jeogi
in
openpockets
(no subject)
salade
jongin and kyungsoo, romance/slice, pg
do kyungjoo is your typical eighteen year old with weird friends and an annoying neighbor who goes by the name of kim jongin. no, she does not like kim jongin, so stop asking already.
a/n: this is my first shared piece in over a year holy.........um i don't know i really like the idea of girl!kyungsoo and i started writing this after jannah♡ shared a really amazing girl!au fic.....it's the only piece i managed to "finish" (though really this isn't much of a piece it's just a really short..vignette? what) over the summer and it was pretty difficult because i haven't written fic in the longest time. but it was fun, i think, reconnecting with an old hobby again haha. for the purpose of this story kyungsoo and jongin are the same age ok ㅠㅠ regardless i hope you enjoy whatever this is
do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, a loving daughter and friend to not so many people, and a refined connoisseur of the baking arts. she has a fair amount of cat pictures on her phone like most girls her age do, and she forgot to iron her skirt for the day, but that just helps her blend in with the rest of the eighteen year old population in seoul. stuff like cycling along the han river seems kind of pointless, but then again, she likes botanical gardens, so maybe she isn't in any position to judge.
do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, ready to finish up high school and move onto her college life. there's a lot she wants to do there, like join pottery club and develop film in a dark room. maybe feature as an extra in one of those dramas that use colleges for the setting for a few extra bucks to buy herself coffee. for now, it's all about the convenience stores and music shows she whittles into her small pink planner. the occasional muffler-knitting and sleepovers and ouija board nights. after all, moments like these will never come again.
and so do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, living the prime years of youth to the fullest.
not really.
it's almost summer and this, kyungjoo thinks, is the last place on earth that she wants to be right now. she could be doing so much, like baking souffles for minseok in 3-c or watching the inkigayo performance of vixx she recorded. anything but studying the works of ahn soo-kil during fourth period classic literature.
"neither of them would recognize you." there's a murmur coming from her right and it sounds like something, something annoying and ugly and stupid. kyungjoo stirs from behind her math notebook, propped conveniently against her friend sehyeon's head. she shoots a look. "plus, you wouldn't even manage to give him the souffle. you'd just eat it yourself. all you ever do is eat."
sehyeon, who leans forward just far enough to escape kyungjoo's grappling fingers, laughs, and the book slips back onto kyungjoo's desk, on top of the half-opened tupperware of cubed watermelon. so, friend is a bit of a stretch.
"right on," sehyeon says, using one of the lame english phrases her friend (if you can call a guy you wake up in bed with every sunday morning a friend, kyungjoo muses) kris taught her. she strikes a pose too, sticking her tongue out and holding a peace sign up to her face.
kyungjoo frowns in general distaste. "don't do that, you're just going to get wrinkles." groaning, kyungjoo runs her fingers through her bangs and down her forehead. "old woman."
"i'm not an old woman," kyungjoo hisses. she cocks her head to the right again and ducks, barely missing the scanning glare their t.a. sends their way. sometimes her short stature can be seen as a blessing. but not when a large hand comes down on her head and messes up her hair clip. "and i don't eat that much. i only bring two lunch boxes because chanmi doesn't have time to cook in the morning."
there's a chuckle intermingled with that dubious sigh kyungjoo has grown accustomed to, sort of against her will. it wasn't her choice to sit in this seat, honest to god. she had just been a bit late the first day of their spring semester. if she could change her seat, she warns sehyeon every wednesday, boy would she.
"you're too nice to people, you know that?" it's a mix of taunting and doting, and kyungjoo bristles. sehyeon slips further down her seat, legs spread a bit wildly, feigning sleep. "to everyone except me."
see, do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, and while she's got a nice life going on for her, she can't say she's necessarily living the full experience talked about in high-cut and elle. because all she's missing, is, well.
"that's because i don't like you, kim jongin," kyungjoo replies flatly. the slumped mass taking form of an eighteen year old teenage boy rustles and laughs into his notebook.
ah, yes. romance.
annoying, ugly, and stupid.
kim jongin is eighteen years old, an insufferable son and most popular kid in school, and a self-proclaimed astronomer. he really likes the school's melon bread and doesn't mind when turf gets in his sneakers. more often than not, jongin sleeps through the entirety of first period, because he's a growing boy, and he convinces himself that if he goes back to sleep within thirty minutes of waking up, he can continue his previous dreams.
but this story isn't about kim jongin, it's about do kyungjoo.
speaking of, "hey, kyungjoo, did you use coconut in this shrimp?"
