Eight days ago. 7.00am

Jisung woke to the tune of Simon Says running through his mind.

Simon says we're a real vibe killer

You think you know it all

He grinned and yawned, then stretched out his muscles before flinging back the bedsheets as he sat up. Excitement fluttered in his chest, giving him a fresh burst of energy and he quickly switched his phone on and waited impatiently for it to hum into life. Once it did he opened his recent searches and clicked on the Simon Says MV link.

He watched, eyes transfixed to the screen as Taeyong walked into frame, pulling off his mask and dragging a chair along the ground before slumping down onto it. Then his new favourite tune started to play and he upped the volume. Not even the residual pangs of sleep could hold him back from focusing every ounce of energy on his beautiful idols performing the new song he just couldn’t get enough of, and he grinned.

Unfortunately, not even halfway into the song, his mother shouted from the kitchen.

“Jisung! Are you up yet? Hurry up or you'll be late for school again!”

Jisung huffed in disappointment and paused the video. 

“I'm up Mum! Just going for a shower now!” he replied.

He forced himself out of bed and grabbed his school uniform but paused at the door to glance longingly at his phone before making his way to the bathroom.

After the fastest shower he'd had in a while, Jisung hurried back to his room and checked the time: 7:23, he still had enough time to finish watching the video. Grinning from ear-to-ear, he jumped back onto his bed and rolled over to lie on his stomach.

The video had just finished when his mother called out to him again.

“Jisung! Are you having breakfast at all? You need to leave soon!”

Jisung badly wanted to watch Simon Says again but he also needed to leave very soon if he was going to catch the bus on time. He rolled off the bed, stuffed his phone in his pocket and grabbed his backpack before running down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“Here's your lunch hun, and please take this for breakfast, you need to eat something.” his mother said, handing him a small box that contained his lunch and a slice of freshly buttered toast.

“Thanks Mum!” Jisung planted a kiss on his mother's cheek and then rushed out the door.

He jogged to the bus stop and got there just in time. Some students from his school were stepping onto the bus just as he arrived and he jumped in behind them. He found a free seat towards the back of the bus and slumped down onto it, relieved that he wouldn't have to run all the way to school like he had the other day.

Now, having some extra time to spare until the bus arrived at the stop closest to school, Jisung pulled out his phone, plugged in his headphones and played his new favourite music video again. He knew doing so would probably burn through his data but he didn't care. He wanted, no, craved to see his favourite idols again.

Taeil was just too spectacularly amazing, he was Jisung's ultimate bias. Although another one of the members was catching his eye and Jisung couldn't stop looking at him. It was the one and only Takoyaki Prince, Yuta Nakamoto. Jisung had to watch the video all over again, just to watch Yuta in every frame he was in. That's when he noticed a blessed shot three minutes and sixteen seconds into the music video where there was a flash of Yuta's fit stomach as his shirt lifted up while he danced.

Jisung swooned at the perfectly paused frame and almost forgot to get off the bus. Luckily, the other students' loudness stirred him back into reality and he scrambled off the bus after them.

As he walked down the street towards school a familiar voice yelled out to him.

“Jisungie!”

He turned and stepped straight into a hug from his best friend, Chenle. He grinned and hugged him back, making Chenle squeak in delight.

“Jisungie you're not late today!” Chenle said cheerily. He smiled, his dimples showing.

Jisung loved Chenle's dimples and poked his squishy cheek playfully.

“No I'm not, thankfully,” he replied as Chenle placed an arm around his shoulder, “Chenle, have you watched NCT 127’s new music video?!” he asked, excitedly.

Chenle raised an eyebrow at him, “Of course I have, silly. Ugh, Haechan's falsetto just kills me everytime!” he said, shaking his head with a smile.

“I know right, and Taeil!” Jisung replied enthusiastically. He fanned himself with his hand, suddenly feeling his skin heat up at the mere thought of his bias.

Chenle laughed at him, ever impressed at his dedication as NCT's ultimate fanboy. 

Chenle was a big fan of NCT 127, as was their other good friend Renjun, though both of them weren't as dedicated as Jisung, not by a long shot. Jisung assumed Chenle had probably only watched the music video once or twice in the last twenty-four hours. 

A strong wind whipped past the two friends as they walked through the school gates. Chenle grumbled in annoyance as his long black bangs flicked over his eyes. He raked his fingers through his hair and it nestled back into place out of his eyes.

Jisung absentmindedly ran his hand over his own hair. It was the same black shade as Chenle's and he hated it. He badly wanted to colour it but the school rules prevented him from doing so. 

His mind wandered back to Taeil, who had recently had vibrant red hair wich, In jisung’s opinion, had been his most dazzling look to date. Sadly, it had been dyed back to a dark brown for their album repackage. Regardless, Jisung wished he could dye his hair the same colour; or maybe orange.

They walked past lots of students donned in the same familiar grey and blue uniforms to their home room class. There, they spotted Renjun sitting at his desk doing what looked to be homework. The Chinese boy was intently staring at the paper on his desk with a frown, tapping a pen against his cheek.

Jisung and Chenle stopped behind him and peered down at the homework. It was Korean, boring stuff about tenses and sentence structure. Jisung pointed to a sentence on the sheet.

“That one's in the past tense instead of conditional.” he said helpfully.

Renjun looked up, surprised to see his two best friends standing behind him. He looked back down at the sentence and nodded, scribbling out one of the words and rewriting it in the correct tense.

“Thanks Jisung.” he smiled.

