[SHINee, SNSD] And why does the elephant fit into the fridge? (1/1)
Title: And why does the elephant fit into the fridge?
Fandom: SHINee, SNSD
Author: blahchiharu
Characters/pairing: Jonghyun/Jessica
Rating: PG
wordcount: ~ 6000
Summary: Jonghyun doesn't care what anyone says. He is not attracted to the creepy math girl. College!au. For lyto
lyto bid on me for help_haiti 8-9 months ago and requested this fic. I procrastinated and procrastinated until I felt like a total jerk, after which I asked to change her prompt ;A; WHY AM I LIKE THIS. Anyways, she wanted SHINee het fluff with Kibum/Tiffany bff-ery and a dash of Super Junior's "No Other" MV... And it had to be college!au. ANYWAYS HERE YOU GO
Ty mousapelli for betaing!
Jonghyun notices her at first in their calc class. He sits at the back and dozes off while she perches over her desk at the front row, carefully taking notes without missing a beat. Some days he comes in late and the professor deliberately calls him to the board, where justice is dealt in confusing equations of tangents and other symbols he hasn’t bothered to understand. When he turns around to head back to his seat--the one in the back, behind the weird kid who always plays his DS but never misses a class and the girl who always always always wears a ribbon in her hair--she is looking at him with round eyes, and he almost expects her to correct his mistake on the board.
Jonghyun may have wandering eyes, but he has always admitted that the girl, that girl, was undeniably attractive. Or at least he thought so until she opened her mouth and started speaking math, thus proceeding to drag the exam curve down for the rest of the semester. It’s not that Jonghyun doesn’t appreciate intelligence, but he already has Jinki-hyung and his crazy multidimensional analysis of linear algebra thesis, so Ms. Euler and her graphing calculator can really just stuff it.
Then one day he’s hella hungry after missing lunch, and successfully crashes Kibum’s diner at the dining hall with his economics marketing group (despite Kibum’s complaints and threats, which Jonghyun knows are just signs of his affection) and finds her sitting at their table.
“This is my friend Jonghyun,” Kibum explains wearily to his group. “Is it okay if he eats with us?” Regardless, he’s already moving down one seat to make room for Jonghyun.
Jonghyun supposes that their econ strategy meeting must have been a dud anyways, because he successfully changes the topic and starts blabbing about the flash rave at the library next weekend to the burgers on the corner to the lady gaga tickets that are going on sale. At the end of dinner, everyone is rushing off to make it to their 7pm discussion, and Jonghyun finds himself with the girl, whose only reply to his casual mentioning of recognizing her from somewhere is, “yeah, you’re in my math lecture. You’re the one who can’t derive polynomials.”
Jonghyun opens his mouth to complain, but she’s already smiling and picking up her plates. “Well, it was nice meeting you. Maybe you’ll make it to class on time tomorrow,” she says before gracefully walking away.
What the hell, Jonghyun thinks, and stuffs another cookie in his mouth. Rude.
Jonghyun doesn’t make it to his math lecture on time the next day. In fact, he skips class for the rest of the week, waking up only when Kibum comes storming into his room at noon on Friday, throwing pillows at Jonghyun’s face. “Yah! Get up, you punk! Did you eat the left over sushi in the fridge?!”
“The box that’s been in there since August?” Jonghyun cries, throwing his duvet over his face. “No, I didn’t eat it! Go away!”
“Get up, you bum.” Kibum replies by pulling everything off Jonghyun’s bed, rolling his eyes when Jonghyun curls up into a ball and feigns sleep. “This room smells foul. I bet that’s why Jinki-hyung hasn’t slept here in forever.”
Jonghyun wants to point out that Jinki hasn’t slept in here because he’s been living at the library to add even more pages to his already monstrous thesis, coming back to their apartment only when he desperately needed a change of clothes or contact with the rest of the human population. Kibum knows this well enough, if his habit of coming in and cleaning Jinki’s side of the room is any indication.
“Okay, fine,” Kibum says at last. “Just get up already. I want to get food before my psych class. Will you come eat with me, at least?” He doesn’t wait for Jonghyun to reply, already picking up random articles of clothing from the floor and throwing it over Jonghyun’s body. “And Jesus! Wear some pants when you sleep!”
Jonghyun really wonders why they’re best friends, what with Kibum’s constant nagging. Thank God that Minho is the one rooming with Kibum. In fact, thank God that Minho has mastered the art of ignoring all of them for the good of his sanity.
Kibum is waiting at the door when Jonghyun comes trudging along in a wrinkled t-shirt and what is probably Jinki’s sweatpants. His outfit clearly clashes with Kibum’s bright pink hot pants and the weird ass head band in Kibum’s hair. “You’re going to swipe me in, right? Cause I lost my ID and can’t find it anywhere?”
“Have you tried looking under your ass?” Kibum says absently, “Because you sure are good at pulling shit out of there.”
“Haha, you’re funny.” Jonghyun steals a bagel from the kitchen table and follows.
A few days later, campus is buzzing with the approaching semi-formal for second years. Jonghyun shows up to his acapella group rehearsal and is handed a list of names. “We need to raise money,” Yehsung tells him, “and suckers want to ask their girls out. So we,” he gestures towards the current members in the choir room, “are going to sell singing telegrams.”
They spend twenty minutes dragging Kyuhyun away from his computer and his new Starcraft 2 before hitting all the major academic buildings. After bursting into three lecture halls and publically embarrassing multiple girls with their rendition of “You Are My Sunshine,” Jonghyun takes a look at their list and realizes that their next destination is his math class--the one he’s supposed to be in right now.
They’re already at the door of room 005 before Jonghyun can complain, and the next thing he knows, Yehsung is already asking, “Is Jessica Jung here?”
Ms. Pythagoras raises her hand from the first row and regards them with some suspicion. Jonghyun follows his other group members lamely to her desk and begins belting out “A Whole New World.” Ms. Pythagoras, however, saves them the trouble and cuts in after the second verse. “Okay, did Lee Yunjee send this? If so, the answer is no, I will not go to the formal with him.”
Everyone’s amusement only increases when Yehsung replies from the side lines with, “No, eh, he’s not the one who ordered this singing telegram. This is actually from Kim Jo-” He pauses upon spotting a poor guy waving frantically at him to stop, three rows behind Jessica. Upon Jessica’s impatient gaze, Yehsung continues awkwardly with, “-nhyung. Yes, this is from our own member Kim Jonghyun! What are the chances?!”
“Yes-What!?” Jonghyun cries, having finally started paying attention to the entire exchange.
“What the hell!” Jonghyun whines when they’re walking away from the math building. “Hyung! Why did you do that?!”
“Shhh, we have to put our own pride on the line for the delicate feelings of our customers,” Yehsung replies, patting Jonghyun on the shoulder. “Besides, the sucker promised to pay us twice the amount for covering his ass.”
“I don’t know why you’re so worried,” Kyuhyun adds from behind them, walking ever so slowly. “She said no, anyways.”
“You are all terrible people and I’m quitting.” Jonghyun decides. “I’m quitting and I’m going to join Vocal Sensations instead.”
“Vocal Sensations is the all girls dance troupe,” Ryeowook corrects, speaking up for the first time.
“So,” Kibum says, first thing, when Jonghyun comes back to the apartment that night. He’s cooking in the kitchen while Minho reads a book by the kitchen table. “You asked Jessica to the semi-formal?”
“What?” Jonghyun huffs indignantly. “No.”
“There’s a video of you serenading her and getting rejected on the internet,” Taemin supplies helpfully from his spot on the couch, a laptop settled comfortably in his lap as he smiles angelically at Jonghyun. “It went viral three hours ago. Jinki-hyung even texted me about it!”
“Fuck my life,” Jonghyun whines. “Can you at least make my favorite food tonight?”
“No,” Kibum says. “I’m making steak for Taemin.”
If possible, Jonghyun would prefer to skip his math lecture for the rest of the semester. Unfortunately, midterms are approaching and Jonghyun really doesn’t want to fail the last mathematics requirement needed for his major, so come Monday, he walks lamely into class and is greeted with sympathetic looks from his fellow classmates.
