#ok you can throw ur tomatoes now idc

[rhodopsins]

because of you (i can’t do anything)

howon/sungjong ; 3.2k

06:43 sungyeolie: get up u lazy asses 06:43 sungyeolie: its not my fault if ur all late 06:44 sungyeolie: ok fine be late idc 06:46 woohyunie: shut up 06:46 woohyunie: i’m awake 06:47 woohyunie: i woke up at 5 okay shut up you’re so annoying 06:48 sungyeolie: wow!!!!!! 06:48 sungyeolie: as expected of our oh-so diligent president!!!!!! 06:49 sungyeolie: should i record ur speech for u?????? 06:50 sungyeolie: so u can show sunggyu-hyung????? 06:50 sungyeolie: how good u r with ur mouth??? 06:51 sungyeolie: maybe hes gonna come down?????? 06:51 sungyeolie: from seoul juuuuuust to see u??????? 06:56 sungyeolie: ok ignore me ok fine 06:57 sungyeolie: im just trying to help 07:30 howonie: fuck 07:31 howonie: why the fuck didn’t either of u assholes call me srsly 07:31 howonie: god i hate u two so much

howon nearly considers just staying home. even if he runs to the train station, even if all the trains run on time, even if he manages to avoid the morning crush, he’ll still be at least fifteen minutes late to the opening assembly on the first day of class. but he’s a third year now, and he knows that as the president of the hip hop dance club, he might get penalized if he’s not there.

he groans even as he pulls his school dress shirt over the tank he’d worn to sleep and shucks off his shorts. he ties his navy blue tie on as he’s running out of the door, toeing on his shoes as he goes. he can just imagine the looks he’s going to get when he ends up walking into the auditorium late like some lame first year who doesn’t know his way around.

by some miraculous chain of events, the train he takes to school is on time, there aren’t too many people in his train car smushed up against him, and he manages to squeak his way into school just before the gates close. he’s only five minutes late now, and as he strolls almost leisurely through the hallways, he notices a lone figure wandering around. he can tell by the uniform that that’s not a teacher, that it’s a student. he’s about to pass by to get to the auditorium when the other student hears his footsteps and turns, and howon stops dead in his tracks.

“excuse me, sorry, i’m lost. my stupid brother goes here, but he left me so he could go canoodle with his boyfriend, and i don’t know where the auditorium is. could you please show me the way there?” the other student says, and howon stares at him, not really processing any of his words. his eyes are large and round, and his voice is melodious and lilting, and when howon steps closer to him, he can tell that the other student’s a first year by the tie around his neck (they’re color coded at his school: maroon for first years, dark green for second years, and navy blue for third years). he smells good. like flowers, but more than that, like an omega.

howon hates dramas. he thinks they’re dumb and unrealistic with barely the thinnest thread of reason and sanity linking them to real life, but in this moment, he has a sudden realization that maybe dramas aren’t really as terrible as he thinks they are. he takes the other boy’s wrist and leads him through the hallways, turning the corners, until they’re standing in front of a pair of double doors.

“thank you, sunbaenim,” the student says, bowing at the waist, and it’s then that howon realizes he’s a lot taller than howon himself is. he brushes a stray strand of hair behind his ear when he stands back up and moves to open the door, but howon moves on instinct and blocks him. the first year blinks down at howon. “sunbaenim?”

“what’s your name?” howon asks, and he extends a hand. the other student takes it, bowing again, but not as far down this time. the spark that passes through howon’s body is electric, and he wonders if he’s the only one who felt it. “i’m lee howon. i’m a third year.”

the student blinks at him again before he smiles, and howon notices that he has a mole on his nose. that’s cute. “i’m lee sungjong, a first year, as you probably noticed. thank you for showing me the way here again.”

he bows one last time before he opens the door to the auditorium and goes to the right, where all of the first years are seated. howon makes his way to the left and sits down with the rest of his class, and he feels like woohyun is giving him the stink eye from where he’s currently standing on stage and giving the opening speech. he doesn’t pay attention at all, instead thinking of a soft palm against his own and an even softer voice.

howon mentally sends up a prayer and a thanks that he hadn’t woken up with his alarms this morning, that he’d fallen asleep at five, that he’d spent nearly the entire night thinking up a new choreography for his club to use for this year’s chuseok festival, because if he hadn’t been late for school, there’s no way he would ever have met sungjong, no way he would ever have bumped into him in the hallways and helped him get to the auditorium. lee sungjong. sungjong. he won’t forget that name.

he’s distracted for the rest of the day. he’s been doodling all over his notebooks when his notes are usually the nicest of them all, organized and precise. he can practically feel sungyeol’s eyes burning into the back of his head all through korean and english and math, and when the bell finally rings for lunch, sungyeol prods him in the back with a violence that makes howon rear back and slap the beta’s hand away. “what do you want, stupid?”

