Song Challenge #7
Title: Song Drabble Challenge #7.
Group: EXO.
Pairing: See below.
Rating: See below.
Warning: Bad English, AU/ambiguous setting.
Summary: Five songs, five pairings, all of them are EXO and I'm gonna pretend I don't know why.
N/A: pairings chosen by brandnewwind, nothing new here. I had 10 planned but I'm a loser heh. Also, some of these got completely out of hand.
1. Suyoil, by Lucite Tokki - Lay/Sehun (EXO). G.
Open the door, and go, “erm…” Too awkward to say “hi”
With my hands shaking in front of the piano
In fact, I see nothing in front of my eyes Only the sound of your voice
Sehun is at his doorstep again. It’s Wednesday, three in the afternoon, a sunny day sprinkled with white, dense clouds. Sehun clutches to his notebook nervously as he rings the doorbell, heart beating irregularly even though he’s there every week without fault.
The door opens, and there he is. Slightly shorter than Sehun himself, dressed in a simple white T-shirt and black short pants, Sehun’s piano instructor smiles brightly, and Sehun’s mouth goes dry. “Hello Sehun sshi!”
The sight of Yixing’s adorable dimples make him smile. “Um, hi,” he says quietly, unsure whether he should bow or not. He foregoes it. When Yixing lets him in, he steps forward a bit shyly, even though he has been at that house every week for the past year.
“Have you practiced recently?” as usually, Yixing asks him with his accented Korean while guiding Sehun to the living room. Sehun nods, having practiced until his fingers hurt last Saturday, and this earns him an approving pat on the shoulder from the instructor. “Good! Can you play for me?”
Oh no. Sehun bites his lips, heart hammering against his chest. Yixing is looking at him with big, expectant eyes, and it’s not like Sehun can refuse him, but… as he sits in front of Yixing’s piano, he notices that his hands are already shaking.
“… if I get it wrong, please don’t scold me,” Sehun pleads a bit pathetically, and Yixing lets out a chuckle. The student blushes intensely.
“It’s okay,” Yixing assures him, patting his back. “I want to hear you.”
That only makes Sehun even more nervous. He doesn’t want to ruin it, he really doesn’t want to ruin it, but he’s so nervous that it’s obvious that he’ll get it wrong. Nonetheless, as he feels Yixing’s eyes on his hands, Sehun starts playing.
The first notes are clumsy. His hands have it memorized, but his wrists stumble over the rhythm, and he feels his throat constrict as he tries to correct his mistake. It’s a supposedly simple song, but Sehun can’t help it; he can barely see the piano in front of him. All his mind sees is Yixing beside him, watching him, Yixing.
Predictably, he completely misses a passage. “Ah,” his face turns red.
“It’s okay,” Yixing says again, guiding Sehun’s hand to the right position, and the touch makes Sehun go ah again. “Here. Go on.”
The song resumes, amateurish, and Sehun tries his best to focus as Yixing distractedly rests his hand on his arm. Sehun is always making an effort to hide his heart, always, every Wednesday, but at times like this - at times when Yixing looks at him tenderly, touches him unconsciously, smiles his oh so precious smile to him - it becomes harder and harder to swallow those forbidden words.
The song ends. Yixing applauds him, which makes Sehun mightily embarrassed. He turns around, but his eyes are fixed on the floor. “How was it?”
A pause. A long pause, one that makes it feel like Yixing won’t say anything. And then, a gentle hand on Sehun’s chin, and Sehun’s face is lifted so his eyes will meet his instructor’s.
“It was good,” Yixing says, and Sehun ceases to breathe, and Yixing smiles and let him go. “You trained a lot.”
Sehun is tongue tied. He takes a deep breath before speaking, so to make sure he won’t say the wrong thing. “Thank you,” he blurts out. Yixing’s smile widens, and he sits beside him.
“Your hands are good for piano,” the instructor remarks, lifting one of Sehun’s hands as if to admire it. It’s not the first time he says that, but Sehun always feels like he’s about to burst when he does it. “They’re pretty.”
Sehun sputters. His lungs feel light and empty. “T-thank you,” he blurts out again.
Yixing nods, as if he doesn’t know the impact of what he has just said. He probably doesn’t. No matter how much Sehun likes him, he does his best to hide it, and, even if he doesn’t do very much of a good job, Yixing always seemed to be oblivious.
“Let’s go again,” Yixing says as Sehun’s heart soars. “Together, this time.”
2. Suki×3ssu! , by Nijigumi Fights - Kai/Luhan (EXO). PG.
Reach the heavens! The ball I kick
Make my feelings reach him! is the wish I make
Kim Jongin is stellar at many things, but, rather honestly, soccer isn’t one of them.
It doesn’t stop him from trying, though. Indeed, he’s arguably the most hardworking member of the team; staying back several hours after practice is over to train, never missing one single day of clubs activities, never contesting or refusing to follow the captain’s commands…
“You really don’t have to go so far…” a teammate says when he, once again, stays back in the field to train more.
“I want to become better!” he responds a bit dumbly, and the teammate creases his brows at him.