“That’s tough, man,” DS guy says. “Sorry she said no. But let’s be honest, she’s probably out of our league for guys like us.”
Jonghyun opens his mouth to say something along the lines of, fuck you, speak for yourself, when Jessica walks in and takes a seat. Jonghyun tries to concentrate, but spends the entire lecture staring at her perfectly slender back and the straps of her tank top. At the end of the lecture, Jessica’s friend turns to her and whispers, not so subtly, “Ew, Sicca, don’t look, but telegram boy is leering at you!”
Jonghyun wants to kill himself. He takes revenge by throwing paper balls at the real sender of the singing telegram instead.
A few days later Taemin is given a picnic basket full of food and is sent to deliver it to Jinki at the library, just like Little Red Riding Hood-
-Except Taemin has dance rehearsals and manages to guilt trip Jonghyun to do it for him. “Plus, you’re more of Little Red’s height, hyung!” Taemin beams and bounces away, leaving Jonghyun to lament over how cute and innocent Taemin used to be. Damn Kibum and his corruption.
It would have a been a thoughtful idea, if only Jinki’s cellphone didn’t have crappy reception and Jonghyun didn’t spend thirty minutes looking around the engineering reference floor with a bigass picnic basket before giving up. Again, damn Kibum and his need to pack food all fancily.
Jonghyun makes it halfway out the library before walking into a familiar girl at the checkout counter. “Oi, oi, oi!” The weird librarian who never does anything productive (and Jonghyun once found sitting in between the aisles of the nonfiction section once, stuffing candy-cane hearts in between the books) waves at Jonghyun suddenly, and Jonghyun can’t help but awkwardly shuffle over.
“Sicca, is this is fool that you rejected in that video?” The librarian asks, just in case his plot to humiliate Jonghyun wasn’t concrete enough already.
“Heechul Oppa!” Jessica looks more annoyed than embarrassed. Heechul gives them an absent minded shrug and wheels the cart of returned books away. Jonghyun thinks he sees a candy canes poking out of Heechul’s pants pockets.
“Look,” Jonghyun says pitifully once it’s just them, with Jessica sitting thoughtfully on the side of the check out counter, flipping through the fashion magazines Heechul left behind. “I didn’t ask you out!”
“I know,” Jessica hums good naturedly, busy engrossed in the magazine. “Jowok told me. He tried asking again after class and I had to reject him. Again.”
“Your life is so hard,” Jonghyun mumbles and, as if one cue, his stomach grumbles as well. He opens up the basket and pulling out the tuna sandwich Kibum made. He’s halfway through it when he sees Jessica looking at him with interest, so Jonghyun shrugs and pulls out the chicken salad sandwich and asks, “Want one?”
“No eating in the library,” Jessica says and points to the sign on the wall behind them.
“Fine, your loss,” Jonghyun shrugs and then proceeds to walk out. By the time he gets back to their apartment, Jinki is already home, and Jonghyun has to explain exactly why the sandwiches Kibum made with love were already eaten. Jonghyun makes up some story about the homeless man on 16th street but no one believes him; in the end Kibum sentences him to dish washing duty for a week and still doesn’t make Jonghyun’s favorite food for dinner.
October comes and goes, and suddenly campus is filled with preparations for Halloween. One day Jonghyun walks into his music theory class to find everyone clad in some variation of orange and black and thinks, shit, he totally doesn’t have a costume. Then he thinks, shit, was the paper on harmonics due today?
“Silly boy,” Kibum says when Jonghyun comes back that day. “You’re not going frat partying because we are going to a club tonight.” He grins smugly and Jonghyun is suddenly reminded of why this brilliant, brilliant man is his best friend.
Jonghyun takes it all back when they end up on the steps of a gay club later that night. “What the hell, Kibum! I thought we were out to get girls! Girls!”
Kibum waves him off absently. “Don’t worry about it. This is a perfect place to get your women.”
“How?”
“Well,” Kibum takes a minute to make up some grade A bullshit. “First of all, gay men have lots of sexy eligible straight female friends. Second of all, since I fall into the first category, I too have some attractive female friends.” He flashes the bouncer their fake IDs and then heads straight for the bar, where two girls in miniskirts are waiting.
“Hi Mr. Telegram,” Kibum’s friend winks eagerly at Jonghyun from her seat next to Jessica. “Are you going to sing Sicca another song?” Upon Jonghyun’s jaw dropping to the floor, she adds, “Who are you suppose to be? Michael Jackson?”
“I’m Lucifer!” Jonghyun motions pathetically towards his outfit, but gives up when Kibum laughs and says, “Cut him a break, Fany. He’s possibly the only straight man in here.”
“I would flirt with you, you know,” Tiffany says with a smile, two empty martini glasses to her right. “But since you’re still hopelessly in love with Sicca, I’ll pass.”
“I’m flattered,” Jessica says, and when Tiffany bounces away to go to the dance floor with Kibum, she pats the empty seat next to her and motions for Jonghyun to join her. “So Kibum tricked you, huh?”
“Why are you here?” Jonghyun asks pathetically, poking at Tiffany’s empty glasses. “Shouldn’t you be having a party at home with your calculus book?”
“Your sarcasm is dully noted,” Jessica says flatly. “Let me buy you a drink, and then can we call us even?” It turns out that Jessica doesn’t actually have to buy Jonghyun anything, because there’s already a steady influx of drinks on the bar set out for Tiffany and Jessica, courtesy of the few other straight men currently occupying this club.
“So exactly how many proposals did you get?” Jonghyun asks after a shot of Smirnoff vodka, which did not taste like apples at all.
Jessica moves a strand of perfectly curled hair behind her shoulder and thinks. “Four? Five? I got some in our mailbox too, but I told Fany to throw those away. Why, are you surprised that I am not socially stunted just because I’m doing better in Calc than you?”
“No.” Jonghyun makes a face, going in for the glass with the midori sour mix. “Maybe...yes.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation,” Jessica replies over the bizarrely loud music in the background. “I’m surprised that you can sing.”
“You learn something new everyday,” Jonghyun laughs, holding out the really unmanly martini glass and grins with Jessica picks up a shot glass to meet him for a toast. They stop when Tiffany and Kibum comes back, giggling.
“Time to go,” Kibum says, pulling at Jonghyun’s arm.
Tiffany is doing the same, scooting Jessica out of her seat. “Kibummie rejected one too many dances and drunken people anger easily.” She grabs the last filled shot glass on the counter and down it before pulling Jessica towards the exit, their heels making clicking sounds on the floor as Jonghyun and Kibum follow. The four of them hit one more party after that, Kibum winning at beer pong and Jonghyun drinking the beer for him when Kibum occasionally miss after leering at attractive men for too long. That party ends when the cops come, and they sneak out of the back door and end up at the local deli place on campus, laughing as Tiffany flirts with the boy working at the counter to give them a discount.
“And you know she didn’t even want to come out with us tonight?” Fanny says between bites of her sub. “She wanted to stay in and watch a movie, but I made her wear this dress, because it makes her boobs look big, and drag her out, and what fun that was, right Jonghyun?”
“Yeah,” Jonghyun replies absent mindedly. “Yeah, that dress does make her boobs look b- I mean, yeah, we all had fun.”
Jessica’s stare only makes Jonghyun feel more like an ass.
“Oh, don’t be such a prude,” Kibum is telling Jessica. “At least he’s admitting that you have boobs.”
The next time they have calc, Jonghyun sits next to Jessica and pays attention for the first time all semester. Jessica invites him to a review session for their next exam and he shows up, only to find out that he’s missed about three weeks of material. “You’re ridiculous,” Jessica says when Jonghyun begs to her to tutor him on the power series. She manages to help him pass the exam and Jonghyun is tricked into cleaning Jessica and Tiffany’s bathroom to repay his depts.
“Oh, it’s not that big of a deal,” Jessica says from the door way when Jonghyun demands another bottle of bleach.
“There is hair everywhere!”
