GLOW-UP

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"right, yeah," taeil answered, letting the other boy dodge awkwardly past him, "b-bye!"

he watched taeyong bound away across campus, fantasising over a reality where their goodbye was different - where taeyong would kiss his cheek before finally letting go of his hand, turning to give a wave before disappearing into the art department. 

meanwhile, time was ticking by, and taeil was late.

"shit!" he hissed, forgetting johnny's water bottle and sprinting in the direction of the math block.

when he arrived, taeil apologised profusely to the lecturer and took his seat next to johnny... who was sipping from his water bottle.

"are you serious?" taeil huffed, slapping johnny's thigh rather hard under the desk.

johnny smirked at him and took another sip. "yeah, turns out it was in my bag," he said.

"you prick," taeil muttered.

"hey, lay off it, moony," said johnny, slamming the bottle down on the desk, "i did it to help you, obviously."

"how does making me late for class help me at all?" taeil glared at him.

"you're so clueless," johnny scoffed. "i passed taeyong before seeing you, dumbass, so i sent you right in his direction. get it now?"

taeil blinked. johnny really did that for him? "doesn't make it any better," he retorted, trying his best to keep up the angry facade, "you can't just order me around."

"yes, slave, yes i can."

---

despite pretending to still be mad at johnny, taeil's mood was on a high when he sat down in the science lab later that day.

"good to know someone in this miserable shithole is happy," doyoung drawled as he sat down next to him.

"afternoon to you too, partner," taeil nodded, giving doyoung a mini-salute.

"jesus, how many times- i am not- we are not partners," doyoung grumbled. he emptied his entire bag onto the desk just to try and find something in amongst the mess.

"uh, yes we are," taeil objected, "we're lab partners."

"wish we weren't."

"god, who took a shit in your milk?" taeil inhaled sharply, rolling his eyes.

"i'm lactose intolerant, fucktart."

taeil bit back another remark and instead started going through doyoung's stuff, which he was desperately trying to sort through. "why's your stuff so messy?" he asked, "you're usually neat as shit- is this jung jaehyun's homework again?"

"shut the fuck up!" doyoung hissed, snatching the papers right out of his hands. 

"why are you still writing up stuff for him?" taeil demanded, "you said you'd never write up notes for me, not even if jesus asked you to himself and-"

"can you shut your mouth?" doyoung pressed a finger to his temple, taking a breath. "fancy haircut's got you all confident, has it?"

"doyo-"

"fine!" doyoun burst out, crushing a sheet of paper in one hand, "you wanna know why i'm in a fucking bad mood? wifi. neighbour. coursework. jaehyun. put the puzzle together, sherlock."

taeil paused.

"...you have a crush on jaehyun?"

"are you inbred? no!" doyoung's hand flew up to hit him but he restrained himself, the hand curling into a fist and the arm lowering.