However, there is someone who smiles at such efforts. It’s the team’s captain, exchange student Luhan. When he sees that Jongin is staying back again, he, too, decides to stay back, waving goodbye to the rest of the team as they head for the showers.
“That’s the spirit, Jongin ah,” Luhan says, and Jongin smiles widely as the teammate from before rolls his eyes and leaves.
The thing is, there is a reason why Jongin is so dedicated to the soccer club.
That reason being: the captain.
“Now, Jongin ah,” Luhan, oblivious as always, stands all but few centimeters behind Jongin. Jongin can feel the heat emanating from his body, can smell the sweat mixed with his cologne, and it’s distracting. Awfully so. “Focus. The distance is great, but I think you can do it. You can do it, right?”
“I can do it,” Jongin answers mechanically. He tries to focus, but it’s almost impossible. See, that’s why Luhan is so popular with the girls… it’s the aura. It affects everyone around him, regardless of gender or sexuality. At least it’s what Jongin thinks.
“You can,” Luhan puts his hands on Jongin’s shoulder, and Jongin breathes in sharply. Focus, Jongin. Focus. This is not the time to think about the countless hearts and the feeble attempts at Chinese writing scribbled all over the margin of his notebook. “Go for it.”
Jongin kicks the ball with such strength that it flies above the goal, through the limits of the field, out of sight.
Maybe he projected his own feelings in it a little too much.
“It was amazing!” Several hours later, in their way back home, Luhan is still talking about it. They’re walking in a slow pace, bikes on each side of their bodies, and Luhan is babbling excitedly about the startlingly powerful kick Jongin had delivered in practice. Jongin can only small shyly and watch as his beloved captain showers him with compliments. “I didn’t know you had it in you! You’re usually so mild!”
Jongin shrugs, unable to participate properly in the conversation. Lucky for him, Luhan doesn’t need him to. “I wish we had done it during practice. The other guys would be so impressed!” His smiles morphs into a grin. “And those girls who hang out around the field, too,” Luhan almost drops his bike as he nudges Jongin’s sides with his elbow, teasing the younger one.
Jongin laughs awkwardly, because it’s not like he has the guts to say outright that he’s not interested in girls, but he doesn’t know how to respond to that either. Panic starts forming in the bottom of his stomach, and he decides to say something, anything.
“They’d be more impressed by you, captain,” it’s what comes out. Shit. Not exactly the most heterosexual thing he could’ve said. Luhan raises a brow, and Jongin stammers, “b-because you look cool during practice.”
Might as well confess already, no? Jongin feels stupid. Luha, however, seems to have failed to sniff anything weird in the air, and smiles sheepishly. “Well, thanks! But it’d be a pity if they only looked at me. It’s not like I can date any of them.”
Jongin stops in his tracks. Frowning, he tilts his head to the side. “Why?”
Luhan also stops in his tracks, smile fading away. He looks surprised. “… you haven’t heard about it?”
Is it too stupid to hope he’ll say something like ‘because I’m gay’ or ‘because I’m in love with you’? It is. Actually, it probably jumps over all kinds of limits for stupidity, but it’s not like Jongin can fix his brain in time not to create expectation.
And that’s how Kim Jongin’s heart is crushed into fine powder when he learns that Luhan, transfer student, captain of the soccer club, is dating the manager of the very same club. Their manager. Their pretty, adorable, female manager.
“We’ve been dating for a while now,” Luhan is trying to look cool, but his face is red and he has a silly, dazed smile on his lips. “Ah, well, I don’t know how serious she is about it, but I’m pretty serious, so…”
Stab Jongin in the guts while you’re at it.
“Sunbaenim, I’m sorry. I just remembered I have something urgent to do,” Jongin hopes that, among the many things he’s stellar at, one of them is acting. He hastily climbs onto his bike and waves his beloved captain goodbye.
“See you tomorrow!” Luhan shouts to the quickly disappearing Jongin.
Jongin barely waits till he’s out of his earshot to start crying.
He cries, cries, cries for what feels like the longest time, furiously pedaling along the beachside road. He sobs, and his mouth goes dry, and he doesn’t care, he doesn’t even care that he’s obviously going the wrong way and will soon get lost as fuck, because his heart is so broken that he can pretty much feel the cracks.
“STOP CRYING!!” he yells at himself in a pathetically shaky voice, sniffing and sobbing and crying endlessly in the sunset. It’s not what he means. What he really wants to scream at himself is, stop feeling. Stop liking him. Stop wanting him so much.
He wishes he could kick a ball right now. He’d surely send it to infinity and beyond… along with those hopeless feelings.
3. BANG! BANG! BAKANSU, by SMAP - Baekhyun/Chen/D.O (EXO). R.
Baby, bang! Bang! Bang! Barefoot, go now!
Go against the progress of humanity!
Baby, bang! Bang! Bang! With the face of an idiot
Jump into the sea while wearing a suit!
