Twenty-Nine Fish

"Fuck yeah...!" Hamin quietly cheered to himself.

After Euiheon told him to shut up on the second day of exams about his "nothing to be proud of" results, Hamin had been keeping his scores a secret in order to reveal them all to Euiheon at the end of the week. Even though he managed to raise his scores for every subject thus far, which was already impressive, he felt that he needed at least one result that would really wow Euiheon. After all, his goal here was to get Euiheon to stop considering him a dumbass so he would hang out with him again.

And to Hamin's relief, he pulled it off with his very last exam.

He hugged his English test sheets before putting them in his backpack. This would surely be enough to fix his relationship with Euiheon. He then walked over to his friend, who was packing his stuff at his desk to head home.

"Hey, Chewie, come over to my house today," Hamin said.

Euiheon paused for a moment before lifting his head up with an annoyed face. "What?"

"Come over. I need to show you my grades."

"Why do you need to do that?"

"Because I think you'll be impressed."

"Judging by your scores from the first two days, I highly doubt it."

Euiheon said that, but if he had to be honest, he was astounded by Hamin's sudden academic improvement. This was a boy who could barely score a 30 before, let alone a 60. Of course, Euiheon would never admit his true feelings out loud.

Hamin crouched down and leaned his head on Euiheon's desk, looking up at him like a sad puppy. "Aw, come on. Please, baby?"

Not having heard the B word in a while, Euiheon lost his former tolerance for it and visibly cringed. Suddenly feeling like Hamin was a bit too close to him, he pushed the boy's head off his desk.

Hamin toppled back on his behind. "Ouch. Why are you always trying to break my ass, baby?"

"Could you shut up with that?" Euiheon snapped.

He calculated how many seconds it would take for him to rush out of the classroom. Of course, that was only if Hamin didn't stop him first, which Euiheon had a feeling he would.

"Just go home with him, Euiheon," Edin said.

He and Yuel were on their way out when they witnessed what was going on with Hamin and Euiheon. Initially, Edin figured Hamin would manage on his own and just wanted to finally have his date with Yuel. But it was Yuel who told him to help his friend out.

Frowning, Euiheon said, "Why should I?"

"Please, baby?" Hamin pleaded with more desperation.

Edin said, "He studied really hard just for this day. It's the least you can do for your baby."

"He's not my— Oh, forget it." Euiheon stood up with a huge sigh. "Fine, but I'm not staying for long."

"Sure, baby!"

Hamin grabbed Euiheon's hand and pulled him out of the classroom. Euiheon's voice could be heard in the hallway shouting, "Ugh, stop tugging me, asshole!"

"I hope they work things out," Yuel said as he left the classroom with Edin.

"I wouldn't worry too much," Edin replied. "How about we just focus on our date now?"

With a shy bit of excitement, Yuel replied, "Okay."

. . .

"Oh, hi, Euiheon," Hamin's mom said when the two boys ran into her at the front door of the apartment. She was just about to head out when they arrived.

"Hello, ma'am."

"You haven't come over in a while. I was beginning to think you and Hamin weren't friends anymore."

"No way," Hamin said, putting an arm around Euiheon's shoulders and thinking once again about how their height difference was just perfect. "We had a small fight, but we're going to make up today."

Says who? Euiheon thought as he pushed Hamin's arm off him.

"That's good. Don't drag out your fights for too long, alright? Especially when you've been friends all your lives."

As much as Euiheon didn't want to admit it, his heart stung a bit when even Hamin's mom saw them as just "friends." It was the obvious truth to the whole world, and yet Euiheon was the only one who couldn't accept it. That was why he wanted to cut all ties with Hamin for good so they wouldn't even be friends anymore.

But now he was at Hamin's house again...

"Oh, yeah. Today was the last day of your midterms, right?" Hamin's mom asked Euiheon.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I don't need to hear about Hamin's grades."

"Hey, I actually did pretty good this time!" Hamin said in protest, but he went ignored by his own mother.

"Did you do well, Euiheon?"

"Yes, as well as I expected."

"I'm sure you'll get into one of the top schools in Seoul no problem. As for Hamin here, he'll be lucky just to be accepted into a small college in the countryside."

