Balancing Equations [part i]
Title: Balancing Equations
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Joonmyun x Kyungsoo, slight!Baekhyun x Chanyeol
Genre: highschool!AU, humor, romance
Word Count: 9,927 words
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with EXO, the management, and the company. I only own the plot and the story itself.
Summary: Kyungsoo is awkward, and Joonmyun is perfect.
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Making friends has always been a challenge for Do Kyungsoo. Being the awkward turtle he is (metaphorically speaking, obviously), he preferred sitting quietly in the back of the classroom, slaving over a ridiculously easy trigonometry equation that he can't quite get during math class or snoring rhythmically to Ms. Park's rendition of 'My Heart Will Go On' during music class.
His classmates (except Baekhyun and Chanyeol, who can't seem to stop sticking to him and to each other) don't really take notice of him, which is quite favorable for both parties. It's probably because he's not one to stand out, or because he has that face that looks like he's judging your existence; so people tend to avoid Kyungsoo and his judgmental awkwardness.
His teachers don't really take notice of him either (thank god for that because his perpetually confused expression will probably give him and his inattentiveness away), so when a loud “Do Kyungsoo! Would you please stop scrutinizing Jongin's back long enough to tell me how long it takes for water to evaporate when heated at 180 degrees Celsius?” booms through the classroom and slams right into his eardrums, he unsurprisingly falls off his seat, knocking over some of his and his seatmate's (wait, when did he even have a seatmate) things.
“I'm sorry!” he groans, picking up the notebooks and sheets of paper that have scattered all around the floor. Everyone's looking at him, some even going “what a loser”, and his face is now a bright shade of red because fuck, he's made a complete idiot of himself, there goes his nonexistent reputation-
“Um, let me help you.” a voice chirps, interrupting his masochistic thoughts. A body drapes over him suddenly, picking up the fallen items with long, pretty fingers and a face right next to his; and Kyungsoo's heart is pounding against his ribcage because he has never been this close to another human being. The person's slightly open mouth is hovering just above the skin of his neck, and his breath that smells like vanilla and menthol mouthwash sends tingles in places Kyungsoo didn't even know could tingle and is he sweating?
“T-thank you.” Kyungsoo stutters as they get back onto their seats. He sneaks a peek at his knight in shining armor and quickly looks away before the latter sees Kyungsoo's blood rush to his face.
The other boy laughs, and oh my god can I just drown in that laugh, and holds out his hand for Kyungsoo to take. “No problem. My name is Joonmyun.”
“My name is Kyu-” he begins, but is cut off when Joonmyun abruptly grabs his hand and gives it a hearty shake. Kyungsoo's voice catches in his throat. He thinks Joonmyun's hands are very soft and that he's having trouble breathing.
“Kyungsoo. I sort of know, already,” Joonmyun grins, Kyungsoo's heart stopping in response, and let's go of the latter's hand. “I'm a new student, so I hope you'll take care of me.”
They sit there in awkward silence, facing each other with a bright smile and a terrified look plastered on Joonmyun's and Kyungsoo's faces, respectively. The bell rings finally, and a still smiling Joonmyun goes and collects his things.
“Well, it was nice meeting you,” he chuckles, shoving his things inside his bag and standing up to walk to the door.“I'll see you tomorrow.”
It takes a good three minutes for Kyungsoo to realize that he's alone in a classroom, gaping rather unattractively at nothing in particular, red as a tomato because he's probably had the best encounter of his whole life and he ruined it by being weird as fuck. He gulps and walks gloomily to his next class, and he remembers that it's dismissal and he doesn't have any classes anymore, so he just drags himself home while cursing the heavens for making him so awkward.
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“Are you going to eat that?”
“Oh, look who's here. Hey, Kyungsoo.”
“So you're not going to eat that, then?”
Groaning, Kyungsoo lugs his bag at the empty seat in front of Chanyeol and Baekhyun and slams his tray sluggishly onto the white cafeteria table. He sits down with a sullen expression and a hunched back, earning a look from Baekhyun.
“You seem to be in a good mood.” Baekhyun frowns, chewing on a clump of mashed potatoes while Chanyeol continues to pester him about his cheeseburger. He ignores the latter though, and directs his attention to a now sulking Kyungsoo. “What's the problem?”
“Nothing.” Kyungsoo mumbles, picking at his french fries. How can he even eat this? All he can think about is Joonmyun and his stupid smile and his stupid laugh and his stupid soft hands. Everything about him is stupid because he makes Kyungsoo feel like there's a ton of bricks in the pit of his stomach and there's a virus in his bloodstream that makes him delirious and inattentive and just become a walking zombie of who he used to be. Do Kyungsoo does not like it, one little bit. And he just met, no, made a complete idiot of himself in front of Joonmyun, a few days ago. How the boy had already managed to take up seventy percent of his already malfunctioning brain is beyond him.
What if he talks to Kyungsoo again? Oh god, no. No, please no. Because that would mean more sweaty palms and trembling and butterflies and heart palpitations and--
“Are you sure?” Baekhyun pipes up, stabbing Chanyeol, who was now literally breathing down Baekhyun's neck, whispering the same 'are you going to eat that' chant into Baekhyun's ear, with his pencil to get him to move away before he uses Zitao's wushu stick on him.
“How could you...” Chanyeol says dejectedly, slumping back onto his seat and chewing at his celery. “Even bringing Zitao's wushu stick into this...” Baekhyun ignores him though, because even a pouting Chanyeol that looked oh-so-cute and adorable could not make him feel guilty. Not at all. Well, maybe a little.
“Baekhyun, what is it like to be...you know, in love?” Kyungsoo says so quietly it's like he's afraid an agency of super secret spies would be listening to their conversation. Although he's pretty sure that even his own mother isn't the smallest bit interested in his love life.
Baekhyun visibly chokes at this question, caught completely off-guard, and Chanyeol immediately puts a hand on the former's cheek and rubs the his back so intimately that Baekhyun flushes a bright red making it look like he's going to die of suffocation any minute. Kyungsoo looks at an embarrassed Baekhyun, then at an oblivious Chanyeol, and smiles inwardly.
“Why-” Baekhyun stops to glare at Chanyeol with a you-can-stop-touching-me-now look. “-do you need to know?”
“Um, no reason.”Kyungsoo mumbles, sticking a french fry into his mouth. It tastes bitter. Even the pancakes he ate this morning tasted bitter. He hates how everything seems to taste bitter lately.
“Is our Soo-soo in love?” Chanyeol teases, grinning at the boy, who proceeded to widen his eyes to the size of saucepans.
“What?” Kyungsoo splutters, quickly putting on his 'offended' face, which Baekhyun just think looks like he's constipated or something. “Of course not! And stop calling me that!”
“So, what's her name?” Baekhyun asks almost nonchalantly, huffing frustratedly when Chanyeol's hand is suddenly creeping towards a half eaten cheeseburger on the former's tray. “Or his. I don't judge.”
“No! I'm just curious!” Kyungsoo defends, because yeah, he's just curious about how soft Joonmyun's hands would be in his, or how soft his lips are when he's not smiling and instead, kissing the fuck out of him while his hands in the other's soft hair-
And then he realizes that he's sweating bullets and that his face is about the same color as a ripe tomato and that there's a growing problem in his pants that may or may not cause his 'loser' reputation to become worse than it already is if he stands up to soon. It doesn't help that he has a class with the reason why there's a disturbance in his nether regions in three fucking hours and he doesn't think he has enough time to deal with this problem because godammit he can't just go to the bathroom and jerk off-
“Spill it,” Chanyeol cuts off Kyungsoo's train of thought and grins slyly, standing up and leaning forward, causing a couple of bystanders to stare in their general direction because Chanyeol's a fucking giant and he looks like he's about to crazy-murder someone.
“Yeah, we're friends,” Baekhyun hums as he takes a small bite out of burger before throwing it back onto his tray, earning a disapproving look from Chanyeol. He rolls his eyes and looks at Kyungsoo, smiling intently. “And Chanyeol promises not to tell every fucking person he sees about it, like he did with your last crush.”
“Well, there's this tranferee,” Kyungsoo starts, and his face is warm and his hands are warm and his body is warm and is it hot in here or what? “He's in my Chemistry class and I think I like him-”
“You mean the new kid?”Chanyeol interrupts, whispering (although with a voice that deep, people will just assume it's the school's generator engine). “The one that came from the rich people district? Kim Joon-what's-his-face? I heard his dad's CEO or something.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Chanyeol, stop believing in everything you hear. And there are a lot of new students this year. He's probably not even the one Kyungsoo's talking about.
“But it's true!” Chanyeol retorts. “Luhan and his friends were talking about it earlier. They said he was a model for some teen agency, and quit because he wanted to study.”
“Chanyeol-”
“He's like totally smart, and plays golf. Golf.”
“Wait what-”
“Hey Kyungsoo!” Kyungsoo freezes up, because he knows who that is and that he's coming over to his table and that his soft hands are now on his shoulder and good god that feels so right-
“H-hi,” Kyungsoo stutters, looking down at his food and blushing madly because if he looks up, he knows his growing problem will probably enlarge and ew, why is he thinking about that. “Uh, these are my friends, Chanyeol and Baekhyun.”
“Hey,” Baekhyun greets, giving Joonmyun a slight smile before glancing at Kyungsoo, who was now in a deep, heated discussion with his french fries and chicken sandwich.
“Hellooo~” Chanyeol beams, his creepy, eye-twitching grin stretched across his face. Joonmyun laughs nervously, and waves back. “You're the new kid right? Are you friends with Kyungsoo?”
“I am,” Joonmyun chimes, sitting down next to Kyungsoo. Their legs touch and Kyungsoo is hyperventilating. "and we have a Chemistry class together so, I guess?"
