WHATSAPP • viktuuri ✔️

• 52 •

phichit sat outside on the school's walls, waiting to see the familiar face of seung-gil lee whilst chewing on the bubblegum that was growing tasteless in his mouth.

he was getting a little nervous, what with the play on his mind and the weight of the heavy script in his bag reminding him of how much work he was going to have to do during the next time-pressured month. it reminded him of the week's leading up to a skating competition, with aching leg muscles and hands scraped from countless falls on the ice caused by stress.

phichit took a deep breath, tried to shake off the thought of the large audience that would be blinking at him from the seats opposite the school stage and pulled out his script, and began to leaf through the pages of size 12 helvetica.

"hey juliet," a voice he knew well said, and phichit looked up from where he sat to see a boy he knew well in dark jeans with a leather satchel and glasses.

"how's it hanging, romeo?"

chris laughed, and adjusted the strap of his satchel on his shoulder.

"ah, you know. i'm now willing to poison myself for the boy in my maths class who doesn't know my name after three whole years."

"so petty, christophe," phichit chuckled, standing up and swinging his bag into his arm. he still held the crispy in his left hand, and chris looked down at it and raised one eyebrow.

"i've skimmed through it," he said with a half-smile, and shook golden hair out of his eyes. "you've got a whole scene of talking about your first time in shakespearean. something to look forward to, isn't it, phichit?"

"you've got a scene where you talk to guang-hong," phichit said with a smirk. "or should i say, benvolio, about the size of your dick in shakespearean. something to look forward to, isn't it, chris?"

"touché," chris smiled, and squinted up at the sun. "hey, phichit?"

"what's up?" phichit asked, blowing a pink bubble and popping it.

"mrs landon says that you and i should practice our scenes together in our free time, seeing as we've only got four weeks or so to get this whole production done."

chris looked up at phichit, and phichit realised that he had never truly noticed just how green chris giacometti's eyes were.

"do you want to come over saturday?" chris went on, biting at his bottom lip. "we could start working on a scene. you can pick which one, i don't really mind."

"oh yeah, great idea," phichit smiled. "why don't we start with the morning after, huh?"

"don't remind me," chris muttered, rolling his eyes. "that's going to be a memorable moment of the performance. what must seung-gil be thinking."

"actually, he's surprisingly ok with it all," phichit said to chris, who caught his eye once more.

"really?"

"yeah," phichit said, eyes still fixed on the bright green of chris's. "yeah, he is."

chris smiled, and kept his eyes on phichit for a moment longer. he opened his mouth as if to say something, before phichit caught sight of seung-gil lee making his way over.

"i'll send you my address, yeah?" chris said with another half-smile, before he went over to victor nikiforov with a call of "see you tomorrow, juliet" over his shoulder.

"you ready to go?" seung-gil said, slipping his hand into phichit's.

"yeah," phichit said with a smile, watching the boy with bright green eyes and a leather satchel who he sat next to in maths walk down the street with victor by his side.

"yeah, i'm ready to go."