“Don’t forget to unplug the bathtub too!” Tiffany points out cheerfully before leaving.
Jonghyun ends up spending his entire Saturday scrubbing the lime-stained walls of their bathtub, stopping only when Jessica stops studying in the other room and knocks on the door to the bathroom. “Want to get some food?”
Jonghyun pulls down the bandana covering his hair. “Is it your treat?”
“Yes, yes,” she laughs. “It'll be romantic. I’ll swipe you into the dinning hall, and you can have anything you want~”
At the dining hall, they spend an hour laughing over the tomato sauce stuck in Jonghyun’s teeth, Jessica’s nerdy glasses, and Tiffany’s endless collection of mango flavored body creams before Jonghyun gets a text from Taemin. “Hey,” Jonghyun starts to say as he stands up to get another refill. “There’s a party at our place tomorrow night. Want to come?”
“Is it going be a bunch of guys sitting around, playing super smash?” Jessica wants to know.
“Maybe?”
Jessica laughs. “I’ll be there, but just to warn you, I play a mean Kirby.”
She’s not lying, because a day later Jonghyun finds himself getting K’Oed by a bouncy pink blurb on the screen as his own character falls off the platform. “What the hell,” he says, turning to Jessica, who simply grins in return. It gets really bad when Jessica also beats Minho, which starts a twenty minute match in which Minho refuses to back down until his pride has recovered (which doesn’t happen, because Kirby ends up dropping an anchor over Falcon’s head, sending him flying off).
“Okay, okay, enough,” Kibum whines and unplugs the game cube. “Enough of this, we’re going to watch a movie now. Sooo, romantic comedy or horror?”
“Romantic comedy, duh!” Jonghyun says without looking up, stopping only when Jessica stares at him in disbelief. “I mean, eh, let’s watch the scary movie.”
“Don’t be silly, Hyung,” Taemin starts to say. “You can’t watch th-”
“No, you don’t be silly!” Jonghyun cuts in. “This is my favorite film.”
Half an hour later, Jonghyun is hiding behind Jessica. “Your favorite film, huh?” She says with amusement, but lets Jonghyun hide anyways.
November is filled with ridiculous papers for his music theory class and endless reading for his music history course. “What’s this, you’re actually studying?” Kibum raises an eyebrow when he finds Jonghyun sitting at the kitchen table with a book open. “Maybe Jessica is rubbing off on you.”
“But not in the way he wants her to!” Taemin chimes in from his room, stopping only when Kibum yells at him to cut out the snark.
Later in the month, Minho is cleaning all the sticky notes off the fridge when he finds an invitation that’s been taped to the door since last semester. That’s when Minho looks up and says, “Hey, Siwon hyung’s wedding is in two weeks.”
“No, it’s not,” Kibum snorts. “His wedding is in December.”
“December is in two weeks,” Minho points out, pulling a loaf of bread out of the fridge and doing considerable damage to it. He stops eating when Kibum begins swearing and flipping through his pocket calendar. “What’s the big deal?”
“We need clothes,” Kibum says. “And dates. I get dibs on Tiffany!”
“What,” Jonghyun begins to say. “This isn’t a race-”
“Then I call Victoria!” Jinki screeches from the couch.
“Sunny,” Minho says, setting down his bread.
“Minzi!” Taemin calls out.
“Your turn, Jjong,” Kibum says and hands Jonghyun his cell phone expectantly. Jonghyun sighs and begins scrolling through Kibum’s contact list. Four pairs of eyes scrutinize Jonghyun as he pauses on Jessica’s name. Jonghyun snaps the phone shut instead and hands it back to Kibum.
“Yeah, you know, I think I’ll just ask her in person.”
Jessica is unfazed when he asks her the next day. She doesn’t even look up from scribbling into her notebook. “Choi Siwon oppa’s wedding? I was invited too, but yes, I will go as your date.” She continues before Jonghyun has time to reply. “Plus, Tiffany said she’d set me up with someone weird if I didn’t go.”
Kibum rents tuxes for all of them, despite Jinki’s questions of how Kibum even knew their sizes to begin with. December is warmer than they expected, and as all five of them meet their dates in front of the university chapel, Jonghyun can’t help but tug a bit at his tie.
“Nervous?” Jessica asks when she spots him out of the bridal party. She’s clad in a pretty pink dress and a necklace that matches his tie. “I heard they’ve been on the waiting list for a year before finally getting to use this chapel. Want to go in?”
“Sure.” Jonghyun offers his arm, and Jessica instantly takes it as they go find their seats. The wedding is boring as expected, but at least this time Jonghyun is not singing in the choir. They watch the bride and groom exchange vows while Kibum yawns visibly from the side.
After the wedding everyone lines up outside of the chapel to throw rice at the couple, after which Jessica pulls at Jonghyun’s sleeve and says, “I think something got in my eye. I don’t have a pocket mirror so, can you, you know?”
“Yeah,” Jonghyun replies easily, leaning down to peer past Jessica’s fluttery eyelashes. He rubs softly at the base of her waterline with his index finger, grinning when she blinks. Up close, Jessica’s glittery eye shadow catches the light just right, and Jonghyun can’t help but be reminded of exactly how pretty his date is. “Yeah, something was stuck. You wear way too much eyeliner. Not that it doesn’t look good, I mean. Eh.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” she giggles.
“Hey, you two, flirt later,” Tiffany says as they board the cars to the venue.
At the reception, they sit at a round table and sample fancy but horribly small plates of food. Siwon’s parents are making rounds around the ball room, thanking the guests in attendance, and Jonghyun has to remind himself to sign the guest book before leaving. Jonghyun tries to tell Siwon’s father a joke about elephants and refrigerators, but stops when Kibum begins whining, “Oh, not that again.”
“Want to dance?” Jessica asks before Jonghyun has a chance to throw a napkin at Kibum. People are beginning to fill the dance floor after the father-daughter dance, so Jonghyun nods and lets Jessica leads the way to the middle of the ball room.
“You’re a pretty good date,” she says as the pianist begins a slow song. “Maybe I should have gone with you to that formal.”
“You missed out.” Jonghyun winks as he leads, the heel of his fancy shoes scraping the floor as Jessica follows. “Why were you so opposed to going to that thing anyways? I bet you spent the entire night at the library or something.”
“No,” Jessica says as Jonghyun twirls her around, the hem of her chiffon dress making a pretty little circle right above her knees. “I didn’t know any of those guys. Plus, I prefer people ask me in person.”
Jonghyun grins. “So demanding.” His hand lands on the small of Jessica’s back while hers sit on the end of his shoulder when Eeteuk hyung comes around to take photos. Both Jonghyun and Jessica turn to smile, but they bump cheeks instead and end up laughing.
“Sicca,” Eeteuk says, eyes widening. “Is Jonghyunnie the one who asked you out from that vid-”
“Just go, hyung!” Jonghyun cries pitifully, and half of the room starts laughing.
“I have a problem,” Jonghyun says when they’re all sharing a cab back to the apartment.
“You have a crush on Jessica noona and you don’t want her to publically reject you again,” Taemin replies fluidly from the passenger seat. “Are you sure you’re not uncomfortable back there?” He asks and looks towards the back seat, into which Minho, Jonghyun, Kibum, and Jinki are all crammed.
Kibum rolls his eyes. “Of course we’re not okay. Jinki-hyung ate too much chicken and now he probably has indigestion.”
“Does anyone even care about my woes?” Jonghyun wants to know.
“Buy her flowers,” Minho is the first to speak up. “Then sing her a love song.”
“And then what?”
“Wait, repeat, and then profit?” Jinki suggests with a sluggish smile.
“I’m so screwed,” Jonghyun decides.
“By the way,” Kibum says. “You all owe me money for these tux rentals.”
Asking Jessica out is no small feat, because Kibum knows, therefore Tiffany knows, therefore Jessica probably has an idea of where this is going when Jonghyun suggests they grab some food together after calc. “Sorry, I have sociology after this. Maybe later,” she says before grabbing her bag and heading out.
