Chapter Text
Till had never lived a complicated life.
Living out in the countryside with his mama in a house that had been passed down from his grandparents and his grandparents grandparents. It had had it's fair share of fixing up and renovations, but it stood strong and it kept them safe. Plus, didn't cost too much to run.
Well, it did, but they made that money easy by selling goods.
Everyday was full of chores that Till had been doing since he had been able to go to school.
Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, feed the pigs, feed the chickens and collect the eggs, do a head count to make sure no foxes came in, feed and check on the goats and sheep, feed and let out the dogs, feed the horses and let them roam. A whole lot of feeding. Honestly, there was more than that, but it all kind of blended into each other from doing it so many times.
It wasn't the usual life a teenage boy his age would have, Till knew that fully by the fact he had a mobile phone and internet access. Even at 18, Till never wanted to move out, he was happy with this life. A loving mother, a job he enjoyed, a nice home. Even if it was humble, it was his.
The only thing that he really lacked in, was in the relationship department. Sure, his mama didn't pressure him to just find a wife and settle by the time he turned 18, but she was still a curious woman! The typical 'Have you met any nice girls in school?' 'Are you interested in anybody right now?'.
It didn't bother him, she was only asked questions, but it was embarrassing to come back empty handed every time. He'd had so little luck with relationships that his mama was sure he was gay… Not that there was anything wrong with being gay! She was very accepting! Till just.. Wasn't gay!
He'd had his eyes on one girl in his school, Mizi, another country girl that lived far off to where he lived. She was beautiful, funny, smart, any person in their right minds dream girl. Only problem was Till was far too shy to speak to her, stammering over his words anytime he tried to say a thing. Now he was on his last year of school before graduation and still he hadn't been able to say anything to her!
Even still, Till was happy. This may have not been the life for everybody, but it was the life for him.
"Looks like it's gonna storm.."
Io let out a sigh, looking up at the darkening storm clouds, pitters of rain hitting the glass slowly.
"Have you made sure all of the animals are inside?"
"Yes mama," Till was quick to respond, focusing on his phone. "All the pens are closed, everybodies snug inside. Should I go double check?"
"No need," Io shook her head, closing the blinds and brushing off her hands. "I trust you did everything! Now, it's getting late, we should head to bed."
"I'll stay down a while longer, only time I get to use the big TV when you don't have your game shows on.."
With a shrug, Till got the remote, comfortable on the sofa. His mama just laughed and came over to kiss the side of his head, giving her good nights before heading off to bed. The majority of the night after that, Till remained sat downstairs watching the TV.
Maybe it was the sound of the rain hitting the windows, or maybe it was the comfort of the sofa, but Till had ended up laid on his side on the sofa, snoring and drooling. One arm on the floor, the other slung up over his head, one leg somehow on the back of the sofa, but it was a comfortable position!
It didn't take long for his comfort to be ruined by the sound of thudding and the dogs barking. There was no thunder and lightning yet so there shouldn't be…- Fox.
Till wiped the drool from his mouth quickly and rushed off to the kitchen, grabbing a crowbar. He had no intention to hurt anything, but the foxes needed to be scared off or they eat the chicken. Luckily, or possibly unluckily, though.. The sound of thudding was coming from the front door. Banging and banging- a person? At night..? In the rain, at his house.
This was the start of some thriller horror series, but in reverse. Who the hell came to a farm house in the middle of land, in a storm, at the middle of the night?
Turning on all of the lights, Till yawned and scratched at his lower stomach, keeping his crowbar in hand as he undid all of the latches on the door and peeked his eye out.
At first, he flinched. Stood at the door was possibly the tallest and scariest looking man he had ever seen. An expensive suit and coat that had now been drenched with a giant beard and a hat, though poking beside him was a woman. There were two of them? Both of them were soaking wet, the poor woman's makeup streaming down her cheeks. The two of them looked extremely flashy for these parts.
