ain't it fun? (1/3)
ain't it fun?
kris/suho - pg - humor, fluff - 20923 words
mr. "new guy from the countryside" Kim Joonmyun has never really been on top of the world, always the guy watching from way down below. when he meets someone who's been up there, someone who's fallen from the highest of the high, he can't help but be intrigued.
a/n: high school au slightly inspired by shut up! flower boy band, the k-drama.
-•-
Joonmyun opens the door to his small terrace space, sighing when he catches the sunrise at just the right time. He loves living on this rooftop house, even though getting used to being alone all the time wasn’t so easy. He loves the freedom and the excuses he can use so that people won’t visit his him at his house.
It’s common knowledge that Joonmyun got into SM Academy through a stroke of luck and a generous scholarship. It’s not common knowledge that he lives in a rooftop house in the less glamorous side of town, surviving on instant noodles and teen drama reruns from the small TV his parents bought for him. He pays for the cable by himself, but he manages.
The sunrise is always a nice sight, even though the smoke from the city kind of ruins the effect.
And then Joonmyun starts coughing at it.
Ah, the charms of Kim Joonmyun’s life.
The first few days of high school are relatively easy. It’s a little awkward, of course, but it’s normal for Joonmyun. After moving around with his family for so long, there’s a certain charm to being as pale as the white walls and being able to blend into it easily. He takes the loneliness in stride. It’s alright.
It’s also ten times weirder because he qualified for the junior batch. While everyone’s talking to each other with their pretty voices and smelling of expensive perfumes, he’s still trying not to burn holes with his eyes at the school map the welcoming committee gave him. It’s worse than the time he went to this really fancy school because at least the welcoming committee there was actually... welcoming.
He shoves (or more of folds neatly, then shoves) the paper in his messenger bag, ignoring the ugly and messed up order of his books. He’ll have more time to be neat and orderly and pretty when he feels less like a dark pit is nicer than being here. Of course, it would be nice if everyone was quiet for just a little while...
And that leads him to ask why they’re so noisy. And why is no one in the classroom with him? Joonmyun slings his bag over his shoulder and walks out of the empty classroom.
He’s blocked by a mass of students crowding up the hallway but leaving a big empty space in the middle. From what Joonmyun can see (curse his tiny height), there are two boys in the hallway, doing some sort of standoff against each other. Breaths held, hands clenched; this is going to be very exciting.
“I’m surprised you’re still here. You’ve got nerve to show up today; you’ve got nerve to show up at all!” The tan guy smirks at him, and there’s a collective gasp when the other guy simply brushes him away. Joonmyun is surprisingly part of the gossiping crowd, waiting for the next big movement from either of them.
“What? Are you just running away like that?”
The tall blonde turns around. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
Mr. Tan Skin with a Nice Jawline laughs. “That’s it? Last year, you paraded these halls as if you’re a king! You’re pathetic.” Mr. Ken Doll continues walking but halts when he hears:
“Thief.”
And then he turns around and grabs onto Mr. Tan Skin with a Nice Jawline’s collar, raising him up as if he was a feather. “Say that again. I dare you to say that again!”
“Your father’s a thief. You probably got the genes from him too; I’m just waiting for you to slip up and tell the whole world the truth,” he responds. Mr. Ken Doll looks livid, ready to slam him against the wall or drop him down from the roof.
Any malicious plans are immediately forgotten when the principal pushes past the crowd and into the clearing at the center. Mr. Ken Doll drops his collar and doesn’t hesitate to go with the principal to his office. The other one needed an even sterner glare from the middle-aged man before he came along.
Everyone groans at the sound of the bell, and then there’s a flurry of activity as everyone rushes to their classrooms.
Joonmyun smiles. This is certainly much more interesting than what he expected.
Lunch period is the period of utter misery for Joonmyun. It’s been a week and he’s still stuck eating on a staircase, trying desperately not to get caught by the security guards.
Today he tries a new staircase because the view of the Science and Technology building isn’t very nice (and he has a sneaking suspicion that the guard stationed near the entrance is starting to catch on about his eating arrangements). He takes a new turn and goes up, up and up once more until he reaches the fourth floor of his building.
The view of the city is much nicer, he concludes.
He lives on a rooftop house and of course he sees the cityscape nearly every day, but it’s different on this side of town. It’s cleaner, nicer and more picturesque than his view of it. From his terrace, he sees the backside of everything; the bad of all the good. It’s not nearly as nice as home, his true home with his family.
“You’ve never been up here before, have you?”
Joonmyun lets out a high-pitched squeak and nearly falls down the steps he was sitting on. The guy beside him laughs, pretty but still loud.
“I’m Kim Jongdae, the original occupant of these stairs.” He grins at Joonmyun and sits beside him. “New guy?”
“Yeah, I’m Kim Joonmyun.” They smile at each other.
Conversation is easy, and the hour they have for lunch passes by like a blur. Joonmyun’s stomach growls but he’s not the only one and they laugh so hard, they have to clutch onto the railings to keep themselves from falling.
“Oh, Joonmyun. If you think this year so far is bad, it’s going to get much worse,” Jongdae jokingly warns him. Joonmyun hits him on the arm, and he’s not embarrassed or sorry at all. It’s just... comfortable.
“That’s really helpful and encouraging. Thank you,” Joonmyun thanks him sincerely.
Then he pushes him down and laughs as Jongdae struggles not to crack his skull on the cemented steps.
School is still the crappiest part of his day, but he manages. Jongdae hooks an arm around his shoulders, chuckling at his surprise. He smiles at the younger boy, fixing the strap of his backpack.
“Hey man, can I stay over at your house tonight? My parents have been giving me shit for days and I really need to get away from the crap that they’re spewing at me.”
Joonmyun stiffens. He doesn’t know how to softly tell Jongdae that he couldn't, that there were still some things that he wasn’t comfortable with sharing to his (current) best friend. There were just some things that should still be kept a secret between them, just very few things.
“Thanks!” Jongdae messes up his hair and leaves for his next class before Joonmyun even has the chance to respond. He’s always been forceful (assertive, as Jongdae says it), but this is just a new degree of oh god Jongdae please just don’t.
Joonmyun doesn’t have a choice when Jongdae tags along to the bus, wondering where he’ll be taken. They pass one bus stop, two bus stops, three bus stops until the buildings get lower and lower and there’s more dirt and trash littering the streets. The younger of the two sneaks a look at the other, silently asking him if he’s out to kill him and dump him in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in this area of the city. Joonmyun is unfazed, used to the general appearance of his surroundings.
They go down at the very last stop, right at the bottom of a small hill. Joonmyun takes Jongdae’s wrist and they walk up the climb. “It’s safe here, Jongdae. Don’t believe what they say about this place.”
“I-I’m not saying anything! I just wasn’t expecting...”
Joonmyun stops, letting go of his wrist. He smiles, light and loose. “I understand. I didn’t expect myself to be here either.” Jongdae looks down. “Come on. If you’re so scared, we should hurry to my place as fast as we can.”
They finally reach Joonmyun’s building. Jongdae expects them to go inside the two-story building, but instead Joonmyun leads him to the rickety metal staircase that leads to the rooftop. Joonmyun reaches along the side of the ledge and flips a switch. The lights outside a small house (barely even a house; more like a medium sized room with a roof on it) flicker open, slightly dim. The rest of the roof area looks like a storage attic of sorts, but Joonmyun hid them all at the side and placed a lawn chair and a small table outside to make it look like a little less bare.
Joonmyun opens the door to the small house, turning on the lights and toeing off his school shoes. Jongdae goes inside hesitantly, stiffly observing the state of Joonmyun’s residence. It’s neat for such a small place, and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. He notices the mattress on one side of the room, the small table in the center of the room and the tiny kitchen where Joonmyun is waiting in.
"Take off your shoes and sit down. I only have this weird instant kimchi so I guess that our dinner for tonight," Joonmyun announces from his area in the kitchen. Jongdae takes a seat in front of the table, waiting for the food. "You can change into some of my clothes in the closet. I'm sure something will fit you."
"No, it's fine," Jongdae insists, even when Joonmyun starts getting clothes from his cabinet.
Suddenly, Jongdae's phone is ringing. Joonmyun doesn't pay attention to his conversation, choosing to make the cheap dish he bought from the convenience store a little more presentable. He does hear Jongdae raising his voice, throwing a little tantrum at whoever he's speaking to. It's most likely his parents, calling him back home. Joonmyun sighs. He wishes his parents actually cared about him the way Jongdae's did.
"Hey, Joonmyun. Those were my parents. I'm going to have to leave, unless I want to get into even more trouble. I'm sorry," Jongdae apologizes. The older of the two shakes his head.
"It's fine. Your parents are just doing what's best for you." Jongdae scoffs at him, but he still pats him at the back when Joonmyun takes a seat beside him.
"They'll message me when the car's near your house already." Joonmyun nods.
The younger male takes another long look at his living space. "I honestly never expected you to live like this. I always thought you were some sort of big shot and lived in a mansion or something."
Joonmyun laughs. "This is a mansion, Jongdae. At least it's all mine."
Jongdae leaves half an hour later, and their stomachs were full with the kimchi that (surprisingly) tasted pretty good. Joonmyun walks slowly up the hill to his building. He nods at some of his neighbors, the old men and women who have lived here for years and the random men walking around at night. He's not scared, not anymore. Negativity will only bring about what you fear the most.
He spends a few more minutes on his lawn chair, observing the city at night. When Joonmyun looks across the street, he sees a light inside the rooftop house directly across his. He's suddenly less lonely than before.
Who's living there?
"Hey, Jongdae."
"Yeah?”
“On the first day of school, who were those two guys who were fighting in the juniors’ hallway?”
Jongdae’s eyes widen dramatically, and he looks around the cafeteria. It’s the first time they’ve eaten there, but they’re both comfortable enough that they don’t care if they’re the only two staying in one table.
He shuffles closer to Joonmyun, lowering his voice. “Don’t talk about them too much. They’re too popular to be talked about lightly in this school.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. But can you at least tell me who they are?”
Jongdae looks around again before discreetly pointing to a table in the far corner with three rowdy boys eating and playing around on. “The tan guy in the hallway,” Mr. Tan Guy with a Nice Jawline, “is Kim Jongin, a junior just like us. I heard he was a genius so he got accelerated to our batch, but he’s been keeping a low profile on his academics and focusing more on his sports and varsity clubs. He’s the best guard in our football team. Also, his father is the CEO of this huge company.”
“Which one?”
“Nobody knows which one it is because of how secretive he is about it. I heard he can take a bath in money if he wants to.” Joonmyun gasps. That’s pretty cool.