Three days later, Jonghyun asks Jessica if she wants to hit the library with him for a study session, and she says no, has a club meeting or something equally vague. The next week, Jonghyun asks her to see a movie and Jessica tells him that she has to volunteer. Jonghyun proposes getting dumpling by the bookstore and Jessica counter attacks with an economics meeting. Finally, Jonghyun reverts to drastic measures, those measures being shouting into the phone, “Come have dinner with me tonight or our friendship is over!”
“Well,” Jessica replies passively over her end. “I have a yoga class with Tiffany at seven that night, but I can probably meet you at five. Is that good?”
Jessica ends up coming to dinner in yoga pants and a hoodie. She pays no attention to the menu and orders a salad, busy doodling with the set of crayons set aside for the kid’s menu to pay attention to Jonghyun’s babbling. It’s then that Jonghyun realizes something fundamental about their situations: Jessica is spacey and she, despite her undeniable intellect, is still as socially awkward as Jinki-hyung. Jessica is focused yet absent minded at the same time. She’s constantly busy, constantly moving, but still manages to be unreadable. Jessica is the fundamental archetype of the working girl-too ambitious to look around at the people surrounding her.
And most importantly, Jonghyun has been nothing but an afterthought to her.
So Jonghyun savors the last drops of his pride and decides not to ask her out, which works out for the both of them, because Jessica probably never even had a clue.
Finals come faster than expected, and Jonghyun manages to finally learn the name of their T.A. in time to ask for his current average in calc. It then occurs to him that a whole semester worth of skipped classes and missed homework have caught up to him, so he turns to the only person he could possibly ask for help.
“First of all,” Jessica says when he shows up on her apartment door steps. “Our final is in one week, and you haven’t even taken notes all semester.” When Jonghyun opens his mouth to complain, she adds, “Don’t lie, I’ve seen your notebook!”
Jonghyun is one requirement away from enrolling in the advance music program, and if he does anything less than perfect on this exam, he can say goodbye to his long time dream of being a composer. Jessica listens to all of this with a blank face before saying, “Fine, but you better be ready to cram your ass off.”
Cramming is exactly what they do for the next few days. Jessica digs out matching white boards from her closet as they sit down to go through old exam problems. When Jonghyun gets stuck a third of the way through the practice exam, Jessica sighs and opens her notebook, the lines and writing on the pages precise and intimidating. “We’re going to work through all the homework problems assigned this semester,” she tells him while pulling her hair up to a ponytail.
“Are you kidding?” Jonghyun wants to laugh, but Jessica is staring at him behind the frames of her reading glasses crossly, so Jonghyun sighs and decides to get comfortable. They stay like that, Jessica working at her desk while Jonghyun sits on the floor, leaning back against the side of her bed. They go through each problem carefully until Jonghyun is sick of drawing little curvy symbols on his whiteboard and tired of the marker stain tattooed permanently on the side of his hand.
Days turn into nights in that room, and eventually Jessica manages to stand up, stretching in her sweat pants as she dumps the boxes from today’s take out in the trash. Jonghyun passes out more than once in a mountain of loose leaf paper and wakes up to find Jessica in the exact same position, hunched over her desk with the lamplight illuminating her face, scowling in concentration.
Jonghyun sleeps on the couch in the girls’ apartment for the first few nights, leaving only to grab a quick bite and showering at his own place before coming back, armed with more paper and new markers. This works until the combination of both Jessica and Tiffany’s studying material pile up and migrate into the living room, and one day Jonghyun goes into the living at 2am to catch some shut eye, only to have Tiffany run out of her room in Hello Kitty pajamas and shoo him off. “You can’t sleep there! My architecture model needs to air out over night!”
Jonghyun sighs pitifully and grabs the pillow, making himself comfortable on the only rug in the room as he curls up next to the stack of Tiffany’s architecture textbooks. When he looks up again Jessica is standing in front of him, clad in new sweat pants and peering over him. “Come on,” she says. “You can sleep in my room.”
They end up on Jessica’s full size bed, a fortress of pillows stacked between them as Jessica sleeps, face turned against the wall. Jonghyun wakes up the next morning to the sound of water in the shower, and then it’s another day of linearization and impartial derivatives. They fall into an almost familiar pattern- Jonghyun teases Jessica about her snoring while she snaps at him to go back to the problems. At night, they fall asleep in the same bed and Jonghyun wakes up to a mouthful of Jessica’s hair, their knees pressed together and a haphazard arm thrown around his chest as Jessica digs her face into his arm.
Jessica is cranky in the mornings, her face swollen and her eyes small. After showering, she comes back with damp hair and situates herself back at her desk until Tiffany comes home with bagels and donuts, complaining about their “crazy study habits, you nerds.”
Jonghyun finally leaves the apartment for his music history final, having spent the entire night cramming composers and song titles into his head as he rushes halfway across campus with Jessica’s pencils. After the exam, he drops by his own apartment, only to find Taemin asleep on the couch with a million blankets draped over him while Kibum studies at the kitchen table.
“Well well well,” Kibum says. “Look who moved out of the love nest.”
Jonghyun ignores him and goes to take a hot shower, stopping only when Minho knocks on the door and says something about needing to brush his teeth before his economics final. That afternoon is spent going over Jinki’s old notes for music theory in the space opposite of Kibum. “Really,” Kibum says when Taemin finally wakes up from his naps with a book in his face. “I’m this close to killing myself if I have to read one more page about Freud.”
Jinki comes back with dinner and they all flock to the box of fried chicken like wild animals. Jonghyun spends that night in his own bed, having grown too tired of roman numerals and the derivative of inverse tangents. In the morning he aces his oral exam and then turns in his portfolio for Composition 215. That night he goes back to Jessica’s place, only to find her sleeping at her desk. Underneath her arms are the texts to her sociology course, and suddenly Jonghyun feels guilty for monopolizing her time.
Jonghyun takes a seat on her bed and goes over the last few pages of her notebook, the flimsy paper sticking to each other as he tries not to rip them. Jessica wakes up an hour later and looks at him with wonder in her eyes. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” She asks, re-adjusting her ponytail.
“As ready as ever.” He shoots her a smile. “And you look terrible, by the way.”
“You’re a jerk.” She laughs, and they both know she doesn’t mean it.
The next day, they squeeze into identical seats and Jonghyun prays for the Gods of Mathematics to smile upon him. Then he realizes that he should probably have been nicer to Jinki-hyung for the calculus deities to favor him. It’s about then that Jessica gives his shoulder a little squeezes and whispers, “Good luck,” before the T.A. comes strolling down the aisle with a stack of exam papers.
Jonghyun recovers from all of his studying by spending two whole days in bed, headphones plugged in and writing music he never had a chance to put to paper in the flurry of assignments this semester. His plan works until Kibum wakes him up one day, saying, “Taemin’s parents are here to pick him up. Come say goodbye.”
Minho is helping Taemin move his duffle bag out when they walk into the living room. “Oh hyung,” Taemin says when he sees them, even though Jonghyun is not sure who he’s talking to anymore. “You have to come visit me over vacation!” Jonghyun nods and thinks about all those days of sweet bliss that is to come.
Jonghyun spends the rest of that morning watching Kibum cram a wardrobe worth of clothes into one suitcase. “Shut up, I totally do need all of this over break.” It’s not until Kibum is calling his parents on the phone that Jonghyun realizes something very important.
Still here? :OOO he texts Jessica and waits impatiently until she replies a few minutes later with, Yep, I’m not leaving until Friday.
Good, Jonghyun thinks, and then begins his throng of mass texts.
Friday morning, Jessica wakes up to find a million pastel colored balloons in her apartment. Taped to her door is a rose with a stickynote and a message of, Go out with me? -Jonghyun
“Why did the elephant fit into the fridge?” She asks when Jonghyun finally picks up her call.
“Why?” Jonghyun laughs at the other end.
“Because I like you,” Jessica says breathlessly into the receiver. “And yes, I will go out with you.”
fin
[AN]: DON'T HATE ME FOR TAKING SO LONG ):! k thanks bye.