“fucking spill, lee howon, what’s wrong with you?” sungyeol asks, getting up in howon’s face, and he can’t help the smile that spreads across his face at sungyeol’s annoyance. “see? see? what the hell’s wrong with you? you didn’t even respond when i said we should throw tomatoes at woohyun’s ugly head during the assembly!”

oh. they really should’ve done that. maybe next time woohyun has to do a speech they’ll do that. “nothing’s wrong,” howon starts, and he can practically see a vein on sungyeol’s forehead threaten to pop. “except i met the cutest fucking omega ever.” howon preens, then adds, just to piss sungyeol off, “cuter than myungsoo.”

sungyeol’s eyes narrow at him. “okay, first off, no one’s cuter than myungsoo. you’re just blind, myungsoo’s face is an actual work of art. and his personality, too, but his face? hello? also, what the fuck? you were late and you managed to meet a cute first year? who even does that?”

“i do, obviously. you wish you were as good as i am.” howon leans back in his chair, smug, and in the seat behind him, sungyeol leans back as well, crossing his arms over his chest. he takes out his phone and taps something out, and howon takes his phone out as well when he feels a slight buzz.

12:31 sungyeolie: yo nam get ur ass over here 12:31 sungyeolie: hoaegi has a fucking crush 12:32 sungyeolie: on a first year 12:32 sungyeolie: cradle robber

“alright, describe him. let’s see if he’s really as cute as you think he is,” sungyeol says as woohyun throws the door of their classroom open and bounds over to where they’re sitting. woohyun’s in another class, and howon would miss him more if he weren’t an insufferable prick some of the time, which means all of his waking moments.

“spill, lee, we only have twenty-eight minutes and you’re wasting them all,” woohyun says, sitting down into an unoccupied chair next to them. he steeples his fingers underneath his chin. “let’s hear who’s got your heart in his hands, you fucking cradle robber.”

howon stares at woohyun. “ew, don’t say that again, or i’ll tell sunggyu-hyung, who, by the way, was the original cradle robber, that you’re cheating on him with a first year omega.”

woohyun snorts. “sunggyu-hyung knows i only have eyes for him, you dumbass. besides, i’d never leave him for a stupid first year. my boyfriend is in university. seoul national university school of law, by the way, in case you guys haven’t heard.”

of course they’ve heard. when sunggyu had gotten his acceptance letters from universities two years back, woohyun had been the first one to tell everyone, even before sunggyu himself had a chance to let people know, that he’d gotten into his first choice program at his first choice school.

“we know. you totally don’t tell us every other second,” sungyeol says drily, before he turns his attention back on howon. “okay, shoot.”

howon lets the smile that had been threatening to break out onto his face the entire day finally show, and he catches woohyun’s and sungyeol’s expressions of disgust before he starts. “so i met him when he was lost this morning before the assembly because i was late and he couldn’t find the auditorium because he said his idiot brother left him alone to go canoodle with his boyfriend, whatever that means, and i walked him to the auditorium and he was super pretty and tall and nice and he smelled super good.” howon thinks back to that moment, closing his eyes to relive the memory. “oh, and he had a really cute mole.”

when howon finally opens his eyes again, he notices that both of the expressions on sungyeol’s and woohyun’s faces have changed. woohyun’s face has morphed into something akin to wild glee and he keeps looking at sungyeol and then at howon, while sungyeol’s is somewhere in between shock and barely-concealed annoyance. “what? i told you he’s cuter than myungsoo.”

“where,” sungyeol starts, his voice sounding strangled, “was his mole?”

what a weird question. sungyeol is weird. maybe he wants to ditch myungsoo for sungjong, but howon has the answer to that ready. “on his nose. it was really cute.”

woohyun lets out the loudest bark of laughter he’s ever heard, and he nearly falls off of the chair trying to hold his stomach. howon watches him cackle, wondering why he’s laughing so hard, before he looks back up at sungyeol’s face. sungyeol’s face is strangely placid now, smooth and uncreased, and howon doesn’t know why that unsettles him more than it should.

the lunch bell rings, and when woohyun leaves, he claps both sungyeol and howon on the backs. “good luck, guys. seriously, good luck.” as woohyun walks back to his own class, howon can just barely make out him saying to himself, “oh, this is so good, this is so fucking good,” and he wonders just what about this is good.

the rest of the day ends in a flurry of syllabi being handed out and a strange sensation prickling at the back of his neck. he feels like sungyeol’s glaring daggers into his back, but howon has no idea why. maybe he’s feeling threatened on myungsoo’s behalf. as he packs up his books to leave, he notices that sungyeol’s still in his seat. “not going home?” he asks, hands pausing on the straps of his backpack.