“The really white one beside him is Oh Sehun. He’s kind of quiet, but he’s the richest of the three. His father is a businessman and his mother’s a doctor, plus they own gas stations and several restaurant chains. They’re rich enough to pay for an entire section’s tuition fee if they want to!” Joonmyun’s eyes widen. That’s also pretty cool.
“Thing is, his parents are never with him. He’s rolling in cash, but he’s an only child and he’s almost always alone with their house helpers in their big mansion. I heard he’s got several condominiums in different parts of the city too.
“The last one is Huang Zitao, a transfer student last year. He became popular after he won this worldwide martial arts competition a week after school started. News spread really fast and he and Sehun became really good friends right after. They’re always together, and I heard that they have a condominium that they share whenever Zitao’s parents aren’t around. They go back and forth between here and his hometown in China, so he’s similar to Sehun too.
“They’re called The Three Brats for a reason. They’re all pretty young, but they think that they’re practically on top of the world. Can’t blame them. If you’re richer than most of the senior years, you’ll really feel like a big shot in your mind.”
Joonmyun suddenly notices that there are a lot of cliques and groups in their school. The cafeteria tables were circular for a reason.
“You won’t get a very good look of the other table if you face that way, you know,” Jongdae points out as he makes a signal towards another table. Joonmyun turns around, facing wherever Jongdae was looking towards.
“The first one you’ll see is Zhang Yixing. Really quiet guy. He’s pretty much the owner of the music room since he’s practically staying there everyday after school and even during classes, I heard. Girls like him a lot too. It must be the dimple...” Jongdae trails off before coughing and focusing. “Anyway, his parents are both superstars in China and he was a child star in his hometown too. Don’t know why he went here when he would have such a nice life being famous wherever he came from.”
“Maybe life as an idol is hard?”
“Oh please. If people actually look at you as if you’ve got talent and you deserve to be on stage, that’s enough,” Jongdae retorts. He clears his throat. “The guy that looks like a girl from afar is Luhan. He’s a cheerleader. I think just by looking at him, you can see that he’s the cheery type.”
Joonmyun watches as Luhan stands up and laughs loudly and hits Yixing in the arm. The laughter is contagious and even from the other side of the room, Joonmyun finds himself smiling. Jongdae sends him an “are you serious” look.
“He’s basically a magnet to everyone, girls and guys alike. That’s why he’s so popular. He’s just... attractive, I guess.
“The one you saw on the first day,” Mr. Ken Doll, “is Kris Wu. His father was the owner of an insurance company. Recently, his father was accused of stealing a lot of money from the corporations and the beneficiaries. It was a huge controversy a few months ago, but even if the worst of the storm’s blown over, nobody trusts his family anymore. His father’s actually in jail right now. That’s why Jongin called him a thief back then.”
The memory of Kris’s sudden anger plays again in Joonmyun’s mind. It was kind of scary, how fast he changed from passive to exploding in anger. It was a complete one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn from the cool and casual that Joonmyun saw from him.
The bell’s ringing startles everyone into standing up and rushing to their classrooms. Jongdae puts all of his finished food on the tray in front of him. “Well, that’s enough Popular People Gossip for today. Just be careful of what you say around people and you’ll be fine, okay?”
“Okay,” Joonmyun says quietly as he cleans up after Jongdae. He sneaks a look at Kris’s table and gets chills when he sees Kris’s eyes sweep over the slowly emptying cafeteria and finally landing near Joonmyun’s area. He goes back to laughing at Luhan’s laugh and glaring at Jongin’s side of the room.
Joonmyun walks slowly up the stairs of his building. PE was hard and only then did he realize that he was so, so, so out of shape. He wants to be rolled around like a ball instead of suffering the aching of his legs.
When he finally reaches the top, he immediately drops his bag on the table and curls up on the lawn chair. He wants an elevator. He needs an elevator. He deserves an elevator.
He’s almost about to fall asleep on his chair until he hears the gate of the building across his creak and open. Joonmyun looks down, trying to see who’s going in, but the tree covering it hinders his view. He waits a little while and gasps when he sees who it is.
Kris Wu.
Joonmyun immediately grabs his bag and runs inside his own house before Kris can see him in his school uniform. He quickly slips off his shoes and collapses on his mattress. He certainly didn’t expect him be living right across him, much less in this area of town.
Maybe Joonmyun just made a mistake. Maybe Kris is just visiting someone and for some reason, that someone lives right in front of Joonmyun. It’s possible (and Joonmyun hopes that any of his impossible theories are the actual truth because he doesn’t think Kris deserves to be pushed so far down from where he truly belongs; the top).
He ignores the urge to cross the road and knock on the door of the rooftop house in front of his, instead focusing on learning how to cook something that doesn’t have “instant” or “microwaveable” written on its packet.
The next time he sees someone on the rooftop in front of his, he’s sure of the truth.
The tall figure is struggling to carry some furniture up the stairs. Joonmyun gasps when he recognizes Kris by the uniform he wears. He turns around, trying to hide his face from the other before he took notice of his neighbor across.
Still though, Kris looked like he was struggling with the things he was carrying. Maybe Joonmyun can help, but it’s not as if he’s particularly strong...
“K-Ken!”
Joonmyun’s eyes widen when he finally realizes that he called out the wrong name. He ducks and hides behind his lawn chair, biting his lip and hoping that Kris didn’t hear.
Turns out he did. “Hello?” Joonmyun hears the deep yell from the other side of the road.
Instead of enduring the embarrassment any further, Joonmyun makes a mad dash to his door. He’s inside his house before he hears another yell from the frustrated neighbor trying not to get scared at the thought of a ghost calling out for him in the empty street.
Joonmyun decides that being an invisible neighbor will be fine for a while.
Joonmyun is busy with his English homework when there’s a knock on his door. He’s hoping it’s not the landlord because he’s a hundred thousand percent sure that his mother’s paid for the rent already, and he isn’t willing to start working unless he’s already dying of hunger even with the allowance he gets.
He wishes that it was the landlord when he sees Kris Wu standing in front of him.
“Excuse me; do you have some dishwashing liquid?”
Joonmyun snaps out of his stupor at the sound of his deep voice. He looks slightly irritated, sounds a little amused, but Joonmyun can still see past his superficial qualities and see the shame he’s feeling.
Poor guy. He doesn’t deserve to suffer because of his father’s mistakes.
Joonmyun rushes to grab the bottle on the kitchen sink and giving it to Kris. “H-here.”
“Thanks.” Joonmyun merely nods. “Will I see you at school tomorrow?”
He stops breathing at the sudden question. He must have seen the uniform hanging outside his closet door. “Uh, yeah. I-I’m Joonmyun, by the way.”
By then, Kris was already starting to back away from him. “Nice to meet you.” He bows before walking down the stairs.
In a matter of seconds, Kris is already opening the gate and climbing up the stairs. Joonmyun closes the door before Kris sees him waiting for him across the street.
Joonmyun crashes on his mattress, breathing quickly. Kris looked so, so, so... good; it was almost impossible how handsome he was. He buries his burning face in his pillow and screams into it.
Why do all the bad (read: good?) things happen to him?
Joonmyun finds himself in the oddest relationship ever with Kris.
It all started when they woke up at the same time as each other and walked down the hill wordlessly, Joonmyun silent because of nerves and Kris silent because, well, he almost always was. They got on the same bus, although Kris seemed a little hesitant until Joonmyun got on it himself.
Then Kris had been looking at him the entire lunch period, and Joonmyun had to drag Jongdae out of the cafeteria to hide in their staircase just to get away from the piercing stare Kris had on him. Jongdae almost thought he was sick, suddenly flustered and red and not breathing properly for a while. Joonmyun brushed off the concern, just saying that he was starting to get claustrophobic with all the people in the room.
They don’t mean to wait for each other at the bus stop, but right before they get on the bus, they always look around to check if the other was nearby. Joonmyun thinks it makes the ride faster, just a little more comforting knowing that there was someone he knew in the bus with him. Even though Joonmyun would take one of the seats in the middle and Kris would often stay at the very back, it was still better than actually knowing that he was alone.
Sometimes at night, they would ask each other for food or supplies or anything they needed. It was weird at the start to suddenly welcome someone knocking at their door and asking for something so shamelessly. But they were in the same boat and both of them were still young and those were the moments when they really needed someone to be there, even in the smallest way like giving each other packs of instant noodles or a bottle of water.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
It’s the fourth time Kris asks that in less than five minutes and Joonmyun is more amused than annoyed. He waves away Kris’s hand and the odd way he looks over him with concern (and he also tries very hard to suppress his own blush, but it’s much harder than it sounds with how Kris stares at him and how large his hands are and wow he’s so warm!)
“I’m really fine. It’s fine,” Joonmyun assures him as he moves his ankle around to check if it’s okay. He had tripped on the sidewalk and Kris was the only one who was there to run up to him and catch him right before he broke his nose on the pavement. Now they’re both sitting on the sidewalk, waiting for Joonmyun’s muscles to relax so he can get up. It’s hard to relax when Kris is there, sitting beside him even if he could have left a long time ago.
“I’ll help you up. Come on,” Kris orders as he stands up in front of Joonmyun and offers both his hands. Joonmyun blushes even more, but he shyly takes his hands and tries to stand. When he stumbles backwards, Kris is there to hold onto his forearms and stabilize him.
“Th-thank you.”
“Well, thank you. You know, I’ve been calling cabs and walking incredible distances just to go to school before you taught me how to use the bus. And I also would have died of starvation weeks ago if you haven’t been giving me food. I have a lot more to thank you for, really.”
Kris has a hand at the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. Joonmyun decides that he likes seeing this side of him, flustered and awkward (just like Joonmyun). It makes him feel like they’re on equal ground.
“Y-you’re welcome. I’m happy I was able to help.”
They stay like that for a little while longer before Joonmyun waves a little makes a motion towards his stairs. Kris nods and they walk backwards to their buildings. The tall male almost trips on the sidewalk and Joonmyun only laughs for a second before his feet hit the bushes in front of the building. Both of them laugh awkwardly, and then Joonmyun makes a sneaky dash up the stairs and doesn’t look back.
Joonmyun thinks of the two things he can eat for tonight. He can have the usual ramyeon (which he bought from the supermarket and not the convenience store two blocks away, so it must have a difference!) or he could go to the stall that opened up in the next street that sells ddeokbokki and actual food that won’t kill him in ten years because of how much sodium it contains. Then again, the street on the other side of the block isn’t known for being the safest spot in town, and he’s always made an unconscious effort to avoid it.
His internal debate is disturbed by a knock on the door, and he smiles at the thought of Kris waiting on the other side for him. He’s smiling brightly when it opens, grin mirrored on Kris’s face.
“Hi. I cooked a lot of noodles tonight. Do you want to come over and let’s eat dinner together?”