they're sitting on the rooftop, kyungjoo, baehyun and chanmi are, admiring nothing in particular in the sky today. the sky is just a bright bright blue and the church cross a few blocks down is on the verge of sizzling out completely. kyungjoo stirs. baekhyun's heavy head is on her lap, and it takes everything for kyungjoo not to bring her elbow down on his fat nose. she purposefully moves a lot to fix her skirt, but baekhyun only grumbles and turns to press his cheek against her knee.
kyungjoo sighs. "yeah, i did. i found a recipe online and wanted to try it."
animated chomping fills the still air and after a few seconds, chanmi chirps, "it's delicious. you should make some more next time." kyungjoo grins and stuffs pieces of fried egg in her mouth. "so, how was class?"
kyungjoo hates when chanmi tries to pull this on her. apparently kyungjoo's nonexistent love life intrigues the shit out of chanmi (she had said so herself, way back in their second year of middle school when kyungjoo had coldly declined the one guy who had the guts to ask kyungjoo out) and the conversation always starts like this. chanmi feigns interest in kyungjoo's active academic life, which honestly is more invigorating and profound than the fragmented story of her salad green days. kyungjoo doesn't know why chanmi insists.
"it was fine." she swallows her food. "history class ended up being self study because choi ssaem lost his dog during his morning walk. he's so stupid."
chanmi makes a sort of mm ok and? sort of sound in the back of her throat. she has her lunch box up to her mouth and peers up at kyungjoo with a rice-smeared grin. "and?"
with a rough sigh kyungjoo sets her lunch down on the blanket they always spread out for their lunch. baekhyun's hand sluggishly raises to steal a shrimp, and his shoulders go stiff when kyungjoo jabs two fingers in his back.
"and what," kyungjoo tries, which is a bad choice of words, because chanmi hates it most when kyungjoo plays dumb like this. she frowns hard. "what, no, i don't know. what? what!"
the door swings open, narrowly missing baekhyun's feet, and out comes sehyeon with an armful of strawberry and cheese bread. she makes a face, and baekhyun's hand shoots up again, grabbing at air. "yeah, so," sehyeon starts, "you might not like this, but-"
"hey guys!"
kyungjoo's head whips to the right to see, ugh, kim jongin peering out from behind the door with lee taemin from 2-b next to him. jongin has a ridiculous grin on his face, and he lifts a plastic bag of iced green tea and canned coffees.
why, kyungjoo's hard stare seems to say, but sehyeon deflects it with a throw of a strawberry roll at kyungjoo's lap. it hits baekhyun square in the face.
"what are you guys up to?" jongin starts, and he makes his way to kyungjoo, stepping on the bottom of baekhyun's frayed pants. it's been an ongoing thing since middle school. kyungjoo thinks baekhyun's just given up. "oh, coconut shrimp? kyungjoo's is the best."
chanmi hums around a piece of celery. "no melon bread?"
jongin has this sort of laugh he uses whenever he thinks he's in some shit (like that one time during math when he stepped on and broke their teacher's favorite ruler-it was more of a laugh-cry by the end of school) and everyone and their mom knows that on wednesdays, chanmi needs her melon bread. sehyeon grimaces, kyungjoo feels no mercy.
"if," jongin tries as he squeezes himself between a fuming chanmi and an equally as fuming kyungjoo, "if you eat the strawberry bread and take a sip of the green tea together, you'll get a melon taste?"
there's a brief moment of silence and chanmi lets out a murderous giggle before she scrambles onto her hands and jongin leaps over baekhyun's unmoving corpse, past taemin who hasn't even had a chance to sit down and crack open his lunch box. they crash through the rooftop door and the sounds of stampeding feet resound through the school building, and if you listen closely enough, you can hear jongin pleading for mercy.
"why are wednesdays always so loud," baekhyun grumbles as he gets up on his hands and heaves his body up, staring blankly at the untouched bag of drinks. "oh, taem, did you bring the newest one-punch man?" taemin beams brightly and drops a printed copy of the manga onto the ground, and the two begin to chat excitedly over genos' new hi-tech armor that, kyungsoo predicts, will probably be blasted off to bits in the next issue. she stays quiet and takes a large bite of strawberry bread instead as sehyeon makes to start braiding her hair.
jongin doesn't come back into the classroom until two minutes before the bell for the next period, panting and sweating through the thin summer uniform. he splays his arms across his table and stares at kyungjoo with a bit of a pout, as if asking kyungjoo why a banshee like chanmi had to be right next door. kyungjoo snorts, sehyeon sighs.
it's phys. ed. and kyungjoo and sehyeon are sitting under their little tree, watching the upperclassmen dribble soccer balls up and down the field. much too hot for physical exertion, kyungjoo stressed, and despite the heated look lee ssaem gave them, the two slipped away to cool off with one water bottle that jongin had thrown at them on his way to the courts.
