riki leaned against the cold, concrete wall of the school hallway, his eyes narrowing as they tracked every move moonbyul made. she was laughing—really laughing—at something sunoo had said.
it had been like that for days now.
ever since they argued and stopped speaking, byul had been spending every free moment of her day with sunoo.
riki absolutely hated it.

their complicated situation had affected her, of course, that was undeniable. but it seemed like sunoo could easily get her mind off things. her usual composed demeanor breaks into a radiant smile that made riki's chest tighten painfully.
he mentally curses himself, because deep down he knew that he was at fault, that he deserved what had happened, but moonbyul— she did not deserve any of it.
so he understood if she wanted to forget him even for just a moment, yet it hurt — and a lot.

he'd seen her smile before, but this was different. this wasn't just a casual smile; this was the kind of smile that reached her eyes, making them crinkle at the corners. he recalls how he used to make her laugh like that as well. it had been barely a week, but each day they didn't speak felt like a war declaration, hours passed agonizingly slow, and it wasn't a battle he was keen on fighting.

his fingers curled into a tight fist at his side as he watched sunoo lean closer to her, their shoulders brushing as they shared some private joke. riki knew sunoo genuinely cared about moonbyul—but that made it worse. the way sunoo acted, so carefree and playful, was setting off alarm bells in riki's mind. did he really think it was okay to be that close to her?

a sour feeling gnawed at riki's insides, something sharp and ugly that he was now used to. jealousy. it clawed at his composure, making him want to grab sunoo and shove him away from moonbyul, to remind him that she was off-limits. but of course, he couldn't. she wasn't his and they were never really together—not in the way everyone thought.

he felt his jaw tighten as sunoo reached out to tuck a stray strand of moonbyul's black hair away from her face.

I'm going to bury him alive.

the thought was irrational, of course. but in that moment, it didn't feel like an exaggeration. it felt like a very real, very present possibility. sunoo was crossing a line, whether he realized it or not, and riki's patience was fraying faster than he could patch it up.

his hand twitched at his side, the urge to march over and pull moonbyul as far away from sunoo as he could growing stronger by the second. but something held him back. pride, maybe. or the fear of showing too much, of letting moonbyul see just how deeply this was affecting him. he couldn't afford to show weakness, not now, not when everything was already so fragile between them.

riki's eyes bore into sunoo, who was now grinning as he showed Moonbyul something on his phone. She leaned in closer, and Riki felt something snap inside of him.

No more.

pushing off the wall, Riki walked towards them, each step fueled by the boiling jealousy that threatened to spill over. he was going to put an end to this, right here, right now. he wasn't going to let sunoo think he could just step in and take his place.

as he closed the distance between them, his mind raced with a hundred different things he could say, each one more aggressive than the last. but before he could reach them, sunoo glanced up, locking eyes with riki. In that split second, riki saw something in sunoo's gaze that made him pause—something almost... challenging.

It was a terrifying realization. sunoo knew exactly what he was doing, and he was enjoying every second of it. the thought made riki's blood run cold, then hot with anger.

he wasn't going to let this slide. not a chance.

"sunoo" riki called out, his voice was hard, barely masking the anger simmering underneath as he finally approached them. he couldn't deny how pathetic he felt when he noticed moonbyul's smile dripping as soon as she saw him.
sunoo raised an eyebrow, amusement dancing in his eyes. "what's up, riki?"

"i need to talk to you," riki said, cutting straight to the point, his tone brooking no argument. "oh i need to talk to you too man" sunoo replied, the grin never leaving his face as he tells moonbyul to not wait for him before walking away with riki.

"so? trouble in paradise?" sunoo asked, his tone light and carefree, almost as if he didn't care about the tension that hung in the air. "why are you being so friendly with moonbyul?" riki demanded, stopping to face sunoo, his heart racing with a mix of frustration and confusion. "you really need to back off."

sunoo raised his hands in mock surrender "moonbyul's my friend." he reminded him. "and since a certain somebody decided to play games, i have to be there for her" sunoo shoves his hands in his pocket, his tone dripping sarcasm that really seemed to strike riki's nerves.

he bit his tongue and clenched his fists. he wanted to shout the truth at sunoo's face, hell, he would shout it to the whole world if he could. but he can't. and sunoo's right.
"yeah, well, it looks like you're getting a little too close for comfort," riki shot back, his voice low but intense.

"jealous much?" sunoo's smirked, clearly enjoying riki's discomfort. he pats his shoulders, his lips still curved in that playful, nearly arrogant smile as he leans closer. "between you and i, can i treat her better? well, probably. but as i said. she's my friend, she's all yours buddy, worry not" sunoo's reassurance did not help, if anything, it angered riki further.

riki tenses immediately, and despite the strong desire to hit sunoo so hard he will see stars for the next ten minutes, he feels a hint of sadness he was not able to brush off. he would treat moonbyul right if he had the chance. riki shook his head "you really don't fucking get it, do you? i don't want you invading my space, especially not when things are already complicated between us."

sunoo's expression softened slightly, but the mischief remained in his eyes. "well nishimura, our relationships with her are different, if you want a spot in her heart, fight for it" sunoo pats his cheek before leaving, giving him no possibility to say anything else.

he knew well enough that sunoo backing off would not change much. but he felt this helpless urge to push away anything that felt like a threat to him.
sunoo and moonbyul were friends, of course, but since he had been missing her so much and she was out of his reach, the last thing he wanted was someone taking her further away from him.
riki thought that maybe he would make her miss him too.

he sighed softly, his chest heavy with unspoken emotions.
the bell rang and he doesn't feel like going to class.
well? at least he gets to see her

this was very random anyw 🗣️
stuff will get good soon (hopefully)
promise🤞🏻