"What again? How much money do you need?" he threw up these words as he felt Jooyeon tap his arm from behind. He was now in the library, sitting with his headphones turned on and a slow, mellow melody playing. The blond sat in front of him on the red armchair and crossed his arms on the desk, not saying anything. "You are so weird, you know that?" Jiseok muttered, sighing quietly.
Jooyeon smiled at him eloquently, as if waiting for Jiseok to realise why he came to him, but Jiseok was just oblivious or pretended not to know. After all, he was A ROCKSTAR and not a magician.
"You are testing my limits now," Jiseok said, putting the headphones down and closing the book he was reading. It was run reading from time to time but wasn't his hobby, his mind was going crazy after following lines of text that seemed to flow together. "How much do you want?" he repeated the same question and scanned the face of Jooyeon who seemed to enjoy this moment very much.
"I was thinking about another smoking session but okay, 400 dollars." he smiled both excited and sad. This amount of money was sufficient for him to buy some nice games and not really important stuff to make his fragile existence interesting but smoking with Jiseok seemed more appealing.
"Why don't you go and smoke yourself?" this question was rather stupid, he knew that Jooyeon would say thank you for such an offer, but it was worth trying. Maybe it was his lucky day and after these words, the boy would be gone.
"Boring. I prefer doing it with you." was his answer, sealed with a loud noise of his fists hitting the black wooden table.
"I can give you some," he searched for the pack of cigarettes in the pocket of his blue torn jeans and Jooyeon just sighed annoyingly. "You have a friend, don't you? The emo one," he asked thinking about whom he had seen with Jooyeon on the corridor and all he remembered was a tall, lean boy who to him looked a little mysterious and had heavy eyeliner on.
"Hyeongjun. I am not gonna smoke with him, apart from that he is hanging out with his boyfriend now," he responded shortly, making Jiseok wonder if there was even a chance for him to spend some time alone during his two-hour break. He couldn't be stuck with this irritating blond any more.
"Maybe it's your chance to get closer to his boy, the three of you can chat together, it's gonna be funny." he tried persuading him but Jooyeon scoffed making it obvious that he didn't like the idea.
"You are trying to get rid of me so badly, why can't you just spend some time with me instead?" he rolled his eyes as if it wasn't a big deal. Just a few minutes with Jooyeon won't do much? Whoever would say that, in Jiseok's opinion, would be so wrong. It was hilarious.
"What do you want from me now? My money or what?"
"I mean money is good, but I enjoy talking with you and I thought you do too." Jooyeon shrugged looking at Jiseok with his big eyes and a pitiful sight in them. It didn't make Jiseok feel any strong emotions despite pure frustration.
"Jooyeon we talked for longer than 5 minutes max two times," he started, causing the boy to straighten up as if he had just heard Jiseok accepting his offer. It concerned Jiseok a bit too much. "And all these talks revolved around nothing special."
"You may be right but they were still interesting. Isn't it amazing how we turn dull topics cool?" he was so carefree it made Jiseok wonder how he acted so untouched even after clearly hearing that he didn't want to talk with him. Wasn't he hurt? He was sitting there smiling waiting for him to change his mind but Jiseok didn't seem willing to do so.
"No, Jooyeon," he shook his head from side to side despite strongly agreeing with him. Somehow their talks were intriguing no matter what, yet it wasn't the most important now. The most important thing in fact was that Jiseok wanted Jooyeon to get away from him. "Now go," he got up, noticing that Jooyeon did nothing about his words as if he were deaf.
Jooyeon smiled at him, still the pitiful note visible on his face and didn't move even an inch. He was welded to the chair and the chair to the ground. The boy just followed Jiseok's silhouette with his eyes.
"Jiseok..." he groaned as Jiseok started pulling him away from the table and with his one hand he stuffed cigarettes into his pocket.
"Get out!"
"But I don't have a fucking lighter!" Jooyeon was now facing him with a silly-looking grimace on his face. If Jiseok had to guess, he'd say he was as pissed at Jiseok as Jiseok was at him.
"Now you have," he passed him his own and with a quick movement, he stood behind Jooyeon who had a cozy, brown hoodie on, and put his hands on his back just to laboriously push him out of the library. "Enjoy your time."
"But Jiseok," he was slowly walking towards the exit probably realising that there was no hope for him. "Why can't you go with me?"
