of home runs and homosexuals (i)
title: of home runs and homosexuals
authors: futurebruises and canachinrea
genre: crack, humor, fluff, softball!au
rating: pg-13 (drinking, cursing, sexual situations & innuendos)
length: ~16350 words
parts: i // ii
main pairings: baro/sandeul, jonghyun/onew, cnu/taemin, minho/gongchan, jinyoung/key
side pairings: baro/jonghyun, baro/taemin, onew/minho, cnu/jonghyun, cnu/sandeul
summary:
a/n: i feel like a proud mother finally posting this. it took the better part of a semester, but we did it and here it is in all its shitty glory. if you care, i, futurebruises, was mostly in charge of sunwoo, junghwan, jinki, jonghyun, and taemin, and canachinrea wrote dongwoo, jinyoung, chanshik, minho, and kibum. besides the beginning and end, we wrote every other part, though, so... yeah. it shouldn't be too hard to tell. i haven't played softball since i was nine years old so please excuse any horrific lies about the sport, and it's also kind of hard to perfectly proofread a 40-page document even when you are grammar nazis, so pardon any typos too.
❦
Sunwoo didn't wake up until Junghwan started yelling. Apparently his boyfriend had been shaking him for quite a while and worked himself into quite a state while Sunwoo was still dreaming about whatever the hell Cha Sunwoo dreamt about. Junghwan's best guess was sex. Considering that his boyfriend seemed to think about it every waking minute, sleeping wouldn’t be much of a stretch.
Junghwan wrinkled his nose in objection when Sunwoo tried to kiss it - his boyfriend was afflicted with especially awful breath in the mornings - and jumped off Sunwoo's twin bed that they usually ended up sharing because Sunwoo didn’t have a roommate and they tended to lose track of time when they hung out. Junghwan didn’t have the urge to get caught out after curfew and the company completely made up for the dorm hall’s lack of central heating. He threw a shirt at the other before returning to his cereal with an exasperated, sullen look on his pouty lips.
"Practice is in twenty minutes, babe. Get dressed and brush your teeth so we can go. We have to meet your friend and show him there - what’s his name again? Chanshik?"
“Yeah, that’s him. Shit. You should’ve woken me up earlier,” Sunwoo groaned darkly and rubbed his eyes before disappearing to the bathroom. Junghwan wasn’t entirely sure what sort of potions the dorm had in its sink water, but somehow Sunwoo emerged ten minutes later as his usual bizarrely cheerful self, now only slightly disheveled and fully dressed for practice, and flashed Junghwan a crooked grin before yanking the door open with his cleats in hand.
“Shall we be off?”
“We shall,” Junghwan chuckled, unable to help the smile creeping its way onto his face. His boyfriend was really cute when he wasn’t completely infuriating. They walked close together, not quite holding hands through the awful neighborhood in which their makeshift softball field was hidden until Sunwoo’s phone exploded into one of the thousands of American pop songs that he seemed to worship.
“Yo, man, what’s up?” he crowed into the receiver. Junghwan leaned against the concrete wall of the store they were perched in front of while Sunwoo offered the stranger on the other end directions and hung up.
“That Chanshik?”
“Yep. Sit tight, he should be here in a sec and then we can head to the field. I’m stoked for you two to meet.”
Junghwan raised an eyebrow and Sunwoo stole a kiss on the lips as they waited in the morning sun for the fabled Chanshik to arrive. This practice would be interesting, at the very least. It wasn’t often they got a new player. Junghwan wasn’t sure how he felt about the matter, but he was pretty sure that Sunwoo was trying to grope his ass and that he couldn’t stand for that, especially not here, so he occupied himself with smacking his boyfriend’s hands away and didn’t think too hard over the whole new player matter.
❦
Was he supposed to turn left or right at the first corner?
Sunwoo had said to turn but never specified a direction. Well, worst came to worst, Chanshik would just miss the practice and get bitched at and/or bitch at Sunwoo for being an idiot and not telling him which way to turn. But, then again, he had never thought to ask which way to turn either, so they were both kind of at fault.
Now, right looked a little bit sketchier with the dingy wall covered in foul, spray-painted words, so he turned left. He walked for about two blocks until he realized he had no idea what that retard had said to do after turning. He pulled out his phone, hoping to finally have some bars in this miserable strip of bakeries and bars. After holding up his phone and swirling in half-assed circles for a minute - who’s the dumbass now? - he received three bars by a gross-looking brown stain on sidewalk. In the middle of making a disgusted face (because he noticed the edge of his shoe had been touching said brown stain) Sunwoo - the bastard - decided to pick up his phone with an overly happy, “Yo, man, what’s up?”
“What’s up is that I have no clue where I am. You suck at giving directions.”
Sunwoo laughed. “Maybe you just suck at following directions. What way did you turn at the first corner?”
“Left.”
“Good. How many blocks did you walk after that?”
“Two”
“See?! That right there is your problem. You need to go another block, hang a right and then we should be right around there.”
“All right, but wait, who’s ‘we’?”
“Good, now hurry the fuck up or we’ll be late.”
The line went dead and Chanshik scoffed, not because Sunwoo completely ignored his question, but more because of that stupid-ass word that the bastard had the audacity to use with him. He hated that word more than he hated really bad coffee and that was, well, a lot.
❦
Jinyoung was late getting up and when he was at the lobby of his dorm he realized that he had left all his gear back up in his room on the fifth floor. Because of this, he was quite late in meeting his teammates for practice. He ran down the street toward their makeshift field until he saw Junghwan, Sunwoo, and the boy who he assumed was the new player - Sunwoo had refused to tell him his name - standing at the corner store across the street. Junghwan was leaning against the wall with Sunwoo's arm over his shoulders as they conversed with the figure. Jinyoung could only see his back, but as he got closer, the third man’s hair began to look rather familiar.
“Hey Jin. You’re later than usual,” Sunwoo commented, and with it the guy turned his head.
“No fucking way!” Jinyoung gasped, blatantly ignoring Sunwoo and staring at the wincing Chanshik in front of him. He remembered that the kid didn't like the word 'fuck' but he was all good with any other choice words you threw his way, the strange thing, and shook his head. He mumbled an apology and pulled the taller man in for a hug.
“Hey man, long time no see. How have you been?” Chanshik huffed out as he was released from the choking hug.
“Fine, not much going o - ”
“He's been acting like a puppy, actually, eager to please his master. His master being Kibum,” Sunwoo kindly interrupted.
“Wait, you're seeing someone too?” Chanshik asked, wide-eyed.
“Well - ”
“Ha! He wishes. Ain't that right, Jin? You would just love it if Kibummie would finally agree to suck your - ”
“Okay, so Jin has a crush on Kibum. I think Chanshik gets it. So why don't we head to practice now, yeah? Great.”
Thank God Junghwan knew when it was time for Sunwoo to shut up. With his decisive words, they walked to the field down the road, Junghwan trying to keep Sunwoo's hand off his ass and Chanshik and Jinyoung idly chatting behind them.
❦
“Shit,” Dongwoo cussed when he hit his third foul ball from the stupid electric pitcher thing that he’d received last year as a 'good-luck-in-college-don't-fuck-up-cause-it's-my-good-money-you'd-waste' present from his dad. Dongwoo was a softball addict. He loved it so much because it was the one thing he could do better than average and, honestly, he kind of liked feeling special. He played catcher and somehow found joy when balls were flung at his face at eighty-five to ninety miles per hour, courtesy of the ever-perfect Minho. He could play any position and be great at it if he wanted to, though, and he was really the best on the team. Well, he used to be, anyway, until Taemin decided to join the team he, Jinyoung, and Jonghyun had put together. That boy was just as good as Dongwoo, as much as it pained him to admit it. Not to say he didn't like Taemin, because he did like the kid a lot a lot; he just didn't like him being as good as and sometimes better than Dongwoo himself. In fact, when Taemin had decided to join, Dongwoo’s batting average had actually dropped a bit. Sure, it was more out of hatred than awe (or so he told himself), but that didn’t make it okay. It ultimately just pushed him to show up even earlier to each practice than he used to, and so here he was now.
The machine chucked another ball at him, which he managed to hit and send flying. Finally. He decided to call it quits, though, when he noticed a very familiar - not that he looked often or anything - twig-like body rounding the corner.
❦
Taemin smiled to himself as he walked onto the field. Today was a good day. It was a Saturday and it was sunny and he had nothing to do but practice and watch the dumb, bespectacled catcher’s smug little face fall adorably whenever Taemin did something better than he did. Yeah, this was a good day, and Taemin was going to take advantage of it.
He leaned against the shaded portion of the chain-link fence enclosing their field. Dongwoo was having some trouble with his automatic ball launching machine and Taemin was having a hard time holding back his snorts as the other hit foul after strike after foul. Dongwoo didn’t seem to have noticed him yet, though, so he kept it that way until the elder finally hit a good ball.
Taemin walked onto the dusty field with a practiced smirk, pulling on a helmet and grabbing his bat. He poked Dongwoo out of the way with the end of said bat and got into his position, smacking the first ball it pitched at him off into the overgrown outfield.
“That, dumbfuck, is how it’s done,” he chuckled, grinning at Dongwoo with an evil glint in his eye and definitely not looking up and down the other’s lanky frame. “Watch and learn.”
❦
Jonghyun cracked his knuckles and smirked at his reflection in the mirror, pushing back the last of his nerves as he pushed his bangs back from his forehead. He had nothing to worry about today. He was sexy and talented and it really didn’t matter that the idiot left fielder he definitely wasn’t in love with couldn’t stop making moony eyes at their pitcher. No matter how cute said idiot might be, it was absolutely inconsequential to Jonghyun, or so he kept telling himself.
With a sigh, he pulled himself away and ran down the three flights of stairs with his bat thumping rather uncomfortably into his back and knocked on Minho and Jinki’s first-floor dorm door. In theory, he should’ve been glad he had a single room, but it allowed for way too much rumination about what was going on three floors below him. He bit his lip and groaned when no one answered.
“Hurry the hell up, we’re already late,” he called into the room, rapping on the door again and tapping his foot impatiently. He was way too worked-up for some reason - he put it off as sex deprivation as he took a deep breath to calm himself down - and he really wanted to get back onto the field. Softball and sex were his outlets for all his excess energy, and while sex didn’t seem to be looking up at the moment, softball did so long as his friends weren’t stuck in their room or anything.
He slumped against the door, yawned, cracked his back, and fell back flat on his ass as the door was opened.
“Oh. Hey, Minho. Jinki. Good morning,” Jonghyun coughed from the floor. “Hope I’m not intruding.”
