(fic) please be sure to read the fine print
exo | kaisoo | high school AU (PG-13)
tip: always remember where you leave those deep, dark, secret love notes.
word count: 7.6k
Jongin knows hallway floors aren’t meant to be surfaces for sleeping, but sometimes he can’t help it. Particularly today, where Sehun just attempted to jump on him for a piggyback ride, knocking him onto the ground instantly. It had hurt for a while, but he almost wants to sob in happiness at the relief that the ground brings to his skeleton. It’s tiring to carry yourself around all the time, especially after you’ve spent majority of the previous night watching porn finishing an essay that was due four days ago.
“Jongin,” Sehun nudges said boy with his sneaker after a while, “are you hurt?” He had somehow managed to jump off Jongin just in time.
“Mnnngh,” Jongin grunts.
“People are staring.”
“It’s because I have a great ass, Sehun,” Jongin says matter-of-factly, though his voice is a little muffled because his face is still to the ground.
“Maybe because you are a great ass.”
“Let me and my great ass die here in peace, please,” the boy on the floor replies resolutely, turning his head to the side and resting it on his now-open Chemistry textbook before closing his eyes.
“Sehu- Jongin?!” Jongin recognizes Luhan’s voice and hears the sound of sneakers squeaking as Luhan jogs over to them. “Oh my god what’s wrong did he collapse we need to call a nurse and-mmmph.”
“Shhhh,” Sehun says, and Jongin figures he probably has his finger on Luhan’s lips. Or maybe they kissed. Ew. Jongin doesn’t even want to know.
(It’s not the worst thing he’s seen them do, but still.)
“He’s fine, he’s just tired.” Jongin can see Sehun shrugging as he says it.
“But it’s gross! The floor isn’t clean! Jongi-” Luhan tries to crouch down to roll Jongin over, but Sehun stops him with an arm across his chest.
“No.”
“But-”
“No.”
“Hey, I said ‘let me die in peace’, not ‘help speed up the process’,” Jongin hisses to the chemical equations on page twenty-eight.
“This is ridiculous!” Luhan protests.
Jongin lets out a grunt in response, enjoying the feeling of the cool floor against his skin.
“Class is going to start in ten minutes!”
“Tell the teacher I died and- wait,” Jongin pushes himself up a little and looks up at Luhan, eyes half-open in his exhausted state. “Aren’t you a senior?”
“....Yeah?”
“So...why are you at our block?”
“I...um...” Luhan looks at Sehun and blushes furiously. “I...wanted to say hi, yeah.”
Sehun smirks and pulls Luhan in, and this is where Jongin lets himself fall back onto the ground. Sweet, sweet solace.
“Luhan-hyung I just got your text and-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?!” A new voice joins them, and Jongin tries his best to drown it out. What does a guy have to do to catch a break around here?
“Oh, uh hi, Baek,” Luhan starts, sounding rather flustered.
“WHY IS JONGIN ON THE FLOOR AND WHY WERE YOU TWO MAKING OUT OVER HIM IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK FETISH THING?!” Baekhyun shrieks.
“No! Uh-” Luhan tries to say.
“Why? Were you interested in joining?” Sehun is definitely smirking.
Baekhyun, like most people, chooses to ignore Sehun and immediately tries to tend to Jongin. He kneels down and promptly tries to roll the youth over.
“Jong-Jongin.” His tone changes when he feels Jongin trying to push back with his entire weight against Baekhyun’s dainty hands. For a lazy person, Jongin sure is strong.
“Noooooooooo,” Jongin groans in protest, face still resolutely buried in the pages. “I want to sleeeeeeeep,” he whines like the seventeen year old he is. Baekhyun grunts as he tries to roll Jongin over.
“You...need...to...urgh..get up...class is...starting...”
“I’ll only go to class if someone carries me.”
“This...is...phew...serious...man...phew...why are..you...so..heavy..”
“Sehun, we should try to-”
“No.”
“Ummmm...excuse me?”
This new voice alerts Jongin’s senses. It’s somewhat familiar, but he can’t quite pinpoint its owner. What he does know, though, is that he quite likes the sound of this new voice. It isn’t too deep and it isn’t too pitchy, it isn’t too soft and it isn’t too loud. It’s almost music to Jongin’s ears. He makes the most of the awkward silence that ensues to admire this new voice.
“Kyungsoo! Um...we...uh...” Baekhyun tries to say, and Jongin flops back onto the floor as Baekhyun stops pushing him.
“Is...is he okay?” Nice Voice-Kyungsoo-is apparently concerned about him. Jongin feels happy about this. Not only does this guy have a nice voice, but he’s caring, too.
“He’s tired,” Sehun says matter-of-factly.
“I...I should go, I have class,” Luhan speaks up. “Nice seeing you again, Kyungsoo.” Jongin hears the sound of a kiss before fading footsteps and wrinkles his nose against the ground. Ew.
“Nice seeing you too..I guess..” The last part comes out softer, but Jongin catches it.
They fade into an awkward silence again and Jongin finds his eyes closing. Just a few minutes...
The shrill ring of the bell right next to them causes Jongin to jump and he bolts right up, shaken out of his zombified state, clutching his books to his chest. He comes face-to-face with Kyungsoo.
Holy. Crap.
Kyungsoo, quite simply, is the most perfect thing Jongin has ever seen. He’s got full lips that Jongin thinks would be awesome to kiss, and wide, pretty eyes and an adorable face altogether. He’s a few centimetres shorter than Jongin, but that makes him even more perfect in Jongin’s book. Kyungsoo also has these deliciously full thighs, and Jongin wants to reach out and squeeze them-in a totally unperverted way.
Baekhyun’s soft ‘oh’ breaks their moment, and Jongin quickly stops himself from drooling right then and there. He shoots Baekhyun what he can manage of a glare, but the boy is already hurriedly walking off with Sehun, ruthlessly shoving him in the opposite direction despite Sehun’s protests of ‘my class is down the other hall!’.
When Jongin looks back at Kyungsoo, they make eye contact and Kyungsoo is the first to blush, hurriedly looking away. Jongin starts feeling a little self-conscious and runs his fingers through his hair, trying to somehow look a little more presentable. Trust him to act like a total weirdo the one day he meets someone who looks like a total god.
He also notices the dark blue tie that Kyungsoo has on instead of the regulation red one, and sees a small badge pinned over his blazer’s front pocket that reads ‘PREFECT’ in proud, bold letters.
Oh. Oh.
“I, um, sorry, about the floor,” Jongin says pathetically as he gestures to the ground, as if Kyungsoo doesn’t know what ‘the floor’ is.
“No! No, uh, it’s okay it’s totally fine..” Kyungsoo replies, somewhat flustered.
“You’re not gonna like...book me or something?”
Kyungsoo gives him a confused look and Jongin points to the badge above Kyungsoo’s front pocket. The latter actually looks to see what he’s talking about but Jongin finds it adorable.
“Oh! Oh, no no there’s no uh...rules about..sleeping on the floor,” Kyungsoo nods in affirmation at the end, almost seeming as though he’s trying to convince himself too. Jongin is sure there has to be some sort of rule about obstructing the hallway but he’s never actually read the school rules, and besides, he’s been stuck behind people going at one centimetre an hour as he hurries from class to class and they’ve never been booked.
“They should make one,” he finds himself saying, thinking about irritatingly slow walkers, and then resists the urge to slap his palm to his forehead.
Kyungsoo actually laughs a little and wow, his laugh is even nicer than his voice. Jongin finds himself grinning rather stupidly.
“Yeah...” Kyungsoo says, and the awkward silence begins after that. Jongin allows himself ten seconds to gawk at Kyungsoo a little more before finally speaking.
“I’m Jongin, by the way.”
“Kyungsoo.” They shake hands, and Jongin nearly melts because Kyungsoo’s hands are so soft and elegant that he has the fleeting though of never washing his hand ever again.
“Um...Jongin?”
“Yeah? Oh! Oh, sorry,” Jongin hurriedly lets go of Kyungsoo’s hand, blushing furiously and shoving his own into his pocket. But Kyungsoo actually laughs softly in response and Jongin’s heart beats at a million beats per second.
“I-I should get to class,” Jongin finally says, but he lets his gaze linger on Kyungsoo for 1...2...3. “Bye,” he blurts out before walking away as fast as his legs can carry him, cursing himself for even thinking that taking a nap on the school’s hallway floor would be a good idea.
Then again, Jongin hadn’t counted on meeting both attractive and nice people in SM High for once.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
“You have a crush on Kyungsoo?” Yixing, Jongin’s lab partner, murmurs as he catches a glimpse of the scrawls on Jongin’s notebook.
Jongin feels his insides freeze and he hurriedly flips to a clean page. “W-what? What are you talking about?” He gives Yixing what he hopes looks like a judging look. “Have you been smoking something?”
“First, you suck at acting. Second, you were doodling hearts.”
“I’m almost eighteen, Yixing. I’m allowed to doodle hearts when I want to.”
“And also,” Yixing reaches over and taps the shared report between them. In one of the column headers is ‘Kyungsoo’ scrawled in Jongin’s unruly handwriting.
Jongin lets out a soft, strangled noise at the back of his throat before grabbing a pen and proceeding to cancel the name like no man has cancelled before. When he is done with this frantic motion, he sets the pen down and calmly turns to Yixing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Fine, but you really do suck at acting.”
