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Lee Seokmin was possibly one of the oddest people that you had ever met in your life.
When you met him, it had been a completely normal day. It was your first day of high school, you lived in a small town and you knew everyone. You had had no clue that he would even be coming to your class.
Everything had been so normal. You were talking to your friends, having a great day, so excited to get older, be a teenager. You were carelessly talking to Paige and Shayla, and ignoring stupid Junghyun at the table over whistling and saying obscenities just like you were used to.
And then Lee Seokmin walked in.
No one else noticed him, no one other than you.
He stood in the doorway and stared around at all the other students. You could tell he was nervous and he had every right to be so.
He was moving into a small town. Everyone was close to everyone. It would be a hard place to fit into. Everyone already had solid relationships with one another that this boy just probably wouldn’t fit in.
At a glance, he seemed taller than most people in your class, but you thought part of that might be because he was lanky. You tilted your head, trying to figure out how or why or what he was thinking while standing there.
That’s when his eyes fell on you.
He jolted back just slightly, his eyes widening as he did so. You two stared at each other for a minute, holding one another's gazes until you found the whole situation a little too odd.
You looked away, returning your attention back to Shayla. She was talking about one of her favorite idols, gushing about the fact that he had actually gotten lines this comeback.
You were almost completely reintegrated into the story when suddenly, a large warm mass collided into yours. You startled this time, turning and looking at the stranger with a surprised expression. He smiled at you brightly.
“What did I miss?”
Your entire group of friends fell silent, honestly all slightly perturbed by the way that this stranger just hopped into your lives as if he had always been a part of it. You struggled to find words that made sense.
You only ended up mumbling nonsense. He laughed.
“Come on y/n! Don’t pretend like you’ve forgotten your old pal Lee Seokmin.”
And from then on you were best friends.
He just sort of inserted himself into your life, into your friend group.
It was practically genius the way that he just put himself out there. If he spoke of something for the first time and you didn’t all just run with it he would act like you were all bad friends for not remembering this essential aspect of his life.
It was kind of funny, how offended he would get if you all forgot something. You remembered his first birthday with you guys. He had come in, all smiles and pure unadultered joy, only to drop it all when he realized that you all hadn’t bothered to bring him a birthday present.
You thought about that day a lot. The way he had teasingly told you guys off.
One of the things that really stuck with you about him was how good-natured he was. How he genuinely just fell into a close relationship with everyone around you.
That’s why you were so confused the day he asked you out.
“How is my favorite little geek doing?” Seokmin teased, You rolled your eyes.
“Oh, right I’m the geek. Not Mr. King Arthur over there,” you said flabbergasted. Seokmin chuckled and took a seat beside you, setting a small cup of coffee in front of you. You picked it up, thanking him with a soft noise of affirmation.
“How you holding up?” He asked you thoughtfully.
“Fine, just ready for finals to be over.”
You two had come a long ways since high school. You were in college now, and you were two peas in a pod.
He admitted to you once that that first day he had been utterly terrufied to be at your school. He hadn’t wanted to move, and he had been having a hard time keeeping positive about going someplace that even he knew would have a bunch of tight-knit social groups already.
When you had caught him standing there in that doorway, looking around at all the kids, he had been trying to figure out if it was at all worth it. He had been trying to decipher whether or not he should just pack up and go... Forget even trying.
And then he made eye contact with you and you had let him in.
For only a fraction of a second, but even for that short amount of time you had welcomed him into your life. And he took advantage of that invitation.
You took a sip of the beverage that he had set in front of you, happy to have it in your system. It was just the boost you had needed.
And, even better, it was your favorite drink.
“Thank you,” you murmured.
Seokmin didn’t drink coffee a lot. He had sworn it off sometime in high school because he had decided his energy could be a bit too overwhelming for people most of the time, and that was when he wasn’t even drinking caffeine.
You never asked him for coffee, but you thought that maybe a part of him had just really wanted you to drink what he couldn’t because he was always bringing you coffee when you were working and needed a pick me up..
“You want to do something after your done? I know how stressed you get when you spend too much time studying.”
“I think I might be alright this time around,” you replied. “I’m a little tired today.”
Seokmin got to his feet, adjusting where he was seated. He got up and sat down on top of the table, his leg bouncing rapidly up and down. You placed a hand on his knee to make him ease his anxious movement.
“How are you doing?” You asked him, setting down your pencil for a moment. “You seem nervous.”
Seokmin bit out a laugh and got to his feet again. This time he started pacing back and forth in front of your desk, practically bouncing around as he began to speak.
“Nah, you know me. Never nervous a day in my life.”
You rolled your eyes.
“You can’t be serious. You’re one of the most sensitive people I’ve ever met.”
Seokmin paused a second to stick his tongue out at you. You laughed.
“Seriously. Seok. Are you okay? Speak now or forever hold your peace,” you asked, only half teasing him. He looked at you for a second and then raced over to the other side of the room. He still looked a little pressed.
“No, it’s just, I think we should do something today is all.”
He picked up a stray pen and began to fumble with it. He dropped it after only a moment.
“You know, just the two of us!”
You laughed and returned a bit of your attention to your study material.
“We hang out just the two of us all the time,” you said pleasantly. He didn’t respond to that. Instead he looked at you, sucked in a deep breath and lunged forward.
You were worried for a second, kind of concerned about what he was going to do. He didn’t do anything harmful, just leaped up onto your desk, placed his hands on his hips and lifted his chin into the air.
“Will you or will you not go out with me today!” He boomed. He made his presence big in that moment, giving you flashbacks to moments that you had seen him on stage playing regal characters. Unlike those characters, he had a pretty large, definitely goofy smile spread over his lips. You almost couldn’t tell if he was serious.
