fic; revelations
Title: Revelations
Pairing: Yamapi/Jin, side Yamapi/Kitagawa Keiko, with appearances by KAT-TUN, NEWS and tons of other random people
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: 14491 words. College!AU, Jin’s brain, het!sex, and I don’t claim to know anything about Japanese universities, so this is mostly based off the American system.
Summary: Jin really hopes everyone goes through a Find Your Best Friend Hot Phase, or else he’s got some serious problems.
Notes: For changetje through je_otherworlds 2011. This wasn't my original fic idea, but things happened and thanks to the glorious ryogrande, I was able to churn this out. ♥ Thank you also to the amazing uepixie for the quick and fabulous beta!! ♥ I had a ridiculously fun time writing this, and I really hope you enjoy it!! ♥ :3
“I can’t believe I have to see your stupid face every morning,” Pi says, dropping a heavy box on Jin’s foot and ignoring his cries.
“You say that like you don’t usually see my face every morning,” Jin retorts, hopping on one foot as he rubs his injured one with his hands. “We’ve gone the past eighteen years staring at each others’ stupid faces.”
“Oh, so you admit your face is stupid?” Pi says with a grin and Jin glowers at him.
“Shut the fuck up and go get more boxes,” he says.
“You, too,” Pi says but he heads for the door all the same.
“I’m in pain,” Jin exclaims, points at his foot and Pi just rolls his eyes, heads back outside to grab the other boxes from Jin’s old car. Jin glances around their new college dorm room, grinning with excitement because finally he’s made it. College. Partying, booze, and girls. It was going to be fabulous.
The beds are bunked and Jin throws his duffel back onto the top one. Totally his, now, even though Pi had already said he’d wanted the top bunk. You snooze, you lose, Jin thinks smugly, and he starts arranging boxes around, pushing Pi’s junk to one end of the room and his to another.
Pi returns five minutes later, miraculously carrying two boxes atop one another and not running into anything as he sets them down on the floor. “That’s the last of it. I locked your car,” he says, tosses Jin his keys back.
“Thanks,” Jin says. “By the way, I took the top bunk.”
“Fucker, I said I wanted that,” Pi says angrily.
“Too late,” Jin says and gives his friend a glowing smile. Pi stares back at him with a steely expression but eventually he sighs, relents, and starts opening boxes. Jin grins, knew Pi would give in; he always does.
They’ve been friends since they were in diapers. Or so their mothers claimed, always expressing how cute they were sleeping side by side and never crying at one another. They’ve went through elementary, middle school, and high school together. Well, excluding that time when Pi’s family had moved and had thus changed schools for the second half of their final year at middle school. Back then Jin had almost begged his parents to let him transfer, but really the school was too far and they said it was pointless for only six months when he could just try to get into the same high school as Pi instead.
And he had, they both aimed for the same one, even though Pi had better chances of being accepted because he actually studied, unlike Jin who spent his time sneaking around to smoke or look at porn mags with the international student, Josh.
Thinking of this reminds Jin he was supposed to call Josh once he finally got settled into his new dorm. Josh had gone to a school in L.A. for college, the lucky bastard, and Jin had wanted to go there as well. He even applied but apparently his English scores weren’t high enough to qualify, so he gave up and didn’t bother. He still doesn’t understand because Josh’s English is fucking stupid too, and he had lived in the States for most of his childhood. Jin totally knows more English than that idiot.
But whatever, he doesn’t care (much, anyway). He’s at school, staring a new year, and even though Jin’s never been a school kind of guy, this is different. This is college, and it was going to be fucking sweet.
Jin’s thoughts are interrupted when something soft smacks him straight in the forehead. Yelping, he finds a small turtle plushie falling to his lap and looks up with narrowed eyes at Pi. He rubs his forehead and says, “Do you like causing me pain?”
Pi snorts. “Yeah, because that plushie totally bruised you,” he says dryly. “Stop spacing out, idiot, and get to work. I don’t want all these boxes lying around.”
“Fine, fine,” Jin says and actually starts to unpack when there’s a knock on their door and someone pops their head in.
“Hello room 112!” the newcomer says cheerfully. “I’m Aiba Masaki. I’ll be your resident advisor this year.”
“Nice to meet you,” Pi says amiably while Jin merely lifts up a hand and says, “Yo.” Pi rolls his eyes and adds, “I’m Yamashita Tomohisa. And that’s my moronic roommate, Akanishi Jin.”
“Hey! Asshole!” Jin exclaims, throws the turtle plushie back at Pi’s head. He misses by a foot and they all stop to stare at where the plushie ends up before Pi laughs and says, “You still throw like a girl, Bakanishi.”
“Shut up,” Jin snaps, flushing. “You’re the one who plays basketball here. I’m a soccer player. I’m good with my feet, not my hands.”
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself,” Pi says, smirking, and Jin contemplates throwing his desk lamp at Pi’s head next. But then Pi turns back to their R.A. and says quickly, “Sorry. Um, was there something you needed?”
Aiba simply looks amused before he nods and replies, “Yes. There’s a whole dorm meeting tonight at eight, in the basement, then we’ll split up for the floor meetings. Make sure you’re on time, okay? If you have any other questions, just come find me. I’m in room 103.”
“Great,” Pi says. “Thanks.” He gives a small wave and Aiba leaves, heading off to the other rooms clearly to inform them of the same thing.
Jin glances at his watch, notices it’s two-thirty, and then looks back around the room. There are still many unopened boxes on his side while Pi has actually made a bit of a dent with his stuff. Jin’s eyes fall on the box labeled GAMING SYSTEMS and figures he’ll probably get around to unpacking later. And technically, this is unpacking, right? He’s even hooking the PS3 and XBOX and Wii up to the TV. He’s totally getting things done.
“What’re you doing?” Pi demands when Jin flops down on the futon that they’d found cheap at a garage sale in their neighborhood and starts up a game of Halo.
“What does it look like?” Jin questions.
“Jin,” Pi says in that annoying voice of his when Jin doesn’t listen to him (which is quite often).
Jin just tosses Pi the other controller and waits less than a minute before Pi is heaving a sigh and joining him on the futon. He shoves at Jin’s shoulder when Jin smirks at him, and says, “I don’t know why you insist on playing against me, you always lose.”
“Fuck you,” Jin snaps. “This time I’ll totally win.”
“You say that all the time,” Pi replies, but he grins as they start the game, their many boxes lying around them, forgotten.
~
Three important things happen in the next three days. First, Jin and Pi get acquainted with one of their next door neighbors, a smiley guy by the name of Taguchi Junnosuke who had heard their furious game of Halo and had come to investigate. Apparently the dude was a crazy-ass gamer, as he showed off his skills and beat both Pi and Jin’s high scores in five minutes. He seemed more or less pretty cool until he started making these awful puns and Jin and Pi had made him leave on the pretense that they were going to finish unpacking.
They made sure to shut their door after that.
The second thing was that their R.A. was kind of an idiot; the kind of idiot who was really nice and friendly but didn’t seem to know shit. Their meeting that night was uninformative to say the least, though it was good to see that the other R.A.’s knew what they were talking about. The meeting was entirely dull, and Jin thinks he could’ve gotten some serious game time in if it hadn’t been required. All they did was go around and introduce themselves and make boring pleasantries. His other floormates seemed decent enough, and not for the first time was Jin glad that he already had a friend with him. A best friend.
And the final and possibly the best thing that happened was the short, angry-faced guy that started following him and Pi around. Okay, not really following, as he and Jin had bonded over the ONE PIECE manga that Jin had seen on his desk (the door had been open okay, he wasn’t a creeper), and later Pi and the guy (his name was Ryo, but Jin started to refer to him as The Short One, if only in his head) learned that they shared the same Monday morning class.
In those three days, Pi had unpacked all his things while Jin’s stuff was still in boxes.
“What?!” Jin exclaims when Pi confronts him about it again. “College life is busy. I don’t have time!”
“How’d I unpack then?” Pi points out and Jin replies instantly, “MAGIC, CLEARLY.”
Pi facepalms and mutters just loud enough for Jin to hear, “This will be a long year.”
“Hey!” Jin pouts. “Fine,” he adds after a moment. “I’ll buy your dinner tonight if you help me unpack.”
“One night’s dinner is not enough to help get through this mess,” Pi says.
“And tomorrow’s breakfast. Before class.”
“I have an eight o’clock class, are you seriously going to get up that early when you don’t have class until ten?”
“…Good point,” Jin says. “Lunch, then. We do have lunch together, right?!”
Pi laughs and nods. “We do. Ryo, too.”
“Sweet,” Jin says, starting to feel excited for classes that start the next day. “Now come here and help me unpack.”
Pi makes a show of being uninterested but Jin knows he would’ve eventually done it all himself if Jin hadn’t offered him free food. As it was, Jin is getting tired of running into boxes in the dark, so it’s better that they get it done now before classes start and things get hectic.
That night they head to dinner with Ryo, and Ryo’s bookworm roommate Shige follows along. Jin doesn’t really like him, mostly because Shige’s the exact person Jin would never want to be like (studious and straight-laced and unfortunate looking - Jin is fucking hot, okay) but he figures he could give the guy a chance, since Ryo insists he’s not all that bad. If anything, Shige would end up as Jin’s surefire way to pass his stupid math and science classes that he’s totally required to take.
He doesn’t understand why because it’s not like he’ll ever really need it as an English major. He just wants to learn how to properly speak and write and read English. He’s always been interested in the language, in American culture, more specifically, but English is important, too. He listens to tons of Western music, blasting it in his room at home until Pi would switch it for something lame like Southern All-Stars (okay they’re not lame, but you can’t just cut off Kanye West. Pi will never understand.)
“Can you even speak English?” Ryo questions skeptically as they eat, discussing their potential majors and classes.
“Of course I can,” Jin says, in English, feeling pretty proud of it. No one else looks impressed.
“He’s kind of awful at it,” Pi says and groans when Jin kicks him under the table. “Well you are.”
“Am not,” Jin hisses. “You’re just jealous because you couldn’t speak English even if you tried.”
“I don’t really want to,” Pi reminds him like usual whenever this conversation comes up between them. It actually happens a lot, though Jin doesn’t really know why because Pi’s the most supportive person of Jin’s addiction to learning English, even if he shows it mostly by making fun of it.