Last summer wasn’t very interesting. Baekhyun mostly hung out at Jongdae’s house, but that’s because his air-conditioner had exploded (not broken, exploded). Kyungsoo had blabbered during the whole year about how he was gonna get a motorbike and all, but, in the end, he couldn’t find the resolve in his heart to find a summer job, and had also hung out at Jongdae’s for no reason at all. They ended up not doing anything exciting or adventurous. It was a pity.
That is gonna change this year; it’s what Jongdae promises them in the very last day of school. The bell has rung, and they’re officially on vacation, which usually doesn’t mean much till the following day. For the three of them, however, it means the beginning of an adventure.
“Let’s go to the beach,” is what Baekhyun and Jongdae say as they snatch Kyungsoo from his class.
“Now?” Kyungsoo blinks in confusion.
“Now,” the other two affirm categorically.
The three of them head to the beach on Kyungsoo’s bicycle, which is disastrous and almost lethal, but also hilarious. Kyungsoo throws a fit after ten minutes and refuses to “drive” them the rest of the way, because Baekhyun and Jongdae keep poking his nipples and calling him cheesy names, so Baekhyun takes over the direction, and the other two start poking his nipples.
“Baby~”
“Oppa~”
“Honey~”
“Shortcake~”
“Just wait till we get there,” Baekhyun says viciously, yelping when Jongdae’s hand caresses his sensitive nape. “I’m gonna bite your hand off, I swear!”
They go to the beach, jump into the sea with their uniforms on, then build the ugliest sand castle ever seen by human kind. Wet and sandy, they walk for a long time till they find a shaved ice stand, so to eat several servings of shaved ice and flirt with the bulky male vendor. Then, finally, as the evening arrives, they go home.
“So, last year’s summer was lame,” Jongdae says, and Baekhyun, who has his head on Jongdae’s sholder and an arm around his waist, hums in agreement. Kyungsoo, too, nods. “But this is gonna change this year. We’re gonna have a hell of a summer vacation.”
The two of them know better than to take Jongdae’s promises lightly. They’re completely right not to.
In the next day, Jongdae shows up at Kyungsoo’s house with a suitcase in hands, demanding the younger to wake up immediately and pack. Kyungsoo panics, but does as told. They fetch Baekhyun in a similar fashion, and Baekhyun panics much more intensely, but, eventually, all is fine, and the three teenagers soon are in a bus which is headed toward a nearby famous beachside town.
It’s an amazing place; the sea is much prettier than the one that baths their hometown, and the place is much more summer-like, to the point it doesn’t even look like it’s the same province. There are people in swimsuits absolutely everywhere. It’s the perfect place for an adventure.
Day one: they find a nice place to stay. A single bed is given to the three of them, and Kyungsoo protests, but he doesn’t even mean it. It’s not like they didn’t sleep together every summer anyway. They explore the place together, Baekhyun hits on several girls at the beach and they end up having to flee in haste because of muscly jealous boyfriends. Wheezing and panting, at the hotel, they laugh.
“What is wrong with you,” Jongdae deadpans, laughing.
“I want a summer romance, you know!” Baekhyun objects, and his two friends click their tongues and roll their eyes.
Day two: Jongdae somehow gets them enrolled in a “frozen fruit sculpture contest”. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo hate him for it, but just a little. To make it worse, one of the competitors flirts with Kyungsoo quite blatantly.
Do something, Kyungsoo mouths at them in desperation when said competitor, a man much older and much taller than him, isn’t looking. Hiding around a corner, Baekhyun and Jongdae have been laughing for a while, so they decide they have had their share of fun and go to the rescue.
“Baby~,” Baekhyun walks towards them as if he had arrived the scene just now, and plants a kiss on Kyungsoo’s lips, entwining their fingers intimately for the other male to see. “The competition is gonna start soon.”
“Hyung! I’ve been looking for you,” Kyungsoo coos, holding Baekhyun’s arm submissively and leaving the flabbergasted competitor behind. “Why did you take so long?”
As soon as they’re out of the man’s sight, Kyungsoo lets go of Baekhyun, muttering ‘gross’ under his breath. That doesn’t stop him from being caught making out with Baekhyun outside the hotel’s fire exit later that night, though. Also, thanks to some kind of miracle or beginner’s luck, they win the contest.
The following days involve lots of swimming, eating, and getting sunburnt. On day four, Jongdae throws his charms on a random woman and gets the three of them invitations for a huge barbecue. On day seven, they go to a free music festival, and Baekhyun gets so drunk that he won’t stop doing loud, horrible aegyo at the other two until they give him a cold shower and tuck him to bed. On day eight, they meet some underclassmen from their school, which is a weird coincidence. On day eleven, they buy some fireworks, which they light up together at the beach, and they also write each other’s names in the beach sand, and end up struggling to keep quiet while fucking in the hotel room.
Day twenty starts in a familiar way: with Jongdae shaking them awake with a suitcase in hands.
“Pack your bags, bitches,” he says, grinning.
“We’re going back already?” Baekhyun laments. He hasn’t found his summer romance yet.
“Remember that contest we won?” Jongdae explains, pulling the blanket from Kyungsoo’s body so to force him awake. “The frozen fruit thing? Well, guess what we won.”