Baekhyun's eyes dart from a smiling Joonmyun and a hyperventilating Kyungsoo, then widen in realization. He lightly kicks Kyungsoo from under the table and Kyungsoo looks up from his lunch to Baekhyun looking at him knowingly.
Is he the guy you're talking about?
Kyungsoo glares, shh! Don't say a fucking word, and looks down again.
Baekhyun gets it, thankfully, and just starts finishing off the rest of his burger.
Chanyeol, however, continues to remain oblivious.
“Did you know that Kyungsoo likes yo-”
A large thud sends Chanyeol's lunch flying straight into his face, and Baekhyun screeches like a puppy getting run over by a truck.
Kyungsoo think he's never kicked a lunch table that hard, and his foot will probably swell for days.
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“How am I supposed to balance a bunch of letters?” Kyungsoo laments silently, about to cry because he doesn't know what the hell these letters mean, and he forgot his periodic table at home. He curses everyone, from Mr. Wu, his lovely Chemistry teacher who he still hates for embarrassing him in front of the class and Joonmyun, to Joonmyun himself, who's sitting just a few inches away from him, being all lovely and perfect and amazing.
It's torture to be totally infatuated with someone you've only met a few weeks ago, to be quite honest. Kyungsoo swears he's never felt this way about anyone, not even that girl he kissed back in the 6th grade or his 1st year English teacher (the one that Chanyeol blurted out to everybody in the student body), and it's weird because Joonmyun, apparently, is the hot, new transferee that all the girls go crazy over; and he tends to avoid people like those because everyone's attention is on the hot, new student and being with said hot, new student will draw attention and drawing attention onto himself is a very, very bad idea.
In that moment, as Kyungsoo is simultaneously having an inner battle with himself and drooling over the guy next to him, Joonmyun smiles. He smiles so brightly, his eyes crinkle into a lovely crescent shape above his smooth, white cheeks. He smiles because of the smallest reasons, like how Mr. Lee scratches his butt every few minutes, or because a girl in the front row is waving shyly at him, or even when he solves a Chemistry problem before everyone else. It's always the small things that make him smile so brightly, and that smile is so contagious that everyone who's within a five foot radius of the boy will probably end up smiling like him (although not as attractively) until the end of the day.
And Kyungsoo immediately regrets ogling at Joonmyun for more than ten seconds when the latter looks back at him with an amused grin and a sparkle in his eyes, because the older boy thinks Kyungsoo's face is a perfect combination of frightened, flushed and adorable.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Joonmyun chuckles, turning on his swivel chair and facing Kyungsoo with a bright smile.
Shit. “E-eh?” Kyungsoo splutters nervously and looks down back at his paper, biting the insides of his cheeks because fuck you, Do Kyungsoo, you're a fucking idiot. “I-I'm not.”
Joonmyun laughs that beautiful, feathery laugh that makes Kyungsoo's brain fall into his gut, and scoots closer to the latter. He leans over and raises a perfectly curved eyebrow at Kyungsoo's unanswered exercise sheet, and the latter is now sweating bullets because Joonmyun probably thinks he's a lazy dumbass, which he is, but that's not the point. He catches a quiet, mumbled 'so cute', but he's probably just hearing things.
Joonmyun sees Kyungsoo's distressed expression and smiles, his teeth glistening from the blindingly bright fluorescent lights above them.
“Do you need help?” and without even waiting for answer, he immediately pulls Kyungsoo's swivel chair closer and starts writing on a piece of paper. “You see, when you're given two compounds, you have to find-”
Kyungsoo flushes uncontrollably at the close proximity of Joonmyun's face, and he thinks his brain is malfunctioning because Kim fucking Joonmyun's perfect face is literally five inches away from his. He tries to listen to the various instructions and explanations spouting out of Joonmyun's mouth and he thinks he gets it because the letters and numbers make sense to him now, even though half of his mind is in Joonmyun Land which is full of rainbows and hearts and Joonmyun's face and no Chanyeol.
“T-thanks,” Kyungsoo whispers, still facing his paper. “I think I get it now.”
“Really?” Joonmyun beams, his expression bright and Kyungsoo's heart flutters just a little bit. “Why don't you do the next problem?”
Kyungsoo does.
And he regrets it immediately.
Damn you, Mr. Wu.
“Um, that's wrong...” Joonmyun says, still smiling. Kyungsoo frowns, unable to hide his disappointment, and puffs out his cheeks. Joonmyun finds it adorable, and smiles even more. “Do you need a tutor? I can always come over your place after school if you do.”
“What?” Kyungsoo's eyes widen further, if that's even possible, and his face heats up at the thought of Joonmyun in his room doing 'homework'.
“I can tutor you if you want.”
Say no. It's a horrible idea, Kyungsoo thinks. Tell him you have flute lessons or something, because if you slip-up and he finds out you like him he'll probably go apeshit-
“S-sure,” Kyungsoo answers, still not looking at Joonmyun. “I'd like that.”
That wasn't a no. That wasn't even a small no.
Joonmyun laughs as Kyungsoo still continues to look at everything and everyone but Joonmyun, and pokes Kyungsoo's cheek playfully. “It would be great if I had directions, though, don't you think?”
“Oh, right,” Kyungsoo mumbles, bowing his head apologetically as he scribbles his address on a piece of paper with clammy hands and trembling fingers. “H-here you go.”
“So, your house? Tonight?”
“O-okay.” Kyungsoo mutters, and (finally) looks up at Joonmyun.
“Great, I'll see you tonight then,” Joonmyun chirps, and stands up just before the bell rings, slinging his bag over his shoulders and going for the door (some of the girls are already pushing each other to walk next to Joonmyun, but he doesn't seem to notice). “Later!”
Kyungsoo mentally notes to have Mr. Wu assassinated.
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The first night Joonmyun comes over to tutor Kyungsoo, everything is, as expected from Kyungsoo, extremely awkward. Kyungsoo avoids each and every type of physical contact, from ducking his head whenever Joonmyun reaches out to pat it or shifting away from the latter to avoid brushing against the his shoulder, and Joonmyun would just laugh, finding Kyungsoo's shyness endearing.
Over the course of several weeks, in which Joonmyun appears at the Do family's front door at exactly 6 o'clock in the evening, Kyungsoo learns a lot about Joonmyun. He learns that Joonmyun lives in an apartment now, the older boy also mentioning how clean and organized Kyungsoo's room is (Kyungsoo says he's a neat freak) compared to his, and beforehand lived in an exclusive neighborhood in Seoul with his parents. He also went to a private school before transferring and, it turns out, the reason he was sent to a public school was because he was being bullied (who would bully such a perfect person), and was supposed to start a new life here.
Being so absorbed in Joonmyun's stories, the usually quiet and self-kept Kyungsoo finds himself opening up to the older boy. He tells him about his parents being divorced and how he and his sister ended up with his mother, how he became a bit depressed when his sister left for college, his dreams of becoming a singer, his past relationship that didn't work out because he had caught the other cheat on him on his own birthday, and just everything that he's never let out to anyone except Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Kyungsoo would talk and talk, unlike his usual self, and when tears would slowly but surely fall, Joonmyun would always be there to rub soothing circles on the younger's back, cooing a sincere 'i'm sorry, don't cry, i'm right here' into the younger's ear. Kyungsoo always apologizes after crying, afraid that he might have made Joonmyun uncomfortable, but Joonmyun says he likes when Kyungsoo lets out his feelings, because what are friends for?, Joonmyun would always say.
And now that they're officially friends, Kyungsoo doesn't want to ruin it.
It doesn't help that Joonmyun's extremely sweet to his friends. Kyungsoo would wake up to a text from Joonmyun saying 'good morning, I hope you don't trip over your own feet today', and the latter would either be extremely embarrassed or frighteningly happy for the whole day, causing both Baekhyun and Chanyeol to skeptically raise and eyebrow at him in fear that their 'Soo-soo' might be suffering from schizophrenia.
Joonmyun is also very touchy, much to the disadvantage of Kyungsoo. He likes poking cheeks and entangling fingers and rubbing shoulders; and Kyungsoo can't be expected to act cool and collected when the apple of his eye constantly touches sensitive spots on his skin that sends the former into a fit of squealing and sobbing every night.
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“Tell him you like him, then.” Chanyeol says to his bluetooth earpiece, irritated. Who wouldn't be? The past Friday
nights when they're supposed to be in a conference call, playing World of Warcraft online and screaming profanities at each other were mostly spent talking about how perfect and gorgeous and beautiful and did I mention he has soft hands, Joonmyun is. And it wasn't helping that Kyungsoo, their poor, naïve little Soo-soo, was being a huge sulking, lovesick mess with his 'he'll never like me like that' and 'he's perfect and I'm a loser' speeches that Chanyeol swears he can hear Baekhyun seething with rage over the other line.
“W-What?!” Kyungsoo sputters, choking on his spit. “I can't do that! He'll hate me!”
“You're overreacting, Soo-soo.” Baekhyun grits, a vein on his forehead ready to pop.
“No, I'm not!” Because what if Joonmyun finds him disgusting and rejects him like 'ah, that's cute, but I'm straight and I don't date faggots' and pats his head before proceeding to ignore Kyungsoo's sad existence forever?
“I mean, you don't have anything to lose,” Chanyeol mutters, getting his hero brutally slaughtered by Baekhyun's sorcerers, and he knows that Baekhyun is seething with rage right now. “And I'm sure Joonmyun won't outright tell you 'no'. He is Mr. Perfect, after all.”
“But what if-”
“That's just it, you retard,” Baekhyun grunts, mercilessly obliterating one of Chanyeol's base camps. “You're all 'what ifs'. If you don't tell him, or even drop a hint, he won't consider you to be a romantic interest.”