❦
“Hey Minho, did you sleep okay? I mean - I-I noticed you got to bed rather late last night - not that I keeping tabs on you or anything - but I-I mean - well, are you...well-rested?” Jinki stuttered when Minho whacked his alarm clock and sat up in bed. Ruffling his hand in his mess of hair he glanced over at the blushing boy. Why him? Why did his roommate have to have a giant fucking crush on him? Not to mention that his best friend happened to have a crush on that very same roommate. He supposed it was just his luck, probably what he got for letting his pet turtle die in third grade.
“I'm good, thanks. Are you done in the bathroom?” Minho yawned.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Totally. It’s all yours,” Jinki assured him, a bit too loud for the quiet of the morning, and gestured to the other room.
“Cool.” Minho got up and padded over to the bathroom with Jinki shuffling behind him.
“Do you want me to make you breakfast?” Jinki asked just before Minho promptly shut the door to keep the way-too-nervous and cheery man at bay.
“Nah, I'll just grab an energy bar for later,” he mumbled through door, really wishing Jinki would just take a hint and leave so he could piss in peace. But, of course, Jinki was socially awkward and he had no concept of boundaries and that was just how he was. It wasn’t that Minho disliked him, it was more that he didn't think of him - or anyone else, for that matter - in that way. Besides, Jonghyun would have a fit if he found out Minho liked his crush and the last thing he wanted was a pissy Jonghyun - that was the only thing more irritating than a pissy Kibum.
After finishing up, Minho opened the door to find no Jinki. He was somewhat relieved until he heard an a “Ow, fuck,” from the small tiled area that was supposed to be a kitchen.
“Jinki, are you okay?” he asked as he strode calmly into the kitchen.
“Yeah, I just burnt my hand on my toast.” After hearing this he turned forty-five degrees and headed to his dresser to change.
Bang, bang, bang. “Hurry the hell up, we’re already late.”
Well, fuck. That wasn't good. He grabbed the first things he saw and threw his bag over his shoulder, running to the kitchen area to snag an energy bar. Jinki pulled the door open to be met with a falling Jonghyun just as Minho was tugging on his shoes.
❦
Jinki was sucking on his thumb and practically hyperventilating over his toast and his roommate when his spazzed-out brain finally registered Jonghyun’s knocking and he turned to open the door for the other, who fell promptly on their floor. Minho appeared on the scene before Jinki could really say anything and so he was somewhat lost for words as he held a hand out for Jonghyun to take.
He hissed as Jonghyun grabbed onto his burnt thumb. The sudden apologies spouting from his cocky friend’s mouth shocked him and he shook his head vigorously. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I swear!” he assured the short kid while they headed out the door and out to the field. Their dorm building was, luckily, on the end of campus closest to the softball field, and Minho led their short jog over in all of his long-legged, graceful glory.
Jonghyun tagged along behind with Jinki even though Jinki was quite sure he could’ve run to the field just as fast as Minho. Jonghyun had been acting really weird lately and Jinki didn’t exactly understand why. He was too busy admiring Minho to think it over while they ran, though, and as soon as they got to the field they were swept into the excited fray of Dongwoo’s and Taemin’s argument and the introduction of Sunwoo and Jinyoung’s old friend, a scared-looking kid from out in the country who was probably going to be in the outfield with him and Jonghyun if Kibum ever showed up.
It was probably more of a question of when Kibum would show up rather than if - their manager was known to be hours late, though always fashionably so. He was a good manager, even if not a punctual one, and the team was good at working without him whenever he was late.
Dongwoo gathered them together - he had skill and seniority, no matter how much Taemin rolled his eyes or Jinki thought Minho was better - so they could discuss drills. Jinki’s eyes met Jonghyun’s every few moments and he kept looking away. He really hoped Kibum would show up soon so he wouldn’t have to keep this up because the pounding in his heart was way too loud just to be from their jog to the field.
❦
Kibum was just emerging from the shower when practice was about to start. He had gotten up on time but spent way too long conditioning to ever make it there on time. After he had dried and combed his hair, he went to his closet so he could sift through the thousands - no, really, thousands - of articles of clothing he had acquired. Spending, again, way too much time on picking out his prime choice of skinny jeans that day. He moved on to his cardigans till he found one he deemed suitable. Finally, he was ready to leave - only an hour and a half late, no biggie - he walked out of his apartment and to the elevator, so he wouldn't have to worry about sweating with cashmere on. Choosing shuffle mode on his iPod, he walked into the street and headed for the field at a slow pace. Twenty minutes later he arrived at the abandoned lot they called a field, and noticed that his team seemed to be in quite a ruckus.
“Jeez, you finally decided to show up. Only took you two hours,” Taemin so politely pointed out the team manager hopping through the hole in the chain-link fence.
“An hour and...” - Kibum looked at his phone - “Fifty minutes. But anyway, notice how I look,” he twirled around for Taemin to see. “And notice how you look. Case in point. Seriously, is the word ‘style’ even in your dictionary?”
Jonghyun, Sunwoo and Dongwoo burst out laughing at the defeated looking Taemin, because honestly, no one could out-bitch Kibum - no one.
“Anyway, what are you guys bickering about?”
“First, we don't bicker, that shit is for chicks, and second, we're fighting about what position Chanshik will play,” Jonghyun interjected.
“Ah, well, that's easy. Chanshik? Hi! I'm Kim Kibum, team manager. Nice to meet you. Can you catch? Are you fast? Great! Right-fielder it is! See, no problem, you idiots just make everything harder than it needs to be.”
And that was precisely why Kibum was their manager.
“Uh, we're not idiots.” Sunwoo commented.
“Jinyoungie?” Kibum cooed.
“Yeah?”
“They’re idiots, right?” he asked, pouting his lips at the boy.
“Yes indeed. Such idiots,” Jinyoung agreed, gazing at the manager.
“See, Jinyoung agrees with me,” Kibum stated, his pout completely gone and replaced with a self-satisfied smirk. After a lot of groans and one, “Get a backbone, retard,” the argument was settled and practice resumed, going pretty much smoothly for the rest of the three hours save for when Dongwoo struck Taemin out and they had a brief screaming match and when Jinki got hit in the neck with a ball he didn’t see coming because he’d been too busy staring at Minho.
❦
After practice it was decided that they would introduce Chanshik to their tradition of beer and movies at Kibum’s apartment. Its owner’s complaints were overridden and he was reminded it was the least he could do for making them wait two hours for practice to start. He grumbled a lot about how it wasn’t at all ready for guests and how it had only been an hour and fifty minutes and Jinyoung said something about respecting his privacy but it was all ignored as per usual.
“You forget that your guests are normal college guys and don’t give a shit about cleanliness,” Minho chided as Jinyoung shook his head like he was astounded that everyone would be so stupid as to side against him. The kid was just as obsessive with Kibum as Jinki was with Minho, though a little better at hiding it. It was just as annoying, though, especially when he sided with Kibum on absolutely everything and mumbled things about how they should let Kibum do what he wanted because it was his apartment. Jinyoung didn’t seem to understand that Kibum was fun to fuck with, and Kibum seemed to drink up his praise. Minho rolled his eyes as they pulled out in front of the group, undoubtedly to complain about the others.
Minho pulled back, away from Dongwoo and Taemin’s weirdly physical ongoing argument, away from where Jonghyun appeared to be molesting Jinki under the guise of tending to his wound and the elder didn’t seem to be complaining - that was refreshing - and away from Sunwoo and Junghwan’s animated conversation about some TV show. The new kid was trailing along with those two but seemed to be completely lost.
Minho mumbled an apologetic greeting about how fucked-up all their friends were. Chanshik tensed at the description but shook his head, blushing a little pink and assuring him it was fine - Sunwoo had been even worse in high school. Minho’s lips twitched up and he decided he liked the kid. He seemed to know what it was like to be surrounded by complete idiots.
Speaking of which, their arrival at Kibum’s apartment was heralded by the crack of Junghwan slapping Sunwoo’s face for no apparent reason. Sunwoo’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and he probably would’ve hit the kid back had Chanshik not wordlessly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and Jinyoung reminded him that this was how his boyfriend always was. Junghwan had a bizarre and spectacular issue with anger management that usually resulted in a day or two without sleep but ultimately ended fine. Sunwoo knew that he was just as fucked-up as his boyfriend in his own right and as long as Junghwan forgave the occasional drunken mishap with one of their friends, their relationship would continue in its sweet little dysfunctional way.
The elevator ride passed in miserable silence that was broken when Kibum unlocked his door and insisted rather harshly that everyone remove their shoes or there would be serious consequences. Nobody even dared disagree and all of the cleats were arranged neatly at the door in moments because cleaning Kibum’s apartment was a horrible, degrading experience that they’d all been through at least once and never cared to have it repeated. Chanshik just followed their lead.
Positions were soon assumed across the living room and beer was distributed. Pizza was obtained courtesy of Taemin’s dad’s credit card. Jinki sat in an oversized chair nibbling the tip of a piece of cheese pizza. Minho was on the ground at his feet, slowly sipping a beer, situated just so Jinki could lazily tangle his hands in the other’s black hair when he so chose to. Jonghyun perched on the arm of the chair, one hand on Jinki’s shoulder and the other alternating between shoving pizza and pouring beer into his mouth. If he was asked, he’d blame it - like everything else weird - on sex deprivation, but everybody knew his habits by now and didn’t quite care.
Chanshik sat in between Minho and a very tipsy Jinyoung on the floor, actually sort of paying attention to the movie. Minho seemed to be taking an odd interest in him, and while he was flattered, it made him a little nervous and his stomach a little fluttery. He was really boring. Minho was not. Sure, he used the word fuck too much, but he was smart and mysterious and smelled like expensive cologne.
Junghwan was curled up drunkish in another big armchair with a poisonous glare while he picked the pepperoni off his pizza. Nobody felt particularly like approaching him until he cooled off. The fact that, somehow, his boyfriend had been put in charge of choosing the movie and now they were watching a really awful horror film that looked like it was shot on an ADD kid’s cell phone camera didn’t make him seem any friendlier.
Sunwoo seemed strangely calm, sandwiched in between the edge of the couch and a terrified Taemin. He and the skinny second baseman were matched beer for beer, about three in. Said second baseman really didn’t seem to appreciate Dongwoo on his other side and so he pressed close and warm against Sunwoo. His skinny hipbone dug into Sunwoo’s side, his hand gripping the other’s wrist tighter and tighter with each shriek from the flat screen TV.
Unsurprisingly, sooner or later, a hand crept up the inside of Taemin’s thigh. Sunwoo excused himself to go to the bathroom, ruffling Junghwan’s hair with a vengeful smirk as he left. Taemin followed a few seconds later with a guilty little smile at Junghwan. He couldn’t control these things. They just happened to him, he told himself as Sunwoo pulled him into the bathroom by the belt loops, hissing about how he would not get stuck washing Kibum’s sheets again before pressing his lips messily against the other’s. Taemin couldn’t say he cared. Sunwoo had probably slept with their whole team while he was with Junghwan but Taemin had fucked-up morals too and Sunwoo was really good at kissing. This was completely out of Taemin’s control, so he sighed and leaned against him. This shit just… happened to him. Wasn’t his fault.