"he's really not bad." the water bottle wrapper crackles. "what," sehyeon mutters when kyungjoo rustles and gives her an offended look. "you would know best-you've only been friends for your entire lives."
which is true. kyungjoo and jongin have been neighbors ever since kyungjoo moved into town when they were just little kids picking at bugs and noses. their birthdays, being conveniently two days apart, were always a joint effort by their mothers, and as they grew up, what was jongin's became kyungjoo's, what kyungjoo did, so did jongin. they were inseparable until they hit the tender age of fourteen which may have been the moment that kyungjoo started to not like jongin like that, or something.
"right," sehyeon says, "i don't think that's the case for him, though."
kyungjoo groans and rolls off sehyeon's lap, back onto her feet that have become itchy with the sand she kicks up. it's wednesday, she just wants to get home to watch show champion. they stretch out their lazy limbs as lee ssaem makes the last few calls for drills. "i think i've had enough of this conversation with you guys."
"i think we've had enough of you beating around the bush." sehyeon puffs her chest out a bit, probably proud that she was able to make an appropriate comeback without mulling about it like she always does.
kyungjoo daintily scoops sehyeon's chest. "you're all misunderstanding," she says, and her voice is cool despite the high heat and the warmth spreading down her neck, "there is nothing. really nothing."
sehyeon pats kyungjoo lightly on the butt. "whatever you say, girl." kyungjoo's about to say, what do you know, but sehyeon looks a little soft, a little worn under the sun. kyungjoo quietly tucks a strand of hair behind sehyeon's ear.
"kyungjoo!" kyungjoo whips her head faster than she'd like to admit but how can she help herself when it's minseok from 3-c waving at her animatedly with that large, beautiful smile on his face. "sorry, can you get that ball for me?"
she stumbles a bit looking for the ball that had rolled over to their tree, stammering, "yeah, of course, let me just-" suddenly, the ball goes flying as sehyeon punts it towards minseok's general direction, having been blessed with the motor skills that kyungjoo has yet to discover in herself. it's okay, kyungjoo reasons with herself, at least she has brains. she turns to sehyeon who rubs her nose with a smirk. "are you kidding me."
"thanks, you two!" minseok shouts as he throws it back into the field and runs back in, laughing with his friends, glistening under the sun. so handsome.
kyungjoo lets out a wrangled sigh. "i hate you."
"if you two don't get in line in five seconds, i'm going to fail you!" lee ssaem hollers, his visor almost popping off his head with the steam that rushes out his ears. the rest of the class laughs and jongin is standing there, hand on his hip, grinning like always.
"liar." sehyeon grabs her wrist and pulls. "it's your only flaw, you know."
"chanmi, please stop hanging on me like i am a rack," kyungjoo says flatly as she gathers together her books and hand outs. chanmi makes a noise in the back of her throat. "it's incredibly hot, and you're not helping."
chanmi makes a weird clicking noise and kyungjoo knows she just did her signature wink, which looks more like an uncontrollable, odd tic. "we're getting ice cream at the convenience store, you're coming, right?" chanmi doesn't wait for a response before she unwraps her arms from kyungjoo's torso and beelines through the desks to the sliding doors. "if you don't come in ten minutes, i'm going to buy all the jaws and not give you any!"
"you wouldn't!" kyungjoo calls out with a laugh as chanmi echoes, "try me!", their exclamations resounding in the near empty school with chanmi's animated skips. kyungjoo shakes her head and thinks, what a typical wednesday, and flips her chair over onto her desk.
the walk to the home ec room after school is always an unnerving one, because the floorboards in that particular area of the hallway are old and rickety. kyungjoo tiptoes silently into the room. why she forgets her needles every week, she doesn't know, but it might be a sign of forgetfulness. kyungjoo frowns. she doesn't like the sound of that.
"hey." kyungjoo jumps two inches off the floor and almost kicks baekhyun in the face. "hey now," he says a bit warily, "you know, you do this all the time." he grins when kyungjoo lets out a huge sigh of relief. "just wanted to let you know about the chorus schedule. ssaem called in and said she won't be able to hold practice tomorrow."
kyungjoo gives him a weird look. "are you okay?" it's something that could easily be said over text, she thinks, but baekhyun doesn't seem to be himself, what with the way he looks down at the floor, fidgeting, and if kyungjoo has to deal with another case of a mental breakdown, she's calling off school for the rest of the week. "you've been acting weird all day."
baekhyun looks up, grin plastered on oddly. he's the definition of not-okay, but if there is anything kyungjoo has learned about byun baekhyun over the course of their high school career, it is that everything is always okay. "seriously." he gives the same overused, flat laugh and wraps an arm around kyungjoo's shoulder before she can say anything else. they waddle to the door in step with one another, kyungjoo careful not to let her knitting needles jab into baekhyun's side. he sings a song low under his breath, a tune kyungjoo's heard a million times over, as he slides the door open with his foot.