“You-”
“Jongin, Yixing, is there something you would like to share with the class?” Their professor snaps from his desk at the front, and the two of them immediately look down, shaking their heads. After a while the professor goes to help another pair of students on the other side of the lab, and Jongin bites his lip as he thinks.
“You..um...you know Kyungsoo?”
“Who doesn’t?” Yixing chuckles.
“He’s...popular?”
“He’s the hall monitor that lets people off almost all the time. He’s pretty chill, you know, for a prefect at SM.”
“Oh, I see.” Jongin feels his stomach doing backflips. Gosh, even talking about Kyungsoo makes him nervous. “But have you...talked to him?”
“Kind of. He helped me out when I came to school late that time when I missed the bus. You’re friends with Baekhyun, right?”
Jongin nods. “Yeah, why?”
“They’re pretty close friends I think. They’ve known each other since they were kids or something.”
“Oh...”
“You could ask him to be your wingman.”
“Yea- what?” Jongin gives Yixing a mixed look of horror and bewilderment. It’s not that Baekhyun’s mean or anything, but he gets along with Sehun, and they share everything, which means that if Baekhyun finds out that Jongin likes Kyungsoo, then Sehun would too. Not. A. Good. Thing.
Yixing shrugs a little. “Well, I mean, he could...recommend...you?”
“...Okay. I am going to blame your choice of words on the language barrier.”
“You get what I mean. He could help you score a date.”
“I don’t need help,” Jongin sniffs indignantly. “I’m almost eighteen.”
“Yeah, but you still don’t know how to iron your own uniform-”
“It’s a developing skill!”
“And you still walk into things-”
“Oh, come on! That was like one time and I swear that tree moved.”
“And, most importantly, I don’t think you’ve ever even asked someone out.”
“I...have!” Jongin’s tone wavers. Dammit.
Yixing gives him a skeptical look.
“...Although it was Luhan...”
Yixing nods a little.
“And it was...because...I thought...he was a girl...Okay, fine. I see your point.”
Yixing gives him a dimpled smile before completing the rest of the report. Jongin sulks in defeat. Okay, sure, so Baekhyun could be able to help him out, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to ask. It’s Baekhyun, after all, the guy who is dating Park Chanyeol, a.k.a hybrid of a Cheshire cat and a serial killer. Jongin doesn’t think anyone who has questionable boyfriends should be consulted for dating advice.
“Still, he has a boyfriend and you don’t,” Yixing points out.
“I told you, don’t listen to me when I talk to myself, it’s very rude.”
Yixing rolls his eyes and presses the paper onto Jongin’s forehead with one swift movement of his hand.
“Go hand up the report, Sir Sulks-a-lot.”
“That’s a terrible nickname,” Jongin says as he removes the report from his face and stands up. He trips over one of the stool legs and falls onto the ground in an instant. There is a collective gasp in the room at the sudden thump, and Jongin groans a little in pain while Yixing looks down at him, unimpressed.
“Klutz.”
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
Jongin decides he’s just going to have to help himself, but it’s just his luck to have a super huge crush on someone he barely sees around campus. Not only is Kyungsoo a prefect, he’s also on one of the most prestigious scholarships the school offers and takes advanced classes in pretty much everything. And not a single hair gray or out of place. Jongin considers that Lady Luck is probably Kyungsoo’s mother. Or Kyungsoo’s just perfect. Both sounds like the most likely option.
That’s alright, though, because where Kyungsoo has heavenly favors, Jongin has plans. (This is a lot cooler than it sounds.)
So that’s kind of how he finds himself walking as slowly as he possibly can to school, missing as many traffic lights as possible, ignoring the tutting of irritated strangers who make the mistake of walking behind him for a moment before cutting ahead of him as soon as they can. Because Plan A is Operation Latecoming: arrive late to school and talk to Kyungsoo while he’s on hall monitor duty. Jongin even stops to admire the great big oak tree that looks like it could use some pruning two blocks away from the school, and attempts to coax a rather unfriendly looking cat with mangled fur out of the darkness of an alley. It hisses at him, and he decides to name it Sehun.
He makes it at 8:07 and wanders around the halls, pretending to avoid getting caught. The prospect of seeing Kyungsoo again, just the two of them, alone, gives him butterflies in his stomach, and he occasionally has to pause just so he doesn’t squeal to himself. There are security cameras after all.
He hears footsteps coming round the corner soon enough, and he freezes for a moment, unsure of what to do. Should he pretend to be hurrying to class and run off? No, wait, if he ran he’d miss Kyungsoo completely. Ok, so he should brisk walk away then. But what if he did it too quickly? He’d miss Kyungsoo too. Or maybe he could just turn around and say ‘hey, you got me babe, put the cuffs on and lead me away’. Jeez, Jongin, you need to stop watching films made in the nineties...
The footsteps stop and he hears someone clear his throat. Jongin takes a deep breath and makes sure to put on his smoldering gaze he spent two hours last night trying to perfect before turning around.
“Alright, you got me. But can’t we go out to dinner and talk about thi- AUGH!”
It’s not Kyungsoo, but Minseok, the freaking vice-head prefect, standing there, clipboard in hand, eye twitching slightly and not the least bit amused. “Hello, Jongin.”
Jongin hurriedly straightens and bows ninety degrees. “S-sunbae..I..uh..”
Minseok flicks his wrist, his sleeve rolling up slightly, and looks at his expensive looking watch. “Exactly fifteen minutes late to class, and counting,” he says as he writes something down on his clipboard.
Jongin lets out a sad whimper but quickly stops when Minseok looks up at him with a stern look. For a short person, he sure could be intimidating.
“What was that?” The prefect asks sharply. Jongin jumps and realizes he’s been speaking out loud.
“N-nothing! Nothing. Just, uh, trying to clear my sinuses.”
Minseok narrows his eyes and raises his pen, pointing it between Jongin’s eyes. “If you’re late one more time,” he hisses before pulling the pen back and and draws it over his neck. Jongin gulps and nods stiffly.
“Get to class.” And Jongin doesn’t need to be told twice.
“Wow,” Chanyeol, Baekhyun’s boyfriend and Wacko of the Century, observes with his mouth full at lunch, “Minseok looks like he’s going to kill you.”
Jongin’s eyes dart over to the Prefect table and sure enough, the vice-head is watching him with a look of contempt. As soon as he sees Jongin look at him his eyes narrow again and Jongin hurriedly ducks his head, deciding that the stain on the table is much more interesting.
“He was late again, obviously,” Sehun snorts as he sits down, Luhan stuck like velcro at his side. “You know how Minseok can’t stand tardiness.”
“Oh, is that why?” Chanyeol says, and Jongin feels a bit of food hit his ear. Gross.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Channie,” Baekhyun chides next to him, and he hits Chanyeol with the strength of a feather.
“Why were you late, Jongin? You live like a street away,” Luhan asks, and Jongin detects a hint of envy in his voice. It helps boost his ego a bit; not everyone can have the luxury of being able to wake up half an hour before school starts and still have breakfast seated at the table.
“Probably just wanted to see someone again,” Yixing sniggers as he sits down, and Jongin shoots him a warning look. He’s treading on dangerous ground.
“So...Yixing, who’s this?”
Jongin looks up, confused by Baekhyun’s question, and realizes that there’s a new student sitting next to Yixing. Well at least, he thinks it’s a student, because the new guy looks old enough to be a teacher, especially since he seems to tower over all of them, and he’s sitting down. He also looks like a model, with his perfectly shaped eyebrows and blonde, impeccably styled hair, and a particularly unfriendly model at that, completely unfazed by all the curious looks he’s getting.
Yixing fidgets a little, and Jongin raises an eyebrow at the blush on his cheeks. “Ah, guys, this is um...” He looks at the man sitting next to him for some sort of confirmation. Jongin hopes Yixing hasn’t started his whole forgetting names phase again. The first year of their friendship, Yixing had spent most of his class time staring at Jongin blankly, and Jongin found out later that it was because he wanted to tell Jongin something, but couldn’t remember his name.
“Kris,” new guy says, and the tiniest smile known to mankind is displayed on his face for a fraction of a second before disappearing again. Jongin thinks it looks like some sort of weird twitch and briefly remembers Minseok. He shudders.
“..And this is Jongin,” he hears Yixing say, and Kris gives him that curt smile again. He smiles back as best as he can.
“So, Yixing finally has a boyfriend!” Luhan pipes up, and the two newcomers at the table look panic-stricken. It’s almost laughable how Kris’ expressions work with his face that looks like it was carved by the gods.
“Um, we uh-” Yixing starts weakly, looking at Kris.
“We’re not-” Kris says, looking back at Yixing. Then, they pause and look at each other with a slightly defeated expression before shrugging.
“Yeah, we’re dating,” they say in unison, and Luhan squeals so loudly most of the occupants in the cafeteria turn to look at them as he half-launches himself across the table to hug Yixing, and then loops his arm around Kris’ neck, pulling him in too. It looks painfully uncomfortable, but Kris manages what he can of a smile, patting Luhan on the back awkwardly.
Sehun gets up and peels his boyfriend off the new couple, who now look incredibly embarrassed. It is then that Jongin realizes the uncomfortable truth.
Baekhyun, Chanyeol. Sehun, Luhan. And now Yixing and Kris.
“Wait, does everyone have a boyfriend?” He tries not to sound too horrified at this new information. He’s Kim Jongin, after all, the guy who has decent grades and looks stunning even with bed hair, and who can make body waves that would make an ocean dry up in envy. How can he be the only one among his friends to not have a significant other?