Minho sort of noticed their disappearance and stood up to get more pizza, grabbing Chanshik by the wrist to join him. He had a feeling that things were going to turn bad soon and decided that they should be well-stocked for the end.
His intuition proved correct. The second he left, Jonghyun slid into Jinki’s chair squishing them together. Jinki giggled at the new warm presence and Jonghyun took that as a sign that it was okay to kiss him right on the mouth, all warm and wet and excited like a stupid puppy. Somebody in the film screamed, something crashed in the bathroom, and Jinki nearly had a heart attack right there.
Minho didn’t stick around to see if everyone was okay. He just tugged Chanshik out the door and down the stairs as Kibum yanked Jinyoung up into his spot on the couch to supervise while he investigated whatever was happening in the bathroom. Dongwoo and Junghwan had both shrunken back in anger and Minho didn’t have any desire to see where any of this ended up. Like, at all. Sunwoo and Taemin were bad enough, and once his involuntary love triangle was brought into the mix, well, that spelled shitstorm and Minho was in the business of avoiding all possible shitstorms.
“Well, fuck,” he sighed into the apartment stairwell once they were a few flights down, giving Chanshik an apologetic but hopeful look. “I hope you don’t mind bolting. It’ll be way better in the long run if we stay out of it. We can go get coffee or something.”
❦
Three days later and another game lost - all thanks to Jonghyun - Minho sat in a rather precarious situation. Jinki on his right, Jonghyun on his left, and a puzzled-looking Chanshik across from him. It had started with him simply asking Chanshik if he wanted to get something to eat, and of course Jinki had said he wanted to come, so it was only natural that Jonghyun tagged along as well.
All of Minho’s attempts at getting to know Chanshik had been cut short due to, well, his own stupid friends. First with Junghwan storming out of Kibum's apartment after the party and grabbing Chanshik's arm, demanding that they go get ice cream and tell embarrassing stories about Sunwoo in high school. Second, at practice the next day when he was just about to ask if he wanted to hang out later when Kibum announced that Minho was needed for shopping bag carrying duty that afternoon because Jinyoung was on Junghwan duty. But this, this was just ridiculous. Jinki wouldn't stop blushing and Jonghyun wouldn't stop trying to trade seats with him, and as much as he was cool with that, Jinki was not. So Minho settled for rolling his eyes and shoving Jinki out of the booth to use the restroom, deciding if he was going to climb through the window back there and text Chanshik to come meet him at the park or not. Realizing he did not possess the boy's number, he opted for being an asshole and just leaving the two people that couldn't stop fussing over him and the one he wouldn't stop fussing over to their own issues. It took all of fifteen minutes and the arrival of their food for them to get that Minho wasn't coming back.
Jinki was planning to find out why he left and bring him his food when he returned to their dorm room. The only problem was the note taped to mini fridge stating that he was staying with a friend for the night and maybe more. Feeling a little crushed, Jinki went to bed early.
Although Kibum was fine having Minho crash at his place, he did want to know why. But Minho didn't really feel like explaining the whole love-triangle-he-shouldn't-even-be-in thing right now so he mumbled a “Later,” and face-planted into the couch deeming it good for the night.
“Why the fuck are you in Kibum's apartment? What's wrong with your place?” Jinyoung happily greeted him in the morning.
“I might ask you the same thing. At least I have an excuse. My place has Jinki,” he mumbled, his words muffled in the pillow.
“So?”
“Where there is Jinki, there is Jonghyun, and I can't deal with that shit right now,” he groaned, still refusing to take his face out of the pillow.
“Ah, running away from your problems, I see. Not a good idea.”
Jinyoung was not winning points for being helpful in any way at the moment.
“It. Is. Not. My. Problem. Those two just decided to drag me into the middle of it,” Minho sighed, finally rolling over - as best as one could roll over on a couch - and glare at the man kneeling in front of him.
“Either way, avoiding it is not going to help.”
“Yeah, I know. I figured I'd give it a try, though,” Minho replied. He really, really hated it when Jinyoung was helpful.
❦
Taemin was conflicted. Since he and Sunwoo had snuck out of Kibum’s apartment, hair mussed and buttons uneven in the early hours of the morning three days earlier, he’d been consumed by a strange guilt that was equal parts excitingly filthy and really damn depressing. Taemin wasn’t exactly prudent, but he’d never been a slut like Sunwoo - who was really more of just a nymphomaniac than a slut - or Jonghyun, who probably just couldn’t deal with his feelings and hadn’t really even been sleeping around since he set his affections on Jinki. Still. He was used to feeling at least a little something beyond friendship towards the people he had sex with, and now he just felt strange.
He was contemplating why everything was so weird and why one even would go about having casual sex with friends in the first place and somehow his thoughts kept bringing him to Dongwoo. Taemin couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch himself or punch his bespectacled rival for it. Sunwoo had once explained his relationship with Junghwan as tiptoeing the skinny little line between love and hate and Taemin was terrified he’d end up on that same line with Dongwoo when the other’s hand brushed his to hand him the half-assed Korean History notes Taemin had been too wigged-out and sleepy to do on Sunday and Taemin felt a familiar tingling sensation burn through him. He’d felt it more than once before at Dongwoo’s touch and he shivered at the thought of what it might mean.
Dongwoo thought Taemin was cute when he was stressed, and even though his head was screaming serves you right, he felt kind of bad for the kid whose brow was furrowed and lips were pouted as he copied off the notes in a hasty script. They had no connection beyond a teasing rivalry and Dongwoo had no right to be angry or jealous. Despite said rivalry, though, Dongwoo did like Taemin quite a bit and admired him as a softball player even though he’d never admit it. It was kind of entertaining to watch him try to deal with his feelings, the way his fat lips curled around the end of his pen kind of attractively.
Taemin’s lips were pretty. They were a bit fat and a bit misshapen, but they were the sort of misshapen that demanded to be shaped by someone else’s kisses. Dongwoo shuddered at the thought and yanked the paper away. “Class starts in a few minutes, sadsack. We should get going.”
Taemin grunted and stood up, following Dongwoo wordlessly to class. The other was being unnervingly less obnoxious than usual. Taemin found he was okay with it. Everything was really weird lately and he would take all the niceness he could get.
Jonghyun, on the other hand, hated everything. Jinki had not responded properly to his kiss or his texts and was basically avoiding him like the plague, he’d fucked up their last game, Minho was missing in action, and Sunwoo had taken up residence in his dorm insisting that they were both lovesick and therefore should bond and eat their sadness - and probably lick each other’s wounds, knowing Sunwoo - rather than go to their Statistics class. The irritatingly cute shortstop was sitting uninvited on Jonghyun’s desk chair and eating most of Jonghyun’s supply of late night chips as he spun around in languid, sad circles.
“Where is Jinki, anyway?” the kid mused. “I wonder if he’s flattered that you’re head-over-heels for him or if he’s too busy pining over his roommate. It must suck. You two would be cute together, and Minho’s never gonna return his feelings.” Jonghyun sort of growled at that, staring listlessly at the ceiling.
“At least I have a boyfriend, I guess, even if he is completely weird and violent and angry. He’s awesome when he’s not pissed at me… I don’t know what I would do if I was single. I kinda get the best of both worlds with Junghwan if you discount the emotional shit - I get all the perks of being in a relationship plus the sex. I mean, it’d be better if Junghwan would give me both, but at least he doesn’t get ticked when I go off with other dudes. I just wish he’d talk to me, man, ‘cause English class really sucks when he’s not around to make fun of and my dorm is really cold at night... Boys are just tough, man.”
“Yeah, yeah. Can we not talk about it?”
“Sure, fine, sorry,” Sunwoo sighed. He knew he could get carried away. “What would you rather talk about?”
“I mean, sorry, just, don’t worry about it. I don’t really know. I’m just lonely, you know? Everything is going to shit and I haven’t gotten laid in two months and it really sucks being into Jinki because he’s such a fucking idiot but I can’t just, like, get rid of my feelings. Everything he does drives me fucking insane and I kinda hate myself for it and it makes perfect sense that he’d like Minho better, but it still just… sucks. A lot.”
“Are you kidding me, bro? Minho’s not half as good as you. And I don’t mean in bed - ” Jonghyun doubted that. “ - I mean for Jinki. Sure, he’s tall and smart and hot and amazing at softball, not to mention everything else, but - “
“You’re not helping, Sunwoo.”
“Shut up! You’re missing the point. As great as he seems, he’s kind of a cold prick when it comes down to it. He’s perfect for somebody like Chanshik who’s also kind of a cold prick, but, I mean, he doesn’t love Jinki and you do and I think Jinki really needs to be loved. He’s only such an idiot because he has no clue what he’s doing and Minho won’t give him any pointers cause he’s too scared to break the kid’s heart and too stupid to just say he’s not interested. You’re way better for Jinki, provided you can win him over. I can help you later, if you want.”
Jonghyun was kind of speechless. Sunwoo, as a rule, was stupid. He never would’ve suspected him of having thoughts and observations half that deep, but there he went opening his mouth.
“Um, th-thanks?” Jonghyun finally coughed out.
“It’s only the truth, man. But seriously? Two months without sex? I would die,” Sunwoo commented, pushing himself off the desk chair to plop on top of Jonghyun on the bed. There was the stupid, perverted Sunwoo that Jonghyun knew back again and so he nodded, almost involuntarily. The dumbass had his ways of cheering him up.
“No strings attached, yeah?” Jonghyun asked in understanding as he slipped his hands around Sunwoo’s waist. This had happened once or twice freshman year before Junghwan or Jinki happened and Jonghyun still knew the other’s body pretty well.
“No strings at all,” Sunwoo agreed with a grin. “We’re just desperate, sex-deprived men and we can’t help it. Nothing more.”
Jonghyun broke into a little smile. “Awesome,” he hummed against Sunwoo’s lips as three floors below them, a certain Lee Jinki was laying awake and struggling to get his head around his feelings for his roommate and the boy who’d kissed him a few nights back and left his lips still tingling. Two miles away, Lee Junghwan was about ready to apologize to his boyfriend, but Sunwoo and Jonghyun didn’t know about that and didn’t care to quite yet. They were boys with needs to be met, and that was that. Emotions could be dealt with later.
