"..."

"I'm guessing that's a no then," Soonyoung whispered (although, one could argue on how that was a whisper) as he kept tapping the wooden table with his uncut, somewhat-dirty fingernails. His hand was the only thing he could place on the table since it was full of Seungkwan's clutter. Newspapers and art materials on one side, unfinished papers on the other. And, across the non-stop talker was the younger boy, busy rushing all that he needed to do before lunchtime ends.

"You know, if I ain't doing anything at all, I'd love to tell you more. But, now's not the time." Seungkwan groaned as he messily erased his mistake on the paper. Soonyoung grabbed one of the white envelopes and closely checked the burnt marks on its edges. "How'd you pull off this design?"

"Oh, I dunno. Ask Wonwoo. I asked him to give me some of those for me. Looks beautiful if I do say so myself. Cheap too!"
"So, he bought them?"
"I know he makes them for a price."
"Oh."
"You know Wonwoo is extra when expressing his emotional side."
"Like as if you aren't."
"Shut up."

After Soonyoung's brief burst of chuckles, Seungkwan exhaled deeply. His hand released the apricot-coloured pencil he had been gripping on for the past twenty minutes. His sore fingers' nerves seemed to be sleeping, not having enough electric signals to keep them at their peak.

"See, that's why I told you to stop procrastinating. You could have eaten a hearty lunch if you didn't."
"At least lunch has a heart. I feel like Vernon doesn't have one beating for me."
"Boyyyyyy, if you don't. Anyway, you think he'd still ask help from you?
"No, not after what happened that night." Seungkwan unenthusiastically said.
"Heh, serves you right for always asking me to treat you!"

Soonyoung, thank God you're my best friend. If you weren't, I could've asked Seokmin to kick you in your groin with his 109 horsepower foot.

Seungkwan rubbed and opened his crusty eyes. His alarm had not gone off yet, but for some reason, he had the urge to wake up. His hair was unruly, all stiff and frizzy. He arched his spine back and forth slowly, enjoying the satisfying cracking sounds his movement produced.

The faint light emitting from the lamp beside Seungkwan's desktop meant one thing: someone came in his room. Either his mom, dad, or cousin went in. The picture Soonyoung gave him was nowhere to be seen. Probs rolled off the bed. The boy didn't bother finding it. Even if they found the picture, it would have been meaningless since they didn't even have a clue on whose hands were on the polaroid.

Seungkwan slid onto his red sandals and made his way to his study table. His phone kept flashing light green out of the little hole beside the brand name. His phone lit up as he clicked the small rounded rectangular button on it. With one glance, he checked all the notifications that had popped up on the screen. There were too many to count on his fingers. He scrolled to see if anything was of importance.

[INSTAGRAM] gummybabe shared 3 photos.
[INSTAGRAM] Check out the latest from hanphotoprodigy
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[TWITTER] It's been a while since you've tweeted. Update your followers @gimmetheBOOty
[MESSENGER] Chwe Vernon: Hey...
[INFO] 10 apps updated: Twitter, Messenger, Youtube...
[INFO] Software Update
[MESSENGER] FaithinJisoo: Today's Bible verse:
[TWITTER] In case you missed it, learnenglish's photo: ...
[YOUTUBE] 김밥Master posted a new video: ...

Seungkwan still wasn't in his right state of mind, knowing that he would have flipped out seeing Vernon chatting with him. Only when he saw the latter's message bubble after he unlocked his phone while lying down on the bed did he realise everything.

Seungkwan screeched loudly, forgetting that it was already nighttime. He rolled on the bed looking like a toddler who did tantrums because of his confiscated toy -- in this case, it was Seungkwan losing his opportunity to talk with Vernon.

Suddenly, someone barged into the boy's room, causing Seungkwan to stop his antics. "Hey Kwan, what the hell is going on?" Junyoung, his cousin, asked.

"Nothing. What are YOU doing, going into my room without knocking?" Seungkwan sniffled.
"I thought there was an emergency since you were screeching. YOU WERE THAT LOUD. Heck, the neighbours have probably heard you too. Don't tell me you were just doing something inappro-"
"What the hell, no. I was just... um, so surprised that my... uh, favorite Youtuber's dog died. Yeah..."
"For crying out loud, was that it?! Goodness." Junyoung rolled his eyes while shaking the item he was holding.
"Why do you have an insect killer spray can?"
"Remember the last time you decided to wake me up at 2 a.m. just to kill the bug on your window?"
"Well, uh..."

Junyoung crossed his arms and sighed. "I'll put this here, okay? Use it. I'm still studying, you know, so please don't be noisy." He placed the spray can on the bottom rack of Seungkwan's wooden shelf, and went out of the room, closing the door gently to the best he can.

Seungkwan went back to reply to Vernon's messages, not expecting anymore a reply from the younger.

"Hi, Vernon! =) Sorry for the late reply. Fell asleep 'coz I was so tired today. How can I help you? =D" Sent.

The smile that he was unconsciously making while typing his reply was caused by pure joy. He was like a four-year-old toddler who received a gift from his parents -- eyes glistening and heart filled with content. But, reality stepped on him, making his upwards curve go the opposite direction. He let go of his phone and fell asleep once again, forgetting the homework he still had to do.

He lost his chance to spend some time talking with Vernon. And up until that moment in the library, Soonyoung kept teasing Seungkwan about it. Of course, the older knows what happened; Seungkwan literally tells almost everything in his life to his best friend. However, it seemed like he regrets doing that.

The two boys were busy talking when Mingyu went to them. "Excuse me, guys. Kwan, did you see the memo posted in the classroom?" Seungkwan slowly shook his head. "What is it about?"

Mingyu smiled. Seungkwan's face brightened up, clearly showing how much the boy was delighted with the news. Soonyoung didn't understand a thing between the two, however. It was as if they were sending telepathic signals to each other.

"Umm, mind telling me what's going on, haha?" Soonyoung butted in the psychics. "The rumor was true! We're gonna have a contemporary dance contest!" Seungkwan said.

All these years, this was what the boy was hoping for. When Seungkwan heard about the competition, he started binge-watching every video that he thought would be of help to him and his future team. Soonyoung wasn't that avid over those things, but he would gladly listen to Seungkwan talking about them. All the while, he would also pitch in some ideas here and there.

"It's probably for the best if you go and check out the memo. Looks like all the details were on it," Mingyu suggested then left the duo.

Soonyoung and Seungkwan tidied up the area they used before leaving. It was still 15 minutes before the next subject, so they weren't in a hurry when they left for the classroom.

"Wait, I left my ID with the librarian. I'll go back." Soonyoung said, realizing that he wasn't feeling his ID bouncing on his tummy as he was walking. Before Seungkwan started going down the stairs, his beat friend stopped him. "You go on ahead. Just tell me what you've read later."

Seungkwan was holding his black pencil cases on his right hand and his three project folders on his left hand. Hurrying to put them down already as he was getting tired of carrying them, he sprinted for the classroom's back door which was conveniently close to his seat.

As he got inside the unlit classroom, he saw someone standing near the board. "So, I guess you've heard about it," the boy reading the posted memo mumbled, audible enough for Seungkwan to hear.