quick disposition
Quick Disposition
Jessica-centric; Changmin/Jessica; siblings!Jessica/Krystal; 1811 words
Here’s a short side story from the law!au project mekimigure, sooriforever and I have been working on this year! This will probably be the last of the sidefics, as we’ll be working on the main story afterwards. Your Ladyship and my learned friend are two of the other side installments; if you haven’t read them, I encourage you guys to go read them too! :)
There is an overbearing presumption, that when you’ve come from a family where all the living spawns happen to dominate a specific profession, they say you’re bound to inherit all the greatness bestowed along with the name. Much of it, Jung Sooyeon thinks, is complete and utter bullshit, as she throws a three-inched thick folder of cases across the dorm room, only to subsequently three minutes later, pick it up and slam it right back on her desk.
Disquieted, she drops back on her seat, extending one of her leg atop her unmade bed, the other raised and tucked under her chin. Her roommates, older by two years, are out attending that party five blocks down the college, and maybe a part of her regrets refusing their benevolent invite (you’re a first year, live a little while you can!), but she knows there is no telling what hour will she be getting back - and that means, she’ll have less time to finish her assigned readings.
While leaning back and watching the streetlight from across the street flicker in silence, Sooyeon sighs. To think so much ‘dilly-dallying’ and ‘rebellious college gatherings’ in her undergrad studies would have made a good scale for appropriate decision making, in all her years, it’s the first time Sooyeon feels suffocated and for once, takes her coat off the hook, slips it on and storms out of the room without looking back.
A three story apartment with a pool is the venue - apparently thrown by an anonymous upperclass who is a socialite of some sort. She really will never understand the hierarchy of social classes, especially something peculiar to this side of the world. It isn’t quite exclusive either, as there are other people who she’s never seen before, or that’s just her defense for her inability to mingle sooner with the law community. Still, she coughs up a few cash just so she can bribe an entrance (maybe verbal invitation is not exactly an invitation, after all).
She’s only been caged in law school for two months, really, nothing to freak out about - not that her parents (or anyone in the family for that matter) understand what it is to be caged.
Take her cousin and a current senior in the same school, Jung Yunho, for example. Apparently he finds it quite amusing to be exchanging numbers with the girls in the junior class. Not that it is her business but she otherwise would have flatly known his promiscuity will be a hidden agendum for attending the party she now finds herself attending as well. To the best of her power, Sooyeon tries not to converse or tangle herself in the same circle of strangers with him. Not that very hard since his target market are older girls.
“Told you she’ll come,” says a girl from behind her, which Sooyeon now recognizes as her roommate Yubin.
“Good to see you out, Jung,” says Jia with her bubblegum hair (Jia’s supposed to dye it back over the weekend after she’s been reprimanded for it, but it seems this doesn’t come into contention just yet). She punches Sooyeon’s shoulder in greeting, completely welcoming and comfortable.
There is little to no conversation in between them, as the two other girls take on the dancefloor instead, leaving Sooyeon to find a better place to sulk over her unattended cases in Torts. As much as she’s convinced it’s the urge of procrastination willing her to be here, a part of her truly just wants to escape and deal with everything else tomorrow. That doesn’t mean she’s about to stop worrying, nonetheless.
She doesn’t grab a glass of champagne, or tequila, whatever floats the bartender’s boat as she sits by the mini-bar, but she's sure not ordering any more of the creepy attention he’s giving her.
Sooyeon then requests for water, because really, that’s the only thing worth downing at this hour.
“How strange.”
She looks up as a man next to her swings his chair to her side, eyeing her with great curiosity. “What is?”
“That a law student refuses to drink free alcohol.”
It causes Sooyeon to smirk, not unkindly, not to a stranger who seems rather charming than what usually is harassing. “I prefer not to. I’m on a strict no alcohol diet.”
He chuckles and stands up, only then does Sooyeon realize how tall the man happens to be. “And if it doesn’t bother you me asking, how long has this diet been going on?”
“Since I started here,” Sooyeon says, unminding his gaze as she receives her tall glass of water. “I mean, you know. I haven’t been out to a party in a while until this one.”
“Really not my kind of parties either,” he winks, leaning now against the counter. “I’m only here for the drinks. Because they’re free. And I’m mooting tomorrow. Being hangover does wonders to your thinking capabilities, by the way. Try it some time. Get drunk, attend class barely awake, and be sober for the next party they throw.”
Sooyeon nods in spite of the laughter she’s tried hard to repress. She holds out her hand and adds, “Sooyeon,” when he just stares at it.
He does not take it after a whole minute, making her red in embarrassment. His head falls on his shoulder, sideways still observing her with those mismatched eyes under the awful red-blue-green synergy of lights. He grabs her hand just before she takes it back, then shakes it in firmly with a nod.
“A pleasure to meet you,” he tells her. “A first year, aren’t you?”
Unsure of whatever stereotype he has running amok in his head at the moment, she flinches. “Yes.”
“Don’t give me that look, I’m not gonna bite,” he then stifles more laugh, Sooyeon rolling her eyes as she takes a drink, deciding it best to ignore him for the rest of the evening. “I know you’d rather want to stay in your room and read, but since you’ve actually had enough nerve to be an adult and come, you might as well start getting to know people around here. It’ll broaden your network once you graduate.”