❦
After practice, Junghwan figured it was time to apologize to Sunwoo. He walked up to him once he had finished his conversation with Jinyoung, his intentions entirely good even though he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to say, and to be honest, he didn't much feel like apologizing to the cheating bastard either. He had gone to Sunwoo's dorm the other day and had been surprised to find it vacant. When he tried calling, there had been no response, so he called Kibum instead. That man always knew where everyone was, God knows how. Kibum had told him that the last he'd heard Sunwoo was sulking with Jonghyun and, seeing as Junghwan was pretty clear on all the whoring around that had gone on between those two freshman year, it didn't take more than a second for him to realize what had happened. But still, he felt the need to make amends. He loved Sunwoo despite all of that shit.
“Hey, can we talk?” he asked softly, rubbing his hands together.
“Oh, are you over your fit now? ‘Cause, you know, those are kind of really getting to me.”
Well, fuck. If Sunwoo was going to be an ass and not work with him then Junghwan sure as hell was going to be one too.
“Oh, really? Is your being a slut and sleeping around on me any better? But, hey, you don't see me calling you annoying. No, I'm the one that gets called crazy for slapping you and raising my voice.”
“Yeah, that's because you had no reason to slap me! It doesn’t fucking matter how I feel regarding the next episode of your stupid drama. Slapping is... it’s fuckin’ physical abuse, Junghwan, Jesus.”
“Oh, no? Well, maybe that’s not reason enough, but is cheating on me seven fucking times not a good enough reason for your precious ass?! Because last time I checked, when someone cheats on you, it's a perfectly fine reason to get slapped! Abuse for abuse, hmm?”
Sunwoo looked taken aback for a moment, raising an eyebrow and collecting himself, desperate for the upper hand. “Look, Junghwannie, if I can deal with your anger issues, I think you can deal with me not being completely faithful every now and again. I have my needs, I swear to God. I’m a red-blooded male.”
“Oh, really? Well, if you want it that way, why don't we just make this an open relationship or whatever the fuck you call it? I'm sure you'd be happy with that, since I never seem to be enough for you! I’m sick of this!” Junghwan's voice was starting to crescendo and shake and his eyes burned with fresh tears, but he refused to let Sunwoo get the better of him.
“Sounds great to me,” Sunwoo bit out harshly, not entirely sure why Junghwan had said that - weren't they already in an open relationship? In any case, he didn’t care. “Evidently I’m not good enough for you either, if I so desperately need to get whipped - er, slapped, if you will - into shape. Have fun, hmm?”
“Cool. I've been wanting a better fuck than you anyway.”
With that, Junghwan turned on his heel and approached Dongwoo. Sunwoo wasn't really sure what had suddenly clicked, but it dawned on him that they weren't, in fact, in an open relationship at all. In fact he was cheating on his boyfriend and now that he had agreed to an open relationship... that meant - fuck. It meant Junghwan could sleep around too, and that was not a pleasant thought. Junghwan was his, not Dongwoo’s boy toy, or anyone else’s, for that matter.
He turned to go tell Junghwan that he changed his mind, that he wasn't allowed to sleep with anyone but him, but he was met with the sight of his boyfriend walking Dongwoo to the dorm hall nearby. Dongwoo lived in that dorm. Dongwoo had a single bed in that dorm. And with the way Junghwan was attached to his side, playfully kissing the left of his neck... It was clear that Junghwan was indeed going to have sex with someone else, and Sunwoo was struck with a painful fear he’d never really felt before.
Sunwoo was suddenly afraid that Junghwan would realize that he was a shitty boyfriend and leave him for good and he knew wouldn’t be able to take that. For all he claimed to be unbreakable and for all he put on the cheerful, badass mask every day, he was just a kid, and he loved Junghwan more than he could fathom.
He was broken from his anger when he noticed his vision was getting fuzzy. There was a lump in his throat and some tear tracks already marring his reddening face. He looked up from the ground and ran a hand through his hair, noticing an equally dolorous Taemin a few feet away. He squeezed his eyes shut tight at the sight.
❦
The next game was really, truly terrible. They somehow allowed themselves to be creamed 7-0. Even the ever-perfect Minho walked half of the other team and just barely saved them from the other team’s perfect game with one foul ball. Jinki daydreamed in the outfield, Chanshik was sluggish, Jonghyun was even worse than usual, Taemin couldn’t hit to save his life, Dongwoo seemed unable to catch, and Sunwoo was a complete mess, fidgeting miserably in his spot between his stupid, nervous asshole of a boyfriend and the boy who had sort of accidentally fucked up their relationship. Jinyoung was actually sort of on his game at first, but nobody could even really manage to throw to him and so he lost it.
Kibum’s solution to every problem was shrieking, and he would’ve sent everyone home sobbing had Jinyoung not touched his arm gently and whispered something in his ear that made him smile for a second before letting out a soft moan when the younger nipped at the sensitive skin. He gave the kid a distasteful glance, looked around at his team, which appeared to be equal parts disgusted, melancholy, or completely distracted, and sighed. Jinyoung was probably right. They would beat themselves up over it enough in the long run, and Dongwoo and Taemin were already raising their voices at one another. It was useless to yell anymore. Kibum sighed and dismissed them.
Jinki walked home next to Jonghyun, trying to crack jokes to make the shorter kid feel better. Jonghyun’s heart was already brittle, and if Jinki was messing with him, he honestly wouldn’t be able to take it, but he was too desperate not to take the bait, especially when Jinki looked so heartbroken every time he didn’t laugh. It was weird, the other hanging out with him and not even bringing up the kiss, but if Jonghyun wasn’t mistaken Jinki was walking a little closer than he used to. Their hands brushed once or twice and Jinki smiled as bright as the sun. Either Jonghyun’s crush was extremely perfect, totally clueless, or absolutely evil and Jonghyun didn’t even know how to begin thinking about it. His tryst with Sunwoo seemed to have ended pretty badly for the other and he wasn’t about to go delving into things he didn’t know. He knew he couldn’t trust Sunwoo - the kid had probably just been fucking with him to get his hopes up, judging by his success in love. He wondered if Sunwoo ever had any clue what he was doing or if he just flew blindly through life.
Taemin was pretty sure Sunwoo was the worst person in the world. He felt kind of bad for the kid, but the sympathy was diminishing as Junghwan sort of hung off Dongwoo’s arm with a pouty glare on his sullen little face. As much as he tried to help, Sunwoo always ended up ruining everyone else’s relationships along with his own.
Okay, maybe not everyone. Maybe not even real relationships. But the sight of Sunwoo’s boyfriend on Dongwoo’s arm kind of ruined the daydreams that had been plaguing Taemin ever since Dongwoo had stopped being a total asshole. Taemin had been weirdly happier for those few days, but suddenly Dongwoo didn’t seem to give a shit and he hadn’t been able to eat or sleep hardly at all since he ran off with Junghwan no matter how much he told himself it was just a stupid crush. Dongwoo wasn’t feeling any better with his best friend’s boyfriend on his arm but the little part of his brain that was still somewhat able to think told himself that Sunwoo deserved this and maybe Taemin would get a little bit jealous.
They really were like six-year-olds, Kibum mused from a few feet away as he held hands with Jinyoung. The first baseman had finally grown a pair and asked Kibum out the same night Minho had crashed on their couch. He’d been so cute that Kibum couldn’t say no and he was enormously glad he hadn’t. Jinyoung was just about the cutest, most doting boyfriend that there ever could be. It was way more endearing when he had an excuse to be all cute and wide-eyed and freak out over Kibum all the time. Nobody seemed to have noticed them yet, though, and they hadn’t said anything. Jinyoung bet Minho would be the first to notice; Kibum put his faith on the notoriously stupid but nosy Sunwoo.
Jinyoung dropped Kibum’s hand when they reached his dorm hall and kissed him goodbye. Junghwan actually noticed, following Jinyoung at a distance back to their room, but the new couple didn’t notice him noticing and the bet was still on after they had all split ways, Jonghyun and Jinki and Minho and Chanshik one way, Kibum another, Sunwoo and Dongwoo and Taemin a third. None of them spoke until Sunwoo’s door slammed shut and Taemin grabbed the back of Dongwoo’s shirt in the stairwell.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Dongwoo pushed his crooked glasses up his nose and rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. “What are you even talking about, Taemin?”
“You’re so fucking stupid,” Taemin mumbled, moving his hands to the other’s shoulders, effectively pinning him to the stairwell wall. “Don’t you understand anything?”
“Wh-what?”
“I just - you’re a stupid asshole, okay?! And it makes me so mad and you’re a slut and what gives you the right to have sex with Junghwan? You ruined him and Sunwoo and you’re so dumb and you ruin everything by being good at this game and I hate you so much,” Taemin explained in a tearful explosion, squeezing his fingers into Dongwoo’s shoulders. It was just the start of his pent-up emotion, but he felt a sudden flood of relief wash over him as he brought his bloodshot eyes to meet Dongwoo’s, breathing shakily.
“Oh, Taemin…” Dongwoo sighed, reaching out a calloused hand to wipe a tear off the idiot’s face. He was so tired of this shit, of the rivalry and the sex and possessiveness and everything. He couldn’t bring himself to yell at the stupid kid, though. There were certainly feelings there, both good and really, really awful. “Oh, you stupid, stupid kid. Listen to yourself. You slept with Sunwoo, you’re just as much at fault,” he began, but Taemin was already sprinting up the stairs away from him. Dongwoo ran a hand through his hair, ready to accept how stupid and shitty his whole life was evidently becoming when he heard a soft little cry and a really loud crash. He rolled his eyes and jogged up to find Taemin a sobbing, fallen wreck on the third flight of stairs.
“I can’t get up,” the boy croaked pitifully from the ground, looking up at Dongwoo like a tiny, injured deer, and it was impossible to resist. Dongwoo couldn’t take it; he caved, smiling and scooping him up bridal style.
“You’re so, so, so stupid, Taeminnie,” he cooed softly as he carried him up to his own single dorm and laid him on the couch. “And you’ve definitely sprained your ankle. I’ll get you some ice and food, dumbass, and you can sleep in my bed. I can take the couch.”
“D-don’t worry about it,” Taemin whispered hoarsely. “You don’t need to sleep on the couch. It’s not long enough for you.”
Dongwoo shook his head and frowned. “We’re, like, the same height.”
“My point exactly, dumbass,” Taemin yawned. “W-we can share the bed.”
Dongwoo raised an eyebrow but nodded. He couldn’t resist anymore; he was too tired of pretending. He stuck two cups of instant ramen in the microwave and carried Taemin back to the bed. They ate together, Taemin shoveling more into his mouth than he had in four days, and they fell asleep together, their hands intertwined ever-so-slightly as Taemin’s thrashing gradually slowed to calm sleep.
Taemin woke up to lukewarm tea and slightly soggy waffles in bed, delivered by a half-naked, bedheaded Dongwoo who kissed his forehead good morning and called him some number of creative synonyms for ‘complete idiot.’ Taemin grinned despite the shooting pain in his ankle and the suspiciously sweet, domestic nature of this whole scenario because damn it all, he was happy, and he would hold onto that while he could.