Joonmyun blushes at the thought of dinner (with Kris!) and he nods a little. Kris cheers a little. “Great! See you in a while.”
The younger of the two doesn’t spend that long in his house. He’s in a hurry to get to Kris’s place, to be able to talk to him with less awkwardness from not knowing each other too well in the air. It would be nice to have something to hide behind, but he hopes that he won’t be hiding too much (so that he can see Kris a lot more).
He’s admittedly caught off-guard when he sees Yixing and Luhan around the table with Kris, laughing and yelling at each other. He feels immediately out of place, and he shrinks back at the doorstep.
Yixing notices him and smiles. “Yifan, your guest is here.”
Luhan stands up and waves at him. “Hello, you must be Joonmyun.”
“Yeah. Hi.” Joonmyun shyly greets them and toes off his shoes. With Luhan still grinning at him, he takes a seat in the small table facing Kris.
Then they start speaking in some sort of foreign language, and Joonmyun feels so lost that he just wants to hide in the worn loveseat that Kris has and never come out. Yixing notices his discomfort and stops talking.
“Yifan, is the food ready yet? I think we’re all hungry here,” Yixing asks as sweetly as he can. Luhan knows the hidden message in it because Joonmyun is moving around in his place on the floor and staring at the corner of the table and acting like a child that can’t stop moving.
“Relax, Joonmyun!” The younger male jumps up at the sound of his name coming from Luhan’s mouth. They all share a laugh, some more nervous than the others.
“I have a question. Kris and Yifan...?”
“Ah yes. Even until now, I don’t understand why you like being called Kris,” Yixing starts.
“You’ve always been Yifan to us; what’s with the name that’s hard to pronounce for others?”
Kris (or Yifan?) shakes his head. “You all know why. I don’t want to talk about it.” He clears his throat. “But I would fine with it if you called me Yifan, Joonmyun.”
He smiles a little at the attention, at the fact that Yifan was talking specifically to him. He nods and stares pointedly at the pot cooking their noodles. Oh no. He has to stop it, he has to...
Oops.
It’s Luhan who starts cracking up first. “Alright, whose stomach was that?” Yixing and Yifan start chuckling soon after, and Joonmyun can’t help but join in. He raises his hand while clutching his stomach (both in mirth and in hunger) with the other one.
“Calm your stomachs down; the food’s nearly ready,” Yifan announces. He grabs his pot holder and chopsticks to take off the lid and transfer the noodles to the big bowl he has.
Dinner afterwards is a fun activity, and Joonmyun finds himself laughing more than eating. His stomach’s hurting in both ways, a little because of all the food he ate but mostly because of the laughing he’s been doing. Yixing and Luhan should be some sort of comedic duo; they just brighten up the place.
“You should stay with us at lunch sometimes. I’m sure Jongdae wouldn’t mind all five of us in one table, right?” Yixing offered.
“You know Jongdae?” Joonmyun’s surprised. Jongdae never actually told him if they knew each other personally.
“Of course I do. Jongdae’s my friend!” Luhan exclaims.
“Everyone’s your friend in your eyes, Luhan. I don’t think you understand the difference between friends and acquaintances,” Yixing points out. Luhan rolls his eyes.
“You’ll never have friends if you don’t consider them as friends,” Luhan retorts. They both drop the issue soon after, going back to rubbing their full tummies.
“I’m sure Jongdae will be fine with it. I mean, you are friends, right?” They all chuckle a little until Luhan nods.
It’s starting to get late, and no matter how brave Yixing and Luhan are, neither of them thinks he can take the suspicious men who might have this hidden agenda to attack them. They go before it gets too late, and Yifan and Joonmyun wave them goodbye from the rooftop.
“Were the noodles okay?” Yifan asks, nerves present in his voice. Joonmyun looks up at his profile and narrows his eyes at the somehow familiar lines on his face.
“Yeah, they were pretty great. I haven’t eaten in that much, and I usually have an entire packet all to myself for dinner.” Yifan chuckles.
“Good night, Joonmyun. Luhan and Yixing will want to see you in our table tomorrow, and knowing them, they won’t let go of you after that.”
“I can imagine that,” Joonmyun muses. He waves goodbye and walks back to his own building. Before he closes his door, he spots Yifan still waiting for him outside. They stand still for a moment before Yifan bows slightly and enters his home.
Joonmyun smiles. Yifan and his friends are a lot of fun, much less scary than what Joonmyun had expected. He likes the jokes, the laughter, and the ease in how they interact. He misses having that level of comfort with others.
When Luhan said that he was friends with Jongdae, he wasn’t lying.
They sit closely beside each other, forgoing their sense of personal space. Joonmyun can only watch in amusement as they bicker and quip at each other’s words and act completely comfortable with how close they are. He’s never seen this side of Jongdae; the really snarky and sarcastic side of him that feeds off Luhan’s general excitement and enthusiasm for everything.
Joonmyun feels like they’re the only people in the room. It almost didn’t matter that they were so loud; he’s just the one who hides his face in his hands and laughs at everything the others do.
Luhan and Jongdae walk with him to their next class, arms over his shoulder as they chat endlessly. “You should really go out more, Joonmyun. I mean, you’re so lucky that you don’t have any parents to nag on you and hold you down from doing anything; you need to have more fun with that freedom of yours,” Luhan pleads. Joonmyun rolls his eyes and shakes their arms away from his body.
They shove him around and proceed to laugh at every little thing. Joonmyun is buzzing with excitement for nothing; Luhan’s enthusiasm taking effect on him. He stays that way for the entire day, absolutely beaming.
When he arrives at the bus stop, Yifan is there waiting for him. The younger male notices his idle foot movements, something he’s pretty sure he’s seen before. Yifan perks up at the sight of Joonmyun.
“Did you miss the bus? It should have arrived five minutes ago,” Joonmyun asks.
“Ah, no. I was just... waiting,” Yifan stammers out. "For the bus. I was waiting for the bus."
"Right. The bus," Joonmyun repeats. He checks his watch and knows that the ride Yifan passed on was the last for the day. "That's the last bus today. We should just call a cab."
"Yeah," Yifan mutters. He probably doesn't know if he should regret waiting or not.
They start walking towards the places where more cabs are likely to pass by, and Joonmyun can't help but notice how they keep a little distance between them. Yifan walks with his hands in his pockets, head bobbing with his earphones in his ears (but Joonmyun knows that there’s nothing playing and he’s just following the rhythm of the city as it moves around him). Joonmyun walks at a leisurely pace, hands on the strap of his bag and looking like the stylish private school student that he wanted to be.
Yifan stops in front of shopping mall, waving his hand around when he sees the nearest cab. They climb in it together, Joonmyun giving out the address to the driver. He looks at Yifan beside him, legs a little too long for the leg space at the back seat. He hesitantly squeezes Yifan’s arm, not really sure why he did.
Yifan smiles though, this huge gummy smile, and Joonmyun feels the warmth travelling all over him and making him smile widely as well.
-•-•-
“So you’re the new kid?”
Joonmyun looks up from the book he’s frantically trying to shove in his bag. After he got the message from Yifan asking him where he was, he’s been rushing to get out of the library so that they won’t miss the last bus like last time. It’s an unspoken agreement that they wait for each other at the bus stop everyday and go home together; unless the other explicitly says that they go home earlier. It comforts Joonmyun to know that Yifan will always be there and that he can trust him enough to not leave him.
Fingers drum on the table in front of him and Joonmyun looks up, suddenly remembering that someone’s there. “Oh. Yeah, I am. Why?”
He recognizes Mr. Tan Skin with a Nice Jawline, Kim Jongin. “It’s obvious. You clearly have no idea that there are rules in this school,” he scoffs. His two friends are beside him, silent but still menacing.
“I-I’ve been to the orientation. I know the rules,” Joonmyun defends. He knows that something bad is going to happen to him; he just doesn’t exactly know what.
Jongin and his gang all chuckle knowingly, mocking Joonmyun for being so new. “There’s only one really important rule:
“Don’t choose the wrong side.”
Joonmyun knows what he’s referring to, and the hand on the desk and how he slightly leans towards Joonmyun still threatens him slightly. He doesn’t know why he allows himself to be weaker against someone younger than him, but Jongin looks menacing like this, and he doesn’t want to get into any trouble.
“The ‘wrong side’ is always the one against mine. Good luck surviving this year,” Jongin sneers. He pats Joonmyun’s shoulder as an insult and leaves the library noisily with his pack of wolves. Joonmyun glares at them past the glass doors and finally places his book in the bag.
Still in a bad mood from Jongin’s attitude, Joonmyun walks towards the bus stop with an uncharacteristic scowl. Yifan frowns as well.
“What happened?” Yifan demands.
Joonmyun shakes his head. “It’s nothing. It’s just someone.”
He stands still for a moment until realization dawns on Yifan’s face. “Jongin.”
“It’s fine. He just started talking to me randomly,” Joonmyun assures him. He checks his watch to look away from Yifan’s prying eyes. There’s another six minutes until the next bus, another six minutes of awkwardness and interrogation.
“I knew he’d do something like that. He always thinks he’s right, always thinks he has a right to everything and to anything. God, I hate him so much,” Yifan curses under his breath. Joonmyun squeezes his forearm.
“Calm down. He didn’t do anything except talk to me. If you know he’s doing it to rile you up, don’t let him win,” Joonmyun advises. Yifan takes a deep breath and slowly shakes Joonmyun’s hand away. The younger blushes, trying to will away the tingling in his fingertips.
“The bus is here,” Yifan states. It takes a few seconds for the message to process in Joonmyun’s brain before it sends signals for Joonmyun to start moving his body before they miss the last bus.
For the first time since they started going home together, they take seats right beside each other, Yifan on the window side and Joonmyun near the aisle. The bus makes a loud sound as it closes its doors and starts moving. The city whizzes past them, but Yifan doesn’t seem to be watching like Joonmyun always does everyday.
His eyes are already closed with his chin resting on his chest, arms crossed. His long legs stretch even under the seats in front of them and his breathing is even in a matter of minutes.
Yifan is gorgeous. Joonmyun doesn’t like admitting that to himself because Yifan is his (kind of) friend and his neighbor.
And oh yeah, he’s a guy.
It’s not even the first thing that Joonmyun thinks of when he comes up with reasons why calling Yifan gorgeous is wrong. It doesn’t matter. It would matter if Yifan didn’t feel the same way, or worse, if he hated people like him.
Still though, it doesn’t stop Joonmyun from admiring the sharp and matured lines of his face, the slope of his nose, the way his cheekbones catch the light and cast shadows on the rest of his face, how his lips seem plush and slightly pouty...
Yifan is gorgeous. End of discussion.