Love it? Hate it? Please leave some feedback, even if it may be a little late. You can also join the community, since I'll be locking up NC17 fics.
Fandom: SHINee, SNSD
Author: blahchiharu
Characters/pairing: Jonghyun/Jessica
Rating: PG
wordcount: ~ 6000
Summary: Jonghyun doesn't care what anyone says. He is not attracted to the creepy math girl. College!au. For lyto
lyto bid on me for help_haiti 8-9 months ago and requested this fic. I procrastinated and procrastinated until I felt like a total jerk, after which I asked to change her prompt ;A; WHY AM I LIKE THIS. Anyways, she wanted SHINee het fluff with Kibum/Tiffany bff-ery and a dash of Super Junior's "No Other" MV... And it had to be college!au. ANYWAYS HERE YOU GO
Ty mousapelli for betaing!
Jonghyun notices her at first in their calc class. He sits at the back and dozes off while she perches over her desk at the front row, carefully taking notes without missing a beat. Some days he comes in late and the professor deliberately calls him to the board, where justice is dealt in confusing equations of tangents and other symbols he hasn’t bothered to understand. When he turns around to head back to his seat--the one in the back, behind the weird kid who always plays his DS but never misses a class and the girl who always always always wears a ribbon in her hair--she is looking at him with round eyes, and he almost expects her to correct his mistake on the board.
Jonghyun may have wandering eyes, but he has always admitted that the girl, that girl, was undeniably attractive. Or at least he thought so until she opened her mouth and started speaking math, thus proceeding to drag the exam curve down for the rest of the semester. It’s not that Jonghyun doesn’t appreciate intelligence, but he already has Jinki-hyung and his crazy multidimensional analysis of linear algebra thesis, so Ms. Euler and her graphing calculator can really just stuff it.
Then one day he’s hella hungry after missing lunch, and successfully crashes Kibum’s diner at the dining hall with his economics marketing group (despite Kibum’s complaints and threats, which Jonghyun knows are just signs of his affection) and finds her sitting at their table.
“This is my friend Jonghyun,” Kibum explains wearily to his group. “Is it okay if he eats with us?” Regardless, he’s already moving down one seat to make room for Jonghyun.
Jonghyun supposes that their econ strategy meeting must have been a dud anyways, because he successfully changes the topic and starts blabbing about the flash rave at the library next weekend to the burgers on the corner to the lady gaga tickets that are going on sale. At the end of dinner, everyone is rushing off to make it to their 7pm discussion, and Jonghyun finds himself with the girl, whose only reply to his casual mentioning of recognizing her from somewhere is, “yeah, you’re in my math lecture. You’re the one who can’t derive polynomials.”
Jonghyun opens his mouth to complain, but she’s already smiling and picking up her plates. “Well, it was nice meeting you. Maybe you’ll make it to class on time tomorrow,” she says before gracefully walking away.
What the hell, Jonghyun thinks, and stuffs another cookie in his mouth. Rude.
Jonghyun doesn’t make it to his math lecture on time the next day. In fact, he skips class for the rest of the week, waking up only when Kibum comes storming into his room at noon on Friday, throwing pillows at Jonghyun’s face. “Yah! Get up, you punk! Did you eat the left over sushi in the fridge?!”
“The box that’s been in there since August?” Jonghyun cries, throwing his duvet over his face. “No, I didn’t eat it! Go away!”
“Get up, you bum.” Kibum replies by pulling everything off Jonghyun’s bed, rolling his eyes when Jonghyun curls up into a ball and feigns sleep. “This room smells foul. I bet that’s why Jinki-hyung hasn’t slept here in forever.”
Jonghyun wants to point out that Jinki hasn’t slept in here because he’s been living at the library to add even more pages to his already monstrous thesis, coming back to their apartment only when he desperately needed a change of clothes or contact with the rest of the human population. Kibum knows this well enough, if his habit of coming in and cleaning Jinki’s side of the room is any indication.
“Okay, fine,” Kibum says at last. “Just get up already. I want to get food before my psych class. Will you come eat with me, at least?” He doesn’t wait for Jonghyun to reply, already picking up random articles of clothing from the floor and throwing it over Jonghyun’s body. “And Jesus! Wear some pants when you sleep!”
Jonghyun really wonders why they’re best friends, what with Kibum’s constant nagging. Thank God that Minho is the one rooming with Kibum. In fact, thank God that Minho has mastered the art of ignoring all of them for the good of his sanity.
Kibum is waiting at the door when Jonghyun comes trudging along in a wrinkled t-shirt and what is probably Jinki’s sweatpants. His outfit clearly clashes with Kibum’s bright pink hot pants and the weird ass head band in Kibum’s hair. “You’re going to swipe me in, right? Cause I lost my ID and can’t find it anywhere?”
“Have you tried looking under your ass?” Kibum says absently, “Because you sure are good at pulling shit out of there.”
“Haha, you’re funny.” Jonghyun steals a bagel from the kitchen table and follows.
A few days later, campus is buzzing with the approaching semi-formal for second years. Jonghyun shows up to his acapella group rehearsal and is handed a list of names. “We need to raise money,” Yehsung tells him, “and suckers want to ask their girls out. So we,” he gestures towards the current members in the choir room, “are going to sell singing telegrams.”
They spend twenty minutes dragging Kyuhyun away from his computer and his new Starcraft 2 before hitting all the major academic buildings. After bursting into three lecture halls and publically embarrassing multiple girls with their rendition of “You Are My Sunshine,” Jonghyun takes a look at their list and realizes that their next destination is his math class--the one he’s supposed to be in right now.
They’re already at the door of room 005 before Jonghyun can complain, and the next thing he knows, Yehsung is already asking, “Is Jessica Jung here?”
Ms. Pythagoras raises her hand from the first row and regards them with some suspicion. Jonghyun follows his other group members lamely to her desk and begins belting out “A Whole New World.” Ms. Pythagoras, however, saves them the trouble and cuts in after the second verse. “Okay, did Lee Yunjee send this? If so, the answer is no, I will not go to the formal with him.”
Everyone’s amusement only increases when Yehsung replies from the side lines with, “No, eh, he’s not the one who ordered this singing telegram. This is actually from Kim Jo-” He pauses upon spotting a poor guy waving frantically at him to stop, three rows behind Jessica. Upon Jessica’s impatient gaze, Yehsung continues awkwardly with, “-nhyung. Yes, this is from our own member Kim Jonghyun! What are the chances?!”
“Yes-What!?” Jonghyun cries, having finally started paying attention to the entire exchange.
“What the hell!” Jonghyun whines when they’re walking away from the math building. “Hyung! Why did you do that?!”
“Shhh, we have to put our own pride on the line for the delicate feelings of our customers,” Yehsung replies, patting Jonghyun on the shoulder. “Besides, the sucker promised to pay us twice the amount for covering his ass.”
“I don’t know why you’re so worried,” Kyuhyun adds from behind them, walking ever so slowly. “She said no, anyways.”
“You are all terrible people and I’m quitting.” Jonghyun decides. “I’m quitting and I’m going to join Vocal Sensations instead.”
“Vocal Sensations is the all girls dance troupe,” Ryeowook corrects, speaking up for the first time.
“So,” Kibum says, first thing, when Jonghyun comes back to the apartment that night. He’s cooking in the kitchen while Minho reads a book by the kitchen table. “You asked Jessica to the semi-formal?”
“What?” Jonghyun huffs indignantly. “No.”
“There’s a video of you serenading her and getting rejected on the internet,” Taemin supplies helpfully from his spot on the couch, a laptop settled comfortably in his lap as he smiles angelically at Jonghyun. “It went viral three hours ago. Jinki-hyung even texted me about it!”
“Fuck my life,” Jonghyun whines. “Can you at least make my favorite food tonight?”
“No,” Kibum says. “I’m making steak for Taemin.”
If possible, Jonghyun would prefer to skip his math lecture for the rest of the semester. Unfortunately, midterms are approaching and Jonghyun really doesn’t want to fail the last mathematics requirement needed for his major, so come Monday, he walks lamely into class and is greeted with sympathetic looks from his fellow classmates.
