re:vision

[itachibana13]

re:vision
jonghyun/onew
7547 words; pg-13


oh god this fic took so long to finish, and to be honest, i'm still not satisfied with it. it went through many, many different phases, and oh god the beginning part is still really awkward and needs fixing but this has been in my wips folder for over a year or two i am done with it. hallelujah. if i was five years older i'd get drunk to celebrate, but alas.

It’s always been a ritual, of sorts, that Jinki’s late to class every Monday. He and his alarm clock engage themselves in another battle to see who exactly has more patience. Jinki wins today, which means he has another half an hour to sleep in and be twenty minutes late to class rather than ten. By the time he realizes this, thirty minutes pass and he suddenly jumps up, scrambling to grab his things as soon as possible.

After running across campus, and possibly injuring his ankle again, he crawls into his seat miserably after getting a disapproving look from Jessica. Jinki gives her a meek smile in return and turns his attention to the lecture. He can almost feel his professor giving him that pointed look, but he just points to another diagram on the screen and continues on.

Two pages of notes on music composition and three hours into class, the screen goes ominously blank, which leaves the class in a confused daze. The girl next to Jinki asks if he knows what’s going on, to which he shrugs and points at the professor, who’s been waiting for everyone to quiet down. The screen turns white again, with all of the student’s names on it, and the the professor announces that they have to do a project with partners that are randomly selected from his name shuffling program. Everyone tries not to groan.

The project is designed to test compromise and collaboration. With one partner, they’re to compose a piano piece that consists of at least two different genres. It’s performed at the end of the semester in front of all the other students and graded.

And with that small explanation, their professor presses a button on his computer, and the names start to mix together. Jinki watches the screen carefully, tries to follow his name as it gets mixed with a hundred other's. As usual, he loses it, but a moment later it reappears somewhere in the middle of the screen.

Next to his name is his partner's name: Kim Jonghyun. He stands up and starts to look for the scandalous looking person with unnatural blond hair. Someone taps him on the back first, and Jinki turns around to see his partner.

"Lee Jinki?"

"Yeah," he replies. "Kim Jonghyun?"

"Yup."

"You, um. You dyed your hair," he comments. "I almost didn't recognize you for a second."

Jonghyun stands a few centimeters short of him, with chocolate brown hair and matching eyes. He smiles. "My hair is fried, so I’m waiting for it to grow out again." Jinki nods awkwardly and looks around. "So," Jonghyun takes the lead and sits down, motioning for Jinki to sit as well. "This project... what genre were you thinking of?

Jinki hesitates a bit before finally answering, "How about something more upbeat? Like jazz."

"Jazz," Jonghyun nods. "Nice. How about a little blues? To give it an edgy feeling."

"Yeah, yeah!” Jinki grins, getting more into the conversation. “Let's try to make a little signature style too."

"How about reggae?"

"Works for me."

Jonghyun grins. "See? That wasn’t too bad.”

Jinki turns a bright red and laughs nervously. “Guess not,” he mumbles.

Jonghyun beams. “Want to continue this discussion some other time, then?”

"Sure. How about that cafe, near the eastern dorms? The new one. Did you hear about that?"

"Yeah, the one next to the bookstore, I think. Kibum works there. How about around four? My classes end at three."

"Alright, see you then."

"Sure."

"No, no, change that. That looks really ugly."

Jinki raises an eyebrow and looks up at him. "My handwriting? I know I don't write very neatly, but."

"No, not that! The notes. The pink and orange don't go together at all, and the lime green isn't helping either."

"I-um. What?" Jinki stares at Jonghyun. "I don't see any colors."

"Right there," Jonghyun points at the paper. "You see that B flat? That's pink, and it doesn't match the orange A sharp at all. And the C! It's lime green, doesn't flow with the rest."

"Are we looking at the same paper?" Jinki asks. "Because all the notes are black."

Jonghyun stares at him for a moment like he's stupid, but then starts to laugh. "Oh! I completely forgot to tell you. This is, uh, a little weird. I have Synesthesia."

Jinki blinks. "What's that?"

"It's when two of your senses combine to make a new one. Mine is sight and sound. When I hear someone talk, or listen to music, I see colors. It also works when looking at music, like music sheets.”

Jinki nods, mouth making an ‘o’ shape. “Two senses combine? That’s... I’ve never heard of that before. Is it a type of disorder or something?

Jonghyun shrugs. “Disorders are supposed to be bad things, aren’t they? I kind of like having Synesthesia. It makes me unique, I guess.”

“So wait, if people’s voices also have different colors, then what is my voice like?”

Jonghyun tries not to chuckle. “It’s kind of an ugly green color, sorry.”

Jinki gasps in mock horror, and jokes, laughing. “I’m going to stop talking now.”

Jonghyun’s face lights up for a second and he stares at Jinki, grinning. “Oh! Your laugh. That was really pretty. Like a nice soft light green color. Kind of creme-ish. It kind of fades into a light brown.”

“Oh, me?” Jinki says. “What’s your own voice like?”