He almost doesn’t have the heart to wake him up when they reach their stop (then he realizes that he’s been staring at Yifan’s sleeping face for the entire ride). He gently shakes the taller male until he groggily gets up and grabs his bag.
The walk up the hill is spent in comfortable silence; Yifan still sleepy and Joonmyun just sensitive to Yifan and the peace of silence. They part ways in the middle of the street, heading towards opposite directions. Yifan messes up the smaller boy’s hair, making fun of how much shorter Joonmyun is compared to him. He huffs at the action and turns around.
Yifan grabs onto his wrist, stopping him from leaving. “Wait, Joonmyun.”
“Yeah?” He turns and faces the taller male. When he looks up into his eyes, he sees warmth, something that wraps around him and whispers in his ear, telling him he’s safe. It makes Joonmyun’s gaze melt as well.
“If Jongin does anything to you, I want you to tell me right away. I don’t want you to get dragged into the mess that is Jongin’s ego,” Yifan instructs. “I need you to tell me.”
“Okay.” Joonmyun’s voice is a little shaky, unsure of what he can say. He looks down and then back into Yifan’s eyes, and the warmth is replaced by protectiveness.
“Okay.”
The next time Jongin pays attention to Joonmyun, the older male ends up with his back nearly pressing against the wall behind the school’s main building. He’s genuinely afraid that something really bad will happen to him, even though Jongin doesn’t seem to be the type of bully that physically abuses.
“You’re stupid for believing in that thief. He’s just like his father, you know. A worthless, pathetic--”
“I think that’s enough.”
Jongin is stopped by Yifan shoving his shoulder back. They stare at each other with narrowed eyes, and Jongin breaks the standoff by smirking and backing away.
“Alright, I’ll let you go this time. But you should really learn your place. We have no space in the world for liars and losers,” Jongin sneers. Yifan rolls his eyes.
“You’re too pathetic; I don’t think I need to stoop to your level.” Yifan sends him one more disapproving glare before he holds onto Joonmyun’s wrist and pulls him away.
When they arrive at the bus stop and nobody they know is nearby, Yifan brushes the hair away from Joonmyun’s eyes. “Are you alright?”
Joonmyun melts at his soft voice, and he smiles weakly. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Joonmyun smiles for real this time, hiding his blush behind his hand. “I’m sure.”
The silence afterwards is awkward. It’s a good fifteen minutes before the bus arrives since they’re relatively early today. Joonmyun decides to ask the question that’s been on his mind since the very first day.
“What really happened between you and Jongin?”
Yifan sighs. “I knew you’d ask this eventually.”
“I really do want to know, Yifan,” Joonmyun insists. The older boy sighs and gives in.
“It goes much deeper than my father’s issue. Jongin and I have been friends since I moved here years ago. Our families became really close and so did we. He was like my little brother, and I treated him well. Then high school started and we just grew apart. It was only natural, and he had Sehun for a long time so I thought it would be fine. We still talked during family dinners together and I didn’t think it was too bad.
“When my father’s controversy broke out, their family refused to associate themselves with us. It turns out they also suffered a little loss because of their investments to our company. They went through a really dark time for a while, but they got back on their feet and now they’re on the top. He’s harbored this deep grudge against me ever since then. I treat him like crap because he treats me like crap. It’s as if we were never friends.”
Joonmyun stops breathing for a moment. It’s the way that Yifan said it, with so much spite and regret and deeply buried anger, which scares Joonmyun. His eyes burn holes on the pavement in front of them, dark orbs glowing.
The younger places his hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. The small action makes Yifan look up. He searches for Joonmyun’s eyes and they connect.
I’m sorry.
What are you sorry for?
I don’t know. I can’t fix things for you.
Joonmyun knows that Yifan hates the sympathy; he can tell by how Yifan bites his bottom lip and nods weakly. He can tell because Yifan doesn’t loosen up in his shoulders, doesn’t shake his head a little and smile at Joonmyun with his eyes. He takes what he can get, but Joonmyun knows it isn’t what he wants and it isn’t what he needs. Yifan’s been forced into a corner, fending for himself against every attack on his pride and reputation. He has nothing to lose anymore, but a little humility wouldn’t hurt.
They stay in silence until the loud engine of the bus can be heard in the near distance. Yifan stands up and offers his hand to Joonmyun, pulling him up from the bench. He nearly topples onto the taller male, and he apologizes profusely. Yifan laughs it off and slowly lets go of his hand.
The blush on Joonmyun's face is twice as pink as before.
Yifan hands Joonmyun an energy drink and lies down on the mattress beside him. They’re both at Yifan’s house, planning to stay up to finish their grade-changing essays that could either make them or break them. They’ve been on their laptops nonstop for two hours, occasionally bothering each other to prevent themselves from falling asleep (and also because Joonmyun doesn’t like seeing the frown on Yifan’s face grow even more).
There’s an old mattress on Yifan’s terrace, lumpy and a little dirty from the past owner’s use (they try not to think of the smell on it; it brings about unpleasant theories). The air’s too polluted to see any stars, but it’s their only thirty-minute break before they go through another two-hour writing session. They sip on their drinks, trying to maximize their rest and their fluids.
“I used to be younger,” Yifan says.
Joonmyun stares at him. “You don’t say.”
“I meant, younger at heart. Younger in every way possible. Now I’m just old and sad,” Yifan points out. Joonmyun sits up a little and leans back on his elbows. His eyebrows arch slightly, asking for more.
“We had a dream, Luhan and Yixing and I. When we were first-years and we were still young and believed that we could do anything, we thought of this band--thing,” he confides. He doesn’t expect the snort that comes from Joonmyun.
“I’m sorry, but the thought of you three in a band just--” he stops talking to spend another minute laughing. “I’m r-really sorry. It’s not something I expected from you three.”
“We were really young and lame, okay? We thought it would be fun and that we’d be famous and everything would follow after that. But we didn’t consider the process of getting there at all. We just thought of the results and all that.”
“But you were young. It’s perfectly fine to be dumb and naive.”
“Yeah,” Yifan agrees, “but it wasn’t fine when we thought of it again last year. Luhan was on vocals and guitar, Yixing was on piano and I was, surprisingly, on the bass guitar.”
Joonmyun starts laughing again. “You’re asking if we sucked, aren’t you? Yeah, we really did.”
They finish their drinks and settle it on the ground on the side of the cushion. “It was dumb, but those were our dreams. We thought of breaking out of the shells that we had and just going all out. But it doesn’t matter now. Some dreams aren’t really meant to come true.”
Joonmyun and Yifan are walking towards the library building when Joonmyun is unexpectedly hit by a basketball. He brushes away the dust from his uniform, and Yifan holds the basketball in his large hands. There’s softness in his eyes, a lingering familiarity in how his hands grip the ball.
“Captain Wu!”
Yifan stops for a moment and faces the outdoor basketball court where the varsity team is practicing in. He makes a move to throw the ball to them, but the tallest guy who’s facing him gives him a smirk and Joonmyun can see the change in Yifan’s eyes.
Yifan starts dribbling, and the players in the court go to their defensive stances. He runs and dribbles so fast that Joonmyun only sees a blur in his place, shifting and turning to keep the other players’ grabby hands off the ball. When he’s finally near the hoop, he jumps and shoots the ball behind his back.
The tall male, who was actually just standing at the edge of the court the entire time, claps and grins at Yifan. “I haven’t seen you on the court in months and you’re still better than half of the team.”
“Come on, Chanyeol. It’s a known fact that I am better than half of the team,” Yifan says. He places an arm around Chanyeol’s shoulder.
“You know, the basketball team is still going to accept you this year.”
Yifan shakes his head. “My days are done, Chanyeol. I’m not the king anymore.”
“But you’re still our captain; best one we’ve had in ten tournaments,” Chanyeol tries to convince him. The defeated look in his eyes makes him stop, pulling away from Yifan.
“You know I’d love to come back, but I really don’t think I have to. You’ll all do well, Chanyeol. You don’t need me.”
Before he can leave, Chanyeol throws the ball at him again. Yifan glares and rubs the spot where the ball bounced off him.
“You don’t mind playing a short game, do you?” Chanyeol smirks up at him and Yifan chuckles, taking off his jacket and dropping it on the bench.
He looks at Joonmyun. "You can go home," he whispers. Joonmyun shakes his head and sits on the empty bench, placing Yifan's coat on his lap. He smiles and motions for him to go ahead. Joonmyun ignores the odd stares the other team members are giving him.
Yifan and Chanyeol play an intense game of basketball; so intense that their allotted time for practice is already done and they’re still playing, desperately trying to win the upper hand. Joonmyun likes the determination on Yifan’s face, how he seems so much more alive than how he usually is.
Eventually, the two collapse on the dirty court floor. Chanyeol hits him on the arm and Yifan struggles to stand up against the weight of his fatigued body. “I’m going to kill you tomorrow, Chanyeol. My body is going to hurt so bad because I didn’t even warm up.”
“That’s because you’re dumb enough to jump in against me without even preparing yourself to lose,” Chanyeol says matter-of-factly, finishing his entire water bottle in one go.
Yifan sits beside Joonmyun on the bench, still patiently waiting for them there. He hands Yifan a towel, wiping away the sweat on the side of his face absentmindedly as he thinks of the meal he wants to cook when they get home.
A deep cough disturbs Joonmyun’s mindless action. Chanyeol is staring at them with an odd look, and Joonmyun drops the towel on Yifan’s hands. He looks like he’s about to ask them something, but Yifan kicks his thigh and Chanyeol groans in pain.
“That’s going to feel even worse now!” he yells.
Yifan stands up and stretches his arms. “Thanks for the game, Chanyeol. It was fun.”
The younger male grips his hand. “If ever you want to join the team again--”
“You’ll welcome me back, I know, I know.” Yifan shakes his hand away and walks with Joonmyun out of the school.
As soon as they reach the mall to wait for a cab, Joonmyun starts talking again. “You should take a shower as soon as we get home. That sweat’s going to dry and you might get a flu.”
“Thanks mom,” Yifan teases. Joonmyun instantly blushes and hides his face behind Yifan’s jacket, still conveniently in his hand.
Yifan pokes his cheek, chuckling at him. They finally hail a cab and climb in.
Joonmyun smiles when Yifan instantly falls asleep as soon as his legs stretch under the passenger seat.
It feels like a landslide just crashed down on him.
Joonmyun suddenly feels his cheeks turn pink when he holds his wrist, and hears his heart beating when he appears. He notices the small things that he does, the little antics and familiar gestures that he’s come to associate with him. It’s a bittersweet feeling, like sinking while flying in the air.
Yifan makes his spring just a little brighter, makes his summer nights just a little warmer, makes the colors of fall pop out more and makes the biting cold of winter just a little more bearable.
Joonmyun really doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s in love.