Kyungsoo ponders upon this for a few moments, because Baekhyun's right. He'll never know what Joonmyun will say or do once he finds out Kyungsoo's feelings for him (he's still pretty sure about the whole 'that's cute', head pat and being ignored forever scenario though) if he doesn't let the other boy know.
What if he likes me back?
The possibility of Joonmyun being his...boyfriend...is enough for Kyungsoo to writhe inwardly in glee, and that little slither of hope gives him just a bit more confidence in himself.
“...So, what should I do?”
There's silence over the line, and Kyungsoo's sure he hears Chanyeol shuffle through a box of CDs (oh my god, no), then Baekhyun sighs exasperatedly, shutting down his computer and flinging himself onto his bed.
“You know,” Baekhyun says, snuggling in the warmth of his blankets and breathing in the scent of orange fabric softener. “write letters and slip him in his locker. Ask to meet up after some time. The works.”
“Do you think I can do it?” Kyungsoo murmurs, his heart clenching because of the fear and uncertainty swallowing him up. When it comes down to it, can he really tell Joonmyun what he feels?
“Have a little faith in yourself, Soo-soo,” Baekhyun hums, settling in comfortably in his bed. “Whatever the outcome, I'm sure you'll take it like a man.”
There's a comfortable silence, and Kyungsoo is smiling because even though he doesn't really show it, Baekhyun is a really huge softy and can actually say something decent aside from his sarcastic remarks and puns, like comforting advice. It reminds Kyungsoo of why he and Baekhyun got along in the first place.
Chanyeol, on the other hand, he still had no idea why they even talked to each other.
“Guys, oh my god, I found my old Eminem CD! Let me go play it for yo-”
Both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun hang up on him at the same time.
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Kyungsoo feels ridiculous as he holds the pink parchment in between his fingertips, and wishes that no one actually goes to school this early. He inhales before carefully slipping the pink piece of folded paper into the slit of Joonmyun's locker and exhales when he hears the letter hit something with a quiet thud. He runs to his first class, and Ms. Choi practically screams her head off when Kyungsoo barges into her classroom at 7 in the morning, looking flustered as hell.
Later that night, Kyungsoo is feeling particularly nervous because he's waiting for Joonmyun, who's leisurely laying on his bed and talking about his iguana, to bring up the love letter. Kyungsoo listens wholeheartedly though, because he loves when Joonmyun talks about little things like this and just seems so immersed in it, and nods along enthusiastically. He feels a bit downcast when it's almost 9 o'clock, meaning Joonmyun has to go soon, and he hasn't even talked about anything remotely related to the love letter.
Just as Kyungsoo is about to finish his Chemistry homework, Joonmyun says something almost inaudibly, but the former hears it just as well.
“So, I found something in my locker today.”
Kyungsoo's palms suddenly start to sweat, and he feels a faint pounding in his cranium. “R-really?”
“Yeah,” Joonmyun says, sitting next to Kyungsoo and leaning over to check on his homework. “I think it's a confession letter or something.”
“That's interesting...” Kyungsoo murmurs, his ears turning a bright shade of pink. Joonmyun looks at him and Kyungsoo looks back (he's past the extremely awkward friendship stage and can now look Joonmyun in the eye after such a long time), and there's something deep yet unreadable in the elder's expression that Kyungsoo can't quite make out. Was it frustration? Or disbelief?
“You,” Joonmyun deadpans, his expression still unreadable, and Kyungsoo hold his breath because he's afraid he's been found out even before anything has happened. He immediately prays that whatever comes next doesn't involve any physical abuse because he likes his face where it is, thank you very much.
Joonmyun takes notice of the look of surprise on Kyungsoo's face though, and continues. “Actually got your homework right. Congratulations.”
Kyungsoo's eyes look like their about to pop out of his head, and he cradles the piece of paper in his hands like it's a newborn child. “Wow! It's all thanks to you, hyung.”
“You studied well,” Joonmyun smiles slightly and ruffles Kyungsoo's hair before standing up to gather his things. “I'll be heading home now.”
“Thanks again,” Kyungsoo bows, leading Joonmyun to the door. “Goodnight.”
He expects a pat on his head or a warm embrace like what Joonmyun usually gives him every night before leaving, but he is caught off guard when a soft pair of lips press against his forehead. His face is becoming very hot now, and the way Joonmyun cups his left cheek after kissing his forehead is not helping him cool down at all.
“I'll see you tomorrow,” Joonmyun smiles, a twinkle in his eye that Kyungsoo's seen all the time but has something different about it now, and walks away, leaving a gaping Kyungsoo frozen at his doorstep, whose mind turned into nothing but a buzz of static.
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For the next month or so, Kyungsoo's resolves to writing heartfelt love letters on pink sheets of stationary every night after Joonmyun leaves, because that's when his sappiness is really at its extreme. He writes lyrics of songs he likes, favorite lines like “단 한 번만 네 옆에서 발을 맞춰 걸어 보고파 한 번 딱 한 번만요”, and just reading those phrases seemed to make the elder's day. In the morning at school, when he peeks at Joonmyun from behind the large staircase leading to the second floor of the high school building, he feels a little part of him shrivel up and die (from happiness) when the elder giggles and stuffs the note in his pocket before gathering his books for his first class.
The tutorial sessions every night are what Kyungsoo looks forward to everyday. He'd always do his homework right away when he comes home so that from 6 to 9 o'clock in the evening, he and Joonmyun can just hang out and talk. They'd play video games, watch TV and Joonmyun would talk about his secret admirer. It pleased Kyungsoo to no end hearing Joonmyun say things like I think I'm falling for my secret admirer and I wish she'd show up and kiss me already. Kyungsoo would always avert his gaze when Joonmyun brings this up, because he can't have the elder see him weep and moan and spazz inwardly with huge red blotches of heat on his cheeks and ears; and the latter would always lean on him, laughing with the same beautiful laugh that Kyungsoo fell in love with a long time ago. “Don't be sad, Kyungsoo-ah,” Joonmyun would always say. “Even if I get a girlfriend, I'll always have time for you.”
In that instant, no matter how bittersweet his relationship with Joonmyun is, Kyungsoo feels like life is really worth living.
On the rare ocassion when Joonmyun is feeling down, he'd ask Kyungsoo to sing for him. And so, Kyungsoo sings. He'd sing the first song that comes to mind, and coincidentally, these songs always make Joonmyun feel better.
Kyungsoo sings because it makes him feel free. It makes him forget all his problems, even for a short while. He used to sing just for himself, because no one really understood why singing made him so happy; but after meeting Joonmyun, he doesn't sing for himself anymore.
The look Joonmyun has when Kyungsoo's done with the song, the look of contentment, happiness, love, makes Kyungsoo fall for him a little bit more everytime. Finally, singing meant so much more to him than being happy by himself because now, Joonmyun was there to share in his happiness.
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Kyungsoo picks up a french fry and pops it into his mouth, only to spit it back out onto a paper napkin. “This tastes horrible.”
“Cafeteria food is the worst,” Baekhyun says, stabbing his burger with a bread knife. “I don't know why Chanyeol loves shoving this crap down his throat.”
“Excuse me,” Chanyeol says through a mouthful of spaghetti, his tone defensive. “the food does not taste bad at all. You just have to know how much ketchup to use.”
“You are going to get a kidney stone before you're 30,” Baekhyun mumbles, taking out his phone and texting rapidly into it. He does that all the time, and neither Chanyeol nor Kyungsoo know who or what he's texting. They're painfully curious too, since Baekhyun types with such an urgency that would make someone think he's sending a message to the Captain General. Or his mom. The latter is a more likely option.
“Hey,” Joonmyun whispers into Kyungsoo's ear, his breath making the hair on the younger's neck stand. Kyungsoo shudders inwardly, and nibbles on his lower lip. “why don't you meet me at the fish pond near central park before 6?”
“The fish pond?” Kyungsoo repeats nervously, fondling with his fingers. “Isn't that where-”
“Guys take the girls they like on a date,” Joonmyun says offhandedly, causing Kyungsoo to blush with wide eyes because holy crap, he wants to take me on a date.
Joonmyun chuckles at Kyungsoo's terrified/excited/constipated expression and ruffles his hair adoringly. “Don't worry, Kyungsoo-ah. I just want to show you something.”
Kyungsoo's inner fangirling comes to a halt, but he still dons that trade mark blush he has whenever Joonmyun's too close or too gorgeous or too cute or too...Joonmyun.
“So, it's a date?”
Kyungsoo's breath hitches because he's never dreamed of going on a date with Kim Joonmyun, the hot, perfect new student, and he thinks that it's the heavens' way of apologizing for putting him in such an awkward body (although he's well aware that it's just a friend-date to Joonmyun, don't burst his bubble please). He swallows the lump in his throat before speaking.
“I-it's a date.”
….
Kyungsoo makes sure everything is perfect.
Right after coming home and unceremoniously flinging his things everywhere, he takes a long, thorough shower. He sets the heater on a high temperature and shrieks when the scalding water comes in contact with his skin. He fights back tears, washing everything from his earlobes to the soles of his feet with the lavender and lilac body wash he picked up on the way home, and the tears fall anyway because oh my gosh I smell so good.
After making sure his skin is clear and fresh and that he doesn't reek of high school stank, he quickly changes into the most fashionable but comfortable clothes and accessories he could find in his (and his sister's, but he would never admit that) closets, and when he's satisfied with the way he looks, with his fancy sweater, crotch-tight jeans and high-cut boots, he gives a slight nod of affirmation to himself in the mirror.
