Chapter Text
"Ivan?" Till asked, looking around the yard for his friend. They'd agreed to meet behind the school at the benches for tutoring, and Till was apparently there before Ivan. He wasn't there. That was okay.
Till sat down at the picnic table and unzipped his backpack while he waited, pulling out his homework. There was significantly less of it now, only math homework left.
And then he heard footsteps behind him, and he turned to see if it was Ivan.
"Hey Ivan, you're lat—"
It wasn't Ivan.
It was Haru and Cho.
Fuck.
"Hey, freak. Your little protector isn't here now, is he?" Haru hissed, pushing Till back onto the bench. Till yelped as his head hit the wood, and then he winced.
But he also wasn't scared. Ivan would be here soon, and they knew the consequences. They'd be suspended from the football team if Ivan found out.
"He'll be here soon, though." Till countered, pushing back against Haru, but unfortunately he wasn't strong enough, which made Cho laugh loudly. "You know the consequences, right?"
Till had no idea where this confidence was coming from. He'd never had it before. Maybe hanging around Ivan and his friends had been even better than he'd thought. Maybe Hyuna was rubbing off on him, because she was always insanely confident. So was Ivan, but Hyuna even more so.
"Ooh, the emo boy has gotten cocky since we last saw him, hasn't he, Haru?" Cho said, pressing a foot onto Till's chest, pressing him down. Till struggled against him, and attempted to kick at him, but to no avail.
"Fuck off." Till threatened.
"How about no?" Haru said coolly. "We haven't been able to get to you lately. It's pretty annoying."
Till knew that. He'd noticed their annoyance whenever they saw him walking with Ivan. And whenever he was with Ivan, they couldn't hurt him. (Of course, he wasn't just using Ivan for that, he would never, that would be terrible of him. But it was a perk.)
"I know you haven't." Till said, smirking. There was a familiar person behind the two bullies, one that he'd been waiting for. "I would suggest turning around, you know. You might see someone you know."
They turned around and gasped. Ivan was standing right behind the two of them, arms crossed and eyes stormy. He was angry, Till could tell, but there was concern found somewhere in his eyes.
Cho's weight immediately came off of Till, but not voluntarily. Ivan shoved him off, and shoved Haru away as well.
"I'm telling coach, you know. You'll be suspended from the next game." Ivan said, grinning maliciously.
"I told you there would be consequences." Till mused, picking at his nails. Seriously, where had his confidence come from? This was unprecedented. He would have to thank Hyuna, because this was for sure Hyuna-level confidence.
Haru and Cho immediately ran off, and Ivan just glared at them as they did so, and continued to glare until he was sure that they were out of sight. And then he turned to Till, concern taking over his face.
"I'm fine." Till reassured him, sitting up properly and dusting off his skull and cross bone patterned sweater. "I promise."
Ivan raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
Till stood up and pat his arm reassuringly, the first real, willing contact he'd ever initiated with Ivan. It made Ivan freeze, and Till embarrassed.
"Sorry—I probably should've asked before touching you." Till mumbled.
"No, you're good. I'm not… uh… mad." Ivan said, smiling. "And you're sure you're okay?"
Till nodded. "I think Hyuna's confidence rubbed off on me."
"Clearly. That was very badass of you."
"Glad you think so."
"So, did you bring your homework?" Ivan asked, scratching the back of his neck. Till wasn't sure why he was doing that, it was a little strange, because the jock had no reason to be embarrassed, but he was doing it, and Till payed it no mind.
"Yeah. It's a math package review for yet another test." Till groaned dramatically, plopping down on the seat of the bench.
"Oof. Let's see." Ivan said, and Till gestured to the package of papers that were stapled together. His sketchbook lay beside it, and Ivan glanced to it.
"Sketchbook?" Ivan asked, pointing to the thick black book.
Now it was Till's turn to be embarrassed. "…yeah… I know it's weird…"
"What? No! It's fine! I'm sure you're a great artist!" Ivan exclaimed, shaking his head dismissively. "I wish I could draw. The best I can do is a dilapidated stick figure and a tree that looks like it was drawn by a third grader."
That made Till laugh. "I'm sure it's not that bad."