“That’s tough, man,” DS guy says. “Sorry she said no. But let’s be honest, she’s probably out of our league for guys like us.”
Jonghyun opens his mouth to say something along the lines of, fuck you, speak for yourself, when Jessica walks in and takes a seat. Jonghyun tries to concentrate, but spends the entire lecture staring at her perfectly slender back and the straps of her tank top. At the end of the lecture, Jessica’s friend turns to her and whispers, not so subtly, “Ew, Sicca, don’t look, but telegram boy is leering at you!”
Jonghyun wants to kill himself. He takes revenge by throwing paper balls at the real sender of the singing telegram instead.
A few days later Taemin is given a picnic basket full of food and is sent to deliver it to Jinki at the library, just like Little Red Riding Hood-
-Except Taemin has dance rehearsals and manages to guilt trip Jonghyun to do it for him. “Plus, you’re more of Little Red’s height, hyung!” Taemin beams and bounces away, leaving Jonghyun to lament over how cute and innocent Taemin used to be. Damn Kibum and his corruption.
It would have a been a thoughtful idea, if only Jinki’s cellphone didn’t have crappy reception and Jonghyun didn’t spend thirty minutes looking around the engineering reference floor with a bigass picnic basket before giving up. Again, damn Kibum and his need to pack food all fancily.
Jonghyun makes it halfway out the library before walking into a familiar girl at the checkout counter. “Oi, oi, oi!” The weird librarian who never does anything productive (and Jonghyun once found sitting in between the aisles of the nonfiction section once, stuffing candy-cane hearts in between the books) waves at Jonghyun suddenly, and Jonghyun can’t help but awkwardly shuffle over.
“Sicca, is this is fool that you rejected in that video?” The librarian asks, just in case his plot to humiliate Jonghyun wasn’t concrete enough already.
“Heechul Oppa!” Jessica looks more annoyed than embarrassed. Heechul gives them an absent minded shrug and wheels the cart of returned books away. Jonghyun thinks he sees a candy canes poking out of Heechul’s pants pockets.
“Look,” Jonghyun says pitifully once it’s just them, with Jessica sitting thoughtfully on the side of the check out counter, flipping through the fashion magazines Heechul left behind. “I didn’t ask you out!”
“I know,” Jessica hums good naturedly, busy engrossed in the magazine. “Jowok told me. He tried asking again after class and I had to reject him. Again.”
“Your life is so hard,” Jonghyun mumbles and, as if one cue, his stomach grumbles as well. He opens up the basket and pulling out the tuna sandwich Kibum made. He’s halfway through it when he sees Jessica looking at him with interest, so Jonghyun shrugs and pulls out the chicken salad sandwich and asks, “Want one?”
“No eating in the library,” Jessica says and points to the sign on the wall behind them.
“Fine, your loss,” Jonghyun shrugs and then proceeds to walk out. By the time he gets back to their apartment, Jinki is already home, and Jonghyun has to explain exactly why the sandwiches Kibum made with love were already eaten. Jonghyun makes up some story about the homeless man on 16th street but no one believes him; in the end Kibum sentences him to dish washing duty for a week and still doesn’t make Jonghyun’s favorite food for dinner.
October comes and goes, and suddenly campus is filled with preparations for Halloween. One day Jonghyun walks into his music theory class to find everyone clad in some variation of orange and black and thinks, shit, he totally doesn’t have a costume. Then he thinks, shit, was the paper on harmonics due today?
“Silly boy,” Kibum says when Jonghyun comes back that day. “You’re not going frat partying because we are going to a club tonight.” He grins smugly and Jonghyun is suddenly reminded of why this brilliant, brilliant man is his best friend.
Jonghyun takes it all back when they end up on the steps of a gay club later that night. “What the hell, Kibum! I thought we were out to get girls! Girls!”
Kibum waves him off absently. “Don’t worry about it. This is a perfect place to get your women.”
“How?”
“Well,” Kibum takes a minute to make up some grade A bullshit. “First of all, gay men have lots of sexy eligible straight female friends. Second of all, since I fall into the first category, I too have some attractive female friends.” He flashes the bouncer their fake IDs and then heads straight for the bar, where two girls in miniskirts are waiting.
“Hi Mr. Telegram,” Kibum’s friend winks eagerly at Jonghyun from her seat next to Jessica. “Are you going to sing Sicca another song?” Upon Jonghyun’s jaw dropping to the floor, she adds, “Who are you suppose to be? Michael Jackson?”
“I’m Lucifer!” Jonghyun motions pathetically towards his outfit, but gives up when Kibum laughs and says, “Cut him a break, Fany. He’s possibly the only straight man in here.”
“I would flirt with you, you know,” Tiffany says with a smile, two empty martini glasses to her right. “But since you’re still hopelessly in love with Sicca, I’ll pass.”
“I’m flattered,” Jessica says, and when Tiffany bounces away to go to the dance floor with Kibum, she pats the empty seat next to her and motions for Jonghyun to join her. “So Kibum tricked you, huh?”
“Why are you here?” Jonghyun asks pathetically, poking at Tiffany’s empty glasses. “Shouldn’t you be having a party at home with your calculus book?”
“Your sarcasm is dully noted,” Jessica says flatly. “Let me buy you a drink, and then can we call us even?” It turns out that Jessica doesn’t actually have to buy Jonghyun anything, because there’s already a steady influx of drinks on the bar set out for Tiffany and Jessica, courtesy of the few other straight men currently occupying this club.
“So exactly how many proposals did you get?” Jonghyun asks after a shot of Smirnoff vodka, which did not taste like apples at all.
Jessica moves a strand of perfectly curled hair behind her shoulder and thinks. “Four? Five? I got some in our mailbox too, but I told Fany to throw those away. Why, are you surprised that I am not socially stunted just because I’m doing better in Calc than you?”
“No.” Jonghyun makes a face, going in for the glass with the midori sour mix. “Maybe...yes.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation,” Jessica replies over the bizarrely loud music in the background. “I’m surprised that you can sing.”
“You learn something new everyday,” Jonghyun laughs, holding out the really unmanly martini glass and grins with Jessica picks up a shot glass to meet him for a toast. They stop when Tiffany and Kibum comes back, giggling.
“Time to go,” Kibum says, pulling at Jonghyun’s arm.
Tiffany is doing the same, scooting Jessica out of her seat. “Kibummie rejected one too many dances and drunken people anger easily.” She grabs the last filled shot glass on the counter and down it before pulling Jessica towards the exit, their heels making clicking sounds on the floor as Jonghyun and Kibum follow. The four of them hit one more party after that, Kibum winning at beer pong and Jonghyun drinking the beer for him when Kibum occasionally miss after leering at attractive men for too long. That party ends when the cops come, and they sneak out of the back door and end up at the local deli place on campus, laughing as Tiffany flirts with the boy working at the counter to give them a discount.
“And you know she didn’t even want to come out with us tonight?” Fanny says between bites of her sub. “She wanted to stay in and watch a movie, but I made her wear this dress, because it makes her boobs look big, and drag her out, and what fun that was, right Jonghyun?”
“Yeah,” Jonghyun replies absent mindedly. “Yeah, that dress does make her boobs look b- I mean, yeah, we all had fun.”
Jessica’s stare only makes Jonghyun feel more like an ass.
“Oh, don’t be such a prude,” Kibum is telling Jessica. “At least he’s admitting that you have boobs.”
The next time they have calc, Jonghyun sits next to Jessica and pays attention for the first time all semester. Jessica invites him to a review session for their next exam and he shows up, only to find out that he’s missed about three weeks of material. “You’re ridiculous,” Jessica says when Jonghyun begs to her to tutor him on the power series. She manages to help him pass the exam and Jonghyun is tricked into cleaning Jessica and Tiffany’s bathroom to repay his depts.
“Oh, it’s not that big of a deal,” Jessica says from the door way when Jonghyun demands another bottle of bleach.
“There is hair everywhere!”
