|Weak Hero| Falling For You [Gray X Stephen]

Chapter 1

"Excuse me, is this seat taken? I prefer sitting at the front and the other seats are taken,"

Gray's pink eyes were wide with shock as he stared at the person in front of him. He carefully took in the details of the reddish-brown hair and bright brown eyes. He took in every single details of the familiar face he had wished to see for so long.

'No, I can't have false hope again!' Gray thought. 'This can't be Stephen. His eyes don't show any recognition of me. If he was Stephen, he'd have greeted me and called my name. He's only asking if the seat's empty. This is just someone who looks like him,'

"The seat's free," Gray answered before returning to reading his textbook.

"Thanks," The young man sat down, placing his bag beside him. 

The professor entered the lecture hall not long after and introduced himself. He then started to take roll, calling each student's name from his list.

"Stephen Ahn?"

"Here,"

Gray's head whipped to the side to face his seatmate as his professor continued calling names. 'His name...his name's Stephen Ahn? He's actually Stephen!?' 

"Gray Yeon?"

"Here!" Gray nearly stuttered as he snapped his attention back to the front of the room. 'He doesn't recognize me. He doesn't show any recognition of my name either. so it's not because of my appearance. My appearance is still relatively the same except slightly longer hair than in middle school,'

He clenched his fist tightly when he realized when Stephen treated him like a stranger. It was because Stephen only saw him as a stranger. 

'He doesn't remember me,' Gray forced his emotions to stay down and refused to let his grief show on his face. 'He must've gotten amnesia from the fall. He probably wasn't able to look at any photos of us because his phone and sim card had both been destroyed beyond repair,'

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down as the class began. He needed to focus on the lesson right now. He could worry about his emotions later. He only had this class today so he was free after class to deal with his emotions in the privacy of his apartment.

It was extremely difficult. Stephen was right there, but Gray couldn't talk to him. He was extremely tempted to glance at him, but he resisted the urge because Stephen would notice and ask why he was staring. Gray...he wasn't ready to talk. He needed time to himself so that he could properly process his emotions.

Usually Gray would enjoy class. He loved learning and the bookshelf of textbooks in his room was proof of it. But today, class felt like an eternity. He constantly looked down at his watch, waiting for class to end so he could rush home.

Finally, the first day of class ended. Gray quickly packed up his bag and nearly sprinting out the hallway. Not wanting to attract any attention or accidentally bump into anyone, he just speed walked as if he was hurrying to another class.

Gray couldn't help but look back at least once to see Stephen. He wanted to confirm that he didn't disappear and that Stephen was real, not a hallucination.

He saw Stephen talking to a group of people who had been waiting for him in the hallway. He was happy and grinning as he chatted with them. Gray stopped walking and silently watched as Stephen walked in the opposite direction of him, further and further away.

Gray continued towards his apartment, this time not in a rush. His footsteps were slow and heavy, the weight of the new information weighing him down. His bangs casted a dark shadow over his eyes, hiding the whirlwind of emotions swirling inside them from view.

He finally reached his home and once he arrived, he dropped his bag and slumped to the ground, leaning his back against the door. 

'Stephen's awake...' Tears began to fall, sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto his shirt. 'Stephen's awake...so I should be happy, right? I yearned for so long for him to wake up, for so long to see him again. He's awake and I saw him...'

He bit his lower lip. 'But he doesn't remember me. He didn't recognize my name or my face. He sat next to me the entire time, but none of his memories came back, not even a brief memory of us together,'

Gray took out his phone and opened up his gallery. He scrolled past the photos and videos he had taken of his friends from Eunjang. He scrolled all the way to his photos and videos from his final year at Byuksan Middle School.

He was never one to take too many photos or videos. Only a handful of the photos and videos had been taken by him. The rest had been taken by Stephen when he had borrowed Gray's phone. He played one of the videos.

"The wild Grayticus Yeonicus appears in his natural habitat," Stephen narrated as he filmed Gray studying. "His pretty eyes scan through his textbook with laser sharp focus, taking in every single piece of information he comes across,"

"Stephen, what are you doing?" Gray asked, not looking up from his textbook and notes. "Adding —ticus or —icus to the ends of my name doesn't make it a scientific name,"

Gray smiled as he continued scrolling. He paused when he came across a photo of the two of them sharing their first kiss as his smile immediately dropped. 'He doesn't remember us. He doesn't remember when we were dating...'

"I want to reach out to him again," Gray whispered to himself through tears. "I want to hug him and tell him everything. I want hold him and never let go in case he disappears again...but..."

He remembered how Stephen happily chatted with the group of people after class had ended.

"But he's already moved on...He already has his own group of friends, actual friends who care about him and laugh with him instead of at him. He's...He's happy,"

'And maybe...maybe he already found someone else...' Gray couldn't bring himself to say that thought out loud. 'I want to selfishly return things to back when it was just the two of us. I want to hang out together with him, hug him, and kiss him. I want him to be mine again...but...'

"But I won't," Gray's voice sounded so broken. "I won't selfishly interrupt his new life. He's safe and happy. That's all that matters,"

In this AU, Stephen and Gray dated in middle school because I ship them. Also because of angst.