In Jongdae’s hands, there are six airplane tickets. Three going from Korea to Okinawa, three from Okinawa to Korea.
… way more exciting than the previous year, that’s for sure. Kyungsoo still wants a motorbike, though.
4. Tenshi no shippo , by AKB48 (Team B) - Chanyeol/Sehun (EXO). G.
So I pretend I’m not that much in love And end up having a cold attitude
I, who only gaze from afar, am experiencing an one-sided love
It feels a bit like an illness. No… it feels exactly like an illness. It feels like his heart is swelling; it’s painful, and Sehun wants it to stop.
Yet, it’s the same thing every time he looks at Chanyeol. He doesn’t have to do anything, like smile or blink cutely or stare into the space with that dumb mouth of his open, he just has to be there, and Sehun will look at him feel an acute pain of too-muchery in his chest, like a balloon that grows and grows and grows. Sehun is afraid it’ll pop someday.
The thing about liking Chanyeol is, every time Sehun thinks he has managed to catch the other’s attention - when Chanyeol laughs at him, or proposes a staring contest, or searches for him in the middle of a crowd - the possibility of romance slips right out of his hand as he realizes the older man is only being his usual, friendly self. It hurts a little, and, even though it’s a sweet kind of pain, it still hurts all the same. Even if Chanyeol’s presence is enough for Sehun to feel mushy and light and happy, not being able to be properly in love with him is frustrating.
At this point, Sehun sees no way out but giving up. He’s too inexperienced in love matters to know what to do in a situation like that, or even to be bold enough to risk a bolder movement, so he tries telling himself that he’s not in love. He doesn’t want to be with Chanyeol, he doesn’t want to kiss Chanyeol or see him smile. It’s futile, as expected, but what is he to do? Wait for a miracle?
Even unconsciously, it’s for a miracle Sehun waits. Maybe, someday… someday, Chanyeol might turn around just as Sehun looks at him with longing eyes. Maybe then he’ll understand. Maybe then Sehun will be able to grasp that love firmly in his hands.
5. HEY! BROTHER, by rhymeberry - Kai/Suho (EXO). G.
I announce my problem: I like my older brother (Is that true?) No joke, really
Ignoring all kinds of common sense I’d rather just die at once
There’s no excuse for these feelings Jongin has.
They’ve been raised together. As in, in the same house, by the same people. They’re brothers. They’re brothers. This shouldn’t be happening.
He peeks into the room slowly, waiting for his older brother to notice him. Instead of being greeted immediately, he’s graced with the sight of Joonmyun’s concentrated posture, pencil in hand as he solves a math problem, before the door creaks and he looks up. “Jongin,” Joonmyun smiles immediately, letting the pencil go and getting up. “Come in. What is it?”
In his hands, Jongin has a tray with a jar of juice and a glass on it. He silently offers it to Joonmyun, who looks at it with certain surprise. “For you,” Jongin says a bit redundantly, just to get some reaction from the older one.
Joonmyun chuckles, petting Jongin like a good puppy. It’s a habit he has, and Jongin doesn’t find it half as displeasing as he probably should. “Thank you,” Joonmyun says, taking the tray from Jongin’s hand and putting it on his own desk. “Are you going to study now?”
“Yes,” Jongin is three years younger than Joonmyun. He’s sure that, at some point of their lifes, that age difference won’t be much, but for now - Joonmyun as a high-schooler, Jongin still in middle school - it feels like a lot. Jongin’s homework looks silly besides Joonmyun’s complicated math problems and classic literature assignments.
“Do you want to study with me?” Joonmyun offers, and, despite himself, Jongin can’t say no.
The thing is, Jongin is in love with Joonmyun. There’s no point in denying it, really, no matter how plainly wrong it sounds even to his own ears. He’s in love with Joonmyun, and he wants to marry Joonmyun and cook him lunch and kiss him on the lips.
It’s by getting lost in delusions that Jongin manages to escape from the guilt and self-loathing that comes with that kind of love. He’s definitely the younger brother type - affectionate, a bit spoiled, like sweets and courageous people - so, would he be able to get away with a kiss if he pestered Joonmyun for it? Maybe if he acted spoiled Joonmyun would concede? It’s an impossible dream, but it feels nice to get lost in that kind of fantasy, since, in reality, Joonmyun won’t even see him as an adult.
Jongin jumps up when he comes back to reality and notices Joonmyun peeking at his homework. When Joonmyun notices his startlement, he looks up to face Jongin and smiles again.
“Jongin ah,” he says. “Your grades have been improving, haven’t they?”
Jongin blinks. “Um,” he really doesn’t know how to take compliments. Specially from Joonmyun. “I guess so,” he says, trying to put on a cool act. “I’ve been trying to study more.”
Joonmyun nods, eyes wide in awe. “You’re really responsible,” he says, going back to his own homework. “I’m impressed.”
!!! He did it! Jongin impressed Joonmyun! Really, now, isn’t that progress? With a discreet smile blossoming in the corner of his lips, Jongin goes back to his homework, trying his best to concentrate this time.
It’s no use, though; he ends up slipping into his own daydreams once again. What can he do? He likes his big brother way too much.