“Yes,” they all answer nonchalantly, and Jongin is just about to smash his face into the pizza slice on his tray with a crust that tastes like cardboard when Baekhyun catches him and pulls him back up.
“But you like Kyungsoo, don’t you?” He says all too encouragingly, and Jongin feels his blood freeze. So they had heard. But Baekhyun knowing means three quarters of the school population knowing, and that means prefects knowing, which ultimately means Kyungsoo knowing, which means the rejection monster is looming around the corner, ready to devour Jongin whole.
“Yixing!” He squeaks. How could his as-close-to-a-best-as-he’s-ever-going-to-get-friend do this to him???
“I didn’t do it,” Yixing raises his palms in defense, and he’s telling the truth.
“Oh please, Jongin it was obvious when you met him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Jongin, when you first saw him there were practically hearts in your eyes. And whenever we mention Kyungsoo- see! You just did it!”
“Did what?” Jongin blinks, genuinely confused.
“You made this...gushy face. Like you smile whenever we say Kyungsoo’s name.” As if on cue, Jongin feels the corners of his mouth turn up slightly, and he reaches up to pull them down again. There is no way in heck he’s going to let them tease him like this.
Chanyeol leans in then, and all too familiar shit-eating grin on his face.
“It’s not going to-”
“Kyungsoo.”
Jongin clenches his jaw tight and shakes his head vigorously. Nope.
“Kyungsoo!” Luhan pipes up, and Jongin sucks his cheeks in a little, biting on them. No way.
“Kyungsoo ~” Baekhyun suddenly whispers at his ear and Jongin flinches, cheeks turning bright red. He makes the mistake of pushing Baekhyun away and breaks into a grin, giggling for a moment before he slaps his hands over his mouth, horrified. Did he just giggle?
Everyone at the table guffaws in laughter, particularly Chanyeol, who really has never heard of restraint when it comes to showing his emotions. Jongin chooses this moment to slip under the cafeteria table.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
So, Plan A: Operation Latecoming fails. But it doesn’t matter! Because Kim Jongin never gives up, and there are still million backup plans up his sleeve! Simple teasing from his friends will never deter Kim Jongin!
LINE
Luhan’s Sehun: Imagine Kyungsoo locking you in the supply closet with hi...
LINE
Baek ♡ Chan: Imagine Kyungsoo coming out of the shower and his towe...
LINE
Sehun’s Luhan: Imagine Kyungsoo asking you out and he’s all shy an...
LINE
Chan ♡ Baek: Hey Jongin! I think you took my pen home...
Jongin types a hasty ‘no worries you can pass it to me tomorrow’ reply to Chanyeol before hurriedly turning his phone over. He’s all too grateful that Yixing hasn’t joined in on this ‘Imagine Kyungsoo’ business, probably because he and Kris are way too busy being the hot new couple to pay attention to anyone or anything else. Kris doesn’t seem like he’d appreciate his boyfriend thinking of people who aren’t them in potentially compromising situations, anyway.
(Still, he might get infected by their group’s weirdness at any moment, so Jongin keeps his fingers crossed.)
He does half of his homework before giving up, thoughts of Kyungsoo affecting his concentration. It’s quite ridiculous, really, how his brain seems to somehow come up with situations involving the prefect every five seconds. Can’t do a math question? Ask Kyungsoo for help! And then he’ll kiss you when you get it right and hold your hand under the table. Can’t solve this physics diagram? Let Kyungsoo show you how to every action has an equal and opposite reaction!
Jongin groans and pillows his head on his arms. He’s never even spoken to Kyungsoo for more than five minutes but his brain makes it seem as though he’s known him forever. Kyungsoo barely even glances at him as they pass by in the halls, for crying out loud.
He hears a knock on his door before the twisting of the doorknob and the obnoxious crunching of chips.
“I could have been naked,” he tells Sehun.
“Jongin, you shower with the door wide open.” More crunching.
“I’m having an existential crisis now, please go away.”
“Relax, I bring comfort food.” Jongin feels something hit the back of his head and hears the plastic packet land next to him. He sits back up, ripping the packets of Lays open with a flourish.
“Half a bag of air, stellar.”
“You know, I think this Kyungsoo crisis has actually made you somehow more moody than you already are. Which is to say, you could be a nuclear weapon of depression.”
“Ohmygod, please don’t mention his name,” Jongin groans and curls back down on his desk. “I don’t think I can go to school tomorrow. I feel sick.”
“Come on, man. Just grow a pair and walk up to that Prefects’ table and ask him out.”
“Don’t make me remind you of the fact that you dressed up as a bush that one time to stalk Luhan to see what flavored bubble tea he likes best.”
“....Point taken, proceed.”
Sighing, Jongin reached around his desk, still not looking up, before holding up a piece of paper which had been ripped out of one of his notebooks. He let his hand fall back down on the desk after Sehun had taken it from him.
A few crunches then, “you...wrote a poem?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just read it.”
“Okay,” Sehun says, clearing his throat before proceeding.
“I think your hands would fit perfectly in mine.
I think about you all the time.
I think your lips would taste like- jeezus, Jongin. Do I have to read this?”
There’s a resounding grunt from the youth at the desk.
With a sigh, Sehun continues.
“I think your lips would taste like birthday cake and ice cream.
I think your kiss would feel like a dream.
I think it would be nice, to be by your side.
And to take the first step, oh how I’ve tried.
But it feels like you have my heart in the palm of your hand,
and you don’t know, not at all.”
Jongin lets out a noise that sounds like a cross between a dying goose and a distressed rabbit.
“Well, you uh, you really do like him,” Sehun concludes, albeit awkwardly.
“Ohmygod,” Jongin mourns. “I thought it was bad when I read it, but you make me sound like a teenage girl.”
“Probably because you are, just stuck in a dude’s body.” For a moment Sehun considers balling the poem up and throwing it at Jongin’s head, but it is kind of nice in a weird way, so he decides to lay the piece of paper by his friend’s arms.
“I think Kyungsoo would like you,” he offers when Jongin doesn’t say anything. “I mean, you know, as much as I like you, as a friend.” Sehun is starting to realize how much he sucks at bro-talk but he is too stubborn to admit defeat, so he presses on.
“Cause you’re weird, but I think Kyungsoo would like weird. He’s kind of weird himself, actually, Baekhyun said something about him collecting bugs as a kid. But anyway, you should um, just try and socialize? And even if you guys don’t end up together, you’d still be able to be by his side, like uh, in that poem you wrote. So, um, yeah.”
Jongin does not respond and Sehun frowns.
“Come on, man. I’m trying my best.”
And Sehun is rewarded with a snore. Offended, he jumps up and paces forward a few steps to the desk and only to find that Jongin is fast asleep.
He takes pictures of Jongin’s drooling face and sends them to everyone on his contact list.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
Jongin prefers sitting at the back of his Literature class. Out of sight, out of mind, after all. Sadly, this theory is true for everything in his life except Kyungsoo, and he wonders if the fates are laughing at him when the teacher has them analyze love poems for the day.
He is quite positive he hears some sort of supernatural cackling when there’s a knock on the door and Kyungsoo pokes his head in. Jongin scrambles to hide behind his copy of The Portrait of Dorian Gray but then stops because Kyungsoo probably doesn’t even know that he’s in this class.
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” he mumbles to himself. He misses the way the girl sitting next to him gives him an odd look.
“U-um, I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if anyone could lend me their copy of 1984?” Jongin watches as Kyungsoo’s eyes dart from the students to the teacher. He almost seems sheepish, even. It makes Jongin’s heart speed up.
But wait! 1984? Jongin has a copy of that! He yanks the heavily annotated book out of his bag and stands up without thinking.
“I have one,” he says, making sure to proclaim it loud enough for Kyungsoo to hear. Kyungsoo’s eyes seem to light up, and Jongin isn’t sure if it’s because of the book or if Kyungsoo just recognizes him, but it doesn’t stop his palms from sweating. He awkwardly makes his way to the front of the class and hands it to Kyungsoo.
“Thanks.” Kyungsoo’s eyes curl into crescents and Jongin resists the urge to gulp. “Sorry to bother you!” He tells the teacher who only nods her head gently in response. Kyungsoo’s too charming to be disliked by anyone, really.
“Kim Jongin, please return to your seat.” The teacher’s voice snaps Jongin out of his daydream of Kyungsoo running back and kissing him on the cheek and he flushes, realizing that he’s been staring out the door and that Kyungsoo’s been gone for quite some time. He hastily goes back to his seat, nearly tripping over one of his undone shoelaces.
“Right, I would like each of you to write a love poem and hand it up to me by the end of class. Minimum five lines, in any style that you wish,” the teacher announces.
There are collective groans and giggles around the room. Jongin rolls his eyes. Five lines? This class isn’t even challenging. He rips a clean page out from his notebook and poises his pen over it, ready to write.
Five minutes pass, however, and there’s not a single stroke on the page.
Jongin scowls. Why writer’s block? Why today? Oh well, he’ll just have to use that poem he wrote for Kyungsoo last night. Not one of his best, but certainly good enough to get him an A-, just this once. Sucking it up and saying goodbye to his straight A+ streak in Literature, he feels around in his bag for the piece of paper.
It’s not there.
The panic begins to settle in. Jongin yanks his bag up and sifts through his textbooks and stray worksheets as painstakingly as possible. He even sticks his head in to check just for good measure. Nothing.