“A darkish blue,” Jonghyun shrugs. “I don’t usually pay attention to my own voice. It kind of just blends in with the background. Then it becomes this dark grayish color.”

Jinki stares at him for a bit, and Jonghyun waves a hand in his face. “Hello, are you there?”

“Huh, what? Oh, I’m here. I was just awed, a bit. Kind of. That’s really cool! Synethesia,” he mumbles. “I need to google that when I get home or something. Sight and sound...” He pauses for a moment before looking up. “Is my voice really that ugly?”

Jonghyun blinks before bursting out into laughter. Jinki jumps at the explosion and screams when he almost knocks over his coffee. He turns to Jonghyun with a scandalized look.

“Do you always say random things like that?”

Jinki opens his mouth to speak then closes it. Then opens it. Then closes it again. He does this a couple more times before pointing at Jonghyun. “Rude!” he blurts.

“Uncool,” Jonghyun retorts, taking a large gulp from his coffee.

Jinki glares at him and eyes the music sheet once more, then grabs the pencil erases a note. He writes a new one a few lines below. “There. How does that sound? I changed the B flat into a F. It should seem better.”

Jonghyun watches him and nods. “It does fit together actually. The pink and the brown complement each other pretty well.”

“I heard you know Minho!” someone says, and Jinki looks up to see Jonghyun sit down next to him. He moves his laptop over solemnly, secretly liking all the extra space he had before to let his work splay.

“Yeah, we were friends in high school. We were both on the soccer team,” Jinki says. “You’re late, by the way. You’re lucky the professor’s late too.”

Jonghyun shrugs, placing his own notebook down and flipping it open. “You’re always late, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. I already know everything we’re going to learn in this lecture, I’m not even quite sure why I’m here. But hey, listen, so I got all the music we have so far on the computer, and it sounds amazing. Wanna hear it? The beat is totally banging.”

“I thought it was a ballad.”

“It is!” Jonghyun sighs. “Fine, it was incredibly emotional and it made me want to cry.”

“But it’s not sa-”

“Just listen,” Jonghyun says and places his headphones on Jinki’s head.

Jinki’s a little taken aback from Jonghyun’s straightforwardness, but quickly brushes it off as he fixes the headphone’s placement and watches Jonghyun press the play key. The melody is good, Jinki thinks. Really good, actually, if he’s not trying to be humble. The harmony may need work, since it falters every now and then and seems to have some awkward moments.

Once it finishes, Jonghyun leans towards him in one swift movement and takes his headphones back. Jinki freezes from the proximity for a moment and clears his throat, regaining his posture.

“I feel like I was supposed to tell you something,” Jonghyun mutters, tapping his fingers on the desk. Jinki feels like he’s heard the beat somewhere before, and taps his foot to it, trying to remember exactly where. Jonghyun faces him and looks down, watching his feet. He smirks and adds another beat to the ensemble. Jinki grins back at him and starts adding his hands in, until they’ve created a new rhythm and freestyle around each other, trying to trip the other up. Jinki’s about to start hitting the desk, but then the professor comes in and the both of them stop immediately, folding their hands together on their laps. They try to suppress a chuckle and exchange glances, and then turn their attention towards the professor.

“Jinki!” Jonghyun calls out after the lecture, jogging next to him. “I remembered what I had to tell you.”

“Hm?” Jinki raises an eyebrow and watches Jonghyun jump up and down on the balls of his feet. Jonghyun’s a little eccentric and very hyper, but never enough to tire Jinki out. He does the opposite actually; Jinki tends to want to go crazy with him and run around until they’re exhausted. Jonghyun just has that effect on everyone, Jinki realizes.

“Minho wanted to know if you were interested in hitting up the gym later with us. Around five.”

Jinki shrugs. “Sounds good to me.”

“Sweet,” Jonghyun grins. “See you there, then.”

“Damn, you are more jacked than I thought.” He whistles and checks Jinki out.

Jinki scratches the back of his head self consciously and looks down. “I work out too, you know.”

He hears Minho laugh from behind them. “You should see him,” he says.

Jonghyun grins. “Really? Let’s see you bench press, then.” He pushes Jinki over and helps him set up, piling the weights on each side of the bar.

“One more set of five,” Jinki insists, but Jonghyun raises an eyebrow.

“You already have enough. That’s way too much.” Jonghyun persists, and makes no move to get the extra weights. Jinki rolls his eyes and grasps the bar, pushing up. He raises it with moderate difficulty, breathing out slowly. He inhales and brings the bar down towards his chest. He does this for two sets of ten, and places the bar back on the support. Jonghyun whistles again. “You’re good. Really good.”

Jinki tries to bite back a grin, but it shows through anyways. Jonghyun’s approval makes him more happy then he thought it would. “Let’s see how well you do.”

“I am so awesome,” Jonghyun replies and pounds on his chest. “Watch and learn.”

