Chapter Text
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All students know these two—Ivan and Till.
If there’s a Till, there’s an Ivan clinging onto him. If there’s an Ivan, there’s a Till next to him. Basically, they’re the famous duo, the inseparable pair.
And judging by their normal dynamics, with Till having to groan and scoff before slightly pushing away the whining Ivan, people assumed that, if by chance, by some miracle, by some reality-slapping-moment wherein the two of them would realize their annoying pining and would get together, Ivan would be the clingy one in the relationship.
Because, come on, the guy wouldn’t mind waking up early to walk with Till to campus. He wouldn’t mind waiting outside the Fine Arts’ building for Till. He wouldn’t mind being labeled as a weirdo whenever he would latch onto Till during lunchtime, cooing and acting cute to get some reactions from Till.
Yes, Ivan was the clingy one.
But who would have thought that Till would be much, much worse than the clingy Ivan?
The first thing he did was to post a picture of them online (a very, very amused Ivan, smiling widely as he lets himself be embraced intimately as he sits between Till’s legs, with Till’s face buried deep in his shoulders), tagging Ivan, with a caption that reeks possessiveness.
[ Vani’s Hubby ✦ @ivan’s_mine
Mine. ]
Obviously, the whole campus became busy, passing gossip after gossip. From one department to another.
Many cheered. After all, they already predicted that after all these shenanigans, Ivan would come back to Till’s anxious arms. Like a puppy who had fun playing outside, happy and content and would very much want to go home now. (But after seeing the picture, people speculated that maybe Till was the dog, whimpering and pacing back and forth at home, waiting for his owner to come back after leaving the house to work).
Others agonized. They actually thought that Ivan would date someone new soon, which would lead to Till to pathetically confess in public, tears and snots on his face, and begging for Ivan to give him a chance. They wanted the drama, the spice, the common kdrama scene wherein the ML would be holding a bouquet and standing under the rain, with tears in his eyes as he begged for another chance to be with the MC, who finally realized their worth and stopped clinging onto the ML. That kind of scene. (To be honest, Till was really tempted to do just that—don’t judge him, he’s getting pretty desperate, okay???)
But of course, Ivan’s classmates had the look of ‘LOL, told ya so’. They started listing down their demands, seeing as they had won the bet. Should they book an entire bar using Ivan’s card? Or should they force him to enter the crossdressing competition in the upcoming campus event? Honestly, the sky’s their limit! Hell yeah!!
While Till’s love council?
Mizi was obviously spamming the couple, sending congratulatory messages, suggesting some good dating spots, and inserting a reminder for Ivan to keep Till away from Ivan’s ex-boyfriends. Just to be safe.
Sua had the look of disgust, but still very supportive—not to the two gays, ew… she’s very supportive to her girlfriend as she was still typing out the third long message of the day. Oh, and Sua immediately blocked Ivan and Till in all of the social media that she could have thinked of.
While Luka immediately tattled Hyunwoo’s involvement into the stupid bet to Hyuna. His opinion of the newly-formed couple? Who cares? He needs to score some good boy points from his beloved girlfriend. But he did do something. He followed Sua’s decision and blocked the two idiots.
While the whole campus was still in chaos, Monday came.
Till was pathetic—no, really, there was no better word for it.
He was the kind of pathetic that made Ivan laugh until his stomach hurt and his eyes crinkled, which, to Till, was both humiliating and breathtaking. Because Ivan’s laugh—his full, unrestrained laugh—was worth every bit of shame that came with being hopelessly, stupidly in love.
The first few days after they made it official, Till couldn’t keep his hands off him. Literally. He followed Ivan everywhere. Not in a possessive ‘I don’t trust you’ kind of way (well, maybe a little), but in a ‘how did I survive all these years without touching you every five minutes?’ kind of way.
Ivan’s classmates were feeling pretty wronged by Till’s glares. Every time he would pop by at their building, the air in the room would plummet down and Till would be just standing next to Ivan, silent and menacingly eyeing down each and every last one of them. It’s already been three days, and they still haven’t proposed to Ivan his punishment! Not with that watchdog circling around him, protecting him! It’s not fair!
“Dude! Calm your boyfriend, please! He’s too fucking scary!” One of them shouted from afar.
Ivan hummed, feeling delighted at the word they used to describe Till. Yes, this is his boyfriend. His real boyfriend. Till. He let out a giddy laugh, leaning closer to Till, who, in response, rubbed their cheeks together gently.
“It’s no use, dude. Ivan obviously liked him acting this way. Let’s just drop the punishment.”
Till turned his head at that, eyes narrowing dangerously. The poor classmate who said it froze mid-laugh, like a deer caught in headlights.
Ivan felt the rumble of a low sigh against his shoulder. “You’re scaring them again,” he murmured softly, his tone half-chiding, half-amused.
“I’m not doing anything,” Till muttered. Which, technically, was true. He wasn’t doing anything—he was just standing there, arms crossed, face blank. But that expression—cold, unreadable, eyes sharp like he could dissect someone with a glance—was enough to make anyone shut up mid-sentence.
