zoom in on your laughter
p.o/sulli, g, ~3600w
you know when teenagers say they're just friends? yeah, it's never really true.
“I watched your interview,” Jinri whispered into her phone. She smiled to herself as she hugged her pillow, hoping that Victoria wouldn’t wake up and that the blanket she was tucked under was soundproof.
“You did?” the deep voice on the other end echoed. Jihoon was naturally loud. His normal projection sounded like he was shouting over music. “So did you see me seeming like a lovesick puppy for you? Which I am?” he asked as he chuckled.
Jinri grinned, always laughing it off whenever he said stuff like this. “You sound tired,” she replied, noting the roughness in his voice. “Not used to the lifestyle yet, huh?”
“Not at all,” he grumbled. “I miss pigging out. I miss sleeping in. Even if I try, I wake up to a camera. I put on Jaehyo hyung’s BB cream almost every night in case the Match Up staff decides to be devious again.”
She laughed. “Welcome to my life,” she said. “Except I miss doing variety shows. Those were fun, even if they’re tiring. We don’t really do anything fun anymore.”
“Singing and dancing is fun,” he said.
Jinri shrugged. “If you’re good at it, I guess.”
“Hey,” he retorted. “You’re good.”
“Just decent, thanks to training.”
“You’re hard on yourself.”
“Someone needs to be.” Jinri smiled; he always made her feel better about herself.
“Everyone is.”
“I just want to act. I hope they’d let me audition for a drama,” Jinri said as she rolled onto her back with a dreamy sigh.
“Was that a yawn?” Jihoon asked. “You should sleep, I bet you have a schedule tomorrow.”
“No, that wasn’t,” Jinri answered with a pout. She didn’t want to sleep yet. “Just a radio show in like, four hours.”
“Then you should sleep,” he replied.
“I’m still kind of hyper. I’m craving something sweet - maybe watermelon -“
“Sleep.”
Jinri stared at the ceiling, refusing to close her eyes. “No, you should. You’re way more exhausted than I am. I bet you just want to sleep already, too.”
“No, I want to keep talking to you, but I just care about your wellbeing. Sleep,” he said, insisting. Jinri couldn’t stop her frown from turning into a small grin. He was so protective - despite him being such a kid, he was surprisingly caring.
“Mmmm not sleepy,” she said, accidentally letting out a yawn right after. Damn it. She could hear Jihoon laughing at her.
“Sleep. Goodnight, I am hanging up on you because you never would,” he said in a singsong tune. “I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Nghhh, fine, goodnight.”
Jinri put on a pair of sunglasses as she speed-walked out of the radio station building, arm interlocked with Krystal’s. Her heart thudded as she held her phone inside the pocket of her jeans, tapping the screen in anticipation. She promised herself she’d look at her phone when they got in the car.
The car took forever getting out of the parking lot, and Jinri borrowed Amber’s phone to play a game of Temple Run to distract her. She sucked at it, only getting to ninety thousand points, power-ups included.
“Stupid game,” she sighed as she handed it back to Amber.
“No, it’s pretty smart, actually,” Amber replied. “You just have terrible gaming skills.”
“You have a terrible face,” Jinri answered back weakly. She felt her stomach drop as the van pulled up in front of them.
She climbed in first, and laughed dryly as she saw Victoria’s sleepy face, puzzled as to why she was in such a hurry. As soon as she leaned back on some pillows their manager stole from China Airlines, she pulled out her phone and pressed a button to see her homepage. Her face fell as she saw no notifications.
Her disappointment faded quickly and she was embarrassed with herself. “What did you expect,” she mumbled to herself. “You’re not the center of his universe. And he’s probably asleep…or busy.”
She fell asleep on Victoria’s shoulder as soon as she tucked her phone back in her pocket, so she didn’t feel it vibrate against her thigh eight minutes later.
As soon as she got in her room, she fell asleep face down on her pillow, long hair splayed around it.
She woke up a few hours later with a stiff neck. As soon as she sat up, Victoria looked up at her bunk from the desk and smiled. “Did you stay up late again?” she asked with a suggestive smile.
“No,” Jinri grumbled as she reached out for her phone in habit. She checked the screen and felt her stomach drop as the new message note popped up. She opened it, sitting up so quickly she felt blood rush to her head.
Pyo Jihoon (09:43 am): Good morning! Sleep more, because you’re going to get sick. No cameras waking me up today, just Jiho hyung’s bad singing.
She frowned at the timestamp. 9:43 am. That was almost exactly three and a half hours ago. She keyed in a quick reply.
Choi Jinri (1:07 am): Your wish is my command. Just woke up from a nap. Jiho oppa should stick to rapping. Also, are you guys gonna be on Music Bank tomorrow?
“I’m hungry,” she sang to Victoria, grinning wildly. Victoria rolled her eyes with a suspicious look on her face.
“Food’s in the refrigerator. Sunyoung just woke up, too, so she probably heated it up already.”
