Blackboards and Sweet Things [Cont.]
part 1
Kyungsoo completely regrets asking for volunteers when he gets the forms back. A couple of moms, one dad and Jongin.
“It’s mocking me,” he says semi-hysterically, flinging the paper onto Zitao’s desk during lunch. Zitao stops typing as he glances at the paper and folds his hands together with an impish smile.
“Oh really? May I ask why you’re telling me this?” It’s about then that Kyungsoo actually realizes he’s standing in Zitao’s office, in front of Zitao, talking to Zitao, and well Zitao.
“Oh my god.” He tries to snatch the paper back but Zitao is quick and grabs it before he can take it away. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god-”
“First of all, take a seat. Second of all, shut up.” Kyungsoo snaps his mouth shut. “Third of all, you are a liar.”
“What? I’ve never lied in my life!”
“Except when you said you don’t have a crush on Jongin.”
“But I don’t. I barely even know him!” Kyungsoo insists.
“You know his name, that he has a younger brother, what kind of motorcycle he rides and how criminally gorgeous he looks in leather jackets. That’s enough for now.”
“No, no, no. It’s just that…” Zitao props his chin on his hands and waits expectantly. “He’s young? Only twenty-two.”
“So? He’s about our age.”
“But it’s a sundae party?”
“And…”
“He, um…”
“What is actually the problem?
“Oh! I don’t know!” Kyungsoo drops his head against desk.
“Maybe you just have crush.”
“I don’t. I can’t.”
“You. Can't?”
“I can’t have a crush on my student’s brother,” Kyungsoo bemoans.
“But he’s hot.”
“Yeah but he’s still Taemin’s brother.”
“I would like to point out that you didn’t deny he was hot. You agreed actually.” Kyungsoo groans. “And he’s Taemin’s brother. Not dad, not mother, but brother. So, fair game, I think. A hot piece of fair game though. I mean, let’s be honest.”
“Stop calling him hot,” he mumbles.
“Crush.”
“No.”
“Crush. Crush. Crush.”
“No.”
“Kyungsoo and Jongin sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-”
Kyungsoo lets out a strange sound, something akin to the moan of whale and screech of cat, picking up his head and looking at Zitao sadly. “Stop.”
Zitao stares at him for a few seconds before sighing. “You are hopeless. Okay, c'mere.” He walks around the desk and wraps an arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulder, pulling him up. “Walk with me.” Luhan looks at them strangely as they exit the office before resuming his game of online solitaire.
“I don’t have a crush,” Kyungsoo mumbles pathetically.
“Don’t think too much of it, okay? Be nice. Let him sprinkle out the toppings. Offer him some ice cream. Maybe write your number on a napkin for him along with a message about wanting him as a topping or something.” Zitao laughs obnoxiously at Kyungsoo’s horrified face before pushing him back into his classroom. “Now stop being such a girl and do what I pay you for.”
“The school district pays me,” Kyungsoo mutters as an afterthought.
The universe always conspires against Kyungsoo. His tongue is still burned from hastily swallowing his coffee this morning, he lost his favorite red pen somewhere in his car, and he messed up his paper snowflake while demonstrating the process to his class.
Leading the universe in this conspiracy is Zitao, of course. He struts into the classroom behind Jongin, making inappropriate hand gestures that Kyungsoo sincerely hopes the students don’t know about and that the adults don’t see.
“You are a vile human being,” Kyungsoo whispers to Zitao, who just laughs and reaches for a Hershey’s kiss.
“I’m also your boss so...” Zitao talks with chocolate in his mouth and his smile is sickeningly sweet when he tugs Kyungsoo towards the corner of the room. “I just came to wish you luck and give you a pep talk so stop glaring at me. That’s rude. I will tell Yifan you were hitting the children with a ruler.” Kyungsoo lets out a long-suffering sigh and Zitao continues, “Anyway, I was lying about giving you a pep talk. That’s not my thing. Just be sure to lick some chocolate syrup off his chest for me.” Kyungsoo splutters and gestures with hands awkwardly for a few seconds before Zitao clamps a hand over his shoulder, rolling his eyes. “If you continue to look like a frog-owl hybrid and do that weird thing with your hands where you look like you’re squeezing someone’s tits, no one will ever love you. Let alone Jongin.” Kyungsoo drops his hands in defeat. Zitao nods. “Anyway, I’m off. Yixing is serving cake at his party and well, cake.”
