try-hard •sunki au•

sixty-five

“What kind of gift is that?” Sunoo asked as he was putting the dirty plates on the sink.

Jungwon left the dorm earlier to give the two of them some privacy.

“Does it matter?” Riki said. “I was sleepless trying to print all these pictures last night.”

Sunoo rolled his eyes, sitting beside the younger boy on the bed. He took the small box in his hands and put the lid aside.

“Start with the September one,” Riki said, putting his head over Sunoo’s shoulder

There were two stacks of pictures inside the box, both turned upside down for a mystery effect. The left side has the date written and the other one has nothing.

Sunoo takes a stack of pictures with written dates on the back, just as Riki said. He flipped the first picture, it was himself walking on the hallway alone.

“What even is this?” Sunoo asked.

He flipped another picture and it was himself again.

“September?” Sunoo asked. “Do we already know each other back in September?”

“No,” Riki said. “That was the time when we shared the umbrella.”

“I was forced to share it with you,” Sunoo said, remembering the scene.

Sunoo continued flipping through the pictures and it’s just himself. All alone, walking in the hallway or in the pathway. Outside the dorm’s lobby and sometimes even outside the university.

“Are you a creep before?” Sunoo asked.

“Hell no,” Riki immediately said. “I was only trying to take pictures of your shirt so I can find an exact copy of it in the shop.”

“Then why do you still have it until now?”

Riki shrugged, “It’s cute.”

Riki arranged the pictures that Sunoo had already seen on the bed.

“Look, you only have one expression in all of them. I hate it,” Riki said. “Do you know why I started annoying you, in the first place?”

Sunoo didn’t speak as he only stared at his pictures. He was keeping a straight face in all of it, and he only realized now that the expression didn’t suit him at all.

“You’re already cute, but you’re cuter when upset,” Riki answered his own question. “It’s my goal to ruin your poker face and it's fun watching you trying to keep your calm.”

“I sincerely hated you back then,” Sunoo said as he continued flipping through the pictures.

The date was in the middle of October; the pictures became different. Sunoo isn’t alone in the frame anymore, Riki was beside him wearing the same shirt as him.

“Who took this picture?” Sunoo curiously asked.

“Sunghoon or Heeseung, I guess,” Riki said. “They were using that to blackmail me.”

There was a long silence between them as Sunoo kept flipping on the pictures. Riki sneakily snaked his one arm around Sunoo’s waist, the older boy didn’t say anything even after realizing it.