softly, at first. Unsure of how the other man and how he himself would react. But Nam-gyu doesn't seem to mind.

Nam-gyu, as if he was expecting this to happen, quickly puts a hand on Thanos' neck, pulling him closer as he kisses him back, opening his mouth slightly to allow Thanos' tongue to slip in.

Thanos is...surprised, to say the least. He didn't expect Nam-gyu to accept his kiss so eagerly and he definitely didn't expect he'd be swapping spit with the man, their tongues intertwining as if it's natural. His hand goes to Nam-gyu's waist, fingers diving under the hem of his tight fitting shirt so he can feel as much skin as possible.

This action earns a soft whine from Nam-gyu, Thanos feeling the goosebumps on his skin that he caused. He grins against the smaller boy's lips as he pushes him softly onto the wall, crowding his space as he grasps his waist tightly.

The small noises he's earning from Nam-gyu are exhilarating, he wants to lock them up and store them away forever.

His hands are all over Nam-gyu. On his waist, on his neck, on his face—his thumbs caressing his cheeks softly as he practically shoves his tongue down his throat—around his back. Everywhere.

But Nam-gyu’s hands stay in the same place. They’re glued to his back—one on his lower back, where it’s pushing against it as if he’s trying to create as little space as possible between the two, and one higher up, Thanos’ shirt bundled in Nam-gyu’s hand as he clutches it like it’s some sacred element that he can’t dare to let go of—and they barely move. Aside from the few times where he melts into Thanos, loosening his grip before squeezing harder.

At some point, Nam-gyu’s hand flies up to Thanos’ head, gripping his hair as he pulls the taller man’s head back, separating their lips and lowering his head, diving in to kiss Thanos’ neck, earning a low moan from the depths of his throat as Nam-gyu nips at a sensitive spot around his ear.

Thanos squeezes Nam-gyu’s waist with one hand as the other raises up to his mouth to muffle the noises that are coming out of it. He uses the hand on his mouth to then push Nam-gyu away slightly—his lips disconnect from the growing hickey on Thanos’ neck—so he can dive back in for another kiss, this time harder, rougher, desperate.

As Nam-gyu’s hands travel down Thanos’ body—gliding down his chest before stopping around his waist, pulling him in slightly before continuing down to the waistband of his jeans—loud cheers erupt from the kitchen, which then flow into the back yard.

Thanos quickly steps away from Nam-gyu, who is readjusting his jeans and smoothing down his hair and is very flushed. Nam-gyu looks down at the ground, groaning slightly as he clears his throat.

“That looks like a hockey guy situation, I’ll let you go now.” He says, his voice raspy, but in a way that makes Thanos’ stomach do flips. He stares for a moment before nodding hesitantly, also readjusting his jeans as he hears Nam-gyu snicker.

“Don’t laugh, you had to aswell.” He pants as he runs a hand through his disheveled hair.

“Yeah, but it’s funny to watch you do it.” The man opposite him replies before he begins to back away. He sends Thanos one last smile and a nod before making his way back inside, dodging the cheering men and the squealing girls who have come to watch the show.

Thanos takes a breath before joining them. They don’t seem to notice his flushed face or the bruise on his neck, but if they did they didn’t say anything. And Thanos didn’t see Nam-gyu for the rest of the night.

–

Nam-gyu makes his way back to the house, slipping past the crowd and easily finding his friends again. Gyeongsu and Mi-na are aggressively flirting on the couch as Se-mi and Min-su talk, their chatter stopping as Nam-gyu approaches them.

“What?” He asks, his voice cracking so he clears his throat.

Se-mi raises an eyebrow as Mi-na looks as if she about to-

Squeal. Yep, it happened again.

“Who was it? Who was it?!” She questions, looking as if she completely forgot Gyeongsu existed in that moment as she turns to Nam-gyu.

“What? What are you…I dunno what you mean…” he attempts as he sits next to Mi-na. “I’m not telling you.”

He braces for a squeal but it doesn’t come. He slowly turns to look at her and she looks pissed.

“Kim Nam-gyu, you can not keep this information from us!” She yells, smacking him on the arm.

“What information?” Gyeongsu asks, looking like he just woke up from a nap.

“Nam-Nam kissed someone!” Min-su says in a sing-songy tone and Nam-gyu turns to look at him. “I am very drunk.” He backtracks as he leans into Se-mi.

“But he’s right,” the girl begins, “who’d you kiss.” she states, she doesn’t ask. And you don’t usually come away from that successfully.

“I never kiss and tell.” He exaggerates, placing a hand over his heart dramatically.

“Come on man!” Mi-na whines as she pulls a pouty face.

“No,” he shakes his head, “never, now I wanna go home so unless you wanna be stranded here, let’s go.” He says as he gets up.

“But, we drove my car here.” Gyeongsu protests.

“Yeah, and I’m the most sober out of all of you, so I’m driving.” He says as he holds up Gyeongsu’s. “I grabbed them after your first drink.” He admits to Gyeongsu’s look of disbelief.

“Ugh, whatever man.” He moans as he’s helped up by Mi-na.

On the drive home, Nam-gyu can’t help but think of Thanos. His stupid purple hair and his stupid smile and the way he moans a little when you bite his earlobe-

No.

Not when he’s driving.

He can think about this when he gets home. No, he will definitely think about this when he gets home, and he’s not very proud of what he’s gonna do when he does.

Chapter Text

Feeling the other man’s large, rough hands all over his body, Nam-gyu lets out whines and moans from the depths of his throat as he’s touched in ways he hasn’t felt in a long time. He digs his nails into Thanos’ shoulder, his actions emitting a groan from the man.

Thanos’ hands trail down his body until they reach his belt, unbuckling it with ease as he slowly slips his hand down the smaller man’s jeans. Nam-gyu suppresses a moan, trying his best but failing to hold in a small groan instead.

Thanos’ hand gently passes the waistband of Nam-gyu’s underwear, lowering as Nam-gyu leans forward, biting the man who’s teasing him’s neck as he whimpers softly, feeling as his hand lowers down and grasps his hard-

His eyes shoot open, quickly squinting as the morning light slips through a gap on his blinds, hitting him right in the eyes. He sits up, pulling his knees to his chest as he tries to fathom what the fuck he just dreamt about.