Zitao really is awful because in the time he spent torturing Kyungsoo with his unnecessary talk, Mrs. Park had commandeered control and ushers Kyungsoo towards the table with the toppings as the children start lining up. The table with only one other person standing by it. Jongin. Of course.
“Hello,” Jongin greets. Kyungsoo frowns because it’s really not fair that Jongin is not only so incredibly handsome but, also blessed with a voice like a warm caramel macchiato. “Um, hi?”
“Huh?”
“I said hi.”
“Oh. Hi.” Kyungsoo tries to look busy, organizing the bowls of toppings so the spoons all face the direction, hoping Jongin won’t continue talking. It doesn’t work.
“You look nice today.” Something flutters uncontrollably in Kyungsoo’s stomach. “You look nice in green.”
“Oh. Thanks. You look nice today too.” Jongin smiles and Kyungsoo panics because Jongin and smiling. Jongin’s smile always causes Kyungsoo much emotional distress; no one is actually supposed to look that beautiful when they smile. “I mean you look nice everyday.” Jongin chuckles and Kyungsoo is caught between wanting to listen to him laugh and crawling under a rock. Or maybe both.
Jinki saves him when he asks Jongin for caramel syrup on his sundae. Jongin is a bit messy closing the cap again and licks the small dab of syrup off his pinky finger. Jinki asks for chocolate sprinkles but Kyungsoo, entirely too preoccupied with the small hum Jongin makes after licking the syrup, accidentally drops a spoonful of peanuts into his bowl. Jongin laughs as Kyungsoo’s eyes comically grow in size and stumbles out an apology to the seven year old, who just shrugs and walks away as more kids line up for toppings.
Jongin apparently likes white chocolate chips because he eats eleven of them in between squeezing out syrup and whipped cream. Kyungsoo scrunches his nose when Jongin pops in another five.
“What?” he asks, closing the lid of the strawberry syrup. “Is there something on my face?” He dusts off his cheeks and looks back at Kyungsoo for approval.
“What?”
“You keep staring at me and scrunching your nose.”
“Oh, sorry! I just don’t understand how you could even have more than one white chocolate chip,” Kyungsoo rushes out.
Jongin shrugs. “They’re tasty.”
Kyungsoo snorts. “Yeah, if you like condensed sugar.”
“I like sweet things. I like white chocolate, strawberry syrup, you, cake, frosting.”
“Yeah but white- what?”
“What?”
“What did you say?”
“I like sweet things.”
Kyungsoo doesn’t know how to respond other than dropping his hand to the table and directly over an inconveniently placed bowl of cookie crumbs to boot. The universe never relents on torturing Kyungsoo because not only did the spoon flip up and smack him in the nose, but the crumbs also flew into the air, landing mostly in Jongin’s hair. How it happened, Kyungsoo has no idea. But it did and it is mortifying to say the least. “Oh. My. God. I am so sorry! Oh my god. Oh my god.”
Jongin nods while trying to shake out the crumbs from his perfectly styled hair. Mrs. Lee offers to handle their stations while they go to the restroom to clean up.
Kyungsoo is surprised that Jongin is even willing to stand in the same space as him a few minutes later. Their shoulder brush when Jongin crouches a bit in front of the sole mirror in the little boys room to assess the state of his hair.
“I. I’m really sorry,” Kyungsoo stutters out. There weren’t many crumbs on him besides a few on his chest which he easily dusts off. His nose stings a little from being slapped by the spoon but other than that he’s okay. He looks down at his hands and shyly back up at, or really down at (since Jongin is still crouching), Jongin. “Do you, um. Do you need help?”
“Oh yes please,” Jongin nods and straightens himself up. “It’s uncomfortable crouching.”