“Thanks, unnie,” Jinri replied as she leapt out from her upper bunk and kissed Victoria quickly on the head. She stepped out into the kitchen and grinned at Sunyoung.
“You’re happy,” Sunyoung said as she picked at the chicken breast, laughing at the expression on Jinri’s face.
“Woke up on the right side of the bed,” Jinri said brightly, wincing as she felt her neck crack. She set her phone beside her plate and put her own chicken breast on her plate. Sunyoung stared at her own plate miserably.
She ate while staring into space, and the ping of her message notifier pulled her back to reality. She picked it up greedily. Sunyoung noticed her fingers work on the touch screen faster than usual.
“You’re excited, who are you texting?” she asked, genuinely curious.
Jinri’s face reddened and she followed her instincts. “Krystal,” she lied.
“Krystal’s asleep in my bed,” Sunyoung replied with a frown.
“Well, maybe she’s awake again.”
“Pretty sure I hear her snoring.”
Krystal was snoring. Damn Jinri’s compulsive need to lie.
“Fine,” Jinri said with a sigh, “I’m not texting Krystal.”
“Then who?” Sunyoung urged.
Jinri brought her chopsticks to her lips. “Mmmm,” she spoke with her mouth full. Sunyoung pulled a face.
Just then, Amber swooped behind Jinri and grabbed her phone. This didn’t usually bother Jinri, because they always stole each other’s phones, but she didn’t really want to go through this right now.
“Jihoon?” Amber narrowed her eyes. “Is this P.O from that new hiphop group? The guy who confesses his love for you all the time in interviews?”
Jinri turned red and glared at Amber. Sunyoung burst out laughing.
“He’s part of Jiho oppa’s new group, right? The deep-voiced one?” she asked.
“He’s talented,” Amber said as she nodded, pretending to be the rap expert. She probably was when it came to their entire band, but only because she was exposed to it back in America and because it was her assigned position in the group. “Is he asking you out or something? He seems sweet.”
Jinri narrowed her eyes, hiding her guilt. “No, we’re just friends,” she said as grabbed her phone from Amber.
“I’ve heard that one before,” Amber said with a snort. Jinri shook her head.
“Shut up.”
Jinri looked at Sunyoung, fuming at her amused smile.
“You’re so cute,” Sunyoung told her with a scrunch of her nose as she picked up her plate and went to wash it.
Jinri groaned and set her head on the table. “You all suck.”
“All done,” the hairstylist said, patting Jinri’s pigtails down. Jinri nodded and breathed a quiet thanks before the woman headed off to fix the bobby pins that were coming loose in Victoria’s hair.
She got up and headed towards the door, thinking of sneaking a peek at the newbies before showtime. She bit her lip at the thought that she might even see -
“J-Jihoon oppa,” she mumbled as the door swung open, finding Jihoon in front of it with his balled up fist up and ready to knock on it.
He widened his eyes, slipping his hand down, then hesistantly putting it back up for a wave. “Hi?”
Jinri stepped forward and slammed the door closed, leaning against the door. Jihoon took a step back and laughed.
“Well that was awkward,” he said, making an embarrassed face.
“Yeah,” Jinri sighed, but was beaming shamelessly. “…So what brings you here?”
“I don’t know,” Jihoon replied with a shrug. “I just wanted to see you, I guess?” He put up his index fingers and did a little jig. “Number one fan, and all. And I hardly get to see you, anyway. Plus, I wanted to greet you good luck.”
“Thanks, you too,” she said. “I’ll be watching you! I’m betting you’ll be great.”
“Yeah, you’ll see me shaking and forgetting my cues and stuff,” he muttered lightheartedly. “Well, I better get going. We’re rehearsing after…whoever’s on the stage right now.”
Jinri opened her mouth in wonder, and ended up giggling. “What even, you better go fast, the stage managers will kill you.”
Jihoon scrunched up his nose. “I’ll just tell them I had to poop or something.”
Jinri raised her eyebrows in disbelief with an amused expression on her face as she waved at his retreating figure, walking backwards so he could wave back at her. As soon as he turned around and Jinri’s fingers closed around the doorknob, he faced her again.
“Oh yeah, wait,” he called out to her, his hand in his pocket. When he took it out, between his fingers was a lollipop. He held it out to her with both hands like a gift.
Jinri looked at it, confused.
“You said you were craving watermelon that one night,” he explained, drawing his arms back. “So,” he outstretched them again, “watermelon-flavored lollipop, right here.”
Slowly, a wide smile appeared across Jinri’s face. “Thanks,” she said as she took it from his hands, “so thoughtful of you.”
“No problem,” he said with a grin and a salute. “Okay, gotta go now for real.”
“See you later!” She waved giddily at him, only putting down her hand when three people hauling a huge camera decided to turn her way. She looked down at the lollipop between her fingers and saw there was a strip of paper swirled around the stick.
Good luck, break a leg!! Hwaiting~
Jinri let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and stared at the tiny smudged ink. She didn’t know what to feel, so she just bit her lip to stop her silly smile from getting any bigger and slipped into the room, hopefully unnoticed.