It’s Monday morning. He has school. It’s been two days! Why is he still thinking about a one-time-drunk-makeout-sesh?!

He groans, immediately regretting it as it reminds him of the dreaded dream, getting out of bed and thanking every god that exists that he isn’t hard (he doesn't know how) when he’s already late, seeming to have slept through his alarms.

He changes quickly, grateful that he packed his bag the night before as he begins his walk to school, headphones in as he desperately tries to think of anything but the dream. So much so that he doesn’t notice Gyeongsu pulling up beside him until he honks the horn.

“Dude, do you walk to school?” He asks as he lowers the volume of the dog shit song he’s playing.

“How long have you known me?” Nam-gyu asks as he gets in, leaning his head against the headrest as he sighs deeply.

“Damn, what got your panties in a twist?” Gyeongsu asks as he drives off, not understanding how much that question fucks with Nam-gyu’s head.

“Don’t even, man.” He says quickly as he pushes his glasses up his nose. Turning on his music again, Nam-gyu looks out the window as they creep nearer to the school.

When they arrive, Nam-gyu hops out of the car and begins to walk in, knowing he and Gyeongsu are gonna get shit from their English teacher, Mr. Seong Gi-hun. He’s nice enough, but he hates it when someone’s late or purposely not trying.

Sure enough, when they enter the classroom he looks up from his laptop and gives them the look. The look that tells them they have-

“Detention, both of you, lunch.” Yep. At least he’ll have a quiet space to study and finish his notes he didn’t get a chance to finish on Sunday. For obvious reasons, those being that he couldn’t get his mind off of the purpled haired fucker.

Nam-gyu nods as he hears Gyeongsu sigh behind him. They sit down by Se-mi and Mi-na and they chuckle quietly.

“What’s the excuse this time?” Se-mi asks as she twirls a pen around in her hand.

“Gyeongsu’s always late,” Nam-gyu begins, “I just slept in so I’m lucky he isn’t an early person?” He says, pulling his book and pencil case out of his bag as everyone nods.

“It's not my fault I need my beauty sleep.” Gyeongsu says as he flicks his imaginary hair over his shoulder.

“Beauty?” Mi-na teases as she punches his shoulder lightly. Gyeongsu puts a hand over his heart in faux despair as he gasps dramatically, causing Mi-na to giggle.

Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and turns to Min-su, handing him his math homework he did on Friday that he knows Min-su hadn't done. Min-su's eyes light up as he snatches the paper, mumbling a quick ‘thank you’ as he begins to scribble answers on his own paper.

“You know we have p.e next?” Se-mi asks as she continues writing on whatever worksheet Mr. Seong gave them.

“Huh?” Nam-gyu, Geongsu and Min-su ask in unison as Mi-na groans and drops her head on the table.

“Bleachers?” Min-su asks quietly as he turns back to his worksheet.

“Bleachers.” Mi-na affirms with a nod after she raises her head off the table.

Nam-gyu can't focus at all. His mind keeps drifting to the dream and Thanos’ hands and his tongue and his moans. He shakes his head, trying to shake away the thoughts when Se-mi subtly slides a protein bar over to him. 

“You got drunk way too fast on Saturday,” she says quietly–with a knowing look– so no one else can hear them, “eat something…please.” She pleads, and the look in her eyes makes Nam-gyu feel so guilty. Guilty that his friends have to take care of him. Guilty that they’re spending their own money and time to make sure he doesn’t fucking crumble.

He hesitantly takes the bar, unwrapping it with shaky hands and he takes a bite, grimacing at the taste as he swallows slowly.

“Only one they had.” She says apologetically and he nods, eating the rest over the course of the next 45 minutes, a small weight lifting off of his shoulders after he finishes it.

“Thanks.” He says quietly and she puts her hand on his arm, squeezing it lightly and smiling. He smiles back at her when the bell suddenly rings, indicating the end of the lesson.

They all begin to walk to the bleachers, skipping p.e like they’ve done the whole time they’ve been in high school.

Upon arriving, they find them empty. Perfect. They climb to the highest seats and sit down, Gyeongsu putting an arm around Mi-na and Min-su cuddling up to Se-mi. Third wheel again.

“So,” Mi-na begins. Here we go. “I couldn’t help but notice that Thanos has a strange looking bruise on his neck.” She says innocently, checking her nails without a care in the world. The whole group gasps as they turn to Nam-gyu, aware that his face is lighting up like a stop sign.

He shrugs, scratching the back of his neck. “Ok? So he got some action, why should I care?” He asks, his voice wavering as he avoids eye contact with everyone.

“Oh cut the bullshit Nam-gyu, that’s who you kissed!” Se-mi yells, smacking his arm. Nam-gyu shakes his head but Se-mi counters, nodding hers aggressively. “Cut the crap, just admit it.” She pushes as she leans in, elbows going on her knees.

After a few seconds, Nam-gyu lets out a breath and slouches in his seat. “Fine. I snuck out to get some air, he approached me, we got to talking…and one thing led to another..?” He ends the sentence with his voice going high pitched as he looks up to the sky.

“Holy shit!” Mi-na squeals as she punches her fists in the air. “Good for you man!” She yells.

“Wait, Thanos is gay?!” Gyeongsu questions, the disbelief clear in his voice. Everyone turns to look at him, and then back to Nam-gyu.

The latter raises his hands in mock surrender. “Don’t look at me! He kissed me first.” He admits, lowering his hands.

“What?!” They all yell in unison which makes him jump.

“What?” He asks, pushing his hair behind his ears.

“Thanos, king of the ice rink, infamous womaniser, kissed you first?” Se-mi lists as Nam-gyu listens intently, the words processing in his brain one at a time as he slowly comes to realise that this isn’t normal.

No. Wait. Not, not normal. Like, not normal for him. Not like he knows what’s normal for a guy he met properly two days ago.

“Wait, does that mean you’ll be coming to the games?!” Gyeongsu asks, too excited for Nam-gyu.

“What?” He asks, biting the inside of his cheek with a confused expression.