“Don’t forget to unplug the bathtub too!” Tiffany points out cheerfully before leaving.
Jonghyun ends up spending his entire Saturday scrubbing the lime-stained walls of their bathtub, stopping only when Jessica stops studying in the other room and knocks on the door to the bathroom. “Want to get some food?”
Jonghyun pulls down the bandana covering his hair. “Is it your treat?”
“Yes, yes,” she laughs. “It'll be romantic. I’ll swipe you into the dinning hall, and you can have anything you want~”
At the dining hall, they spend an hour laughing over the tomato sauce stuck in Jonghyun’s teeth, Jessica’s nerdy glasses, and Tiffany’s endless collection of mango flavored body creams before Jonghyun gets a text from Taemin. “Hey,” Jonghyun starts to say as he stands up to get another refill. “There’s a party at our place tomorrow night. Want to come?”
“Is it going be a bunch of guys sitting around, playing super smash?” Jessica wants to know.
“Maybe?”
Jessica laughs. “I’ll be there, but just to warn you, I play a mean Kirby.”
She’s not lying, because a day later Jonghyun finds himself getting K’Oed by a bouncy pink blurb on the screen as his own character falls off the platform. “What the hell,” he says, turning to Jessica, who simply grins in return. It gets really bad when Jessica also beats Minho, which starts a twenty minute match in which Minho refuses to back down until his pride has recovered (which doesn’t happen, because Kirby ends up dropping an anchor over Falcon’s head, sending him flying off).
“Okay, okay, enough,” Kibum whines and unplugs the game cube. “Enough of this, we’re going to watch a movie now. Sooo, romantic comedy or horror?”
“Romantic comedy, duh!” Jonghyun says without looking up, stopping only when Jessica stares at him in disbelief. “I mean, eh, let’s watch the scary movie.”
“Don’t be silly, Hyung,” Taemin starts to say. “You can’t watch th-”
“No, you don’t be silly!” Jonghyun cuts in. “This is my favorite film.”
Half an hour later, Jonghyun is hiding behind Jessica. “Your favorite film, huh?” She says with amusement, but lets Jonghyun hide anyways.
November is filled with ridiculous papers for his music theory class and endless reading for his music history course. “What’s this, you’re actually studying?” Kibum raises an eyebrow when he finds Jonghyun sitting at the kitchen table with a book open. “Maybe Jessica is rubbing off on you.”
“But not in the way he wants her to!” Taemin chimes in from his room, stopping only when Kibum yells at him to cut out the snark.
Later in the month, Minho is cleaning all the sticky notes off the fridge when he finds an invitation that’s been taped to the door since last semester. That’s when Minho looks up and says, “Hey, Siwon hyung’s wedding is in two weeks.”
“No, it’s not,” Kibum snorts. “His wedding is in December.”
“December is in two weeks,” Minho points out, pulling a loaf of bread out of the fridge and doing considerable damage to it. He stops eating when Kibum begins swearing and flipping through his pocket calendar. “What’s the big deal?”
“We need clothes,” Kibum says. “And dates. I get dibs on Tiffany!”
“What,” Jonghyun begins to say. “This isn’t a race-”
“Then I call Victoria!” Jinki screeches from the couch.
“Sunny,” Minho says, setting down his bread.
“Minzi!” Taemin calls out.
“Your turn, Jjong,” Kibum says and hands Jonghyun his cell phone expectantly. Jonghyun sighs and begins scrolling through Kibum’s contact list. Four pairs of eyes scrutinize Jonghyun as he pauses on Jessica’s name. Jonghyun snaps the phone shut instead and hands it back to Kibum.
“Yeah, you know, I think I’ll just ask her in person.”
Jessica is unfazed when he asks her the next day. She doesn’t even look up from scribbling into her notebook. “Choi Siwon oppa’s wedding? I was invited too, but yes, I will go as your date.” She continues before Jonghyun has time to reply. “Plus, Tiffany said she’d set me up with someone weird if I didn’t go.”
Kibum rents tuxes for all of them, despite Jinki’s questions of how Kibum even knew their sizes to begin with. December is warmer than they expected, and as all five of them meet their dates in front of the university chapel, Jonghyun can’t help but tug a bit at his tie.
“Nervous?” Jessica asks when she spots him out of the bridal party. She’s clad in a pretty pink dress and a necklace that matches his tie. “I heard they’ve been on the waiting list for a year before finally getting to use this chapel. Want to go in?”
“Sure.” Jonghyun offers his arm, and Jessica instantly takes it as they go find their seats. The wedding is boring as expected, but at least this time Jonghyun is not singing in the choir. They watch the bride and groom exchange vows while Kibum yawns visibly from the side.
After the wedding everyone lines up outside of the chapel to throw rice at the couple, after which Jessica pulls at Jonghyun’s sleeve and says, “I think something got in my eye. I don’t have a pocket mirror so, can you, you know?”
“Yeah,” Jonghyun replies easily, leaning down to peer past Jessica’s fluttery eyelashes. He rubs softly at the base of her waterline with his index finger, grinning when she blinks. Up close, Jessica’s glittery eye shadow catches the light just right, and Jonghyun can’t help but be reminded of exactly how pretty his date is. “Yeah, something was stuck. You wear way too much eyeliner. Not that it doesn’t look good, I mean. Eh.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” she giggles.
“Hey, you two, flirt later,” Tiffany says as they board the cars to the venue.
At the reception, they sit at a round table and sample fancy but horribly small plates of food. Siwon’s parents are making rounds around the ball room, thanking the guests in attendance, and Jonghyun has to remind himself to sign the guest book before leaving. Jonghyun tries to tell Siwon’s father a joke about elephants and refrigerators, but stops when Kibum begins whining, “Oh, not that again.”
“Want to dance?” Jessica asks before Jonghyun has a chance to throw a napkin at Kibum. People are beginning to fill the dance floor after the father-daughter dance, so Jonghyun nods and lets Jessica leads the way to the middle of the ball room.
“You’re a pretty good date,” she says as the pianist begins a slow song. “Maybe I should have gone with you to that formal.”
“You missed out.” Jonghyun winks as he leads, the heel of his fancy shoes scraping the floor as Jessica follows. “Why were you so opposed to going to that thing anyways? I bet you spent the entire night at the library or something.”
“No,” Jessica says as Jonghyun twirls her around, the hem of her chiffon dress making a pretty little circle right above her knees. “I didn’t know any of those guys. Plus, I prefer people ask me in person.”
Jonghyun grins. “So demanding.” His hand lands on the small of Jessica’s back while hers sit on the end of his shoulder when Eeteuk hyung comes around to take photos. Both Jonghyun and Jessica turn to smile, but they bump cheeks instead and end up laughing.
“Sicca,” Eeteuk says, eyes widening. “Is Jonghyunnie the one who asked you out from that vid-”
“Just go, hyung!” Jonghyun cries pitifully, and half of the room starts laughing.
“I have a problem,” Jonghyun says when they’re all sharing a cab back to the apartment.
“You have a crush on Jessica noona and you don’t want her to publically reject you again,” Taemin replies fluidly from the passenger seat. “Are you sure you’re not uncomfortable back there?” He asks and looks towards the back seat, into which Minho, Jonghyun, Kibum, and Jinki are all crammed.
Kibum rolls his eyes. “Of course we’re not okay. Jinki-hyung ate too much chicken and now he probably has indigestion.”
“Does anyone even care about my woes?” Jonghyun wants to know.
“Buy her flowers,” Minho is the first to speak up. “Then sing her a love song.”
“And then what?”
“Wait, repeat, and then profit?” Jinki suggests with a sluggish smile.
“I’m so screwed,” Jonghyun decides.
“By the way,” Kibum says. “You all owe me money for these tux rentals.”
Asking Jessica out is no small feat, because Kibum knows, therefore Tiffany knows, therefore Jessica probably has an idea of where this is going when Jonghyun suggests they grab some food together after calc. “Sorry, I have sociology after this. Maybe later,” she says before grabbing her bag and heading out.