That obviously wasn’t the case.
She tried not to look at the suggestive looks her bandmates were giving her as well as the stern but curious faces their manager and various stylists and makeup artists were staring at her with as well. She tucked her lips in prevent breaking out into a grin. As soon as she was near enough to her open gym bag, she threw her lollipop in discreetly, watching it settle between her sweatpants and her tub of lip balm.
“What’s that?” Krystal says from behind her, smug smirk on her lips.
“Nothing.” She couldn’t lie to save her life. “C-candy.”
“Oh man, he gave you candy?” Krystal snickered. “So are you guys a thing yet?”
Jinri looked at her, appalled and confused. “A thing?” she echoed.
“Yeah, a thing,” Krystal said with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, he obviously likes you -“
“Okay, yeah, no, I have to go to the bathroom,” Jinri said and headed for outside as soon as she felt churning in her stomach and heat crawl up her neck. She wasn’t feeling so well.
“Oh-kaaay,” Krystal sang, “whatever you say.”
As Jinri was closing the door behind her, she could hear Amber suddenly shout, “I bet a million won we’ll have flowers in our living room tomorrow!”
Jinri felt a mix of guilty pleasure and denial in the pit of her stomach. “Don’t overthink it, don’t overthink it,” she whispered to herself quietly, making sure it would always be nagging at the back of her head.
It bothered Jinri that she couldn’t ask Jihoon to hang out with her without it sounding suggestive to herself. Not to mention how they didn’t have mutual friends, not counting Jiho, though he didn’t really count, because that was like hanging out with your best friend and your older brother (which isn’t that weird, but she’d rather not).
So she was pleased when Jihoon asked first.
It was after the filming, in the stagnant cold of the air-conditioned parking lot. Jinri went ahead of her band and the manager as she talked to Sohyun about the show. Sohyun was waving her off already, speedwalking towards 4minute’s van. Jinri was texting Amber to hurry the hell up when she felt a presence beside her.
It was Jihoon, looking down at her with his usual small smirk on his face. His cheeks looked flushed but he had this confident glow about him and she prayed that Amber wouldn’t take her text seriously because if she saw the look on their faces right now she’d make fun of her for the rest of the week.
“Hey, oppa,” she greeted him, tucking her phone into the pocket of her gym bag. “What’s up?”
“Uh, I have to go in like, two seconds, but -“ he turned around quick to raise a hand towards his bandmates, telling them to wait, “we should really hang out when you’re free.”
“Uh, yeah, we should,” she replied, a bit taken aback. She thought about her schedule. “Well, um, I’m free Tuesday night? Where should we go?”
“Good, I’m free then too,” he said, grinning as he adjusted the backpack on his shoulder. “Actually, nevermind, I’m free most of the time anyway. And I’m not sure, let’s talk about it.”
“Sounds good,” she said with a nod of her head.
“Yeah, good,” he echoed, starting to walk backwards towards his van. “See you!”
She waved at him, biting her lip, slightly dazed. She watched his bandmates high five him and Jiho waving back at her. She laughed and dropped her hand as their van started up and left the lot.
She let out a sigh of relief knowing their van was one of the last out of the building, knowing that if anyone saw them there would be speculation, or worse - teasing.
“Is it a date?” Victoria asked excitedly, clapping her hands. Jinri groaned and bodyslammed her growing pile of clothes on Sunyoung’s bunk.
“Nooo, we’re just hanging out,” she replied roughly. Krystal snickered from her place above in Jinri’s bunk, leaning down to roll her eyes at Jinri.
“As if, you moron,” Krystal quipped, dangling her arm to hit Jinri’s head. “If it’s just the two of you, it’s a date. If we went out for frozen yogurt, you’d call it a date. The difference between our dates and your date today is that yours is not platonic. At all.”
“Our dates aren’t platonic,” Jinri asserted, trying to hold Krystal’s hand. Krystal laughed and pulled her hand back up.
“Our relationship is one-sided,” Krystal stated, rolling back up the bunk so her head was out of sight from Jinri’s point of view. “You and that Pyo guy totally like each other, though.”
“Can. You. Stop. That!” Jinri groaned, her face in her least favorite puffy skirt.
“Yeah, the joke’s getting old,” Amber said as she appeared in the doorway with her arm halfway into a box of cereal.
“Yup,” Jinri affirmed, looking up at Amber in approval.
“Because the truth isn’t funny,” Amber added. Jinri glared at her.
“You should wear this! It’s adorable,” Victoria said, holding up a yellow blazer.
“Oh my God, that’s part of her uniform,” Krystal mused, laughing and hiding under the magazine she’s been reading.
“Oh.”
Right at that moment, Sunyoung barged in.
“Holy crap, why is this place a mess?” she asked, eyes wide.
“Bye,” Amber said as she turned around towards the kitchen, mouth full of Froot Loops.
“Sulli’s fault, she’s picking her outfit for her date tonight,” Krystal answered.