“Uh, yeah. I bet.” He tentatively raises a hand to pick out a rather large cookie crumb.
“Can you believe we used to be this small?” Jongin asks with an amused snort. Kyungsoo just nods unsurely, trying his very best to keep his eyes trained on Jongin’s hairline, so as to avoid looking at his face. He’s sure if he does, he’ll melt from Kyungsoo to Kyunggoo. As cheesy as that may sound (aka very cheesy).
“Yeah. So tiny.” He laughs awkwardly. “I’m still kind of tiny though, so.” The corners of Jongin’s lips quirk up in a small smile.
“You’re not tiny. You’re fun-size?”
“What?” Kyungsoo freezes.
“That’s what Taemin always says to me when I tease him. Something to do with candy bars? Like the mini ones you get for parties?”
“Oh, right. Right.” He runs three fingers through Jongin’s fringe, combing it back over his forehead; Kyungsoo’s knees buckle slightly at the feeling of Jongin’s warm breath on his wrist.
He retracts his hand slowly and folds it with the other, whispering, “Um, I think you’re good.”
“Yeah?” Jongin shifts to assess his hair in the mirror quickly. “Thanks.”
“Oh, no problem. I’m still sorry though. I didn’t mean to.” Jongin steps ahead to hold open the door from him. Kyungsoo questions how he’s not passed out yet because honestly, chivalrous too?
“Well, of course you didn’t mean to. Really, it’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. I’m sorry.” Jongin pauses when they’re outside the classroom door and turns to face him.
“You can make it up to me?”
Kyungsoo blushes for some reason unbeknownst to himself and stutters out, “Uh, sure?”
“You can make me a sundae?”
“Oh, okay. Sure, yeah.” Kyungsoo reaches for the doorknob but Jongin steps in the way before he can touch it.
“But it has to be extra sweet,” he adds. “Like diabetes-inducing sweet.” Jongin grins boyishly and Kyungsoo can clearly see the laugh lines forming around his mouth like little dimples and they are so cute that he finds himself agreeing to everything Jongin says. Even when Jongin says, “And you have to eat some of it with me.”
Jongin smirks triumphantly and pulls open the door for them to enter. All the kids are situated at their tables, eating their sundaes ravenously and dropping gummy worms onto the floor, while the other volunteers are huddled in the corner peacefully eating a little ice cream themselves.
Jongin looks at him expectantly when they reach the serving tables. “All the flavors please,” he says. Kyungsoo scoops in the vanilla, then the chocolate and finally the strawberry.
“Which syrup?”
“All.” He squeezes out some strawberry syrup in a swirling pattern, the chocolate syrup in a criss-cross pattern and squeezes the caramel syrup lazily, letting it collect in the middle.
He tosses a heaping spoonful of white chocolate chips into the bowl and looks back at Jongin. “What else?”
“Whipped cream, marshmallows, sprinkles, hershey kisses, and gummy worms.” Kyungsoo grimaces and adds the other toppings into the bowl. He’s never been too fond of sweet things. Maybe in moderation but not so much at once. But Jongin seems to be really happy about it so Kyungsoo relents. “You take the first bite.” Jongin passes him a spoon.
Kyungsoo looks down at the sundae sadly. “Do I have to?”
“I’ll never forgive you otherwise.” Kyungsoo pouts and takes the spoon. He looks for the spot with the least amount of syrup and toppings and hesitantly spoons out a bite. It’s chocolatey with a bit of strawberry and he swallows it slowly. “Uh, there. I had a bite.” He thrusts the bowl to Jongin, who takes the spoon from his hand as well.
And eats with the same spoon.
The same spoon.
Kyungsoo pats his cheeks in a failing attempt to keep the pink flush crawling up under control. His ears burn.
Jongin smiles around the spoon at him, dragging it out and letting a little bit of strawberry ice cream collect on his upper lip. “It’s good hyung.” Kyungsoo smiles meekly, tapping his upper lip with his index finger. Furrowed eyebrows and soft eyes look back at him. “What?”