❦
part ii.
authors: futurebruises and canachinrea
genre: crack, humor, fluff, softball!au
rating: pg-13 (drinking, cursing, sexual situations & innuendos)
length: ~16350 words
parts: i // ii
main pairings: baro/sandeul, jonghyun/onew, cnu/taemin, minho/gongchan, jinyoung/key
side pairings: baro/jonghyun, baro/taemin, onew/minho, cnu/jonghyun, cnu/sandeul
summary:
a/n: i feel like a proud mother finally posting this. it took the better part of a semester, but we did it and here it is in all its shitty glory. if you care, i, futurebruises, was mostly in charge of sunwoo, junghwan, jinki, jonghyun, and taemin, and canachinrea wrote dongwoo, jinyoung, chanshik, minho, and kibum. besides the beginning and end, we wrote every other part, though, so... yeah. it shouldn't be too hard to tell. i haven't played softball since i was nine years old so please excuse any horrific lies about the sport, and it's also kind of hard to perfectly proofread a 40-page document even when you are grammar nazis, so pardon any typos too.
❦
Sunwoo didn't wake up until Junghwan started yelling. Apparently his boyfriend had been shaking him for quite a while and worked himself into quite a state while Sunwoo was still dreaming about whatever the hell Cha Sunwoo dreamt about. Junghwan's best guess was sex. Considering that his boyfriend seemed to think about it every waking minute, sleeping wouldn’t be much of a stretch.
Junghwan wrinkled his nose in objection when Sunwoo tried to kiss it - his boyfriend was afflicted with especially awful breath in the mornings - and jumped off Sunwoo's twin bed that they usually ended up sharing because Sunwoo didn’t have a roommate and they tended to lose track of time when they hung out. Junghwan didn’t have the urge to get caught out after curfew and the company completely made up for the dorm hall’s lack of central heating. He threw a shirt at the other before returning to his cereal with an exasperated, sullen look on his pouty lips.
"Practice is in twenty minutes, babe. Get dressed and brush your teeth so we can go. We have to meet your friend and show him there - what’s his name again? Chanshik?"
“Yeah, that’s him. Shit. You should’ve woken me up earlier,” Sunwoo groaned darkly and rubbed his eyes before disappearing to the bathroom. Junghwan wasn’t entirely sure what sort of potions the dorm had in its sink water, but somehow Sunwoo emerged ten minutes later as his usual bizarrely cheerful self, now only slightly disheveled and fully dressed for practice, and flashed Junghwan a crooked grin before yanking the door open with his cleats in hand.
“Shall we be off?”
“We shall,” Junghwan chuckled, unable to help the smile creeping its way onto his face. His boyfriend was really cute when he wasn’t completely infuriating. They walked close together, not quite holding hands through the awful neighborhood in which their makeshift softball field was hidden until Sunwoo’s phone exploded into one of the thousands of American pop songs that he seemed to worship.
“Yo, man, what’s up?” he crowed into the receiver. Junghwan leaned against the concrete wall of the store they were perched in front of while Sunwoo offered the stranger on the other end directions and hung up.
“That Chanshik?”
“Yep. Sit tight, he should be here in a sec and then we can head to the field. I’m stoked for you two to meet.”
Junghwan raised an eyebrow and Sunwoo stole a kiss on the lips as they waited in the morning sun for the fabled Chanshik to arrive. This practice would be interesting, at the very least. It wasn’t often they got a new player. Junghwan wasn’t sure how he felt about the matter, but he was pretty sure that Sunwoo was trying to grope his ass and that he couldn’t stand for that, especially not here, so he occupied himself with smacking his boyfriend’s hands away and didn’t think too hard over the whole new player matter.
❦
Was he supposed to turn left or right at the first corner?
Sunwoo had said to turn but never specified a direction. Well, worst came to worst, Chanshik would just miss the practice and get bitched at and/or bitch at Sunwoo for being an idiot and not telling him which way to turn. But, then again, he had never thought to ask which way to turn either, so they were both kind of at fault.
Now, right looked a little bit sketchier with the dingy wall covered in foul, spray-painted words, so he turned left. He walked for about two blocks until he realized he had no idea what that retard had said to do after turning. He pulled out his phone, hoping to finally have some bars in this miserable strip of bakeries and bars. After holding up his phone and swirling in half-assed circles for a minute - who’s the dumbass now? - he received three bars by a gross-looking brown stain on sidewalk. In the middle of making a disgusted face (because he noticed the edge of his shoe had been touching said brown stain) Sunwoo - the bastard - decided to pick up his phone with an overly happy, “Yo, man, what’s up?”
“What’s up is that I have no clue where I am. You suck at giving directions.”
Sunwoo laughed. “Maybe you just suck at following directions. What way did you turn at the first corner?”
“Left.”
“Good. How many blocks did you walk after that?”
“Two”
“See?! That right there is your problem. You need to go another block, hang a right and then we should be right around there.”
“All right, but wait, who’s ‘we’?”
“Good, now hurry the fuck up or we’ll be late.”
The line went dead and Chanshik scoffed, not because Sunwoo completely ignored his question, but more because of that stupid-ass word that the bastard had the audacity to use with him. He hated that word more than he hated really bad coffee and that was, well, a lot.
❦
Jinyoung was late getting up and when he was at the lobby of his dorm he realized that he had left all his gear back up in his room on the fifth floor. Because of this, he was quite late in meeting his teammates for practice. He ran down the street toward their makeshift field until he saw Junghwan, Sunwoo, and the boy who he assumed was the new player - Sunwoo had refused to tell him his name - standing at the corner store across the street. Junghwan was leaning against the wall with Sunwoo's arm over his shoulders as they conversed with the figure. Jinyoung could only see his back, but as he got closer, the third man’s hair began to look rather familiar.
“Hey Jin. You’re later than usual,” Sunwoo commented, and with it the guy turned his head.
“No fucking way!” Jinyoung gasped, blatantly ignoring Sunwoo and staring at the wincing Chanshik in front of him. He remembered that the kid didn't like the word 'fuck' but he was all good with any other choice words you threw his way, the strange thing, and shook his head. He mumbled an apology and pulled the taller man in for a hug.
“Hey man, long time no see. How have you been?” Chanshik huffed out as he was released from the choking hug.
“Fine, not much going o - ”
“He's been acting like a puppy, actually, eager to please his master. His master being Kibum,” Sunwoo kindly interrupted.
“Wait, you're seeing someone too?” Chanshik asked, wide-eyed.
“Well - ”
“Ha! He wishes. Ain't that right, Jin? You would just love it if Kibummie would finally agree to suck your - ”
“Okay, so Jin has a crush on Kibum. I think Chanshik gets it. So why don't we head to practice now, yeah? Great.”
Thank God Junghwan knew when it was time for Sunwoo to shut up. With his decisive words, they walked to the field down the road, Junghwan trying to keep Sunwoo's hand off his ass and Chanshik and Jinyoung idly chatting behind them.
❦
“Shit,” Dongwoo cussed when he hit his third foul ball from the stupid electric pitcher thing that he’d received last year as a 'good-luck-in-college-don't-fuck-up-cause-it's-my-good-money-you'd-waste' present from his dad. Dongwoo was a softball addict. He loved it so much because it was the one thing he could do better than average and, honestly, he kind of liked feeling special. He played catcher and somehow found joy when balls were flung at his face at eighty-five to ninety miles per hour, courtesy of the ever-perfect Minho. He could play any position and be great at it if he wanted to, though, and he was really the best on the team. Well, he used to be, anyway, until Taemin decided to join the team he, Jinyoung, and Jonghyun had put together. That boy was just as good as Dongwoo, as much as it pained him to admit it. Not to say he didn't like Taemin, because he did like the kid a lot a lot; he just didn't like him being as good as and sometimes better than Dongwoo himself. In fact, when Taemin had decided to join, Dongwoo’s batting average had actually dropped a bit. Sure, it was more out of hatred than awe (or so he told himself), but that didn’t make it okay. It ultimately just pushed him to show up even earlier to each practice than he used to, and so here he was now.
The machine chucked another ball at him, which he managed to hit and send flying. Finally. He decided to call it quits, though, when he noticed a very familiar - not that he looked often or anything - twig-like body rounding the corner.
❦
Taemin smiled to himself as he walked onto the field. Today was a good day. It was a Saturday and it was sunny and he had nothing to do but practice and watch the dumb, bespectacled catcher’s smug little face fall adorably whenever Taemin did something better than he did. Yeah, this was a good day, and Taemin was going to take advantage of it.
He leaned against the shaded portion of the chain-link fence enclosing their field. Dongwoo was having some trouble with his automatic ball launching machine and Taemin was having a hard time holding back his snorts as the other hit foul after strike after foul. Dongwoo didn’t seem to have noticed him yet, though, so he kept it that way until the elder finally hit a good ball.
Taemin walked onto the dusty field with a practiced smirk, pulling on a helmet and grabbing his bat. He poked Dongwoo out of the way with the end of said bat and got into his position, smacking the first ball it pitched at him off into the overgrown outfield.
“That, dumbfuck, is how it’s done,” he chuckled, grinning at Dongwoo with an evil glint in his eye and definitely not looking up and down the other’s lanky frame. “Watch and learn.”
❦
Jonghyun cracked his knuckles and smirked at his reflection in the mirror, pushing back the last of his nerves as he pushed his bangs back from his forehead. He had nothing to worry about today. He was sexy and talented and it really didn’t matter that the idiot left fielder he definitely wasn’t in love with couldn’t stop making moony eyes at their pitcher. No matter how cute said idiot might be, it was absolutely inconsequential to Jonghyun, or so he kept telling himself.
With a sigh, he pulled himself away and ran down the three flights of stairs with his bat thumping rather uncomfortably into his back and knocked on Minho and Jinki’s first-floor dorm door. In theory, he should’ve been glad he had a single room, but it allowed for way too much rumination about what was going on three floors below him. He bit his lip and groaned when no one answered.
“Hurry the hell up, we’re already late,” he called into the room, rapping on the door again and tapping his foot impatiently. He was way too worked-up for some reason - he put it off as sex deprivation as he took a deep breath to calm himself down - and he really wanted to get back onto the field. Softball and sex were his outlets for all his excess energy, and while sex didn’t seem to be looking up at the moment, softball did so long as his friends weren’t stuck in their room or anything.
He slumped against the door, yawned, cracked his back, and fell back flat on his ass as the door was opened.
“Oh. Hey, Minho. Jinki. Good morning,” Jonghyun coughed from the floor. “Hope I’m not intruding.”