He sits himself in front of the mirror, pulling out various hair care products and tools and laying them out on the desk. He attacks himself with a blow-dryer, simultaneously brushing out the kinks in his hair, and sprays a bunch of nourishing serums right after. He scoops up a small glob of wax and styles his hair like on of those stylists in the salon his mother frequents. This goes on for about half an hour, all of the cursing and burning of fingers because the curling iron is stupid included, and when a fresh, dressed-up Kyungsoo emerges from his room his mother gapes at him for a good three minutes (it runs in their family), and drives him to his 'date'.
…
He sees Joonmyun, looking as handsome as ever, leaning over the bridge to look at the fishes swimming in the body of water below. Kyungsoo heart is racing, and he almost regrets coming and turns around before the older boy sees him in his peripheral vision and calls out for him. “Kyungsoo-ah!”
“Hi, hyung,” Kyungsoo says with a slight smile, bowing before walking over to where Joonmyun is standing. They brush shoulders as Kyungsoo leans forward too, and a spark of electricity travels from his arm to his fingertips, his toes, and his heart; he pretends not to feel it though.
“The night sky is so beautiful,” Joonmyun says, looking up at the vast blanket of midnight blue above them, dotted with millions of sparkling shards that seem to illuminate everything just as much as the moon does. Just like how Joonmyun lights up Kyungsoo's world like nobody else, but the latter will never admit to using a One Direction song reference, now matter how appropriate because the park is dark and eerie at night. Never.
“So, um,” Kyungsoo says, unsure, eyes following an orange carp encircling a big, mossy rock in the middle of the pond. “what...did you want to show me?”
Joonmyun laughs, Kyungsoo noticing the nervous tone in his usually carefree laugh, and slings an arm over the younger boy's shoulders. “How long have we been friends, Kyungsoo?”
Kyungsoo doesn't respond right away. His mind is filled with Joonmyun again, like the first few days of their encounter, and it feels as if he's falling in love all over again. His senses are buzzing with Joonmyun's scent, an intoxicating mix of vanilla and menthol, and it takes a while for him to actually say something.
Joonmyun doesn't mind the silence though.
“A couple of months,” Kyungsoo breathes out after what seemed like hours, and leans into Joonmyun's touch. “Give or take.”
“Five months, to be exact,” Joonmyun says, his grip on Kyungsoo's shoulder tightening. “I was counting.”
Everything is silent, simply because Kyungsoo does not have anything to say to Joonmyun anymore. His mind is a barren wasteland devoid of any coherent thoughts, and saying something that may ruin the moment is not a wise thing to do.
Again, Joonmyun doesn't mind the silence. He knows Kyungsoo is listening.
“In the course of five months, I've become friends with one of the most awkward, adorable, kindhearted people I've ever met. And in those five months, I've learned a lot about myself because of that person.”
Kyungsoo keeps his eyes on the orange carp. Joonmyun continues.
“You know I've never really made any friends friends back home,” Joonmyun chuckles at the memory. Kyungsoo winces, remembering when the older boy recounted the times he was brutally abused by his classmates and teachers. “And I wanted to create a new image here.”
“You're pretty popular, now.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Joonmyun's hold on Kyungsoo's arm drops and shoves his hands into his pockets. “I'm happy that people are noticing me, and not wanting to beat the pulp out of me, but it wasn't what I was going for. All I really needed were friends. Friends that will go to my birthday parties, that will let me sleep over at their house, that will let me show them how much they mean to me,” Joonmyun takes out something from his pocket and clamps it onto Kyungsoo's wrist. “like this.”
Kyungsoo flinches as the cold surface comes in contact with his skin, and he brings his hand up to examine it. It's a thin band of silver, Hangul engraved on its smooth surface. He can't read it in this light (or dark), but smiles as he feels the surface with his fingers.
“Thank you,” Joonmyun smiles his 100-watt smile, not expecting Kyungsoo to say anything, and pulls the now blushing, bumbling boy into a tight embrace. “for being my friend.”
Kyungsoo's never slept as peacefully as he did that night.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
“Shhh! Be quiet, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun chides, elbowing Chanyeol in the ribs before staring intently into Kyungsoo's eyes. “Are you sure about this?”
“Oh my god, guys, it's fucking hot in here-”
“Goddamn, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun huffs angrily, smacking the other boy in the back of the head. “Shut the fuck up.”
“I think I'm ready...” Kyungsoo says, unconsciously playing with the silver bracelet on his right wrist. He imagines the scenario in his head, how it plays out according to plan, and starts sweating because 1) writing a final note about confessing to Joonmyun on the rooftop is probably the most terrifyingly difficult thing he's ever had to do and he's scared shitless, and 2) Chanyeol's right, it's like an oven in here.
“Soo-soo,” Chanyeol grunts, wiping at his sweat using his sleeve. “You're retarded for picking a broom closet as our secret meeting place.”
“Anyways,” Baekhyun says, deciding to completely ignore Chanyeol for the rest of the day and squeezes Kyungsoo's shoulder. “you sure you want to do this? Do you think it's the right time?”
“I think so,” Kyungsoo says, uncertainty evident on his features. He wasn't sure what to expect, and thinking about what might happen if Joonmyun rejects his confession...he doesn't even want to think about it, because the very thought of being rejected by someone you really really like and destroying your friendship in the process is making him nauseous, which is a bad thing because they're three grown men (one is a dumb giraffe) stuffed inside a smelly, hot, damp broom closet and they do not need stomach acid all over the floor.
“Well?” Baekhyun asks, looking at Kyungsoo expectantly. “Where's the letter?”
“I sort of...already slipped it in his locker-”
Chanyeol sighed, exasperated. “Then why did you even have to arrange a super secret meeting if you already di- ouch! What was that for, Baekhyunnie?”
“What did it say?” Baekhyun asked urgently, swatting Chanyeol's face away from his because it's fucking 80 degrees in here and they're literally all over each others sweaty bodies. “What did your note say?”
Kyungsoo fidgets, biting his lip as he tries to recall the words written on that pink sheet of paper; and when he does, he tries his best to make it sound not as cheesy and disgusting as actually is. “Um, y-you light up my world like nobody else...”
“W-what?” Baekhyun gasps, eyes wide.
“The way that y-you flip y-your h-hair gets me overwhelmed...”
“Goddammit, Soo,” Baekhyun groans, face-palming because no one should ever use a One Direction song reference to confess their undying love for someone. No one. “He doesn't even have hair to flip!”
“B-but-”
“Okay, we need flowers, a box of chocolates and,” Baekhyun grabs Chanyeol by the collar and glares at him. Chanyeol gulps, sweat still dripping down his face and neck. “you, sir, are going to shut your pie hole about this because we can't have an oversized alpaca running around, broadcasting Kyungsoo's little confession plan to the entire population of South Korea. Got that?”
Chanyeol lets out a muffled 'okay' and purses his lips into a tight line, metaphorically zipping it.
“What time is it?” Baekhyun asks stupidly, then looks at his wristwatch. “It's 4:15. When did your letter say you were gonna meet him?”
“5 o'clock,” Kyungsoo says, breath becoming ragged from the nervousness. “W-what should do?”
“Chanyeol and I,” Baekhyun makes sure to catch Chanyeol's attention by forcibly tugging on the his left ear. “will get flowers and chocolates, while you fix yourself up in the mens' bathroom.”
“Roger that,” Kyungsoo salutes, and they all laugh at their current situation.
Well, almost all of them.
“Let go of my ear, Baekhyunnie,” Chanyeol whines, his left eye twitching from the pain of Baekhyun's fingers holding his huge ear in a vice-grip.
The door flings open, and they scream at the sudden intrusion; the sudden intrusion being a tall, lanky boy with pale skin and droopy eyes.
“What are you guyth doing inthide the broom clothet?”
...
Deep breaths, Do Kyungsoo.
He checks his watch, 5:17, and he curses himself for being unprepared for this whole confession thing.
It just sort of happened. How he woke up from a peaceful sleep at 5 in the morning, how he automatically took out the pink stationary and started writing, and how he casually and confidently slipped it into Joonmyun's locker; it was all out of instinct, like he was supposed to do it.
He didn't feel like it though, until during last period, Chemistry class, Joonmyun suddenly whispered “I'm going to meet my secret admirer today”. It was then that he tensed up, completely unaware of what he had done, and excused himself from the class for 'personal' reasons. He texted Chanyeol and Baekhyun immediately, and when they passed by the broom closet in which Kyungsoo was hiding, the youngest of the three grabbed them by the necks and pulled them inside, and they started planning the whole thing. They didn't even notice the bell ring and the students shuffle out of their classrooms until Sehun, or Thehun or whatever, the freshman who looked like he was perpetually bored out of his mind, discovered the trio suspiciously plotting inside the broom closet.
He stands before the metal door that leads to the high school building's rooftop, a box of chocolates tucked underneath his left arm and a bouquet of white roses (because Joonmyun's favorite color is white, okay) in his hand. He sends a prayer up to the heavens that he won't faint or puke, especially not at the same time, when he's face to face with the man he's in love with.
Taking a deep breath, he clutches the door handle and pries it open.
He was half prepared to see Joonmyun sitting by the ledge of the roof, bored to death, or Joonmyun not being there at all.
He's not prepared, however, to see Joonmyun hugging someone so intimately, a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses already in his hands.
Kyungsoo's mind goes blank, not processing what's happening right in front of him, and drops everything he's holding. He doesn't feel anything, not pain, not sadness, not jealousy, not...anything.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun rushes over to him with a shocked expression.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun looks at him with tears welling in his eyes.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun's expression suddenly turns worried, and starts touching his face.
He doesn't feel anything when he pushes Joonmyun away and walks back down the staircase.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun races after him, tripping on one of the steps.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun calls after him, telling him to wait for him.
He doesn't feel anything. He's...