The day ends with Kibum joining them later for dinner, where they eat enough food to supply a herd of elephants and still have leftovers. They take a group trip back to Jinki’s dorm, and Minho and Kibum take the chance to start bothering Dongwoon in his room across the hall. Jonghyun and Jinki sit on his bed and play thumb war with each other for a good five minutes before it gets too intense and then they’re suddenly playing mercy, forcing each other backwards until Jinki’s back meets the mattress. Jonghyun is grinning from above him, and this would almost be romantic if not for the sharp pain from his arms being twisted in an unnatural position behind Jinki’s head. He grits his teeth and tries to push Jonghyun’s hands away, but his wrists twist and he cries out before trashing his body and screaming mercy.

Jonghyun lets go immediately and pulls Jinki up into a sitting position. “Oh god, did I hurt you? I’m really sorry if I did, are you okay?”

Jinki purses his lips and rubs at his wrists. They sting a little, but nothing that won’t become a problem. “I’m fine,” he says. “I give up, you win. You’re the stronger one.”

Jonghyun looks confused until he bursts out into laughter. “Of course I am,” he says.

Kibum takes the chance to pop in and survey the area. “I heard someone scream. What were you two doing?”

“Hiding a body. You got our back, right?”

Kibum snorts. “Whatever, just make sure you pay me in advance.”

“Wow, can you teach Taemin to support my every motive and desire like that?” Jinki asks, almost starry-eyed.

“You’re teaching Jinki how to become a delinquent. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

“He was going to be corrupted by me sooner or later.” Kibum coughs and mutters gay inbetween hacks. Jinki flushes a bright red color, but Jonghyun just grins again and puts his hand next to his ear. “What was that? What were you trying to say? I think you’re catching a cold or something. I’d get that checked out.”

“Good idea,” Kibum rolls his eyes. “Speaking of checking out, it’s like two thirty. I’m going back to our room. Are you coming?”

“Yeah, wait for me!” He gets off the bed and follows Kibum out the door, but sticks his head back in the room. “Tomorrow, same place, same time?”

Jinki nods.

“Awesome. Also, pizza later? Okay? Okay.”

“Um, okay.”

Jonghyun calls Jinki out more and more often, until they spend at least three days a week together, with only half an hour being dedicated to their work.

“But I’m so bored, Jinki,” Jonghyun groans and puts his head on the table. He arms flop out in front of him and he whines into the wood. Jinki kicks at his shin when he doesn’t look back up.

“We’re almost done with this, okay? Let’s get to the end of the next measure, at least. Then we can go somewhere else.”

Jonghyun pouts and lifts himself up sluggishly. He grabs Jinki’s coffee and takes a giant gulp before he can say anything and sighs in content. After fixing his posture he looks down at the piece of paper and points out a set of chords two lines above. “That’s red and green. Let’s kill whoever thought that would be a good combination.”

“I thought that would be a good combination,” Jinki wilts and goes to grab at his eraser. Jonghyun stops him and grabs the pencil, erasing the staff on the half note and turning it into a whole note.

“Now the red isn’t as vibrant and it matches better. It wasn’t the notes, it was the beat.”

Jinki smiles at Jonghyun’s attempt to make him feel better. “So how about a quarter C note here, followed by three eighth notes, D E D?”

Jonghyun thinks about it, then nods and marks out the notes. “Now can we go somewhere else? Pizza?”

“But we haven’t even-”

Jonghyun’s already packing up though, always making the decisions, always one step ahead of Jinki. He sighs and shoves his stuff into his bag and follows Jonghyun out the door, who’s complaining about how slow Jinki is being.

They meet Taemin half way across campus, and they become the loud trio that sits in the back corner with three large pies of Hawaiian pizza.

It’s almost become routine, Jinki realizes, that Jonghyun bursts into his dorm room and kidnaps him from any possible progress he could be making and drags him to go eat, or to go sing, or to go and bother Kibum for the next two hours and get kicked out of his room.

They’re playing Call of Duty together when Jonghyun suggests that they go clubbing on Saturday.

“Clubbing?” Jinki asks, then wilts. “I’ve never been clubbing before.”

Jonghyun laughs and makes Jinki just a bit more self conscious. “You’ve never been clubbing before?

“I didn’t get on the Dean’s list by getting trashed every Friday. Nothing against those who do, but.”

“Oh, Jinki. Jinki, Jinki, Jinki. I am going to completely deflower you this weekend, so get ready.”

Jinki gulps. “Um.”

“I meant by clubbing.”

“Right.”

“Seriously.”

“Didn’t doubt you.”

“Yes you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Jonghyun looks Jinki up and down, and Jinki feels just slightly uncomfortable.

Jonghyun snorts. "You're kidding, right? You're going to wear that to a club?"

"I-um. What? It's just a sweater and jeans."

"Yeah, exactly. It's just a sweater and jeans. Come on, don't you have anything better?"

Jinki shrugs. He plops down at his desk and slumps in his chair. "Probably not, but you're free to look."

So he does. Jonghyun opens his closet and rummages through everything. Jinki wonders if Jonghyun’s trying to figure out how fast he can make Jinki’s room dirty.