Three days later, Jonghyun asks Jessica if she wants to hit the library with him for a study session, and she says no, has a club meeting or something equally vague. The next week, Jonghyun asks her to see a movie and Jessica tells him that she has to volunteer. Jonghyun proposes getting dumpling by the bookstore and Jessica counter attacks with an economics meeting. Finally, Jonghyun reverts to drastic measures, those measures being shouting into the phone, “Come have dinner with me tonight or our friendship is over!”
“Well,” Jessica replies passively over her end. “I have a yoga class with Tiffany at seven that night, but I can probably meet you at five. Is that good?”
Jessica ends up coming to dinner in yoga pants and a hoodie. She pays no attention to the menu and orders a salad, busy doodling with the set of crayons set aside for the kid’s menu to pay attention to Jonghyun’s babbling. It’s then that Jonghyun realizes something fundamental about their situations: Jessica is spacey and she, despite her undeniable intellect, is still as socially awkward as Jinki-hyung. Jessica is focused yet absent minded at the same time. She’s constantly busy, constantly moving, but still manages to be unreadable. Jessica is the fundamental archetype of the working girl-too ambitious to look around at the people surrounding her.
And most importantly, Jonghyun has been nothing but an afterthought to her.
So Jonghyun savors the last drops of his pride and decides not to ask her out, which works out for the both of them, because Jessica probably never even had a clue.
Finals come faster than expected, and Jonghyun manages to finally learn the name of their T.A. in time to ask for his current average in calc. It then occurs to him that a whole semester worth of skipped classes and missed homework have caught up to him, so he turns to the only person he could possibly ask for help.
“First of all,” Jessica says when he shows up on her apartment door steps. “Our final is in one week, and you haven’t even taken notes all semester.” When Jonghyun opens his mouth to complain, she adds, “Don’t lie, I’ve seen your notebook!”
Jonghyun is one requirement away from enrolling in the advance music program, and if he does anything less than perfect on this exam, he can say goodbye to his long time dream of being a composer. Jessica listens to all of this with a blank face before saying, “Fine, but you better be ready to cram your ass off.”
Cramming is exactly what they do for the next few days. Jessica digs out matching white boards from her closet as they sit down to go through old exam problems. When Jonghyun gets stuck a third of the way through the practice exam, Jessica sighs and opens her notebook, the lines and writing on the pages precise and intimidating. “We’re going to work through all the homework problems assigned this semester,” she tells him while pulling her hair up to a ponytail.
“Are you kidding?” Jonghyun wants to laugh, but Jessica is staring at him behind the frames of her reading glasses crossly, so Jonghyun sighs and decides to get comfortable. They stay like that, Jessica working at her desk while Jonghyun sits on the floor, leaning back against the side of her bed. They go through each problem carefully until Jonghyun is sick of drawing little curvy symbols on his whiteboard and tired of the marker stain tattooed permanently on the side of his hand.
Days turn into nights in that room, and eventually Jessica manages to stand up, stretching in her sweat pants as she dumps the boxes from today’s take out in the trash. Jonghyun passes out more than once in a mountain of loose leaf paper and wakes up to find Jessica in the exact same position, hunched over her desk with the lamplight illuminating her face, scowling in concentration.
Jonghyun sleeps on the couch in the girls’ apartment for the first few nights, leaving only to grab a quick bite and showering at his own place before coming back, armed with more paper and new markers. This works until the combination of both Jessica and Tiffany’s studying material pile up and migrate into the living room, and one day Jonghyun goes into the living at 2am to catch some shut eye, only to have Tiffany run out of her room in Hello Kitty pajamas and shoo him off. “You can’t sleep there! My architecture model needs to air out over night!”
Jonghyun sighs pitifully and grabs the pillow, making himself comfortable on the only rug in the room as he curls up next to the stack of Tiffany’s architecture textbooks. When he looks up again Jessica is standing in front of him, clad in new sweat pants and peering over him. “Come on,” she says. “You can sleep in my room.”
They end up on Jessica’s full size bed, a fortress of pillows stacked between them as Jessica sleeps, face turned against the wall. Jonghyun wakes up the next morning to the sound of water in the shower, and then it’s another day of linearization and impartial derivatives. They fall into an almost familiar pattern- Jonghyun teases Jessica about her snoring while she snaps at him to go back to the problems. At night, they fall asleep in the same bed and Jonghyun wakes up to a mouthful of Jessica’s hair, their knees pressed together and a haphazard arm thrown around his chest as Jessica digs her face into his arm.
Jessica is cranky in the mornings, her face swollen and her eyes small. After showering, she comes back with damp hair and situates herself back at her desk until Tiffany comes home with bagels and donuts, complaining about their “crazy study habits, you nerds.”
Jonghyun finally leaves the apartment for his music history final, having spent the entire night cramming composers and song titles into his head as he rushes halfway across campus with Jessica’s pencils. After the exam, he drops by his own apartment, only to find Taemin asleep on the couch with a million blankets draped over him while Kibum studies at the kitchen table.
“Well well well,” Kibum says. “Look who moved out of the love nest.”
Jonghyun ignores him and goes to take a hot shower, stopping only when Minho knocks on the door and says something about needing to brush his teeth before his economics final. That afternoon is spent going over Jinki’s old notes for music theory in the space opposite of Kibum. “Really,” Kibum says when Taemin finally wakes up from his naps with a book in his face. “I’m this close to killing myself if I have to read one more page about Freud.”
Jinki comes back with dinner and they all flock to the box of fried chicken like wild animals. Jonghyun spends that night in his own bed, having grown too tired of roman numerals and the derivative of inverse tangents. In the morning he aces his oral exam and then turns in his portfolio for Composition 215. That night he goes back to Jessica’s place, only to find her sleeping at her desk. Underneath her arms are the texts to her sociology course, and suddenly Jonghyun feels guilty for monopolizing her time.
Jonghyun takes a seat on her bed and goes over the last few pages of her notebook, the flimsy paper sticking to each other as he tries not to rip them. Jessica wakes up an hour later and looks at him with wonder in her eyes. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” She asks, re-adjusting her ponytail.
“As ready as ever.” He shoots her a smile. “And you look terrible, by the way.”
“You’re a jerk.” She laughs, and they both know she doesn’t mean it.
The next day, they squeeze into identical seats and Jonghyun prays for the Gods of Mathematics to smile upon him. Then he realizes that he should probably have been nicer to Jinki-hyung for the calculus deities to favor him. It’s about then that Jessica gives his shoulder a little squeezes and whispers, “Good luck,” before the T.A. comes strolling down the aisle with a stack of exam papers.
Jonghyun recovers from all of his studying by spending two whole days in bed, headphones plugged in and writing music he never had a chance to put to paper in the flurry of assignments this semester. His plan works until Kibum wakes him up one day, saying, “Taemin’s parents are here to pick him up. Come say goodbye.”
Minho is helping Taemin move his duffle bag out when they walk into the living room. “Oh hyung,” Taemin says when he sees them, even though Jonghyun is not sure who he’s talking to anymore. “You have to come visit me over vacation!” Jonghyun nods and thinks about all those days of sweet bliss that is to come.
Jonghyun spends the rest of that morning watching Kibum cram a wardrobe worth of clothes into one suitcase. “Shut up, I totally do need all of this over break.” It’s not until Kibum is calling his parents on the phone that Jonghyun realizes something very important.
Still here? :OOO he texts Jessica and waits impatiently until she replies a few minutes later with, Yep, I’m not leaving until Friday.
Good, Jonghyun thinks, and then begins his throng of mass texts.
Friday morning, Jessica wakes up to find a million pastel colored balloons in her apartment. Taped to her door is a rose with a stickynote and a message of, Go out with me? -Jonghyun
“Why did the elephant fit into the fridge?” She asks when Jonghyun finally picks up her call.
“Why?” Jonghyun laughs at the other end.
“Because I like you,” Jessica says breathlessly into the receiver. “And yes, I will go out with you.”
fin
[AN]: DON'T HATE ME FOR TAKING SO LONG ):! k thanks bye.
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