“You’re missing out,” Jin says in English again, slipping only a little over the words.
“What’re you studying again, Ryo?” Pi questions, ignoring Jin and Jin kicks him under the table again. Pi ignores that too, but Jin sees him wince, smirking in victory. Pi kicks back as Ryo answers, “Music.”
“What do you play?” Jin asks, aiming another kick at Pi.
“Guitar and piano, mostly. I’m learning the drums, though,” Ryo says in this bragging voice.
“I can play the guitar too,” Jin says. “I’m awesome at it.”
Ryo gives Jin a look that says he totally doesn’t believe it and then adds, “We’ll see about that,” and Jin thinks he probably should keep his mouth shut. “And will you two stop playing footsie right next to me?!” he snaps a second later and both Pi and Jin stop kicking each other immediately.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jin says, trying not to blush. Pi is pointedly looking at his food, and Shige looks torn between disturbed and amused.
“I know you two have been friends since birth or something,” Ryo goes on, “but you could at least try to be less gay.”
“Shut up, midget,” Jin says, mostly without malice, but it earns him a kick from Ryo anyway.
~
The first week of classes goes by in a blur. Jin has Pi in one class, an entry-level required science class taught by this dude with wacky fashion sense. They spend most of that first class making fun of Professor Tsuyoshi’s outfit, whispering back and forth with each other. Jin regrets choosing a science class as his first class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but it was the only time Pi could end up taking it with him. And Jin needs to be in the same class because science is so totally not his subject, and if he's going to fail, he’d rather take Pi down with him.
He’s mostly interested in his first English class, taught by one Kimura Takuya. Jin had taken English classes in high school that he’d been able to test right into the second year level courses. There's only a few other freshman in the class so Jin feels pretty awesome about it. Shige's in his English class too, though Jin doesn't understand why the other boy seems to look so grouchy when Jin practically drags Shige to sit beside him; why would anybody want to look like they had no friends?
Jin mostly sleeps through his other two classes, so he doesn’t remember much about them other than that one is a boring history class and the other is a required art course. He has the latter with Ryo, though, so it isn’t as boring as the history class. Jin does recognize some floormates in his history class - that guy Taguchi, his roommate Ohkura Tadayoshi, and a prissy looking boy named Kamenashi Kazuya who keeps giving Jin looks of disdain whenever Jin would wake up momentarily from his class-nap, and then go straight back to sleep.
There isn’t too much homework the first week, which Jin is definitely happy about. He makes Pi help him with his English work until Pi starts to only make fun of Jin’s awful pronunciation. He’s about to ask Ryo but remembers Ryo is even more of an ass than Pi can be sometimes, and ends up making Shige practice with him instead. It works pretty well anyway, since they have the class together, even if Shige doesn’t sound very enthusiastic about helping, and seems to be refraining from poking fun at Jin’s English just like Pi and Ryo.
Jin is starting to think he needs to find himself some new friends.
He literally runs into Nakamaru Yuichi, another freshman who lives on the third floor when he’s running down the stairs to the basement and Jin is running up it. Jin almost thought he’d met his death on those stairs, but luckily he only ended up with a bruised arm.
“Sorry!” Nakamaru exclaims profusely. “I should’ve been paying more attention.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jin says dismissively, flexing his arm and wondering if he could play off his injury to Pi to get him to buy him dinner. “I wasn’t really looking either.” Then he actually stops to look at the guy and recognition crosses his face. “Don’t we have history together? With Joushima-sensei?”
Nakamaru nods, grinning. “That’s right,” he says, and introduces himself again and Jin does the same. “You’re on first floor?”
“Yeah, room 112,” he says. “Come visit sometime.”
“Sure,” Nakamaru says before he bids goodbye and rushes down the stairs.
The second week is much harder than the first and Jin is still in summer-mode that nearly everything he learns goes through one ear and out the other. Pi chides him for sleeping in class, but he still lets Jin use his shoulder as a pillow every time.
Science might end up being Jin’s favorite class, just because Pi is there with him. They’ve not always been in the same class throughout grade school but they spent so much time outside of school that it never felt weird. Somehow, even though now they’re technically living together, Jin’s other classes are less enjoyable without Pi to share them with.
He doesn’t know what that means and reminds himself not to bring it up. At least not in front of Ryo, who would probably call them gay again like he’s started to do whenever they so much as look at each other for too long.
Jin never notices that kind of thing until Ryo points it out with his patented disgusted face, but he figures there’s no reason for him to think any differently. He’s always been like this with Pi and it’s never been a problem. He doesn’t think Ryo really minds, just continuously feels the need to attract attention to it on purpose instead of letting it slide.
Pi never seems bothered by it. He just teases back to Ryo that he’s jealous and Ryo calls them both idiots. Then things simply return to the way they always are between them and Jin simply ignores Ryo’s jibes.
It’s not until the third week on campus that Jin hears about the house party from a guy in his history class named Tanaka Koki. Jin hadn’t really talked to him before but after Koki invites him and whoever he wants to bring to the party, Jin thinks he’s kind of fucking awesome.
“It’s gonna be fucking sweet,” Koki tells him as they walk back to their dorm with Nakamaru after class. Turns out they were roommates.
“I’m totally there,” Jin says excitedly. “This is what I’ve been waiting for man.”
“I hear you, dude,” Koki says. “You’re coming too, aren’t you, Nakamaru?”
Nakamaru never struck Jin as a partying type of guy so he’s surprised when the other boy nods his head. “You’d drag me with you anyway, so I might as well go willingly.”
“You are a smart man, Nakamaru,” Koki says, patting him on the back and they all laugh.
The first thing Jin does when he returns to his room is scream at Pi about the house party. “We are so there, right? You’re going with me, right? It’s going to be epic, Pi. EPIC.”
“Sure, sure,” Pi says dismissively from where he’s lying across the futon on his stomach, reading a book. “You know I’ll go with you. Why would you even feel the need to ask?”
“I don’t know,” Jin says, dropping his bag by his desk and walking over to drape himself across Pi’s body. Pi shifts a little but otherwise doesn’t move or complain. Jin grins into his neck and continues, “Sometimes you surprise me. Like yesterday when you said you wanted to study instead of going to get ramen. You gave up food to study.”
“Shut up, Jin,” Pi says, elbowing him in the gut on purpose. “Homework is important. That’s what you should be doing.”
“I’m acing all my classes, I’ll have you know.”
Pi makes a skeptical noise and Jin presses more of his body weight against Pi’s. Pi just elbows him again but then continues reading like Jin isn’t using him as a bed. And Jin is far too comfortable to move, even though he should probably get ready for his next class all the way across campus. He glances at the clock, sees he still has thirty minutes and figures a little cat-nap won’t be a problem. Pi would wake him up, anyway. They have each other’s schedules practically memorized.
He presses his face against Pi’s shoulder, closing his eyes as his arms wrap around his friend’s waist. Pi’s warmth seems to sink in through his veins and a smile stretches across Jin’s lips as he falls asleep.
~
The smell of beer, the throbbing bass line of the Black Eyed Pea’s Boom Boom Pow, and girls making out in the doorway greet Jin that Friday night at the off-campus house party, and Jin wonders how he ever made it so long without this.
“Fuck yes,” he breathes, eyeing the girls pressed up against the wall by the door. Pi rolls his eyes and pushes Jin further into the house as they’re blocking the entrance, and Jin hears Ryo asking one of them for her number.
There are people dancing all over the first floor of the house. In the kitchen a couple of guys are playing beer pong. There’s a table with drinks against the far wall and Jin heads there first, grabbing a red plastic cup and handing one to Pi.
“Cheers!” he announces loudly in English, clanging his cup against Pi’s but others from around him also cheer back, raising their cups into the air before drinking. Jin laughs, thinking he could totally get used to this.
He downs his first cup in one go and then grabs another and demands, “What?!” when Pi groans.
“I foresee how this night is going to end up,” Pi says dramatically. “I’ll be dragging your drunken ass back to the dorm.”
Jin laughs, pats Pi’s shoulder and says, “Don’t worry, I won’t drink that much. I can hold my liquor!”
Pi snorts. “Yeah, right,” he says. “I seem to recall that one night you broke into your dad’s liquor cabinet and got drunk after two beers.”
Of course this is when Ryo returns, looking pretty triumphant as he pockets his phone, and laughs in Jin’s face. “Two beers, that’s it?” he guffaws. “Pathetic, Akanishi.”
“I doubt you’re any better!” Jin exclaims, glaring at Pi a little for revealing that story. It is so not good for the street cred Jin’s trying to build.
“I could drink you under the table,” Ryo says and Jin retorts, “I’d like to see you try!”
Pi groans again beside them and says, “Jin, I will fucking leave your sorry ass here if you get too drunk to walk back.”
Jin turns to his friend and pouts, tossing an arm over Pi’s shoulder and pressing his face to his shoulder. “Awww, Pi, you wouldn’t do that to me,” he whines cutely. “You’re my best friend, right? You wouldn’t leave me.”
Pi’s mouth twitches and Jin knows he’s won, though really he knew before that. No matter Pi’s threats, he really wouldn’t leave Jin here and go home. He might greatly want to, but he would never do it. He doesn’t answer, just sips at his drink, and that’s confirmation enough. Jin continues to lean against him because it’s comfortable and makes Ryo uncomfortable. Then the music changes and Justin Timberlake’s My Love starts to play and Jin straightens up instantly.
“Fuck I love this song,” he says, starting to get into the mood to dance. And like it’s written on his face, a tall, dark-haired girl sidles up to him in the next second, just barely introducing herself as Meisa before pulling him off toward the group of people dancing together in the living room.
This is totally the life, Jin thinks as he lets the girl grind up against him, pulling her close with hands on her hips. When she kisses him it’s a little surprising but completely welcome, and she slips her fingers into the back pockets of his jeans while his hand fists in her hair. She’s fucking good at this and Jin’s already getting ideas, mentally telling himself to get her number and FaceBook information before they part. When she pulls back, Jin’s eyes open and he’s licking his lips, looking over her shoulder and feeling his heart jump terrifyingly in his chest because Pi’s staring right back at him from across the room.