“Not a date!”
“Aw, baby Ssul is growing up,” Sunyoung said, her tone totally changed. She took Jinri’s face in her hands and squished it. Jinri looked up at her helplessly.
“How about this? This is kinda cute.” Victoria held up a tulle skirt.
“For a ballet recital,” Krystal mumbled. Jinri let out a soft cry, her face still in Sunyoung’s hands.
She ended up wearing a plain v-neck and jeans, with all of her hair hidden under a beanie and huge sunglasses hiding almost the entire upper half of her face. Jihoon assured her no one would recognize her where they were going, but she wasn’t going to take her chances.
She arrived at the cat café, greeted by a kind old lady in an apron holding an orange kitten in her arms. She was led to the inside where Jihoon was sitting alone, chin on the table, watching a fat white cat sleep.
“Oppa,” she greeted as she sat across him, taking off her sunglasses. He looked up at her and grinned with closed lips.
“Maybe you should go bald for your next promotional cycle,” he said, eyeing her beanie. She laughed and took it off, shaking all her hair out. “Actually, nevermind,” he said as he sat up straight, “I like your long hair. Actually, whatever, do anything to your hair, you’ll still look great.”
“Mmmm, thanks,” she replied with a nervous laugh, trying to brush off the compliment. She was usually good with those, but it being said so offhandedly and coming from Jihoon, it caught her off guard. “How did you even think of this place?” She stared at a shelf where five cats were lying down in different cubbyholes.
He shrugged and raised a hand to order a drink. “I don’t know, I just passed by it one time and it’s all secluded and hardly anyone’s here and I thought it was cute. I thought you might like it.”
“I do,” she agreed as she looked around in awe. She hardly ever had free time to do silly things like drink milk tea while petting cats. A particularly skinny one jumped up their table and sat right in front of her, and she stroked it hesitantly. When it scowled at her and jumped off, she laughed. “They don’t like me much.”
“That’s okay,” he assured her, leaning back with a grin on his face, “it’s impossible that they won’t like you eventually.”
Jinri thinks this has been one of the most enjoyable days she’s experienced in a long time. She felt so at ease with Jihoon, it wasn’t difficult at all to talk to him about the most random things and at the same time, if silence fell upon them, it wasn’t awkward, just this comfortable peace between them. He was funny enough to make her choke on her drink and caring enough to grab water for her when it happened.
It was a bit before nine when he walked her to her dormitory. (“It’s so early,” she complained, but knew it was for the better. They didn’t want their bandmates imagining too much when all they did was have dinner, talk, and walk around a bit.)
“Good thing your fans aren’t insane yet,” Jihoon said, peering at the empty lobby of the apartment building. Jinri laughed and pressed the elevator button. “And good thing people don’t recognize me.”
“Yet,” Jinri added with a smile. It was Jihoon’s turn to laugh.
“Yeah, sure,” he muttered goodheartedly.
They arrived at the f(x) dorm’s front door, and they’ve discarded their sunglasses and beanies because it was way too dark and way too hot. They could still see each other smiling in the dim light.
“Well, thanks, that was fun,” Jihoon stated, tucking his hands into his jacket pockets.
“Yeah, it was,” Jinri seconded with a nod. She was fumbling about her wallet for her keycard when a thought occurred to her. She stopped and looked up at him. “Wait, can I ask you a question?”
He nodded, eyebrows lowered in confusion.
She hesitated, but asked anyway. “Was this a date?”
He sniffed and narrowed his eyebrows. “Um -“
“I’m so sorry, that was an awkward question, forget I asked,” she said, laughing anxiously, finally plucking out her keycard from her pocket.
“No, no, it’s okay,” he insisted, “I guess it could have been, if you wanted it to be.”
She bit her lip. “Did you want it to be?”
He chuckled then sighed. “That would’ve been nice.”
“It was a date then,” she confirmed, surprised at her own bluntness. She no longer had any ability to stop from smiling. She swiped the lock and looked over her shoulder. “Thanks again, see you around?”
“I’ll text you,” he answered, hand raised and waving.
“You better,” she declared with a laugh, waving back before stepping in.
Amber and Krystal greeted her in the living room, looking at her glowing face suspiciously.
“Well that went well, didn’t it,” Krystal said.
“Shut up,” Jinri said as she bit her lip to turn her expression to a grimace. It didn’t work.
a/n: lol pls i have promised this since september 2011 what is going on
i was writing this since december but i got uninspired then stopped. then i thought of a more lighthearted way to end it and here you go. haha anyway i love sulli/p.o a lot and wow feelings i love them. this was probably inspired by sulli going to their showcase and again, p.o constantly saying sulli was his ideal type before since they don't really...go on shows that ask that question. i am rambling now. fun.
anyway yeah this is inspired by my high school life which was very boring and just very recently ended lmao i just wanted to write something really teenager-y and cheezy i'm sorry!!!1
also if you have requests/prompts pls tell me? i missed writing a lot so yes requests/prompts are welcome!
you know when teenagers say they're just friends? yeah, it's never really true.
