The cold got worse.

Then it eased up, and eventually disappeared completely. People who'd been down with the winter blues could finally start smiling again. The cherry trees on the hill behind the school bloomed.

Hyo-bin's times in the pool got better while his grades stayed the same and Eun-jung started leaving the kitchen window open in the mornings because the air wasn't cold anymore.

They became friends somehow.

The start of it was forced because Seung-ho walked into the classroom the Monday after the race and kicked Tae-hyun's desk with the toe of his black-and-white indoor slipper without even taking his bag off. Both hands in his pockets, his tie knotted but the rest of him nowhere close to put-together, he looked down at Tae-hyun with all of his size and said, flat and annoyed, "Ya, Tae-hyun, get up."

"What?" Tae-hyun said, staring at him like he'd just woken up.

"I said get up," Seung-ho said, rolling his eyes. "We're switching desks."

"Why?"

"'Cause I'm gonna sit here now."

"What, are you trying to bully me or something?" Tae-hyun said. "Why the hell should I switch seats with you?"

"I don't think you get it. You're switching seats with me 'cause I wanna sit with Hyo-bin."

"No, I'm not. And I'm telling the teacher on you."

"If you move, I'll do all your homework for the rest of the month."

Tae-hyun's eyes went wide. He turned to Hyo-bin and said, "I'm out. Have fun with your new desk mate."

Hyo-bin watched the whole thing with his mouth open. As Seung-ho sat down beside him like nothing had happened, Hyo-bin said quietly, "You really are an asshole."

"Call me hyung."

"Wh-what?!"

"Say it. Call me hyung just once."

"Fuck off, Seo Seung-ho..."

—

Then the walks started.

Seung-ho was always with Hyo-bin on the way home from school.

It was a long walk. It took thirty minutes if you took the bus for part of it, and an hour and ten minutes if you didn't. Hyo-bin didn't take the bus because it cost money and his legs didn't. He walked that route alone often since his first year.

He knew which corners had barking dogs and which ones didn't. He knew which street smelled like fish in the afternoon because of a broken fan. He knew which shop owner let you wait in the doorway for two minutes when it rained, and which one chased you with a broom.

The first time Seung-ho matched his steps at the school gate, Hyo-bin said, "Your driver is waiting on the other side."

"I told him not to come today."

"Why?"

"I wanted to walk."

"You live in Gangnam, asshole. Not this way."

"I'll take a taxi from your neighborhood, idiot. I just wanna walk with you."

"It takes an hour."

"I just wanna walk with you, why don't you just let me, Hyo-bin?"

Hyo-bin looked at him from the side. Seung-ho looked back without showing anything, and then they walked.

It continued every day after that. It even happened the day it rained so much that Hyo-bin kept telling Seung-ho to go find a taxi.

"You're gonna get sick," he said.

"So what? You're walking in this rain too."

"I have to walk. This is my life."

"It's mine today too."

"I don't want you to get sick," Hyo-bin said.

"I'm already sick," Seung-ho said. He grinned. "I'll get sick for you too."

Hyo-bin stopped under the awning of the bakery at the corner of his street. He held the collar of Seung-ho's coat with both hands and pushed him toward the metal shutters.

Seung-ho's hair was soaked through, strands of it pressed flat against his forehead. He leaned in and looked at Hyo-bin straight on. "What?"

A drop of water ran down from his eyebrow, the one that looked like it had been drawn with a knife, and fell from his chin. He was looking at Hyo-bin like that, like he wasn't going to stop, and when Hyo-bin opened his mouth he couldn't find what he'd been going to say.

He let go of the coat.

They walked the last two streets in silence with their hands in their pockets while the rain hit them both from the same side.

—

Eun-jung met him during the third week. While walking to the shop, she saw them at the corner and called Hyo-bin's name from across the street.

Hyo-bin had a second to decide if he should act like he didn't hear her. He decided not to. His mom didn't raise him to be someone who ignored his mother.

"So who is this?" she asked.

"This is Seung-ho. From the team."

"From the team…" Eun-jung looked Seung-ho up and down the way mothers look at friends their sons bring home.

Seung-ho bowed low and said his name clearly. He insisted and took the plastic bags Eun-jung carried from her hands.

"Come to dinner," Eun-jung said while they walked.

"He doesn't have to come, mom."

"I'm not asking you. Seung-ho. Come to dinner. Hyo-bin's friends are our friends in this house."

"I'd like that," Seung-ho said.

Before Hyo-bin could even open his mouth, Eun-jung took the bags back from Seung-ho and walked down the hill.

—

Seung-ho came on Friday. He brought a box of fruit.