His eyes are unfathomable which is strange because Jin can usually read Pi’s expressions before he even makes them. Right now he can’t tell what Pi’s thinking, but he can feel his gaze on him and it’s most startling and making his heart pound faster.
Then he blinks and Pi’s gone, walking off toward the kitchen were Ryo seems to have joined Koki and Nakamaru in a game of beer pong. Jin suddenly feels confused, like maybe he should be over there with his bros instead of here grinding up against some girl.
So he compromises and dances with her for another song (Timbaland’s Way I Are) before excusing himself (and thankfully remembering to get her contact info) before heading off to join his friends. He grabs another cup of beer from the table, glances back at Meisa and is surprised (and a little pissed) to find her dancing with that prissy Kamenashi from his history class. He wonders why Kamenashi is even there when he’d looked repulsed by Koki and Jin’s conversation about the party in class the other day.
Ignoring it, he heads to the kitchen and drapes himself over Pi’s back, notching his chin on his shoulder. “Who’s winning?” he asks.
“Not sure,” Pi admits. “Had a good dance?”
Jin shrugs. “She was hot,” he says. “I got her number, too,” he adds like they’re competing for numbers or something. He knows Pi doesn’t really care. Pi might like to party, but he doesn’t really care for girls like this.
“Good for you,” he says. “Ryo-chan’s already gotten three.”
“WHAT?” Jin shrieks, not believing that the fucking midget is more suave than him.
“That’s right, Akanishi,” Ryo says haughtily. “Jealous?”
“Fuck no,” Jin lies. “Who’d be jealous of your unfortunate height and ugly face?”
“I am going to kill you one of these days,” Ryo threatens.
Pi laughs. “You’ve been saying that for almost a month now, Ryo-chan,” he reminds him and Jin sticks his tongue out at Ryo over Pi’s shoulder.
The night continues in this fashion, and Jin ends up meeting more people that he recognizes from various classes. Ueda Tatsuya lives four doors down and is in Jin’s history class and Pi’s economy class. His roommate, Koyama Keiichiro, is in two of Pi’s other classes and they quickly hit it off, talking about their shared classes and bitching about their professors. They’re both cool guys, and Jin really likes Ueda when he ends up beating Ryo at beer pong.
Ryo sulks for at least an hour and Jin makes fun of him the whole time, and soon Jin’s starting to get more than tipsy. He’s lost count of how much he’s had to drink, but he can still walk so Pi can’t be pissed at him.
He’s not sure how long they’re even at the party but sometime after Koki passes out and Koyama walks in on Meisa and Kamenashi in the bathroom, Jin finds himself being hauled back up to campus. Ryo is bitching about the walk but all Jin is aware of is Pi’s warm arm around his waist.
“I knew this is how tonight was going to end,” Pi grumbles when they finally reach the dorm and it takes Ryo ten minutes longer than normal to unlock the building door. Jin just giggles into Pi’s neck and Pi lets out that long-suffering sigh of his. “You’re buying me lunch tomorrow.”
“I doubt he’ll even remember that tomorrow,” Ryo points out before he adds, “Later, bitches,” before he disappears into his room quietly, clearly trying to be courteous and not wake Shige who had vehemently refused to come to the party with them.
Jin leans heavily against Pi as he unlocks their room door and then he’s being pulled inside and dropped onto Pi’s bed. “But you sleep here,” Jin feels the drunken need to point out and he’s at least sober enough to kick off his shoes, pull off his t-shirt and strip out of his jeans.
“Like you can climb up onto the top bunk,” Pi says. “And I don’t want you rolling off of it and dying, either.”
Jin giggles again and pulls at Pi until Pi falls unceremoniously across him with a yelp. “Tomohisa is so nice to me,” he says stupidly and Pi swats at Jin until Jin lets him go, slightly reluctantly because Pi is really warm and Jin would like to hold onto that feeling longer.
But Pi just undresses as well and starts to head for Jin’s bed when Jin does pull him back, laughing when Pi tries to fight him. “Sleep with me!” Jin exclaims and Pi groans, “You’re such a fucking drunk.”
“You’re just a baby,” Jin says. “You hardly had anything to drink.”
“Well someone had to bring you back, right?” Pi says, and then three seconds later, “Let me go, Jin.”
Jin shakes his head, snuggles up against his friend and says, “Warm.”
Pi is tense in his arms for a whole minute before he sighs and his body relaxes. His twists and turns until they’re lying more comfortably in the small one-person bed, and Jin smiles against Pi’s chest when Pi’s fingers unconsciously come up to thread through his hair.
Then Pi says, “If you puke on me, Akanishi, I’m going to go move in with Ryo and make you live with Shige,” and that’s the last thing Jin remembers before sleep claims him.
~
A week later, Jin goes to another house party with Koki and Ueda. Pi claims he's too tired to have fun and opts to stay back with Ryo and beat Shige at Mario Karts. Jin tries to get Pi to change his mind for almost two hours, but Pi is terribly stubborn when he wants to be and Jin is lazy, so he really gave up after the first twenty minutes.
“You’re missing out,” Jin says before leaving.
“I’ll survive,” Pi replies from where he’s half-asleep on his bed.
Jin gives his friend one last look and makes sure he has his keys and phone with him before leaving.
The party is in a different off-campus house that weekend, and is hosted by some loud, obnoxious guy named Murakami that Jin has seen talking with Ryo sometimes in the cafeteria. But he seems all right when he shoves a drink into Jin’s hand and says, “Drink up!” before heading off when his name is called.
Jin dances with a pretty foreign girl named Leah who thinks his English is cute and gives him her number before he even has to ask. After the third song, he excuses himself, strangely not in the mood. He’s probably not drunk enough, and he grabs another drink as he passes by, looking for Koki or Ueda.
He finds Ueda silently sipping his drink on a couch and wonders why this guy even comes to these parties when this is all he did last time, too. He joins him because Koki is off somewhere else and Jin can’t be assed to look any further.
“Are you feeling okay?” Ueda asks Jin five minutes later when all Jin has done is idly drink his beer without saying a word.
“Yeah, I’m fine, why?” he asks, even though he actually doesn’t feel entirely fine but he’s not sure why.
“You’re not acting like normal,” Ueda says. “You’re not even drunk.”
“I’m working on it,” Jin says defensively, and, to prove his point, downs the rest of his drink at once. Ueda simply looks amused and Jin stomps off to get more, if only to help this weird feeling that’s settled in his veins. Being here feels incomplete in comparison to last time and he not being able to figure out why is driving him nuts. Hopefully the alcohol will help clear his mind.
It really doesn’t. And somehow, two hours later, Jin finds himself drunk-dialing Pi. Or actually Koki drunk dials him and then Jin snatches the phone away exclaiming, “NO YOU CAN’T TALK TO HIM,” like he has any right to do something like that at all.
Pi doesn’t answer right away which makes Jin think he’s probably asleep and that maybe he should probably hang up, but then the line clicks and someone that’s definitely not Pi answers the phone instead.
“RYO,” Jin shouts. “WHAT’RE YOU DOING WITH PI’S PHONE? WHERE’S PI?”
“Oh my god, you moron, how much have you had to drink?” Ryo says in a pained voice. “Stop shouting in my fucking ear.”
“GIVE THE PHONE TO PI AND I WILL,” Jin shouts again. Koki cringes beside him, but Jin doesn’t care. The music is loud and no one is really paying attention to them. He’s too drunk to try to be quiet.
“Jin,” Pi’s placating voice greets him over the phone and instantly, instantly, Jin feels better than he has all night. “What’re you doing?”
“Drunk-dialing you!” Koki exclaims into the phone from where he’s listening in.
“He called you,” Jin insists. “I just took my phone back.”
Pi laughs. “Having fun?”
“You should’ve come,” Jin says, not really answering Pi’s question, but it’s because he doesn’t really know if he is.
“Next time,” Pi says calmly, far too calmly if you ask Jin, and Jin wonders not for the first time that night what exactly Pi’s been up to.
“What’re you doing?” Jin demands and he remembers that Ryo had been the one to answer the phone.
“Just hanging out with Ryo-chan,” Pi says simply. “Are you coming back soon? Wait, are you sober enough to even get back up here is the real question.”
“Shut up, I totally am,” Jin says, and it’s mostly true. He wasn’t planning on leaving yet, but now he wonders why he even stayed so long when he hasn’t been feeling it all night. “I’m leaving right now,” he tells Pi, and ignores Koki’s surprised, “What?!”
“I’ll see you in a bit,” Jin adds before hanging up. “I’m going,” he tells Koki and Ueda.
“What the hell man?” Koki demands. “The night is still young and you’re bailing just because you miss your boyfriend?”
Jin blinks at Koki uncomprehendingly and when realization dawns on him he’s torn between laughing and beating Koki up. He settles on punching Koki in the arm and exclaiming, “Boyfriend?! Pi? Very funny, man.” He pats Koki’s shoulder twice and adds, “I’ll see you guys later, okay?”
He escapes before Koki can try to make him stay, and he only trips over his feet twice on the way back to the dorm.
Pi is lounging on the futon with his head on Ryo’s lap when Jin walks into the room. He freezes in the doorway and stares at them, and Ryo bitches, “Stop standing there like a fucking idiot.”
Pi just smiles up at Jin upside-down from Ryo’s lap. “How was the party?” he asks amiably.
“Shit,” Jin answers truthfully, stomping over to the futon and pushing himself between Ryo and Pi. Ryo grumbles at him while Pi gives Jin a confused look, clearly not understanding Jin’s sudden choice of seating arrangements. But Jin resolutely stares at the TV where Ryo’s losing his game, and eventually Pi just shrugs and curls up beside Jin instead, his head on Jin’s shoulder.
As Ryo continues playing and Pi murmurs random things into Jin’s skin, asking about the party and informing him of what he’d been up to, Jin leans back against the futon, wrapping an arm around Pi’s waist, and thinks that this is already infinitely better than how he's spent his night until now.
~
Eventually the novelty of college-life starts to wear off and Jin finds himself almost wishing he could be back in high school where nothing mattered and he could slack off as much as he wanted. He tries to do it here, but Pi’s actually a good student and will refuse to do anything fun with Jin until Jin finishes his homework.
That hasn’t changed much since high school, either. The only class Jin pays actual attention to is his English class, though Pi teases him by questioning whether Jin really listens because “Your English hasn’t gotten any better.”