“I watched your interview,” Jinri whispered into her phone. She smiled to herself as she hugged her pillow, hoping that Victoria wouldn’t wake up and that the blanket she was tucked under was soundproof.
“You did?” the deep voice on the other end echoed. Jihoon was naturally loud. His normal projection sounded like he was shouting over music. “So did you see me seeming like a lovesick puppy for you? Which I am?” he asked as he chuckled.
Jinri grinned, always laughing it off whenever he said stuff like this. “You sound tired,” she replied, noting the roughness in his voice. “Not used to the lifestyle yet, huh?”
“Not at all,” he grumbled. “I miss pigging out. I miss sleeping in. Even if I try, I wake up to a camera. I put on Jaehyo hyung’s BB cream almost every night in case the Match Up staff decides to be devious again.”
She laughed. “Welcome to my life,” she said. “Except I miss doing variety shows. Those were fun, even if they’re tiring. We don’t really do anything fun anymore.”
“Singing and dancing is fun,” he said.
Jinri shrugged. “If you’re good at it, I guess.”
“Hey,” he retorted. “You’re good.”
“Just decent, thanks to training.”
“You’re hard on yourself.”
“Someone needs to be.” Jinri smiled; he always made her feel better about herself.
“Everyone is.”
“I just want to act. I hope they’d let me audition for a drama,” Jinri said as she rolled onto her back with a dreamy sigh.
“Was that a yawn?” Jihoon asked. “You should sleep, I bet you have a schedule tomorrow.”
“No, that wasn’t,” Jinri answered with a pout. She didn’t want to sleep yet. “Just a radio show in like, four hours.”
“Then you should sleep,” he replied.
“I’m still kind of hyper. I’m craving something sweet - maybe watermelon -“
“Sleep.”
Jinri stared at the ceiling, refusing to close her eyes. “No, you should. You’re way more exhausted than I am. I bet you just want to sleep already, too.”
“No, I want to keep talking to you, but I just care about your wellbeing. Sleep,” he said, insisting. Jinri couldn’t stop her frown from turning into a small grin. He was so protective - despite him being such a kid, he was surprisingly caring.
“Mmmm not sleepy,” she said, accidentally letting out a yawn right after. Damn it. She could hear Jihoon laughing at her.
“Sleep. Goodnight, I am hanging up on you because you never would,” he said in a singsong tune. “I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Nghhh, fine, goodnight.”
Jinri put on a pair of sunglasses as she speed-walked out of the radio station building, arm interlocked with Krystal’s. Her heart thudded as she held her phone inside the pocket of her jeans, tapping the screen in anticipation. She promised herself she’d look at her phone when they got in the car.
The car took forever getting out of the parking lot, and Jinri borrowed Amber’s phone to play a game of Temple Run to distract her. She sucked at it, only getting to ninety thousand points, power-ups included.
“Stupid game,” she sighed as she handed it back to Amber.
“No, it’s pretty smart, actually,” Amber replied. “You just have terrible gaming skills.”
“You have a terrible face,” Jinri answered back weakly. She felt her stomach drop as the van pulled up in front of them.
She climbed in first, and laughed dryly as she saw Victoria’s sleepy face, puzzled as to why she was in such a hurry. As soon as she leaned back on some pillows their manager stole from China Airlines, she pulled out her phone and pressed a button to see her homepage. Her face fell as she saw no notifications.
Her disappointment faded quickly and she was embarrassed with herself. “What did you expect,” she mumbled to herself. “You’re not the center of his universe. And he’s probably asleep…or busy.”
She fell asleep on Victoria’s shoulder as soon as she tucked her phone back in her pocket, so she didn’t feel it vibrate against her thigh eight minutes later.
As soon as she got in her room, she fell asleep face down on her pillow, long hair splayed around it.
She woke up a few hours later with a stiff neck. As soon as she sat up, Victoria looked up at her bunk from the desk and smiled. “Did you stay up late again?” she asked with a suggestive smile.
“No,” Jinri grumbled as she reached out for her phone in habit. She checked the screen and felt her stomach drop as the new message note popped up. She opened it, sitting up so quickly she felt blood rush to her head.
Pyo Jihoon (09:43 am): Good morning! Sleep more, because you’re going to get sick. No cameras waking me up today, just Jiho hyung’s bad singing.
She frowned at the timestamp. 9:43 am. That was almost exactly three and a half hours ago. She keyed in a quick reply.
Choi Jinri (1:07 am): Your wish is my command. Just woke up from a nap. Jiho oppa should stick to rapping. Also, are you guys gonna be on Music Bank tomorrow?
“I’m hungry,” she sang to Victoria, grinning wildly. Victoria rolled her eyes with a suspicious look on her face.
“Food’s in the refrigerator. Sunyoung just woke up, too, so she probably heated it up already.”
