GLOW-UP

05 | confess your sins

"So, Moony," said Johnny once the math lecture was over, "first you gotta tell me for sure - who's on your mind, in your dreams, in your bed? Other than me, of course. I'm in everyone's metaphorical bed."

Taeil stared at him and frowned, midway through packing up his bag. "Why are you just sitting there?" he asked dumbly. "Aren't we going?"

Johnny's feet were up on the table again and he was leaning back in his chair as if he'd never leave. He actually looked as if he'd made camp right there in his seat and was thinking about maybe staying the night. "Oh, i'm waiting for you to pack up my stuff," he told him, with a lazy gesture towards his belongings.

Taeil cast his eyes over the surface of the desk. Johnny's stuff was strewn everywhere. "But-"

"Do it, slave," Johnny insisted, clicking his fingers. He watched Taeil pack up the contents of his pencil case with a smirk. "Anyway," he went on, going back to his original point, "after hashtag Choke On That Banana Dick, I'm gonna say you're into dudes."

"Wow. What a genius."

"Less of the talking, more of the packing, please," Johnny instructed, even though he was the one engaging Taeil in conversation in the first place. (Taeil sighed and put Johnny's calculator back in its case.) "What I need to know - so I can become your sex coach - who's banana is it?"

Taeil nearly choked on his own saliva. "You what?" he spluttered. Shoving the rest of the books back into Johnny's now fully packed bag, he dumped it onto the jock's lap and made as if to leave.

"Just tell me, Moony," said Johnny, also now rising to his feet - and standing a few too many inches taller than was convenient for Taeil to look up at.

"Why?" Taeil asked dubiously, wanting very much to evacuate the situation at the nearest exit. "It's not like you can just get anyone to date me."

"Pfft!" Johnny scoffed, slapping Taeil's back (a little too hard).

"I'm sorry?" Taeil blinked in surprise. He felt ever so slightly winded.

"Pfft!" Johnny slapped Taeil's back again for added emphasis, making him yell out in protest. "Do you seriously doubt me?" Johnny demanded. "I am the Master of Romance. Just you watch."

They walked side by side out of the math block and into the sunshine, the golden rays making Johnny look like he just walked out of a photoshoot. He always seemed to look like that. Perhaps it was the self-assured smile that always rested on his lips, or the effortless way he always held himself. Of course he could get any girl he wanted, when he walked and talked like that.

Taeil sighed.

"Prove it then," he challenged. It wasn't much of a challenge, if he was honest. Taeil pursed his lips and he scratched at the uncomfortable knitted wool of the sweater he wore. It itched one side of his neck where it always slipped above the collar of his shirt.

"Take that ugly sweater off and maybe I will," Johnny countered.

(He would probably never admit this, but the main reason he said that was because he didn't think he'd ever seen Taeil out of that woolly brown sweater, no matter what time of year it was. In fact, he wasn't sure he'd ever even seen Taeil's arms for that matter, and curiosity was Johnny's middle name. Also, it was September and the sun was aggressively hot that day.)

Taeil reluctantly swung off his backpack and started to try and tug the ugly brown sweater over his head - without having much luck. Everything always seemed to get stuck in that magic brown sweater, and Taeil could never seem to get out of it easily whenever he was in it. Well, there was that and also the fact that he wasn't very good at multi-tasking, and his backpack kept getting in the way.