"just tell her," she says. baekhyun drops his arm and gives her a wary smile. "you've got nothing to lose."
with a laugh, baekhyun kisses kyungjoo on her forehead and stares at her straight in the eyes. "that's rich, coming from you." kyungjoo pouts.
baekhyun saunters off with a laugh, leaving kyungjoo to lock the home ec room with her copy of the key. she presses her face against the windowpane that has become cloudy with dirt and fingertips. the view of the schoolyard is nothing much, but, kyungjoo ponders as she spots baekhyun ruining chanmi's ponytail and sehyeon busily taking snapshots on her phone, there is something else about it that kyungjoo loves all the same.
"hey." kyungjoo turns left and jongin waves at her, small telescope in hand. "ready?"
kyungjoo makes a noise and walks over to jongin who extends his hand in a characteristically gentlemanly manner. she slaps it hard.
"fine," jongin huffs, "i'm not giving you this." he waves the melon bread wrapped in its cozy plastic package, and before he can come up with an "unless" she snatches it and rips it open. "you're a brute."
kyungjoo crinkles her eyes, "oh, you're so funny, sir."
jongin crinkles his nose. "why, thank you very much, sir." she smacks him again.
by the time they walk out of the school, chanmi really has bought all the jaws ice cream, but it doesn't matter because she drops them all when kyungjoo waves the last piece of her melon bread in the air.
in the end, kyungjoo thinks as she bites on one half of a coffee flavored ice pop, i never got to watch show champion. she thinks back to the unfinished skirt lying in her room, and then of her older sister who has probably used it as a rag to wipe the dishes. modern history feels heavy in her backpack and suddenly kyungjoo's head jerks back and she lets out a shout.
"you're thinking too hard again," jongin comments and he slings on kyungjoo's backpack on his right shoulder, swiftly putting his hands back into his pockets with practiced ease. "you're really going to get wrinkly."
kyungjoo huffs. "stop worrying about me, or you're really going to get stupid." it's a stupid comeback and kyungjoo thinks maybe she caught the stupid from sehyeon. sehyeon would say otherwise with a little waggle of her eyebrows and a smirk. kyungjoo pictures it in her head and internally groans. for a dumb kid, sehyeon is pretty smart. there's still a few minutes until they reach kyungjoo's house, and if this keeps up, she might really have to take the week off. but, perhaps.
"you're doing it again." kyungjoo looks up and, was that concern in his voice? she glances back down. and in his eyes, and his lips.
this is making her uncomfortable. "mom is making soondubu tonight."
"yeah?" jongin grins. "and?"
there's a brief moment of silence as kyungjoo stops in front of her mailbox and pries it open, not letting her eyes stray to jongin who's leaning dangerously close, too close for comfort. there's nothing in the mailbox, and jongin laughs a little mockingly, a little endearingly.
kyungjoo snaps her mailbox shut and holds her hand out, and jongin obeys, handing her bag over with a shrug. "we'll have leftovers."
"sounds great, i'll be there soon," jongin announces and he hops back onto the heels of his feet, smiles a bright smile, as warm as the setting sun. it tosses kyungjoo's stomach like a green salad. "don't eat all the fish cake like last time."
"just because you mentioned it, i'm going to." kyungjoo grumbles and swings open the gate, ignoring jongin's pout and adamant "you always do that!" over the squeaking of the hinges and the uncomfortable loud thumping in her chest.
"i'm home!" kyungjoo shouts as she makes her way up to the room, ignoring her mother's inquiries about where jongin is, and does he know we're having soondubu tonight? she throws her bag onto her bed and starts when there's a soft knock coming from outside.