“You’ve got a bit of...” He points to his top lip again. Jongin seems to understand this time because he darts his tongue out to lick it away, but only spreads it farther. “Um, here...” Kyungsoo reaches for a tissue and wipes off the remaining bit of pink staining Jongin’s mouth.
“Mm, thanks.” Jongin shovels another spoonful into his mouth. He looks a bit like a child, Kyungsoo thinks. It’s really endearing to be honest. He doesn’t realize he’s staring until Jongin pushes the bowl to him. “Do you want some more?”
“Oh no, no. I’m fi-mmpf.” Jongin feeds him some anyway, smiling playfully at Kyungsoo’s surprised reaction.
“I made sure I only got ice cream with minimal toppings on the spoon,” he says proudly.
Kyungsoo swallows. “Thanks.” Jongin flutters his eyelashes in response. “Um, so... how’s university?”
“Goodf,” Jongin answers through a mouthful of ice cream and marshmallows. He swallows before continuing. “I finished all my exams two days ago. I could have done better on my Japanese II exam, but I think I did okay enough to get by.”
Kyungsoo nods. “That’s good.”
“And now I have a little over a month off before the next semester.”
“Are you gonna do something over break?”
“I’m planning on taking Taemin to Lotte World sometime over break? And I was hoping, um...” He trails off, eyes trained on Kyungsoo. He shrinks a bit under his gaze.
“Hoping?” Something happens. Kyungsoo’s not sure what but Jongin turns away abruptly, shovels the remaining bit of ice cream into his mouth.
When he sets the bowl down, his cheeks are tinged pink and he looks... nervous? “I um, still have an afternoon class to attend. So, I’ll see you later! And at the conference later this week, yeah? Sorry.”
He smiles weakly at Kyungsoo before retrieving his coat and scarf and leaving, waving to Taemin on his way out.
Kyungsoo frowns.
The next day finds Kyungsoo dramatically falling into the cushiony seat in front of Zitao’s desk during lunchtime.
“I think he was flirting with me.”
Zitao barks out a laugh. “Oh thank god. You probably would’ve gone nowhere if he hadn’t done something. See, I told you he likes you!”
“Oh, I don’t think he likes me like that.” Kyungsoo looks down at his hands dejectedly and Zitao rolls his eyes dramatically.
“He was flirting with you.”
“Just to be nice.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Yeah.” They sit in silence for a few seconds as Kyungsoo plays with his fingers and Zitao thinks.
“Hey Kyungsoo.”
“What?”
“Parent-teacher conferences are at the end of the week.”
“I know.”
“And Taemin’s parents aren’t around to make it.”
“So?” Zitao smiles slyly. “Oh. Oh.”
“Yeah. After you tell him about Taemin, you know, just trip him and like, sit on his face.”
Kyungsoo stands up abruptly looking completely scandalized, as usual. “I. You. I don’t know why I even come here. You’re awful.”
Zitao calls out to him as he exits his office. “Oh please don’t come here. Come on Jongin’s face.”
Kyungsoo frowns at Luhan. “How does he work here again?”
Luhan shrugs as he resets his game of online poker. “He has close connections. Literally.”
Parent-teacher conferences are always a zilch for Kyungsoo. He makes a little chart for each student, outlining their progress, noting their successes, pulling out areas for improvement and presents them with a graceful smile.
It all goes plummeting down to hell when Jongin saunters in at 5:30 wrapped up in a leather jacket and a large red scarf. Kyungsoo is a little apprehensive about this; after all, Jongin did leave abruptly last time. However, Jongin doesn’t seem to be bothered, sitting down with an easy smile. “Hi Kyungsoo,” he greets and pauses for a second. “I mean, hyung. Sorry. I keep forgetting.”
Kyungsoo blushes despite himself. “Uh. You don’t have to… um.”
Jongin shrugs. “It’s no problem. I want to.”
The corners of Kyungsoo’s mouth twitch upward. “So Taemin…” Kyungsoo pulls out his notes. “He shows a great aptitude in math and science and he seems to genuinely like those subjects as well. I’m not really concerned.”
“Good.”
“He’s slightly above average in reading comprehension and language. That’s good.”
“Okay.”