❦
“Hey Minho, did you sleep okay? I mean - I-I noticed you got to bed rather late last night - not that I keeping tabs on you or anything - but I-I mean - well, are you...well-rested?” Jinki stuttered when Minho whacked his alarm clock and sat up in bed. Ruffling his hand in his mess of hair he glanced over at the blushing boy. Why him? Why did his roommate have to have a giant fucking crush on him? Not to mention that his best friend happened to have a crush on that very same roommate. He supposed it was just his luck, probably what he got for letting his pet turtle die in third grade.
“I'm good, thanks. Are you done in the bathroom?” Minho yawned.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Totally. It’s all yours,” Jinki assured him, a bit too loud for the quiet of the morning, and gestured to the other room.
“Cool.” Minho got up and padded over to the bathroom with Jinki shuffling behind him.
“Do you want me to make you breakfast?” Jinki asked just before Minho promptly shut the door to keep the way-too-nervous and cheery man at bay.
“Nah, I'll just grab an energy bar for later,” he mumbled through door, really wishing Jinki would just take a hint and leave so he could piss in peace. But, of course, Jinki was socially awkward and he had no concept of boundaries and that was just how he was. It wasn’t that Minho disliked him, it was more that he didn't think of him - or anyone else, for that matter - in that way. Besides, Jonghyun would have a fit if he found out Minho liked his crush and the last thing he wanted was a pissy Jonghyun - that was the only thing more irritating than a pissy Kibum.
After finishing up, Minho opened the door to find no Jinki. He was somewhat relieved until he heard an a “Ow, fuck,” from the small tiled area that was supposed to be a kitchen.
“Jinki, are you okay?” he asked as he strode calmly into the kitchen.
“Yeah, I just burnt my hand on my toast.” After hearing this he turned forty-five degrees and headed to his dresser to change.
Bang, bang, bang. “Hurry the hell up, we’re already late.”
Well, fuck. That wasn't good. He grabbed the first things he saw and threw his bag over his shoulder, running to the kitchen area to snag an energy bar. Jinki pulled the door open to be met with a falling Jonghyun just as Minho was tugging on his shoes.
❦
Jinki was sucking on his thumb and practically hyperventilating over his toast and his roommate when his spazzed-out brain finally registered Jonghyun’s knocking and he turned to open the door for the other, who fell promptly on their floor. Minho appeared on the scene before Jinki could really say anything and so he was somewhat lost for words as he held a hand out for Jonghyun to take.
He hissed as Jonghyun grabbed onto his burnt thumb. The sudden apologies spouting from his cocky friend’s mouth shocked him and he shook his head vigorously. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I swear!” he assured the short kid while they headed out the door and out to the field. Their dorm building was, luckily, on the end of campus closest to the softball field, and Minho led their short jog over in all of his long-legged, graceful glory.
Jonghyun tagged along behind with Jinki even though Jinki was quite sure he could’ve run to the field just as fast as Minho. Jonghyun had been acting really weird lately and Jinki didn’t exactly understand why. He was too busy admiring Minho to think it over while they ran, though, and as soon as they got to the field they were swept into the excited fray of Dongwoo’s and Taemin’s argument and the introduction of Sunwoo and Jinyoung’s old friend, a scared-looking kid from out in the country who was probably going to be in the outfield with him and Jonghyun if Kibum ever showed up.
It was probably more of a question of when Kibum would show up rather than if - their manager was known to be hours late, though always fashionably so. He was a good manager, even if not a punctual one, and the team was good at working without him whenever he was late.
Dongwoo gathered them together - he had skill and seniority, no matter how much Taemin rolled his eyes or Jinki thought Minho was better - so they could discuss drills. Jinki’s eyes met Jonghyun’s every few moments and he kept looking away. He really hoped Kibum would show up soon so he wouldn’t have to keep this up because the pounding in his heart was way too loud just to be from their jog to the field.
❦
Kibum was just emerging from the shower when practice was about to start. He had gotten up on time but spent way too long conditioning to ever make it there on time. After he had dried and combed his hair, he went to his closet so he could sift through the thousands - no, really, thousands - of articles of clothing he had acquired. Spending, again, way too much time on picking out his prime choice of skinny jeans that day. He moved on to his cardigans till he found one he deemed suitable. Finally, he was ready to leave - only an hour and a half late, no biggie - he walked out of his apartment and to the elevator, so he wouldn't have to worry about sweating with cashmere on. Choosing shuffle mode on his iPod, he walked into the street and headed for the field at a slow pace. Twenty minutes later he arrived at the abandoned lot they called a field, and noticed that his team seemed to be in quite a ruckus.
“Jeez, you finally decided to show up. Only took you two hours,” Taemin so politely pointed out the team manager hopping through the hole in the chain-link fence.
“An hour and...” - Kibum looked at his phone - “Fifty minutes. But anyway, notice how I look,” he twirled around for Taemin to see. “And notice how you look. Case in point. Seriously, is the word ‘style’ even in your dictionary?”
Jonghyun, Sunwoo and Dongwoo burst out laughing at the defeated looking Taemin, because honestly, no one could out-bitch Kibum - no one.
“Anyway, what are you guys bickering about?”
“First, we don't bicker, that shit is for chicks, and second, we're fighting about what position Chanshik will play,” Jonghyun interjected.
“Ah, well, that's easy. Chanshik? Hi! I'm Kim Kibum, team manager. Nice to meet you. Can you catch? Are you fast? Great! Right-fielder it is! See, no problem, you idiots just make everything harder than it needs to be.”
And that was precisely why Kibum was their manager.
“Uh, we're not idiots.” Sunwoo commented.
“Jinyoungie?” Kibum cooed.
“Yeah?”
“They’re idiots, right?” he asked, pouting his lips at the boy.
“Yes indeed. Such idiots,” Jinyoung agreed, gazing at the manager.
“See, Jinyoung agrees with me,” Kibum stated, his pout completely gone and replaced with a self-satisfied smirk. After a lot of groans and one, “Get a backbone, retard,” the argument was settled and practice resumed, going pretty much smoothly for the rest of the three hours save for when Dongwoo struck Taemin out and they had a brief screaming match and when Jinki got hit in the neck with a ball he didn’t see coming because he’d been too busy staring at Minho.
❦
After practice it was decided that they would introduce Chanshik to their tradition of beer and movies at Kibum’s apartment. Its owner’s complaints were overridden and he was reminded it was the least he could do for making them wait two hours for practice to start. He grumbled a lot about how it wasn’t at all ready for guests and how it had only been an hour and fifty minutes and Jinyoung said something about respecting his privacy but it was all ignored as per usual.
“You forget that your guests are normal college guys and don’t give a shit about cleanliness,” Minho chided as Jinyoung shook his head like he was astounded that everyone would be so stupid as to side against him. The kid was just as obsessive with Kibum as Jinki was with Minho, though a little better at hiding it. It was just as annoying, though, especially when he sided with Kibum on absolutely everything and mumbled things about how they should let Kibum do what he wanted because it was his apartment. Jinyoung didn’t seem to understand that Kibum was fun to fuck with, and Kibum seemed to drink up his praise. Minho rolled his eyes as they pulled out in front of the group, undoubtedly to complain about the others.
Minho pulled back, away from Dongwoo and Taemin’s weirdly physical ongoing argument, away from where Jonghyun appeared to be molesting Jinki under the guise of tending to his wound and the elder didn’t seem to be complaining - that was refreshing - and away from Sunwoo and Junghwan’s animated conversation about some TV show. The new kid was trailing along with those two but seemed to be completely lost.
Minho mumbled an apologetic greeting about how fucked-up all their friends were. Chanshik tensed at the description but shook his head, blushing a little pink and assuring him it was fine - Sunwoo had been even worse in high school. Minho’s lips twitched up and he decided he liked the kid. He seemed to know what it was like to be surrounded by complete idiots.
Speaking of which, their arrival at Kibum’s apartment was heralded by the crack of Junghwan slapping Sunwoo’s face for no apparent reason. Sunwoo’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and he probably would’ve hit the kid back had Chanshik not wordlessly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and Jinyoung reminded him that this was how his boyfriend always was. Junghwan had a bizarre and spectacular issue with anger management that usually resulted in a day or two without sleep but ultimately ended fine. Sunwoo knew that he was just as fucked-up as his boyfriend in his own right and as long as Junghwan forgave the occasional drunken mishap with one of their friends, their relationship would continue in its sweet little dysfunctional way.
The elevator ride passed in miserable silence that was broken when Kibum unlocked his door and insisted rather harshly that everyone remove their shoes or there would be serious consequences. Nobody even dared disagree and all of the cleats were arranged neatly at the door in moments because cleaning Kibum’s apartment was a horrible, degrading experience that they’d all been through at least once and never cared to have it repeated. Chanshik just followed their lead.
Positions were soon assumed across the living room and beer was distributed. Pizza was obtained courtesy of Taemin’s dad’s credit card. Jinki sat in an oversized chair nibbling the tip of a piece of cheese pizza. Minho was on the ground at his feet, slowly sipping a beer, situated just so Jinki could lazily tangle his hands in the other’s black hair when he so chose to. Jonghyun perched on the arm of the chair, one hand on Jinki’s shoulder and the other alternating between shoving pizza and pouring beer into his mouth. If he was asked, he’d blame it - like everything else weird - on sex deprivation, but everybody knew his habits by now and didn’t quite care.
Chanshik sat in between Minho and a very tipsy Jinyoung on the floor, actually sort of paying attention to the movie. Minho seemed to be taking an odd interest in him, and while he was flattered, it made him a little nervous and his stomach a little fluttery. He was really boring. Minho was not. Sure, he used the word fuck too much, but he was smart and mysterious and smelled like expensive cologne.
Junghwan was curled up drunkish in another big armchair with a poisonous glare while he picked the pepperoni off his pizza. Nobody felt particularly like approaching him until he cooled off. The fact that, somehow, his boyfriend had been put in charge of choosing the movie and now they were watching a really awful horror film that looked like it was shot on an ADD kid’s cell phone camera didn’t make him seem any friendlier.
Sunwoo seemed strangely calm, sandwiched in between the edge of the couch and a terrified Taemin. He and the skinny second baseman were matched beer for beer, about three in. Said second baseman really didn’t seem to appreciate Dongwoo on his other side and so he pressed close and warm against Sunwoo. His skinny hipbone dug into Sunwoo’s side, his hand gripping the other’s wrist tighter and tighter with each shriek from the flat screen TV.
Unsurprisingly, sooner or later, a hand crept up the inside of Taemin’s thigh. Sunwoo excused himself to go to the bathroom, ruffling Junghwan’s hair with a vengeful smirk as he left. Taemin followed a few seconds later with a guilty little smile at Junghwan. He couldn’t control these things. They just happened to him, he told himself as Sunwoo pulled him into the bathroom by the belt loops, hissing about how he would not get stuck washing Kibum’s sheets again before pressing his lips messily against the other’s. Taemin couldn’t say he cared. Sunwoo had probably slept with their whole team while he was with Junghwan but Taemin had fucked-up morals too and Sunwoo was really good at kissing. This was completely out of Taemin’s control, so he sighed and leaned against him. This shit just… happened to him. Wasn’t his fault.