"Are we friends?" he asked him a simple question as they finally reached the door. And Jooyeon gave him a look he couldn't decipher then he showed him his middle finger and walked away. "I guess not," he responded to himself turning around to reach the desk again but before he did so, he felt a firm grip on his back. What the heck was wrong with this kid? "Kindly, fuck off."
"Gaon, excuse me?" it wasn't Jooyeon's voice. It was way deeper and more mature. It belonged to his dearest friend and bandmate— Goo Gunil.
"Shit, I thought you were him." he pointed at the blond that sauntered through the grey corridor.
"Oh, the club baby," the slightly taller man nodded saying those words. Gunil had heard so much about him from Jiseok's stories lately, but he hadn't seen him at school yet. "You know you shouldn't give him any more money, right?"
"But it's funny whenever he walks up to me. He is funny." Jiseok replied, making the black-haired boy startled, he looked up at him and furrowed his thick eyebrows.
"I thought you didn't like him," was his response. What Jiseok had in common with that boy was, in his opinion, incomprehensible and bizarre.
"It's not that I like him," Jiseok shook his head from side to side almost laughing. How ridiculous of Gunil! "It's amusing with him, but he's annoying."
"Still, you don't have to do all these things," the older boy concluded straightening the sleeves of his slightly tight t-shirt. They were now heading back to the place from where Jiseok had walked to the exit with Jooyeon. "He's a young man, I don't even have an idea how the hell he got to the Uni at this age." Gunil started, his voice quite annoyed.
"He went to school a year earlier than children usually do and that's how." he sat on the red chair again, crossing his legs and bending over the book he was previously reading.
"Oh, how did you—never mind, he is still a young man and the thing you do isn't normal, what if he thinks he has a chance with you, because as I can see you're not trying to show him to leave you?" Jiseok just looked at him from the crooked position he was in now, he had that frustrated sight in his eyes that made Gunil shiver.
"If he does, I'm gonna simply state that nothing is gonna work out," he shrugged. "But he doesn't."
"It looks like he has you wrapped around his little finger and you don't mind it." Gunil sighed putting the bottle of water he was carrying with himself on the desk, he was so done with Jiseok. Still, after a second his eyes were fixed on him again. His voice made him do that.
"He hasn't, Gunil."
"Would you give out money to a random person?" Gunil rested his chin on his fist as if to show some involvement in the talk, but Jiseok knew that he was only making fun of him and didn't take his answers seriously, because he supposedly knew better.
"If this person has the potential to ruin my future, of course." it seemed obvious to Jiseok. Being a musician was something he loved and never wanted to give up, additionally not because of Jooyeon.
"It's your only argument. Despite it, you seem to be enjoying your chit-chats with him."
"Because I do, as I said, he is funny as hell," he didn't get why Gunil was so confused about his mindset. To him, all he did seemed rational and was the only correct thing everyone would have done in his place. "But as we said before when he thinks he has a chance I am gonna brutally reject him."
"You won't do that." Gunil just stared at him with his sleepy, dreamy eyes but Jiseok noticed his eyelid twitching from time to time. He drank too much caffeine.
"You sure?" Jiseok bit his lower lip, it sounded like a challenge to him. Like a game, he was supposed to win.
"Yeah, it's ridiculous the way a simple boy made you lose your mind." he squinted his eyes. Gunil was getting out of control. All the words that rolled off his tongue in the past ten minutes were frivolous.
"I'm not into boys," Jiseok started simply, although both he and Gunil knew it wasn't a fact. He liked boys or at least everything indicated it, but it wasn't the matter in this case. Jiseok chuckled catching Gunil's sly smile and continued. "Boys like him are the reason why I prefer girls, he was so brazen at the club, don't you remember? Gross." he moved his body as if electrocuted, it made his interlocutor laugh. "But even if a girl was brazen I'd still prefer them."
"You are so amazed by him, it's unreal, Jiseok." Gunil was stubborn. He had always been like this and so was Jiseok.
"If I were amazed, I'd know that." he snapped his fingers and took the bottle from the desk taking a few sips. "Now, why don't we move to the next topic? It's a lost cause."
"Sure, I'm gonna give you some time to think on your own," Gunil replied, smiling even broader than before. He knew he made Jiseok slightly intimidated. It wasn't his aim but it still made him feel proud. "So, I am gonna talk about how I'm the least lucky person in the world today."
