# - nicholas and ej were best friends. they shared every secret, every laugh, and every tear for as long as they remembered.
as their junior year unfolds, a spark ignites inside nicholas that blurs the line between friendship and something more.
...
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The classroom was already half-full when Euijoo and Nicholas walked in. The fluorescent lights felt way too bright for this early in the morning, and Nicholas barely suppressed a groan as he trudged to his seat.
Euijoo, of course, looked annoyingly awake. He slid into his usual spot by the window, already pulling out his notebook like he was actually ready to learn. Nicholas slumped into the chair beside him, dropping his head onto his desk with a heavy sigh.
"If there's a pop quiz today, I'm dropping out," Nicholas mumbled, voice still thick with sleep.
Euijoo barely glanced at him as he started flipping through his notes. "You say that every day."
"Yeah, well, one of these days, I might mean it."
Euijoo smirked. "Sure you will. Now sit up before the teacher calls on you just to be petty."
Nicholas groaned but forced himself upright, rubbing a hand down his face. His brain was not built for calculus this early. He glanced at Euijoo's notebook and immediately regretted it—the numbers and symbols blurred together like a foreign language.
"How do you even understand this?" Nicholas muttered, staring at the mess of equations.
"Because I actually pay attention," Euijoo said smugly.
Nicholas glared at him. "I hope your pencil breaks."
"I brought five."
"I hope they all break."
Euijoo just chuckled, spinning his pencil between his fingers like this was fun for him. Meanwhile, Nicholas could already feel his grade slipping.
Halfway through class, he gave up entirely and leaned over. "Bro, help me."
Euijoo shot him a knowing look but slid his notebook over anyway. "It's literally the same thing we did yesterday."
"And I didn't understand it yesterday either."
Euijoo sighed, but there was amusement in his voice. "You're hopeless."
Nicholas didn't even deny it. He just watched as Euijoo rewrote the equation in a way that actually made sense. As usual, Euijoo's handwriting was neat, his notes perfectly organized. Nicholas was 90% sure he'd die without this man's brain.
He could've sworn Euijoo's shoulder brushed his when he handed the notebook back. It was barely anything—a small, casual touch. But suddenly, Nicholas felt too aware of how close they were sitting.
He shook it off. It was nothing. Just his sleep-deprived brain playing tricks on him.
Right?
The second the bell rang, Nicholas shoved his books into his bag with zero intention of looking at them again. He was still rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes when a heavy arm landed on his shoulder.