“Fuck you,” Jin will reply every time and Pi will actually look like he’s considering it until Jin (though usually it’s Ryo) makes a face and shoves at him.
Their mothers come and visit together a month and half into the year. They bring home-cooked foods and presents and Jin only realizes just how much he’s missed his mom when she shows up that Saturday unannounced at seven in the morning. He’s just glad it wasn’t a day after partying so he doesn’t reek of booze or have a hangover.
“You’ve gained weight,” his mother says disapprovingly once both Jin and Pi have showered and dressed and they’re all heading to breakfast together.
Jin merely grumbles and blames the Freshman Fifteen rule.
“He’s always been a little fat,” Pi says with a smirk, and for the next two weeks, Pi (and Ryo, once Pi relays the conversation to him later that day) continues to call him Fat Jin.
“I hate you,” Jin whines one night after a round of brutal name calling. He’s lying across his bed while Pi’s studying on his own and Ryo’s lounging on their futon for whatever reason. He’s there a lot - Jin can never seem to get rid of him. Ryo claims it’s because Shige’s studying and Ryo’s very breathing disturbs him, but Jin just retorts it’s because Ryo obviously thinks they are Super Cool. “As if,” Ryo replies back every time. “I have much cooler friends that I could hang out with.” But yet he spends most of his time on Jin and Pi’s futon, and maybe Jin doesn’t mind that much.
“You are no longer my best friend,” Jin declares dramatically when Pi’s only response to Jin’s hatred is to call him Bakanishi. “Ryo-chan’s my new best friend.” He pauses then changes his mind. “No, Ryo’s an ass, too. Shige’s my new best friend.”
“Oh, I think you just got dumped, Pi,” Ryo says with clear amusement. Jin glares in Ryo’s direction; he will never get used to hearing other people call his friend “Pi.” That’s Jin’s nickname for him, damn it. Ryo only started saying it because he’s too lazy to call him “Yamapi” which was the nickname given to Pi by a sempai that went to middle school with them. Of course Pi doesn’t care what Ryo calls him, so Jin just has to brood about it internally and resist the urge to punch Ryo in the face every time he uses Jin’s nickname.
Pi just makes a noncommittal noise and replies easily, “It’s fine, I was getting tired of him. He’s been following me around my whole life,” and Jin pouts into his pillow while Ryo laughs loudly.
“If I could hit you right now, I would,” Jin feels the need to say and Pi’s quiet chuckle is his only response.
Three seconds later he hears Pi getting out of his bed but pays no mind until he realizes Pi’s climbing up onto the top bunk.
“What the fuck,” Jin says just as Pi flops on top of him like deadweight. “Ugh, Pi, get your fat ass off me.”
“You have no right to be calling anyone else fat,” Ryo pipes in as he watches them with an expression somewhere between amusement and disgust.
“Shut up, Ryo,” Jin mutters as Pi squirms above him until he gets comfortable. “What the hell, Pi, seriously?”
Pi just shrugs, like he has no real reason for wanting to crush Jin under his weight. Jin’s contemplating whether Pi would die if he shoved him off his bed when a shrill noise erupts in the hallways.
“Fuck, not again!” Ryo shouts, yanking open the door to peer into the hall, the fire alarm whirring throughout the dorm. “This is the third time this week!”
“Get up, Pi,” Jin says and Pi does, probably only because the fire alarm is still going. Jin follows him down and the three of them head outside with the rest of the dorm, everyone grumbling about the disturbance while Aiba is ushering them all far enough away from the building.
Jin leans tiredly on Pi’s shoulder as they wait for the okay to go back inside. It’s taking longer than the last few times that Jin ponders aloud, “Maybe there really is a fire this time.”
“There’s no smoke,” Pi points out, and Jin shrugs.
“Maybe it’s a smoke-less fire,” Jin replies.
“There’s no such thing, you idiot. How you got into college is beyond me,” Ryo replies.
Jin pouts against Pi’s shoulder and whines, “Ryo-chan’s being mean to me.”
“Ryo-chan’s always mean to you,” Pi says but he pats Jin’s head and Jin smiles into his skin.
“You were mean to me too,” Jin adds.
“You’re the one who dumped me. For Shige,” Pi retorts, but there’s no real hurt in his voice.
Jin squeezes Pi’s waist and says, “As if I’d ever really do that. Shige would be such a boring best friend.” He presses his cheek against Pi’s shoulder and adds, “You’re my only best friend.”
Pi just laughs. “Good,” he says while Ryo makes retching noises beside them.
~
Two and a half months into the year, Pi gets a girlfriend. Or Jin thinks she’s his girlfriend because she’s always around, but Pi insists they’re simply friends.
Her name is Keiko, and she has the same major as Pi so they share almost all the same classes. She helps him out before a chapter test and then it’s like she’s moved herself into their room.
Okay, maybe Jin’s exaggerating, but she really does seem to be there all the time.
Jin doesn’t care, not really. She’s nice and Pi clearly seems to like her, so he stays at his desk and trolls the internet when she’s around, or hides away in Ryo and Shige’s room. It’s just…different. They both had girlfriends back in grade school but they’d never lasted longer than a few weeks. It never felt really serious, but then again, Jin’s not even sure if this…thing between Pi and Keiko is serious either. But Pi gets this dopey look on his face whenever she’s around, or whenever he talks about her, so Jin thinks it must be serious. He’s never seen that stupid face on Pi before, and for some reason that he doesn’t get, it annoys the shit out of him.
And when Pi starts bailing on things with Jin to spend more time with time with Keiko, Jin’s starting to really think it’s serious. So, of course, he does what makes sense, and confronts Pi about it.
“SO?” he demands loudly one day after Keiko leaves to return to her dorm. Jin lost count of how many hours she’d been there. Probably five hundred or something.
Pi cocks an eyebrow at Jin and questions, “So, what?”
“SO, are you dating?” Jin demands. “She’s always over here, but I haven’t even seen you guys hold hands. What the fuck’s going on?” He realizes he sounds entirely intrusive and backtracks a little, adds, “Not that, you know, I care or anything, I was just curious.”
Pi gives Jin a slightly confused look and then replies, “We’re just friends. I like her, though, if that’s what you want to hear.”
It’s not, but Jin doesn’t know why. “Oh,” he says, not sure what else to say. “Well, good for you.” Now he just feels ridiculous. Then, because he doesn’t know how to fix the awkwardness that has fallen between them, exclaims, “I’m going to Ryo-chan’s room,” and stomps out of the door.
Thankfully Ryo’s there when Jin lets himself in without knocking and camps out on the floor in the corner like he’s done the other times Keiko was monopolizing his best friend.
Ryo takes one look at him from his bed and says, “Keiko-chan again?”
“NO,” Jin shouts. Then, three seconds later, “Yes.”
“You are such a moron, Akanishi,” Ryo says. “What do you have against her? She’s good for Pi.”
“They’re not even dating!” Jin exclaims. “I just asked him.”
“Do you want them to be dating?” Ryo questions.
“NO,” Jin shouts again, without thinking, and once he realizes what he’s said his eyes widen and he rushes to amend, “No, I mean, I don’t care. It’s Pi’s life. He can date whoever he wants.”
His response is clearly so startling that even Shige turns to look at him. They both stare at Jin for a few unnerving minutes and just before Jin can snap at them, Ryo says in a slightly pained voice, “Oh my god, you’re jealous, aren’t you?”
Whatever Jin had been expecting, it wasn’t this. He blinks owlishly at Ryo and then exclaims, “What? No! Why would I be jealous of Pi? I don’t care if I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Ryo smacks a hand to his forehead and even Shige groans. “No, you imbecile, you’re not jealous of Pi, you’re jealous over Pi. You’re jealous that he’s spending all his time with Keiko!”
Jin laughs like he hasn’t heard anything more ridiculous, though somewhere deep, deep inside of him, Ryo’s words hit a nerve. “AM NOT,” he yells finally, pushing away the weird feeling that’s insisting Ryo’s right.
“Akanishi, even I know that’s what’s going on,” Shige inputs. Jin’s always hated that stupid kid.
Ryo now looks absolutely beside himself. “YOU LIKE HIM,” he exclaims, pointing at Jin. “You seriously like him. I just thought you guys were creepy best friends, but you totally like him.”
“I don’t!” Jin insists furiously, but it sounds like a lie even to his own ears. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with him.
“This explains so much,” Ryo goes on and Jin gets fed up and leaves without a word. He doesn’t like Pi, he fucking doesn’t. They’re just best friends, that’s it.
He repeats this mantra in his head as he returns to his room, only to stop dead in his tracks when he finds a very naked Pi on the other side, with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Jin’s eyes nearly fall out of his head and he makes an embarrassing noise that he thinks was meant to come out as, “What the fuck are you doing?”
Pi stares at him with concern when Jin doesn’t move, and then says, “Are you okay?”
Jin snaps out of his reverie, forces his mind to look anywhere that’s not Pi, that’s not his pale skin and gorgeous muscles (when the fuck did he get those?!) and the towel that’s threatening to slip right off his slim waist. He clears his throat and stomps to his desk. “I’m fine,” he says thickly.
“Jin,” Pi says in that soft, worried voice of his, and Jin jumps when he puts a hand on his shoulder. Jin glances at him, and his concern is evident in his eyes, and Jin figures that the way he walked out of here earlier probably wasn’t the best idea he’s ever had.
Jin puts on what he hopes is a genuine smile. “I’m fine, really,” he insists. “Sorry about earlier. I’m just, um, not having a good day, I guess.”
Pi squeezes Jin’s shoulder and returns his smile. “Don’t worry about it,” he replies. “I’m gonna take a shower, but when I get back, want to play some Tekken? We haven’t played for awhile and I miss beating your ass.”
That’s because whenever I suggest we play you put it off in favor of Keiko, Jin wants to say but thankfully keeps it to himself. He grins. “Sure,” he says. Then, “And when the fuck have you ever beaten me at Tekken? I rule at that game!”
Pi snorts, drops his hand from Jin’s shoulder and Jin ignores the loss, and makes his way to the door. “We’ll see about that,” he replies and before Jin can retort, he’s left to take his shower.
Jin stares at the closed door for a few seconds before dropping his face into his hands and muttering, “Oh, fuck.”