“Thanks, unnie,” Jinri replied as she leapt out from her upper bunk and kissed Victoria quickly on the head. She stepped out into the kitchen and grinned at Sunyoung.
“You’re happy,” Sunyoung said as she picked at the chicken breast, laughing at the expression on Jinri’s face.
“Woke up on the right side of the bed,” Jinri said brightly, wincing as she felt her neck crack. She set her phone beside her plate and put her own chicken breast on her plate. Sunyoung stared at her own plate miserably.
She ate while staring into space, and the ping of her message notifier pulled her back to reality. She picked it up greedily. Sunyoung noticed her fingers work on the touch screen faster than usual.
“You’re excited, who are you texting?” she asked, genuinely curious.
Jinri’s face reddened and she followed her instincts. “Krystal,” she lied.
“Krystal’s asleep in my bed,” Sunyoung replied with a frown.
“Well, maybe she’s awake again.”
“Pretty sure I hear her snoring.”
Krystal was snoring. Damn Jinri’s compulsive need to lie.
“Fine,” Jinri said with a sigh, “I’m not texting Krystal.”
“Then who?” Sunyoung urged.
Jinri brought her chopsticks to her lips. “Mmmm,” she spoke with her mouth full. Sunyoung pulled a face.
Just then, Amber swooped behind Jinri and grabbed her phone. This didn’t usually bother Jinri, because they always stole each other’s phones, but she didn’t really want to go through this right now.
“Jihoon?” Amber narrowed her eyes. “Is this P.O from that new hiphop group? The guy who confesses his love for you all the time in interviews?”
Jinri turned red and glared at Amber. Sunyoung burst out laughing.
“He’s part of Jiho oppa’s new group, right? The deep-voiced one?” she asked.
“He’s talented,” Amber said as she nodded, pretending to be the rap expert. She probably was when it came to their entire band, but only because she was exposed to it back in America and because it was her assigned position in the group. “Is he asking you out or something? He seems sweet.”
Jinri narrowed her eyes, hiding her guilt. “No, we’re just friends,” she said as grabbed her phone from Amber.
“I’ve heard that one before,” Amber said with a snort. Jinri shook her head.
“Shut up.”
Jinri looked at Sunyoung, fuming at her amused smile.
“You’re so cute,” Sunyoung told her with a scrunch of her nose as she picked up her plate and went to wash it.
Jinri groaned and set her head on the table. “You all suck.”
“All done,” the hairstylist said, patting Jinri’s pigtails down. Jinri nodded and breathed a quiet thanks before the woman headed off to fix the bobby pins that were coming loose in Victoria’s hair.
She got up and headed towards the door, thinking of sneaking a peek at the newbies before showtime. She bit her lip at the thought that she might even see -
“J-Jihoon oppa,” she mumbled as the door swung open, finding Jihoon in front of it with his balled up fist up and ready to knock on it.
He widened his eyes, slipping his hand down, then hesistantly putting it back up for a wave. “Hi?”
Jinri stepped forward and slammed the door closed, leaning against the door. Jihoon took a step back and laughed.
“Well that was awkward,” he said, making an embarrassed face.
“Yeah,” Jinri sighed, but was beaming shamelessly. “…So what brings you here?”
“I don’t know,” Jihoon replied with a shrug. “I just wanted to see you, I guess?” He put up his index fingers and did a little jig. “Number one fan, and all. And I hardly get to see you, anyway. Plus, I wanted to greet you good luck.”
“Thanks, you too,” she said. “I’ll be watching you! I’m betting you’ll be great.”
“Yeah, you’ll see me shaking and forgetting my cues and stuff,” he muttered lightheartedly. “Well, I better get going. We’re rehearsing after…whoever’s on the stage right now.”
Jinri opened her mouth in wonder, and ended up giggling. “What even, you better go fast, the stage managers will kill you.”
Jihoon scrunched up his nose. “I’ll just tell them I had to poop or something.”
Jinri raised her eyebrows in disbelief with an amused expression on her face as she waved at his retreating figure, walking backwards so he could wave back at her. As soon as he turned around and Jinri’s fingers closed around the doorknob, he faced her again.
“Oh yeah, wait,” he called out to her, his hand in his pocket. When he took it out, between his fingers was a lollipop. He held it out to her with both hands like a gift.
Jinri looked at it, confused.
“You said you were craving watermelon that one night,” he explained, drawing his arms back. “So,” he outstretched them again, “watermelon-flavored lollipop, right here.”
Slowly, a wide smile appeared across Jinri’s face. “Thanks,” she said as she took it from his hands, “so thoughtful of you.”
“No problem,” he said with a grin and a salute. “Okay, gotta go now for real.”
“See you later!” She waved giddily at him, only putting down her hand when three people hauling a huge camera decided to turn her way. She looked down at the lollipop between her fingers and saw there was a strip of paper swirled around the stick.
Good luck, break a leg!! Hwaiting~
Jinri let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and stared at the tiny smudged ink. She didn’t know what to feel, so she just bit her lip to stop her silly smile from getting any bigger and slipped into the room, hopefully unnoticed.