"Are you the owner of this establishment?"
Good Lord this guy's voice was as scary as he looked. Till arched a brow and nodded, opening the door more,
"Uh, yeah? Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my property?" He had to play intimidating.. This guy looked like he smelled fear..
The woman huffed and shoved past her husband, furrowing her brows,
"We're so sorry, but our car broke down! We were on the way to my sister's town but something went wrong with our engine and the storm is making it impossible to call for help! We're wet and cold and need somewhere to stay the night, we can pay if need be."
Now, Till and his mama were hospitable people. Help out those in need, work with charity, so this wasn't something that he'd ever pass up. But, hearing 'we can pay' from two very wealthy looking city folk had dollar signs in Till's vision.
"Till..? What's all the ruckus..?"
Yawned Io, making her way down the stairs, while Till looked over.
"Some folk are at the door. Apparently their car broke down and the storms making it difficult to get help. They wanna know if they can stay the night or until the storm clears up."
"Oh! Of course! Please please, come in! You poor souls, I'll get you some dry towels in the mean time and start the kettle. Till, let them in and you take them to the kitchen."
Just like that, Io was rushing around and fussing right away, even for strangers that were outside of their house at an ungodly hour. Did she have no self preservation? What if they were killers?!
"Yes mama."
Till stepped aside and let the very scary man walk in with what seemed like his wife following beside. What he had missed, was a third. Following after the woman, who had been stood beside the wall, was a tall and beautiful looking woman. Short, fluffy dark hair that was now dripping wet. Broad shoulders and a pretty face with a snaggletooth poking out. Till gawked over her like a victorian man seeing ankle. She was gorgeous!
The three followed him to the kitchen while his mama brewed some tea and brought some warm towels and blankets, pulling out the chairs, "Come now! Don't be shy, my name is Io, and this is my son, Till."
The couple stood beside one another with their daughter standing beside the giant man, looking around the kitchen before her eyes landed on Till, making his shoulders tense and his face burn up, having to glance away.
The woman fawned over Till, making him cringe, but she clasped her hands together, "So lovely to meet you! I am Misoon, this is my husband, Unsha, and this is our son, Ivan!"
"THAT'S A DUDE?!"
Till had practically yelled, body flinching and even causing the couple to shoot their head at him. Even Ivan seemed to widen his eyes and blink in confusion. It took a second to register just how rude that sounded and his entire face burnt a deep, crimson red, waving his hands quickly,
"Sorry! Sorry! That was uncalled for! I just-! I didn't-!"
Misoon only laughed in one of those snobby, rich lady laughs with her bangles jingling on her wrist as she waved her hand, "Oh please! He gets that a lot.."
Ivan seemed to hide his mouth behind the back of his fingers, the smallest snicker as his nose scrunched from trying to hold back laughter. The situation was embarrassing enough! He didn't need this city boy laughing at him about it! .. Even though it was aimed at that same city boy.. But still!
Several hours passed of getting the 3 dry, Io chatting and making friendly conversation- with the wife specifically, Unsha didn't seem to talk very much, maybe that was a good thing, he looked like trouble on legs.. They all drank some tea, all got given some spare clothing to sleep in while Io put theirs in the washer and dryer for the morning, then Io guided them to the spare bedroom. The rest was history, everybody just went to sleep so they could be dry and ready to call for help the next morning, then Till could go back to working and he'd not have to be face to face with that terrifying man anymore.
Except, that was how it should have gone. Instead, Till woke up to do his morning routine, only to find the three still there and having breakfast get made.
"Morning mama," Till made his way over, kissing her cheek while going to find his boots. "I'll do my chores first and then eat. What's the deal with the city folk?"
Io huffed and shot a small glare, "Don't speak like that.. They're having some issues still calling for help for their car. There's no services nearby that would even get here within a day, so I've had to call for some nearby help to sort it out. Be careful outside, it's still slippery from the rain, make sure it's not too muddy for the chickens."
