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It was near the end of the school year when Dongyoung asked Youngho to stay for a while. They didn’t have any schedule for the track team that day, nor extra classes or cleaning duty. Dongyoung bought two small boxes of caramel milk he promised Youngho, bragging to him the day after he tasted it and claiming it would suit Youngho’s taste bud. He held them close to his chest while watching Youngho leisurely slumped himself down on the ground under the biggest tree in their school, so close to their track field. After Youngho settled his back on the tree comfortably, Dongyoung handing him one of the milk boxes, grinning widely.
“My treat,” Dongyoung said, still grinning.
“I know. That’s the least you can do to me before leaving,” Youngho reached his hand far, trying to retrieve the box from Dongyoung’s grip.
Dongyoung quickly plopped down next to Youngho after successfully handing the box. His back wasn’t rested on the tree, but he thought it was fine. At least he still got in the tree’s shade, protected from the sun’s blinding ray. It was already afternoon but the sun was still shining quite bright, turning into a different shade from the noon sky.
They both drank the caramel milk in silence. The kind of silence they were comfortable with. The kind of silence where they could hear the sound of them drinking the milk from the box using the straw. The kind of silence where they sat next to each other on one of their favorite spots in this school, after knowing each other for almost two years through the track team. Dongyoung was the new kid but already set his record with JM—Jongahri Monster as his codename. Youngho was his senior, his mentor perhaps? Anything sort of that. He guided Dongyoung in the team and kept a tab on him. Every senior at least had one junior to be under the supervision, the pairings were decided by their coach.
Dongyoung gulped down his caramel milk before breaking into a conversation, “so hyung, leaving school soon?”
“I should be the one saying that, dummy,” Youngho threw a glance to Dongyoung’s lean figure next to him.
Both of them were the most successful pair, as to how their coach declared one day afternoon after a hellish practice. Dongyoung set his record soon in the team after 3 months of joining, making him the Promising Junior who showed steady remarkable talent, the next ace. For Youngho, he was the ace even before Dongyoung joined in, almost making his way to national if it wasn’t for the stupid chickenpox. But whatever, Youngho wasn’t even aiming for national, he was aiming to have fun running on the track and ice cream after practice.
“AH, right, how unfortunate!” Dongyoung’s eyes grew bigger, his hand covered his mouth, exaggerating like how he always been playful to the older. He then let out the most stress-relieving laugh after diverting his sight to Youngho.
Youngho secretly loved the latter’s laugh, so he laughed along, saying ‘stupid’ and ‘what is this’ in between the laugh. After it died down, Youngho tried to pace back to their conversation, “it really is unfortunate, not gonna lie. My last year in school, yet you won’t see me graduate.”
There was a minute of silence, Dongyoung bore his eyes to Youngho who was still sipping his caramel milk really painfully slow.
“What to do? I am just a child that needs to be protected because apparently, I don’t know anything about this world. My parents won’t let me live alone until I graduate,” he showed Youngho a lopsided smile that could be deciphered as between sadness and ‘hey, that’s all right’ stance, still managing to give the older one a witty response.
“I just wish you could wait a bit before moving out,” Youngho averted his gaze to Dongyoung while the straw dangled from his lips, so he could meet the sad smile of him. He reached down to pat the younger one’s black hair, catching some blue strands from the highlight he recommended Dongyoung to take. Blue wasn’t really visible, it wouldn’t break the school rules, he said to the latter.
They stayed in silence for a while. Youngho was still playing with the blue strands of Dongyoung’s soft lock, meanwhile the younger one could only look at him. His gaze doldrums, but he still managed to appear composed.
The taller boy suddenly halted his fingers, slowly letting them loose one by one from Doyoung’s hair. He once again turned his gaze to the track field in front of them, back to sip his halfway to finish caramel milk. Dongyoung also did the same, though for him there was no more caramel milk to sip, so he shifted his attention to the milk box in his hand. He used his thumb to push the milk box inside that resulted in the air to burst out from the straw, erupting a funny sound. He chuckled to that.