"What even, you have plenty of clothes." He throws a pair of dark blue faded jeans and a short sleeved v-neck shirt at Jinki. "Go get changed."

"The shirts not even mine, it's my roommat-"

"Go get changed already!"

Jinki does, and nods at his reflection. Jonghyun must have the eyes of a hawk, because he does not look half bad.

"Your hair is still not good enough."

"What? I like my hair."

Jonghyun rolls his eyes. "The hot chick you will be banging will not, so. Oh, you have gel. Perfect."

"That's not mine either!"

Jonghyun presses him against the bathroom counter. "It's gel, Taemin’s not going to care. And god, stand still!" He rubs the gel in his hands and runs them through Jinki's hair. "Done," he grins after a moment. "I should be a hairstylist."

Jinki turns around and raises an eyebrow. He should be a hairstylist. All he's really done is give Jinki a flip, and fix random sections of hair, but really. He hasn't looked this good in a long time. Or at all. He wonders if it’s socially acceptable for him to stare at his reflection longer than usual. Then he realizes that the social norms don’t usually apply to Jonghyun.

"Come on, I know the bouncer, don't stand on line." Jonghyun grins, pulling Jinki along.

"I-um," Jinki looks around; he can hear the heavy bass from outside the club. "How do you handle the music?"

Jonghyun raises an eyebrow. "I just listen, of course."

"No, I mean. With the colors and all. Doesn't that get really annoying?"

He shrugs. "There's enough lights in the club, anyways. Doesn't make much of a difference." He walks up the bouncer grinning. "My friend," he smiles. "Is that okay?"

"No problem," the bouncer lets them through, and they walk down the steps to the inside of the club. Jonghyun's right, Jinki thinks, putting his hand in front as a strobelight flashes right across his face, there are too many lights in here already.

Jonghyun looks at him. “What do you wanna do first? Dance, drink, something else?”

Jinki stares at him for a moment. He might as well get drunk first to get rid of the awkwardness. “Let’s grab a drink.”

Jonghyun laughs. “Alright. On me, okay?” He walks to the bar, winking at the bartender.

She laughs at him, and looks at Jinki. “Who’s this, Jonghyun? He’s cute.”

Jonghyun grins. “This is my friend, Jinki. Jinki, this is Yuri. She’s the bartender here. If you need anything, just tell her. Remember, it’s all on me."

"Oh, um. Okay. Well, uh." Jinki feels awkward and nudges Jonghyun in the ribs.

"Okay, fine. Let's have shots then."

They both ended up getting wasted. Jonghyun gets drunk first, and goes right into the dance floor, grinding some girl and screaming you's a sexy beast, girl! in her face. Jinki drags him away mainly because his mind has gone upside down and deems cockblocking him a perfectly sane and normal idea.

"Why were you dancing with her?" he screams.

"There are so many colors! Wait, what?" Jonghyun screams back at him.

Jinki shouts. "Why were you with her!"

"What?" Jonghyun screeches.

"Why were you with her!" Jinki yells.

"Oh!" Jonghyun says loudly. "I don't know! I just was!"

"What?"

"I just was!"

"What!"

Jonghyun motions him to forget it. He leans over and screams into Jinki's ear, making sure he hears. "Want to dance with me?"

"Okay!"

"What?"

"Okay!"

"Oh, good!"

He pulls Jinki close and they move to the beat, dancing close to each other. By the end of the night, they are both completely hammered and make their way back into Jonghyun's apartment.

An exhausted Jinki falls down on Jonghyun's bed and Jonghyun follows right after, elbows bumping into each other. Jonghyun slurs something about staying over the night and changing into his pajamas. Jinki's not really registering anything because damn, he thinks one of his contacts fell out - when did that happen - because everything is blurry and out of focus. He waves off Jonghyun's tugging on his arm for a bit, looks around blindly before Jonghyun says something that doesn't really make sense in his mind. Something about roommates and meds. Or was it Ned? Maybe it was bed. It might've been bled though.

Nothing quite makes sense to him right now, except that he wants to do something exciting, and that Jonghyun looks really good, so he rolls over onto Jonghyun and presses their lips together. Jonghyun makes some strangled noise and tries to sit up properly, but Jinki grabs his shirt and moves his face just so and tilts his head. Jonghyun moans and tries to squirm out from underneath him. After a moment he gives up and grabs a fistful of Jinki's hair, slipping his tongue into his mouth. It probably holds the world record for Shortest Makeout Session Ever, because Jinki slides off of him and falls onto the floor. Jonghyun groans and pulls Jinki back up onto his bed and throws the covers over them.

"I'm not sleepy," Jinki mumbles, but Jonghyun makes some incoherent noise and hits him with a pillow. That prompts Jinki to close his eyes and attempt to sleep.