Ivan grimaced dramatically. "Oh no. It's that bad."
The silver haired boy giggled. "You'll have to show me sometime, then, if it's really that bad. I'll be the judge to see."
"How about you show me some more of yours, then? So I can know how much better you are than me yet again?"
Till froze. He'd never really… shown anyone his sketchbook before. There wasn't anything bad in it, the only thing that he would find maybe a little embarrassing was the sketch of their friend group that he was working on.
He was sure that he could find something to show Ivan.
So he grabbed his sketchbook and flipped to the page where he'd drawn a sunset at the beach, a memory he'd had with his late mother, Io. He'd done it using alcohol markers, so the colour really popped off the page.
Ivan gasped. "Oh my goodness, Till, this is beautiful!"
"Really?" Till said. I know it's beautiful.
"Yes! I don't think even my amazing kindergarten artwork that still hangs on my fridge can compare!" Ivan joked. "I mean, I saw your work in the art room but this… wow."
"This one is one of my favourites." Till admitted. "It was a memory I had with my mom before she passed."
He hadn't planned on sharing that with Ivan, but it sort of just slipped out. And now there was no taking it back, was there? So he was just going to roll with it.
"Oh. I'm sorry for your loss, Till." Ivan said solemnly.
"Thanks. It was… a year and a half ago now? I'm not sure. I sort of stopped counting."
"Oh, well… I'm still sorry."
Till's heart clenched at the memory of his mom, but he needed to focus on his homework. His art and the sad memories were making him stray off track, and he only had so much time before he had to go home.
"Let's just… get to the homework, okay?" Till said quietly. "I have to go home soon, and I kind of want to pass this test."
Ivan snapped out of whatever trance Till had put him in and nodded. "Right! Sorry! Let's get onto it."
Ivan leans over to glance at the open package, and points to the paper. "Which parts are you having trouble with?"
His hair brushed Till's chin, tickling him slightly. That brought a giggle out of Till. "Get your face away!" he teased, swatting Ivan away.
"Sorry! I just had to see the paper! Put it between us!" Ivan protested, sticking his bottom lip out into a pout.
So Till put the paper between them.
idk what we're doing here
barbie
4:50 p.m
do we wanna group call?
ibanny
4:51 p.m
srry busy, tutoring till
scary lesbian
4:51 p.m
….
okay boring
super cool wine aunt
4:51 p.m
i'll join
blonde twink
4:52 p.m
me toooo
Ivan just clicked his phone off and put it on Do Not Disturb. He needed to focus on tutoring Till at the moment, and a group call was the least pressing of his problems.
"What was that?" Till asked, looking up from his work.
"Just the group chat." Ivan answered honestly. "They wanted to start a group call but I told them that we were busy."
"Oh. I can't even join group calls. My foster dad would get suspicious." Till said sadly.
"All the more reason for us to just keep doing this, then?"
"Right."
"Soo… back to question 8, here's how you do it."
"Ivan? Is Till going to join?" Mizi asked, her camera showing her doing her pink hair.
Ivan shook his head. "Nah. He can't."
The group call was still going when Ivan got home, and he was done his homework, so he just entered Sua's room and joined the call, so there wouldn't be any weird tech things with two people on the same call in the same house.
Sua had protested at first, but eventually she just gave up on trying to get him to leave and just told him not to mess anything up in her room.
"That's too bad! How is he?" Hyuna asked, putting her face near the camera so she could see Ivan.
"He's good! We had a minor incident with Haru and Cho today…" Ivan scowled at the mention of their names, but his smile bounced right back. "…but it was brief and they left, so it's okay!"
Mizi's concern could be heard through the screen. "Ah, that's good, at least! I thought they were going to leave him alone for good, though?"
"They were supposed to, if they wanted to keep playing football. I notified Coach and they're going to be suspended for the next few games, and off the team if it continues." Ivan said proudly.
"All this for Till?" Sua asked, a smirk on her face.
"Well, yes!" Ivan said calmly. "I like him, sure, but also, I'm not gonna let people bully my friend!"