“The hockey games? Will you be coming to support him?” Gyeongsu asks with a knowing smirk. Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and shakes his head as the group laughs.

“There is a game on Friday…” Min-su offers, “you could finally come with us?” 

Everyone turns to look at him expectantly and Nam-gyu sits there, slightly uncomfortable until he nods. “Fine…one game.” He agrees as everyone cheers, a little too happy that he’s going to a shitty high school hockey game.

It won’t be that bad. He’ll sit in the stands and watch the game and cheer when everyone else does and avoid Thanos at all costs.

It’ll be easy. He just needs to navigate the next 4 days without thinking of Saturday and without dreaming of him.

He can avoid him, and be a responsible man.

Right?

Chapter Text

The week went by smoothly. He had practice on Wednesday that went relatively well and now it’s Friday. They have a game against this school who’s name he didn’t bother learning but apparently they’re at the same level as them.

In the hour before the game, Thanos and his team sit in the locker room, trying to relax so they don’t over think the game.

The red bruise on his neck faded, now a yellowey-green colour which isn’t that easy to spot. No one has questioned him about it since it’s not the first hickey he’s gotten after a party, but he can’t get it out of his head.

Usually after a drunk-makeout-sesh at a party, he forgets about it pretty quickly. He’s only ever had 2 serious girlfriends, who both cheated on him which fucked him up pretty badly, so it’s not like he was expecting a connection with the other man.

But that’s the problem. Boy. He kissed a fucking boy. It’s not even like the other man kissed him and he was too drunk to pull away, because he wasn’t. He was two drinks deep and he kissed him first. What was going through his head? He could excuse his actions because the other man looked really…feminine?

Yeah no he was definitely a boy. The thing that he keeps thinking about out of the whole event is how right it felt. He’d always been able to walk away from any of the girls he’s kissed really easily. He wouldn’t reminisce, he would just forget.

But he can’t forget. The way the other man accepted the kiss so easily, the noises he made when Thanos touched him in certain places. When he’d cup his face, he’d feel Nam-gyu’s breath catch under his lips, when he’d trail his hands down his body, he’d hear the whines and when his hands reached his jeans, the whines turned into whimpers and groans.

Yeah, he needs to stop thinking about it or else he’s gonna have a different problem. He stands up and begins to pace, the stress of the game and just the thought of Saturday night causes Thanos to panic slightly. Why is this such a big deal for him?

“Yo, Thanos, you good?” He hears Dae-ho ask as he’s trying the laces on his skates. He nods and sucks in a breath.

“Yeah, I dunno why I’m jittery.” He lets out shakily as he grabs his helmet. “Let's warm up.” He instructs his team. They follow him out, entering the rink surrounded by the whole school in the stands.

Hockey’s the biggest sport in their school so usually tons of people come to the games, so he isn’t surprised when he’s overwhelmed by the cheers that echo in the arena. They begin to warm up, the actions coming to him immediately and before he knew it, the game had begun.

It was a rough start, being distracted and all. Also because of the other school being on the same level as them so it was like playing against their clones. No, doppelgängers…no, clones. After two grueling 20 minute periods and 15 minutes in this last one, there’s 5 minutes left and they’re tied 3-3.

They had called a timeout to strategise and they’re struggling and talking over each other and it’s a fucking mess. Thanos takes his helmet off to stretch his neck and look around, trying to focus. As he’s looking around in the stands, he spots someone familiar. He can’t quite place it. The hair is what stands out the most. It’s a short bob that’s tucked behind this person's ears and, oh! It’s a boy. A fucking familiar boy, why can’t he place it?!

Oh.

Nam-gyu.

His not-so-drunk-drunk-makout-sesh from Saturday. He’s never seen him at a game, so why is he here?

As he’s looking at the boy who’s reading some book, pushing his glasses up his nose, Nam-gyu glances up, probably wondering what’s taking so long. And they lock eyes. And everything around him muffles, fades away into nothingness.

He looks so different. Dark green sweater that no one else but him could pull off with some sort of t-shirt underneath, legs in dark blue jeans crossed like he’s in some important meeting or interview, his feet sporting black trainers that somehow brings the whole look together. He doesn’t have eyeliner on and he’s got an appropriate amount of skin covered, but he still has those same eyes. The ones that looked into his that Saturday night, just without the black eye makeup. But he has glasses on this time which Thanos can't help but make him want to stare even more.

His look gives Thanos some sort of confidence boost (or adrenaline rush) and he spins back around to face his team.

“I say fuck it.” He states, causing them all to turn their heads.

“What?” Jun-ho asks with a slightly concerned expression.

“We’ve been playing this whole game based on tactics and thought out plays and it’s not doing us any good, so why don’t we switch it up, throw them off?” He suggests but he gets nothing but confused looks from his team.

“Jesus fuck! They’re probably expecting us to do some cheerleader ass performance, some script that they’ve memorised too, so why don’t we improv, go off script? They won't even see it coming!” He finishes, catching his breath after speaking really fucking fast.

The group is silent, all of them blinking and Thanos can practically hear the gears turning in their heads, until someone speaks up.

“That’s…really stupid,” Woo-seok says with a shake of his head, “but it could work.” He finishes, throwing his head back with a groan, as if he’s annoyed that he agreed with Thanos? Rude.

Everyone looks at each other, and then one by one they each begin to nod, agreeing with him and Thanos lets out a sigh of relief.

“Ok, Dae-ho, I’ll pass you the puck and then we’ll go from there. Try and stall as much as you can until there’s 30 seconds left. Then, try and get it to me or to MGCoin.” He finishes, looking over to Myung-gi, only to find the boy staring back with something that looks a lot like disgust in his eyes.

“Don’t call me that.” He deadpans as he skates away to his position.

“What’s his problem?” Yong-sik asks as he begins to skate away.

Thanos shrugs as he gets into his starting position, staring down his opponent who looks like a wild fucking animal.

“You’re gonna lose.” The other boy says, causing Thanos to let out a laugh as the ref approaches.

“Funny.” He says in an amused tone as the ref stands next to them.

The whistle goes and the puck drops, Thanos quickly passes it to Dae-ho as he shoves the opposing centre.

