What Might Have Been | JiKyu

2|Distance

Jihoon was speechless by this. He didn't how to react when he was finally given a face to picture of Junkyu's crush. Well, he didn't need any picture, he just had to look in the mirror himself to see it was him that Junkyu was crushing on.

At that moment, Jihoon's head went to that exact memory of when he first teased Junkyu with Jihyo. Along with all the countless times he teased Junkyu. After all this time, Jihoon finally realized he had been teasing himself to Junkyu.

Jaehyuk found out Yedam revealed this secret to Jihoon. He was going to be scolding him about it later. Jihoon wasn't supposed to know. But now that he does know, Jaehyuk explained it to him. He said that Junkyu shared it to him first. Junkyu was scared of how Jihoon would react if he finds out. They both had an idea of making up a different name as to not make it obvious.

Jihoon felt the weight of how clueless he had been. He felt embarrassed that all this time he was actually teasing himself to Junkyu. He then felt angered by this, he doesn't know why but it made him angry. He wasn't homophobic. He was just angry. And he doesn't know specifically why. He was very confused, still young and immature.

The next day came. Junkyu quickly found out that Jihoon now knows the truth.

It became awkward between the two. They avoided each other the entire day. If one is trying to pass somewhere the other will go pass through the other way. They only talked when needed and avoided the topic about crushes. Their friendship soon crumbled and it was like now as if they were strangers.

Sixth grade came, the two began to talk again. Both acted like the incident about the crush thing never happened. However, they were now no longer as close as before. There were awkward moments which could not be avoided yet sometimes the spark of their great chemistry reignite once the two just didn't mind the world around them.

Junkyu and Jihoon gained an interest in writing a story. A story where it will be written by both of them. They crafted a handmade book, filling it with blank pages of paper and covering it with a cheesy title that sixth graders can think of.

"So, it's like you're the chosen one with all these cool powers!" Junkyu exclaimed excited as he continued writing the draft of their first chapter.

"Oh, I like the sound of that! What about you? And our friends? We should also make you guys look awesome too!" Jihoon said writing his own draft, putting in on some doodles along the way then showing it to Junkyu.

Junkyu laughed at his drawing. It looked like it was drawn by a five year old.

"What are you laughing at?" Jihoon saw his drawing and pouted. "Don't laugh! You know that I can't really draw well. I'm working on it." Jihoon erased his doodles.

"Don't erase them!" Junkyu protested as he slapped Jihoon's hand with the eraser. "Yes, they don't look that great but you should keep them. One day when you're older you can look at them and watch how much you have improved from your past self." He said with a smile.

Jihoon stared at him for a while as he processed Junkyu's words. He smiled back at him and stopped erasing his drawings.

"You're right, Junkyu." Jihoon nodded with a grateful smile.

Their classmates around noticed how closed they were and couldn't help but tease them. Junkyu and Jihoon noticed the close distance they have at the moment. The two quickly separated. The awkward atmosphere came back to haunt them and the now familiar distance kept them away from each other.

Junkyu and Jihoon were now freshmen highschool. They were still classmates.

They continued writing that book but it was slow progress as the communication barrier kept them apart.

In their freshman year, their class received new students.

One of them caught Jihoon's attention.
His name was Watanabe Haruto. The guy was very tall, he was taller than Junkyu who was taller than Jihoon. Haruto was very handsome to Jihoon. But what really caught Jihoon's heart was the guy looked smart. Because on the first day of classes in their math subject, their teacher gave them a math problem that was very new and looked complicated to most of them. The only one that was able to go to the chalk board answer it correctly was Haruto.

Jihoon honestly then had a thing for smart people.

Besides the crush that Jihoon developed, he became close friends with the new students. They were Mashiho and Yoshi.

Jihoon exchanged phone numbers with the two of them. They soon developed a routine of texting each other whenever they arrived at their homes. They made random conversations about life at school and things they were interested in.

Jihoon often texted Mashiho more as they were much closer and shared more common interests.

One night, their conversation came to the point about crushes (again ⊙ω⊙ ).

"Do you have a crush on anyone in our class?" Mashiho texted Jihoon.

"I actually do." Jihoon replied.

"Who is it?" Mashiho teased. "Is it Kim Junkyu?"

Mashiho had also gotten close with Junkyu and heard of their story. A friendship that got shattered because of unrequited feelings.

When Mashiho mentioned Junkyu, Jihoon got a bit uncomfortable. He was quick to reply that it wasn't him and he liked someone else. He also added that they were just good friends.

Mashiho looked at his phone and frowned upon seeing this answer. He felt sad for Junkyu. The latter had admitted to him he still liked Jihoon. He mentioned how much he wished the secret about his crush on Jihoon didn't got out because maybe then the two would still be close.

Mashiho had wished Jihoon would have admitted he might reciprocate Junkyu's feelings. He was surely going to share the bits of it to Junkyu. But seeing how it was still one sided he wasn't going to say anything. It was only going to break Junkyu's heart.

Mashiho went on to ask Jihoon who was he crushing on as he was curious.

"It's Haruto." Jihoon hesitated to send it but he felt like he could trust Mashiho.

Mashiho was completely shocked by this.

Jihoon went on explaining why and Mashiho laughed so hard once Jihoon texted the reason to him. He sent him a long message consisting of 'hahahahahaha'.

"Stop laughing! How was I supposed to know that he doesn't take classes or studying seriously? He's like really smart but just keeps sleeping in our classes!"

When Jihoon first revealed this to Mashiho, he slowly started giving hints of him crushing over Haruto among their class. He was simply lovesick.

All their classmates soon learned about this, including Junkyu. Not many actually jumped in on teasing them. Haruto didn't really show any care as he wasn't interested in dating anyone at the moment.

Junkyu didn't say or comment anything about this to Jihoon. They were not really close anymore anyway. He was hurt by this and did his best to not show it to Jihoon but sometimes it just can't be avoided.

One time, Jihoon was tasked by their teacher to speak in front of the class. When Jihoon was in front and ready to begin, Haruto decided to amuse him.

"Go crush!" Haruto cheered.

Jihoon looked away blushing and smiling like an idiot. He was too blindly lovestruck to notice the look of hurt that crossed Junkyu's face.

Haruto wasn't aware of the past between the two. Unlike, Mashiho, he saw Junkyu and comforted him when needed.

That was the start of something.