The two of you made eye contact and he began to laugh, a little too hard, mind you, but it still made your heart jump a little.
“Okay, okay I’ll go,” you laughed. He smiled.
“Alright. You and me. Wear something nice. I’ll pick you up at 7.”
He said it so brazenenly, you didn’t think twice about the statement. Instead, you gently swatted at his feet to get him to get off the table (he obliged by jumping off of it).
“Alright big guy, I’ll see you tonight, now get out of here so I can study,” you chided. He smiled at you and obediently turned around. He paused in the doorway for a moment though, turned and watched you. You let him do it for a moment, pretending like you hadn’t noticed. He didn’t stop to examine things often. So when he did, you liked to just let him take that time to be patient and observant.
You were always telling him how important it was that he take his time on things, even though he really didn’t need you to tell him. He was always trying to slow down his life, and not be “too much” for people.
Not that he could ever truly be too much.
He was just perfect in every way. His energetic tendencies and bouncy personality were all reasons that it was impossible to let him leave your life. No matter if you wanted to or not your admiration for him was practically overwhelming.
As such, you two were so close and so used to being well... Just best friends, that you found it hard to imagine him as anything else.
“Go on, get out of here,” you said pleasantly, air shooing Seokmin out of the room. He chuckled, but obliged to the motion and disappeared out into the hallway.
“Did Seokmin just ask you out on a date?”
You chuckled and turned your head slightly to the side.
“Don’t be ridiculous, of course not,” you responded offhandedly.
Your friend, Cleo, raised an eyebrow at you.
“Oh yeah, cause that didn’t seem like an invitation to a date. Does he ever tell you to wear something nice?” She asked sarcastically. You rolled your eyes.
“Sometimes. He’s always teasing me for my sense of style.”
“Dont be ridiculous y/n!” Cleo protested. “He was definitely asking you out. He was nervous, and fidgety and all high energy-”
“He’s always like that,” You argued back.
Cleo scoffed.
“Not that much so.”
You paused a moment, biting your lip as you thought over it.
It had been a while since you had seen him so nervous, and Seokmin was never dating anyone. You had asked him about it before, because he was a fairly attractive guy and tons of girls had crushed on him before.
He always said he wasn’t interested in dating, and you had always believed him but... What if he had just been lying because he liked you instead?
“Everyone knows that you two are in love,” Cleo continued. That made you scoff again, but a little less forcefully this time.
“We’re just friends.”
But now that you thought about it, you guys didn’t really act like you two were just friends. You helped each other with everything you did, and only weren’t together when you were working really. You even ate every single meal together.
Sure, best friends did spend a lot of time together, but you two were practically inseparable, and it was different with the two of you.
You couldn’t say you had never thought about dating him before.
You two were around each other so much that it was weird when you weren’t together.
Maybe it was weird that you two weren’t dating.
You scrunched your face in frustration.
“We’re just friends,” you repeated. Cleo laughed.
“I didn’t question it that time. Now, it sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself that you’re just friends,” she stated.
You closed your books and got to your feet.
“Oh my god, it’s a date.”
“Told ya,” Cleo replied.
You didn’t listen to her. You just grabbed your books, shoving them into your book bag.
You raced out of the room, catching up to Seokmin so quickly that you had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t been walking very fast. You grabbed his wrist.
“Seokmin, we are best friends, right?” You asked him urgently. He looked caught pretty offguard by that statement.
“Uh, yes?” He said, but it sounded more like a question then an answer.
“So you would be completely and totally honest with me right?” You asked him seriously. His amused expression dropped.
“Okay, you’re scaring me.”
“Were you asking me out on a date earlier?” You blurted. Seokmin laughed.
“Asking you out on a date?” He blurted. He bit out a laugh. “Of course not.”
You visibly deflated.
“Oh good caus-”
“I was trying, and failing to ask you out. I’ve been trying for like a month... Or two.”
You were a little surprised by that.
“Seokmin-”
“You’re impossible to ask out you know that?” He stated. “Every time I try you like friend zone me.”
“Because we are best friends!”
“You did it again!” Seokmin protested.
“Well, what else am I supposed to do, you’ve never insinuated-”
Seokmin interrupted you.
“So you’ve never even considered that we might one day be more than friends?!”
“No!” You insisted. Again, Seokmin scoffed.
“Really? Not once!”
You could tell he wasn’t at all convinced, and the more that you insisted that no, you had never even considered the thought, the closer he got to you.
You were nervous.
What was he trying to pull?
“So then, if I kissed you... Well, I suppose you wouldn’t feel anything at all.”
Your breath hitched in your throat.
“Y-Yeah, no problem.”
Seokmin grinned and wrapped his arm around you, pressing your chest up against his.
“One kiss and I’ll drop it.”
“We’re just friends,” you said confidently. “We shouldn’t even need to kiss to prove that we are simply-”
Seokmin pressed his lips to yours.
All you had to do was pull away, not react to the kiss, anything and it would prove that you didn’t have any feelings for Seokmmin.
But instead, the kiss sparked something inside you. Your heart began to beat faster, and you ended up kissing Seokmin back like you were breathing air.
When he finally pulled away he looked... Happy, greedy almost.
“We’re just friends,” you squeaked.
Seokmin laughed.
“Right okay. Well, I think we just proved whether tonight is a date or night didn’t we?”
Your face reddened and you rubbed your arm nervously.
“Shut up,” you grumbled. “I’m not dressing up.”
“Yes you are,” Seokmin practically sang.
“No I’m not!”
You dressed up.