~
part two
Pairing: Yamapi/Jin, side Yamapi/Kitagawa Keiko, with appearances by KAT-TUN, NEWS and tons of other random people
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: 14491 words. College!AU, Jin’s brain, het!sex, and I don’t claim to know anything about Japanese universities, so this is mostly based off the American system.
Summary: Jin really hopes everyone goes through a Find Your Best Friend Hot Phase, or else he’s got some serious problems.
Notes: For changetje through je_otherworlds 2011. This wasn't my original fic idea, but things happened and thanks to the glorious ryogrande, I was able to churn this out. ♥ Thank you also to the amazing uepixie for the quick and fabulous beta!! ♥ I had a ridiculously fun time writing this, and I really hope you enjoy it!! ♥ :3
“I can’t believe I have to see your stupid face every morning,” Pi says, dropping a heavy box on Jin’s foot and ignoring his cries.
“You say that like you don’t usually see my face every morning,” Jin retorts, hopping on one foot as he rubs his injured one with his hands. “We’ve gone the past eighteen years staring at each others’ stupid faces.”
“Oh, so you admit your face is stupid?” Pi says with a grin and Jin glowers at him.
“Shut the fuck up and go get more boxes,” he says.
“You, too,” Pi says but he heads for the door all the same.
“I’m in pain,” Jin exclaims, points at his foot and Pi just rolls his eyes, heads back outside to grab the other boxes from Jin’s old car. Jin glances around their new college dorm room, grinning with excitement because finally he’s made it. College. Partying, booze, and girls. It was going to be fabulous.
The beds are bunked and Jin throws his duffel back onto the top one. Totally his, now, even though Pi had already said he’d wanted the top bunk. You snooze, you lose, Jin thinks smugly, and he starts arranging boxes around, pushing Pi’s junk to one end of the room and his to another.
Pi returns five minutes later, miraculously carrying two boxes atop one another and not running into anything as he sets them down on the floor. “That’s the last of it. I locked your car,” he says, tosses Jin his keys back.
“Thanks,” Jin says. “By the way, I took the top bunk.”
“Fucker, I said I wanted that,” Pi says angrily.
“Too late,” Jin says and gives his friend a glowing smile. Pi stares back at him with a steely expression but eventually he sighs, relents, and starts opening boxes. Jin grins, knew Pi would give in; he always does.
They’ve been friends since they were in diapers. Or so their mothers claimed, always expressing how cute they were sleeping side by side and never crying at one another. They’ve went through elementary, middle school, and high school together. Well, excluding that time when Pi’s family had moved and had thus changed schools for the second half of their final year at middle school. Back then Jin had almost begged his parents to let him transfer, but really the school was too far and they said it was pointless for only six months when he could just try to get into the same high school as Pi instead.
And he had, they both aimed for the same one, even though Pi had better chances of being accepted because he actually studied, unlike Jin who spent his time sneaking around to smoke or look at porn mags with the international student, Josh.
Thinking of this reminds Jin he was supposed to call Josh once he finally got settled into his new dorm. Josh had gone to a school in L.A. for college, the lucky bastard, and Jin had wanted to go there as well. He even applied but apparently his English scores weren’t high enough to qualify, so he gave up and didn’t bother. He still doesn’t understand because Josh’s English is fucking stupid too, and he had lived in the States for most of his childhood. Jin totally knows more English than that idiot.
But whatever, he doesn’t care (much, anyway). He’s at school, staring a new year, and even though Jin’s never been a school kind of guy, this is different. This is college, and it was going to be fucking sweet.
Jin’s thoughts are interrupted when something soft smacks him straight in the forehead. Yelping, he finds a small turtle plushie falling to his lap and looks up with narrowed eyes at Pi. He rubs his forehead and says, “Do you like causing me pain?”
Pi snorts. “Yeah, because that plushie totally bruised you,” he says dryly. “Stop spacing out, idiot, and get to work. I don’t want all these boxes lying around.”
“Fine, fine,” Jin says and actually starts to unpack when there’s a knock on their door and someone pops their head in.
“Hello room 112!” the newcomer says cheerfully. “I’m Aiba Masaki. I’ll be your resident advisor this year.”
“Nice to meet you,” Pi says amiably while Jin merely lifts up a hand and says, “Yo.” Pi rolls his eyes and adds, “I’m Yamashita Tomohisa. And that’s my moronic roommate, Akanishi Jin.”
“Hey! Asshole!” Jin exclaims, throws the turtle plushie back at Pi’s head. He misses by a foot and they all stop to stare at where the plushie ends up before Pi laughs and says, “You still throw like a girl, Bakanishi.”
“Shut up,” Jin snaps, flushing. “You’re the one who plays basketball here. I’m a soccer player. I’m good with my feet, not my hands.”
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself,” Pi says, smirking, and Jin contemplates throwing his desk lamp at Pi’s head next. But then Pi turns back to their R.A. and says quickly, “Sorry. Um, was there something you needed?”
Aiba simply looks amused before he nods and replies, “Yes. There’s a whole dorm meeting tonight at eight, in the basement, then we’ll split up for the floor meetings. Make sure you’re on time, okay? If you have any other questions, just come find me. I’m in room 103.”
“Great,” Pi says. “Thanks.” He gives a small wave and Aiba leaves, heading off to the other rooms clearly to inform them of the same thing.
Jin glances at his watch, notices it’s two-thirty, and then looks back around the room. There are still many unopened boxes on his side while Pi has actually made a bit of a dent with his stuff. Jin’s eyes fall on the box labeled GAMING SYSTEMS and figures he’ll probably get around to unpacking later. And technically, this is unpacking, right? He’s even hooking the PS3 and XBOX and Wii up to the TV. He’s totally getting things done.
“What’re you doing?” Pi demands when Jin flops down on the futon that they’d found cheap at a garage sale in their neighborhood and starts up a game of Halo.
“What does it look like?” Jin questions.
“Jin,” Pi says in that annoying voice of his when Jin doesn’t listen to him (which is quite often).
Jin just tosses Pi the other controller and waits less than a minute before Pi is heaving a sigh and joining him on the futon. He shoves at Jin’s shoulder when Jin smirks at him, and says, “I don’t know why you insist on playing against me, you always lose.”
“Fuck you,” Jin snaps. “This time I’ll totally win.”
“You say that all the time,” Pi replies, but he grins as they start the game, their many boxes lying around them, forgotten.
~
Three important things happen in the next three days. First, Jin and Pi get acquainted with one of their next door neighbors, a smiley guy by the name of Taguchi Junnosuke who had heard their furious game of Halo and had come to investigate. Apparently the dude was a crazy-ass gamer, as he showed off his skills and beat both Pi and Jin’s high scores in five minutes. He seemed more or less pretty cool until he started making these awful puns and Jin and Pi had made him leave on the pretense that they were going to finish unpacking.
They made sure to shut their door after that.
The second thing was that their R.A. was kind of an idiot; the kind of idiot who was really nice and friendly but didn’t seem to know shit. Their meeting that night was uninformative to say the least, though it was good to see that the other R.A.’s knew what they were talking about. The meeting was entirely dull, and Jin thinks he could’ve gotten some serious game time in if it hadn’t been required. All they did was go around and introduce themselves and make boring pleasantries. His other floormates seemed decent enough, and not for the first time was Jin glad that he already had a friend with him. A best friend.
And the final and possibly the best thing that happened was the short, angry-faced guy that started following him and Pi around. Okay, not really following, as he and Jin had bonded over the ONE PIECE manga that Jin had seen on his desk (the door had been open okay, he wasn’t a creeper), and later Pi and the guy (his name was Ryo, but Jin started to refer to him as The Short One, if only in his head) learned that they shared the same Monday morning class.
In those three days, Pi had unpacked all his things while Jin’s stuff was still in boxes.
“What?!” Jin exclaims when Pi confronts him about it again. “College life is busy. I don’t have time!”
“How’d I unpack then?” Pi points out and Jin replies instantly, “MAGIC, CLEARLY.”
Pi facepalms and mutters just loud enough for Jin to hear, “This will be a long year.”
“Hey!” Jin pouts. “Fine,” he adds after a moment. “I’ll buy your dinner tonight if you help me unpack.”
“One night’s dinner is not enough to help get through this mess,” Pi says.
“And tomorrow’s breakfast. Before class.”
“I have an eight o’clock class, are you seriously going to get up that early when you don’t have class until ten?”
“…Good point,” Jin says. “Lunch, then. We do have lunch together, right?!”
Pi laughs and nods. “We do. Ryo, too.”
“Sweet,” Jin says, starting to feel excited for classes that start the next day. “Now come here and help me unpack.”
Pi makes a show of being uninterested but Jin knows he would’ve eventually done it all himself if Jin hadn’t offered him free food. As it was, Jin is getting tired of running into boxes in the dark, so it’s better that they get it done now before classes start and things get hectic.
That night they head to dinner with Ryo, and Ryo’s bookworm roommate Shige follows along. Jin doesn’t really like him, mostly because Shige’s the exact person Jin would never want to be like (studious and straight-laced and unfortunate looking - Jin is fucking hot, okay) but he figures he could give the guy a chance, since Ryo insists he’s not all that bad. If anything, Shige would end up as Jin’s surefire way to pass his stupid math and science classes that he’s totally required to take.
He doesn’t understand why because it’s not like he’ll ever really need it as an English major. He just wants to learn how to properly speak and write and read English. He’s always been interested in the language, in American culture, more specifically, but English is important, too. He listens to tons of Western music, blasting it in his room at home until Pi would switch it for something lame like Southern All-Stars (okay they’re not lame, but you can’t just cut off Kanye West. Pi will never understand.)
“Can you even speak English?” Ryo questions skeptically as they eat, discussing their potential majors and classes.
“Of course I can,” Jin says, in English, feeling pretty proud of it. No one else looks impressed.
“He’s kind of awful at it,” Pi says and groans when Jin kicks him under the table. “Well you are.”
“Am not,” Jin hisses. “You’re just jealous because you couldn’t speak English even if you tried.”
“I don’t really want to,” Pi reminds him like usual whenever this conversation comes up between them. It actually happens a lot, though Jin doesn’t really know why because Pi’s the most supportive person of Jin’s addiction to learning English, even if he shows it mostly by making fun of it.
