camboy // seungjin

13

// homophobia, mention of sex

Seungmin's eyes widened at the sight of Chaeryeong. He immediately knew that Changbin had intentionally picked his old crush to pretend to be his girlfriend.

At first, all Changbin thought about was how funny Seungmin's reaction would be. And then he rationalized it by saying that Chaeryeong would be the best fake girlfriend for him, given that they were quite amicable with each other.

"Hi Seungmin!" she said cheerfully, pulling another girl behind her.

Seungmin's expression changed from one of shock to happiness. He hadn't seen her in such a long time. It was strange to only be seeing each other in this odd setup. They chattered away happily, catching up surprisingly well for people who hadn't been very close friends to begin with.

Chaeryeong introduced him to the friend she had come with, Lia, who was in the year above her, and kept her arm around her waist as they walked to Seungmin's home.

They grew quiet as they walked through the neighborhoods, stumbling over the sidewalk as they avoided making eye contact. But they would occasionally grin at each other, both because of the plan to catch Seungmin's parents' attention and also because they were genuinely nervous to kiss each other.

The puppy-like boy attempted to break the silence. "What are you studying, Lia?"

The oldest brushed her choppy bangs out of her eyes before answering. "Animation and special effects." She cracked a smile at the boy's expression. "Probably not what you were expecting, was it?"

"Oh, yeah, how'd you get into that?"

She glanced at Chaeryeong before answering. "This may sound ridiculous, but my ex-girlfriend was a huge Marvel fan. I couldn't finish any of the movies because they scared me too much, but it got me into design."

Seungmin nodded, wanting to continue the conversation, but felt that his whole face had gone numb. His nerves were malfunctioning.

Chaeryeong took a deep breath. "Can we talk about the obvious, or are you too nervous?" she asked, looking concerned at the younger's shaking figure.

Seungmin felt dread overtake him with every step he took towards his house. It wasn't about his parents being mad because he knew he wouldn't be in huge trouble, especially compared to the night he came home after curfew and crying. 

It was sort of due to the nervousness that he was going to kiss his old friend.

But the figure that kept plaguing his mind was Hyunjin. 

He tried to imagine himself in Hyunjin's shoes. Seungmin had avoided him for a week and then getting his hopes up being invited to hang out and looking forward to finally being able to see him and talk to him. And then he was going to kiss a stranger in front of him.  

It would crush him. 

Seungmin felt sick. Maybe, maybe he could quickly explain what he was doing to Hyunjin so he didn't further screw up their relationship.

But there was a chance that his father could overhear. Or, they would take so long explaining that his father would go upstairs for the rest of the evening and not see him kiss Chaeryeong and have wasted everyone's time.

"We need to kiss right away," he said suddenly, forcing Hyunjin from his mind and focusing on the plan. "My father is only going to be downstairs for a couple of minutes after we arrive, just to check on us."

The fake girlfriend hid her surprise and stayed focused on the topic. "Do the others know?"

"No, I don't think so?" Seungmin silently cursed himself for not thinking this through. He had frankly put off thinking about the whole situation, but now he was being confronted with it, it was unavoidable. What were the others supposed to be doing while they kissed for his father to see?