And for the next 4 minutes and 38 seconds, they do fuck all, passing it around as if it was a game of catch, clearly pissing off the other team. Thanos glances up at the clock and sees that there’s 22 seconds left, whistling loud enough for Jun-ho to hear, him also looking up to the clock.

He nods and calls out to Dae-ho—who has the puck—and the other man quickly passes it, making his way to the side to try and get into some sort of space. Jun-ho passes it to Woo-seok who skates forward with it, dodging two other players before he sees Myung-gi in the perfect position to take a shot.

He passes it to the right wing, who quickly turns, making his way to the goal but at the last second, a player from the other team comes barrelling towards him so, in a move that Thanos has never seen from the other boy before, he flicks the puck behind him and passes it to Thanos who in turn shoots it perfectly, the puck flying into the goal and then the buzzer goes off, indicating the end of the game.

They had won 4-3.

The arena erupts, screaming and cheering flow around the rink as Thanos takes off his helmet, breathing a sigh of relief. He skates over to Myung-gi who’s leaning on the barrier after being body slammed by a huge player.

“You good, my boy?” Thanos asks as he extends a hand to the boy.

“‘M fine.” Myung-gi says flatly as he shoves past him to go to the locker room.

“Didn't even celebrate.” Thanos mumbles to himself as he skates over to the rest of his team, smiling and laughing with them before making their way to the locker room, sparing one last glance at where Nam-gyu was sitting to find it empty.

Did he even see his shot?

He removes his gear extra slowly, taking his sweet time with the laces of his skates and the Velcro on his padding, like he does every other time he changes. After everyone has left, bidding him farewell and congratulating him, he quickly showers, being mindful of the new cuts on his arm, which he impulsively caused after yet another argument with his father.

After his shower, he changes quickly, throwing on his shorts and a hoodie before rubbing his towel over his head, getting remnants of purple dye on the white fabric.

He’s in the process of drying his hair when he hears the door open, wondering if one of his teammates had forgotten something, but then he hears a familiar voice.

“Thanos.” The voice says, its familiarity ringing in his ears.

He turns around to see Nam-gyu standing there, hands in his jacket pockets, a nervous look on his face.

“Nam-gyu.” Thanos says quietly, his voice slightly shaky from the sudden surprise of his presence. “What are you doing here?” He asks, his voice transitioning into something snappy, which he quickly regrets.

“Uh, sorry if I’m disturbing you or something,” the boy begins, his hands coming out of his pockets as he picks at his cuticles, “I just wanted to congratulate you. Your shot was really cool.” He says, a slight blush coming to his face as he lowers his head.

So he had seen his shot?

“Oh…” Thanos lets out, the word emerging squeaky and odd. “Uh, thanks? Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, I was just…surprised?” He admits as he throws the towel on the bench as he slips into his black crocs.

Nam-gyu nods and bites his lip. “Yeah…I also wanted to, uh, talk about Saturday?” He says hesitantly as he steps forward a little.

Thanos turns to look at him and holds his breath. This never happens. They usually just forget about it, but now this guy’s bringing it up?

Fuck.

“Uh, sure?” He offers as he shuts his locker.

Nam-gyu nods again and shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “What- uhm, why did you kiss me?” He asks quietly.

Thanos nods slightly and squeezes his eyes shut, trying to think of a better excuse than ‘because I felt like it’. “I don’t really know.” He lets out slowly as he grabs his towel and starts drying his hair again.

–

What?!

This purple haired freak made him question his entire existence for close to a week just for him to say ‘I don’t really know’?!

“What?” Nam-gyu says, his voice flat but there’s a twinge of betrayal in his voice. He’s hurt.

He sees Thanos flinch slightly, avoiding eye contact as he shifts uncomfortably. “It just felt right in the moment. It didn’t mean anything, I’m not gay or whatever.”

There it is.

What Nam-gyu was dreading. Because what they did that night was very gay so he’s bullshitting. That’s exactly what Nam-gyu said the first time he kissed a boy. He’s not gay so it doesn’t matter. And the first time he hooked up with a guy. He’s not gay so whatever they did meant nothing, after losing his voice and not being able to walk normally for a week because of some hunk of a man.

He scoffs, crossing his arms and looking at Thanos with disbelief. “Oh yeah?” He questions.

“Yeah. I’m not gay, it was just…” he trails off, unease in his eyes.

“It was just what?” Nam-gyu pushes, but when he sees the look in Thanos’ eyes, he backs off. “Ok, look man, I don’t give a fuck about your self discovery bullshit, I just don’t want you to overlook it.” He says sternly.

Thanos sighs. “I’m not overlooking anything, I just…it was a one time thing, right?” He asks as he finally locks eyes with Nam-gyu again.

“Sure.” Nam-gyu agrees. “A one time thing.” He repeats as he shrugs.

Thanos nods and there’s an awkward silence for a while until Thanos blurts out, “could I get your number? Totally, just in a friendly way. ‘Cause, y’know, you’re cool?” He asks, clearly referring to the night when he was practically eating Nam-gyu’s face.

He lets out a short laugh and nods, pulling out his phone and handing it to the taller man, their hands brushing slightly but he ignores it. “Yeah, put it in there.”

Thanos quickly types in his number and sets his contact name to ‘Legend💎’, sends a ‘:)’ and hands Nam-gyu’s phone back to him. Nam-gyu takes one look at the name and barks out a laugh, shaking his head.

He changes the contact name to ‘Grape.’ And chuckles lightly. He feels the other man’s eyes on him and he looks up, smiling softly and nodding. “I’ve gotta go, I’m staying over at my friend's place tonight and she does not like it if you’re late so…bye.” he says with a small wave as he turns around to leave by the locker room.

Right as he reaches the door, he hears Thanos call out from behind him, his voice small and vulnerable.

“Wait…” the word reaches his ears like a bullet reaching its target, shocking his core. He turns around to see the towel on the bench below the man whose hair is a mess but it looks strangely good?

Nam-gyu turns around fully, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he walks towards the man again. No words have been exchanged since the one Thanos pushed out of his chest, yet so much has been said based on their looks alone. 