He wakes up the next morning with the biggest hangover he's ever had before in his life and spends the next ten minutes laying in bed with his hands on his forehead and eyes shut. He winces every now and then before turning over. He tries looking up to the ceiling but his vision is blurry and vaguely remembers that he lost one of his contacts the other night. And he may have possibly taken his other one out last night. Maybe. Jinki throws the cover over him and attempts to sleep again. It doesn't work, so he stares blindly at the ceiling. At one point, he faces Jonghyun, whom he prods in the cheek once. Jonghyun makes a weird noise and swats at his face before putting a pillow over his head. Jinki frowns, poking him again before giving up and turning over. He falls off the bed.

The crash makes Jonghyun sit up immediately with wide eyes and look around frantically. When he sees Jinki on the floor, he rolls his eyes and falls back down on the mattress.

"H-hey," Jinki says, "aren't you going to help me up?"

"You can do that yourself," Jonghyun replies, groaning.

"Headache?"

"Hangover," Jonghyun replies, putting an elbow over his forehead.

"You too," Jinki sighs, massaging his temple. Jonghyun makes another pained sound and turns over in his bed, the pillow falling onto the floor.

Jinki grabs the pillow and rests his head on it, looking around his room. It's surprisingly ordinary. He looks at the clock on his desk and mentally gasps. It's almost three. "Jonghyun," he calls out. "We have class in ten minutes."

"Skip it," Jonghyun mumbles.

"We can't skip class," Jinki frowns.

"Yes we can," Jonghyun replies, getting up. He walks around the room for a bit before opening his drawer and getting out a water bottle and two tablets. "Hangover medicine," he says before giving Jinki one of the pills. Jonghyun swallows it first and hands the water bottle to him.

Jinki takes it gratefully and downs half the bottle before remembering the pill is still in his hand.

"Good job," Jonghyun says sarcastically, but there's this amused smile on his face, so Jinki just laughs a bit and plops the tablet in his mouth and finishes the rest of the bottle.

"I guess we're skipping class then," Jinki states. "What do you want to do in the two hours we have now?"

They both stare at each other for a moment before saying in unison, "Eat."

Before Jonghyun gets into the shower, Jinki prods him in the back before muttering something incoherent.

“Yes?”

“Ican’tseeanything.”

“You can’t what?”

Jinki frowns. “See. My contacts. I lost one last night. And the other… hurts.”

“Oh. Go take that one out. Put it in a glass of water for now.” Jonghyun shuffles around his room a bit as Jinki rushes to the bathroom, and hands him a pair of glasses. “These are my sister’s old glasses. My mom made me take them in case something happens to my glasses or contacts.”

Jinki puts them on and nods approvingly. “What’s the number on these? They’re almost perfect.”

“Um, I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask my sister.”

Jinki shrugs. “It’s better than nothing. Now go shower.”

Jonghyun showers rather quickly, followed by Jinki, who probably takes at least half an hour longer than Jonghyun did. He changes into Jonghyun’s spare clothes and attempts to finger brush his teeth. He accidentally bites down on his finger at one point and screams, mentally sobbing.

Jonghyun brushes his teeth for at least half an hour, and Jinki points out that brushing for that long is probably very unhealthy.

"Not the point," Jonghyun says, spitting into the sink. "I'm having a hangover - who knows where my mouth has been. Do you even remember what happened last night?"

Jinki shakes his head. "I wasn't even sure whose bed I was in until I turned around and saw you."

They make their way to the cafeteria, and Jinki grabs just about everything and overloads his plate while Jonghyun just takes what he's sure he'll eat, and gets more later if he's hungry.

Jinki's never wanted to eat so much in life before, because he's piling anything and everything into his mouth, ignoring how unsophisticated he looks, because god damn, his head hurts like fuck. He hears Jonghyun laughing at him, and he pouts. "What?"

"Have you never had a hangover before?"

"Not as bad as this one," Jinki replies. "And having a hangover for the tenth time doesn’t make it any less painful than the first."

"True," Jonghyun nods, stuffing a fork in his mouth. "What do you want to do after we finish eating?"

"Go back to sleep?"

Jonghyun nods. “Let’s sleep in for all of tomorrow too.”

“What about our other classes?”

“Skip those too,” Jonghyun replies, carefully cutting up his food.

Jinki scarves down the plate in front of him and glances at the time.

Jinki guilt trips Jonghyun into going to their six o’clock class, and they sit in the very back of the lecture hall next to each other. About half an hour is spent actually paying attention and the other two and a half hours are spent playing Angry Birds on Jonghyun’s phone.

“You realize that we might as well have skipped, right?” Jonghyun says as they leave the hall.

“I have half an hour of notes, okay. Better than none.”

“Notes,” Jonghyun scoffs and opens the back door to the music room. “Darling,” he rushes to the piano. “How have you been? Have you missed me?” He presses a key. “Purple.”

“Purple?”

“The note. E sharp. It’s purple.”

“Oh,” Jinki says. “Right.” He hasn’t gotten used to Jonghyun’s Synesthesia, despite how often Jonghyun brings it up when they’re composing or playing instruments together. Jinki sits on the piano bench and pulls out their music sheets. Jonghyun takes his conductor’s staff out of the bag and grins. Jinki tries to hold back his laughter.