"welcome home," jongin beams from his window, already in his sweats and hoodie. kyungjoo flushes and slams her window shut, exclaiming something about perverts and unbearable kim jongins, but even then she can hear jongin's laugh filter into her room, soft in her ears and warm on her skin.
do kyungjoo is eighteen years old and if it isn't obvious already, there's no one in the world she hates (loves) more than kim jongin.
and that..is it. lmao. thank you kindly for reading ♡
jongin and kyungsoo, romance/slice, pg
do kyungjoo is your typical eighteen year old with weird friends and an annoying neighbor who goes by the name of kim jongin. no, she does not like kim jongin, so stop asking already.
a/n: this is my first shared piece in over a year holy.........um i don't know i really like the idea of girl!kyungsoo and i started writing this after jannah♡ shared a really amazing girl!au fic.....it's the only piece i managed to "finish" (though really this isn't much of a piece it's just a really short..vignette? what) over the summer and it was pretty difficult because i haven't written fic in the longest time. but it was fun, i think, reconnecting with an old hobby again haha. for the purpose of this story kyungsoo and jongin are the same age ok ㅠㅠ regardless i hope you enjoy whatever this is
do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, a loving daughter and friend to not so many people, and a refined connoisseur of the baking arts. she has a fair amount of cat pictures on her phone like most girls her age do, and she forgot to iron her skirt for the day, but that just helps her blend in with the rest of the eighteen year old population in seoul. stuff like cycling along the han river seems kind of pointless, but then again, she likes botanical gardens, so maybe she isn't in any position to judge.
do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, ready to finish up high school and move onto her college life. there's a lot she wants to do there, like join pottery club and develop film in a dark room. maybe feature as an extra in one of those dramas that use colleges for the setting for a few extra bucks to buy herself coffee. for now, it's all about the convenience stores and music shows she whittles into her small pink planner. the occasional muffler-knitting and sleepovers and ouija board nights. after all, moments like these will never come again.
and so do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, living the prime years of youth to the fullest.
not really.
it's almost summer and this, kyungjoo thinks, is the last place on earth that she wants to be right now. she could be doing so much, like baking souffles for minseok in 3-c or watching the inkigayo performance of vixx she recorded. anything but studying the works of ahn soo-kil during fourth period classic literature.
"neither of them would recognize you." there's a murmur coming from her right and it sounds like something, something annoying and ugly and stupid. kyungjoo stirs from behind her math notebook, propped conveniently against her friend sehyeon's head. she shoots a look. "plus, you wouldn't even manage to give him the souffle. you'd just eat it yourself. all you ever do is eat."
sehyeon, who leans forward just far enough to escape kyungjoo's grappling fingers, laughs, and the book slips back onto kyungjoo's desk, on top of the half-opened tupperware of cubed watermelon. so, friend is a bit of a stretch.
"right on," sehyeon says, using one of the lame english phrases her friend (if you can call a guy you wake up in bed with every sunday morning a friend, kyungjoo muses) kris taught her. she strikes a pose too, sticking her tongue out and holding a peace sign up to her face.
kyungjoo frowns in general distaste. "don't do that, you're just going to get wrinkles." groaning, kyungjoo runs her fingers through her bangs and down her forehead. "old woman."
"i'm not an old woman," kyungjoo hisses. she cocks her head to the right again and ducks, barely missing the scanning glare their t.a. sends their way. sometimes her short stature can be seen as a blessing. but not when a large hand comes down on her head and messes up her hair clip. "and i don't eat that much. i only bring two lunch boxes because chanmi doesn't have time to cook in the morning."
there's a chuckle intermingled with that dubious sigh kyungjoo has grown accustomed to, sort of against her will. it wasn't her choice to sit in this seat, honest to god. she had just been a bit late the first day of their spring semester. if she could change her seat, she warns sehyeon every wednesday, boy would she.
"you're too nice to people, you know that?" it's a mix of taunting and doting, and kyungjoo bristles. sehyeon slips further down her seat, legs spread a bit wildly, feigning sleep. "to everyone except me."
see, do kyungjoo is eighteen years old, and while she's got a nice life going on for her, she can't say she's necessarily living the full experience talked about in high-cut and elle. because all she's missing, is, well.
"that's because i don't like you, kim jongin," kyungjoo replies flatly. the slumped mass taking form of an eighteen year old teenage boy rustles and laughs into his notebook.
ah, yes. romance.
annoying, ugly, and stupid.
kim jongin is eighteen years old, an insufferable son and most popular kid in school, and a self-proclaimed astronomer. he really likes the school's melon bread and doesn't mind when turf gets in his sneakers. more often than not, jongin sleeps through the entirety of first period, because he's a growing boy, and he convinces himself that if he goes back to sleep within thirty minutes of waking up, he can continue his previous dreams.
but this story isn't about kim jongin, it's about do kyungjoo.
speaking of, "hey, kyungjoo, did you use coconut in this shrimp?"