Group: EXO.
Pairing: See below.
Rating: See below.
Warning: Bad English, AU/ambiguous setting.
Summary: Five songs, five pairings, all of them are EXO and I'm gonna pretend I don't know why.
N/A: pairings chosen by brandnewwind, nothing new here. I had 10 planned but I'm a loser heh. Also, some of these got completely out of hand.
1. Suyoil, by Lucite Tokki - Lay/Sehun (EXO). G.
Open the door, and go, “erm…” Too awkward to say “hi”
With my hands shaking in front of the piano
In fact, I see nothing in front of my eyes Only the sound of your voice
Sehun is at his doorstep again. It’s Wednesday, three in the afternoon, a sunny day sprinkled with white, dense clouds. Sehun clutches to his notebook nervously as he rings the doorbell, heart beating irregularly even though he’s there every week without fault.
The door opens, and there he is. Slightly shorter than Sehun himself, dressed in a simple white T-shirt and black short pants, Sehun’s piano instructor smiles brightly, and Sehun’s mouth goes dry. “Hello Sehun sshi!”
The sight of Yixing’s adorable dimples make him smile. “Um, hi,” he says quietly, unsure whether he should bow or not. He foregoes it. When Yixing lets him in, he steps forward a bit shyly, even though he has been at that house every week for the past year.
“Have you practiced recently?” as usually, Yixing asks him with his accented Korean while guiding Sehun to the living room. Sehun nods, having practiced until his fingers hurt last Saturday, and this earns him an approving pat on the shoulder from the instructor. “Good! Can you play for me?”
Oh no. Sehun bites his lips, heart hammering against his chest. Yixing is looking at him with big, expectant eyes, and it’s not like Sehun can refuse him, but… as he sits in front of Yixing’s piano, he notices that his hands are already shaking.
“… if I get it wrong, please don’t scold me,” Sehun pleads a bit pathetically, and Yixing lets out a chuckle. The student blushes intensely.
“It’s okay,” Yixing assures him, patting his back. “I want to hear you.”
That only makes Sehun even more nervous. He doesn’t want to ruin it, he really doesn’t want to ruin it, but he’s so nervous that it’s obvious that he’ll get it wrong. Nonetheless, as he feels Yixing’s eyes on his hands, Sehun starts playing.
The first notes are clumsy. His hands have it memorized, but his wrists stumble over the rhythm, and he feels his throat constrict as he tries to correct his mistake. It’s a supposedly simple song, but Sehun can’t help it; he can barely see the piano in front of him. All his mind sees is Yixing beside him, watching him, Yixing.
Predictably, he completely misses a passage. “Ah,” his face turns red.
“It’s okay,” Yixing says again, guiding Sehun’s hand to the right position, and the touch makes Sehun go ah again. “Here. Go on.”
The song resumes, amateurish, and Sehun tries his best to focus as Yixing distractedly rests his hand on his arm. Sehun is always making an effort to hide his heart, always, every Wednesday, but at times like this - at times when Yixing looks at him tenderly, touches him unconsciously, smiles his oh so precious smile to him - it becomes harder and harder to swallow those forbidden words.
The song ends. Yixing applauds him, which makes Sehun mightily embarrassed. He turns around, but his eyes are fixed on the floor. “How was it?”
A pause. A long pause, one that makes it feel like Yixing won’t say anything. And then, a gentle hand on Sehun’s chin, and Sehun’s face is lifted so his eyes will meet his instructor’s.
“It was good,” Yixing says, and Sehun ceases to breathe, and Yixing smiles and let him go. “You trained a lot.”
Sehun is tongue tied. He takes a deep breath before speaking, so to make sure he won’t say the wrong thing. “Thank you,” he blurts out. Yixing’s smile widens, and he sits beside him.
“Your hands are good for piano,” the instructor remarks, lifting one of Sehun’s hands as if to admire it. It’s not the first time he says that, but Sehun always feels like he’s about to burst when he does it. “They’re pretty.”
Sehun sputters. His lungs feel light and empty. “T-thank you,” he blurts out again.
Yixing nods, as if he doesn’t know the impact of what he has just said. He probably doesn’t. No matter how much Sehun likes him, he does his best to hide it, and, even if he doesn’t do very much of a good job, Yixing always seemed to be oblivious.
“Let’s go again,” Yixing says as Sehun’s heart soars. “Together, this time.”
2. Suki×3ssu! , by Nijigumi Fights - Kai/Luhan (EXO). PG.
Reach the heavens! The ball I kick
Make my feelings reach him! is the wish I make
Kim Jongin is stellar at many things, but, rather honestly, soccer isn’t one of them.
It doesn’t stop him from trying, though. Indeed, he’s arguably the most hardworking member of the team; staying back several hours after practice is over to train, never missing one single day of clubs activities, never contesting or refusing to follow the captain’s commands…
“You really don’t have to go so far…” a teammate says when he, once again, stays back in the field to train more.
“I want to become better!” he responds a bit dumbly, and the teammate creases his brows at him.