That obviously wasn’t the case.
She tried not to look at the suggestive looks her bandmates were giving her as well as the stern but curious faces their manager and various stylists and makeup artists were staring at her with as well. She tucked her lips in prevent breaking out into a grin. As soon as she was near enough to her open gym bag, she threw her lollipop in discreetly, watching it settle between her sweatpants and her tub of lip balm.
“What’s that?” Krystal says from behind her, smug smirk on her lips.
“Nothing.” She couldn’t lie to save her life. “C-candy.”
“Oh man, he gave you candy?” Krystal snickered. “So are you guys a thing yet?”
Jinri looked at her, appalled and confused. “A thing?” she echoed.
“Yeah, a thing,” Krystal said with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, he obviously likes you -“
“Okay, yeah, no, I have to go to the bathroom,” Jinri said and headed for outside as soon as she felt churning in her stomach and heat crawl up her neck. She wasn’t feeling so well.
“Oh-kaaay,” Krystal sang, “whatever you say.”
As Jinri was closing the door behind her, she could hear Amber suddenly shout, “I bet a million won we’ll have flowers in our living room tomorrow!”
Jinri felt a mix of guilty pleasure and denial in the pit of her stomach. “Don’t overthink it, don’t overthink it,” she whispered to herself quietly, making sure it would always be nagging at the back of her head.
It bothered Jinri that she couldn’t ask Jihoon to hang out with her without it sounding suggestive to herself. Not to mention how they didn’t have mutual friends, not counting Jiho, though he didn’t really count, because that was like hanging out with your best friend and your older brother (which isn’t that weird, but she’d rather not).
So she was pleased when Jihoon asked first.
It was after the filming, in the stagnant cold of the air-conditioned parking lot. Jinri went ahead of her band and the manager as she talked to Sohyun about the show. Sohyun was waving her off already, speedwalking towards 4minute’s van. Jinri was texting Amber to hurry the hell up when she felt a presence beside her.
It was Jihoon, looking down at her with his usual small smirk on his face. His cheeks looked flushed but he had this confident glow about him and she prayed that Amber wouldn’t take her text seriously because if she saw the look on their faces right now she’d make fun of her for the rest of the week.
“Hey, oppa,” she greeted him, tucking her phone into the pocket of her gym bag. “What’s up?”
“Uh, I have to go in like, two seconds, but -“ he turned around quick to raise a hand towards his bandmates, telling them to wait, “we should really hang out when you’re free.”
“Uh, yeah, we should,” she replied, a bit taken aback. She thought about her schedule. “Well, um, I’m free Tuesday night? Where should we go?”
“Good, I’m free then too,” he said, grinning as he adjusted the backpack on his shoulder. “Actually, nevermind, I’m free most of the time anyway. And I’m not sure, let’s talk about it.”
“Sounds good,” she said with a nod of her head.
“Yeah, good,” he echoed, starting to walk backwards towards his van. “See you!”
She waved at him, biting her lip, slightly dazed. She watched his bandmates high five him and Jiho waving back at her. She laughed and dropped her hand as their van started up and left the lot.
She let out a sigh of relief knowing their van was one of the last out of the building, knowing that if anyone saw them there would be speculation, or worse - teasing.
“Is it a date?” Victoria asked excitedly, clapping her hands. Jinri groaned and bodyslammed her growing pile of clothes on Sunyoung’s bunk.
“Nooo, we’re just hanging out,” she replied roughly. Krystal snickered from her place above in Jinri’s bunk, leaning down to roll her eyes at Jinri.
“As if, you moron,” Krystal quipped, dangling her arm to hit Jinri’s head. “If it’s just the two of you, it’s a date. If we went out for frozen yogurt, you’d call it a date. The difference between our dates and your date today is that yours is not platonic. At all.”
“Our dates aren’t platonic,” Jinri asserted, trying to hold Krystal’s hand. Krystal laughed and pulled her hand back up.
“Our relationship is one-sided,” Krystal stated, rolling back up the bunk so her head was out of sight from Jinri’s point of view. “You and that Pyo guy totally like each other, though.”
“Can. You. Stop. That!” Jinri groaned, her face in her least favorite puffy skirt.
“Yeah, the joke’s getting old,” Amber said as she appeared in the doorway with her arm halfway into a box of cereal.
“Yup,” Jinri affirmed, looking up at Amber in approval.
“Because the truth isn’t funny,” Amber added. Jinri glared at her.
“You should wear this! It’s adorable,” Victoria said, holding up a yellow blazer.
“Oh my God, that’s part of her uniform,” Krystal mused, laughing and hiding under the magazine she’s been reading.
“Oh.”
Right at that moment, Sunyoung barged in.
“Holy crap, why is this place a mess?” she asked, eyes wide.
“Bye,” Amber said as she turned around towards the kitchen, mouth full of Froot Loops.
“Sulli’s fault, she’s picking her outfit for her date tonight,” Krystal answered.