But where could it be?? He’s positive he put it in his bag this morning, determined not to let anyone else find it. Jongin frantically tries to mentally retrace his steps. Woke up, stuffed books into bag (with note!!), ate breakfast, walked to school, class class class, had lunch (Baekhyun spilt his milk on Kris, universe nearly ended), class class, free period (studied at library, read 1984 and then bookmarked page with-)
Holy. Crap.
The note is in 1984. As in, Jongin’s copy of 1984. As in, THE COPY THAT KYUNGSOO JUST BORROWED THAT JONGIN HANDED TO HIM MOTHER OF GOD!!!!
“I need to use the bathroom!” He announces shamelessly to the class, hand high in the air. The teacher tuts at him disapprovingly.
“Class ends in fifteen minutes, Jongin, and you just had free period.”
“But-”
“No,” she says firmly and Jongin shrinks back into his seat, trying his best not to hyperventilate.
Maybe Kyungsoo won’t see the note. Yeah, sure, the bright yellow legal pad paper is definitely incredibly inconspicuous. Maybe he won’t think it’s about him. You handed him the book, he’s obviously going to infer something. Maybe it’s not in 1984, maybe you really did leave it at home. Maybe you’re just dreaming.
Jongin pinches himself and winces.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
The next fifteen minutes are the longest of Jongin’s life. He does write a poem, but it goes something along the lines of ‘Being in love is like being slapped with a fish. It’s weird, hurts, and sometimes, it stinks!’ He’s the first to rush out of class as the bell rings, not wanting to have his teacher chastise him about not meeting the minimum five lines requirement. His love-life is on the line.
He darts between couples and brushes shoulders with several of the burlier students before he’s at the door of the top Literature class. It’s incredibly stuffy in his uniform and he pulls at his collar anxiously. A few of students who exit the class first shoot him looks and he does his best not to blush. He even spots Minseok and tries not to flinch at the momentary stink-eye.
Finally, Kyungsoo appears and Jongin doesn’t hesitate to step forward.
“H-hi, um, sorry, can I have my book back?” He hopes Kyungsoo doesn’t detect the nervousness in his voice. Junmyeon, meanwhile, watches the exchange from Kyungsoo’s side. It irks Jongin a little, how close they’re standing next to each other, so he doesn’t greet Junmyeon.
“Oh! Right..” Kyungsoo cheeks seem to turn pink at the mention of the item and Jongin’s stomach does flip-flops. He hopes Kyungsoo just has naturally rosy cheeks. The prefect hands the book over and Jongin tries his best not to snatch it back.
“Thanks again,” Kyungsoo says and Jongin nods stiffly before practically sprinting off.
Junmyeon scoffs from his place. “He is utterly hopeless.”
“But he’s cute,” Kyungsoo confesses. “Utterly hopeless and really, really cute.”
Jongin’s locker is, thankfully, two halls down, and the students are beginning to filter out. He tries his best to hide himself behind his locker door as he opens the book. It naturally falls open to the page he had bookmarked, with horror of horrors! the love note. Jongin forgets to breathe.
But then he realizes the words on the paper aren’t his poem, aren’t scrawled in his handwriting. Puzzled, he picks it up and flips it over. He doesn’t recall writing on both sides of the page. The new poem is neat and written properly in the margins, with cute little ‘a’s and curly ‘y’s. He reads it with bated breath.
Roses are red, violets are blue,
honey is sweet, just like you.
It’s incredibly cheesy but Jongin’s eyes widen. Could it be.... But no, that’s impossible. Kyungsoo doesn’t do that kind of thing...right, right? He scans the poem again, just to be sure he’s reading it correctly.
Or maybe someone was just playing a joke on him, someone in Kyungsoo’s class. Maybe even Kyungsoo himself! The thought makes Jongin’s heart sink. He feels stupid and shoves the book, along with the note into his locker, slamming it shut. He walks home and scowls at anything and anyone who looks remotely happy.
Jongin spends the rest of his week avoiding Kyungsoo like the plague. He chants ‘out of sight, out of mind’ as a mantra to himself whenever he turns around to go down a different hallway at the slightest glimpse of Kyungsoo. And whenever they do pass by, Jongin does his best to hide behind whatever books he’s carrying or he plasters himself to the lockers on the far side as he walks.
Even the slightest glimpse of Kyungsoo makes him feel rejected and ashamed. He hopes it’s just a phase, but for now Jongin needs to cut Kyungsoo out of his life entirely, just until he can piece his heart back together. It’s quite funny, really, how it feels, as though Kyungsoo made a little space for himself in Jongin’s heart and then just left without a goodbye. Jongin swears to never write a love note for anyone ever again.
Sehun gives up trying to knock him out of it and ends up buying him a ton of comfort food, although he does slip in the ‘teenage girl’ remark every now and then. Jongin responds by grunting out curses in Chinese, something he subconsciously picked up from Luhan through rather....unconventional means. (Let’s just say, the walls are thin.)
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
The whole tactic is going rather well until Jongin is late the following Wednesday. He forgets to set his alarm because Sehun normally wakes him up, and Sehun slept over at Luhan’s the previous night. He spends a good two minutes freaking out before he runs to the bathroom, stuffs his books into his bag as he brushes his teeth, haphazardly throws his uniform on and grabs an apple from the fruit bowl before sprinting to school. He’s already half-an-hour late by the time he reaches the gates and he curses, creeping around halls to avoid getting caught before he gets to class.
He darts down the hallway, his classroom in sight. He’s busy thinking of what excuse to tell the teacher when a voice cuts across the hall.
“Jongin?”
He promptly freezes. The sound is all too familiar, and ‘out of sight, out of mind’ cannot help him now. Taking a deep breath, Jongin turns around to face the prefect who he’s been trying to avoid for the past week.
“Hey,” Kyungsoo says, with the slightest of smiles. He looks immaculate, uniform perfectly fitted, not a hair out of place. Jongin figures he probably looks like he got caught in a hurricane.
“If you’re going to book me you should hurry, because the longer you stand there the later I am.” It doesn’t come out as sharp as he intends for it to be, but it still sounds harsh. Kyungsoo’s smile fades and he blinks in disbelief.
“H-huh?”
“I was late for school. And you’re the hall monitor.”
“Oh,” Kyungsoo sounds dejected, like he was expecting something more. Jongin feels bad but he brushes it aside. It had been Kyungsoo who had rejected him, after all.
“I, um,” Kyungsoo motions to write out Jongin’s late slip but his hand falters and he sets it back down. “I think it’s okay.”
“What?”
“I mean, I’m not supposed to but...” Kyungsoo clears his throat. “You can just go to class. Tell them you helped an old lady across the street.” He turns to go.
“Why are you helping me?” Jongin asks, genuinely confused.
Kyungsoo turns back around with an incredulous look on his face. He pauses for a moment before he takes in a deep breath. “Because...B-because I like you?” He blabs out before hurriedly pursing his lips.
The statement makes Jongin’s systems kick into overdrive. “You...like...me?”
“Well, yeah,” Kyungsoo says, fidgeting. His voice doesn’t waver but the blush on his cheeks gives him away. “Didn’t you read the note?”
“The...note?” Jongin feels like punching himself in the face.
“I-I mean, you know, the one in the book...Junmyeon told me you probably wrote it for me and I-I thought it would be appropriate if I wrote one back.” Kyungsoo furtively avoids his gaze. Jongin has taken a few steps closer.
He gulps a little, he’s just as nervous as Kyungsoo is. “I-I..I didn’t mean to put it in the book,” he says, and he watches as Kyungsoo’s face falls a little, “but I did write it for you.”
“Oh,” Kyungsoo shifts a little and Jongin finds it cute how his ears are turning red too.
Taking a deep breath, Jongin decides it’s now or never. “Kyungsoo?”
“Yeah?”
“I...” He puts his hands to his chest for a moment before extending his arms out to Kyungsoo in one fluid movement, whole body feeling warm.
Kyungsoo blinks cluelessly. Jongin flushes and tries again. Hand to chest, extend out.
“I don’t understand...are you okay? Are you having trouble breathing or something?” Jongin makes a soft strangled noise and he does it again, a little more aggressively. More blinking.
He gives up and takes two steps forward, leaning in and placing a kiss on Kyungsoo’s cheek. When he pulls back, Kyungsoo’s eyes are wide and Jongin keeps his gaze on the ground.
“I like you, dummy.”
There’s a brief pause, and Jongin’s desperately thinking of something else to say when he hears a soft ‘oh’ and suddenly oh! Kyungsoo’s lips are soft and warm and his eyes are closed and ohmygod this is really happening Jongin is being kissed by Kyungsoo.
He lets his eyes flutter shut and he puts his hands on either one of Kyungsoo’s arms, steadying him. It’s a rather awkward pose, but Jongin is distracted by the fact that Kyungsoo smells like fresh cookies and tastes like icing sugar, and he tries to think about how he’ll write about that in his next poem.
Their moment, however, is interrupted by a sudden flash and the sound of a picture being taken, and they pull away in time for Jongin to catch sight of a tuft of pink hair darting around the corner and out of sight.
“OH SEHUN GET BACK HERE OR I SWEAR I’LL MAKE SURE THINGS OTHER THAN YOUR HAIR ARE BLEACHED!”
