forteen

The jammed bus made it hard for Seunghwan to move around. He could see that person, sitting in the last row—which was packed itself.

Suddenly the bus jumped, probably from coming in contact with a bumpy impression somewhere and Seunghwan lurched forward, almost falling on another passenger.

The passenger gave him an irritated look and shuffled away.

Seunghwan himself knew that he was angering people by forcefully moving from the mouth to the end of the bus, in this stuffed bus.

Seunghwan ignored the quiet badmouthing from the passengers he pushed helplessly in order to reach near that person.

While in the back seat, the person had long before gone through an entire series of scenarios and drafting responses.

Hilary Grates knew that this guy who was nimbly progressing to where he was sitting, through the people, was certainly a stalker.

This same guy had followed Hilary around the campus one day, for reasons unknown and scared Hilary to the level of calling 112. [112 is police emergency helpline for Republic of Korea]

But by the time Hilary left the campus, the guy vanished and didn't create trouble in the following days.

Yet, who would've guessed that he would meet that guy here. Fortunately there are many people here, so Hilary could partly relax that the guy won't take any huge actions.

Seunghwan huffed on reaching near Hilary and wiped the sweat outlining his forehead.

Standing upright, he tried to smile as politely as he could to Hilary. "Hi."

Hilary jerked and his face changed to an unsightly blue color as if the oxygen surrounding him had vaporized. "Uh, hi.."

The extreme expression was very noticeable in Hilary's face, so Seunghwan tried to force the most nice-guy expression he could conjure.

"I'm sorry but I think there seems to be a misunderstanding between us."

Hilary's heart was beating fast but still he was able to listen to what Seunghwan said. Misunderstanding?

Seunghwan saw the look of confusion pass through Hilary's face and quickly continued. "Actually I came across you practicing ballet alone in one of the gyms and was impressed. I wanted to talk to you but didn't know how."

"Ah." Hilary shyly scratched his chin and sighed, a bit embarrassed.

Hilary had given up Ballet long ago but the urge in his body as a dancer remained. Even when he's doing things like cooking or cleaning, he would unconsciously give a twirl, as if possessed by Anna Pavlova. [Anna Pavlova's a dancer from St. Petersburg who changed the view of this art among women. Her thin and delicate-looking style instead of the sturdy and strong one created a new aesthetic trend which exists till today]

"That's it. Please don't be suspicious of my actions."

Seunghwan earnestly bowed, which reddened Hilary's face in shame.

Oh god. He again judged someone without enough knowledge about that person. If Hilary could dig a whole in the bus, jump down and hide, he'll probably escape from this heavily awkward moment.

Seunghwan turned and journeyed back to the mouth of the bus after explaining and apologizing to Hilary. He didn't bother if Hilary had something to say in return or not.

Hilary hugged his puma backpack and grumbled inconsistently. A huge blush was still spread over his fair face and a hint of red had scattered to his neck as well. He did his best to hide his face with his long creamy blonde hair.

The rest of the way, Hilary stole glances at Seunghwan. Seunghwan was standing very close to the gate, grasping on a bar and occasionally tugging at his shirt.

As the stop for the University came, Hilary too stood up and meandered towards the gate with great difficulty. His short self got repeatedly jabbed but Hilary had gradually grown habituated to this situation. It was nothing to him.

Following Seunghwan down the bus, Hilary decided that he would check if Seunghwan was really, not a stalker. Well, nowadays stalkers weren't stupid.

Hilary's brows scrunched up as he saw Seunghwan walk to the south gate and then hitch a ride on one of the campus minivans.

Not willing to lose Seunghwan yet, Hilary ran to the same minivan and grabbed a back seat, his face covered by a navy blue puma face mask. His hair collected in a short bun at his neck and covered by a similar puma baseball cap.

The minivan stopped near the main office building and Seunghwan got off, swiping his in-campus transportation card.

Hilary too took out his transportation card and got off with Seunghwan, very nicely hiding his presence.

He himself, sort of failed to interpret that his very own actions right now, resembled that of a stalker.

Seunghwan rushed to the gym without any concern for his surroundings. The gym was open and sounds of muffled laughter could be heard from inside.

Inside, the scene that greeted Seunghwan was nothing like he expected. Leaving Rammick, everyone was present.

Donghyuck was patiently coaxing Min to stop groaning.

Min was doing a handstand with much difficulty. The lean legs of the newbie shook and his oversized shirt covered his face down, glistening torso in display.

"Min-ah just ten more seconds. You can do it." Donghyuck cheered, hugging Min's shaking legs.

Seunghwan let his own bag slide down and joined the guys with a straight face. "What's this?"

Chanwoo saw Seunghwan and described everything to their tsundere captain.

"We are helping Min do a handstand."

Seunghwan didn't reply for a minute but then slowly nodded. "Good."

"S-Sunbae my hands h-hurt." Min's voice quivered.

Donghyuck smiled and let go, helping Min release the position.

Min exhaled heavily, massaging his porcelain, lean legs with droplets of tear at the corner of his eyes.

Min looked like a bullied little white bunny.

Hilary peeked from outside the gym and examined the scene inside. He had seen Min's handstand moment and felt sympathy for the fragile looking guy.

In fact, Hilary had a vague thought that the fragile-looking guy was being bullied but the laughter from the other guys weren't mocking. Those laughs had an intimacy to it.

A realization hit Hilary at once when he remembered that those faces were that of the members of their University's cheerleading club.

The weird feeling of loneliness erupted in his chest as Hilary's vision lightened up with the harmony those guys showed among themselves.

Can he experience that bonding too, someday?