they're sitting on the rooftop, kyungjoo, baehyun and chanmi are, admiring nothing in particular in the sky today. the sky is just a bright bright blue and the church cross a few blocks down is on the verge of sizzling out completely. kyungjoo stirs. baekhyun's heavy head is on her lap, and it takes everything for kyungjoo not to bring her elbow down on his fat nose. she purposefully moves a lot to fix her skirt, but baekhyun only grumbles and turns to press his cheek against her knee.
kyungjoo sighs. "yeah, i did. i found a recipe online and wanted to try it."
animated chomping fills the still air and after a few seconds, chanmi chirps, "it's delicious. you should make some more next time." kyungjoo grins and stuffs pieces of fried egg in her mouth. "so, how was class?"
kyungjoo hates when chanmi tries to pull this on her. apparently kyungjoo's nonexistent love life intrigues the shit out of chanmi (she had said so herself, way back in their second year of middle school when kyungjoo had coldly declined the one guy who had the guts to ask kyungjoo out) and the conversation always starts like this. chanmi feigns interest in kyungjoo's active academic life, which honestly is more invigorating and profound than the fragmented story of her salad green days. kyungjoo doesn't know why chanmi insists.
"it was fine." she swallows her food. "history class ended up being self study because choi ssaem lost his dog during his morning walk. he's so stupid."
chanmi makes a sort of mm ok and? sort of sound in the back of her throat. she has her lunch box up to her mouth and peers up at kyungjoo with a rice-smeared grin. "and?"
with a rough sigh kyungjoo sets her lunch down on the blanket they always spread out for their lunch. baekhyun's hand sluggishly raises to steal a shrimp, and his shoulders go stiff when kyungjoo jabs two fingers in his back.
"and what," kyungjoo tries, which is a bad choice of words, because chanmi hates it most when kyungjoo plays dumb like this. she frowns hard. "what, no, i don't know. what? what!"
the door swings open, narrowly missing baekhyun's feet, and out comes sehyeon with an armful of strawberry and cheese bread. she makes a face, and baekhyun's hand shoots up again, grabbing at air. "yeah, so," sehyeon starts, "you might not like this, but-"
"hey guys!"
kyungjoo's head whips to the right to see, ugh, kim jongin peering out from behind the door with lee taemin from 2-b next to him. jongin has a ridiculous grin on his face, and he lifts a plastic bag of iced green tea and canned coffees.
why, kyungjoo's hard stare seems to say, but sehyeon deflects it with a throw of a strawberry roll at kyungjoo's lap. it hits baekhyun square in the face.
"what are you guys up to?" jongin starts, and he makes his way to kyungjoo, stepping on the bottom of baekhyun's frayed pants. it's been an ongoing thing since middle school. kyungjoo thinks baekhyun's just given up. "oh, coconut shrimp? kyungjoo's is the best."
chanmi hums around a piece of celery. "no melon bread?"
jongin has this sort of laugh he uses whenever he thinks he's in some shit (like that one time during math when he stepped on and broke their teacher's favorite ruler-it was more of a laugh-cry by the end of school) and everyone and their mom knows that on wednesdays, chanmi needs her melon bread. sehyeon grimaces, kyungjoo feels no mercy.
"if," jongin tries as he squeezes himself between a fuming chanmi and an equally as fuming kyungjoo, "if you eat the strawberry bread and take a sip of the green tea together, you'll get a melon taste?"
there's a brief moment of silence and chanmi lets out a murderous giggle before she scrambles onto her hands and jongin leaps over baekhyun's unmoving corpse, past taemin who hasn't even had a chance to sit down and crack open his lunch box. they crash through the rooftop door and the sounds of stampeding feet resound through the school building, and if you listen closely enough, you can hear jongin pleading for mercy.
"why are wednesdays always so loud," baekhyun grumbles as he gets up on his hands and heaves his body up, staring blankly at the untouched bag of drinks. "oh, taem, did you bring the newest one-punch man?" taemin beams brightly and drops a printed copy of the manga onto the ground, and the two begin to chat excitedly over genos' new hi-tech armor that, kyungsoo predicts, will probably be blasted off to bits in the next issue. she stays quiet and takes a large bite of strawberry bread instead as sehyeon makes to start braiding her hair.
jongin doesn't come back into the classroom until two minutes before the bell for the next period, panting and sweating through the thin summer uniform. he splays his arms across his table and stares at kyungjoo with a bit of a pout, as if asking kyungjoo why a banshee like chanmi had to be right next door. kyungjoo snorts, sehyeon sighs.
it's phys. ed. and kyungjoo and sehyeon are sitting under their little tree, watching the upperclassmen dribble soccer balls up and down the field. much too hot for physical exertion, kyungjoo stressed, and despite the heated look lee ssaem gave them, the two slipped away to cool off with one water bottle that jongin had thrown at them on his way to the courts.