“You’re missing out,” Jin says in English again, slipping only a little over the words.
“What’re you studying again, Ryo?” Pi questions, ignoring Jin and Jin kicks him under the table again. Pi ignores that too, but Jin sees him wince, smirking in victory. Pi kicks back as Ryo answers, “Music.”
“What do you play?” Jin asks, aiming another kick at Pi.
“Guitar and piano, mostly. I’m learning the drums, though,” Ryo says in this bragging voice.
“I can play the guitar too,” Jin says. “I’m awesome at it.”
Ryo gives Jin a look that says he totally doesn’t believe it and then adds, “We’ll see about that,” and Jin thinks he probably should keep his mouth shut. “And will you two stop playing footsie right next to me?!” he snaps a second later and both Pi and Jin stop kicking each other immediately.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jin says, trying not to blush. Pi is pointedly looking at his food, and Shige looks torn between disturbed and amused.
“I know you two have been friends since birth or something,” Ryo goes on, “but you could at least try to be less gay.”
“Shut up, midget,” Jin says, mostly without malice, but it earns him a kick from Ryo anyway.
~
The first week of classes goes by in a blur. Jin has Pi in one class, an entry-level required science class taught by this dude with wacky fashion sense. They spend most of that first class making fun of Professor Tsuyoshi’s outfit, whispering back and forth with each other. Jin regrets choosing a science class as his first class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but it was the only time Pi could end up taking it with him. And Jin needs to be in the same class because science is so totally not his subject, and if he's going to fail, he’d rather take Pi down with him.
He’s mostly interested in his first English class, taught by one Kimura Takuya. Jin had taken English classes in high school that he’d been able to test right into the second year level courses. There's only a few other freshman in the class so Jin feels pretty awesome about it. Shige's in his English class too, though Jin doesn't understand why the other boy seems to look so grouchy when Jin practically drags Shige to sit beside him; why would anybody want to look like they had no friends?
Jin mostly sleeps through his other two classes, so he doesn’t remember much about them other than that one is a boring history class and the other is a required art course. He has the latter with Ryo, though, so it isn’t as boring as the history class. Jin does recognize some floormates in his history class - that guy Taguchi, his roommate Ohkura Tadayoshi, and a prissy looking boy named Kamenashi Kazuya who keeps giving Jin looks of disdain whenever Jin would wake up momentarily from his class-nap, and then go straight back to sleep.
There isn’t too much homework the first week, which Jin is definitely happy about. He makes Pi help him with his English work until Pi starts to only make fun of Jin’s awful pronunciation. He’s about to ask Ryo but remembers Ryo is even more of an ass than Pi can be sometimes, and ends up making Shige practice with him instead. It works pretty well anyway, since they have the class together, even if Shige doesn’t sound very enthusiastic about helping, and seems to be refraining from poking fun at Jin’s English just like Pi and Ryo.
Jin is starting to think he needs to find himself some new friends.
He literally runs into Nakamaru Yuichi, another freshman who lives on the third floor when he’s running down the stairs to the basement and Jin is running up it. Jin almost thought he’d met his death on those stairs, but luckily he only ended up with a bruised arm.
“Sorry!” Nakamaru exclaims profusely. “I should’ve been paying more attention.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jin says dismissively, flexing his arm and wondering if he could play off his injury to Pi to get him to buy him dinner. “I wasn’t really looking either.” Then he actually stops to look at the guy and recognition crosses his face. “Don’t we have history together? With Joushima-sensei?”
Nakamaru nods, grinning. “That’s right,” he says, and introduces himself again and Jin does the same. “You’re on first floor?”
“Yeah, room 112,” he says. “Come visit sometime.”
“Sure,” Nakamaru says before he bids goodbye and rushes down the stairs.
The second week is much harder than the first and Jin is still in summer-mode that nearly everything he learns goes through one ear and out the other. Pi chides him for sleeping in class, but he still lets Jin use his shoulder as a pillow every time.
Science might end up being Jin’s favorite class, just because Pi is there with him. They’ve not always been in the same class throughout grade school but they spent so much time outside of school that it never felt weird. Somehow, even though now they’re technically living together, Jin’s other classes are less enjoyable without Pi to share them with.
He doesn’t know what that means and reminds himself not to bring it up. At least not in front of Ryo, who would probably call them gay again like he’s started to do whenever they so much as look at each other for too long.
Jin never notices that kind of thing until Ryo points it out with his patented disgusted face, but he figures there’s no reason for him to think any differently. He’s always been like this with Pi and it’s never been a problem. He doesn’t think Ryo really minds, just continuously feels the need to attract attention to it on purpose instead of letting it slide.
Pi never seems bothered by it. He just teases back to Ryo that he’s jealous and Ryo calls them both idiots. Then things simply return to the way they always are between them and Jin simply ignores Ryo’s jibes.
It’s not until the third week on campus that Jin hears about the house party from a guy in his history class named Tanaka Koki. Jin hadn’t really talked to him before but after Koki invites him and whoever he wants to bring to the party, Jin thinks he’s kind of fucking awesome.
“It’s gonna be fucking sweet,” Koki tells him as they walk back to their dorm with Nakamaru after class. Turns out they were roommates.
“I’m totally there,” Jin says excitedly. “This is what I’ve been waiting for man.”
“I hear you, dude,” Koki says. “You’re coming too, aren’t you, Nakamaru?”
Nakamaru never struck Jin as a partying type of guy so he’s surprised when the other boy nods his head. “You’d drag me with you anyway, so I might as well go willingly.”
“You are a smart man, Nakamaru,” Koki says, patting him on the back and they all laugh.
The first thing Jin does when he returns to his room is scream at Pi about the house party. “We are so there, right? You’re going with me, right? It’s going to be epic, Pi. EPIC.”
“Sure, sure,” Pi says dismissively from where he’s lying across the futon on his stomach, reading a book. “You know I’ll go with you. Why would you even feel the need to ask?”
“I don’t know,” Jin says, dropping his bag by his desk and walking over to drape himself across Pi’s body. Pi shifts a little but otherwise doesn’t move or complain. Jin grins into his neck and continues, “Sometimes you surprise me. Like yesterday when you said you wanted to study instead of going to get ramen. You gave up food to study.”
“Shut up, Jin,” Pi says, elbowing him in the gut on purpose. “Homework is important. That’s what you should be doing.”
“I’m acing all my classes, I’ll have you know.”
Pi makes a skeptical noise and Jin presses more of his body weight against Pi’s. Pi just elbows him again but then continues reading like Jin isn’t using him as a bed. And Jin is far too comfortable to move, even though he should probably get ready for his next class all the way across campus. He glances at the clock, sees he still has thirty minutes and figures a little cat-nap won’t be a problem. Pi would wake him up, anyway. They have each other’s schedules practically memorized.
He presses his face against Pi’s shoulder, closing his eyes as his arms wrap around his friend’s waist. Pi’s warmth seems to sink in through his veins and a smile stretches across Jin’s lips as he falls asleep.
~
The smell of beer, the throbbing bass line of the Black Eyed Pea’s Boom Boom Pow, and girls making out in the doorway greet Jin that Friday night at the off-campus house party, and Jin wonders how he ever made it so long without this.
“Fuck yes,” he breathes, eyeing the girls pressed up against the wall by the door. Pi rolls his eyes and pushes Jin further into the house as they’re blocking the entrance, and Jin hears Ryo asking one of them for her number.
There are people dancing all over the first floor of the house. In the kitchen a couple of guys are playing beer pong. There’s a table with drinks against the far wall and Jin heads there first, grabbing a red plastic cup and handing one to Pi.
“Cheers!” he announces loudly in English, clanging his cup against Pi’s but others from around him also cheer back, raising their cups into the air before drinking. Jin laughs, thinking he could totally get used to this.
He downs his first cup in one go and then grabs another and demands, “What?!” when Pi groans.
“I foresee how this night is going to end up,” Pi says dramatically. “I’ll be dragging your drunken ass back to the dorm.”
Jin laughs, pats Pi’s shoulder and says, “Don’t worry, I won’t drink that much. I can hold my liquor!”
Pi snorts. “Yeah, right,” he says. “I seem to recall that one night you broke into your dad’s liquor cabinet and got drunk after two beers.”
Of course this is when Ryo returns, looking pretty triumphant as he pockets his phone, and laughs in Jin’s face. “Two beers, that’s it?” he guffaws. “Pathetic, Akanishi.”
“I doubt you’re any better!” Jin exclaims, glaring at Pi a little for revealing that story. It is so not good for the street cred Jin’s trying to build.
“I could drink you under the table,” Ryo says and Jin retorts, “I’d like to see you try!”
Pi groans again beside them and says, “Jin, I will fucking leave your sorry ass here if you get too drunk to walk back.”
Jin turns to his friend and pouts, tossing an arm over Pi’s shoulder and pressing his face to his shoulder. “Awww, Pi, you wouldn’t do that to me,” he whines cutely. “You’re my best friend, right? You wouldn’t leave me.”
Pi’s mouth twitches and Jin knows he’s won, though really he knew before that. No matter Pi’s threats, he really wouldn’t leave Jin here and go home. He might greatly want to, but he would never do it. He doesn’t answer, just sips at his drink, and that’s confirmation enough. Jin continues to lean against him because it’s comfortable and makes Ryo uncomfortable. Then the music changes and Justin Timberlake’s My Love starts to play and Jin straightens up instantly.
“Fuck I love this song,” he says, starting to get into the mood to dance. And like it’s written on his face, a tall, dark-haired girl sidles up to him in the next second, just barely introducing herself as Meisa before pulling him off toward the group of people dancing together in the living room.
This is totally the life, Jin thinks as he lets the girl grind up against him, pulling her close with hands on her hips. When she kisses him it’s a little surprising but completely welcome, and she slips her fingers into the back pockets of his jeans while his hand fists in her hair. She’s fucking good at this and Jin’s already getting ideas, mentally telling himself to get her number and FaceBook information before they part. When she pulls back, Jin’s eyes open and he’s licking his lips, looking over her shoulder and feeling his heart jump terrifyingly in his chest because Pi’s staring right back at him from across the room.
His eyes are unfathomable which is strange because Jin can usually read Pi’s expressions before he even makes them. Right now he can’t tell what Pi’s thinking, but he can feel his gaze on him and it’s most startling and making his heart pound faster.