...numb.
one | two
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Joonmyun x Kyungsoo, slight!Baekhyun x Chanyeol
Genre: highschool!AU, humor, romance
Word Count: 9,927 words
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with EXO, the management, and the company. I only own the plot and the story itself.
Summary: Kyungsoo is awkward, and Joonmyun is perfect.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
Making friends has always been a challenge for Do Kyungsoo. Being the awkward turtle he is (metaphorically speaking, obviously), he preferred sitting quietly in the back of the classroom, slaving over a ridiculously easy trigonometry equation that he can't quite get during math class or snoring rhythmically to Ms. Park's rendition of 'My Heart Will Go On' during music class.
His classmates (except Baekhyun and Chanyeol, who can't seem to stop sticking to him and to each other) don't really take notice of him, which is quite favorable for both parties. It's probably because he's not one to stand out, or because he has that face that looks like he's judging your existence; so people tend to avoid Kyungsoo and his judgmental awkwardness.
His teachers don't really take notice of him either (thank god for that because his perpetually confused expression will probably give him and his inattentiveness away), so when a loud “Do Kyungsoo! Would you please stop scrutinizing Jongin's back long enough to tell me how long it takes for water to evaporate when heated at 180 degrees Celsius?” booms through the classroom and slams right into his eardrums, he unsurprisingly falls off his seat, knocking over some of his and his seatmate's (wait, when did he even have a seatmate) things.
“I'm sorry!” he groans, picking up the notebooks and sheets of paper that have scattered all around the floor. Everyone's looking at him, some even going “what a loser”, and his face is now a bright shade of red because fuck, he's made a complete idiot of himself, there goes his nonexistent reputation-
“Um, let me help you.” a voice chirps, interrupting his masochistic thoughts. A body drapes over him suddenly, picking up the fallen items with long, pretty fingers and a face right next to his; and Kyungsoo's heart is pounding against his ribcage because he has never been this close to another human being. The person's slightly open mouth is hovering just above the skin of his neck, and his breath that smells like vanilla and menthol mouthwash sends tingles in places Kyungsoo didn't even know could tingle and is he sweating?
“T-thank you.” Kyungsoo stutters as they get back onto their seats. He sneaks a peek at his knight in shining armor and quickly looks away before the latter sees Kyungsoo's blood rush to his face.
The other boy laughs, and oh my god can I just drown in that laugh, and holds out his hand for Kyungsoo to take. “No problem. My name is Joonmyun.”
“My name is Kyu-” he begins, but is cut off when Joonmyun abruptly grabs his hand and gives it a hearty shake. Kyungsoo's voice catches in his throat. He thinks Joonmyun's hands are very soft and that he's having trouble breathing.
“Kyungsoo. I sort of know, already,” Joonmyun grins, Kyungsoo's heart stopping in response, and let's go of the latter's hand. “I'm a new student, so I hope you'll take care of me.”
They sit there in awkward silence, facing each other with a bright smile and a terrified look plastered on Joonmyun's and Kyungsoo's faces, respectively. The bell rings finally, and a still smiling Joonmyun goes and collects his things.
“Well, it was nice meeting you,” he chuckles, shoving his things inside his bag and standing up to walk to the door.“I'll see you tomorrow.”
It takes a good three minutes for Kyungsoo to realize that he's alone in a classroom, gaping rather unattractively at nothing in particular, red as a tomato because he's probably had the best encounter of his whole life and he ruined it by being weird as fuck. He gulps and walks gloomily to his next class, and he remembers that it's dismissal and he doesn't have any classes anymore, so he just drags himself home while cursing the heavens for making him so awkward.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
“Are you going to eat that?”
“Oh, look who's here. Hey, Kyungsoo.”
“So you're not going to eat that, then?”
Groaning, Kyungsoo lugs his bag at the empty seat in front of Chanyeol and Baekhyun and slams his tray sluggishly onto the white cafeteria table. He sits down with a sullen expression and a hunched back, earning a look from Baekhyun.
“You seem to be in a good mood.” Baekhyun frowns, chewing on a clump of mashed potatoes while Chanyeol continues to pester him about his cheeseburger. He ignores the latter though, and directs his attention to a now sulking Kyungsoo. “What's the problem?”
“Nothing.” Kyungsoo mumbles, picking at his french fries. How can he even eat this? All he can think about is Joonmyun and his stupid smile and his stupid laugh and his stupid soft hands. Everything about him is stupid because he makes Kyungsoo feel like there's a ton of bricks in the pit of his stomach and there's a virus in his bloodstream that makes him delirious and inattentive and just become a walking zombie of who he used to be. Do Kyungsoo does not like it, one little bit. And he just met, no, made a complete idiot of himself in front of Joonmyun, a few days ago. How the boy had already managed to take up seventy percent of his already malfunctioning brain is beyond him.
What if he talks to Kyungsoo again? Oh god, no. No, please no. Because that would mean more sweaty palms and trembling and butterflies and heart palpitations and--
“Are you sure?” Baekhyun pipes up, stabbing Chanyeol, who was now literally breathing down Baekhyun's neck, whispering the same 'are you going to eat that' chant into Baekhyun's ear, with his pencil to get him to move away before he uses Zitao's wushu stick on him.
“How could you...” Chanyeol says dejectedly, slumping back onto his seat and chewing at his celery. “Even bringing Zitao's wushu stick into this...” Baekhyun ignores him though, because even a pouting Chanyeol that looked oh-so-cute and adorable could not make him feel guilty. Not at all. Well, maybe a little.
“Baekhyun, what is it like to be...you know, in love?” Kyungsoo says so quietly it's like he's afraid an agency of super secret spies would be listening to their conversation. Although he's pretty sure that even his own mother isn't the smallest bit interested in his love life.
Baekhyun visibly chokes at this question, caught completely off-guard, and Chanyeol immediately puts a hand on the former's cheek and rubs the his back so intimately that Baekhyun flushes a bright red making it look like he's going to die of suffocation any minute. Kyungsoo looks at an embarrassed Baekhyun, then at an oblivious Chanyeol, and smiles inwardly.
“Why-” Baekhyun stops to glare at Chanyeol with a you-can-stop-touching-me-now look. “-do you need to know?”
“Um, no reason.”Kyungsoo mumbles, sticking a french fry into his mouth. It tastes bitter. Even the pancakes he ate this morning tasted bitter. He hates how everything seems to taste bitter lately.
“Is our Soo-soo in love?” Chanyeol teases, grinning at the boy, who proceeded to widen his eyes to the size of saucepans.
“What?” Kyungsoo splutters, quickly putting on his 'offended' face, which Baekhyun just think looks like he's constipated or something. “Of course not! And stop calling me that!”
“So, what's her name?” Baekhyun asks almost nonchalantly, huffing frustratedly when Chanyeol's hand is suddenly creeping towards a half eaten cheeseburger on the former's tray. “Or his. I don't judge.”
“No! I'm just curious!” Kyungsoo defends, because yeah, he's just curious about how soft Joonmyun's hands would be in his, or how soft his lips are when he's not smiling and instead, kissing the fuck out of him while his hands in the other's soft hair-
And then he realizes that he's sweating bullets and that his face is about the same color as a ripe tomato and that there's a growing problem in his pants that may or may not cause his 'loser' reputation to become worse than it already is if he stands up to soon. It doesn't help that he has a class with the reason why there's a disturbance in his nether regions in three fucking hours and he doesn't think he has enough time to deal with this problem because godammit he can't just go to the bathroom and jerk off-
“Spill it,” Chanyeol cuts off Kyungsoo's train of thought and grins slyly, standing up and leaning forward, causing a couple of bystanders to stare in their general direction because Chanyeol's a fucking giant and he looks like he's about to crazy-murder someone.
“Yeah, we're friends,” Baekhyun hums as he takes a small bite out of burger before throwing it back onto his tray, earning a disapproving look from Chanyeol. He rolls his eyes and looks at Kyungsoo, smiling intently. “And Chanyeol promises not to tell every fucking person he sees about it, like he did with your last crush.”
“Well, there's this tranferee,” Kyungsoo starts, and his face is warm and his hands are warm and his body is warm and is it hot in here or what? “He's in my Chemistry class and I think I like him-”
“You mean the new kid?”Chanyeol interrupts, whispering (although with a voice that deep, people will just assume it's the school's generator engine). “The one that came from the rich people district? Kim Joon-what's-his-face? I heard his dad's CEO or something.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Chanyeol, stop believing in everything you hear. And there are a lot of new students this year. He's probably not even the one Kyungsoo's talking about.
“But it's true!” Chanyeol retorts. “Luhan and his friends were talking about it earlier. They said he was a model for some teen agency, and quit because he wanted to study.”
“Chanyeol-”
“He's like totally smart, and plays golf. Golf.”
“Wait what-”
“Hey Kyungsoo!” Kyungsoo freezes up, because he knows who that is and that he's coming over to his table and that his soft hands are now on his shoulder and good god that feels so right-
“H-hi,” Kyungsoo stutters, looking down at his food and blushing madly because if he looks up, he knows his growing problem will probably enlarge and ew, why is he thinking about that. “Uh, these are my friends, Chanyeol and Baekhyun.”
“Hey,” Baekhyun greets, giving Joonmyun a slight smile before glancing at Kyungsoo, who was now in a deep, heated discussion with his french fries and chicken sandwich.
“Hellooo~” Chanyeol beams, his creepy, eye-twitching grin stretched across his face. Joonmyun laughs nervously, and waves back. “You're the new kid right? Are you friends with Kyungsoo?”
“I am,” Joonmyun chimes, sitting down next to Kyungsoo. Their legs touch and Kyungsoo is hyperventilating. "and we have a Chemistry class together so, I guess?"