However, there is someone who smiles at such efforts. It’s the team’s captain, exchange student Luhan. When he sees that Jongin is staying back again, he, too, decides to stay back, waving goodbye to the rest of the team as they head for the showers.
“That’s the spirit, Jongin ah,” Luhan says, and Jongin smiles widely as the teammate from before rolls his eyes and leaves.
The thing is, there is a reason why Jongin is so dedicated to the soccer club.
That reason being: the captain.
“Now, Jongin ah,” Luhan, oblivious as always, stands all but few centimeters behind Jongin. Jongin can feel the heat emanating from his body, can smell the sweat mixed with his cologne, and it’s distracting. Awfully so. “Focus. The distance is great, but I think you can do it. You can do it, right?”
“I can do it,” Jongin answers mechanically. He tries to focus, but it’s almost impossible. See, that’s why Luhan is so popular with the girls… it’s the aura. It affects everyone around him, regardless of gender or sexuality. At least it’s what Jongin thinks.
“You can,” Luhan puts his hands on Jongin’s shoulder, and Jongin breathes in sharply. Focus, Jongin. Focus. This is not the time to think about the countless hearts and the feeble attempts at Chinese writing scribbled all over the margin of his notebook. “Go for it.”
Jongin kicks the ball with such strength that it flies above the goal, through the limits of the field, out of sight.
Maybe he projected his own feelings in it a little too much.
“It was amazing!” Several hours later, in their way back home, Luhan is still talking about it. They’re walking in a slow pace, bikes on each side of their bodies, and Luhan is babbling excitedly about the startlingly powerful kick Jongin had delivered in practice. Jongin can only small shyly and watch as his beloved captain showers him with compliments. “I didn’t know you had it in you! You’re usually so mild!”
Jongin shrugs, unable to participate properly in the conversation. Lucky for him, Luhan doesn’t need him to. “I wish we had done it during practice. The other guys would be so impressed!” His smiles morphs into a grin. “And those girls who hang out around the field, too,” Luhan almost drops his bike as he nudges Jongin’s sides with his elbow, teasing the younger one.
Jongin laughs awkwardly, because it’s not like he has the guts to say outright that he’s not interested in girls, but he doesn’t know how to respond to that either. Panic starts forming in the bottom of his stomach, and he decides to say something, anything.
“They’d be more impressed by you, captain,” it’s what comes out. Shit. Not exactly the most heterosexual thing he could’ve said. Luhan raises a brow, and Jongin stammers, “b-because you look cool during practice.”
Might as well confess already, no? Jongin feels stupid. Luha, however, seems to have failed to sniff anything weird in the air, and smiles sheepishly. “Well, thanks! But it’d be a pity if they only looked at me. It’s not like I can date any of them.”
Jongin stops in his tracks. Frowning, he tilts his head to the side. “Why?”
Luhan also stops in his tracks, smile fading away. He looks surprised. “… you haven’t heard about it?”
Is it too stupid to hope he’ll say something like ‘because I’m gay’ or ‘because I’m in love with you’? It is. Actually, it probably jumps over all kinds of limits for stupidity, but it’s not like Jongin can fix his brain in time not to create expectation.
And that’s how Kim Jongin’s heart is crushed into fine powder when he learns that Luhan, transfer student, captain of the soccer club, is dating the manager of the very same club. Their manager. Their pretty, adorable, female manager.
“We’ve been dating for a while now,” Luhan is trying to look cool, but his face is red and he has a silly, dazed smile on his lips. “Ah, well, I don’t know how serious she is about it, but I’m pretty serious, so…”
Stab Jongin in the guts while you’re at it.
“Sunbaenim, I’m sorry. I just remembered I have something urgent to do,” Jongin hopes that, among the many things he’s stellar at, one of them is acting. He hastily climbs onto his bike and waves his beloved captain goodbye.
“See you tomorrow!” Luhan shouts to the quickly disappearing Jongin.
Jongin barely waits till he’s out of his earshot to start crying.
He cries, cries, cries for what feels like the longest time, furiously pedaling along the beachside road. He sobs, and his mouth goes dry, and he doesn’t care, he doesn’t even care that he’s obviously going the wrong way and will soon get lost as fuck, because his heart is so broken that he can pretty much feel the cracks.
“STOP CRYING!!” he yells at himself in a pathetically shaky voice, sniffing and sobbing and crying endlessly in the sunset. It’s not what he means. What he really wants to scream at himself is, stop feeling. Stop liking him. Stop wanting him so much.
He wishes he could kick a ball right now. He’d surely send it to infinity and beyond… along with those hopeless feelings.
3. BANG! BANG! BAKANSU, by SMAP - Baekhyun/Chen/D.O (EXO). R.
Baby, bang! Bang! Bang! Barefoot, go now!
Go against the progress of humanity!
Baby, bang! Bang! Bang! With the face of an idiot
Jump into the sea while wearing a suit!
Last summer wasn’t very interesting. Baekhyun mostly hung out at Jongdae’s house, but that’s because his air-conditioner had exploded (not broken, exploded). Kyungsoo had blabbered during the whole year about how he was gonna get a motorbike and all, but, in the end, he couldn’t find the resolve in his heart to find a summer job, and had also hung out at Jongdae’s for no reason at all. They ended up not doing anything exciting or adventurous. It was a pity.