Yeah, he had a grudge to all of these fuckers. Forcing his Ivan to do some stupid bet and to fake-date different men. Unforgivable! He had thought of many ways to make these scumbags pay. Like maybe by rattling about the time they bought sojus here and forced Ivan to drink in the middle of the day. Or maybe anonymously post some of their dirts that Ivan had gossiped to him. Or…
Till eyed Ivan. “Ivan, can I borrow your phone for a bit?”
“Sureee.”
As he started typing, Till let out a dark chuckle. Or I could send Ivan’s rabid fans to them… With a final tap, a post under Ivan’s profile immediately stirred the atmosphere in the entire campus.
[ Tilly’s Wifey ✦ @I’m_Till’s
After being forced to fake-date different men by my classmates, I’m finally dating a real one ૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ა ♡ ]
Ivan blinked. Once. Twice. Then slowly tilted his head toward Till, whose expression was the picture of calm satisfaction—like a cat that just pushed an expensive vase off the counter and dared anyone to do something about it.
“Till,” Ivan began, his voice dangerously close to laughter. “Did you just post that from my account?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah,” Till replied casually, slipping the phone into Ivan’s hands as if he hadn’t just committed social arson. “You should’ve said something about how they made you fake-date others. It’s good to set the record straight.”
Ivan’s classmates were frozen in their seats. Every single one of them had their phones out, staring wide-eyed at the new tweet that was already blowing up with comments and retweets.
“Oh my god, it’s over. We’re dead,” someone muttered under their breath.
Within seconds, Ivan’s mentions were exploding. Heart emojis, congratulations, threats, condolence messages to Till, and a small army of rabid fans already forming under the tag #TillysWifey.
Till’s smirk deepened when he saw Ivan’s phone vibrate nonstop. Mission accomplished.
✿
Scratch that. Mission not accomplished.
Till felt like murdering everyone today. He clenched hard on the two milk teas on both of his hands, as he eyes the men surrounding Ivan. The men who were once Ivan’s boyfriends. Well, everyone except Marty, that coward. “What the hell are you all doing here?”
Ivan beamed at him, waving. “Till! Come, come, Jacob-hyung brought some cupcakes!”
To be honest, Jacob was a nice dude to him for an entire week. But still, the scar left in his heart after hearing Ivan say that he was his second favorite, Till wants to do something illegal to this sunbae. Not to mention the fact that it was timed on his midterms week, wherein he was despairing at the fact that they were flirting around while he’s stuck in his classroom for days? Yeah, Till resents Jacob the most.
Which was honestly surprising seeing as the one who betrayed him the most was Acorn.
Speaking of Acorn, Till glances at that fucker’s way. He was just casually eating some cupcakes while scrolling through his phone. The bastard was trying so hard not to make eye contact with him.
“Till, man, chill. The dates and the flirtings were not real.” Isaac slung his arm on Till’s shoulder, smiling faintly as he urged him to walk towards Ivan. “It never was. We were just helping Ivan out.”
Hyunwoo grins. “Although I wouldn’t mind dating Ivan for real.” His words were lighthearted, but spotting the ever-growing dark vibes wrapping around Till, he immediately backtrack. “But that’s never going to happen, ‘cause Ivan had his eyes on you for years. There’s no way he’d even think about actually dating anyone besides you.”
“I’m pretty sure that the majority of our so-called ‘dates’ were just us talking about you, Till.” Jacob reaches over to Ivan, trying to clean the crumbs on his face. Till moved to beat him to it. He’s the boyfriend, that’s his job. At the glare, Jacob just chuckles.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t bother explaining anymore, sunbae.” Acorn chimed in. “There’s no point in arguing with a pathetic simp like him. He probably won’t listen to anyone but Ivan at this point.”
Damn right, I won’t. Till wrapped his arms around Ivan, refusing to let others come any closer to his boyfriend. That’s right. His boyfriend. His. Till’s.
While Till was staking his claim, Ivan, on the other hand, felt very delighted with this outcome.
Delighted, happy, and content. He’s eating some delicious cupcakes. He’s befriending his partners-in-crimes. He’s basking on his once-upon-a-time-crush’s love. Ah, who could have asked for more. Ivan snuggled closer before letting out a satisfying sigh.
Oh, come to think of it, he forgot something. Slowly, he squirms in Till’s embrace to reach for his phone. Ivan paid no mind to the slightly escalating argument around him and opened his private message with that one troublemaker senior that started this whole mess.
That very same senior who, although he was not a senior in their department (he’s from the Sports Department, mind you!), was somehow informed and was there at the party, was whispering ridiculous bets on his drunken classmates’ ears—Dewey-sunbae.
[ Ivan: Sunbae. For the fact that your stupid bet was what helped me get together with Till, I won’t mention your dirty involvement in the bet to him.
Dewey is at your mercy: Thank you, oh wise and merciful Ivan… ]