Nam-gyu is confused–fingers picking cuticles, lip biting, brows furrowed–whereas Thanos is nervous–hands jittery, eyes darting around the room, the vulnerability clear in his face–but they lock eyes, neither of them moving for a couple of seconds but Nam-gyu sees Thanos’ eyes flickering from his eyes to his mouth and back up to his eyes over and over again.

Feeling a wave of something flowing through his body, Nam-gyu raises his hands slowly, putting them on Thanos’ chest and sliding them up, gripping the fabric on the neckline of his hoodie, stretching up on his toes until his lips are hovering just centimeters away from the taller man's lips. He can feel Thanos’ breath on his lips, feeling his heart pounding under his hands. Thanos looks conflicted, as if he's not sure what to do and Nam-gyu begins to wonder if he crossed a line. They did agree that it was a one time thing, but Thanos isn't pulling away…

As he begins to worry–since they've been standing incredibly close for the past like 30 seconds–and considers pulling away because they're both not actually doing anything other than breathing rapidly, he feels a large hand slowly grip his waist, pulling him impossibly closer, his body now pressing up against Thanos’.

“What are you doing?” Thanos asks, his voice deep and quiet, so much so that if another person was in the room, they probably wouldn't hear him. Nam-gyu stands in silence, his grip of the other man's hoodie loosening slightly.

“What are you doing?” He repeats, his voice softer as he licks his lips.

Thanos sucks in a breath before sighing, like he's annoyed with something, before connecting his lips with Nam-gyu's, rougher than before, like he's hungry for something. Nam-gyu's grip on his hoodie tightens again as he pushes Thanos against the lockers, one of his hands then coming up and wrapping around the back of his neck. His hand then ascends to Thanos’ hair, scratching his scalp in a way which makes Thanos moan quietly into his mouth.

Thanos’ hands come up to Nam-gyu's face, cupping his cheeks as his tongue infiltrates the shorter man's mouth. Nam-gyu allows it in without hesitation, his hand that isn't in Thanos’ hair trails down to his waist, squeezing it as he lowers himself from his toes, dragging Thanos’ head down with him. Thanos’ hands slide down to his shoulders, gripping them loosely as he separates his lips from Nam-gyu's, lust burning in his eyes as he spins Nam-gyu so his back is against Thanos. He lowers his head and begins kissing his neck, biting it as he does so which emits a whine from Nam-gyu as he begins breathing rapidly.

As he's sucking Nam-gyu's neck, he lets his hands drop to the man's waistband, his fingers twitching toward the button on his jeans but he stops, pulling away and looking Nam-gyu in the eyes, silently asking him ‘is this ok?’ to which Nam-gyu nods rapidly leaning up to kiss Thanos again as the taller man gladly unbuttons his jeans and unzips the zip, his hand slowly entering the smaller man's jeans, playing with the waistband of his underwear until he finally pushes his hand into them, his hand wrapping around Nam-gyu's half hard cock.

Nam-gyu moans into Thanos’ mouth as he pulls back, leaning his head back onto the taller man's chest. Thanos begins to move his hand, stroking Nam-gyu slowly as the other man lets out soft whines and moans.

–

“This is a bad idea, right?” Nam-gyu says in between moans as he grabs Thanos’ left forearm–which is wrapped around Nam-gyu's waist–causing Thanos to falter and bite back a wince as he focuses on Nam-gyu's words, tightening his grip, only slightly, on the other man's length, speeding up his strokes.

“Probably.” He whispers as Nam-gyu lets out a loud moan, to which Thanos brings his hand–that was wrapped around his waist–up to clasp around the other man's mouth, causing Nam-gyu to whimper and grab his arm again. The muffled moans echo in the empty locker room as Thanos lowers his head and begins sucking Nam-gyu's neck again, earning multiple variations of whines, groans, moans and whimpers. That's what's getting to him. Those damn whimpers. It's like nothing he's ever heard before.

The girls he's slept with moan, groan and whine just the same as Nam-gyu does, but they've never whimpered. But he loves it. Every time he tightens his grip on Nam-gyu's dick, it pulls out another whimper from the man who seems to be crumbling under Thanos’ grip.

Thanos is moments away from getting down on his knees for the other man just to have his hand in his hair again when he feels a buzz on his thigh followed by some pop song playing. His strokes falter as Nam-gyu groans under Thanos’ hand, reaching his hand behind him and pulling his fucking phone out. Thanos feels a hand on his arm, stopping his movements and it gets pulled up, Nam-gyu's fingers intertwining with his as he leans on him and mumbles “sorry”.

Thanos rolls his eyes as Nam-gyu answers the call, holding Thanos’ hand well away from his crotch.

“What's up?...Yeah, obviously…I dunno soon? I'm doing something…None of your business…ok, ok! I'll be there soon…bye.” He hangs up the phone and turns to Thanos, dropping his hand and he does the button up on his jeans, zipping up the zip as Thanos stares in awe of the way his hands move so elegantly.

“You're leaving?” Thanos asks as he adjusts his joggers.

“Yeah, sorry. My friend just gave me an earful so I better go…text me.” He says with a wink as he quickly leaves, closing the door softly on his way out.

Thanos is left standing alone in the locker room, lips red and swollen he clenches and unclenches his hand, suddenly feeling the sting on his left forearm from where Nam-gyu was squeezing it.

“What the fuck?” He mutters to himself as he grabs his phone out of his locker and opens the message from earlier. He stares at the smiley face, even though he was the one who sent it, it still feels weird how he has one of his makeout-sesh’s number.

He changes the contact name before pocketing it and grabbing his bag, leaving the school and making his way to his truck.

‘Namsu’.

Chapter Text

Don't ask him how he got into this situation. Don't ask him how he ended up on the floor of Se-mi's bedroom, surrounded by magazines and nail polish bottles and makeup and spa shit. Don't ask him...at least not when he's being perfectly still while Mi-na paints his nails.

"Stop moving!" Mi-na commands as she pulls his hand closer.

"I'm not!" Nam-gyu counters, opening his eyes slightly just to see an annoyed expression on the girl's face.