“Will you miss me, hyung?”
It was in the middle of the practice when Dongyoung told Youngho he would move away. Out of the country, he said, while leaning casually on the tree—their favorite spot, hands crossed on his chest. Youngho who was lacing his shoe on the ground immediately looked up. The sun was blinding his vision a bit so he could see Dongyoung’s face, but could not decipher what that meant; what that crooked smile meant, what that eyes with glimmer meant. He could only let out an Oh, pausing a bit, and then went back to get his shoelace done. Then Doyoung spoke once again, saying probably Youngho wanted to know when he couldn’t find him on the field and that he would move out before the older one graduated. At that, Youngho’s heart stammered.
“What kind of competence you have that I should miss, huh?”
Dongyoung punched Youngho’s shoulder playfully and let out a laugh, whispering a ‘what was that’ in between his laugh. The taller boy laughed along, just like the usual, after hearing his junior’s stress-relieving laughter. They spent several minutes to laugh together, pushing each other on the shoulder gleefully. The laughter eventually stopped when Youngho almost spilled his caramel milk and Dongyoung slapped his shoulder too hard to be called as being playful.
“Hyung, let’s run,” there was a hesitation in Dongyoung’s voice when he said that. He got up from his seat after that, eyes on the track field. Youngho who just recovered from his laugh and spilled milk incident was caught up in blue. The hesitation, it indicated something that Youngho had been trying to ask the latter since a long time ago. But maybe, that was just how his heart and mind tried to make him believe.
“Loser buys ice cream?”
“Loser buys ice cream.”
Youngho sprung up from his seat so sudden and ran to the track field, leaving dumbfounded Dongyoung behind (also his caramel milk). The latter followed behind him not long after and shouted if Youngho was cheating, which only got returned with a loud laugh from him. He sped up, letting out all the glucose that he had sipped as his booster, succeeding in widening the gap between him and Dongyoung, enough to get a win and flex on the younger later on. However, nearing the finish line, he slowed down much until Dongyoung passed him and overtook the first position.
“Hyung?” Dongyoung, crouched down after the finish line, trying to catch his breath, peered a look at Youngho who walked over his direction in a calm demeanor. Youngho offered a hand to Dongyoung, in which Dongyoung gladly took to support him standing.
“Is it okay if I kiss you?”
His face was only an inch away from Dongyoung’s, he could see the blush started to creep on the latter’s face after he asked that simple question. He could not hide his smile when Dongyoung, eyed wide and lips slightly parted as in he was shocked, nodded his head. The latter then let out a sob and closed his eyes trying to ready himself.
So Youngho was going for the kiss. He put his left hand on Dongyoung’s soft cheek, using his thumb to stroke the younger’s delicate skin that was soaked with sweat. Slowly, he leaned in, taking the angle where he could put his lips on Dongyoung's. The next thing happened, both lips were molded into one in a rhythm only they could understand.
They kissed for a minute, all while tried to find the answer from the unspoken questions they kept all this time. Dongyoung was searching for did Youngho love him and what did this kiss mean. Youngho was searching for did Dongyoung understand if he loved him and what would happen next to them. Youngho was the one who broke the kiss, face flushed with crimson red, bashful. The same thing happened to Dongyoung, but then he spoke.
“You are full of sweat and heavy breath,” he chuckled, eyes full of shimmer. “But I am happy you kissed me. I had been waiting for a long time, even thinking that I wouldn’t get it since I will move out soon.”
“You are a fool,” Youngho kissed the corner of Dongyoung’s lips. “I wouldn’t let you go without a kiss from me,” he took Dongyoung’s hand in his hand, tangling them both together.
“Let me buy you ice cream, I lost in today’s race.”
“No goodbye this time?” Dongyoung asked, voice small.
“No goodbye, today,” and Youngho gave his sweetest smile to Dongyoung.
Today, they had stopped running for once to let everything fell into its place and their hearts.