Baekhyun's eyes dart from a smiling Joonmyun and a hyperventilating Kyungsoo, then widen in realization. He lightly kicks Kyungsoo from under the table and Kyungsoo looks up from his lunch to Baekhyun looking at him knowingly.
Is he the guy you're talking about?
Kyungsoo glares, shh! Don't say a fucking word, and looks down again.
Baekhyun gets it, thankfully, and just starts finishing off the rest of his burger.
Chanyeol, however, continues to remain oblivious.
“Did you know that Kyungsoo likes yo-”
A large thud sends Chanyeol's lunch flying straight into his face, and Baekhyun screeches like a puppy getting run over by a truck.
Kyungsoo think he's never kicked a lunch table that hard, and his foot will probably swell for days.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
“How am I supposed to balance a bunch of letters?” Kyungsoo laments silently, about to cry because he doesn't know what the hell these letters mean, and he forgot his periodic table at home. He curses everyone, from Mr. Wu, his lovely Chemistry teacher who he still hates for embarrassing him in front of the class and Joonmyun, to Joonmyun himself, who's sitting just a few inches away from him, being all lovely and perfect and amazing.
It's torture to be totally infatuated with someone you've only met a few weeks ago, to be quite honest. Kyungsoo swears he's never felt this way about anyone, not even that girl he kissed back in the 6th grade or his 1st year English teacher (the one that Chanyeol blurted out to everybody in the student body), and it's weird because Joonmyun, apparently, is the hot, new transferee that all the girls go crazy over; and he tends to avoid people like those because everyone's attention is on the hot, new student and being with said hot, new student will draw attention and drawing attention onto himself is a very, very bad idea.
In that moment, as Kyungsoo is simultaneously having an inner battle with himself and drooling over the guy next to him, Joonmyun smiles. He smiles so brightly, his eyes crinkle into a lovely crescent shape above his smooth, white cheeks. He smiles because of the smallest reasons, like how Mr. Lee scratches his butt every few minutes, or because a girl in the front row is waving shyly at him, or even when he solves a Chemistry problem before everyone else. It's always the small things that make him smile so brightly, and that smile is so contagious that everyone who's within a five foot radius of the boy will probably end up smiling like him (although not as attractively) until the end of the day.
And Kyungsoo immediately regrets ogling at Joonmyun for more than ten seconds when the latter looks back at him with an amused grin and a sparkle in his eyes, because the older boy thinks Kyungsoo's face is a perfect combination of frightened, flushed and adorable.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Joonmyun chuckles, turning on his swivel chair and facing Kyungsoo with a bright smile.
Shit. “E-eh?” Kyungsoo splutters nervously and looks down back at his paper, biting the insides of his cheeks because fuck you, Do Kyungsoo, you're a fucking idiot. “I-I'm not.”
Joonmyun laughs that beautiful, feathery laugh that makes Kyungsoo's brain fall into his gut, and scoots closer to the latter. He leans over and raises a perfectly curved eyebrow at Kyungsoo's unanswered exercise sheet, and the latter is now sweating bullets because Joonmyun probably thinks he's a lazy dumbass, which he is, but that's not the point. He catches a quiet, mumbled 'so cute', but he's probably just hearing things.
Joonmyun sees Kyungsoo's distressed expression and smiles, his teeth glistening from the blindingly bright fluorescent lights above them.
“Do you need help?” and without even waiting for answer, he immediately pulls Kyungsoo's swivel chair closer and starts writing on a piece of paper. “You see, when you're given two compounds, you have to find-”
Kyungsoo flushes uncontrollably at the close proximity of Joonmyun's face, and he thinks his brain is malfunctioning because Kim fucking Joonmyun's perfect face is literally five inches away from his. He tries to listen to the various instructions and explanations spouting out of Joonmyun's mouth and he thinks he gets it because the letters and numbers make sense to him now, even though half of his mind is in Joonmyun Land which is full of rainbows and hearts and Joonmyun's face and no Chanyeol.
“T-thanks,” Kyungsoo whispers, still facing his paper. “I think I get it now.”
“Really?” Joonmyun beams, his expression bright and Kyungsoo's heart flutters just a little bit. “Why don't you do the next problem?”
Kyungsoo does.
And he regrets it immediately.
Damn you, Mr. Wu.
“Um, that's wrong...” Joonmyun says, still smiling. Kyungsoo frowns, unable to hide his disappointment, and puffs out his cheeks. Joonmyun finds it adorable, and smiles even more. “Do you need a tutor? I can always come over your place after school if you do.”
“What?” Kyungsoo's eyes widen further, if that's even possible, and his face heats up at the thought of Joonmyun in his room doing 'homework'.
“I can tutor you if you want.”
Say no. It's a horrible idea, Kyungsoo thinks. Tell him you have flute lessons or something, because if you slip-up and he finds out you like him he'll probably go apeshit-
“S-sure,” Kyungsoo answers, still not looking at Joonmyun. “I'd like that.”
That wasn't a no. That wasn't even a small no.
Joonmyun laughs as Kyungsoo still continues to look at everything and everyone but Joonmyun, and pokes Kyungsoo's cheek playfully. “It would be great if I had directions, though, don't you think?”
“Oh, right,” Kyungsoo mumbles, bowing his head apologetically as he scribbles his address on a piece of paper with clammy hands and trembling fingers. “H-here you go.”
“So, your house? Tonight?”
“O-okay.” Kyungsoo mutters, and (finally) looks up at Joonmyun.
“Great, I'll see you tonight then,” Joonmyun chirps, and stands up just before the bell rings, slinging his bag over his shoulders and going for the door (some of the girls are already pushing each other to walk next to Joonmyun, but he doesn't seem to notice). “Later!”
Kyungsoo mentally notes to have Mr. Wu assassinated.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
The first night Joonmyun comes over to tutor Kyungsoo, everything is, as expected from Kyungsoo, extremely awkward. Kyungsoo avoids each and every type of physical contact, from ducking his head whenever Joonmyun reaches out to pat it or shifting away from the latter to avoid brushing against the his shoulder, and Joonmyun would just laugh, finding Kyungsoo's shyness endearing.
Over the course of several weeks, in which Joonmyun appears at the Do family's front door at exactly 6 o'clock in the evening, Kyungsoo learns a lot about Joonmyun. He learns that Joonmyun lives in an apartment now, the older boy also mentioning how clean and organized Kyungsoo's room is (Kyungsoo says he's a neat freak) compared to his, and beforehand lived in an exclusive neighborhood in Seoul with his parents. He also went to a private school before transferring and, it turns out, the reason he was sent to a public school was because he was being bullied (who would bully such a perfect person), and was supposed to start a new life here.
Being so absorbed in Joonmyun's stories, the usually quiet and self-kept Kyungsoo finds himself opening up to the older boy. He tells him about his parents being divorced and how he and his sister ended up with his mother, how he became a bit depressed when his sister left for college, his dreams of becoming a singer, his past relationship that didn't work out because he had caught the other cheat on him on his own birthday, and just everything that he's never let out to anyone except Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Kyungsoo would talk and talk, unlike his usual self, and when tears would slowly but surely fall, Joonmyun would always be there to rub soothing circles on the younger's back, cooing a sincere 'i'm sorry, don't cry, i'm right here' into the younger's ear. Kyungsoo always apologizes after crying, afraid that he might have made Joonmyun uncomfortable, but Joonmyun says he likes when Kyungsoo lets out his feelings, because what are friends for?, Joonmyun would always say.
And now that they're officially friends, Kyungsoo doesn't want to ruin it.
It doesn't help that Joonmyun's extremely sweet to his friends. Kyungsoo would wake up to a text from Joonmyun saying 'good morning, I hope you don't trip over your own feet today', and the latter would either be extremely embarrassed or frighteningly happy for the whole day, causing both Baekhyun and Chanyeol to skeptically raise and eyebrow at him in fear that their 'Soo-soo' might be suffering from schizophrenia.
Joonmyun is also very touchy, much to the disadvantage of Kyungsoo. He likes poking cheeks and entangling fingers and rubbing shoulders; and Kyungsoo can't be expected to act cool and collected when the apple of his eye constantly touches sensitive spots on his skin that sends the former into a fit of squealing and sobbing every night.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
“Tell him you like him, then.” Chanyeol says to his bluetooth earpiece, irritated. Who wouldn't be? The past Friday
nights when they're supposed to be in a conference call, playing World of Warcraft online and screaming profanities at each other were mostly spent talking about how perfect and gorgeous and beautiful and did I mention he has soft hands, Joonmyun is. And it wasn't helping that Kyungsoo, their poor, naïve little Soo-soo, was being a huge sulking, lovesick mess with his 'he'll never like me like that' and 'he's perfect and I'm a loser' speeches that Chanyeol swears he can hear Baekhyun seething with rage over the other line.
“W-What?!” Kyungsoo sputters, choking on his spit. “I can't do that! He'll hate me!”
“You're overreacting, Soo-soo.” Baekhyun grits, a vein on his forehead ready to pop.
“No, I'm not!” Because what if Joonmyun finds him disgusting and rejects him like 'ah, that's cute, but I'm straight and I don't date faggots' and pats his head before proceeding to ignore Kyungsoo's sad existence forever?
“I mean, you don't have anything to lose,” Chanyeol mutters, getting his hero brutally slaughtered by Baekhyun's sorcerers, and he knows that Baekhyun is seething with rage right now. “And I'm sure Joonmyun won't outright tell you 'no'. He is Mr. Perfect, after all.”
“But what if-”
“That's just it, you retard,” Baekhyun grunts, mercilessly obliterating one of Chanyeol's base camps. “You're all 'what ifs'. If you don't tell him, or even drop a hint, he won't consider you to be a romantic interest.”