“What? The baton is cool!”

“You’re just really lame.”

“Cool. Always cool.”

“Sure.”

“Cool,” Jonghyun quips, holding the baton. “Okay, three, two, one, go.”

Jinki presses down on the keyboard, slides his fingers over the keys. Jonghyun closes his eyes and smiles, waving his hand.

Jinki chooses just that moment to look away from the sheet music and towards the younger boy. He mentally kicks himself for a moment because he almost plays an A sharp instead of a G. The edges of Jonghyun’s mouth go up a little more when there’s a part he likes, or they purse together when it’s a section that he’s written. All in all, he really Jonghyun’s lips, as awkward as that sounds.

When he finishes the song, his eyes dart back to the sheet music, and he rubs his hands together.

“It was pretty good,” Jonghyun says, obviously pleased. “But we can still make a few changes.”

“Yeah,” Jinki says. “Like right here.” He takes out a pencil and draws a line under two measures. “We should make that a decrescendo, so the part after these two rests is more emphasized.”

Jonghyun nods, grabbing the pencil and pointing to a specific area. “You played this part wrong too, it was only one measure long, but you made the note last one and a half.”

Jinki shrugs. “I thought it sounded good in fermata. Didn’t it?”

“It did,” Jonghyun admits. “But too much orange. Anyways, let’s move this section over here, and take this one out, because it’s too neoclassical. And take these out too, the song is too soft to have sharps and flats.”

Jinki laughs as he watches Jonghyun mark the areas. “Wow. What happened to jazz, regge, and blues?”

Jonghyun joins him, grinning. “We became saps, that’s what.” He shoves Jinki to the edge of the piano bench and sits down next to him.

“Let’s play together,” he says. “Something else - that’s not our project.”

“Let’s play Moonlight,” Jinki says, resting his hands on the piano. “I’ll play the low keys.”

He gasps and claps his hands, smiling. “I love that song. Let’s do it. I know it by heart.” He puts his hands on the keyboard next to Jinki and taps his feet. “One, two, one two three four!”

They start out slowly, drawing out each key. Jinki plays the low notes, and Jonghyun joins him in the higher section, closing his eyes and leaning backwards a bit, getting comfortable.

Jinki watches him out of the corner of his eyes, smiling softly. The notes get louder and louder; Jinki steps on the pedal and let’s each one fade out into air, and although he’s never been one of a romantic, suddenly he finds himself thinking about how he could write a symphony about the way Jonghyun looks right now, the way his eyelashes are soft against his cheeks, and his smile is subtle but overpowering, and most importantly, the way they match together, the way Jinki would like their hearts to match together.

The epiphany catches him by surprise, his finger slips and he accidentally plays a wrong note. Jonghyun’s eyes fly open, and Jinki’s cheeks burn with shame and he hangs his head low.

Jonghyun’s laugh rings in his ears, and he tilts his head just a bit to catch the sight of Jonghyun giving him and amused smile. He elbows Jinki in the side gently, giggles at the way Jinki squeaks, and then it’s war. The piano is long forgotten, and they’re trying to one up each other in their sudden poke war, and neither of them are surprised when Jinki ends up rolling off the piano bench and onto the floor. It’s extremely funny until they realize Jinki has a bloody nose and they trudge off to Jinki’s dorm.

Jonghyun leaves shortly after they arrive, and Jinki spends a good half hour staring at his textbook and wondering why he never realized how much he liked Jonghyun before.

It’s not as much of an onslaught of emotions as much as it is Jinki being extremely confused and wondering why it’s not an onslaught of emotions. When Taemin comes in the room, Jinki is laying down on his bed and throwing a bouncy ball at the wall.

“What’s wrong?” Taemin asks and drops his bookbag onto the floor.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Jinki mumbles and throws the ball once more.

“You haven’t done that since you got a C on your English final.”

“That was two months ago.”

“You know what I mean,” Taemin sighs. “You’re thinking.”

Jinki looks Taemin out of the corner of his eye and frowns. “Who said red suited you? Don’t wear red beanies anymore.”

“It’s brown.”

“Brown doesn’t suit you either.”

Taemin sighs again. “Hyung.”

Jinki catches the ball and lets it fall out of his hand. “I don’t know. I’m just extremely confused. When you like someone, isn’t there supposed to be rainbows and bunnies floating everywhere or something?”

Taemin laughs and leans over to grab the bouncy ball. Jinki sits up and Taemin throws the ball back at him. “When you like someone, you like them. That’s all there is to it. The rest is just theatrics.”

Jinki snorts and catches it. “How are you eighteen.” He throws it again.

Taemin laughs and throws it back. “Think about it.”

Jinki catches the ball again and hums a bit. “I think I will.”

Jonghyun and Jinki meet again, same cafe, same table, same seats. But it’s different this time.