This statement from his mom triggered a devastating thought in Hamin's head. For a moment, he imagined himself having to live hours away from Euiheon in the dorm of some remote, depressing school. Meanwhile, his friend would be creating a bright future for himself at a prestigious university, surrounded by other people like him—people who were far smarter than Hamin could ever dream to be. Euiheon would surely forget all about him in no time. Perhaps he might even find Hamin's replacement—

"That's not true!" Hamin blurted out. "I'm going to get into a school in Seoul, too!"

Hamin's mom rubbed her ear, which was ringing from Hamin shouting directly into it. "Sure, it's good to dream big, Son. Anyway, I have an appointment I need to get to, so go make up and have fun, boys."

"Goodbye, ma'am."

Hamin said nothing to his mom as he grumpily made his way to his room.

"Why are you all pissed off now?" Euiheon said, following him in.

"I'm not," Hamin grumbled. "Just sit down."

Hamin pointed at his bed. Seeing it reminded Euiheon about what they had done on it the last time he was here. He took a seat on Hamin's desk chair instead.

Hamin thought nothing of it as he passed Euiheon all of his tests, except for English, which he kept in his hands to be checked last.

"Are you serious?" Euiheon said in disbelief.

With each test, Hamin's scores kept increasing bit by bit. He still averaged around a 65, but it was impressive, nonetheless.

"Just wait until you see this."

Hamin finally showed Euiheon his English score. A staggering 80.

The second he saw this number, Euiheon said, "You cheated, didn't you?"

"What? No! I worked my ass off extra hard for English, you know."

"Wow," was all Euiheon could say, still not believing his eyes. He even checked through the entire test to make sure Hamin hadn't miscalculated his score.

"So, um..." Hamin paused for a second before carefully asking, "Do you think that would be enough to get into a university in Seoul?"

"To be honest, no," Euiheon replied bluntly. But when he saw Hamin practically on the verge of tears, he grew weak and added, "But if you raise your grades a little more, you could try for a school around Seoul."

In the blink of an eye, Hamin's face went from hopeless to hopeful. He couldn't contain his joy and hugged Euiheon, who immediately tensed up beneath him.

"I'll take it," Hamin said. "As long as I can stay with you."

Euiheon's heart started thumping so hard that he worried Hamin might hear it, too. He tried to convince himself that this idiot simply didn't know what he was saying, that he probably only meant staying with him as his friend. Even so, the fact that Hamin was still hugging him for some reason made him a little curious.

Quietly, Euiheon asked, "Why do you want to stay with me?"

"Because..."

As Hamin pulled away to respond, his eyes went straight to Euiheon's lips. He couldn't even deny it anymore. Being on good terms with Euiheon again was only a superficial goal. What he truly wanted in return for all those devoted hours of studying was this.

He kissed Euiheon clumsily and sloppily as if it were his first time. Perhaps he could have been more confident with some alcohol in his system. But it was too late to go reaching for his mom's stash of soju at this point.

He felt Euiheon lean far back into the chair and initially thought he didn't want this. But then it became apparent that every small gesture from Hamin's mouth wasn't being resisted, but rather reciprocated. Euiheon did want this.

Hamin placed one hand on the desk behind the chair to steady himself during their prolonged kiss, while the other hand went to Euiheon's face. Skin to skin, it became impossible to tell which person was the one shaking. Perhaps it was both of them. But that nervousness didn't stop them from keeping this intimate moment going for what felt like a sweet eternity.

The only reason Hamin eventually pulled away was to finish his sentence. "Because then I can kiss you like this as much as I want."

Euiheon had no clue how Hamin was able to speak so clearly right now when his hand was trembling like crazy. The boy was barely blushing as well. Euiheon wondered if being stupid dulled one's sense of embarrassment to some degree. If that were the case, it explained why he currently wanted to dig himself into a deep hole.

Having so many conflicted thoughts about what just happened, Euiheon blurted out, "B-But you said that first kiss was just a misunderstanding!"

"I know, but—" Hamin paused when Euiheon's words fully sunk in. "Wait, you remember that kiss?"

"...Shit."

Euiheon knew he had just fucked up.

"I'm going home—"

Just as Euiheon tried to get up, Hamin pushed him back into the chair for another kiss. This one lasted even longer. Half of the reason was because Euiheon pulled Hamin hard against him to shut him up so he wouldn't ask any more questions for the day. The other half was because the boys eventually got lost savoring their best kiss yet.