Eun-jung made a fuss about the fruit being too much before she accepted it. Then she made a bigger fuss about how thin Seung-ho was.

Seung-ho was not thin by any measure, and anyone who looked carefully could have seen that Hyo-bin was the thinner of the two. Still, she asked if the boys on the swim team ate food or if they just swam.

"Sit down, sit here, no over there, the wall side is warmer," she said loudly.

Seung-ho ate everything and used the word delicious at least twice. Eun-jung watched him eat. She watched him the same way she watched Hyo-bin eat in the mornings.

Later, while they washed dishes in the kitchen and Seung-ho looked at the photos on the shelf with Young-ho in the living room, she said, "This boy has manners, Hyo-bin-ah."

"I know."

"He must come from a rich family."

"Yeah, his mom is the CEO of the KRS channel."

"What? Then why is he friends with you?"

Hyo-bin looked at his mother. "What kind of question is that, mom? We're teammates, we swim together every day."

"What about his dad?"

"He lost his dad. Mom, please don't bring any of this up in there."

"Hyo-bin, this boy is a good boy."

"I know, mom."

—

When Seung-ho left that night, Eun-jung pressed a plastic container full of leftover side dishes and food into his hands. She told him to come back next week.

Seung-ho said he would, and he was completely serious about it.

—

The other thing didn't have a place yet.

It happened on the roof of the school. Nobody was supposed to go there. The lock on the stairwell door was broken since their first year, and the teachers stopped pretending they didn't know.

Hyo-bin went up there between the sixth and seventh periods sometimes. He sat on the air conditioning unit and thought about nothing for ten minutes.

In the second week, Seung-ho started coming with him.

By the third week, Seung-ho was already waiting there when Hyo-bin walked through the door. Hyo-bin stopped being surprised by it.

Seung-ho bought Hyo-bin something to eat every noon. He brought banana milk with him most of the time. They ate together often, but sometimes Seung-ho just watched Hyo-bin while he ate and talked.

Once, they stood there for a long time without saying anything.

Seung-ho rested his head on Hyo-bin's shoulder. Neither of them moved. Hyo-bin didn't ask if what he felt was real, and Seung-ho didn't explain.

Both of them knew what was going on.

Because Hyo-bin never pushed him away, they started sleeping on the mats in the gym storage room. The only thing Seung-ho wanted was for Hyo-bin to face him while he slept.

When he couldn't sleep he just watched him, and Hyo-bin knew that.

—

Something else happened in the corridor outside the chemistry lab on a Wednesday in the spring.

The corridor was empty because everyone was in class.

Hyo-bin and Seung-ho were late. They argued in front of the vending machine about which drink Seung-ho was going to buy for him. Seung-ho insisted on the expensive one, and Hyo-bin refused on principle. He had to take it because Seung-ho already pressed the button.

They were walking back.

The late sun came through the windows on the left and made the long corridor yellow. Nobody was around. It was completely empty.

Seung-ho's hand touched his. It wasn't an accident, and Seung-ho didn't act like it was. A second later, he slid his fingers between Hyo-bin's fingers and pressed his palm against his.

Hyo-bin's heart beat the same way it had when Seung-ho rested his head on his shoulder, or when they slept in the gym and Seung-ho's knee touched his, just barely.

They held hands in the middle of an empty corridor on a Wednesday in the spring of their senior year of high school.

Hyo-bin didn't pull his hand away. He looked at the back of his hand inside Seung-ho's and didn't know what to do.

When he looked up at Seung-ho, he felt like he couldn't take a single step. Seung-ho was relaxed, like it was something that had always made sense, and he looked like he already knew Hyo-bin would stay.

"Hyo-bin," Seung-ho whispered. "I like you."

"I know," Hyo-bin whispered back.

"Since when?"

"Since the goggles."

Seung-ho laughed once quietly. "That long?"

"Maybe before the goggles. I don't wanna talk about it."

"Do you like me then?"

A door opened far down the corridor.

They let go of each other's hands at the same time and started walking again without looking at each other. When the teacher turned the corner with a stack of papers in her hand, they were just two boys coming from the vending machine who were late for class.

But as soon as the teacher was out of sight, Seung-ho pushed him against the wall. "Do you like me, Hyo-bin?"

Hyo-bin looked at him. He nodded. The movement was tiny. He hated that it was tiny. Then he nodded harder because the first one wasn't enough for his answer.

At that exact moment, the chemistry lab door opened. They stepped apart and walked into the classroom. When they sat at their desks, Hyo-bin didn't hear a single word during the entire class.

Under the desk, they held each other's hands tightly, their hearts racing.