That is gonna change this year; it’s what Jongdae promises them in the very last day of school. The bell has rung, and they’re officially on vacation, which usually doesn’t mean much till the following day. For the three of them, however, it means the beginning of an adventure.
“Let’s go to the beach,” is what Baekhyun and Jongdae say as they snatch Kyungsoo from his class.
“Now?” Kyungsoo blinks in confusion.
“Now,” the other two affirm categorically.
The three of them head to the beach on Kyungsoo’s bicycle, which is disastrous and almost lethal, but also hilarious. Kyungsoo throws a fit after ten minutes and refuses to “drive” them the rest of the way, because Baekhyun and Jongdae keep poking his nipples and calling him cheesy names, so Baekhyun takes over the direction, and the other two start poking his nipples.
“Baby~”
“Oppa~”
“Honey~”
“Shortcake~”
“Just wait till we get there,” Baekhyun says viciously, yelping when Jongdae’s hand caresses his sensitive nape. “I’m gonna bite your hand off, I swear!”
They go to the beach, jump into the sea with their uniforms on, then build the ugliest sand castle ever seen by human kind. Wet and sandy, they walk for a long time till they find a shaved ice stand, so to eat several servings of shaved ice and flirt with the bulky male vendor. Then, finally, as the evening arrives, they go home.
“So, last year’s summer was lame,” Jongdae says, and Baekhyun, who has his head on Jongdae’s sholder and an arm around his waist, hums in agreement. Kyungsoo, too, nods. “But this is gonna change this year. We’re gonna have a hell of a summer vacation.”
The two of them know better than to take Jongdae’s promises lightly. They’re completely right not to.
In the next day, Jongdae shows up at Kyungsoo’s house with a suitcase in hands, demanding the younger to wake up immediately and pack. Kyungsoo panics, but does as told. They fetch Baekhyun in a similar fashion, and Baekhyun panics much more intensely, but, eventually, all is fine, and the three teenagers soon are in a bus which is headed toward a nearby famous beachside town.
It’s an amazing place; the sea is much prettier than the one that baths their hometown, and the place is much more summer-like, to the point it doesn’t even look like it’s the same province. There are people in swimsuits absolutely everywhere. It’s the perfect place for an adventure.
Day one: they find a nice place to stay. A single bed is given to the three of them, and Kyungsoo protests, but he doesn’t even mean it. It’s not like they didn’t sleep together every summer anyway. They explore the place together, Baekhyun hits on several girls at the beach and they end up having to flee in haste because of muscly jealous boyfriends. Wheezing and panting, at the hotel, they laugh.
“What is wrong with you,” Jongdae deadpans, laughing.
“I want a summer romance, you know!” Baekhyun objects, and his two friends click their tongues and roll their eyes.
Day two: Jongdae somehow gets them enrolled in a “frozen fruit sculpture contest”. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo hate him for it, but just a little. To make it worse, one of the competitors flirts with Kyungsoo quite blatantly.
Do something, Kyungsoo mouths at them in desperation when said competitor, a man much older and much taller than him, isn’t looking. Hiding around a corner, Baekhyun and Jongdae have been laughing for a while, so they decide they have had their share of fun and go to the rescue.
“Baby~,” Baekhyun walks towards them as if he had arrived the scene just now, and plants a kiss on Kyungsoo’s lips, entwining their fingers intimately for the other male to see. “The competition is gonna start soon.”
“Hyung! I’ve been looking for you,” Kyungsoo coos, holding Baekhyun’s arm submissively and leaving the flabbergasted competitor behind. “Why did you take so long?”
As soon as they’re out of the man’s sight, Kyungsoo lets go of Baekhyun, muttering ‘gross’ under his breath. That doesn’t stop him from being caught making out with Baekhyun outside the hotel’s fire exit later that night, though. Also, thanks to some kind of miracle or beginner’s luck, they win the contest.
The following days involve lots of swimming, eating, and getting sunburnt. On day four, Jongdae throws his charms on a random woman and gets the three of them invitations for a huge barbecue. On day seven, they go to a free music festival, and Baekhyun gets so drunk that he won’t stop doing loud, horrible aegyo at the other two until they give him a cold shower and tuck him to bed. On day eight, they meet some underclassmen from their school, which is a weird coincidence. On day eleven, they buy some fireworks, which they light up together at the beach, and they also write each other’s names in the beach sand, and end up struggling to keep quiet while fucking in the hotel room.
Day twenty starts in a familiar way: with Jongdae shaking them awake with a suitcase in hands.
“Pack your bags, bitches,” he says, grinning.
“We’re going back already?” Baekhyun laments. He hasn’t found his summer romance yet.
“Remember that contest we won?” Jongdae explains, pulling the blanket from Kyungsoo’s body so to force him awake. “The frozen fruit thing? Well, guess what we won.”
In Jongdae’s hands, there are six airplane tickets. Three going from Korea to Okinawa, three from Okinawa to Korea.