-•-
PART 2
kris/suho - pg - humor, fluff - 20923 words
mr. "new guy from the countryside" Kim Joonmyun has never really been on top of the world, always the guy watching from way down below. when he meets someone who's been up there, someone who's fallen from the highest of the high, he can't help but be intrigued.
a/n: high school au slightly inspired by shut up! flower boy band, the k-drama.
-•-
Joonmyun opens the door to his small terrace space, sighing when he catches the sunrise at just the right time. He loves living on this rooftop house, even though getting used to being alone all the time wasn’t so easy. He loves the freedom and the excuses he can use so that people won’t visit his him at his house.
It’s common knowledge that Joonmyun got into SM Academy through a stroke of luck and a generous scholarship. It’s not common knowledge that he lives in a rooftop house in the less glamorous side of town, surviving on instant noodles and teen drama reruns from the small TV his parents bought for him. He pays for the cable by himself, but he manages.
The sunrise is always a nice sight, even though the smoke from the city kind of ruins the effect.
And then Joonmyun starts coughing at it.
Ah, the charms of Kim Joonmyun’s life.
The first few days of high school are relatively easy. It’s a little awkward, of course, but it’s normal for Joonmyun. After moving around with his family for so long, there’s a certain charm to being as pale as the white walls and being able to blend into it easily. He takes the loneliness in stride. It’s alright.
It’s also ten times weirder because he qualified for the junior batch. While everyone’s talking to each other with their pretty voices and smelling of expensive perfumes, he’s still trying not to burn holes with his eyes at the school map the welcoming committee gave him. It’s worse than the time he went to this really fancy school because at least the welcoming committee there was actually... welcoming.
He shoves (or more of folds neatly, then shoves) the paper in his messenger bag, ignoring the ugly and messed up order of his books. He’ll have more time to be neat and orderly and pretty when he feels less like a dark pit is nicer than being here. Of course, it would be nice if everyone was quiet for just a little while...
And that leads him to ask why they’re so noisy. And why is no one in the classroom with him? Joonmyun slings his bag over his shoulder and walks out of the empty classroom.
He’s blocked by a mass of students crowding up the hallway but leaving a big empty space in the middle. From what Joonmyun can see (curse his tiny height), there are two boys in the hallway, doing some sort of standoff against each other. Breaths held, hands clenched; this is going to be very exciting.
“I’m surprised you’re still here. You’ve got nerve to show up today; you’ve got nerve to show up at all!” The tan guy smirks at him, and there’s a collective gasp when the other guy simply brushes him away. Joonmyun is surprisingly part of the gossiping crowd, waiting for the next big movement from either of them.
“What? Are you just running away like that?”
The tall blonde turns around. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
Mr. Tan Skin with a Nice Jawline laughs. “That’s it? Last year, you paraded these halls as if you’re a king! You’re pathetic.” Mr. Ken Doll continues walking but halts when he hears:
“Thief.”
And then he turns around and grabs onto Mr. Tan Skin with a Nice Jawline’s collar, raising him up as if he was a feather. “Say that again. I dare you to say that again!”
“Your father’s a thief. You probably got the genes from him too; I’m just waiting for you to slip up and tell the whole world the truth,” he responds. Mr. Ken Doll looks livid, ready to slam him against the wall or drop him down from the roof.
Any malicious plans are immediately forgotten when the principal pushes past the crowd and into the clearing at the center. Mr. Ken Doll drops his collar and doesn’t hesitate to go with the principal to his office. The other one needed an even sterner glare from the middle-aged man before he came along.
Everyone groans at the sound of the bell, and then there’s a flurry of activity as everyone rushes to their classrooms.
Joonmyun smiles. This is certainly much more interesting than what he expected.
Lunch period is the period of utter misery for Joonmyun. It’s been a week and he’s still stuck eating on a staircase, trying desperately not to get caught by the security guards.
Today he tries a new staircase because the view of the Science and Technology building isn’t very nice (and he has a sneaking suspicion that the guard stationed near the entrance is starting to catch on about his eating arrangements). He takes a new turn and goes up, up and up once more until he reaches the fourth floor of his building.
The view of the city is much nicer, he concludes.
He lives on a rooftop house and of course he sees the cityscape nearly every day, but it’s different on this side of town. It’s cleaner, nicer and more picturesque than his view of it. From his terrace, he sees the backside of everything; the bad of all the good. It’s not nearly as nice as home, his true home with his family.
“You’ve never been up here before, have you?”
Joonmyun lets out a high-pitched squeak and nearly falls down the steps he was sitting on. The guy beside him laughs, pretty but still loud.
“I’m Kim Jongdae, the original occupant of these stairs.” He grins at Joonmyun and sits beside him. “New guy?”
“Yeah, I’m Kim Joonmyun.” They smile at each other.
Conversation is easy, and the hour they have for lunch passes by like a blur. Joonmyun’s stomach growls but he’s not the only one and they laugh so hard, they have to clutch onto the railings to keep themselves from falling.
“Oh, Joonmyun. If you think this year so far is bad, it’s going to get much worse,” Jongdae jokingly warns him. Joonmyun hits him on the arm, and he’s not embarrassed or sorry at all. It’s just... comfortable.
“That’s really helpful and encouraging. Thank you,” Joonmyun thanks him sincerely.
Then he pushes him down and laughs as Jongdae struggles not to crack his skull on the cemented steps.
School is still the crappiest part of his day, but he manages. Jongdae hooks an arm around his shoulders, chuckling at his surprise. He smiles at the younger boy, fixing the strap of his backpack.
“Hey man, can I stay over at your house tonight? My parents have been giving me shit for days and I really need to get away from the crap that they’re spewing at me.”
Joonmyun stiffens. He doesn’t know how to softly tell Jongdae that he couldn't, that there were still some things that he wasn’t comfortable with sharing to his (current) best friend. There were just some things that should still be kept a secret between them, just very few things.
“Thanks!” Jongdae messes up his hair and leaves for his next class before Joonmyun even has the chance to respond. He’s always been forceful (assertive, as Jongdae says it), but this is just a new degree of oh god Jongdae please just don’t.
Joonmyun doesn’t have a choice when Jongdae tags along to the bus, wondering where he’ll be taken. They pass one bus stop, two bus stops, three bus stops until the buildings get lower and lower and there’s more dirt and trash littering the streets. The younger of the two sneaks a look at the other, silently asking him if he’s out to kill him and dump him in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in this area of the city. Joonmyun is unfazed, used to the general appearance of his surroundings.
They go down at the very last stop, right at the bottom of a small hill. Joonmyun takes Jongdae’s wrist and they walk up the climb. “It’s safe here, Jongdae. Don’t believe what they say about this place.”
“I-I’m not saying anything! I just wasn’t expecting...”
Joonmyun stops, letting go of his wrist. He smiles, light and loose. “I understand. I didn’t expect myself to be here either.” Jongdae looks down. “Come on. If you’re so scared, we should hurry to my place as fast as we can.”
They finally reach Joonmyun’s building. Jongdae expects them to go inside the two-story building, but instead Joonmyun leads him to the rickety metal staircase that leads to the rooftop. Joonmyun reaches along the side of the ledge and flips a switch. The lights outside a small house (barely even a house; more like a medium sized room with a roof on it) flicker open, slightly dim. The rest of the roof area looks like a storage attic of sorts, but Joonmyun hid them all at the side and placed a lawn chair and a small table outside to make it look like a little less bare.
Joonmyun opens the door to the small house, turning on the lights and toeing off his school shoes. Jongdae goes inside hesitantly, stiffly observing the state of Joonmyun’s residence. It’s neat for such a small place, and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. He notices the mattress on one side of the room, the small table in the center of the room and the tiny kitchen where Joonmyun is waiting in.
"Take off your shoes and sit down. I only have this weird instant kimchi so I guess that our dinner for tonight," Joonmyun announces from his area in the kitchen. Jongdae takes a seat in front of the table, waiting for the food. "You can change into some of my clothes in the closet. I'm sure something will fit you."
"No, it's fine," Jongdae insists, even when Joonmyun starts getting clothes from his cabinet.
Suddenly, Jongdae's phone is ringing. Joonmyun doesn't pay attention to his conversation, choosing to make the cheap dish he bought from the convenience store a little more presentable. He does hear Jongdae raising his voice, throwing a little tantrum at whoever he's speaking to. It's most likely his parents, calling him back home. Joonmyun sighs. He wishes his parents actually cared about him the way Jongdae's did.
"Hey, Joonmyun. Those were my parents. I'm going to have to leave, unless I want to get into even more trouble. I'm sorry," Jongdae apologizes. The older of the two shakes his head.
"It's fine. Your parents are just doing what's best for you." Jongdae scoffs at him, but he still pats him at the back when Joonmyun takes a seat beside him.
"They'll message me when the car's near your house already." Joonmyun nods.
The younger male takes another long look at his living space. "I honestly never expected you to live like this. I always thought you were some sort of big shot and lived in a mansion or something."
Joonmyun laughs. "This is a mansion, Jongdae. At least it's all mine."
Jongdae leaves half an hour later, and their stomachs were full with the kimchi that (surprisingly) tasted pretty good. Joonmyun walks slowly up the hill to his building. He nods at some of his neighbors, the old men and women who have lived here for years and the random men walking around at night. He's not scared, not anymore. Negativity will only bring about what you fear the most.
He spends a few more minutes on his lawn chair, observing the city at night. When Joonmyun looks across the street, he sees a light inside the rooftop house directly across his. He's suddenly less lonely than before.
Who's living there?
"Hey, Jongdae."
"Yeah?”
“On the first day of school, who were those two guys who were fighting in the juniors’ hallway?”
Jongdae’s eyes widen dramatically, and he looks around the cafeteria. It’s the first time they’ve eaten there, but they’re both comfortable enough that they don’t care if they’re the only two staying in one table.
He shuffles closer to Joonmyun, lowering his voice. “Don’t talk about them too much. They’re too popular to be talked about lightly in this school.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. But can you at least tell me who they are?”
Jongdae looks around again before discreetly pointing to a table in the far corner with three rowdy boys eating and playing around on. “The tan guy in the hallway,” Mr. Tan Guy with a Nice Jawline, “is Kim Jongin, a junior just like us. I heard he was a genius so he got accelerated to our batch, but he’s been keeping a low profile on his academics and focusing more on his sports and varsity clubs. He’s the best guard in our football team. Also, his father is the CEO of this huge company.”
“Which one?”
“Nobody knows which one it is because of how secretive he is about it. I heard he can take a bath in money if he wants to.” Joonmyun gasps. That’s pretty cool.