Then he blinks and Pi’s gone, walking off toward the kitchen were Ryo seems to have joined Koki and Nakamaru in a game of beer pong. Jin suddenly feels confused, like maybe he should be over there with his bros instead of here grinding up against some girl.
So he compromises and dances with her for another song (Timbaland’s Way I Are) before excusing himself (and thankfully remembering to get her contact info) before heading off to join his friends. He grabs another cup of beer from the table, glances back at Meisa and is surprised (and a little pissed) to find her dancing with that prissy Kamenashi from his history class. He wonders why Kamenashi is even there when he’d looked repulsed by Koki and Jin’s conversation about the party in class the other day.
Ignoring it, he heads to the kitchen and drapes himself over Pi’s back, notching his chin on his shoulder. “Who’s winning?” he asks.
“Not sure,” Pi admits. “Had a good dance?”
Jin shrugs. “She was hot,” he says. “I got her number, too,” he adds like they’re competing for numbers or something. He knows Pi doesn’t really care. Pi might like to party, but he doesn’t really care for girls like this.
“Good for you,” he says. “Ryo-chan’s already gotten three.”
“WHAT?” Jin shrieks, not believing that the fucking midget is more suave than him.
“That’s right, Akanishi,” Ryo says haughtily. “Jealous?”
“Fuck no,” Jin lies. “Who’d be jealous of your unfortunate height and ugly face?”
“I am going to kill you one of these days,” Ryo threatens.
Pi laughs. “You’ve been saying that for almost a month now, Ryo-chan,” he reminds him and Jin sticks his tongue out at Ryo over Pi’s shoulder.
The night continues in this fashion, and Jin ends up meeting more people that he recognizes from various classes. Ueda Tatsuya lives four doors down and is in Jin’s history class and Pi’s economy class. His roommate, Koyama Keiichiro, is in two of Pi’s other classes and they quickly hit it off, talking about their shared classes and bitching about their professors. They’re both cool guys, and Jin really likes Ueda when he ends up beating Ryo at beer pong.
Ryo sulks for at least an hour and Jin makes fun of him the whole time, and soon Jin’s starting to get more than tipsy. He’s lost count of how much he’s had to drink, but he can still walk so Pi can’t be pissed at him.
He’s not sure how long they’re even at the party but sometime after Koki passes out and Koyama walks in on Meisa and Kamenashi in the bathroom, Jin finds himself being hauled back up to campus. Ryo is bitching about the walk but all Jin is aware of is Pi’s warm arm around his waist.
“I knew this is how tonight was going to end,” Pi grumbles when they finally reach the dorm and it takes Ryo ten minutes longer than normal to unlock the building door. Jin just giggles into Pi’s neck and Pi lets out that long-suffering sigh of his. “You’re buying me lunch tomorrow.”
“I doubt he’ll even remember that tomorrow,” Ryo points out before he adds, “Later, bitches,” before he disappears into his room quietly, clearly trying to be courteous and not wake Shige who had vehemently refused to come to the party with them.
Jin leans heavily against Pi as he unlocks their room door and then he’s being pulled inside and dropped onto Pi’s bed. “But you sleep here,” Jin feels the drunken need to point out and he’s at least sober enough to kick off his shoes, pull off his t-shirt and strip out of his jeans.
“Like you can climb up onto the top bunk,” Pi says. “And I don’t want you rolling off of it and dying, either.”
Jin giggles again and pulls at Pi until Pi falls unceremoniously across him with a yelp. “Tomohisa is so nice to me,” he says stupidly and Pi swats at Jin until Jin lets him go, slightly reluctantly because Pi is really warm and Jin would like to hold onto that feeling longer.
But Pi just undresses as well and starts to head for Jin’s bed when Jin does pull him back, laughing when Pi tries to fight him. “Sleep with me!” Jin exclaims and Pi groans, “You’re such a fucking drunk.”
“You’re just a baby,” Jin says. “You hardly had anything to drink.”
“Well someone had to bring you back, right?” Pi says, and then three seconds later, “Let me go, Jin.”
Jin shakes his head, snuggles up against his friend and says, “Warm.”
Pi is tense in his arms for a whole minute before he sighs and his body relaxes. His twists and turns until they’re lying more comfortably in the small one-person bed, and Jin smiles against Pi’s chest when Pi’s fingers unconsciously come up to thread through his hair.
Then Pi says, “If you puke on me, Akanishi, I’m going to go move in with Ryo and make you live with Shige,” and that’s the last thing Jin remembers before sleep claims him.
~
A week later, Jin goes to another house party with Koki and Ueda. Pi claims he's too tired to have fun and opts to stay back with Ryo and beat Shige at Mario Karts. Jin tries to get Pi to change his mind for almost two hours, but Pi is terribly stubborn when he wants to be and Jin is lazy, so he really gave up after the first twenty minutes.
“You’re missing out,” Jin says before leaving.
“I’ll survive,” Pi replies from where he’s half-asleep on his bed.
Jin gives his friend one last look and makes sure he has his keys and phone with him before leaving.
The party is in a different off-campus house that weekend, and is hosted by some loud, obnoxious guy named Murakami that Jin has seen talking with Ryo sometimes in the cafeteria. But he seems all right when he shoves a drink into Jin’s hand and says, “Drink up!” before heading off when his name is called.
Jin dances with a pretty foreign girl named Leah who thinks his English is cute and gives him her number before he even has to ask. After the third song, he excuses himself, strangely not in the mood. He’s probably not drunk enough, and he grabs another drink as he passes by, looking for Koki or Ueda.
He finds Ueda silently sipping his drink on a couch and wonders why this guy even comes to these parties when this is all he did last time, too. He joins him because Koki is off somewhere else and Jin can’t be assed to look any further.
“Are you feeling okay?” Ueda asks Jin five minutes later when all Jin has done is idly drink his beer without saying a word.
“Yeah, I’m fine, why?” he asks, even though he actually doesn’t feel entirely fine but he’s not sure why.
“You’re not acting like normal,” Ueda says. “You’re not even drunk.”
“I’m working on it,” Jin says defensively, and, to prove his point, downs the rest of his drink at once. Ueda simply looks amused and Jin stomps off to get more, if only to help this weird feeling that’s settled in his veins. Being here feels incomplete in comparison to last time and he not being able to figure out why is driving him nuts. Hopefully the alcohol will help clear his mind.
It really doesn’t. And somehow, two hours later, Jin finds himself drunk-dialing Pi. Or actually Koki drunk dials him and then Jin snatches the phone away exclaiming, “NO YOU CAN’T TALK TO HIM,” like he has any right to do something like that at all.
Pi doesn’t answer right away which makes Jin think he’s probably asleep and that maybe he should probably hang up, but then the line clicks and someone that’s definitely not Pi answers the phone instead.
“RYO,” Jin shouts. “WHAT’RE YOU DOING WITH PI’S PHONE? WHERE’S PI?”
“Oh my god, you moron, how much have you had to drink?” Ryo says in a pained voice. “Stop shouting in my fucking ear.”
“GIVE THE PHONE TO PI AND I WILL,” Jin shouts again. Koki cringes beside him, but Jin doesn’t care. The music is loud and no one is really paying attention to them. He’s too drunk to try to be quiet.
“Jin,” Pi’s placating voice greets him over the phone and instantly, instantly, Jin feels better than he has all night. “What’re you doing?”
“Drunk-dialing you!” Koki exclaims into the phone from where he’s listening in.
“He called you,” Jin insists. “I just took my phone back.”
Pi laughs. “Having fun?”
“You should’ve come,” Jin says, not really answering Pi’s question, but it’s because he doesn’t really know if he is.
“Next time,” Pi says calmly, far too calmly if you ask Jin, and Jin wonders not for the first time that night what exactly Pi’s been up to.
“What’re you doing?” Jin demands and he remembers that Ryo had been the one to answer the phone.
“Just hanging out with Ryo-chan,” Pi says simply. “Are you coming back soon? Wait, are you sober enough to even get back up here is the real question.”
“Shut up, I totally am,” Jin says, and it’s mostly true. He wasn’t planning on leaving yet, but now he wonders why he even stayed so long when he hasn’t been feeling it all night. “I’m leaving right now,” he tells Pi, and ignores Koki’s surprised, “What?!”
“I’ll see you in a bit,” Jin adds before hanging up. “I’m going,” he tells Koki and Ueda.
“What the hell man?” Koki demands. “The night is still young and you’re bailing just because you miss your boyfriend?”
Jin blinks at Koki uncomprehendingly and when realization dawns on him he’s torn between laughing and beating Koki up. He settles on punching Koki in the arm and exclaiming, “Boyfriend?! Pi? Very funny, man.” He pats Koki’s shoulder twice and adds, “I’ll see you guys later, okay?”
He escapes before Koki can try to make him stay, and he only trips over his feet twice on the way back to the dorm.
Pi is lounging on the futon with his head on Ryo’s lap when Jin walks into the room. He freezes in the doorway and stares at them, and Ryo bitches, “Stop standing there like a fucking idiot.”
Pi just smiles up at Jin upside-down from Ryo’s lap. “How was the party?” he asks amiably.
“Shit,” Jin answers truthfully, stomping over to the futon and pushing himself between Ryo and Pi. Ryo grumbles at him while Pi gives Jin a confused look, clearly not understanding Jin’s sudden choice of seating arrangements. But Jin resolutely stares at the TV where Ryo’s losing his game, and eventually Pi just shrugs and curls up beside Jin instead, his head on Jin’s shoulder.
As Ryo continues playing and Pi murmurs random things into Jin’s skin, asking about the party and informing him of what he’d been up to, Jin leans back against the futon, wrapping an arm around Pi’s waist, and thinks that this is already infinitely better than how he's spent his night until now.
~
Eventually the novelty of college-life starts to wear off and Jin finds himself almost wishing he could be back in high school where nothing mattered and he could slack off as much as he wanted. He tries to do it here, but Pi’s actually a good student and will refuse to do anything fun with Jin until Jin finishes his homework.
That hasn’t changed much since high school, either. The only class Jin pays actual attention to is his English class, though Pi teases him by questioning whether Jin really listens because “Your English hasn’t gotten any better.”