"I'm just teasing, Ivan. No need to get all defensive and shit." Sua drawled, plopping down in the chair at her vanity, taking out some dark teal nail polish. She began painting her nails nonchalantly, grinning at Ivan's flustered state. "Now imagine if you'd said that and Till was on the call? Wouldn't that be something."
Ivan wanted to tackle her to the floor. And if she wasn't holding nail polish that would one hundred percent stain his clothes, he would have.
"That would certainly be interesting." Luka mused. Ivan hadn't even noticed that he was there.
"Hello Luka." Ivan deadpanned.
"Well, Till isn't here, thankfully, so you're safe." Hyuna reassured Ivan. "And I'm sure he wouldn't even be mad. I'm sure he likes you too."
Ivan agressively shook his head. "No, I don't think he does, and that's not just me being oblivious. I think he'd going through something and doesn't have time for that."
"Oh, so now you're paying attention to what's wrong with him? You really are whipped." Sua teased. But before Ivan could retaliate, she added, "But, you're right, that is something you would notice about a friend too. I'll keep my mouth shut."
"I love you Sua, but that's probably a good idea." Mizi admitted with a soft chuckle.
"Love you too!" Sua called out, not looking up from her nails.
"Back to Till…" Hyuna said calmly. "You think something's up?"
Ivan nodded. "I think he's struggling. But obviously I'm not gonna press, and we shouldn't say anything."
"That's a good idea. We don't want him to feel uncomfortable around us. That wouldn't be nice of us." Mizi agreed. "But it's good of you that you noticed! Because now you can see what he needs to feel comfortable around you and us."
Ivan hadn't really thought of that.
Maybe she had a point.
If he started picking up on what made Till uncomfortable, he would be able to relay that information to his friends so that they wouldn't do it around the emo boy, and then he would be able to be more comfortable. The group didn't even need to know why Till needed that, which made it a bit more safe, because it wouldn't be relaying Till's private information.
"You're a good friend, Ivan." Mizi reassured him. "Don't worry about that."
"I have to agree with her." Luka admitted, somewhat begrudgingly.
Ivan smiled warmly, reflecting the feeling in his chest. "You guys are great too, don't diminish yourselves. Even you, Luka."
"Whatever." Luka shrugged, then went back to reading whatever he was reading at his place. Probably some psychology book, or whatever. He was obsessed with learning about the human mind. While it was a little scary, Ivan just ignored it most of the time.
"Ivan, you should ask Till if he wants to come to the junior formal with us next month! I wouldn't say ask him on a date yet… or as your date, but ask if he wants to go with us as friends!" Mizi suggested, ever the optimist. Ivan pondered this for a moment, because he knew Till wasn't the biggest people person, and there were always a lot of people at those types of events.
"I don't know… he's kind of an introvert." Ivan said slowly. "But I'll ask. Don't be surprised if he says no, though."
"It's fine! I just want to help him have more experiences with us, that's all! Don't worry!" Mizi said kindly, waving her hand to show that it was fine. "Seriously, tell him that he doesn't have to go if he doesn't want to!"
"I will." Ivan said. "Later, I don't think he's available right now."
"The formal is in a month, so I wouldn't worry too much." Hyuna said calmly. "You've got loads of time."
You have lots of time.
Ivan reminded himself of that a couple times. And it wasn't a date. It was just between friends. They weren't at that level of relationship yet, and they may never be. But he needed to remind himself that if Till said yes, it would be strictly platonic, and nothing more.
Even though that was a painful thought.
"Anyways, I've already, of course, picked my outfit…" Mizi said excitedly, then turned her camera down to reveal a pretty fancy black dress. It looked quite good on Mizi, and it made Sua nearly drop her nail polish.
"Damn, Mizi, you look really good." Sua breathed, eyes wide. "I'm wearing white. We'll match!"
"That was kind of my plan. You said you'd be wearing white earlier when the formal was announced, so I thought that maybe I could match you and wear black!" Mizi explained.
"I'm wearing something grey-ish black. I don't know what Luka's wearing but it's sure to be extravagant." Hyuna said.
Ivan had no idea what he was gonna wear. A suit, obviously, but he wasn't sure what colour. White or black? Something like that. He wasn't sure if he'd look good in another colour.
And white and black were traditional.
And maybe he could match with Till.
If he was lucky.