===
A/N: title taken from sweet talk 101 by cute is what we aim for! as always, big thank you to donghai for being that beta who whines about suchen (or lack thereof). love you man ♥. on another note, let's be friends?
tip: always remember where you leave those deep, dark, secret love notes.
word count: 7.6k
Jongin knows hallway floors aren’t meant to be surfaces for sleeping, but sometimes he can’t help it. Particularly today, where Sehun just attempted to jump on him for a piggyback ride, knocking him onto the ground instantly. It had hurt for a while, but he almost wants to sob in happiness at the relief that the ground brings to his skeleton. It’s tiring to carry yourself around all the time, especially after you’ve spent majority of the previous night watching porn finishing an essay that was due four days ago.
“Jongin,” Sehun nudges said boy with his sneaker after a while, “are you hurt?” He had somehow managed to jump off Jongin just in time.
“Mnnngh,” Jongin grunts.
“People are staring.”
“It’s because I have a great ass, Sehun,” Jongin says matter-of-factly, though his voice is a little muffled because his face is still to the ground.
“Maybe because you are a great ass.”
“Let me and my great ass die here in peace, please,” the boy on the floor replies resolutely, turning his head to the side and resting it on his now-open Chemistry textbook before closing his eyes.
“Sehu- Jongin?!” Jongin recognizes Luhan’s voice and hears the sound of sneakers squeaking as Luhan jogs over to them. “Oh my god what’s wrong did he collapse we need to call a nurse and-mmmph.”
“Shhhh,” Sehun says, and Jongin figures he probably has his finger on Luhan’s lips. Or maybe they kissed. Ew. Jongin doesn’t even want to know.
(It’s not the worst thing he’s seen them do, but still.)
“He’s fine, he’s just tired.” Jongin can see Sehun shrugging as he says it.
“But it’s gross! The floor isn’t clean! Jongi-” Luhan tries to crouch down to roll Jongin over, but Sehun stops him with an arm across his chest.
“No.”
“But-”
“No.”
“Hey, I said ‘let me die in peace’, not ‘help speed up the process’,” Jongin hisses to the chemical equations on page twenty-eight.
“This is ridiculous!” Luhan protests.
Jongin lets out a grunt in response, enjoying the feeling of the cool floor against his skin.
“Class is going to start in ten minutes!”
“Tell the teacher I died and- wait,” Jongin pushes himself up a little and looks up at Luhan, eyes half-open in his exhausted state. “Aren’t you a senior?”
“....Yeah?”
“So...why are you at our block?”
“I...um...” Luhan looks at Sehun and blushes furiously. “I...wanted to say hi, yeah.”
Sehun smirks and pulls Luhan in, and this is where Jongin lets himself fall back onto the ground. Sweet, sweet solace.
“Luhan-hyung I just got your text and-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?!” A new voice joins them, and Jongin tries his best to drown it out. What does a guy have to do to catch a break around here?
“Oh, uh hi, Baek,” Luhan starts, sounding rather flustered.
“WHY IS JONGIN ON THE FLOOR AND WHY WERE YOU TWO MAKING OUT OVER HIM IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK FETISH THING?!” Baekhyun shrieks.
“No! Uh-” Luhan tries to say.
“Why? Were you interested in joining?” Sehun is definitely smirking.
Baekhyun, like most people, chooses to ignore Sehun and immediately tries to tend to Jongin. He kneels down and promptly tries to roll the youth over.
“Jong-Jongin.” His tone changes when he feels Jongin trying to push back with his entire weight against Baekhyun’s dainty hands. For a lazy person, Jongin sure is strong.
“Noooooooooo,” Jongin groans in protest, face still resolutely buried in the pages. “I want to sleeeeeeeep,” he whines like the seventeen year old he is. Baekhyun grunts as he tries to roll Jongin over.
“You...need...to...urgh..get up...class is...starting...”
“I’ll only go to class if someone carries me.”
“This...is...phew...serious...man...phew...why are..you...so..heavy..”
“Sehun, we should try to-”
“No.”
“Ummmm...excuse me?”
This new voice alerts Jongin’s senses. It’s somewhat familiar, but he can’t quite pinpoint its owner. What he does know, though, is that he quite likes the sound of this new voice. It isn’t too deep and it isn’t too pitchy, it isn’t too soft and it isn’t too loud. It’s almost music to Jongin’s ears. He makes the most of the awkward silence that ensues to admire this new voice.
“Kyungsoo! Um...we...uh...” Baekhyun tries to say, and Jongin flops back onto the floor as Baekhyun stops pushing him.
“Is...is he okay?” Nice Voice-Kyungsoo-is apparently concerned about him. Jongin feels happy about this. Not only does this guy have a nice voice, but he’s caring, too.
“He’s tired,” Sehun says matter-of-factly.
“I...I should go, I have class,” Luhan speaks up. “Nice seeing you again, Kyungsoo.” Jongin hears the sound of a kiss before fading footsteps and wrinkles his nose against the ground. Ew.
“Nice seeing you too..I guess..” The last part comes out softer, but Jongin catches it.
They fade into an awkward silence again and Jongin finds his eyes closing. Just a few minutes...
The shrill ring of the bell right next to them causes Jongin to jump and he bolts right up, shaken out of his zombified state, clutching his books to his chest. He comes face-to-face with Kyungsoo.
Holy. Crap.
Kyungsoo, quite simply, is the most perfect thing Jongin has ever seen. He’s got full lips that Jongin thinks would be awesome to kiss, and wide, pretty eyes and an adorable face altogether. He’s a few centimetres shorter than Jongin, but that makes him even more perfect in Jongin’s book. Kyungsoo also has these deliciously full thighs, and Jongin wants to reach out and squeeze them-in a totally unperverted way.
Baekhyun’s soft ‘oh’ breaks their moment, and Jongin quickly stops himself from drooling right then and there. He shoots Baekhyun what he can manage of a glare, but the boy is already hurriedly walking off with Sehun, ruthlessly shoving him in the opposite direction despite Sehun’s protests of ‘my class is down the other hall!’.
When Jongin looks back at Kyungsoo, they make eye contact and Kyungsoo is the first to blush, hurriedly looking away. Jongin starts feeling a little self-conscious and runs his fingers through his hair, trying to somehow look a little more presentable. Trust him to act like a total weirdo the one day he meets someone who looks like a total god.
He also notices the dark blue tie that Kyungsoo has on instead of the regulation red one, and sees a small badge pinned over his blazer’s front pocket that reads ‘PREFECT’ in proud, bold letters.
Oh. Oh.
“I, um, sorry, about the floor,” Jongin says pathetically as he gestures to the ground, as if Kyungsoo doesn’t know what ‘the floor’ is.
“No! No, uh, it’s okay it’s totally fine..” Kyungsoo replies, somewhat flustered.
“You’re not gonna like...book me or something?”
Kyungsoo gives him a confused look and Jongin points to the badge above Kyungsoo’s front pocket. The latter actually looks to see what he’s talking about but Jongin finds it adorable.
“Oh! Oh, no no there’s no uh...rules about..sleeping on the floor,” Kyungsoo nods in affirmation at the end, almost seeming as though he’s trying to convince himself too. Jongin is sure there has to be some sort of rule about obstructing the hallway but he’s never actually read the school rules, and besides, he’s been stuck behind people going at one centimetre an hour as he hurries from class to class and they’ve never been booked.
“They should make one,” he finds himself saying, thinking about irritatingly slow walkers, and then resists the urge to slap his palm to his forehead.
Kyungsoo actually laughs a little and wow, his laugh is even nicer than his voice. Jongin finds himself grinning rather stupidly.
“Yeah...” Kyungsoo says, and the awkward silence begins after that. Jongin allows himself ten seconds to gawk at Kyungsoo a little more before finally speaking.
“I’m Jongin, by the way.”
“Kyungsoo.” They shake hands, and Jongin nearly melts because Kyungsoo’s hands are so soft and elegant that he has the fleeting though of never washing his hand ever again.
“Um...Jongin?”
“Yeah? Oh! Oh, sorry,” Jongin hurriedly lets go of Kyungsoo’s hand, blushing furiously and shoving his own into his pocket. But Kyungsoo actually laughs softly in response and Jongin’s heart beats at a million beats per second.
“I-I should get to class,” Jongin finally says, but he lets his gaze linger on Kyungsoo for 1...2...3. “Bye,” he blurts out before walking away as fast as his legs can carry him, cursing himself for even thinking that taking a nap on the school’s hallway floor would be a good idea.
Then again, Jongin hadn’t counted on meeting both attractive and nice people in SM High for once.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
“You have a crush on Kyungsoo?” Yixing, Jongin’s lab partner, murmurs as he catches a glimpse of the scrawls on Jongin’s notebook.
Jongin feels his insides freeze and he hurriedly flips to a clean page. “W-what? What are you talking about?” He gives Yixing what he hopes looks like a judging look. “Have you been smoking something?”
“First, you suck at acting. Second, you were doodling hearts.”
“I’m almost eighteen, Yixing. I’m allowed to doodle hearts when I want to.”
“And also,” Yixing reaches over and taps the shared report between them. In one of the column headers is ‘Kyungsoo’ scrawled in Jongin’s unruly handwriting.
Jongin lets out a soft, strangled noise at the back of his throat before grabbing a pen and proceeding to cancel the name like no man has cancelled before. When he is done with this frantic motion, he sets the pen down and calmly turns to Yixing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Fine, but you really do suck at acting.”
“You-”
“Jongin, Yixing, is there something you would like to share with the class?” Their professor snaps from his desk at the front, and the two of them immediately look down, shaking their heads. After a while the professor goes to help another pair of students on the other side of the lab, and Jongin bites his lip as he thinks.