While Chenle and Renjun were both from China, Renjun had moved to South Korea only a year ago with his family, whereas Chenle had been here going on five years. That meant that Renjun still struggled a little with the language.  While his spoken language was great, his writing was somewhat lacking, so Jisung liked to help him out when he could as the Korean teacher liked to give Renjun lots of extra homework.

“Jisung and I have art class first, what have you got?” Chenle asked him.

Renjun pointed down at his homework.

“Korean, and it's a double class too.” Renjun sighed dramatically, “I think I'd much prefer to be in art class, even though I'm shit at it.”

Chenle pulled out a chair from the table next to Renjun and sat down, dropping his bag on a hook attached to the side of the desk. Jisung went to walk past him to sit down too but Chenle latched his arms around his waist and pulled him onto his lap. 

“Chenle!” Jisung whined in protest.

He tried to prise the boy's fingers from his waist but Chenle only wrapped his arms tighter around him. He laughed loudly and nuzzled his face into Jisung's back. It was a high pitched laugh that sounded like a dolphin; Chenle's trademark laugh.

“Jisungie, quiet down and let me cuddle you!” Chenle said, his words muffled against Jisung's blazer.

Jisung crossed his arms and pouted, admitting defeat. He would never admit it, but he loved the way Chenle was super affectionate towards him, and he liked how he always wanted to cuddle him, so even though he made a show of not enjoying it, deep down it always made his heart hum a little.

Chenle was fully aware that Jisung was gay, most people were as Jisung never tried to hide that fact. Chenle however, never really spoke about his sexuality, though being his best friend Jisung knew he was bisexual and had a preference for girls. Jisung always held onto the hope that someday he and Chenle could possibly be more than best friends but he never did anything about it. Besides, he was perfectly happy with their close friendship.

He relaxed back into Chenle's arms and pulled out his phone; this was another perfect opportunity to watch Simon Says. His phone began to quietly play the song and he felt Chenle shift beneath him.

“Are you watching that video again?”

As Chenle asked, Renjun snatched his phone from his hands.

“Hey!” Jisung complained. He tried to grab his phone back but Renjun lifted it out of his reach and Chenle tugged him closer onto his lap.

“And there it is. Jisung, how many times have you watched this video already?” Renjun asked as he sat back and began to watch the phone screen with interest.

Jisung shrugged, “I kind of lost count but it's got to be in the thirties.” he replied, smiling sheepishly.

“Of course; I wouldn't expect anything less from you Jisungie.” Chenle chuckled beneath him.

The bell then interrupted them and Renjun sighed and handed Jisung's phone back.

“And I still haven't done all this stupid homework.” he muttered, eyeing his homework with distaste.

“I'm sure you can finish it during homeroom if you do it stealthily.” Chenle suggested.

As students began piling into class, Jisung wriggled out of Chenle's grip and settled into his own seat. He glanced down at his phone in his hand; it was paused on Jaehyun leaning up against a sleek sports car. It was a hot scene and Jisung had to tear his eyes away from the small screen and stuff his phone back into his pocket as their homeroom teacher came into the classroom.

The class hushed and Jisung tried to focus on what Mr Kang was saying. It was a struggle though; Simon Says had well and truly worked its way into his brain but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

***

“...sung, Jisung!” 

Chenle grumbled loudly and smacked Jisung on his shoulder, snapping him out of his dream-like state as he watched his beautiful boys perfectly nail their choreography and look so cool and stylish doing so.

“Ouch! What was that for?” Jisung asked, ruefully rubbing his shoulder.

Chenle's black eyebrows sunk into a frown, “You're not even paying attention, you're just glued to that screen.” he responded.

“I'm listening!” Jisung retorted.

Chenle raised an eyebrow at him.

It was lunchtime and Jisung was sitting with Chenle and Renjun outside in the warm sunshine. Well, Chenle and Renjun were. Jisung sat next to them in a spot shaded under a large tree; he wouldn't have been able to see his phone screen otherwise.

He tried to think of a good counter as he stared back at Chenle, who was giving him his best puppy-eyed look to make him feel bad. It was working too. Chenle knew as good as Jisung that he hadn't been listening to whatever Chenle was saying.

“Okay fine, I'm sorry Lele. What were you saying?” Jisung said, switching his phone screen off and putting it in his bag.

Happy now that his best friend’s full attention was on him, Chenle flashed him a big grin.

“Well, I was saying to Renjun that if you keep hiding away under the shade that you're going to get pale, and I can't possibly have that!” Chenle declared. “You know how much I love your olive skin tone.” 

“Will I really?” Jisung replied doubtfully. He had to keep a calm poker face to hide the joy he felt at Chenle saying he loved his skin tone.

Chenle nodded, “Yes, well I'm not going to take that risk anyway.”

Before Jisung could react, Chenle threw his arms around him, pulled Jisung on top of him and rolled him onto the grass next to him. They rolled about in the grass as Jisung fought to get out of Chenle's hold. He didn't try too hard though; he was completely enjoying himself.

Renjun was laughing next to them, nearly out of breath and slapping the ground enthusiastically at the spectacle his friends were making. Chenle noticed this and grabbed hold of Renjun's shirt sleeve with his free hand. Caught off guard, Renjun yelped in surprise as he was also dragged into the mess of tangled limbs.

The three boys laughed loudly, Chenle's dolphin-like laugh claiming dominance over the other twos. Jisung was so glad and thankful he had such great friends who understood him and who he had so many things in common with.