"he's really not bad." the water bottle wrapper crackles. "what," sehyeon mutters when kyungjoo rustles and gives her an offended look. "you would know best-you've only been friends for your entire lives."
which is true. kyungjoo and jongin have been neighbors ever since kyungjoo moved into town when they were just little kids picking at bugs and noses. their birthdays, being conveniently two days apart, were always a joint effort by their mothers, and as they grew up, what was jongin's became kyungjoo's, what kyungjoo did, so did jongin. they were inseparable until they hit the tender age of fourteen which may have been the moment that kyungjoo started to not like jongin like that, or something.
"right," sehyeon says, "i don't think that's the case for him, though."
kyungjoo groans and rolls off sehyeon's lap, back onto her feet that have become itchy with the sand she kicks up. it's wednesday, she just wants to get home to watch show champion. they stretch out their lazy limbs as lee ssaem makes the last few calls for drills. "i think i've had enough of this conversation with you guys."
"i think we've had enough of you beating around the bush." sehyeon puffs her chest out a bit, probably proud that she was able to make an appropriate comeback without mulling about it like she always does.
kyungjoo daintily scoops sehyeon's chest. "you're all misunderstanding," she says, and her voice is cool despite the high heat and the warmth spreading down her neck, "there is nothing. really nothing."
sehyeon pats kyungjoo lightly on the butt. "whatever you say, girl." kyungjoo's about to say, what do you know, but sehyeon looks a little soft, a little worn under the sun. kyungjoo quietly tucks a strand of hair behind sehyeon's ear.
"kyungjoo!" kyungjoo whips her head faster than she'd like to admit but how can she help herself when it's minseok from 3-c waving at her animatedly with that large, beautiful smile on his face. "sorry, can you get that ball for me?"
she stumbles a bit looking for the ball that had rolled over to their tree, stammering, "yeah, of course, let me just-" suddenly, the ball goes flying as sehyeon punts it towards minseok's general direction, having been blessed with the motor skills that kyungjoo has yet to discover in herself. it's okay, kyungjoo reasons with herself, at least she has brains. she turns to sehyeon who rubs her nose with a smirk. "are you kidding me."
"thanks, you two!" minseok shouts as he throws it back into the field and runs back in, laughing with his friends, glistening under the sun. so handsome.
kyungjoo lets out a wrangled sigh. "i hate you."
"if you two don't get in line in five seconds, i'm going to fail you!" lee ssaem hollers, his visor almost popping off his head with the steam that rushes out his ears. the rest of the class laughs and jongin is standing there, hand on his hip, grinning like always.
"liar." sehyeon grabs her wrist and pulls. "it's your only flaw, you know."
"chanmi, please stop hanging on me like i am a rack," kyungjoo says flatly as she gathers together her books and hand outs. chanmi makes a noise in the back of her throat. "it's incredibly hot, and you're not helping."
chanmi makes a weird clicking noise and kyungjoo knows she just did her signature wink, which looks more like an uncontrollable, odd tic. "we're getting ice cream at the convenience store, you're coming, right?" chanmi doesn't wait for a response before she unwraps her arms from kyungjoo's torso and beelines through the desks to the sliding doors. "if you don't come in ten minutes, i'm going to buy all the jaws and not give you any!"
"you wouldn't!" kyungjoo calls out with a laugh as chanmi echoes, "try me!", their exclamations resounding in the near empty school with chanmi's animated skips. kyungjoo shakes her head and thinks, what a typical wednesday, and flips her chair over onto her desk.
the walk to the home ec room after school is always an unnerving one, because the floorboards in that particular area of the hallway are old and rickety. kyungjoo tiptoes silently into the room. why she forgets her needles every week, she doesn't know, but it might be a sign of forgetfulness. kyungjoo frowns. she doesn't like the sound of that.
"hey." kyungjoo jumps two inches off the floor and almost kicks baekhyun in the face. "hey now," he says a bit warily, "you know, you do this all the time." he grins when kyungjoo lets out a huge sigh of relief. "just wanted to let you know about the chorus schedule. ssaem called in and said she won't be able to hold practice tomorrow."
kyungjoo gives him a weird look. "are you okay?" it's something that could easily be said over text, she thinks, but baekhyun doesn't seem to be himself, what with the way he looks down at the floor, fidgeting, and if kyungjoo has to deal with another case of a mental breakdown, she's calling off school for the rest of the week. "you've been acting weird all day."
baekhyun looks up, grin plastered on oddly. he's the definition of not-okay, but if there is anything kyungjoo has learned about byun baekhyun over the course of their high school career, it is that everything is always okay. "seriously." he gives the same overused, flat laugh and wraps an arm around kyungjoo's shoulder before she can say anything else. they waddle to the door in step with one another, kyungjoo careful not to let her knitting needles jab into baekhyun's side. he sings a song low under his breath, a tune kyungjoo's heard a million times over, as he slides the door open with his foot.