Kyungsoo ponders upon this for a few moments, because Baekhyun's right. He'll never know what Joonmyun will say or do once he finds out Kyungsoo's feelings for him (he's still pretty sure about the whole 'that's cute', head pat and being ignored forever scenario though) if he doesn't let the other boy know.
What if he likes me back?
The possibility of Joonmyun being his...boyfriend...is enough for Kyungsoo to writhe inwardly in glee, and that little slither of hope gives him just a bit more confidence in himself.
“...So, what should I do?”
There's silence over the line, and Kyungsoo's sure he hears Chanyeol shuffle through a box of CDs (oh my god, no), then Baekhyun sighs exasperatedly, shutting down his computer and flinging himself onto his bed.
“You know,” Baekhyun says, snuggling in the warmth of his blankets and breathing in the scent of orange fabric softener. “write letters and slip him in his locker. Ask to meet up after some time. The works.”
“Do you think I can do it?” Kyungsoo murmurs, his heart clenching because of the fear and uncertainty swallowing him up. When it comes down to it, can he really tell Joonmyun what he feels?
“Have a little faith in yourself, Soo-soo,” Baekhyun hums, settling in comfortably in his bed. “Whatever the outcome, I'm sure you'll take it like a man.”
There's a comfortable silence, and Kyungsoo is smiling because even though he doesn't really show it, Baekhyun is a really huge softy and can actually say something decent aside from his sarcastic remarks and puns, like comforting advice. It reminds Kyungsoo of why he and Baekhyun got along in the first place.
Chanyeol, on the other hand, he still had no idea why they even talked to each other.
“Guys, oh my god, I found my old Eminem CD! Let me go play it for yo-”
Both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun hang up on him at the same time.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
Kyungsoo feels ridiculous as he holds the pink parchment in between his fingertips, and wishes that no one actually goes to school this early. He inhales before carefully slipping the pink piece of folded paper into the slit of Joonmyun's locker and exhales when he hears the letter hit something with a quiet thud. He runs to his first class, and Ms. Choi practically screams her head off when Kyungsoo barges into her classroom at 7 in the morning, looking flustered as hell.
Later that night, Kyungsoo is feeling particularly nervous because he's waiting for Joonmyun, who's leisurely laying on his bed and talking about his iguana, to bring up the love letter. Kyungsoo listens wholeheartedly though, because he loves when Joonmyun talks about little things like this and just seems so immersed in it, and nods along enthusiastically. He feels a bit downcast when it's almost 9 o'clock, meaning Joonmyun has to go soon, and he hasn't even talked about anything remotely related to the love letter.
Just as Kyungsoo is about to finish his Chemistry homework, Joonmyun says something almost inaudibly, but the former hears it just as well.
“So, I found something in my locker today.”
Kyungsoo's palms suddenly start to sweat, and he feels a faint pounding in his cranium. “R-really?”
“Yeah,” Joonmyun says, sitting next to Kyungsoo and leaning over to check on his homework. “I think it's a confession letter or something.”
“That's interesting...” Kyungsoo murmurs, his ears turning a bright shade of pink. Joonmyun looks at him and Kyungsoo looks back (he's past the extremely awkward friendship stage and can now look Joonmyun in the eye after such a long time), and there's something deep yet unreadable in the elder's expression that Kyungsoo can't quite make out. Was it frustration? Or disbelief?
“You,” Joonmyun deadpans, his expression still unreadable, and Kyungsoo hold his breath because he's afraid he's been found out even before anything has happened. He immediately prays that whatever comes next doesn't involve any physical abuse because he likes his face where it is, thank you very much.
Joonmyun takes notice of the look of surprise on Kyungsoo's face though, and continues. “Actually got your homework right. Congratulations.”
Kyungsoo's eyes look like their about to pop out of his head, and he cradles the piece of paper in his hands like it's a newborn child. “Wow! It's all thanks to you, hyung.”
“You studied well,” Joonmyun smiles slightly and ruffles Kyungsoo's hair before standing up to gather his things. “I'll be heading home now.”
“Thanks again,” Kyungsoo bows, leading Joonmyun to the door. “Goodnight.”
He expects a pat on his head or a warm embrace like what Joonmyun usually gives him every night before leaving, but he is caught off guard when a soft pair of lips press against his forehead. His face is becoming very hot now, and the way Joonmyun cups his left cheek after kissing his forehead is not helping him cool down at all.
“I'll see you tomorrow,” Joonmyun smiles, a twinkle in his eye that Kyungsoo's seen all the time but has something different about it now, and walks away, leaving a gaping Kyungsoo frozen at his doorstep, whose mind turned into nothing but a buzz of static.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
For the next month or so, Kyungsoo's resolves to writing heartfelt love letters on pink sheets of stationary every night after Joonmyun leaves, because that's when his sappiness is really at its extreme. He writes lyrics of songs he likes, favorite lines like “단 한 번만 네 옆에서 발을 맞춰 걸어 보고파 한 번 딱 한 번만요”, and just reading those phrases seemed to make the elder's day. In the morning at school, when he peeks at Joonmyun from behind the large staircase leading to the second floor of the high school building, he feels a little part of him shrivel up and die (from happiness) when the elder giggles and stuffs the note in his pocket before gathering his books for his first class.
The tutorial sessions every night are what Kyungsoo looks forward to everyday. He'd always do his homework right away when he comes home so that from 6 to 9 o'clock in the evening, he and Joonmyun can just hang out and talk. They'd play video games, watch TV and Joonmyun would talk about his secret admirer. It pleased Kyungsoo to no end hearing Joonmyun say things like I think I'm falling for my secret admirer and I wish she'd show up and kiss me already. Kyungsoo would always avert his gaze when Joonmyun brings this up, because he can't have the elder see him weep and moan and spazz inwardly with huge red blotches of heat on his cheeks and ears; and the latter would always lean on him, laughing with the same beautiful laugh that Kyungsoo fell in love with a long time ago. “Don't be sad, Kyungsoo-ah,” Joonmyun would always say. “Even if I get a girlfriend, I'll always have time for you.”
In that instant, no matter how bittersweet his relationship with Joonmyun is, Kyungsoo feels like life is really worth living.
On the rare ocassion when Joonmyun is feeling down, he'd ask Kyungsoo to sing for him. And so, Kyungsoo sings. He'd sing the first song that comes to mind, and coincidentally, these songs always make Joonmyun feel better.
Kyungsoo sings because it makes him feel free. It makes him forget all his problems, even for a short while. He used to sing just for himself, because no one really understood why singing made him so happy; but after meeting Joonmyun, he doesn't sing for himself anymore.
The look Joonmyun has when Kyungsoo's done with the song, the look of contentment, happiness, love, makes Kyungsoo fall for him a little bit more everytime. Finally, singing meant so much more to him than being happy by himself because now, Joonmyun was there to share in his happiness.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
Kyungsoo picks up a french fry and pops it into his mouth, only to spit it back out onto a paper napkin. “This tastes horrible.”
“Cafeteria food is the worst,” Baekhyun says, stabbing his burger with a bread knife. “I don't know why Chanyeol loves shoving this crap down his throat.”
“Excuse me,” Chanyeol says through a mouthful of spaghetti, his tone defensive. “the food does not taste bad at all. You just have to know how much ketchup to use.”
“You are going to get a kidney stone before you're 30,” Baekhyun mumbles, taking out his phone and texting rapidly into it. He does that all the time, and neither Chanyeol nor Kyungsoo know who or what he's texting. They're painfully curious too, since Baekhyun types with such an urgency that would make someone think he's sending a message to the Captain General. Or his mom. The latter is a more likely option.
“Hey,” Joonmyun whispers into Kyungsoo's ear, his breath making the hair on the younger's neck stand. Kyungsoo shudders inwardly, and nibbles on his lower lip. “why don't you meet me at the fish pond near central park before 6?”
“The fish pond?” Kyungsoo repeats nervously, fondling with his fingers. “Isn't that where-”
“Guys take the girls they like on a date,” Joonmyun says offhandedly, causing Kyungsoo to blush with wide eyes because holy crap, he wants to take me on a date.
Joonmyun chuckles at Kyungsoo's terrified/excited/constipated expression and ruffles his hair adoringly. “Don't worry, Kyungsoo-ah. I just want to show you something.”
Kyungsoo's inner fangirling comes to a halt, but he still dons that trade mark blush he has whenever Joonmyun's too close or too gorgeous or too cute or too...Joonmyun.
“So, it's a date?”
Kyungsoo's breath hitches because he's never dreamed of going on a date with Kim Joonmyun, the hot, perfect new student, and he thinks that it's the heavens' way of apologizing for putting him in such an awkward body (although he's well aware that it's just a friend-date to Joonmyun, don't burst his bubble please). He swallows the lump in his throat before speaking.
“I-it's a date.”
….
Kyungsoo makes sure everything is perfect.
Right after coming home and unceremoniously flinging his things everywhere, he takes a long, thorough shower. He sets the heater on a high temperature and shrieks when the scalding water comes in contact with his skin. He fights back tears, washing everything from his earlobes to the soles of his feet with the lavender and lilac body wash he picked up on the way home, and the tears fall anyway because oh my gosh I smell so good.
After making sure his skin is clear and fresh and that he doesn't reek of high school stank, he quickly changes into the most fashionable but comfortable clothes and accessories he could find in his (and his sister's, but he would never admit that) closets, and when he's satisfied with the way he looks, with his fancy sweater, crotch-tight jeans and high-cut boots, he gives a slight nod of affirmation to himself in the mirror.