“i have to help myungsoo unpack some stuff for his photography club,” sungyeol mutters, his eyes fixed on his phone. “just go.”

howon doesn’t need to be told twice. he’s almost at the entrance of the school when he sees a familiar silhouette in front of him, and his heart very nearly leaps. he walks just a little bit faster so he can catch up, and he claps sungjong on the arm. “hey, sungjong,” howon says, grinning.

“hi, howon-sunbaenim,” sungjong says, inclining his head just slightly. his strides are long, and howon has to take faster steps than he usually does to keep up. “how was your day?”

“it was alright,” howon replies. he has time to kill today, and it’s just the first day of schoo, so he doesn’t really have anything to lose either way, but— “do you want me to walk you home? or to the train station? or something?”

“i’m fine, sunbaenim,” sungjong says, apology in his voice, and before howon can let himself be too crushed, he continues. “i usually take the train home with my brother, anyway.”

“ah, makes sense.” howon nods. “by the way, you can just call me hyung. no need for sunbaenim or anything like that, okay?”

“okay, hyung.” sungjong smiles, and howon wonders if he’s the first upperclassman to befriend this kid. they’re outside the gates now, and howon thinks that the reason they’d made it so quickly is because of sungjong’s long strides. “um, this is where i usually wait for my brother, but he’s a little bit late today, so—”

“it’s fine,” howon says, waving it off. if he finds out who sungjong’s brother is, maybe he can gain some brownie points with him if he and the brother already know each other. “what class is your brother in?”

“hm, i think he’s in 3-b? i don’t know for sure, though. sorry, hyung.”

3-b? that’s the class he and sungyeol are in, so he definitely knows who sungjong’s brother is. he’s about to ask when he spies sungyeol walking towards them, his hands intertwined with myungsoo’s. he almost waves to sungyeol to call him over to ask if he knows sungjong’s brother as well when sungjong follows his line of sight and he turns.

howon nearly opens his mouth to introduce the two before sungjong beats him to it. “hyung, you’re so late! i told you i wanted to get home early tonight to help umma out with dinner,” sungjong whines, smacking sungyeol on the arm. “you’re gonna have to walk aga and nari and kkong later then, okay?”

“okay, okay, i’m sorry,” sungyeol laughs, but his eyes aren’t smiling at all. his eyes fix on howon’s then, and he cocks his head in a false show of innocence. “oh? who’s this?”

howon sees myungsoo’s eyebrows knit together in confusion, and he thinks that he would be feeling the same way if all of the puzzle pieces weren’t slowly and steadily falling into place.

“oh, this is howon-hyung,” sungjong says, a smile back on his face. “he helped me when i was lost this morning. he’s very nice.”

“oh, really? howon-hyung?” sungyeol asks, that damned wide-eyed expression still on his face, and howon knows that he’s fixated onto the lack of honorific. “well, howon-hyung, it’s very nice to meet you. thanks so much for taking care of my baby brother. so good to see that there are still decent people in the world.”

“you too,” howon can only bow back numbly when sungyeol does, and when myungsoo opens his mouth to interject, sungyeol’s grabbing both myungsoo and sungjong by the arms and frog-marching them in the direction of the train station.

“bye, howon-hyung!” sungjong yells out, and howon waves at him until he can’t see them anymore. when they’re gone, he stands there for what feels like hours, and he feels a cold dread start to seep into his bones.

lee sungjong is the brother of lee sungyeol, the guy he’s known since elementary school, the guy he’s been best friends with ever since, the guy who’s on a speaking basis with howon’s own parents.

fuck.