It’s the day before the project is due, and they’re making last minute corrections and rehearsing before the final presentation.

“Tomorrow’s the day,” Jonghyun grins. “Spent a whole good two months on this project.”

“What kind of project is half a semester long?”

“The kind that you perform in front of a lot of people.”

Jinki wilts. “It’ll feel a bit weird after that.”

“Why? Stage fright?”

“No,” Jinki shakes his head. “Not that. I’m really good with people, actually. It’s just that two months ago you were that weird scene kid with the blond hair, and now you’re Kim Jonghyun, the guy who’s in my dorm more often than my roommate.”

Jonghyun grins. “I’m offended. I’m probably anything but a scene kid. But, stereotypes aside, in my defense, I won’t have to see your ugly green voice anymore.”

“My voice is not green, and it’s not ugly!”

“It’s an ugly dark green, and you know it. It’s the color of mud and grass mixed together and put in a blender.”

“It’s actually pure white, like the heavens,” Jinki grins.

“Yes, absolutely,” Jonghyun plays along. “It glows, too.”

“Just like Kibum’s hair.”

“Even better than Kibum’s hair,” Jonghyun says. “Oh, speaking of Kibum. Did you hear? He’s throwing a party in honor of the end of this project. He finally gets to part with his partner. He’s going to be smashed.”

“Who throws a party for that reason?”

“Excuse to get drunk?” Jonghyun suggests. “Sounds like a good idea to me. Are you going to be there?”

“This won’t be a repeat of the club, right? Because you practically slept on top of me.”

“We could try your bed this time,” Jonghyun waggles his eyebrows and nudges Jinki suggestively. “I’m game.”

Jinki rolls his eyes. “Fine, whatever. What time will you be here?”

Jonghyun bursts out into laughter. “I was kidding before, but now I really am game. I will be there at 10.”

“It’s a date then,” Jinki grins. “But for now, we need to actually practice.”

Jinki taps his foot quickly as Jonghyun fixes his suit jacket. “Nervous?”

Jinki stops. “A bit,” he says, then goes back to tapping his foot. Jonghyun sits next to him and taps his foot as well, at a much slower rate. The rhythm throws Jinki off, and he raises an eyebrow at Jonghyun.

“If you going to tap your feet, you may as well tap it at the rate you’re going to play. Like so,” Jonghyun grins and begins to demonstrate. He taps his foot and raises his hands. Jinki notes every flick of his wrist and ever press of fingers against invisible keys. This is where I fell for him, he suddenly thinks. Church bells go off in his head. At these moments.

“You guys are up after this performance,” someone says from the side, and they look up to see Jessica looking over at them. She turns to look at Jonghyun. “Tell him to stop being weird.”

“Stop being weird,” Jinki tells Jonghyun.

“That hurts, bro.”

Before they get up on stage, Jonghyun pats Jinki on the back and grins. “When in doubt, just think of the colors.”

“The colors?”

“Yeah. Y’know, B flats are pink, F’s are white, A sharps are--”

Jinki scoffs. “That’s not going to help me. I can’t see colors.”

“Imagine you can,” Jonghyun suggests. “It’ll help.”

Jinki takes his place on the piano bench, and Jonghyun grabs the conductor’s staff and takes a deep breath. Colors, he mouths as Jinki gets into the ready position. Jonghyun moves the staff, and on cue, Jinki starts to play the piano.

The piece isn’t that hard to play, honestly. Even without the music sheet, he could probably play it in his sleep. But there’s hundreds of people in the audience. A hundred pair of eyes watching him. Jinki can feel a sweat breaking out already. He tries to imagine what colors would show up. B flats are pink, F’s are white.

He looks up from the keys to watch Jonghyun conduct, focus on his performance and ignore everyone else. Jonghyun’s staring right at him, mouthing something. Jinki tries to read his lips, but it doesn’t form any coherent sentence.

That’s when Jinki realizes Jonghyun is mouthing colors. Blue, yellow, green, pink, red...

Jinki nods and continues playing, tries to match the colors to the notes in his head until he can almost see them. He plays until he thinks he actually can see them, though he knows he can’t, not the way Jonghyun can. But he can try, and that’s good enough for him.

It’s a different way of seeing music, one that Jinki’s never really considered before. But now that he’s thought of it, it makes sense to him.

Their section of the performance ends once Jinki has this epiphany, and he feels Jonghyun grabbing the back of his collar and lightly pushing him onto his feet. They hold hands and bow to the audience one final time before rushing off stage.

“That,” Jonghyun grins, “was awesome.”

“That was music,” Jinki agrees. He feels weak in the knees; a join effort between the adrenaline rush from the show and the same crooked smile Jonghyun usually gives him when he’s very excited. They walk back to the waiting lounge. “And awesome. Definitely awesome.”

“So, we stay until the end of the show,” Jonghyun whispers into his ear - Jinki shivers - “and then we are going to Kibum’s to get completely wasted. I am in a party mood.”

“I’ll just, I dunno, be your safety buddy or something,” Jinki replies meekly.