"Yes mama!"
Sitting on the seat beside the door, Till pulled up his boots and tucked his denim pants in, getting a hairtie to pull his hair up into a small ponytail. The whole time, he felt eyes burning into him. All it took was raising his head to meet eyes with dark, crimson pupils staring at him like he was an enigma. His brow arched in return and he huffed, "Got a staring problem, city boy?"
"Be nice, Till!"
This 'Ivan' smiled in return, even though it seemed kind of fake, tilting his head, "Sorry, didn't mean to stare."
Lord! That was one hell of a voice on a face like that! Till hadn't seen Ivan hadn't talk once since he arrived, his mother seemed to do all of the talking for him. He never even said thank you to his mama, just gave a polite bow instead.
"Sir, mother, could I maybe join him? I want to see around the farm."
"Eh?" Arching a brow, Till stood, "Who the hell invited you?"
"Oh come on, sweetie. It's just your usual morning chores, he won't be a bother! I've talked to Ivan all morning and he's lovely!"
Misoo seemed to cringe at the notion of Ivan going outside and getting dirty, scrunching her nose, but Ivan gave some big doe like eyes and a pout that had her surrendering with ease.
"Fine, fine! But wear boots and don't get all dirty! Your clothes just got washed and they're too expensive for you to get marks in."
"Don't take too long out there, Ivan."
Ivan stood himself and gave a polite bow, "Yes, sir."
Before making his way over to take some spare boots to put on, he even copied Till by tucking his pants in.
All Till had to do, was do his usual routine check on the animals and then head inside and get something to eat. Even with black eyes staring at him the whole time in fascination, a silent, looming presence that followed him like a bug. It was unnerving! What the hell was his deal!
"Your name is Till, right?"
"Didn't catch that from the several times it's been said?" Questioned Till, mockingly, while he got the pig food ready. Ivan just followed along with his arms folded behind his back, tilting his torso to look over his shoulder as Till squat down and got everything ready.
Ivan laughed and arched a brow, "Well don't you have an attitude? Even in front of your mother."
"My mama's too friendly, somebodies gotta be the one to make up for her lack of bitchiness."
"Well you did a good job at that," He mused in return.
Now was time to ignore the looming presence while Till focused on actually getting his work done. Gathering together the apples they picked from the trees that were too crappy to sell, easily breaking them in half then moving onto the spare pumpkins. Everything got tossed into a big bucket while Till lugged a giant bag of pellets onto his shoulder. By now, that hole in the back of his head was burning, making him grumble,
"Why the fuck are you staring now?"
The question seemed to catch Ivan off guard since Till had been quiet for a while now, a win for Till. Even still, Ivan gave a small smile and tilt his head, "Sorry, you're just really strong and I hadn't expected it."
"Eh?! What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!"
"You're just quite small, didn't look like you had any muscles."
Oh, Till was seething. Who the hell did this guy think he was?! Just because he was all tall and broad with a chest so endowed Till thought he was a woman, did that mean he gets to make fun of Till's height and stature?!
"I've been doing this since I was 13, you think I'm not gonna be strong from that? You're insane. Too porcelain to do any work like this yourself. You city folk get everything done for you."
Okay, now maybe he was just being a dick. Till was taught growing up to be kind to everybody and love thy neighbour but it was hard to do that when said neighbour was obnoxious as hell!
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that generalising is bad? I work hard, thank you."
"Sure, work hard on holding your phone up to take pictures, now get out of my way I need to get to the pigs."
At least Ivan wasn't bratty enough to ignore and get in the way of Till's work. Leaving the stables to head over to the pig pen. First, feeding all the girls first with their apples and pumpkins then some pellets, then doing the same to the males. Till even stopped in the pen for a little to give belly pats to one of the girls, "Oohh like how fat you've gotten, Toast? Good girl, good girl."
Leaning against the pen fence, Ivan rest his cheek on his hand as he watched everything, yet refused to go in, just in case he got dirty.