"just tell her," she says. baekhyun drops his arm and gives her a wary smile. "you've got nothing to lose."
with a laugh, baekhyun kisses kyungjoo on her forehead and stares at her straight in the eyes. "that's rich, coming from you." kyungjoo pouts.
baekhyun saunters off with a laugh, leaving kyungjoo to lock the home ec room with her copy of the key. she presses her face against the windowpane that has become cloudy with dirt and fingertips. the view of the schoolyard is nothing much, but, kyungjoo ponders as she spots baekhyun ruining chanmi's ponytail and sehyeon busily taking snapshots on her phone, there is something else about it that kyungjoo loves all the same.
"hey." kyungjoo turns left and jongin waves at her, small telescope in hand. "ready?"
kyungjoo makes a noise and walks over to jongin who extends his hand in a characteristically gentlemanly manner. she slaps it hard.
"fine," jongin huffs, "i'm not giving you this." he waves the melon bread wrapped in its cozy plastic package, and before he can come up with an "unless" she snatches it and rips it open. "you're a brute."
kyungjoo crinkles her eyes, "oh, you're so funny, sir."
jongin crinkles his nose. "why, thank you very much, sir." she smacks him again.
by the time they walk out of the school, chanmi really has bought all the jaws ice cream, but it doesn't matter because she drops them all when kyungjoo waves the last piece of her melon bread in the air.
in the end, kyungjoo thinks as she bites on one half of a coffee flavored ice pop, i never got to watch show champion. she thinks back to the unfinished skirt lying in her room, and then of her older sister who has probably used it as a rag to wipe the dishes. modern history feels heavy in her backpack and suddenly kyungjoo's head jerks back and she lets out a shout.
"you're thinking too hard again," jongin comments and he slings on kyungjoo's backpack on his right shoulder, swiftly putting his hands back into his pockets with practiced ease. "you're really going to get wrinkly."
kyungjoo huffs. "stop worrying about me, or you're really going to get stupid." it's a stupid comeback and kyungjoo thinks maybe she caught the stupid from sehyeon. sehyeon would say otherwise with a little waggle of her eyebrows and a smirk. kyungjoo pictures it in her head and internally groans. for a dumb kid, sehyeon is pretty smart. there's still a few minutes until they reach kyungjoo's house, and if this keeps up, she might really have to take the week off. but, perhaps.
"you're doing it again." kyungjoo looks up and, was that concern in his voice? she glances back down. and in his eyes, and his lips.
this is making her uncomfortable. "mom is making soondubu tonight."
"yeah?" jongin grins. "and?"
there's a brief moment of silence as kyungjoo stops in front of her mailbox and pries it open, not letting her eyes stray to jongin who's leaning dangerously close, too close for comfort. there's nothing in the mailbox, and jongin laughs a little mockingly, a little endearingly.
kyungjoo snaps her mailbox shut and holds her hand out, and jongin obeys, handing her bag over with a shrug. "we'll have leftovers."
"sounds great, i'll be there soon," jongin announces and he hops back onto the heels of his feet, smiles a bright smile, as warm as the setting sun. it tosses kyungjoo's stomach like a green salad. "don't eat all the fish cake like last time."
"just because you mentioned it, i'm going to." kyungjoo grumbles and swings open the gate, ignoring jongin's pout and adamant "you always do that!" over the squeaking of the hinges and the uncomfortable loud thumping in her chest.
"i'm home!" kyungjoo shouts as she makes her way up to the room, ignoring her mother's inquiries about where jongin is, and does he know we're having soondubu tonight? she throws her bag onto her bed and starts when there's a soft knock coming from outside.
"welcome home," jongin beams from his window, already in his sweats and hoodie. kyungjoo flushes and slams her window shut, exclaiming something about perverts and unbearable kim jongins, but even then she can hear jongin's laugh filter into her room, soft in her ears and warm on her skin.
do kyungjoo is eighteen years old and if it isn't obvious already, there's no one in the world she hates (loves) more than kim jongin.
and that..is it. lmao. thank you kindly for reading ♡