Minho sort of noticed their disappearance and stood up to get more pizza, grabbing Chanshik by the wrist to join him. He had a feeling that things were going to turn bad soon and decided that they should be well-stocked for the end.
His intuition proved correct. The second he left, Jonghyun slid into Jinki’s chair squishing them together. Jinki giggled at the new warm presence and Jonghyun took that as a sign that it was okay to kiss him right on the mouth, all warm and wet and excited like a stupid puppy. Somebody in the film screamed, something crashed in the bathroom, and Jinki nearly had a heart attack right there.
Minho didn’t stick around to see if everyone was okay. He just tugged Chanshik out the door and down the stairs as Kibum yanked Jinyoung up into his spot on the couch to supervise while he investigated whatever was happening in the bathroom. Dongwoo and Junghwan had both shrunken back in anger and Minho didn’t have any desire to see where any of this ended up. Like, at all. Sunwoo and Taemin were bad enough, and once his involuntary love triangle was brought into the mix, well, that spelled shitstorm and Minho was in the business of avoiding all possible shitstorms.
“Well, fuck,” he sighed into the apartment stairwell once they were a few flights down, giving Chanshik an apologetic but hopeful look. “I hope you don’t mind bolting. It’ll be way better in the long run if we stay out of it. We can go get coffee or something.”
❦
Three days later and another game lost - all thanks to Jonghyun - Minho sat in a rather precarious situation. Jinki on his right, Jonghyun on his left, and a puzzled-looking Chanshik across from him. It had started with him simply asking Chanshik if he wanted to get something to eat, and of course Jinki had said he wanted to come, so it was only natural that Jonghyun tagged along as well.
All of Minho’s attempts at getting to know Chanshik had been cut short due to, well, his own stupid friends. First with Junghwan storming out of Kibum's apartment after the party and grabbing Chanshik's arm, demanding that they go get ice cream and tell embarrassing stories about Sunwoo in high school. Second, at practice the next day when he was just about to ask if he wanted to hang out later when Kibum announced that Minho was needed for shopping bag carrying duty that afternoon because Jinyoung was on Junghwan duty. But this, this was just ridiculous. Jinki wouldn't stop blushing and Jonghyun wouldn't stop trying to trade seats with him, and as much as he was cool with that, Jinki was not. So Minho settled for rolling his eyes and shoving Jinki out of the booth to use the restroom, deciding if he was going to climb through the window back there and text Chanshik to come meet him at the park or not. Realizing he did not possess the boy's number, he opted for being an asshole and just leaving the two people that couldn't stop fussing over him and the one he wouldn't stop fussing over to their own issues. It took all of fifteen minutes and the arrival of their food for them to get that Minho wasn't coming back.
Jinki was planning to find out why he left and bring him his food when he returned to their dorm room. The only problem was the note taped to mini fridge stating that he was staying with a friend for the night and maybe more. Feeling a little crushed, Jinki went to bed early.
Although Kibum was fine having Minho crash at his place, he did want to know why. But Minho didn't really feel like explaining the whole love-triangle-he-shouldn't-even-be-in thing right now so he mumbled a “Later,” and face-planted into the couch deeming it good for the night.
“Why the fuck are you in Kibum's apartment? What's wrong with your place?” Jinyoung happily greeted him in the morning.
“I might ask you the same thing. At least I have an excuse. My place has Jinki,” he mumbled, his words muffled in the pillow.
“So?”
“Where there is Jinki, there is Jonghyun, and I can't deal with that shit right now,” he groaned, still refusing to take his face out of the pillow.
“Ah, running away from your problems, I see. Not a good idea.”
Jinyoung was not winning points for being helpful in any way at the moment.
“It. Is. Not. My. Problem. Those two just decided to drag me into the middle of it,” Minho sighed, finally rolling over - as best as one could roll over on a couch - and glare at the man kneeling in front of him.
“Either way, avoiding it is not going to help.”
“Yeah, I know. I figured I'd give it a try, though,” Minho replied. He really, really hated it when Jinyoung was helpful.
❦
Taemin was conflicted. Since he and Sunwoo had snuck out of Kibum’s apartment, hair mussed and buttons uneven in the early hours of the morning three days earlier, he’d been consumed by a strange guilt that was equal parts excitingly filthy and really damn depressing. Taemin wasn’t exactly prudent, but he’d never been a slut like Sunwoo - who was really more of just a nymphomaniac than a slut - or Jonghyun, who probably just couldn’t deal with his feelings and hadn’t really even been sleeping around since he set his affections on Jinki. Still. He was used to feeling at least a little something beyond friendship towards the people he had sex with, and now he just felt strange.
He was contemplating why everything was so weird and why one even would go about having casual sex with friends in the first place and somehow his thoughts kept bringing him to Dongwoo. Taemin couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch himself or punch his bespectacled rival for it. Sunwoo had once explained his relationship with Junghwan as tiptoeing the skinny little line between love and hate and Taemin was terrified he’d end up on that same line with Dongwoo when the other’s hand brushed his to hand him the half-assed Korean History notes Taemin had been too wigged-out and sleepy to do on Sunday and Taemin felt a familiar tingling sensation burn through him. He’d felt it more than once before at Dongwoo’s touch and he shivered at the thought of what it might mean.
Dongwoo thought Taemin was cute when he was stressed, and even though his head was screaming serves you right, he felt kind of bad for the kid whose brow was furrowed and lips were pouted as he copied off the notes in a hasty script. They had no connection beyond a teasing rivalry and Dongwoo had no right to be angry or jealous. Despite said rivalry, though, Dongwoo did like Taemin quite a bit and admired him as a softball player even though he’d never admit it. It was kind of entertaining to watch him try to deal with his feelings, the way his fat lips curled around the end of his pen kind of attractively.
Taemin’s lips were pretty. They were a bit fat and a bit misshapen, but they were the sort of misshapen that demanded to be shaped by someone else’s kisses. Dongwoo shuddered at the thought and yanked the paper away. “Class starts in a few minutes, sadsack. We should get going.”
Taemin grunted and stood up, following Dongwoo wordlessly to class. The other was being unnervingly less obnoxious than usual. Taemin found he was okay with it. Everything was really weird lately and he would take all the niceness he could get.
Jonghyun, on the other hand, hated everything. Jinki had not responded properly to his kiss or his texts and was basically avoiding him like the plague, he’d fucked up their last game, Minho was missing in action, and Sunwoo had taken up residence in his dorm insisting that they were both lovesick and therefore should bond and eat their sadness - and probably lick each other’s wounds, knowing Sunwoo - rather than go to their Statistics class. The irritatingly cute shortstop was sitting uninvited on Jonghyun’s desk chair and eating most of Jonghyun’s supply of late night chips as he spun around in languid, sad circles.
“Where is Jinki, anyway?” the kid mused. “I wonder if he’s flattered that you’re head-over-heels for him or if he’s too busy pining over his roommate. It must suck. You two would be cute together, and Minho’s never gonna return his feelings.” Jonghyun sort of growled at that, staring listlessly at the ceiling.
“At least I have a boyfriend, I guess, even if he is completely weird and violent and angry. He’s awesome when he’s not pissed at me… I don’t know what I would do if I was single. I kinda get the best of both worlds with Junghwan if you discount the emotional shit - I get all the perks of being in a relationship plus the sex. I mean, it’d be better if Junghwan would give me both, but at least he doesn’t get ticked when I go off with other dudes. I just wish he’d talk to me, man, ‘cause English class really sucks when he’s not around to make fun of and my dorm is really cold at night... Boys are just tough, man.”
“Yeah, yeah. Can we not talk about it?”
“Sure, fine, sorry,” Sunwoo sighed. He knew he could get carried away. “What would you rather talk about?”
“I mean, sorry, just, don’t worry about it. I don’t really know. I’m just lonely, you know? Everything is going to shit and I haven’t gotten laid in two months and it really sucks being into Jinki because he’s such a fucking idiot but I can’t just, like, get rid of my feelings. Everything he does drives me fucking insane and I kinda hate myself for it and it makes perfect sense that he’d like Minho better, but it still just… sucks. A lot.”
“Are you kidding me, bro? Minho’s not half as good as you. And I don’t mean in bed - ” Jonghyun doubted that. “ - I mean for Jinki. Sure, he’s tall and smart and hot and amazing at softball, not to mention everything else, but - “
“You’re not helping, Sunwoo.”
“Shut up! You’re missing the point. As great as he seems, he’s kind of a cold prick when it comes down to it. He’s perfect for somebody like Chanshik who’s also kind of a cold prick, but, I mean, he doesn’t love Jinki and you do and I think Jinki really needs to be loved. He’s only such an idiot because he has no clue what he’s doing and Minho won’t give him any pointers cause he’s too scared to break the kid’s heart and too stupid to just say he’s not interested. You’re way better for Jinki, provided you can win him over. I can help you later, if you want.”
Jonghyun was kind of speechless. Sunwoo, as a rule, was stupid. He never would’ve suspected him of having thoughts and observations half that deep, but there he went opening his mouth.
“Um, th-thanks?” Jonghyun finally coughed out.
“It’s only the truth, man. But seriously? Two months without sex? I would die,” Sunwoo commented, pushing himself off the desk chair to plop on top of Jonghyun on the bed. There was the stupid, perverted Sunwoo that Jonghyun knew back again and so he nodded, almost involuntarily. The dumbass had his ways of cheering him up.
“No strings attached, yeah?” Jonghyun asked in understanding as he slipped his hands around Sunwoo’s waist. This had happened once or twice freshman year before Junghwan or Jinki happened and Jonghyun still knew the other’s body pretty well.
“No strings at all,” Sunwoo agreed with a grin. “We’re just desperate, sex-deprived men and we can’t help it. Nothing more.”
Jonghyun broke into a little smile. “Awesome,” he hummed against Sunwoo’s lips as three floors below them, a certain Lee Jinki was laying awake and struggling to get his head around his feelings for his roommate and the boy who’d kissed him a few nights back and left his lips still tingling. Two miles away, Lee Junghwan was about ready to apologize to his boyfriend, but Sunwoo and Jonghyun didn’t know about that and didn’t care to quite yet. They were boys with needs to be met, and that was that. Emotions could be dealt with later.
❦
After practice, Junghwan figured it was time to apologize to Sunwoo. He walked up to him once he had finished his conversation with Jinyoung, his intentions entirely good even though he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to say, and to be honest, he didn't much feel like apologizing to the cheating bastard either. He had gone to Sunwoo's dorm the other day and had been surprised to find it vacant. When he tried calling, there had been no response, so he called Kibum instead. That man always knew where everyone was, God knows how. Kibum had told him that the last he'd heard Sunwoo was sulking with Jonghyun and, seeing as Junghwan was pretty clear on all the whoring around that had gone on between those two freshman year, it didn't take more than a second for him to realize what had happened. But still, he felt the need to make amends. He loved Sunwoo despite all of that shit.