“The really white one beside him is Oh Sehun. He’s kind of quiet, but he’s the richest of the three. His father is a businessman and his mother’s a doctor, plus they own gas stations and several restaurant chains. They’re rich enough to pay for an entire section’s tuition fee if they want to!” Joonmyun’s eyes widen. That’s also pretty cool.
“Thing is, his parents are never with him. He’s rolling in cash, but he’s an only child and he’s almost always alone with their house helpers in their big mansion. I heard he’s got several condominiums in different parts of the city too.
“The last one is Huang Zitao, a transfer student last year. He became popular after he won this worldwide martial arts competition a week after school started. News spread really fast and he and Sehun became really good friends right after. They’re always together, and I heard that they have a condominium that they share whenever Zitao’s parents aren’t around. They go back and forth between here and his hometown in China, so he’s similar to Sehun too.
“They’re called The Three Brats for a reason. They’re all pretty young, but they think that they’re practically on top of the world. Can’t blame them. If you’re richer than most of the senior years, you’ll really feel like a big shot in your mind.”
Joonmyun suddenly notices that there are a lot of cliques and groups in their school. The cafeteria tables were circular for a reason.
“You won’t get a very good look of the other table if you face that way, you know,” Jongdae points out as he makes a signal towards another table. Joonmyun turns around, facing wherever Jongdae was looking towards.
“The first one you’ll see is Zhang Yixing. Really quiet guy. He’s pretty much the owner of the music room since he’s practically staying there everyday after school and even during classes, I heard. Girls like him a lot too. It must be the dimple...” Jongdae trails off before coughing and focusing. “Anyway, his parents are both superstars in China and he was a child star in his hometown too. Don’t know why he went here when he would have such a nice life being famous wherever he came from.”
“Maybe life as an idol is hard?”
“Oh please. If people actually look at you as if you’ve got talent and you deserve to be on stage, that’s enough,” Jongdae retorts. He clears his throat. “The guy that looks like a girl from afar is Luhan. He’s a cheerleader. I think just by looking at him, you can see that he’s the cheery type.”
Joonmyun watches as Luhan stands up and laughs loudly and hits Yixing in the arm. The laughter is contagious and even from the other side of the room, Joonmyun finds himself smiling. Jongdae sends him an “are you serious” look.
“He’s basically a magnet to everyone, girls and guys alike. That’s why he’s so popular. He’s just... attractive, I guess.
“The one you saw on the first day,” Mr. Ken Doll, “is Kris Wu. His father was the owner of an insurance company. Recently, his father was accused of stealing a lot of money from the corporations and the beneficiaries. It was a huge controversy a few months ago, but even if the worst of the storm’s blown over, nobody trusts his family anymore. His father’s actually in jail right now. That’s why Jongin called him a thief back then.”
The memory of Kris’s sudden anger plays again in Joonmyun’s mind. It was kind of scary, how fast he changed from passive to exploding in anger. It was a complete one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn from the cool and casual that Joonmyun saw from him.
The bell’s ringing startles everyone into standing up and rushing to their classrooms. Jongdae puts all of his finished food on the tray in front of him. “Well, that’s enough Popular People Gossip for today. Just be careful of what you say around people and you’ll be fine, okay?”
“Okay,” Joonmyun says quietly as he cleans up after Jongdae. He sneaks a look at Kris’s table and gets chills when he sees Kris’s eyes sweep over the slowly emptying cafeteria and finally landing near Joonmyun’s area. He goes back to laughing at Luhan’s laugh and glaring at Jongin’s side of the room.
Joonmyun walks slowly up the stairs of his building. PE was hard and only then did he realize that he was so, so, so out of shape. He wants to be rolled around like a ball instead of suffering the aching of his legs.
When he finally reaches the top, he immediately drops his bag on the table and curls up on the lawn chair. He wants an elevator. He needs an elevator. He deserves an elevator.
He’s almost about to fall asleep on his chair until he hears the gate of the building across his creak and open. Joonmyun looks down, trying to see who’s going in, but the tree covering it hinders his view. He waits a little while and gasps when he sees who it is.
Kris Wu.
Joonmyun immediately grabs his bag and runs inside his own house before Kris can see him in his school uniform. He quickly slips off his shoes and collapses on his mattress. He certainly didn’t expect him be living right across him, much less in this area of town.
Maybe Joonmyun just made a mistake. Maybe Kris is just visiting someone and for some reason, that someone lives right in front of Joonmyun. It’s possible (and Joonmyun hopes that any of his impossible theories are the actual truth because he doesn’t think Kris deserves to be pushed so far down from where he truly belongs; the top).
He ignores the urge to cross the road and knock on the door of the rooftop house in front of his, instead focusing on learning how to cook something that doesn’t have “instant” or “microwaveable” written on its packet.
The next time he sees someone on the rooftop in front of his, he’s sure of the truth.
The tall figure is struggling to carry some furniture up the stairs. Joonmyun gasps when he recognizes Kris by the uniform he wears. He turns around, trying to hide his face from the other before he took notice of his neighbor across.
Still though, Kris looked like he was struggling with the things he was carrying. Maybe Joonmyun can help, but it’s not as if he’s particularly strong...
“K-Ken!”
Joonmyun’s eyes widen when he finally realizes that he called out the wrong name. He ducks and hides behind his lawn chair, biting his lip and hoping that Kris didn’t hear.
Turns out he did. “Hello?” Joonmyun hears the deep yell from the other side of the road.
Instead of enduring the embarrassment any further, Joonmyun makes a mad dash to his door. He’s inside his house before he hears another yell from the frustrated neighbor trying not to get scared at the thought of a ghost calling out for him in the empty street.
Joonmyun decides that being an invisible neighbor will be fine for a while.
Joonmyun is busy with his English homework when there’s a knock on his door. He’s hoping it’s not the landlord because he’s a hundred thousand percent sure that his mother’s paid for the rent already, and he isn’t willing to start working unless he’s already dying of hunger even with the allowance he gets.
He wishes that it was the landlord when he sees Kris Wu standing in front of him.
“Excuse me; do you have some dishwashing liquid?”
Joonmyun snaps out of his stupor at the sound of his deep voice. He looks slightly irritated, sounds a little amused, but Joonmyun can still see past his superficial qualities and see the shame he’s feeling.
Poor guy. He doesn’t deserve to suffer because of his father’s mistakes.
Joonmyun rushes to grab the bottle on the kitchen sink and giving it to Kris. “H-here.”
“Thanks.” Joonmyun merely nods. “Will I see you at school tomorrow?”
He stops breathing at the sudden question. He must have seen the uniform hanging outside his closet door. “Uh, yeah. I-I’m Joonmyun, by the way.”
By then, Kris was already starting to back away from him. “Nice to meet you.” He bows before walking down the stairs.
In a matter of seconds, Kris is already opening the gate and climbing up the stairs. Joonmyun closes the door before Kris sees him waiting for him across the street.
Joonmyun crashes on his mattress, breathing quickly. Kris looked so, so, so... good; it was almost impossible how handsome he was. He buries his burning face in his pillow and screams into it.
Why do all the bad (read: good?) things happen to him?
Joonmyun finds himself in the oddest relationship ever with Kris.
It all started when they woke up at the same time as each other and walked down the hill wordlessly, Joonmyun silent because of nerves and Kris silent because, well, he almost always was. They got on the same bus, although Kris seemed a little hesitant until Joonmyun got on it himself.
Then Kris had been looking at him the entire lunch period, and Joonmyun had to drag Jongdae out of the cafeteria to hide in their staircase just to get away from the piercing stare Kris had on him. Jongdae almost thought he was sick, suddenly flustered and red and not breathing properly for a while. Joonmyun brushed off the concern, just saying that he was starting to get claustrophobic with all the people in the room.
They don’t mean to wait for each other at the bus stop, but right before they get on the bus, they always look around to check if the other was nearby. Joonmyun thinks it makes the ride faster, just a little more comforting knowing that there was someone he knew in the bus with him. Even though Joonmyun would take one of the seats in the middle and Kris would often stay at the very back, it was still better than actually knowing that he was alone.
Sometimes at night, they would ask each other for food or supplies or anything they needed. It was weird at the start to suddenly welcome someone knocking at their door and asking for something so shamelessly. But they were in the same boat and both of them were still young and those were the moments when they really needed someone to be there, even in the smallest way like giving each other packs of instant noodles or a bottle of water.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
It’s the fourth time Kris asks that in less than five minutes and Joonmyun is more amused than annoyed. He waves away Kris’s hand and the odd way he looks over him with concern (and he also tries very hard to suppress his own blush, but it’s much harder than it sounds with how Kris stares at him and how large his hands are and wow he’s so warm!)
“I’m really fine. It’s fine,” Joonmyun assures him as he moves his ankle around to check if it’s okay. He had tripped on the sidewalk and Kris was the only one who was there to run up to him and catch him right before he broke his nose on the pavement. Now they’re both sitting on the sidewalk, waiting for Joonmyun’s muscles to relax so he can get up. It’s hard to relax when Kris is there, sitting beside him even if he could have left a long time ago.
“I’ll help you up. Come on,” Kris orders as he stands up in front of Joonmyun and offers both his hands. Joonmyun blushes even more, but he shyly takes his hands and tries to stand. When he stumbles backwards, Kris is there to hold onto his forearms and stabilize him.
“Th-thank you.”
“Well, thank you. You know, I’ve been calling cabs and walking incredible distances just to go to school before you taught me how to use the bus. And I also would have died of starvation weeks ago if you haven’t been giving me food. I have a lot more to thank you for, really.”
Kris has a hand at the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. Joonmyun decides that he likes seeing this side of him, flustered and awkward (just like Joonmyun). It makes him feel like they’re on equal ground.
“Y-you’re welcome. I’m happy I was able to help.”
They stay like that for a little while longer before Joonmyun waves a little makes a motion towards his stairs. Kris nods and they walk backwards to their buildings. The tall male almost trips on the sidewalk and Joonmyun only laughs for a second before his feet hit the bushes in front of the building. Both of them laugh awkwardly, and then Joonmyun makes a sneaky dash up the stairs and doesn’t look back.
Joonmyun thinks of the two things he can eat for tonight. He can have the usual ramyeon (which he bought from the supermarket and not the convenience store two blocks away, so it must have a difference!) or he could go to the stall that opened up in the next street that sells ddeokbokki and actual food that won’t kill him in ten years because of how much sodium it contains. Then again, the street on the other side of the block isn’t known for being the safest spot in town, and he’s always made an unconscious effort to avoid it.
His internal debate is disturbed by a knock on the door, and he smiles at the thought of Kris waiting on the other side for him. He’s smiling brightly when it opens, grin mirrored on Kris’s face.
“Hi. I cooked a lot of noodles tonight. Do you want to come over and let’s eat dinner together?”