"Toast? Do they all have names?"
"Well duh, what, do you think we just call them pig?"
"But how do you tell them apart to remember their names?"
Till stood, brushing off the dirt from the pig and helped roll her a bit so she'd get up and eat, pointing to the big spot on her back, "Toast has that dark patch on her, Peanut is the biggest girl, Avacado has the floppiest ears. Then over in the boys, Clover is always the one covered in the most mud and Brussel is the bigger guy."
While Till explained, Ivan looked over each pig and turned his head to follow when Till pointed over at the male pigs pen. With each name, he nodded, as if trying the memorise each one and it's reasons, yet he didn't look at Till like he was crazy this time, at least.
"I'm assuming the boys and girls have to be separated to prevent fights?"
"No, to prevent the horny fucks from having any babies. You forget mating was a thing?"
Till questioned, making his way over to the gate and held the top of it, climbing over instead of opening the gate, leg swinging around it to the other side. It was funny seeing the small loading dots above Ivan's head happen in real time before he processed, "Oh, right, I'm not used to being around animals so I forgot they did that."
"What, you don't even have a dog at home?"
Ivan shook his head and followed as Till walked off back to the stables again, "Father doesn't like animals and says they're messy and too much work."
Next, Till had to fill a second bucket with pellets, though held out the handle for Ivan to take. If he was going to have a spare pair of hands for the time being, he'd make use of them, that was he can carry the food for the goats without needing to come back to the stable after. Ivan looked up around the stable while Till got the basket for the chicken eggs and another bucket full of more pellets and vegetables.
Ivan let out a huff as he tried to carry the bucket, eyes drifting back to Till, "This is heavy, you seriously carry this stuff everyday?"
Till nodded, "Every single day without fail. Unless I'm sick, then mama does it. On school days I wake up early to make sure I can do this, she does the work in the house and most of the selling."
"Oh, right selling, that's what you do with all of the stuff you grow and take from the animals? Do you sell meat, too?"
"Pretty much. Typically it's if an animal gets too old or they have any issues with them that make it hard to live with. Circle of life, ya know? It makes good money selling real meat like that, but it's typically me that does it. Mama gets more attached to the animals and she's too faint of heart."
Ivan nodded in understanding while Till left the stable and let him follow along. In all honesty, it gave him a bit of an ego boost seeing Ivan struggle a little to carry the bucket of food. He looked strong, yet he couldn't carry a bucket? And he said that he thought Till looked weak. Till put the bucket of sheep feed outside of the pen and took the bucket from Ivan's hands to bring into the coop, pouring all of the pellets into the feeder. While all of them were let out to eat, Till could climb into the coop and look over all of the nests, taking any eggs laying around into his basket then getting out and doing a count.
"Good, everybodies here. Storm must have kept away any foxes."
"Is that an issue you deal with often?"
Till scoffed and rolled his eyes, "All the damn time. We don't want to kill the thing but it somehow finds a way in. We've been searching for the hole in the fencing it keeps getting in for weeks but the dogs can't find nothing and neither can we. Mama's working on it in the background when she's not busy."
Till took the basket of eggs and the bucket of food for the goats and sheep, bringing them to the next pen to feed them too.
"Why do you call your mother 'Mama' when you're a grown adult?"
With a scoff, Till arched a brow, dumping the bucket of food into the feeder, "Do I have to be a kid to call her what she is? What, you first name basis your own parents? You called your own pops 'Sir', what's the deal with that?"
Ivan just shrugged, "I've always called him sir, I very rarely call him father. Some strict parents just don't like to be addressed like that."
"Jeez.." Till grumbled, arching a brow, "What kind of parents can be so strict you can't even call them mom or dad?"
At that, Ivan said nothing, just watched the goats eat. An unnerving silence, but a silence nonetheless that Till took as him not wanting to talk about it. If Ivan didn't wanna bring it up then Till wouldn't bring it up. Next they had to feed the horses and the dogs, easy enough.