“Hey, can we talk?” he asked softly, rubbing his hands together.
“Oh, are you over your fit now? ‘Cause, you know, those are kind of really getting to me.”
Well, fuck. If Sunwoo was going to be an ass and not work with him then Junghwan sure as hell was going to be one too.
“Oh, really? Is your being a slut and sleeping around on me any better? But, hey, you don't see me calling you annoying. No, I'm the one that gets called crazy for slapping you and raising my voice.”
“Yeah, that's because you had no reason to slap me! It doesn’t fucking matter how I feel regarding the next episode of your stupid drama. Slapping is... it’s fuckin’ physical abuse, Junghwan, Jesus.”
“Oh, no? Well, maybe that’s not reason enough, but is cheating on me seven fucking times not a good enough reason for your precious ass?! Because last time I checked, when someone cheats on you, it's a perfectly fine reason to get slapped! Abuse for abuse, hmm?”
Sunwoo looked taken aback for a moment, raising an eyebrow and collecting himself, desperate for the upper hand. “Look, Junghwannie, if I can deal with your anger issues, I think you can deal with me not being completely faithful every now and again. I have my needs, I swear to God. I’m a red-blooded male.”
“Oh, really? Well, if you want it that way, why don't we just make this an open relationship or whatever the fuck you call it? I'm sure you'd be happy with that, since I never seem to be enough for you! I’m sick of this!” Junghwan's voice was starting to crescendo and shake and his eyes burned with fresh tears, but he refused to let Sunwoo get the better of him.
“Sounds great to me,” Sunwoo bit out harshly, not entirely sure why Junghwan had said that - weren't they already in an open relationship? In any case, he didn’t care. “Evidently I’m not good enough for you either, if I so desperately need to get whipped - er, slapped, if you will - into shape. Have fun, hmm?”
“Cool. I've been wanting a better fuck than you anyway.”
With that, Junghwan turned on his heel and approached Dongwoo. Sunwoo wasn't really sure what had suddenly clicked, but it dawned on him that they weren't, in fact, in an open relationship at all. In fact he was cheating on his boyfriend and now that he had agreed to an open relationship... that meant - fuck. It meant Junghwan could sleep around too, and that was not a pleasant thought. Junghwan was his, not Dongwoo’s boy toy, or anyone else’s, for that matter.
He turned to go tell Junghwan that he changed his mind, that he wasn't allowed to sleep with anyone but him, but he was met with the sight of his boyfriend walking Dongwoo to the dorm hall nearby. Dongwoo lived in that dorm. Dongwoo had a single bed in that dorm. And with the way Junghwan was attached to his side, playfully kissing the left of his neck... It was clear that Junghwan was indeed going to have sex with someone else, and Sunwoo was struck with a painful fear he’d never really felt before.
Sunwoo was suddenly afraid that Junghwan would realize that he was a shitty boyfriend and leave him for good and he knew wouldn’t be able to take that. For all he claimed to be unbreakable and for all he put on the cheerful, badass mask every day, he was just a kid, and he loved Junghwan more than he could fathom.
He was broken from his anger when he noticed his vision was getting fuzzy. There was a lump in his throat and some tear tracks already marring his reddening face. He looked up from the ground and ran a hand through his hair, noticing an equally dolorous Taemin a few feet away. He squeezed his eyes shut tight at the sight.
❦
The next game was really, truly terrible. They somehow allowed themselves to be creamed 7-0. Even the ever-perfect Minho walked half of the other team and just barely saved them from the other team’s perfect game with one foul ball. Jinki daydreamed in the outfield, Chanshik was sluggish, Jonghyun was even worse than usual, Taemin couldn’t hit to save his life, Dongwoo seemed unable to catch, and Sunwoo was a complete mess, fidgeting miserably in his spot between his stupid, nervous asshole of a boyfriend and the boy who had sort of accidentally fucked up their relationship. Jinyoung was actually sort of on his game at first, but nobody could even really manage to throw to him and so he lost it.
Kibum’s solution to every problem was shrieking, and he would’ve sent everyone home sobbing had Jinyoung not touched his arm gently and whispered something in his ear that made him smile for a second before letting out a soft moan when the younger nipped at the sensitive skin. He gave the kid a distasteful glance, looked around at his team, which appeared to be equal parts disgusted, melancholy, or completely distracted, and sighed. Jinyoung was probably right. They would beat themselves up over it enough in the long run, and Dongwoo and Taemin were already raising their voices at one another. It was useless to yell anymore. Kibum sighed and dismissed them.
Jinki walked home next to Jonghyun, trying to crack jokes to make the shorter kid feel better. Jonghyun’s heart was already brittle, and if Jinki was messing with him, he honestly wouldn’t be able to take it, but he was too desperate not to take the bait, especially when Jinki looked so heartbroken every time he didn’t laugh. It was weird, the other hanging out with him and not even bringing up the kiss, but if Jonghyun wasn’t mistaken Jinki was walking a little closer than he used to. Their hands brushed once or twice and Jinki smiled as bright as the sun. Either Jonghyun’s crush was extremely perfect, totally clueless, or absolutely evil and Jonghyun didn’t even know how to begin thinking about it. His tryst with Sunwoo seemed to have ended pretty badly for the other and he wasn’t about to go delving into things he didn’t know. He knew he couldn’t trust Sunwoo - the kid had probably just been fucking with him to get his hopes up, judging by his success in love. He wondered if Sunwoo ever had any clue what he was doing or if he just flew blindly through life.
Taemin was pretty sure Sunwoo was the worst person in the world. He felt kind of bad for the kid, but the sympathy was diminishing as Junghwan sort of hung off Dongwoo’s arm with a pouty glare on his sullen little face. As much as he tried to help, Sunwoo always ended up ruining everyone else’s relationships along with his own.
Okay, maybe not everyone. Maybe not even real relationships. But the sight of Sunwoo’s boyfriend on Dongwoo’s arm kind of ruined the daydreams that had been plaguing Taemin ever since Dongwoo had stopped being a total asshole. Taemin had been weirdly happier for those few days, but suddenly Dongwoo didn’t seem to give a shit and he hadn’t been able to eat or sleep hardly at all since he ran off with Junghwan no matter how much he told himself it was just a stupid crush. Dongwoo wasn’t feeling any better with his best friend’s boyfriend on his arm but the little part of his brain that was still somewhat able to think told himself that Sunwoo deserved this and maybe Taemin would get a little bit jealous.
They really were like six-year-olds, Kibum mused from a few feet away as he held hands with Jinyoung. The first baseman had finally grown a pair and asked Kibum out the same night Minho had crashed on their couch. He’d been so cute that Kibum couldn’t say no and he was enormously glad he hadn’t. Jinyoung was just about the cutest, most doting boyfriend that there ever could be. It was way more endearing when he had an excuse to be all cute and wide-eyed and freak out over Kibum all the time. Nobody seemed to have noticed them yet, though, and they hadn’t said anything. Jinyoung bet Minho would be the first to notice; Kibum put his faith on the notoriously stupid but nosy Sunwoo.
Jinyoung dropped Kibum’s hand when they reached his dorm hall and kissed him goodbye. Junghwan actually noticed, following Jinyoung at a distance back to their room, but the new couple didn’t notice him noticing and the bet was still on after they had all split ways, Jonghyun and Jinki and Minho and Chanshik one way, Kibum another, Sunwoo and Dongwoo and Taemin a third. None of them spoke until Sunwoo’s door slammed shut and Taemin grabbed the back of Dongwoo’s shirt in the stairwell.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Dongwoo pushed his crooked glasses up his nose and rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. “What are you even talking about, Taemin?”
“You’re so fucking stupid,” Taemin mumbled, moving his hands to the other’s shoulders, effectively pinning him to the stairwell wall. “Don’t you understand anything?”
“Wh-what?”
“I just - you’re a stupid asshole, okay?! And it makes me so mad and you’re a slut and what gives you the right to have sex with Junghwan? You ruined him and Sunwoo and you’re so dumb and you ruin everything by being good at this game and I hate you so much,” Taemin explained in a tearful explosion, squeezing his fingers into Dongwoo’s shoulders. It was just the start of his pent-up emotion, but he felt a sudden flood of relief wash over him as he brought his bloodshot eyes to meet Dongwoo’s, breathing shakily.
“Oh, Taemin…” Dongwoo sighed, reaching out a calloused hand to wipe a tear off the idiot’s face. He was so tired of this shit, of the rivalry and the sex and possessiveness and everything. He couldn’t bring himself to yell at the stupid kid, though. There were certainly feelings there, both good and really, really awful. “Oh, you stupid, stupid kid. Listen to yourself. You slept with Sunwoo, you’re just as much at fault,” he began, but Taemin was already sprinting up the stairs away from him. Dongwoo ran a hand through his hair, ready to accept how stupid and shitty his whole life was evidently becoming when he heard a soft little cry and a really loud crash. He rolled his eyes and jogged up to find Taemin a sobbing, fallen wreck on the third flight of stairs.
“I can’t get up,” the boy croaked pitifully from the ground, looking up at Dongwoo like a tiny, injured deer, and it was impossible to resist. Dongwoo couldn’t take it; he caved, smiling and scooping him up bridal style.
“You’re so, so, so stupid, Taeminnie,” he cooed softly as he carried him up to his own single dorm and laid him on the couch. “And you’ve definitely sprained your ankle. I’ll get you some ice and food, dumbass, and you can sleep in my bed. I can take the couch.”
“D-don’t worry about it,” Taemin whispered hoarsely. “You don’t need to sleep on the couch. It’s not long enough for you.”
Dongwoo shook his head and frowned. “We’re, like, the same height.”
“My point exactly, dumbass,” Taemin yawned. “W-we can share the bed.”
Dongwoo raised an eyebrow but nodded. He couldn’t resist anymore; he was too tired of pretending. He stuck two cups of instant ramen in the microwave and carried Taemin back to the bed. They ate together, Taemin shoveling more into his mouth than he had in four days, and they fell asleep together, their hands intertwined ever-so-slightly as Taemin’s thrashing gradually slowed to calm sleep.
Taemin woke up to lukewarm tea and slightly soggy waffles in bed, delivered by a half-naked, bedheaded Dongwoo who kissed his forehead good morning and called him some number of creative synonyms for ‘complete idiot.’ Taemin grinned despite the shooting pain in his ankle and the suspiciously sweet, domestic nature of this whole scenario because damn it all, he was happy, and he would hold onto that while he could.
❦
part ii.