“One more!” Jonghyun giggles and grabs onto Jinki’s shoulders. “One more shot!”

“Jesus,” Jinki groans. He wraps his arms around Jonghyun’s waist and tries to support him. “You’re beyond wasted. I don’t think you should get any more.”

“Just one more,” Jonghyun whines. “You’re my safety buddy.”

“Can I not be,” Jinki frowns. “Here, why don’t you sit down for a moment?” He takes one look at the couch and winces. There’s a tiny spot left between spilt beer and making out couples, and he doesn’t really want to be that guy. “On second thought, let’s go outside.”

He spends the next ten minutes trying to drag Jonghyun down the stairs, and when they finally get outside, Jonghyun elegantly pukes all over Jinki’s new shoes.

“Sorry,” Jonghyun says in a high-pitched keening sound, and then runs toward the trash can and vomits again.

“Oh my god,” Jinki groans. “This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to go back to my dorm, you’re going to throw up whatever is left into the toilet, and then you are going to sleep the next two days off. In my room. Because I don’t trust you anywhere else. Now move.”

“Wait, Jinki-”

He grabs onto the back of Jonghyun’s shirt and tugs, hard. Jonghyun is dragged the rest of the way upstairs, onto the fourth floor and into the fifth room. He directs Jonghyun to the bathroom and throws Jonghyun’s shirt and his own shoes into the bath tub. Afterwards, he plops down onto his bed, groaning, as relief washes over him. “We’re not doing that again!” Jinki calls out.

“Okay.”

“I don’t know why I did that,” Jinki says, more to himself than to Jonghyun. He replies anyway.

“It’s because you love me.”

“Loving you does not mean you get to puke on my shoes.”

Jonghyun comes out of the bathroom with Jinki’s toothbrush in his mouth. Jinki winces, but tries not to call Jonghyun out on it. “That’s okay, because I love you too.”

Jonghyun sounds serious, almost too serious, and Jinki doesn’t know exactly how he’s supposed to respond. “I can’t tell if you’re saying that because you’re drunk or because you’re trying to suck up.”

“Ask me again tomorrow morning and I’ll tell you.”

“I might consider it.”

“No but really, I love you.”

Jinki places the covers over his head and tries not to be hopeful.

The next morning consists of Jonghyun groaning at random points of time and Taemin eventually running and sleeping in Kibum’s room. Zico from next door knocks on his wall an asks him very politely if Jinki wouldn’t mind keeping his extremely loud and probably mind-blowing sex down. He’s very jealous, but there’s a chem exam tomorrow, so if you could please? Jinki sends him a very embarrassed text describing the state of Jonghyun’s hangover and that he’s really sorry, but do you have any hangover medicine?

“That’s it,” Jinki finally states. He takes off his headphones and shuts his laptop. “We are going down to the dining hall, and you are going to eat every single piece of food there is. Even the ones that aren’t there.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Jonghyun croaks. He doesn’t bother asking and grabs a sweatshirt out of Jinki’s drawer. Jinki sighs. “Dude, how much did I drink last night?”

“I don’t know. There were shots of vodka involved, though.” Jinki opens the door for Jonghyun, and they both walk out together with Jonghyun massaging his temples at random intervals.

“Wow, really? I’m surprised I’m not in the hospital.”

“Yeah, you were pretty wasted, though. You said some crazy stuff.”

“Oh really?” Jonghyun asks, interest piqued. They walk out onto campus, and Jinki takes a moment to take in the nice weather. “What kind of stuff did I say?”

“You said you had Lady Gaga socks, for a first. You also mentioned something about there being way too many colors, and not being able to concentrate. Though I guess that’s not really crazy. You also said you were in love with me.”

“Hm?” Jonghyun raises an eyebrow. “Oops. Wasn’t supposed to say that aloud.”

“What.”

“What.”

“What weren’t you supposed to say aloud?”

“Lady Gaga socks, obviously. Who admits to having one of those?”

Jinki sighs, stares at the ground. He’s had too many high and lows to bear recently. He can feel his own patience running dry. “Okay seriously, Jonghyun.”

“I’m sorry,” Jonghyun says, slowly. “I was going to confess to you, actually. A while ago, to be honest. But, y’know. There were kittens in trees to save, and dogs to walk, and non-assigned homeworks to be done. And to be quite honest, confessing while drunk isn’t the most romantic way to do it. Also, you have feelings, too. That’s an important factor. I just don’t know what those are. Well.”

Jinki stops walking and stares at the back of Jonghyun’s head. “Well, what? What am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know. You tell me how you feel, and we either run off to the sunset or part ways never to be seen again? And please hurry up, my hangover is killing me.”

Jinki resists the urge to laugh. “Is sunset a pseudo name for the cafeteria?”

“Sure. If you want it to be. Shall we go now?”

“I feel like you’ve always known how I felt.”

Jonghyun grins and grabs Jinki’s wrist. “Just a bit.” He tugs. “Now, please, I hear those pancakes screaming my name.”