… way more exciting than the previous year, that’s for sure. Kyungsoo still wants a motorbike, though.
4. Tenshi no shippo , by AKB48 (Team B) - Chanyeol/Sehun (EXO). G.
So I pretend I’m not that much in love And end up having a cold attitude
I, who only gaze from afar, am experiencing an one-sided love
It feels a bit like an illness. No… it feels exactly like an illness. It feels like his heart is swelling; it’s painful, and Sehun wants it to stop.
Yet, it’s the same thing every time he looks at Chanyeol. He doesn’t have to do anything, like smile or blink cutely or stare into the space with that dumb mouth of his open, he just has to be there, and Sehun will look at him feel an acute pain of too-muchery in his chest, like a balloon that grows and grows and grows. Sehun is afraid it’ll pop someday.
The thing about liking Chanyeol is, every time Sehun thinks he has managed to catch the other’s attention - when Chanyeol laughs at him, or proposes a staring contest, or searches for him in the middle of a crowd - the possibility of romance slips right out of his hand as he realizes the older man is only being his usual, friendly self. It hurts a little, and, even though it’s a sweet kind of pain, it still hurts all the same. Even if Chanyeol’s presence is enough for Sehun to feel mushy and light and happy, not being able to be properly in love with him is frustrating.
At this point, Sehun sees no way out but giving up. He’s too inexperienced in love matters to know what to do in a situation like that, or even to be bold enough to risk a bolder movement, so he tries telling himself that he’s not in love. He doesn’t want to be with Chanyeol, he doesn’t want to kiss Chanyeol or see him smile. It’s futile, as expected, but what is he to do? Wait for a miracle?
Even unconsciously, it’s for a miracle Sehun waits. Maybe, someday… someday, Chanyeol might turn around just as Sehun looks at him with longing eyes. Maybe then he’ll understand. Maybe then Sehun will be able to grasp that love firmly in his hands.
5. HEY! BROTHER, by rhymeberry - Kai/Suho (EXO). G.
I announce my problem: I like my older brother (Is that true?) No joke, really
Ignoring all kinds of common sense I’d rather just die at once
There’s no excuse for these feelings Jongin has.
They’ve been raised together. As in, in the same house, by the same people. They’re brothers. They’re brothers. This shouldn’t be happening.
He peeks into the room slowly, waiting for his older brother to notice him. Instead of being greeted immediately, he’s graced with the sight of Joonmyun’s concentrated posture, pencil in hand as he solves a math problem, before the door creaks and he looks up. “Jongin,” Joonmyun smiles immediately, letting the pencil go and getting up. “Come in. What is it?”
In his hands, Jongin has a tray with a jar of juice and a glass on it. He silently offers it to Joonmyun, who looks at it with certain surprise. “For you,” Jongin says a bit redundantly, just to get some reaction from the older one.
Joonmyun chuckles, petting Jongin like a good puppy. It’s a habit he has, and Jongin doesn’t find it half as displeasing as he probably should. “Thank you,” Joonmyun says, taking the tray from Jongin’s hand and putting it on his own desk. “Are you going to study now?”
“Yes,” Jongin is three years younger than Joonmyun. He’s sure that, at some point of their lifes, that age difference won’t be much, but for now - Joonmyun as a high-schooler, Jongin still in middle school - it feels like a lot. Jongin’s homework looks silly besides Joonmyun’s complicated math problems and classic literature assignments.
“Do you want to study with me?” Joonmyun offers, and, despite himself, Jongin can’t say no.
The thing is, Jongin is in love with Joonmyun. There’s no point in denying it, really, no matter how plainly wrong it sounds even to his own ears. He’s in love with Joonmyun, and he wants to marry Joonmyun and cook him lunch and kiss him on the lips.
It’s by getting lost in delusions that Jongin manages to escape from the guilt and self-loathing that comes with that kind of love. He’s definitely the younger brother type - affectionate, a bit spoiled, like sweets and courageous people - so, would he be able to get away with a kiss if he pestered Joonmyun for it? Maybe if he acted spoiled Joonmyun would concede? It’s an impossible dream, but it feels nice to get lost in that kind of fantasy, since, in reality, Joonmyun won’t even see him as an adult.
Jongin jumps up when he comes back to reality and notices Joonmyun peeking at his homework. When Joonmyun notices his startlement, he looks up to face Jongin and smiles again.
“Jongin ah,” he says. “Your grades have been improving, haven’t they?”
Jongin blinks. “Um,” he really doesn’t know how to take compliments. Specially from Joonmyun. “I guess so,” he says, trying to put on a cool act. “I’ve been trying to study more.”
Joonmyun nods, eyes wide in awe. “You’re really responsible,” he says, going back to his own homework. “I’m impressed.”
!!! He did it! Jongin impressed Joonmyun! Really, now, isn’t that progress? With a discreet smile blossoming in the corner of his lips, Jongin goes back to his homework, trying his best to concentrate this time.
It’s no use, though; he ends up slipping into his own daydreams once again. What can he do? He likes his big brother way too much.