“Not a date!”
“Aw, baby Ssul is growing up,” Sunyoung said, her tone totally changed. She took Jinri’s face in her hands and squished it. Jinri looked up at her helplessly.
“How about this? This is kinda cute.” Victoria held up a tulle skirt.
“For a ballet recital,” Krystal mumbled. Jinri let out a soft cry, her face still in Sunyoung’s hands.
She ended up wearing a plain v-neck and jeans, with all of her hair hidden under a beanie and huge sunglasses hiding almost the entire upper half of her face. Jihoon assured her no one would recognize her where they were going, but she wasn’t going to take her chances.
She arrived at the cat café, greeted by a kind old lady in an apron holding an orange kitten in her arms. She was led to the inside where Jihoon was sitting alone, chin on the table, watching a fat white cat sleep.
“Oppa,” she greeted as she sat across him, taking off her sunglasses. He looked up at her and grinned with closed lips.
“Maybe you should go bald for your next promotional cycle,” he said, eyeing her beanie. She laughed and took it off, shaking all her hair out. “Actually, nevermind,” he said as he sat up straight, “I like your long hair. Actually, whatever, do anything to your hair, you’ll still look great.”
“Mmmm, thanks,” she replied with a nervous laugh, trying to brush off the compliment. She was usually good with those, but it being said so offhandedly and coming from Jihoon, it caught her off guard. “How did you even think of this place?” She stared at a shelf where five cats were lying down in different cubbyholes.
He shrugged and raised a hand to order a drink. “I don’t know, I just passed by it one time and it’s all secluded and hardly anyone’s here and I thought it was cute. I thought you might like it.”
“I do,” she agreed as she looked around in awe. She hardly ever had free time to do silly things like drink milk tea while petting cats. A particularly skinny one jumped up their table and sat right in front of her, and she stroked it hesitantly. When it scowled at her and jumped off, she laughed. “They don’t like me much.”
“That’s okay,” he assured her, leaning back with a grin on his face, “it’s impossible that they won’t like you eventually.”
Jinri thinks this has been one of the most enjoyable days she’s experienced in a long time. She felt so at ease with Jihoon, it wasn’t difficult at all to talk to him about the most random things and at the same time, if silence fell upon them, it wasn’t awkward, just this comfortable peace between them. He was funny enough to make her choke on her drink and caring enough to grab water for her when it happened.
It was a bit before nine when he walked her to her dormitory. (“It’s so early,” she complained, but knew it was for the better. They didn’t want their bandmates imagining too much when all they did was have dinner, talk, and walk around a bit.)
“Good thing your fans aren’t insane yet,” Jihoon said, peering at the empty lobby of the apartment building. Jinri laughed and pressed the elevator button. “And good thing people don’t recognize me.”
“Yet,” Jinri added with a smile. It was Jihoon’s turn to laugh.
“Yeah, sure,” he muttered goodheartedly.
They arrived at the f(x) dorm’s front door, and they’ve discarded their sunglasses and beanies because it was way too dark and way too hot. They could still see each other smiling in the dim light.
“Well, thanks, that was fun,” Jihoon stated, tucking his hands into his jacket pockets.
“Yeah, it was,” Jinri seconded with a nod. She was fumbling about her wallet for her keycard when a thought occurred to her. She stopped and looked up at him. “Wait, can I ask you a question?”
He nodded, eyebrows lowered in confusion.
She hesitated, but asked anyway. “Was this a date?”
He sniffed and narrowed his eyebrows. “Um -“
“I’m so sorry, that was an awkward question, forget I asked,” she said, laughing anxiously, finally plucking out her keycard from her pocket.
“No, no, it’s okay,” he insisted, “I guess it could have been, if you wanted it to be.”
She bit her lip. “Did you want it to be?”
He chuckled then sighed. “That would’ve been nice.”
“It was a date then,” she confirmed, surprised at her own bluntness. She no longer had any ability to stop from smiling. She swiped the lock and looked over her shoulder. “Thanks again, see you around?”
“I’ll text you,” he answered, hand raised and waving.
“You better,” she declared with a laugh, waving back before stepping in.
Amber and Krystal greeted her in the living room, looking at her glowing face suspiciously.
“Well that went well, didn’t it,” Krystal said.
“Shut up,” Jinri said as she bit her lip to turn her expression to a grimace. It didn’t work.
a/n: lol pls i have promised this since september 2011 what is going on
i was writing this since december but i got uninspired then stopped. then i thought of a more lighthearted way to end it and here you go. haha anyway i love sulli/p.o a lot and wow feelings i love them. this was probably inspired by sulli going to their showcase and again, p.o constantly saying sulli was his ideal type before since they don't really...go on shows that ask that question. i am rambling now. fun.
anyway yeah this is inspired by my high school life which was very boring and just very recently ended lmao i just wanted to write something really teenager-y and cheezy i'm sorry!!!1
also if you have requests/prompts pls tell me? i missed writing a lot so yes requests/prompts are welcome!