“You..um...you know Kyungsoo?”
“Who doesn’t?” Yixing chuckles.
“He’s...popular?”
“He’s the hall monitor that lets people off almost all the time. He’s pretty chill, you know, for a prefect at SM.”
“Oh, I see.” Jongin feels his stomach doing backflips. Gosh, even talking about Kyungsoo makes him nervous. “But have you...talked to him?”
“Kind of. He helped me out when I came to school late that time when I missed the bus. You’re friends with Baekhyun, right?”
Jongin nods. “Yeah, why?”
“They’re pretty close friends I think. They’ve known each other since they were kids or something.”
“Oh...”
“You could ask him to be your wingman.”
“Yea- what?” Jongin gives Yixing a mixed look of horror and bewilderment. It’s not that Baekhyun’s mean or anything, but he gets along with Sehun, and they share everything, which means that if Baekhyun finds out that Jongin likes Kyungsoo, then Sehun would too. Not. A. Good. Thing.
Yixing shrugs a little. “Well, I mean, he could...recommend...you?”
“...Okay. I am going to blame your choice of words on the language barrier.”
“You get what I mean. He could help you score a date.”
“I don’t need help,” Jongin sniffs indignantly. “I’m almost eighteen.”
“Yeah, but you still don’t know how to iron your own uniform-”
“It’s a developing skill!”
“And you still walk into things-”
“Oh, come on! That was like one time and I swear that tree moved.”
“And, most importantly, I don’t think you’ve ever even asked someone out.”
“I...have!” Jongin’s tone wavers. Dammit.
Yixing gives him a skeptical look.
“...Although it was Luhan...”
Yixing nods a little.
“And it was...because...I thought...he was a girl...Okay, fine. I see your point.”
Yixing gives him a dimpled smile before completing the rest of the report. Jongin sulks in defeat. Okay, sure, so Baekhyun could be able to help him out, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to ask. It’s Baekhyun, after all, the guy who is dating Park Chanyeol, a.k.a hybrid of a Cheshire cat and a serial killer. Jongin doesn’t think anyone who has questionable boyfriends should be consulted for dating advice.
“Still, he has a boyfriend and you don’t,” Yixing points out.
“I told you, don’t listen to me when I talk to myself, it’s very rude.”
Yixing rolls his eyes and presses the paper onto Jongin’s forehead with one swift movement of his hand.
“Go hand up the report, Sir Sulks-a-lot.”
“That’s a terrible nickname,” Jongin says as he removes the report from his face and stands up. He trips over one of the stool legs and falls onto the ground in an instant. There is a collective gasp in the room at the sudden thump, and Jongin groans a little in pain while Yixing looks down at him, unimpressed.
“Klutz.”
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
Jongin decides he’s just going to have to help himself, but it’s just his luck to have a super huge crush on someone he barely sees around campus. Not only is Kyungsoo a prefect, he’s also on one of the most prestigious scholarships the school offers and takes advanced classes in pretty much everything. And not a single hair gray or out of place. Jongin considers that Lady Luck is probably Kyungsoo’s mother. Or Kyungsoo’s just perfect. Both sounds like the most likely option.
That’s alright, though, because where Kyungsoo has heavenly favors, Jongin has plans. (This is a lot cooler than it sounds.)
So that’s kind of how he finds himself walking as slowly as he possibly can to school, missing as many traffic lights as possible, ignoring the tutting of irritated strangers who make the mistake of walking behind him for a moment before cutting ahead of him as soon as they can. Because Plan A is Operation Latecoming: arrive late to school and talk to Kyungsoo while he’s on hall monitor duty. Jongin even stops to admire the great big oak tree that looks like it could use some pruning two blocks away from the school, and attempts to coax a rather unfriendly looking cat with mangled fur out of the darkness of an alley. It hisses at him, and he decides to name it Sehun.
He makes it at 8:07 and wanders around the halls, pretending to avoid getting caught. The prospect of seeing Kyungsoo again, just the two of them, alone, gives him butterflies in his stomach, and he occasionally has to pause just so he doesn’t squeal to himself. There are security cameras after all.
He hears footsteps coming round the corner soon enough, and he freezes for a moment, unsure of what to do. Should he pretend to be hurrying to class and run off? No, wait, if he ran he’d miss Kyungsoo completely. Ok, so he should brisk walk away then. But what if he did it too quickly? He’d miss Kyungsoo too. Or maybe he could just turn around and say ‘hey, you got me babe, put the cuffs on and lead me away’. Jeez, Jongin, you need to stop watching films made in the nineties...
The footsteps stop and he hears someone clear his throat. Jongin takes a deep breath and makes sure to put on his smoldering gaze he spent two hours last night trying to perfect before turning around.
“Alright, you got me. But can’t we go out to dinner and talk about thi- AUGH!”
It’s not Kyungsoo, but Minseok, the freaking vice-head prefect, standing there, clipboard in hand, eye twitching slightly and not the least bit amused. “Hello, Jongin.”
Jongin hurriedly straightens and bows ninety degrees. “S-sunbae..I..uh..”
Minseok flicks his wrist, his sleeve rolling up slightly, and looks at his expensive looking watch. “Exactly fifteen minutes late to class, and counting,” he says as he writes something down on his clipboard.
Jongin lets out a sad whimper but quickly stops when Minseok looks up at him with a stern look. For a short person, he sure could be intimidating.
“What was that?” The prefect asks sharply. Jongin jumps and realizes he’s been speaking out loud.
“N-nothing! Nothing. Just, uh, trying to clear my sinuses.”
Minseok narrows his eyes and raises his pen, pointing it between Jongin’s eyes. “If you’re late one more time,” he hisses before pulling the pen back and and draws it over his neck. Jongin gulps and nods stiffly.
“Get to class.” And Jongin doesn’t need to be told twice.
“Wow,” Chanyeol, Baekhyun’s boyfriend and Wacko of the Century, observes with his mouth full at lunch, “Minseok looks like he’s going to kill you.”
Jongin’s eyes dart over to the Prefect table and sure enough, the vice-head is watching him with a look of contempt. As soon as he sees Jongin look at him his eyes narrow again and Jongin hurriedly ducks his head, deciding that the stain on the table is much more interesting.
“He was late again, obviously,” Sehun snorts as he sits down, Luhan stuck like velcro at his side. “You know how Minseok can’t stand tardiness.”
“Oh, is that why?” Chanyeol says, and Jongin feels a bit of food hit his ear. Gross.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Channie,” Baekhyun chides next to him, and he hits Chanyeol with the strength of a feather.
“Why were you late, Jongin? You live like a street away,” Luhan asks, and Jongin detects a hint of envy in his voice. It helps boost his ego a bit; not everyone can have the luxury of being able to wake up half an hour before school starts and still have breakfast seated at the table.
“Probably just wanted to see someone again,” Yixing sniggers as he sits down, and Jongin shoots him a warning look. He’s treading on dangerous ground.
“So...Yixing, who’s this?”
Jongin looks up, confused by Baekhyun’s question, and realizes that there’s a new student sitting next to Yixing. Well at least, he thinks it’s a student, because the new guy looks old enough to be a teacher, especially since he seems to tower over all of them, and he’s sitting down. He also looks like a model, with his perfectly shaped eyebrows and blonde, impeccably styled hair, and a particularly unfriendly model at that, completely unfazed by all the curious looks he’s getting.
Yixing fidgets a little, and Jongin raises an eyebrow at the blush on his cheeks. “Ah, guys, this is um...” He looks at the man sitting next to him for some sort of confirmation. Jongin hopes Yixing hasn’t started his whole forgetting names phase again. The first year of their friendship, Yixing had spent most of his class time staring at Jongin blankly, and Jongin found out later that it was because he wanted to tell Jongin something, but couldn’t remember his name.
“Kris,” new guy says, and the tiniest smile known to mankind is displayed on his face for a fraction of a second before disappearing again. Jongin thinks it looks like some sort of weird twitch and briefly remembers Minseok. He shudders.
“..And this is Jongin,” he hears Yixing say, and Kris gives him that curt smile again. He smiles back as best as he can.
“So, Yixing finally has a boyfriend!” Luhan pipes up, and the two newcomers at the table look panic-stricken. It’s almost laughable how Kris’ expressions work with his face that looks like it was carved by the gods.
“Um, we uh-” Yixing starts weakly, looking at Kris.
“We’re not-” Kris says, looking back at Yixing. Then, they pause and look at each other with a slightly defeated expression before shrugging.
“Yeah, we’re dating,” they say in unison, and Luhan squeals so loudly most of the occupants in the cafeteria turn to look at them as he half-launches himself across the table to hug Yixing, and then loops his arm around Kris’ neck, pulling him in too. It looks painfully uncomfortable, but Kris manages what he can of a smile, patting Luhan on the back awkwardly.
Sehun gets up and peels his boyfriend off the new couple, who now look incredibly embarrassed. It is then that Jongin realizes the uncomfortable truth.
Baekhyun, Chanyeol. Sehun, Luhan. And now Yixing and Kris.
“Wait, does everyone have a boyfriend?” He tries not to sound too horrified at this new information. He’s Kim Jongin, after all, the guy who has decent grades and looks stunning even with bed hair, and who can make body waves that would make an ocean dry up in envy. How can he be the only one among his friends to not have a significant other?