"Don't waste your words, he's always had shaky hands. That was his nickname in primary school. Mr ShakyHands." Se-mi admits as she lathers a weird grey goo on Min-su's face.

"Don't tell her that." Nam-gyu says as he closes his eyes again, trying to ignore the weird wet feeling on his face where the sheet mask lays.

Mi-na barks out a laugh and drops his hand, closing the bottle and throwing it to the side. "Done." she states as she peels the mask off of his face, rubbing in the liquid and then getting up to wash her hands. Nam-gyu opens his eyes and licks his lips, instantly regretting it when he tastes a weird artificial coconut-ish taste.

"What have you done to me..." he whispers as he goes to take off the headband that's holding back his hair, stopping when he remembers he still as black wet nail polish on his nails. At least they're not pink?

"Nam-gyu..." Gyeong-su begins, and Nam-gyu already knows he'll hate where this is going.

"Yes?" he asks cautiously as he blows on his nails.

Gyeong-su eyes him before sitting up straighter. "...you took a while in the bathroom earlier. Are you ok?" the boy asks.

15 minutes after the game ended, Nam-gyu slowly backs away from his friends, hoping they don't notice if he just–

"Where are you going?" Se-mi asks innocently. Shit.

"Uhm...just to the bathroom. I'll be quick." he lies, knowing they'll buy it since they aren't that smart. They nod in sync in a creepy, robotic way which makes him scoff lightly before walking down the hallway, turning left and passing Dae-ho and Yong-sik whose hair is wet, clearly having showered just minutes before.

He approaches the door and waits for a couple seconds, trying to figure out if there are any more people in there, more specifically, if there are more than one person left. He hears the click of a locker closing and a small grunt which he finds is familiar. Just the person he was looking for.

"Uhhh, yeah? I was just talking to some people about the game." he lies again, maintaining eye contact so as to not seem suspicious. He's a very good liar. Well, he thought he was.

He hears Min-su let out a small chuckle before lowering his head, speaking quietly. "Who were you talking to about the game, Nam-gyu?" he asks, an amused expression on Se-mi's face.

"Uh, just...people?" he tries, failing once again. A chorus of disbelieving laughs echo around the bedroom as Nam-gyu crosses his arms in defence. "What?!" he exclaims.

"Dude...you have a hickey on your neck." Se-mi points out through laughs, leaning forward to poke it, causing Nam-gyu to lean back instinctively, holding a hand up to his neck. He feels the tender skin pulse slightly as he pushes down on it, his eyes widening in shock.

He quickly stands up and darts to the mirror, being mindful of the mess on the floor around them and he grabs his glasses off of Se-mi’s desk, looking at his reflection. His hair is slightly messy, his skin glowing and clean, but right on the pulse point on his neck, there's a clear red mark that still has a faint bite mark around it.

"Fuck!" he yells, mostly to himself, as he rubs a finger across it, as if it's going to wipe away. "Fuuuuuck." he draws out in a groan, leaning his head against the large mirror, feeling the cool glass on his shiny forehead.

“Dude!” Gyeong-su yells, “You’re getting action!” he exclaims with a wide smile on his face, jumping up and running over to Nam-gyu, knocking over a small mirror in the process.

“Dude?!” Mi-na yells and throws her hands up in disbelief. Min-su shakes his head and Se-mi shoves him slightly, the look in their eyes making Nam-gyu scoff and roll his eyes. Gyeong-su ignores the girl and instead grabs Nam-gyu’s shoulder and inspects the mark, noting the bite mark and smiling even wider, if that’s even possible. 

“How have you gotten action before me?” he asks, astonished and overly excited for Nam-gyu’s liking.

“‘Cause you’re blind, man.” Nam-gyu points out, deciding to not delve deeper, so he pulls off the head band–almost flinging his glasses across the room–and sits back down in his previous spot, leaving Gyeong-su standing by the mirror, clearly questioning his own existence.

“Oh. My. God!” Mi-na squeals, grabbing Nam-gyu’s arms and pulling him closer even though she’s talking very loudly. “Whydidyouhidethisfromus?!Whenwereyougonnatellus?Whowasit?” Mi-na asks in one long breath, stopping after, loosening her grip, to take a big deep breath before looking back up to the startled boy who’s looking around at the others for help that he isn’t going to get.

“It’s-I…shut up.” He stammers out, shoving her hands off of him and picking up his phone just for something to do with his hand. Suddenly, his phone is ripped from his hands and thrown onto Se-mi’s bed. He looks up to see a scary look on Mi-na’s face.

“No, I will not shut up, Nam-gyu. You can’t just go around getting hickeys and think you can hide them from us!” She argues, gesturing to the other teens around them and then crossing her arms. Nam-gyu rolls his eyes and leans back into his hands, stretching his neck out which–unintentionally, can he clarify–gives Mi-na and Gyeong-su–who just appeared next to her–a better look at the heart-shaped bruise.

Gyeong-su lets out a loud laugh and Mi-na hits him repeatedly as she smiles scarily widely. Nam-gyu cringes slightly and lowers his head, hair covering his face as he takes a deep breath. “I can’t tell you who it was, but I can tell you that it was at Dae-ho’s party.” He admits, raising his head again to see their reactions and gauge if they’re good or not.

When his eyes reach the crowd, they widen in surprise and all four of them are just…staring. Staring at him. Something they know he hates. He shifts under their gazes as he averts his eyes but as quickly as their eyes locked onto him, chaos erupts.

“Why didn’t you tell us-“

“That was forever ago-“

“That’s why you disappeared-“

“Who was she?!”

Countless questions lap over each other as the centre of all this laughs under his breath, pushing his glasses slightly up his nose. He shakes his head and sits up straighter, waiting for the shouts to die down so he can actually speak.

When they finally do, he takes a deep breath. “I didn’t tell you because you’re judgy as fuck-“ he begins, holding his index finger up to Se-mi who begins to speak, denying his claim, but it stops her and she crosses her arms in defeat, “-and I’m not telling you because it’s personal. I’m not asking you for your weekly hookups, Mi-na.” He says, pointing to the girls in question, who just scoffs.