“He’s a bit shy but he works well in groups, he’s cooperative. He listens to directions well. Um, I really have no complaints to be honest. Except maybe-” Kyungsoo makes the mistake of looking up and Jongin is concentrating on him and his eyes are so beautiful. “Um. Except.” Kyungsoo really can’t tear his eyes away.
“Except what?”
Kyungsoo clears his throat and forces himself to look at his notes. “He could come out of his shell more? Mix with the other kids?”
Jongin laughs and it rings like rainbows and sunshine in Kyungsoo ears. “I’ll talk to him about that under one condition.”
“What con--” Kyungsoo cuts off when the door is thrown open and Zitao dramatically enters. Shit.
“Sorry I’m late,” he starts, sitting in the empty seat beside Jongin.
Kyungsoo’s eyes look like they’re about to pop out for a few seconds before he blinks rapidly. “Excuse me?”
“Didn’t you get my email, silly?” Zitao giggles. “It said I have to sit through one of your meetings. You know, performance reviews and all.” Kyungsoo checks his email diligently, the last time being about fifteen minutes ago. There were no emails from Zitao, he is sure of it.
“Um… no?” Kyungsoo’s eyes narrow suspiciously at him. Zitao just blinks.
“Oh. Well, continue on then.”
“We were actually almost finished?”
“Start over.”
“Um... okay? Well, I was saying that Taemin is above average in-”
“You know Jongin, it was really nice of you to volunteer a couple of days ago,” Zitao starts randomly, shifting to face Jongin and completely ignoring Kyungsoo.
“Uh, thanks?” Jongin replies, looking a bit confused..
“I mean, if I were you, I probably wouldn’t have volunteered to help at my brother’s school. Unless the teacher was cute, I guess. I guess Kyungsoo is cute. I don’t know. What do you think Jongin?”
Kyungsoo makes a choked sound and sincerely hopes the floor opens up and swallows Zitao. Painfully.
Jongin looks at him with his gorgeous twinkling eyes and Kyungsoo swears he will melt into the ground and Jongin smiles and says, “Yeah, very cute.” Kyungsoo is pretty sure he has melted into the ground. “Is this part of your assessment?”
Zitao taps his chin with his pen thoughtfully for a few seconds. “Not really.” He shrugs. “I just like making Kyungsoo uncomfortable. It makes it easier to weasel food out of him. Speaking of which...” Zitao stands and stalks behind Kyungsoo’s desk. “Where did you hide those muffins?” He doesn’t wait for Kyungsoo to answer, opting to quickly open as many drawers as he can before he pulling out a blueberry muffin wrapped in plastic. “Oh perfect. I didn’t eat lunch.” He sits back down, unaffected by Jongin’s extremely confused expression and Kyungsoo’s death glare. “Okay, sorry. Continue.”
“As, I was saying,” Kyungsoo starts tersely, “Taemin shows a great aptitude for-”
“You know, Taemin is really an adorable child, isn’t he? Really smart too, right?”
“Yeah, I was just about to tell-”
“It’s really lucky he’s in Kyungsoo’s class,” Zitao cuts him off again. “Kyungsoo’s like the best second grade- no, like the best teacher in general at this school.”
“Right,” Jongin drawls out, looking adorably confused.
Zitao takes an obnoxiously large bite out of the muffin and drums his fingers against his clipboard, as if in deep thought. He swallows thickly. “You know, what? I don’t even think I need to finish this assessment. Kyungsoo’s literally perfect. I would totally date him if i wasn’t already in a committed relationship,” he says very matter-of-factly putting emphasis on the last sentence, specifically the first five words.
Kyungsoo is positively blushing. Zitao stands up abruptly and scribbles something on to his clipboard before unclipping it and passing it to Kyungsoo with a wink.
best wingman ever, right? ^^
Kyungsoo crumples up the paper and rolls his eyes when Zitao finally leaves. “Well... that was interesting?” Jongin laughs. “How does he work here again?”
“Something about close connections, literally,” Kyungsoo replies sadly. “Anyway, I’m sorry about that. I held you back quite a lot.”