Joonmyun blushes at the thought of dinner (with Kris!) and he nods a little. Kris cheers a little. “Great! See you in a while.”
The younger of the two doesn’t spend that long in his house. He’s in a hurry to get to Kris’s place, to be able to talk to him with less awkwardness from not knowing each other too well in the air. It would be nice to have something to hide behind, but he hopes that he won’t be hiding too much (so that he can see Kris a lot more).
He’s admittedly caught off-guard when he sees Yixing and Luhan around the table with Kris, laughing and yelling at each other. He feels immediately out of place, and he shrinks back at the doorstep.
Yixing notices him and smiles. “Yifan, your guest is here.”
Luhan stands up and waves at him. “Hello, you must be Joonmyun.”
“Yeah. Hi.” Joonmyun shyly greets them and toes off his shoes. With Luhan still grinning at him, he takes a seat in the small table facing Kris.
Then they start speaking in some sort of foreign language, and Joonmyun feels so lost that he just wants to hide in the worn loveseat that Kris has and never come out. Yixing notices his discomfort and stops talking.
“Yifan, is the food ready yet? I think we’re all hungry here,” Yixing asks as sweetly as he can. Luhan knows the hidden message in it because Joonmyun is moving around in his place on the floor and staring at the corner of the table and acting like a child that can’t stop moving.
“Relax, Joonmyun!” The younger male jumps up at the sound of his name coming from Luhan’s mouth. They all share a laugh, some more nervous than the others.
“I have a question. Kris and Yifan...?”
“Ah yes. Even until now, I don’t understand why you like being called Kris,” Yixing starts.
“You’ve always been Yifan to us; what’s with the name that’s hard to pronounce for others?”
Kris (or Yifan?) shakes his head. “You all know why. I don’t want to talk about it.” He clears his throat. “But I would fine with it if you called me Yifan, Joonmyun.”
He smiles a little at the attention, at the fact that Yifan was talking specifically to him. He nods and stares pointedly at the pot cooking their noodles. Oh no. He has to stop it, he has to...
Oops.
It’s Luhan who starts cracking up first. “Alright, whose stomach was that?” Yixing and Yifan start chuckling soon after, and Joonmyun can’t help but join in. He raises his hand while clutching his stomach (both in mirth and in hunger) with the other one.
“Calm your stomachs down; the food’s nearly ready,” Yifan announces. He grabs his pot holder and chopsticks to take off the lid and transfer the noodles to the big bowl he has.
Dinner afterwards is a fun activity, and Joonmyun finds himself laughing more than eating. His stomach’s hurting in both ways, a little because of all the food he ate but mostly because of the laughing he’s been doing. Yixing and Luhan should be some sort of comedic duo; they just brighten up the place.
“You should stay with us at lunch sometimes. I’m sure Jongdae wouldn’t mind all five of us in one table, right?” Yixing offered.
“You know Jongdae?” Joonmyun’s surprised. Jongdae never actually told him if they knew each other personally.
“Of course I do. Jongdae’s my friend!” Luhan exclaims.
“Everyone’s your friend in your eyes, Luhan. I don’t think you understand the difference between friends and acquaintances,” Yixing points out. Luhan rolls his eyes.
“You’ll never have friends if you don’t consider them as friends,” Luhan retorts. They both drop the issue soon after, going back to rubbing their full tummies.
“I’m sure Jongdae will be fine with it. I mean, you are friends, right?” They all chuckle a little until Luhan nods.
It’s starting to get late, and no matter how brave Yixing and Luhan are, neither of them thinks he can take the suspicious men who might have this hidden agenda to attack them. They go before it gets too late, and Yifan and Joonmyun wave them goodbye from the rooftop.
“Were the noodles okay?” Yifan asks, nerves present in his voice. Joonmyun looks up at his profile and narrows his eyes at the somehow familiar lines on his face.
“Yeah, they were pretty great. I haven’t eaten in that much, and I usually have an entire packet all to myself for dinner.” Yifan chuckles.
“Good night, Joonmyun. Luhan and Yixing will want to see you in our table tomorrow, and knowing them, they won’t let go of you after that.”
“I can imagine that,” Joonmyun muses. He waves goodbye and walks back to his own building. Before he closes his door, he spots Yifan still waiting for him outside. They stand still for a moment before Yifan bows slightly and enters his home.
Joonmyun smiles. Yifan and his friends are a lot of fun, much less scary than what Joonmyun had expected. He likes the jokes, the laughter, and the ease in how they interact. He misses having that level of comfort with others.
When Luhan said that he was friends with Jongdae, he wasn’t lying.
They sit closely beside each other, forgoing their sense of personal space. Joonmyun can only watch in amusement as they bicker and quip at each other’s words and act completely comfortable with how close they are. He’s never seen this side of Jongdae; the really snarky and sarcastic side of him that feeds off Luhan’s general excitement and enthusiasm for everything.
Joonmyun feels like they’re the only people in the room. It almost didn’t matter that they were so loud; he’s just the one who hides his face in his hands and laughs at everything the others do.
Luhan and Jongdae walk with him to their next class, arms over his shoulder as they chat endlessly. “You should really go out more, Joonmyun. I mean, you’re so lucky that you don’t have any parents to nag on you and hold you down from doing anything; you need to have more fun with that freedom of yours,” Luhan pleads. Joonmyun rolls his eyes and shakes their arms away from his body.
They shove him around and proceed to laugh at every little thing. Joonmyun is buzzing with excitement for nothing; Luhan’s enthusiasm taking effect on him. He stays that way for the entire day, absolutely beaming.
When he arrives at the bus stop, Yifan is there waiting for him. The younger male notices his idle foot movements, something he’s pretty sure he’s seen before. Yifan perks up at the sight of Joonmyun.
“Did you miss the bus? It should have arrived five minutes ago,” Joonmyun asks.
“Ah, no. I was just... waiting,” Yifan stammers out. "For the bus. I was waiting for the bus."
"Right. The bus," Joonmyun repeats. He checks his watch and knows that the ride Yifan passed on was the last for the day. "That's the last bus today. We should just call a cab."
"Yeah," Yifan mutters. He probably doesn't know if he should regret waiting or not.
They start walking towards the places where more cabs are likely to pass by, and Joonmyun can't help but notice how they keep a little distance between them. Yifan walks with his hands in his pockets, head bobbing with his earphones in his ears (but Joonmyun knows that there’s nothing playing and he’s just following the rhythm of the city as it moves around him). Joonmyun walks at a leisurely pace, hands on the strap of his bag and looking like the stylish private school student that he wanted to be.
Yifan stops in front of shopping mall, waving his hand around when he sees the nearest cab. They climb in it together, Joonmyun giving out the address to the driver. He looks at Yifan beside him, legs a little too long for the leg space at the back seat. He hesitantly squeezes Yifan’s arm, not really sure why he did.
Yifan smiles though, this huge gummy smile, and Joonmyun feels the warmth travelling all over him and making him smile widely as well.
-•-•-
“So you’re the new kid?”
Joonmyun looks up from the book he’s frantically trying to shove in his bag. After he got the message from Yifan asking him where he was, he’s been rushing to get out of the library so that they won’t miss the last bus like last time. It’s an unspoken agreement that they wait for each other at the bus stop everyday and go home together; unless the other explicitly says that they go home earlier. It comforts Joonmyun to know that Yifan will always be there and that he can trust him enough to not leave him.
Fingers drum on the table in front of him and Joonmyun looks up, suddenly remembering that someone’s there. “Oh. Yeah, I am. Why?”
He recognizes Mr. Tan Skin with a Nice Jawline, Kim Jongin. “It’s obvious. You clearly have no idea that there are rules in this school,” he scoffs. His two friends are beside him, silent but still menacing.
“I-I’ve been to the orientation. I know the rules,” Joonmyun defends. He knows that something bad is going to happen to him; he just doesn’t exactly know what.
Jongin and his gang all chuckle knowingly, mocking Joonmyun for being so new. “There’s only one really important rule:
“Don’t choose the wrong side.”
Joonmyun knows what he’s referring to, and the hand on the desk and how he slightly leans towards Joonmyun still threatens him slightly. He doesn’t know why he allows himself to be weaker against someone younger than him, but Jongin looks menacing like this, and he doesn’t want to get into any trouble.
“The ‘wrong side’ is always the one against mine. Good luck surviving this year,” Jongin sneers. He pats Joonmyun’s shoulder as an insult and leaves the library noisily with his pack of wolves. Joonmyun glares at them past the glass doors and finally places his book in the bag.
Still in a bad mood from Jongin’s attitude, Joonmyun walks towards the bus stop with an uncharacteristic scowl. Yifan frowns as well.
“What happened?” Yifan demands.
Joonmyun shakes his head. “It’s nothing. It’s just someone.”
He stands still for a moment until realization dawns on Yifan’s face. “Jongin.”
“It’s fine. He just started talking to me randomly,” Joonmyun assures him. He checks his watch to look away from Yifan’s prying eyes. There’s another six minutes until the next bus, another six minutes of awkwardness and interrogation.
“I knew he’d do something like that. He always thinks he’s right, always thinks he has a right to everything and to anything. God, I hate him so much,” Yifan curses under his breath. Joonmyun squeezes his forearm.
“Calm down. He didn’t do anything except talk to me. If you know he’s doing it to rile you up, don’t let him win,” Joonmyun advises. Yifan takes a deep breath and slowly shakes Joonmyun’s hand away. The younger blushes, trying to will away the tingling in his fingertips.
“The bus is here,” Yifan states. It takes a few seconds for the message to process in Joonmyun’s brain before it sends signals for Joonmyun to start moving his body before they miss the last bus.
For the first time since they started going home together, they take seats right beside each other, Yifan on the window side and Joonmyun near the aisle. The bus makes a loud sound as it closes its doors and starts moving. The city whizzes past them, but Yifan doesn’t seem to be watching like Joonmyun always does everyday.
His eyes are already closed with his chin resting on his chest, arms crossed. His long legs stretch even under the seats in front of them and his breathing is even in a matter of minutes.
Yifan is gorgeous. Joonmyun doesn’t like admitting that to himself because Yifan is his (kind of) friend and his neighbor.
And oh yeah, he’s a guy.
It’s not even the first thing that Joonmyun thinks of when he comes up with reasons why calling Yifan gorgeous is wrong. It doesn’t matter. It would matter if Yifan didn’t feel the same way, or worse, if he hated people like him.
Still though, it doesn’t stop Joonmyun from admiring the sharp and matured lines of his face, the slope of his nose, the way his cheekbones catch the light and cast shadows on the rest of his face, how his lips seem plush and slightly pouty...
Yifan is gorgeous. End of discussion.