"Mind helping me with the horses? All of their food as at the stables, you just have to scoop it into the buckets then hang the buckets."
Ivan hummed and rocked on his heels, "Sure thing, think I'm useful now?"
"You have your benefits, like a pair or working hands."
It was going to go ignored how Ivan laughing at the tease made Till's stomach feel weird. It was just from how gross it was, sure, that was it.
Ivan seemed to enjoy being around the animals, he even pet the horses and gave the dogs head scratches. Of course, he ended up washing up after to make sure he had no visible dirt on him, which Till found extremely stupid. If he was gonna be on a farm for a limited amount of time, shouldn't he be able to get a little bit dirty? It wasn't like his mama wouldn't clean his clothes for him, he wouldn't just be left to stay dirty.
"Mama! We're back!"
Till called out, wiping off his boots on the doormat then sitting to take them off and put aside. Ivan followed behind, taking off the boots and fixing up his attire. Nobody would have known he'd even been outside in the farm by how prestine he still looked.
"Welcome back sweety! Your breakfast is being finished," Io hummed cheerfully, earning a kiss on the cheek from Till.
Both Ivan and Till took turns cleaning their hands before Ivan returned to his seat beside his father.
"You smell awful, Ivan. Go take a shower." Unsha practically commanded, but Ivan still nodded and stood, politely bowing then heading upstairs. He'd only just gotten in and he didn't get a welcome back or asking what he did, what snobs.
"Did you have fun with Ivan? I told you he was lovely," His mama questioned, looking over from plating the bacon. Till only shrugged in response,
"He's fine.." Maybe it wasn't best to call the son of a very scary man 'annoying' in front of him.
Io brought over the plated breakfast and ruffled Till's hair, letting him tuck in and eat.
"Ah, yes, sweetie, we have an update on the car. As it turns out, Dewey doesn't have the parts needed for the car yet and has to order them, but they won't arrive for at least 3 days.. Even after trying to explain the situation, we're too far out for anybody to drive the three of them to where they need to be, so they're going to be staying with us for longer than anticipated."
Till choked on his food and coughed, "What?! But we don't have the room for them! And Ivan keeps getting in the way!"
With a huff, Io folded her arms, "Don't be rude, sweety, he has been nothing but polite."
Even though Till was still annoyed, he was willing to calm down. It was only a few days, it wasn't the end of the world, then they'd go back to wherever they came from and Till could continue his day to day like they never existed. He settled back down to keep eating, before Unsha decided to ruin the whole thing by opening his stupid mouth.
"You should learn how to discipline your son, no child should be raising their voice at their elders like that. Especially with such an attitude."
Okay, no longer calm, now Till's blood was boiling as he stood and slammed his hand on the table,
"Who do you think you are?!"
"Sweetie, sweetie! Calm down!" Io fussed, rubbing Till's shoulders and easing him the best she could, before sighing, "We don't do that sort of thing around here. Till is as disciplined as he needs to be and he listens to his mama. He is a grown adult with feelings to express, and I would never live in a world where I would ever raise my hand at my son."
way to go Io! Even though Io was a very polite and outgoing woman, she rarely ever defended herself, so hearing her stand up for herself against these stuck up rich folk made Till proud.
Noticing the situation becoming tense, Minsoo waved her hands and laughed, "Oh come now, Io. It was just a bit of unwarranted advice, no need for anybody to get hostile. We just take children respecting their elders very seriously, and Till does seem to be a very vocal and rebellious youth.."
"I'll show you rebellion." Till bared his teeth, earning a huff from Io, "Sweetheart, you take your breakfast upstairs and calm down. He's always had a bit of a temper even in his youth, now go go, shoo."