“Yes,” they all answer nonchalantly, and Jongin is just about to smash his face into the pizza slice on his tray with a crust that tastes like cardboard when Baekhyun catches him and pulls him back up.
“But you like Kyungsoo, don’t you?” He says all too encouragingly, and Jongin feels his blood freeze. So they had heard. But Baekhyun knowing means three quarters of the school population knowing, and that means prefects knowing, which ultimately means Kyungsoo knowing, which means the rejection monster is looming around the corner, ready to devour Jongin whole.
“Yixing!” He squeaks. How could his as-close-to-a-best-as-he’s-ever-going-to-get-friend do this to him???
“I didn’t do it,” Yixing raises his palms in defense, and he’s telling the truth.
“Oh please, Jongin it was obvious when you met him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Jongin, when you first saw him there were practically hearts in your eyes. And whenever we mention Kyungsoo- see! You just did it!”
“Did what?” Jongin blinks, genuinely confused.
“You made this...gushy face. Like you smile whenever we say Kyungsoo’s name.” As if on cue, Jongin feels the corners of his mouth turn up slightly, and he reaches up to pull them down again. There is no way in heck he’s going to let them tease him like this.
Chanyeol leans in then, and all too familiar shit-eating grin on his face.
“It’s not going to-”
“Kyungsoo.”
Jongin clenches his jaw tight and shakes his head vigorously. Nope.
“Kyungsoo!” Luhan pipes up, and Jongin sucks his cheeks in a little, biting on them. No way.
“Kyungsoo ~” Baekhyun suddenly whispers at his ear and Jongin flinches, cheeks turning bright red. He makes the mistake of pushing Baekhyun away and breaks into a grin, giggling for a moment before he slaps his hands over his mouth, horrified. Did he just giggle?
Everyone at the table guffaws in laughter, particularly Chanyeol, who really has never heard of restraint when it comes to showing his emotions. Jongin chooses this moment to slip under the cafeteria table.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
So, Plan A: Operation Latecoming fails. But it doesn’t matter! Because Kim Jongin never gives up, and there are still million backup plans up his sleeve! Simple teasing from his friends will never deter Kim Jongin!
LINE
Luhan’s Sehun: Imagine Kyungsoo locking you in the supply closet with hi...
LINE
Baek ♡ Chan: Imagine Kyungsoo coming out of the shower and his towe...
LINE
Sehun’s Luhan: Imagine Kyungsoo asking you out and he’s all shy an...
LINE
Chan ♡ Baek: Hey Jongin! I think you took my pen home...
Jongin types a hasty ‘no worries you can pass it to me tomorrow’ reply to Chanyeol before hurriedly turning his phone over. He’s all too grateful that Yixing hasn’t joined in on this ‘Imagine Kyungsoo’ business, probably because he and Kris are way too busy being the hot new couple to pay attention to anyone or anything else. Kris doesn’t seem like he’d appreciate his boyfriend thinking of people who aren’t them in potentially compromising situations, anyway.
(Still, he might get infected by their group’s weirdness at any moment, so Jongin keeps his fingers crossed.)
He does half of his homework before giving up, thoughts of Kyungsoo affecting his concentration. It’s quite ridiculous, really, how his brain seems to somehow come up with situations involving the prefect every five seconds. Can’t do a math question? Ask Kyungsoo for help! And then he’ll kiss you when you get it right and hold your hand under the table. Can’t solve this physics diagram? Let Kyungsoo show you how to every action has an equal and opposite reaction!
Jongin groans and pillows his head on his arms. He’s never even spoken to Kyungsoo for more than five minutes but his brain makes it seem as though he’s known him forever. Kyungsoo barely even glances at him as they pass by in the halls, for crying out loud.
He hears a knock on his door before the twisting of the doorknob and the obnoxious crunching of chips.
“I could have been naked,” he tells Sehun.
“Jongin, you shower with the door wide open.” More crunching.
“I’m having an existential crisis now, please go away.”
“Relax, I bring comfort food.” Jongin feels something hit the back of his head and hears the plastic packet land next to him. He sits back up, ripping the packets of Lays open with a flourish.
“Half a bag of air, stellar.”
“You know, I think this Kyungsoo crisis has actually made you somehow more moody than you already are. Which is to say, you could be a nuclear weapon of depression.”
“Ohmygod, please don’t mention his name,” Jongin groans and curls back down on his desk. “I don’t think I can go to school tomorrow. I feel sick.”
“Come on, man. Just grow a pair and walk up to that Prefects’ table and ask him out.”
“Don’t make me remind you of the fact that you dressed up as a bush that one time to stalk Luhan to see what flavored bubble tea he likes best.”
“....Point taken, proceed.”
Sighing, Jongin reached around his desk, still not looking up, before holding up a piece of paper which had been ripped out of one of his notebooks. He let his hand fall back down on the desk after Sehun had taken it from him.
A few crunches then, “you...wrote a poem?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just read it.”
“Okay,” Sehun says, clearing his throat before proceeding.
“I think your hands would fit perfectly in mine.
I think about you all the time.
I think your lips would taste like- jeezus, Jongin. Do I have to read this?”
There’s a resounding grunt from the youth at the desk.
With a sigh, Sehun continues.
“I think your lips would taste like birthday cake and ice cream.
I think your kiss would feel like a dream.
I think it would be nice, to be by your side.
And to take the first step, oh how I’ve tried.
But it feels like you have my heart in the palm of your hand,
and you don’t know, not at all.”
Jongin lets out a noise that sounds like a cross between a dying goose and a distressed rabbit.
“Well, you uh, you really do like him,” Sehun concludes, albeit awkwardly.
“Ohmygod,” Jongin mourns. “I thought it was bad when I read it, but you make me sound like a teenage girl.”
“Probably because you are, just stuck in a dude’s body.” For a moment Sehun considers balling the poem up and throwing it at Jongin’s head, but it is kind of nice in a weird way, so he decides to lay the piece of paper by his friend’s arms.
“I think Kyungsoo would like you,” he offers when Jongin doesn’t say anything. “I mean, you know, as much as I like you, as a friend.” Sehun is starting to realize how much he sucks at bro-talk but he is too stubborn to admit defeat, so he presses on.
“Cause you’re weird, but I think Kyungsoo would like weird. He’s kind of weird himself, actually, Baekhyun said something about him collecting bugs as a kid. But anyway, you should um, just try and socialize? And even if you guys don’t end up together, you’d still be able to be by his side, like uh, in that poem you wrote. So, um, yeah.”
Jongin does not respond and Sehun frowns.
“Come on, man. I’m trying my best.”
And Sehun is rewarded with a snore. Offended, he jumps up and paces forward a few steps to the desk and only to find that Jongin is fast asleep.
He takes pictures of Jongin’s drooling face and sends them to everyone on his contact list.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
Jongin prefers sitting at the back of his Literature class. Out of sight, out of mind, after all. Sadly, this theory is true for everything in his life except Kyungsoo, and he wonders if the fates are laughing at him when the teacher has them analyze love poems for the day.
He is quite positive he hears some sort of supernatural cackling when there’s a knock on the door and Kyungsoo pokes his head in. Jongin scrambles to hide behind his copy of The Portrait of Dorian Gray but then stops because Kyungsoo probably doesn’t even know that he’s in this class.
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” he mumbles to himself. He misses the way the girl sitting next to him gives him an odd look.
“U-um, I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if anyone could lend me their copy of 1984?” Jongin watches as Kyungsoo’s eyes dart from the students to the teacher. He almost seems sheepish, even. It makes Jongin’s heart speed up.
But wait! 1984? Jongin has a copy of that! He yanks the heavily annotated book out of his bag and stands up without thinking.
“I have one,” he says, making sure to proclaim it loud enough for Kyungsoo to hear. Kyungsoo’s eyes seem to light up, and Jongin isn’t sure if it’s because of the book or if Kyungsoo just recognizes him, but it doesn’t stop his palms from sweating. He awkwardly makes his way to the front of the class and hands it to Kyungsoo.
“Thanks.” Kyungsoo’s eyes curl into crescents and Jongin resists the urge to gulp. “Sorry to bother you!” He tells the teacher who only nods her head gently in response. Kyungsoo’s too charming to be disliked by anyone, really.
“Kim Jongin, please return to your seat.” The teacher’s voice snaps Jongin out of his daydream of Kyungsoo running back and kissing him on the cheek and he flushes, realizing that he’s been staring out the door and that Kyungsoo’s been gone for quite some time. He hastily goes back to his seat, nearly tripping over one of his undone shoelaces.
“Right, I would like each of you to write a love poem and hand it up to me by the end of class. Minimum five lines, in any style that you wish,” the teacher announces.
There are collective groans and giggles around the room. Jongin rolls his eyes. Five lines? This class isn’t even challenging. He rips a clean page out from his notebook and poises his pen over it, ready to write.
Five minutes pass, however, and there’s not a single stroke on the page.
Jongin scowls. Why writer’s block? Why today? Oh well, he’ll just have to use that poem he wrote for Kyungsoo last night. Not one of his best, but certainly good enough to get him an A-, just this once. Sucking it up and saying goodbye to his straight A+ streak in Literature, he feels around in his bag for the piece of paper.
It’s not there.
The panic begins to settle in. Jongin yanks his bag up and sifts through his textbooks and stray worksheets as painstakingly as possible. He even sticks his head in to check just for good measure. Nothing.