22:13 howonie: so 22:13 howonie: listen 22:13 howonie: sungyeol 22:13 howonie: sungyeolie 22:14 howonie: my friend 22:14 howonie: my bestest friend from first grade 22:14 howonie: let’s b real 22:14 howonie: sunggyu-hyung was really lenient on u 22:15 howonie: when u were trying to get into myungsoo’s pants 22:15 howonie: so i’m just saying 22:16 howonie: if sunggyu-hyung didn’t kill u 22:16 howonie: maybe u should be like 22:16 howonie: be lenient 22:17 howonie: on me 22:17 howonie: plz 22:17 howonie: i think ur brother is rly cute 22:18 howonie: no ill intent 22:18 howonie: at all 22:18 howonie: i swear 22:18 howonie: to god 22:19 howonie: why aren’t u responding 22:19 howonie: u have ur read receipts on 22:19 howonie: plz sungyeol 22:20 woohyunie: lmao 22:20 woohyunie: lmaaaoooooo 22:20 woohyunie: lmaaaaaoooooooooo 22:20 woohyunie: g fucking g dude 22:21 woohyunie: you’re fucked lol 22:21 woohyunie: you better kiss your knot goodbye 22:22 sungyeolie: ^^^^ what he said 22:22 sungyeolie: if u speak to my brother i will end u 22:22 sungyeolie: if u touch my brother i will end u 22:22 sungyeolie: if u breathe near my brother i will end u 22:23 sungyeolie: if u even think about my brother i will end u 22:23 sungyeolie: ill chop off ur dick and feed it to my cats 22:23 sungyeolie: and we will all dance on ur grave 22:24 woohyunie: holy shit lol 22:24 woohyunie: give up now while you still can, busan 22:25 sungyeolie: r u screenshotting this 22:25 sungyeolie: and sending it to sunggyu-hyung 22:25 woohyunie: yeah 22:26 sungyeolie: k good that way hes gonna know what happened 22:26 sungyeolie: so he doesnt have to find out from his obit 22:27 woohyunie: l m a o 22:27 woohyunie: seriously dude give up now 22:27 woohyunie: unless you like not having a dick 22:28 woohyunie: or living 22:28 sungyeolie: cradle robbers arent welcome here 22:28 sungyeolie: only purity 22:29 howonie: wtf about u and nam is pure 22:29 howonie: nothing 22:30 sungyeolie: myungsoo and i r only seven months apart u shit 22:30 sungyeolie: this is the purest kind of love 22:31 woohyunie: yeah same 22:31 woohyunie: me and sunggyu-hyung 22:31 woohyunie: so fucking pure 22:32 woohyunie: emphasis on the fucking btw 22:32 howonie: ?????????????????? 22:32 howonie: dude i swear i’ll be good to sungjong 22:32 howonie: plz 22:32 howonie: plz help me don’t cut off my knot 22:33 howonie: i gotta live too 22:33 sungyeolie: die in a hole 22:34 woohyunie: sunggyu-hyung says he hopes you understand his pain 22:34 sungyeolie: i do 22:34 sungyeolie: can u tell him im sorry 22:34 sungyeolie: bc now i get it 22:35 woohyunie: he asks if you’re going to break up with myungsoo 22:35 sungyeolie: fuck no what the fuck 22:35 sungyeolie: hes mine now 22:35 sungyeolie: forever 22:36 woohyunie: he says he hopes you suffer then 22:36 woohyunie: he says he will represent busan in court if he has to 22:37 howonie: yay sunggyu-hyung’s on my side!!!!!!! 22:37 sungyeolie: shut the fuck up 22:37 sungyeolie: like actually 22:38 sungyeolie: again 22:38 sungyeolie: lemme just reiterate 22:39 sungyeolie: if u speak to my brother i will end u 22:39 sungyeolie: if u touch my brother i will end u 22:40 sungyeolie: if u breathe near my brother i will end u 22:40 sungyeolie: if u even think about my brother i will end u 22:41 sungyeolie: im going to go warn him 22:41 sungyeolie: about u now 22:41 sungyeolie: bye 22:42 howonie: wait no 22:42 howonie: wait 22:42 howonie: why 22:43 woohyunie: sunggyu-hyung says you’re pathetic 22:43 woohyunie: and that you’re a cradle robber 22:44 howonie: wtf 22:44 howonie: dude he’s in uni and ur in high school 22:44 howonie: he’s the real cradle robber here 22:45 woohyunie: ok tbh the cradle robbed him 22:45 woohyunie: if you know what i mean 22:45 woohyunie: heh 22:46 howonie: fuck off you’re disgusting 22:46 woohyunie: he says he won’t represent you anymore 22:46 woohyunie: so you’re on your own 22:47 woohyunie: sucks to fucking suck lmao 22:48 woohyunie: hope you enjoy being knotless 22:48 howonie: :(