"What?" he laughed putting a hand to hide his smile.
"To start, I fucking fell on the ground while running late for the bus." Gunil bulged his eyes and smiled upwardly. Then receiving another giggle from Jiseok he continued talking about what happened before he got to the school. "But the worst thing is that after I got on the train I realized that I forgot to take the right bag with me so I don't have both my food and headphones now."
"It's definitely not your day, Gunil." he sighed as he finished the whole story. Then he suddenly reminded himself of what he wanted to ask him so badly since he learned about it. "Have you heard that Seungmin is going to the concert?"
"Mhm..." he hummed looking through some open pages on his browser. He didn't listen to Jiseok anymore.
"Gunil, Seungmin is going to see us. He will see you." he pinched Gunil on the cheek and that was when the older finally received the information.
"Fuck, what? How come?" Gunil was outraged, it was the last thing he expected to happen. He and Seungmin didn't get on well and seeing him on the tour didn't sound very pleasant.
"Tina told me," Jiseok continued dwelling on the topic that drove Gunil nuts but at the same time he wanted to know the reason. "She is friends with his cousin don't you remember? And she learned it from her."
"But why the fuck is he coming here?" his face was all red and the fingers that used to be placed around the bottle were now nervously tapping the table.
"Probably to make you angry... so be strong," Jiseok recommended sending him a sympathetic smile. He noticed how tense Gunil was so he shrugged his own shoulders as if to get rid of the stiff atmosphere around them.
"You know that I don't give a fuck about him, right? I just don't understand why he will go there." these words rolled off his tongue with a note of doubt resounding in the air. Gunil scoffed and added. "I didn't know he liked our music."
"He doesn't, I mean at least this is not the reason why," Jiseok breathed out and stared at Gunil with such irritation etched on his face. "He loves annoying you."
"Just like Jooyeon," Gunil said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and as he saw Jiseok's reaction to this statement, he furrowed his brows and crossed his arms.
"Don't compare them, Jooyeon is cute." the younger one blurted out feeling his cheeks getting warm. The look Gunil gave him made him feel embarrassed.
"Huh, really?" His eyes were numb and sly, Jiseok felt shivers run down his spine and at the same moment he wanted to shake his body in every direction possible to get rid of this weird sensation.
"I mean, in comparison to Seungmin." he tried explaining himself, he felt the lack of air in his lungs but he was unable to breathe in. Gunil's sight made him talk until he'd get rid of the small, almost non-existent remnants of oxygen. "Seungmin annoys you because he likes making you feel bad and Jooyeon does it because—"
"Because he likes your money." Gunil cut him off. He had a proud look on his face, he knew how it was, he heard from Jiseok's stories about their encounters and Jooyeon didn't seem to be interested in Gaon at all. He just desperately wanted his money and that was it.
"No, he doesn't," Jiseok uttered, his voice sharp and firm. The same about his eyes.
"Mhm, the audacity to defend him," Gunil laughed more mischievously than he had planned and Jiseok swallowed hard. "He is just into those dollars."
"Can we stop?" he protested, showing him his bare teeth. Gunil could see how angry he was.
"You started."
"Excuse me? You mentioned him." he was still fighting with him, his heart was beating extremely fast and Gunil's voice made it worse.
"But it wasn't me who complimented him." the pace doubled and Jiseok clasped his own hands trying to come up with an idea on how to get away from this talk. It was just a small compliment. Nothing serious, especially not when the talk previously revolved around Seungmin who was a bigger deal.
"Okay, let's just go back to what we were talking about," he said not even making eye contact with him and that's why Gunil snorted. Still, he didn't comment on Jiseok's decision, he knew how unbearable this situation was for him so he just stared at him with a slight scorn in his eyes and let him continue the conversation as he wished. "I bet we won't even notice him in the crowd so there is nothing to worry about."
"I'm not worrying about it. Still, the fact that he is coming weirds me out." Gunil sighed, deep inside he was scared of that and just didn't want to admit it out loud. "He probably wants to spoil the concert."
"Well, but are we letting him do that?" usually, he would say it in a louder tone but at that moment they both still felt bitter-sweet so his voice sounded unmotivated and unexcited.
"No, of course, not."
"Right. We won't even see him there, Gunil," he concluded patting his arm that laid on the dark table.