But where could it be?? He’s positive he put it in his bag this morning, determined not to let anyone else find it. Jongin frantically tries to mentally retrace his steps. Woke up, stuffed books into bag (with note!!), ate breakfast, walked to school, class class class, had lunch (Baekhyun spilt his milk on Kris, universe nearly ended), class class, free period (studied at library, read 1984 and then bookmarked page with-)
Holy. Crap.
The note is in 1984. As in, Jongin’s copy of 1984. As in, THE COPY THAT KYUNGSOO JUST BORROWED THAT JONGIN HANDED TO HIM MOTHER OF GOD!!!!
“I need to use the bathroom!” He announces shamelessly to the class, hand high in the air. The teacher tuts at him disapprovingly.
“Class ends in fifteen minutes, Jongin, and you just had free period.”
“But-”
“No,” she says firmly and Jongin shrinks back into his seat, trying his best not to hyperventilate.
Maybe Kyungsoo won’t see the note. Yeah, sure, the bright yellow legal pad paper is definitely incredibly inconspicuous. Maybe he won’t think it’s about him. You handed him the book, he’s obviously going to infer something. Maybe it’s not in 1984, maybe you really did leave it at home. Maybe you’re just dreaming.
Jongin pinches himself and winces.
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
The next fifteen minutes are the longest of Jongin’s life. He does write a poem, but it goes something along the lines of ‘Being in love is like being slapped with a fish. It’s weird, hurts, and sometimes, it stinks!’ He’s the first to rush out of class as the bell rings, not wanting to have his teacher chastise him about not meeting the minimum five lines requirement. His love-life is on the line.
He darts between couples and brushes shoulders with several of the burlier students before he’s at the door of the top Literature class. It’s incredibly stuffy in his uniform and he pulls at his collar anxiously. A few of students who exit the class first shoot him looks and he does his best not to blush. He even spots Minseok and tries not to flinch at the momentary stink-eye.
Finally, Kyungsoo appears and Jongin doesn’t hesitate to step forward.
“H-hi, um, sorry, can I have my book back?” He hopes Kyungsoo doesn’t detect the nervousness in his voice. Junmyeon, meanwhile, watches the exchange from Kyungsoo’s side. It irks Jongin a little, how close they’re standing next to each other, so he doesn’t greet Junmyeon.
“Oh! Right..” Kyungsoo cheeks seem to turn pink at the mention of the item and Jongin’s stomach does flip-flops. He hopes Kyungsoo just has naturally rosy cheeks. The prefect hands the book over and Jongin tries his best not to snatch it back.
“Thanks again,” Kyungsoo says and Jongin nods stiffly before practically sprinting off.
Junmyeon scoffs from his place. “He is utterly hopeless.”
“But he’s cute,” Kyungsoo confesses. “Utterly hopeless and really, really cute.”
Jongin’s locker is, thankfully, two halls down, and the students are beginning to filter out. He tries his best to hide himself behind his locker door as he opens the book. It naturally falls open to the page he had bookmarked, with horror of horrors! the love note. Jongin forgets to breathe.
But then he realizes the words on the paper aren’t his poem, aren’t scrawled in his handwriting. Puzzled, he picks it up and flips it over. He doesn’t recall writing on both sides of the page. The new poem is neat and written properly in the margins, with cute little ‘a’s and curly ‘y’s. He reads it with bated breath.
Roses are red, violets are blue,
honey is sweet, just like you.
It’s incredibly cheesy but Jongin’s eyes widen. Could it be.... But no, that’s impossible. Kyungsoo doesn’t do that kind of thing...right, right? He scans the poem again, just to be sure he’s reading it correctly.
Or maybe someone was just playing a joke on him, someone in Kyungsoo’s class. Maybe even Kyungsoo himself! The thought makes Jongin’s heart sink. He feels stupid and shoves the book, along with the note into his locker, slamming it shut. He walks home and scowls at anything and anyone who looks remotely happy.
Jongin spends the rest of his week avoiding Kyungsoo like the plague. He chants ‘out of sight, out of mind’ as a mantra to himself whenever he turns around to go down a different hallway at the slightest glimpse of Kyungsoo. And whenever they do pass by, Jongin does his best to hide behind whatever books he’s carrying or he plasters himself to the lockers on the far side as he walks.
Even the slightest glimpse of Kyungsoo makes him feel rejected and ashamed. He hopes it’s just a phase, but for now Jongin needs to cut Kyungsoo out of his life entirely, just until he can piece his heart back together. It’s quite funny, really, how it feels, as though Kyungsoo made a little space for himself in Jongin’s heart and then just left without a goodbye. Jongin swears to never write a love note for anyone ever again.
Sehun gives up trying to knock him out of it and ends up buying him a ton of comfort food, although he does slip in the ‘teenage girl’ remark every now and then. Jongin responds by grunting out curses in Chinese, something he subconsciously picked up from Luhan through rather....unconventional means. (Let’s just say, the walls are thin.)
ヽ(愛´∀｀愛)ノ
The whole tactic is going rather well until Jongin is late the following Wednesday. He forgets to set his alarm because Sehun normally wakes him up, and Sehun slept over at Luhan’s the previous night. He spends a good two minutes freaking out before he runs to the bathroom, stuffs his books into his bag as he brushes his teeth, haphazardly throws his uniform on and grabs an apple from the fruit bowl before sprinting to school. He’s already half-an-hour late by the time he reaches the gates and he curses, creeping around halls to avoid getting caught before he gets to class.
He darts down the hallway, his classroom in sight. He’s busy thinking of what excuse to tell the teacher when a voice cuts across the hall.
“Jongin?”
He promptly freezes. The sound is all too familiar, and ‘out of sight, out of mind’ cannot help him now. Taking a deep breath, Jongin turns around to face the prefect who he’s been trying to avoid for the past week.
“Hey,” Kyungsoo says, with the slightest of smiles. He looks immaculate, uniform perfectly fitted, not a hair out of place. Jongin figures he probably looks like he got caught in a hurricane.
“If you’re going to book me you should hurry, because the longer you stand there the later I am.” It doesn’t come out as sharp as he intends for it to be, but it still sounds harsh. Kyungsoo’s smile fades and he blinks in disbelief.
“H-huh?”
“I was late for school. And you’re the hall monitor.”
“Oh,” Kyungsoo sounds dejected, like he was expecting something more. Jongin feels bad but he brushes it aside. It had been Kyungsoo who had rejected him, after all.
“I, um,” Kyungsoo motions to write out Jongin’s late slip but his hand falters and he sets it back down. “I think it’s okay.”
“What?”
“I mean, I’m not supposed to but...” Kyungsoo clears his throat. “You can just go to class. Tell them you helped an old lady across the street.” He turns to go.
“Why are you helping me?” Jongin asks, genuinely confused.
Kyungsoo turns back around with an incredulous look on his face. He pauses for a moment before he takes in a deep breath. “Because...B-because I like you?” He blabs out before hurriedly pursing his lips.
The statement makes Jongin’s systems kick into overdrive. “You...like...me?”
“Well, yeah,” Kyungsoo says, fidgeting. His voice doesn’t waver but the blush on his cheeks gives him away. “Didn’t you read the note?”
“The...note?” Jongin feels like punching himself in the face.
“I-I mean, you know, the one in the book...Junmyeon told me you probably wrote it for me and I-I thought it would be appropriate if I wrote one back.” Kyungsoo furtively avoids his gaze. Jongin has taken a few steps closer.
He gulps a little, he’s just as nervous as Kyungsoo is. “I-I..I didn’t mean to put it in the book,” he says, and he watches as Kyungsoo’s face falls a little, “but I did write it for you.”
“Oh,” Kyungsoo shifts a little and Jongin finds it cute how his ears are turning red too.
Taking a deep breath, Jongin decides it’s now or never. “Kyungsoo?”
“Yeah?”
“I...” He puts his hands to his chest for a moment before extending his arms out to Kyungsoo in one fluid movement, whole body feeling warm.
Kyungsoo blinks cluelessly. Jongin flushes and tries again. Hand to chest, extend out.
“I don’t understand...are you okay? Are you having trouble breathing or something?” Jongin makes a soft strangled noise and he does it again, a little more aggressively. More blinking.
He gives up and takes two steps forward, leaning in and placing a kiss on Kyungsoo’s cheek. When he pulls back, Kyungsoo’s eyes are wide and Jongin keeps his gaze on the ground.
“I like you, dummy.”
There’s a brief pause, and Jongin’s desperately thinking of something else to say when he hears a soft ‘oh’ and suddenly oh! Kyungsoo’s lips are soft and warm and his eyes are closed and ohmygod this is really happening Jongin is being kissed by Kyungsoo.
He lets his eyes flutter shut and he puts his hands on either one of Kyungsoo’s arms, steadying him. It’s a rather awkward pose, but Jongin is distracted by the fact that Kyungsoo smells like fresh cookies and tastes like icing sugar, and he tries to think about how he’ll write about that in his next poem.
Their moment, however, is interrupted by a sudden flash and the sound of a picture being taken, and they pull away in time for Jongin to catch sight of a tuft of pink hair darting around the corner and out of sight.
“OH SEHUN GET BACK HERE OR I SWEAR I’LL MAKE SURE THINGS OTHER THAN YOUR HAIR ARE BLEACHED!”
===
A/N: title taken from sweet talk 101 by cute is what we aim for! as always, big thank you to donghai for being that beta who whines about suchen (or lack thereof). love you man ♥. on another note, let's be friends?