Till could tell his mama just wanted to diffuse the situation, but he was still peeved! Who did these city folk think they were? Coming into his house, insulting the way Io raised him, calling him rebellious, trying to act all kind and understanding when they were the furthest thing from! But if Io wanted him to not make the situation worse then Till would do that, taking his food and storming off upstairs to his room, even slamming the door for extra effect so they knew just how mad he was. He was meant to be 18 yet he was acting like he was 15 again after being told he couldn't go out late.
By the time it was dark outside, everybody had already headed off back to their rooms to settle down for the night. Except for Till.
Thanks to the whole argument, he spent most of his time up in his room instead of settling downstairs with his mama to avoid being around that nasty couple. So now, he had the living room to himself- or well he had, until there were eyes burning into him again, making him grumble.
"You don't need to sneak around you freakshow, if you want to come into the room then just come in."
Of course, to anybody else, Till would have looked like he was speaking to nobody. But rather, he just knew that Ivan was hiding on the staircase, watching through the railing like a weirdo. At least he heeded his warning and peeked his head in, staring over at Till, "What are you even watching?"
"You tell me, you've been staring for the past 10 minutes, just sit the hell down and stop watching me."
Ivan listened and made his way over, sitting on the sofa a good distance away from Till and watched the TV. It was late out, so the lights were off and the room dark, the only light coming from the TV and the porch lights outside of the window. Till often used his time downstairs to watch some of his shows that he never got to watch because his mama was usually downstairs and she worked so hard that she at least decided to have the living room to herself.
For once, Ivan remained quiet, just watching the TV with him. Either he couldn't sleep or he just wanted the company. Either way, it was a strange silence, a little weird.
"Why are you here, anyway?"
Till decided to break the silence first, not even looking his way, but in his side view could tell his sudden questioning startled Ivan into looking at him. Sometimes he acted like a deer in headlights when he was suddenly addressed.
"Oh, I couldn't get to sleep, It's not easy sleeping in the same room as my parents, and I heard the TV downstairs so I thought I'd see what was going on. I thought it was Miss Io at first but instead it's you."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Till arched a brow at him, huffing. Ivan just laughed in return and looked back at the TV.
They slipped back into a comfortable silence while watching the TV, before Ivan piped up first, this time.
"You don't get many visitors around here, do you? Your mother is a good host but you don't know the first thing about company."
Till shrugged, "Most company I get is when my friend from school comes over. I'm just not very social, that a crime?"
"I didn't know you were still in school, how old are you?"
"You can't tell? Jeez, I'm 18."
Ivan rolled his eyes and gave a small huff, "Well you said school and I thought you were younger. I assumed you were 18 but I thought you were younger. You're a year younger than me."
At that, Till choked and startled enough to fire his head over at him, "You're 19?! I thought you were mid 20s! Good Lord.. You look like that as a teenager? God really does have favourites.."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Shrugged Ivan, looking back at the TV.
"Do you believe in God? Or were you just joking?"
"I was joking. Sure, in my area, I was raised to believe in God. Hell, most of my childhood was learning all about God and religion but I'm not a big believer. My mama is more of a believer than me but I'm not big on the whole idea."
"Mn, I'm not religious either. I used to be, until I was like 15.. I was raised into a religious household, I still often say prayer before eating, it's just habit, but I stopped believing in God a long time ago."
"Is there a reason?" Till tilt his head, curious, but Ivan's expression suddenly became unreadable.
He shook his head, watching the TV with a newfound fascination, as if not wanting to be a part of the conversation anymore, "God just didn't answer any of my prayers in a time I needed them most, so I stopped believing in him."
Till took the monotone speaking voice as notice to shut up, just nodding in understanding and glancing away. All he could offer was a shrug, "If it's of any consolation, I stopped believing in him for the same reason. A kid can only take too much of asking and asking for help only for it to go unheard. I guess I realised early on that everything we had wasn't thanks to some God but thanks to my mama's hard work, so I started thanking her instead."
Ivan mused and tapped his lip, a small devilish smirk, "Awhe, how cute.. Such a mama's boy."