He almost doesn’t have the heart to wake him up when they reach their stop (then he realizes that he’s been staring at Yifan’s sleeping face for the entire ride). He gently shakes the taller male until he groggily gets up and grabs his bag.
The walk up the hill is spent in comfortable silence; Yifan still sleepy and Joonmyun just sensitive to Yifan and the peace of silence. They part ways in the middle of the street, heading towards opposite directions. Yifan messes up the smaller boy’s hair, making fun of how much shorter Joonmyun is compared to him. He huffs at the action and turns around.
Yifan grabs onto his wrist, stopping him from leaving. “Wait, Joonmyun.”
“Yeah?” He turns and faces the taller male. When he looks up into his eyes, he sees warmth, something that wraps around him and whispers in his ear, telling him he’s safe. It makes Joonmyun’s gaze melt as well.
“If Jongin does anything to you, I want you to tell me right away. I don’t want you to get dragged into the mess that is Jongin’s ego,” Yifan instructs. “I need you to tell me.”
“Okay.” Joonmyun’s voice is a little shaky, unsure of what he can say. He looks down and then back into Yifan’s eyes, and the warmth is replaced by protectiveness.
“Okay.”
The next time Jongin pays attention to Joonmyun, the older male ends up with his back nearly pressing against the wall behind the school’s main building. He’s genuinely afraid that something really bad will happen to him, even though Jongin doesn’t seem to be the type of bully that physically abuses.
“You’re stupid for believing in that thief. He’s just like his father, you know. A worthless, pathetic--”
“I think that’s enough.”
Jongin is stopped by Yifan shoving his shoulder back. They stare at each other with narrowed eyes, and Jongin breaks the standoff by smirking and backing away.
“Alright, I’ll let you go this time. But you should really learn your place. We have no space in the world for liars and losers,” Jongin sneers. Yifan rolls his eyes.
“You’re too pathetic; I don’t think I need to stoop to your level.” Yifan sends him one more disapproving glare before he holds onto Joonmyun’s wrist and pulls him away.
When they arrive at the bus stop and nobody they know is nearby, Yifan brushes the hair away from Joonmyun’s eyes. “Are you alright?”
Joonmyun melts at his soft voice, and he smiles weakly. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Joonmyun smiles for real this time, hiding his blush behind his hand. “I’m sure.”
The silence afterwards is awkward. It’s a good fifteen minutes before the bus arrives since they’re relatively early today. Joonmyun decides to ask the question that’s been on his mind since the very first day.
“What really happened between you and Jongin?”
Yifan sighs. “I knew you’d ask this eventually.”
“I really do want to know, Yifan,” Joonmyun insists. The older boy sighs and gives in.
“It goes much deeper than my father’s issue. Jongin and I have been friends since I moved here years ago. Our families became really close and so did we. He was like my little brother, and I treated him well. Then high school started and we just grew apart. It was only natural, and he had Sehun for a long time so I thought it would be fine. We still talked during family dinners together and I didn’t think it was too bad.
“When my father’s controversy broke out, their family refused to associate themselves with us. It turns out they also suffered a little loss because of their investments to our company. They went through a really dark time for a while, but they got back on their feet and now they’re on the top. He’s harbored this deep grudge against me ever since then. I treat him like crap because he treats me like crap. It’s as if we were never friends.”
Joonmyun stops breathing for a moment. It’s the way that Yifan said it, with so much spite and regret and deeply buried anger, which scares Joonmyun. His eyes burn holes on the pavement in front of them, dark orbs glowing.
The younger places his hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. The small action makes Yifan look up. He searches for Joonmyun’s eyes and they connect.
I’m sorry.
What are you sorry for?
I don’t know. I can’t fix things for you.
Joonmyun knows that Yifan hates the sympathy; he can tell by how Yifan bites his bottom lip and nods weakly. He can tell because Yifan doesn’t loosen up in his shoulders, doesn’t shake his head a little and smile at Joonmyun with his eyes. He takes what he can get, but Joonmyun knows it isn’t what he wants and it isn’t what he needs. Yifan’s been forced into a corner, fending for himself against every attack on his pride and reputation. He has nothing to lose anymore, but a little humility wouldn’t hurt.
They stay in silence until the loud engine of the bus can be heard in the near distance. Yifan stands up and offers his hand to Joonmyun, pulling him up from the bench. He nearly topples onto the taller male, and he apologizes profusely. Yifan laughs it off and slowly lets go of his hand.
The blush on Joonmyun's face is twice as pink as before.
Yifan hands Joonmyun an energy drink and lies down on the mattress beside him. They’re both at Yifan’s house, planning to stay up to finish their grade-changing essays that could either make them or break them. They’ve been on their laptops nonstop for two hours, occasionally bothering each other to prevent themselves from falling asleep (and also because Joonmyun doesn’t like seeing the frown on Yifan’s face grow even more).
There’s an old mattress on Yifan’s terrace, lumpy and a little dirty from the past owner’s use (they try not to think of the smell on it; it brings about unpleasant theories). The air’s too polluted to see any stars, but it’s their only thirty-minute break before they go through another two-hour writing session. They sip on their drinks, trying to maximize their rest and their fluids.
“I used to be younger,” Yifan says.
Joonmyun stares at him. “You don’t say.”
“I meant, younger at heart. Younger in every way possible. Now I’m just old and sad,” Yifan points out. Joonmyun sits up a little and leans back on his elbows. His eyebrows arch slightly, asking for more.
“We had a dream, Luhan and Yixing and I. When we were first-years and we were still young and believed that we could do anything, we thought of this band--thing,” he confides. He doesn’t expect the snort that comes from Joonmyun.
“I’m sorry, but the thought of you three in a band just--” he stops talking to spend another minute laughing. “I’m r-really sorry. It’s not something I expected from you three.”
“We were really young and lame, okay? We thought it would be fun and that we’d be famous and everything would follow after that. But we didn’t consider the process of getting there at all. We just thought of the results and all that.”
“But you were young. It’s perfectly fine to be dumb and naive.”
“Yeah,” Yifan agrees, “but it wasn’t fine when we thought of it again last year. Luhan was on vocals and guitar, Yixing was on piano and I was, surprisingly, on the bass guitar.”
Joonmyun starts laughing again. “You’re asking if we sucked, aren’t you? Yeah, we really did.”
They finish their drinks and settle it on the ground on the side of the cushion. “It was dumb, but those were our dreams. We thought of breaking out of the shells that we had and just going all out. But it doesn’t matter now. Some dreams aren’t really meant to come true.”
Joonmyun and Yifan are walking towards the library building when Joonmyun is unexpectedly hit by a basketball. He brushes away the dust from his uniform, and Yifan holds the basketball in his large hands. There’s softness in his eyes, a lingering familiarity in how his hands grip the ball.
“Captain Wu!”
Yifan stops for a moment and faces the outdoor basketball court where the varsity team is practicing in. He makes a move to throw the ball to them, but the tallest guy who’s facing him gives him a smirk and Joonmyun can see the change in Yifan’s eyes.
Yifan starts dribbling, and the players in the court go to their defensive stances. He runs and dribbles so fast that Joonmyun only sees a blur in his place, shifting and turning to keep the other players’ grabby hands off the ball. When he’s finally near the hoop, he jumps and shoots the ball behind his back.
The tall male, who was actually just standing at the edge of the court the entire time, claps and grins at Yifan. “I haven’t seen you on the court in months and you’re still better than half of the team.”
“Come on, Chanyeol. It’s a known fact that I am better than half of the team,” Yifan says. He places an arm around Chanyeol’s shoulder.
“You know, the basketball team is still going to accept you this year.”
Yifan shakes his head. “My days are done, Chanyeol. I’m not the king anymore.”
“But you’re still our captain; best one we’ve had in ten tournaments,” Chanyeol tries to convince him. The defeated look in his eyes makes him stop, pulling away from Yifan.
“You know I’d love to come back, but I really don’t think I have to. You’ll all do well, Chanyeol. You don’t need me.”
Before he can leave, Chanyeol throws the ball at him again. Yifan glares and rubs the spot where the ball bounced off him.
“You don’t mind playing a short game, do you?” Chanyeol smirks up at him and Yifan chuckles, taking off his jacket and dropping it on the bench.
He looks at Joonmyun. "You can go home," he whispers. Joonmyun shakes his head and sits on the empty bench, placing Yifan's coat on his lap. He smiles and motions for him to go ahead. Joonmyun ignores the odd stares the other team members are giving him.
Yifan and Chanyeol play an intense game of basketball; so intense that their allotted time for practice is already done and they’re still playing, desperately trying to win the upper hand. Joonmyun likes the determination on Yifan’s face, how he seems so much more alive than how he usually is.
Eventually, the two collapse on the dirty court floor. Chanyeol hits him on the arm and Yifan struggles to stand up against the weight of his fatigued body. “I’m going to kill you tomorrow, Chanyeol. My body is going to hurt so bad because I didn’t even warm up.”
“That’s because you’re dumb enough to jump in against me without even preparing yourself to lose,” Chanyeol says matter-of-factly, finishing his entire water bottle in one go.
Yifan sits beside Joonmyun on the bench, still patiently waiting for them there. He hands Yifan a towel, wiping away the sweat on the side of his face absentmindedly as he thinks of the meal he wants to cook when they get home.
A deep cough disturbs Joonmyun’s mindless action. Chanyeol is staring at them with an odd look, and Joonmyun drops the towel on Yifan’s hands. He looks like he’s about to ask them something, but Yifan kicks his thigh and Chanyeol groans in pain.
“That’s going to feel even worse now!” he yells.
Yifan stands up and stretches his arms. “Thanks for the game, Chanyeol. It was fun.”
The younger male grips his hand. “If ever you want to join the team again--”
“You’ll welcome me back, I know, I know.” Yifan shakes his hand away and walks with Joonmyun out of the school.
As soon as they reach the mall to wait for a cab, Joonmyun starts talking again. “You should take a shower as soon as we get home. That sweat’s going to dry and you might get a flu.”
“Thanks mom,” Yifan teases. Joonmyun instantly blushes and hides his face behind Yifan’s jacket, still conveniently in his hand.
Yifan pokes his cheek, chuckling at him. They finally hail a cab and climb in.
Joonmyun smiles when Yifan instantly falls asleep as soon as his legs stretch under the passenger seat.
It feels like a landslide just crashed down on him.
Joonmyun suddenly feels his cheeks turn pink when he holds his wrist, and hears his heart beating when he appears. He notices the small things that he does, the little antics and familiar gestures that he’s come to associate with him. It’s a bittersweet feeling, like sinking while flying in the air.
Yifan makes his spring just a little brighter, makes his summer nights just a little warmer, makes the colors of fall pop out more and makes the biting cold of winter just a little more bearable.
Joonmyun really doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s in love.
-•-
PART 2