“Monthly, I’ll have you know…and you don’t ask because I just tell.” She says proudly, pulling her legs up to her chest as Gyeong-su looks defeated.

“Whatever.” He says, crossing his legs and picking at his finger nails. “I still don’t need to know about how you’ve slept with the whole football team.”

“Not all of them, just the hot ones!” She yells in defence which proves his point since all of them are hot in their own way. He rolls his eyes with a chuckle and shrugs.

Gyeong-su groans and slaps his hands together, intertwining his fingers in a begging motion. “Please, dude. Tell us and we’ll leave you alone.” He pleads.

“Hell no.” Nam-gyu states, leaning up to retrieve his phone before sitting back down on the floor, checking some random Instagram notifications. He unconsciously goes off Instagram and opens the Messages app, clicking on the chat with “Grape.” only to see a single “:)”, no other messages from the boy. He sighs and closes the app, looking up to see his four friends whispering to each other, clearly trying to come up with a way to get the information out of him.

Finally, Gyeong-su says, “Okay, you don’t need to tell us who she was, but at least give us the details.” Nam-gyu groans and drops his phone on the floor.

After a few moments, he sighs and nods. “What do you wanna know?” He gives in, preparing himself for the hundreds of questions that will come his way.

He hears a collection of cheers and a high pitched squeal as the questions arise, overwhelming his ears so he holds up a hand which surprisingly stops the chatter. “One at a time. Mi-na, I know you wanna go first, yeah?” He asks the smiling girl.

“Ahh! Yes! Ok, how was it?” She asks which causes Nam-gyu to roll his eyes again.

“It was…okay.” He lies, earning glares from his friends. “Fine,” he groans, “it was…amazing.” He admits.

“Ahh!” Mi-na squeals again. “Dude, is she hot? She must’ve been, right?” The girl asks.

Nam-gyu hesitates, wondering if he should tell them the truth or lie. He chooses the latter.

“Yeah, she’s hot.” He says bluntly to the excited teenagers across from them who gasp and laugh.

“Sick dude!” Gyeong-su exclaims, clapping him on the shoulder. “Was it just over the clothes shit? Or did you go further?” He asks and wiggles his eyebrows, causing Nam-gyu to bark out a laugh.

“You’re such a child.” He says before straightening up. “A bit of both.” He shrugs which makes all of their mouths drop open. Gyeong-su and Mi-na burst out laughing and Min-su chuckles to himself. But Se-mi? She stares at Nam-gyu. Her eyes flicker from his eyes to his neck to his eyes again before they widen in realisation.

“Nam-gyu.” She says, drawing all the attention to her.

“Yeah?” The boy in question answers nervously.

“You said you and this mystery girl kissed and…whatever else, at the party on Saturday?” She asks, to which Nam-gyu nods. She nods and continues, “And she gave you the hickey then?” She asks again and Nam-gyu already knows he’s caught.

“Yeah, and what?” He asks with faux confidence.

She scoffs and nods. “That hickey looks fresh, like you got it today, about 3 hours ago, right after the game?” She accuses, making Mi-na gasp dramatically and the other two boys whip their heads to Nam-gyu.

He stays quiet for a few moments which gives the girl an opportunity. “You also walked the wrong way earlier. The bathrooms were to the left of where we were, not the right.” She says as Min-su slaps a hand over his mouth and Nam-gyu squints his eyes.

“Fine.” He mumbles. “She gave this to me after the game, so what.” He crosses his arms, waiting for the yells. But they never come. He looks up and sees his friends staring again, but then Gyeong-su’s voice cuts through the silence.

“I knew he wasn’t going to the damn bathroom.” He says quietly as the room erupts in laughter. Se-mi cackles as Mi-na giggles uncontrollably. Min-su laughs a little louder as Gyeong-su joins in and Nam-gyu chuckles, wiping a hand over his face as he realises that his friends don’t really give a fuck about what he gets up to with people, just that he tells them and they’re not left in the dark.

“Okay!” Mi-na announces. “Let’s watch a movie and eat shit food.” She declares in a shitty posh accent which earns a laugh from Nam-gyu.

“I’ll order pizza.” Gyeong-su says as he pulls out his phone. Se-mi pulls Min-su to his feet and they both sit on the bed, incredibly close. Mi-na guides Gyeong-su to the bed as he types on his phone. “Should I get three large pizzas or a medium for each of us?” He asks.

“Medium-“

“Large-“

Se-mi and Nam-gyu stare at each other for a moment before they both begin to yell.

“Medium gives everyone the same amount of pizza-“

“There’s no point in getting a pizza each-“

They stare for a moment more before Nam-gyu sighs. “Fine, get a pizza each, I don’t want anything.”

Her eyebrows furrow as Se-mi leans forward. “You haven’t eaten all day dude, eat something.” 

Nam-guy shakes his head and plops down onto the bean bag beside Se-mi’s bed, not wanting to be in the middle of the lovers quarrel happening on the bed. He always 5th wheels. 

Se-mi goes to say something else but stops herself, knowing that it would only end in an argument they’ve had countless times before. Mi-na flicks through Netflix, looking at what to watch.

“Should we watch a horror movie?” She asks.

“Last time we watched a horror movie Gyeong-su screamed like a girl.” Nam-gyu deadpans as he opens his phone to flick through Instagram.

“I did not!” The boy yelled in offence, holding a hand up to his heart.

“Sure you didn’t.” Nam-gyu says with a nod as he turns off his phone. “We could watch Train to Busan?” He offers.

“I’ve heard it’s sad.” Min-su says.

“Even better!” Mi-na exclaims as she looks it up and puts it on.

“Sad? Why sad?” Gyeong-su asks.

“Because you cry like a baby.” Se-mi says as she puts her arm out on the headboard behind her and Min-su, the boy not-so-subtly leaning into her side.

“Whatever.” Gyeong-su mumbles as they all settle into the movie.

Nam-gyu can’t help but think of his conversation with his friends. Are they believing his lie? Would they care if he told them it wasn’t a girl? Would they go and tell everyone? 

He feels a weird sensation in his chest and excused himself to the bathroom, locking the door and turning on the faucet, taking off his glasses and splashing cold water on his face as his chest feels like it’s constricting.