"Hey!" Barked Till in return, pushing Ivan away, yet he only laughed instead, "So what if I'm a mama's boy? She's the best thing to ever happen to me!"
"Wow, the best?" Ivan snorted, "Even over any girlfriends?"
At that, Till arched a brow, rolling his eyes with a huff. His body resting back into the sofa, arms folded over his chest and a foot propped up on the coffee table, "I don't have a girlfriend, never have."
"Boyfriend?"
"No boyfriend either! I'm not gay!"
Ivan laughed and rest his cheek on his hand, seemingly amused at the fluster spreading on Till's cheeks at the questioning.
"Is there anything wrong with being gay? That was quite a reaction."
"There's nothing wrong with it!" Huffed Till, turning his head over his way, "I'm just.. Not! I get asked by my mama more than enough times."
"A mother's intuition is never wrong, you know."
"Oh shut up!" Till pushed Ivan once again, earning yet another laugh.
Something about Ivan felt like he'd been there forever, even though he'd only known him for a day. They easily bantered and joked like they were best friends, yet Till struggled to make these kinds of friends with anybody else. Even with Hyuna, it took him months to get close enough to her, yet Ivan was so easy to talk with. Maybe it was because he was a guy, Till never really had any guy friends his age growing up. Sure, there was Dewey, but he was way older than him and more of his mama's friend than his. Dewey was more like an older brother.
Was this what it was like to have a best friend? But that didn't feel right. He'd known Hyuna since he was 16 and she never made his stomach knot like this. This was the kind of feeling that he got from Mizi… Maybe it was better to not think about that.
"Earth to Till, do you read me?"
Oh shit.
Till blinked back to reality, realising those dark eyes were much closer to him than they were before. His head snapped away from the shock of it and he grumbled, face hot in the process.
"No need to get so close, dude, I'm right here."
Snickering, Ivan leant forward again with a teasing grin, "I'm not infected, you can get close, you know?"
"Says the one who sat further away on the couch first."
"You say that like you wanted me to sit close.."
This teasing asshole.
Instead, Till grumbled and moved his face closer in retaliation. Brows knit together in annoyance, but Ivan seemed taken aback by Till standing his ground and moving close. They were too close, Till knew that fully by how up close he could see Ivan's fluttering lashes and see the red spread around his cheeks, even despite the glow of the TV on him giving a blueish tint.
"Not so cocky now, are you?" Till grinned, arching a brow.
".. Till…?"
Ivan sounded breathless for a moment, yet it didn't seem to catch Till of guard. Instead, his shoulders relaxed and all the sudden he was far too aware of which of Ivan's eyes to look at, glancing down. His lips were slightly parted and his snaggletooth pressed against his bottom lip. Did most guys have lips that plush or was it just Ivan?
Till hadn't even caught how he moved in a little closer, until their lips were close that Till could feel Ivan's breath. Then suddenly, hands were on his chest, with Ivan moving away so quickly that it gave Till whiplash.
"It's getting late.. I should head back to bed now or my parents will wake up and not see me there. It was nice talking to you more, Till, thanks for letting me sit with you."
Ivan stood, brushing off his outfit before covering the bottom half of his face to hide the red there, then turning and rushing upstairs.
Now, Till was left sitting on the sofa, completely still and in the same position he had been when Ivan pushed him. His chest still ached where Ivan pushed him away, even though there was no force to it, and his lips itched with the faint ghosting of Ivan's breath. Why was his heart racing so fast?
There was no way he wanted to kiss him, not a chance! Till wasn't into guys!
Yet even still, that lingering thought stuck to him like glue… Did Ivan want to kiss him too? He didn't move back until then. Did Till make him uncomfortable? Hell! Till made himself uncomfortable! What was he thinking?!
With a groan, Till buried his face in his hands and sunk down, face stuffed into the seat of the sofa.
What was wrong with him?