“Fuck you,” Jin will reply every time and Pi will actually look like he’s considering it until Jin (though usually it’s Ryo) makes a face and shoves at him.
Their mothers come and visit together a month and half into the year. They bring home-cooked foods and presents and Jin only realizes just how much he’s missed his mom when she shows up that Saturday unannounced at seven in the morning. He’s just glad it wasn’t a day after partying so he doesn’t reek of booze or have a hangover.
“You’ve gained weight,” his mother says disapprovingly once both Jin and Pi have showered and dressed and they’re all heading to breakfast together.
Jin merely grumbles and blames the Freshman Fifteen rule.
“He’s always been a little fat,” Pi says with a smirk, and for the next two weeks, Pi (and Ryo, once Pi relays the conversation to him later that day) continues to call him Fat Jin.
“I hate you,” Jin whines one night after a round of brutal name calling. He’s lying across his bed while Pi’s studying on his own and Ryo’s lounging on their futon for whatever reason. He’s there a lot - Jin can never seem to get rid of him. Ryo claims it’s because Shige’s studying and Ryo’s very breathing disturbs him, but Jin just retorts it’s because Ryo obviously thinks they are Super Cool. “As if,” Ryo replies back every time. “I have much cooler friends that I could hang out with.” But yet he spends most of his time on Jin and Pi’s futon, and maybe Jin doesn’t mind that much.
“You are no longer my best friend,” Jin declares dramatically when Pi’s only response to Jin’s hatred is to call him Bakanishi. “Ryo-chan’s my new best friend.” He pauses then changes his mind. “No, Ryo’s an ass, too. Shige’s my new best friend.”
“Oh, I think you just got dumped, Pi,” Ryo says with clear amusement. Jin glares in Ryo’s direction; he will never get used to hearing other people call his friend “Pi.” That’s Jin’s nickname for him, damn it. Ryo only started saying it because he’s too lazy to call him “Yamapi” which was the nickname given to Pi by a sempai that went to middle school with them. Of course Pi doesn’t care what Ryo calls him, so Jin just has to brood about it internally and resist the urge to punch Ryo in the face every time he uses Jin’s nickname.
Pi just makes a noncommittal noise and replies easily, “It’s fine, I was getting tired of him. He’s been following me around my whole life,” and Jin pouts into his pillow while Ryo laughs loudly.
“If I could hit you right now, I would,” Jin feels the need to say and Pi’s quiet chuckle is his only response.
Three seconds later he hears Pi getting out of his bed but pays no mind until he realizes Pi’s climbing up onto the top bunk.
“What the fuck,” Jin says just as Pi flops on top of him like deadweight. “Ugh, Pi, get your fat ass off me.”
“You have no right to be calling anyone else fat,” Ryo pipes in as he watches them with an expression somewhere between amusement and disgust.
“Shut up, Ryo,” Jin mutters as Pi squirms above him until he gets comfortable. “What the hell, Pi, seriously?”
Pi just shrugs, like he has no real reason for wanting to crush Jin under his weight. Jin’s contemplating whether Pi would die if he shoved him off his bed when a shrill noise erupts in the hallways.
“Fuck, not again!” Ryo shouts, yanking open the door to peer into the hall, the fire alarm whirring throughout the dorm. “This is the third time this week!”
“Get up, Pi,” Jin says and Pi does, probably only because the fire alarm is still going. Jin follows him down and the three of them head outside with the rest of the dorm, everyone grumbling about the disturbance while Aiba is ushering them all far enough away from the building.
Jin leans tiredly on Pi’s shoulder as they wait for the okay to go back inside. It’s taking longer than the last few times that Jin ponders aloud, “Maybe there really is a fire this time.”
“There’s no smoke,” Pi points out, and Jin shrugs.
“Maybe it’s a smoke-less fire,” Jin replies.
“There’s no such thing, you idiot. How you got into college is beyond me,” Ryo replies.
Jin pouts against Pi’s shoulder and whines, “Ryo-chan’s being mean to me.”
“Ryo-chan’s always mean to you,” Pi says but he pats Jin’s head and Jin smiles into his skin.
“You were mean to me too,” Jin adds.
“You’re the one who dumped me. For Shige,” Pi retorts, but there’s no real hurt in his voice.
Jin squeezes Pi’s waist and says, “As if I’d ever really do that. Shige would be such a boring best friend.” He presses his cheek against Pi’s shoulder and adds, “You’re my only best friend.”
Pi just laughs. “Good,” he says while Ryo makes retching noises beside them.
~
Two and a half months into the year, Pi gets a girlfriend. Or Jin thinks she’s his girlfriend because she’s always around, but Pi insists they’re simply friends.
Her name is Keiko, and she has the same major as Pi so they share almost all the same classes. She helps him out before a chapter test and then it’s like she’s moved herself into their room.
Okay, maybe Jin’s exaggerating, but she really does seem to be there all the time.
Jin doesn’t care, not really. She’s nice and Pi clearly seems to like her, so he stays at his desk and trolls the internet when she’s around, or hides away in Ryo and Shige’s room. It’s just…different. They both had girlfriends back in grade school but they’d never lasted longer than a few weeks. It never felt really serious, but then again, Jin’s not even sure if this…thing between Pi and Keiko is serious either. But Pi gets this dopey look on his face whenever she’s around, or whenever he talks about her, so Jin thinks it must be serious. He’s never seen that stupid face on Pi before, and for some reason that he doesn’t get, it annoys the shit out of him.
And when Pi starts bailing on things with Jin to spend more time with time with Keiko, Jin’s starting to really think it’s serious. So, of course, he does what makes sense, and confronts Pi about it.
“SO?” he demands loudly one day after Keiko leaves to return to her dorm. Jin lost count of how many hours she’d been there. Probably five hundred or something.
Pi cocks an eyebrow at Jin and questions, “So, what?”
“SO, are you dating?” Jin demands. “She’s always over here, but I haven’t even seen you guys hold hands. What the fuck’s going on?” He realizes he sounds entirely intrusive and backtracks a little, adds, “Not that, you know, I care or anything, I was just curious.”
Pi gives Jin a slightly confused look and then replies, “We’re just friends. I like her, though, if that’s what you want to hear.”
It’s not, but Jin doesn’t know why. “Oh,” he says, not sure what else to say. “Well, good for you.” Now he just feels ridiculous. Then, because he doesn’t know how to fix the awkwardness that has fallen between them, exclaims, “I’m going to Ryo-chan’s room,” and stomps out of the door.
Thankfully Ryo’s there when Jin lets himself in without knocking and camps out on the floor in the corner like he’s done the other times Keiko was monopolizing his best friend.
Ryo takes one look at him from his bed and says, “Keiko-chan again?”
“NO,” Jin shouts. Then, three seconds later, “Yes.”
“You are such a moron, Akanishi,” Ryo says. “What do you have against her? She’s good for Pi.”
“They’re not even dating!” Jin exclaims. “I just asked him.”
“Do you want them to be dating?” Ryo questions.
“NO,” Jin shouts again, without thinking, and once he realizes what he’s said his eyes widen and he rushes to amend, “No, I mean, I don’t care. It’s Pi’s life. He can date whoever he wants.”
His response is clearly so startling that even Shige turns to look at him. They both stare at Jin for a few unnerving minutes and just before Jin can snap at them, Ryo says in a slightly pained voice, “Oh my god, you’re jealous, aren’t you?”
Whatever Jin had been expecting, it wasn’t this. He blinks owlishly at Ryo and then exclaims, “What? No! Why would I be jealous of Pi? I don’t care if I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Ryo smacks a hand to his forehead and even Shige groans. “No, you imbecile, you’re not jealous of Pi, you’re jealous over Pi. You’re jealous that he’s spending all his time with Keiko!”
Jin laughs like he hasn’t heard anything more ridiculous, though somewhere deep, deep inside of him, Ryo’s words hit a nerve. “AM NOT,” he yells finally, pushing away the weird feeling that’s insisting Ryo’s right.
“Akanishi, even I know that’s what’s going on,” Shige inputs. Jin’s always hated that stupid kid.
Ryo now looks absolutely beside himself. “YOU LIKE HIM,” he exclaims, pointing at Jin. “You seriously like him. I just thought you guys were creepy best friends, but you totally like him.”
“I don’t!” Jin insists furiously, but it sounds like a lie even to his own ears. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with him.
“This explains so much,” Ryo goes on and Jin gets fed up and leaves without a word. He doesn’t like Pi, he fucking doesn’t. They’re just best friends, that’s it.
He repeats this mantra in his head as he returns to his room, only to stop dead in his tracks when he finds a very naked Pi on the other side, with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Jin’s eyes nearly fall out of his head and he makes an embarrassing noise that he thinks was meant to come out as, “What the fuck are you doing?”
Pi stares at him with concern when Jin doesn’t move, and then says, “Are you okay?”
Jin snaps out of his reverie, forces his mind to look anywhere that’s not Pi, that’s not his pale skin and gorgeous muscles (when the fuck did he get those?!) and the towel that’s threatening to slip right off his slim waist. He clears his throat and stomps to his desk. “I’m fine,” he says thickly.
“Jin,” Pi says in that soft, worried voice of his, and Jin jumps when he puts a hand on his shoulder. Jin glances at him, and his concern is evident in his eyes, and Jin figures that the way he walked out of here earlier probably wasn’t the best idea he’s ever had.
Jin puts on what he hopes is a genuine smile. “I’m fine, really,” he insists. “Sorry about earlier. I’m just, um, not having a good day, I guess.”
Pi squeezes Jin’s shoulder and returns his smile. “Don’t worry about it,” he replies. “I’m gonna take a shower, but when I get back, want to play some Tekken? We haven’t played for awhile and I miss beating your ass.”
That’s because whenever I suggest we play you put it off in favor of Keiko, Jin wants to say but thankfully keeps it to himself. He grins. “Sure,” he says. Then, “And when the fuck have you ever beaten me at Tekken? I rule at that game!”
Pi snorts, drops his hand from Jin’s shoulder and Jin ignores the loss, and makes his way to the door. “We’ll see about that,” he replies and before Jin can retort, he’s left to take his shower.
Jin stares at the closed door for a few seconds before dropping his face into his hands and muttering, “Oh, fuck.”
~
part two