He sits himself in front of the mirror, pulling out various hair care products and tools and laying them out on the desk. He attacks himself with a blow-dryer, simultaneously brushing out the kinks in his hair, and sprays a bunch of nourishing serums right after. He scoops up a small glob of wax and styles his hair like on of those stylists in the salon his mother frequents. This goes on for about half an hour, all of the cursing and burning of fingers because the curling iron is stupid included, and when a fresh, dressed-up Kyungsoo emerges from his room his mother gapes at him for a good three minutes (it runs in their family), and drives him to his 'date'.
…
He sees Joonmyun, looking as handsome as ever, leaning over the bridge to look at the fishes swimming in the body of water below. Kyungsoo heart is racing, and he almost regrets coming and turns around before the older boy sees him in his peripheral vision and calls out for him. “Kyungsoo-ah!”
“Hi, hyung,” Kyungsoo says with a slight smile, bowing before walking over to where Joonmyun is standing. They brush shoulders as Kyungsoo leans forward too, and a spark of electricity travels from his arm to his fingertips, his toes, and his heart; he pretends not to feel it though.
“The night sky is so beautiful,” Joonmyun says, looking up at the vast blanket of midnight blue above them, dotted with millions of sparkling shards that seem to illuminate everything just as much as the moon does. Just like how Joonmyun lights up Kyungsoo's world like nobody else, but the latter will never admit to using a One Direction song reference, now matter how appropriate because the park is dark and eerie at night. Never.
“So, um,” Kyungsoo says, unsure, eyes following an orange carp encircling a big, mossy rock in the middle of the pond. “what...did you want to show me?”
Joonmyun laughs, Kyungsoo noticing the nervous tone in his usually carefree laugh, and slings an arm over the younger boy's shoulders. “How long have we been friends, Kyungsoo?”
Kyungsoo doesn't respond right away. His mind is filled with Joonmyun again, like the first few days of their encounter, and it feels as if he's falling in love all over again. His senses are buzzing with Joonmyun's scent, an intoxicating mix of vanilla and menthol, and it takes a while for him to actually say something.
Joonmyun doesn't mind the silence though.
“A couple of months,” Kyungsoo breathes out after what seemed like hours, and leans into Joonmyun's touch. “Give or take.”
“Five months, to be exact,” Joonmyun says, his grip on Kyungsoo's shoulder tightening. “I was counting.”
Everything is silent, simply because Kyungsoo does not have anything to say to Joonmyun anymore. His mind is a barren wasteland devoid of any coherent thoughts, and saying something that may ruin the moment is not a wise thing to do.
Again, Joonmyun doesn't mind the silence. He knows Kyungsoo is listening.
“In the course of five months, I've become friends with one of the most awkward, adorable, kindhearted people I've ever met. And in those five months, I've learned a lot about myself because of that person.”
Kyungsoo keeps his eyes on the orange carp. Joonmyun continues.
“You know I've never really made any friends friends back home,” Joonmyun chuckles at the memory. Kyungsoo winces, remembering when the older boy recounted the times he was brutally abused by his classmates and teachers. “And I wanted to create a new image here.”
“You're pretty popular, now.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Joonmyun's hold on Kyungsoo's arm drops and shoves his hands into his pockets. “I'm happy that people are noticing me, and not wanting to beat the pulp out of me, but it wasn't what I was going for. All I really needed were friends. Friends that will go to my birthday parties, that will let me sleep over at their house, that will let me show them how much they mean to me,” Joonmyun takes out something from his pocket and clamps it onto Kyungsoo's wrist. “like this.”
Kyungsoo flinches as the cold surface comes in contact with his skin, and he brings his hand up to examine it. It's a thin band of silver, Hangul engraved on its smooth surface. He can't read it in this light (or dark), but smiles as he feels the surface with his fingers.
“Thank you,” Joonmyun smiles his 100-watt smile, not expecting Kyungsoo to say anything, and pulls the now blushing, bumbling boy into a tight embrace. “for being my friend.”
Kyungsoo's never slept as peacefully as he did that night.
❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈ ❈
“Shhh! Be quiet, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun chides, elbowing Chanyeol in the ribs before staring intently into Kyungsoo's eyes. “Are you sure about this?”
“Oh my god, guys, it's fucking hot in here-”
“Goddamn, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun huffs angrily, smacking the other boy in the back of the head. “Shut the fuck up.”
“I think I'm ready...” Kyungsoo says, unconsciously playing with the silver bracelet on his right wrist. He imagines the scenario in his head, how it plays out according to plan, and starts sweating because 1) writing a final note about confessing to Joonmyun on the rooftop is probably the most terrifyingly difficult thing he's ever had to do and he's scared shitless, and 2) Chanyeol's right, it's like an oven in here.
“Soo-soo,” Chanyeol grunts, wiping at his sweat using his sleeve. “You're retarded for picking a broom closet as our secret meeting place.”
“Anyways,” Baekhyun says, deciding to completely ignore Chanyeol for the rest of the day and squeezes Kyungsoo's shoulder. “you sure you want to do this? Do you think it's the right time?”
“I think so,” Kyungsoo says, uncertainty evident on his features. He wasn't sure what to expect, and thinking about what might happen if Joonmyun rejects his confession...he doesn't even want to think about it, because the very thought of being rejected by someone you really really like and destroying your friendship in the process is making him nauseous, which is a bad thing because they're three grown men (one is a dumb giraffe) stuffed inside a smelly, hot, damp broom closet and they do not need stomach acid all over the floor.
“Well?” Baekhyun asks, looking at Kyungsoo expectantly. “Where's the letter?”
“I sort of...already slipped it in his locker-”
Chanyeol sighed, exasperated. “Then why did you even have to arrange a super secret meeting if you already di- ouch! What was that for, Baekhyunnie?”
“What did it say?” Baekhyun asked urgently, swatting Chanyeol's face away from his because it's fucking 80 degrees in here and they're literally all over each others sweaty bodies. “What did your note say?”
Kyungsoo fidgets, biting his lip as he tries to recall the words written on that pink sheet of paper; and when he does, he tries his best to make it sound not as cheesy and disgusting as actually is. “Um, y-you light up my world like nobody else...”
“W-what?” Baekhyun gasps, eyes wide.
“The way that y-you flip y-your h-hair gets me overwhelmed...”
“Goddammit, Soo,” Baekhyun groans, face-palming because no one should ever use a One Direction song reference to confess their undying love for someone. No one. “He doesn't even have hair to flip!”
“B-but-”
“Okay, we need flowers, a box of chocolates and,” Baekhyun grabs Chanyeol by the collar and glares at him. Chanyeol gulps, sweat still dripping down his face and neck. “you, sir, are going to shut your pie hole about this because we can't have an oversized alpaca running around, broadcasting Kyungsoo's little confession plan to the entire population of South Korea. Got that?”
Chanyeol lets out a muffled 'okay' and purses his lips into a tight line, metaphorically zipping it.
“What time is it?” Baekhyun asks stupidly, then looks at his wristwatch. “It's 4:15. When did your letter say you were gonna meet him?”
“5 o'clock,” Kyungsoo says, breath becoming ragged from the nervousness. “W-what should do?”
“Chanyeol and I,” Baekhyun makes sure to catch Chanyeol's attention by forcibly tugging on the his left ear. “will get flowers and chocolates, while you fix yourself up in the mens' bathroom.”
“Roger that,” Kyungsoo salutes, and they all laugh at their current situation.
Well, almost all of them.
“Let go of my ear, Baekhyunnie,” Chanyeol whines, his left eye twitching from the pain of Baekhyun's fingers holding his huge ear in a vice-grip.
The door flings open, and they scream at the sudden intrusion; the sudden intrusion being a tall, lanky boy with pale skin and droopy eyes.
“What are you guyth doing inthide the broom clothet?”
...
Deep breaths, Do Kyungsoo.
He checks his watch, 5:17, and he curses himself for being unprepared for this whole confession thing.
It just sort of happened. How he woke up from a peaceful sleep at 5 in the morning, how he automatically took out the pink stationary and started writing, and how he casually and confidently slipped it into Joonmyun's locker; it was all out of instinct, like he was supposed to do it.
He didn't feel like it though, until during last period, Chemistry class, Joonmyun suddenly whispered “I'm going to meet my secret admirer today”. It was then that he tensed up, completely unaware of what he had done, and excused himself from the class for 'personal' reasons. He texted Chanyeol and Baekhyun immediately, and when they passed by the broom closet in which Kyungsoo was hiding, the youngest of the three grabbed them by the necks and pulled them inside, and they started planning the whole thing. They didn't even notice the bell ring and the students shuffle out of their classrooms until Sehun, or Thehun or whatever, the freshman who looked like he was perpetually bored out of his mind, discovered the trio suspiciously plotting inside the broom closet.
He stands before the metal door that leads to the high school building's rooftop, a box of chocolates tucked underneath his left arm and a bouquet of white roses (because Joonmyun's favorite color is white, okay) in his hand. He sends a prayer up to the heavens that he won't faint or puke, especially not at the same time, when he's face to face with the man he's in love with.
Taking a deep breath, he clutches the door handle and pries it open.
He was half prepared to see Joonmyun sitting by the ledge of the roof, bored to death, or Joonmyun not being there at all.
He's not prepared, however, to see Joonmyun hugging someone so intimately, a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses already in his hands.
Kyungsoo's mind goes blank, not processing what's happening right in front of him, and drops everything he's holding. He doesn't feel anything, not pain, not sadness, not jealousy, not...anything.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun rushes over to him with a shocked expression.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun looks at him with tears welling in his eyes.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun's expression suddenly turns worried, and starts touching his face.
He doesn't feel anything when he pushes Joonmyun away and walks back down the staircase.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun races after him, tripping on one of the steps.
He doesn't feel anything when Joonmyun calls after him, telling him to wait for him.
He doesn't feel anything. He's...
...numb.
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