He tries to take some deep breaths but it feels like the air in the room is thinner. He groans and rests his head on the side of the sink as he focuses on his breathing, returning to normal painfully slowly.

He looks up in the mirror at his reflection, putting his glasses back on after drying his face with a towel. What is wrong with him? It’s not a big deal that he kissed a guy.

He knew he was gay for a long time, he just hasn’t told anyone, so what’s the big deal?

He nods to himself in the mirror before unlocking the door and returning to the bedroom, sitting back down on the beanbag and clearing his throat, taking a sip of water.

He feels Se-mi’s eyes burning into the back of his head–she always seems to know when something's wrong–but he ignores it, instead focusing on the movie.

She doesn’t need to know what’s bothering him. No one does…

Chapter Text

Let’s have a brief rundown of the last two days. Friday was a lot. Successful hockey game, some freaky deaky with Mr. I’m-Not-Gay-Or-Anything, and then getting called out brutally by his friends.

Saturday wasn’t any better though. Minsu fell asleep like 20 minutes into the movie, followed by Semi, Mina and then Gyeongsu, leaving Namgyu awake alone at like 1 in the morning. He scrolled through his phone (Thanos’ Instagram) for 2 hours before falling asleep before he could plug his phone in so when he woke up at 11:30, it was on 7%.

Luckily, nobody wanted to leave the house so he let his phone charge fully and just forgot about it, getting too indulged in All of Us Are Dead for most of the day (yes he did cry when Isak died, yes he got made fun of) until Mina found out through one of her ’sources‘ (some football player she fucked like a week ago) that there would be a party that night for some randoms birthday and she convinced them all to go. Semi and Gyeongsu were up for it immediately, Minsu only agreed because Semi agreed, whereas Namgyu downright refused. He had an earful of “pleaseeeee” “don’t be boringggg” “for uuuussss” ‘s from Mina and Semi until he begrudgingly agreed.

Without boring you with the details, here’s what went down:

1) Namgyu got smashed and ended up throwing up everything he drank in one of the 9 bathrooms this guys house had (who needs 9 bathrooms?).

2) Semi also got insanely drunk and made out with some girl which Minsu witnessed and in return made out with a different girl (Namgyu’s pretty sure that was his first kiss), so they’re on bad terms now?

3) Mina and Gyeongsu kissed during a game of spin the bottle and they now won’t look at each other even though it was bound to happen eventually?

Oh, and the most important thing in Namgyu’s eyes, he didn’t see Thanos, which was surprising. That’s one of the main reasons he got so drunk that he threw up in a strangers house.

How he got home? Nobody knows. What he does know is that he has a killer hangover, has already spewed twice more and is now dry heaving into his toilet.

Miraculously he hasn’t lost his phone and it’s not dead. He knows this because it’s currently blowing up in his right back pocket. Did he fall asleep with it in his back pocket? He must’ve… he doesn’t worry about that right now so he reaches into his pocket with shaking hands, sitting back on his heels as he opens his phone, not savouring his reflection as he does so and clicks the notifications from the person who’s rapid-texting him.

Grape🍇

His eyes linger on the contact name before shaky fingers scroll up the screen, reading the plethora of messages in front of him.

Grape🍇
13:27

Namsu

Namsu

Namsu

Namsi

Namsu

13:31

NAMSU BRO

13:33

your the most antisocial person i think ive ever met bro how do u not ansr imedietaly

Namgyu rubs his eyes and flushes the toilet, slowly standing up and placing his phone on the edge of the sink, washing his hands thoroughly before drying them and picking his phone up again, re-reading the messages to make sure he’s not imagining things.

His fingers hover over the keyboard before he begins to type.

13:35

You’re 17 years old, how can you not spell?

Also, spam messaging me won’t make me answer quicker.

He presses the off button, his phone closing with a click as he walks out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom, closing the door lightly and crashing down onto his bed. The phone in his hand dings again and he rolls onto his stomach, opening the phone and reading the message before him.

13:36

GOD FORBID a guy wants his freind to ansr

Friend..?

13:37

and sybau abt my speeling

i dont need to be able to spell to play hocey 

hocley

hokey

fuvk it whatevr

FUCK

Namgyu follows these messages as they flood his phone, smiling to himself as he watches the other man struggle to spell basic words and then in turn crashing out.

13:39

What do you want?

He’s expecting an answer like “I need homework answers” or “tell anyone about Friday and I’ll kill you” or some other empty threat.

He doesn’t expect this though…

13:41

can we hang out today

or tomorrow

whatevr works for you idc

i js wana takl 

talk

Namgyu sighs and rolls onto his back, sitting up slowly and yawning. Talk? He’s either gonna get an empty confession of feelings or newfound sexuality which won’t end well, or he’s gonna get beat up by the hockey guys because of some lie Thanos has told them.

13:43

Yeah we can go somewhere later, where do you want to go?

Namgyu watches the text bubbles appear and then disappear over and over again until a message pops up.

13:45

the park by skl?

close too mine idk how far it is from urs but is that ok

Namgyu replies with a thumbs up emoji, not really knowing what to say as Thanos then replies with a time. 14:30. Or at the other man typed it, ‘2:30’, which pissed Namgyu iff a little.

The tired man gets up and looks at himself in the mirror. He looks like shit…

Having a world record time shower and throwing on some clean clothes makes him feel a little better but not 100%. Whatever, it’s not like he needs to look good or anything…right?

After brushing his teeth, he slips into his shoes and leaves the house, hoping that his phone which is on 31% will last him however long he’ll be out.

As he approaches the park, he begins to regret ever leaving. The sun is beating down on him, worsening his already blinding headache and making his eyes ache. He feels another bout of dry heaving rise in his chest but he pushes it down, knowing he’ll look like some freak, crouched over looking like he’s about to cough up a hairball or something.

Slowing his pace, he sees a familiar person walking in his direction, or more like a familiar hair colour.

Is this a dumb idea? Is he gonna die? Maybe. Does he care at this point? No, not really. He shakes off his nerves and the distance between him and the hockey player closes and he takes a deep breath before taking in the words that are spoken to him…