“Oh no, it’s fine.” Jongin leans forward and rests his elbows on the table, threading his fingers together and looking up expectantly at Kyungsoo.
“Well, that was all, I guess. Thank you for coming and sorry for holding you back, once again.” Kyungsoo idly plays with his fingers, refusing to look back at Jongin.
“It’s okay.” But he doesn’t get up.
“You don’t have to stay longer...”
“I still have to tell you about my one condition.”
Truth be told, Kyungsoo had forgotten what they had been talking about right before the messy hurricane hell-bent on destruction (a.k.a. Zitao) arrived. “Oh, r-right.”
“It’s really simple. I was actually going to mention it at the party but um, yeah.”
“Okay...” Kyungsoo isn’t entirely sure why he’s even going along with this but then Jongin does that thing, where he nibbles his fingertip briefly and bats his eyelids cutely all while being completely unaware he’s doing it, and Kyungsoo groans internally and scoots his chair closer because he is so cute and he really can’t get enough.
“You know, this idea seemed so much nicer in my head 10 minutes ago...” An awkward laugh resonates in the classroom. For the first time, it’s Jongin who is looking slightly flustered, not Kyungsoo.
Kyungsoo nods as an indication for Jongin to continue and after a deep breath, he does. “I was wondering if you would like to um, hang out sometime?”
“Hang out?” Kyungsoo repeats slowly.
“Go out?”
“Go. Out?”
Jongin furrows his eyebrows. “Like on a date?”
“A... date?”
Jongin frowns; Kyungsoo’s expression is blank, eyes slightly glazed over and jaw slack. “Yes?”
“You are asking me out? On a... date?”
“I’m allowed to do that, I think?”
“Yes, but you’re asking me?”
“Yes?” Kyungsoo doesn’t respond, just stares, and Jongin does that thing again with his fingertips and eyelashes and ugh. “I understand if you don’t want to...” The chair scrapes against the linoleum floor as Jongin dejectedly pushes it back.
Kyungsoo means to politely and cooley accept but it comes garbling out of his mouth at lightning speed, an octave too high and a bit squeaky. “NO! I mean- No, I would love to go. But like, why? This is a joke right? There’s hidden cameras somewhere, right? Zitao put you up to this, didn’t he? How much did he pay you? Oh my god-”
“Whoa, whoa. Relax.” Jongin chuckles. The skin of Kyungsoo’s cheeks heats up and reddens profusely when Jongin reaches over the desk to brush two fingers across his cheekbone a few times, in what he probably thought would be a comforting and calming gesture. It’s not; Kyungsoo’s rapid heartbeat can attest for that. “Why? Because I like you. You’re nice and friendly and you try to talk to me everyday when I pick up Taemin. You’re so cute and I secretly... well, not so secretly anymore, like how flustered you are around me because you’re just ten times cuter. And Taemin talks about you all the time at home because you’re like his favorite teacher ever and he tells me stories of how you taught them a song to help them memorize some multiplication tables and your cheesy jokes and the one time you came to school with mismatching shoes and- I don’t know, I like you a lot I think and there’s a new boba tea cafe near my university that my friend Sehun won’t shut up about and I would like it if you would come with me?”
Jongin is the flustered one now, blushing and smiling nervously.
Kyungsoo blinks.
“My jokes aren’t cheesy.” Jongin lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and smiles.
“They are, a bit.” Kyungsoo pouts at that.
“No. What do a kangaroo and a zucchini have in common?”
“They can’t ride a bike.”
“See, Taemin already told you. Otherwise it would have been funnier.”
Jongin reaches his hand out again to affectionately tap on the back of Kyungsoo’s. “We can discuss your jokes on our date.”
That incessant fluttering feeling starts up in the pit of Kyungsoo’s stomach at the thought. “Okay.”
A/N: weeps. this was a nicer idea in my head. anyway i hope you liked it! /hides. there's a lot of things that i don't particularly like about this fic but i don't think i could postpone it any longer tbh. it's kind of nice to get it off my chest /sigh. thank you lan for looking it over ofmgakdjfgh.