“I suppose that is true,” Sooyeon hums in response. “What made you to take up law?”
“Me?” he seems surprised, taken aback at the question but later finds his resolve, smirking. “I’m here because it interests me.”
“That’s it?” Sooyeon doesn’t mean to sound rather disappointed but her message comes across a little harsh.
He frowns, crossing his arms. “What other reason do I need?”
I don’t know, maybe an entire family of lawyers who have kids and grandkids managing firms, expecting you to jump into the same big shoes. Her tongue gets stuck in the roof of her mouth before proceeding, unsure now how to word her next inquiry but settles with an amicable “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” he adds. “Not everyone here is lucky to be coming from a great lineage of defenders of justice. Not everyone can get into law school, after all.”
Taken aback by his knowledge, Sooyeon steps down her seat, before he exhales out of consideration. He leans closer, a hand pointing at the man in the middle of the dancefloor. She recognizes the failing fashion sense from a mile back.
“Yunho over there,” he whispers. “Top of his class, undate-able because of his powerful family. Anyone who might end up marrying him has to be able to outsmart or be better than the dude. You might have heard of them. A Jung.”
It elicits butterflies in her stomach, completely convinced that she’s denied him the truth about her name. Then again, after a fraction of a second, Sooyeon realizes she never really got his name, either.
Thinking she’s been taken advantage, Sooyeon promptly turns to him, a grimace already drawn on her face as quick as her reaction. “I never got your name, sir.”
He seems to comprehend her distrust, all first years have it - the positive outlook but doubtful assessment of everyone around them and Sooyeon wears it now like an armor. As he is about to respond, a lean heavier arm grabs him from behind, cutting him short of revealing any more information due to the fact that it’s been disclosed faster than he can do so himself.
“Shim Changmin, why aren’t you behind the piano?” Yunho scolds, half drunk, half displeased. Sooyeon is sleepy but she gathers to hear the name long enough to realize who her mysterious snarky acquaintance is.
“Shim? As in from the Jung and Shim, right?” Sooyeon wonders, not out of betrayal, but of amusement. Hypocrisy at its finest, she’ll like to rub it in further in Changmin’s shocked face, if it were not how Yunho’s attention now finds her, recognizing the petite brunette.
“Little sis!” Even though she’s not exactly his sister, Yunho has been using the pet name ever since she’s started law school. “Was Changmin hitting on you?”
Sooyeon shakes her head, giggling as the said man’s cheeks burn a beat red. “Apparently, he was trying to engage me in philosophical approaches on mooting for the prosecution.”
“He’s definitely not your type though,” Yunho replies, pushing the man towards Sooyeon playfully. His control is well-acknowledged, a few inches more and Changmin will have toppled over Sooyeon if it weren’t for his quick reaction.
“I wasn’t hitting on her,” Changmin glares defensively, considerate of Yunho’s state. “And besides, I don’t think she even has a type.”
“Intelligent, free, spontaneous and real,” Sooyeon enumerates, tittering at this.
“See!” Yunho gestures with vigor. “You don’t qualify as spontaneous. And you’re definitely not real, dude.”
Containing his frustration, Changmin rolls his eyes. “Those were the requisites of a valid consent in Contracts Law. Yunho, please.”
“You guys are boring,” Yunho fake-yawns, shoulders slump back in his drunken state. “I’m going to look for Boa.”
Changmin shakes his head as his friend leaves, now returning to Sooyeon who waits for him to say something out of the awkward introduction but somehow, one way or another, the moment warrants no less than another handshake, as he grins timidly.
“Where were we?”
Back at the dormitory that night Sooyeon phones an important person from a hundred miles away, waiting to hear for the groggy response of the one voice she’s been needing. She makes her way to the bed and leaves the rest of her homework unattended till the sun comes up.
“Why’d you call?” comes in Soojung’s voice, Sooyeon’s baby sister. “Something wrong? Law school killing you yet?”
“No, no,” Sooyeon whispers, appreciative that Soojung still hasn’t gone to bed but at the same time quite remorseful that she isn’t getting enough rest while she still is allowed to.
“Everything’s fine,” her smile attests to that, if anyone will notice. “Everything’s wonderful. I … I called to tell you that I just realized that.”
Jessica-centric; Changmin/Jessica; siblings!Jessica/Krystal; 1811 words
Here’s a short side story from the law!au project mekimigure, sooriforever and I have been working on this year! This will probably be the last of the sidefics, as we’ll be working on the main story afterwards. Your Ladyship and my learned friend are two of the other side installments; if you haven’t read them, I encourage you guys to go read them too! :)
There is an overbearing presumption, that when you’ve come from a family where all the living spawns happen to dominate a specific profession, they say you’re bound to inherit all the greatness bestowed along with the name. Much of it, Jung Sooyeon thinks, is complete and utter bullshit, as she throws a three-inched thick folder of cases across the dorm room, only to subsequently three minutes later, pick it up and slam it right back on her desk.
Disquieted, she drops back on her seat, extending one of her leg atop her unmade bed, the other raised and tucked under her chin. Her roommates, older by two years, are out attending that party five blocks down the college, and maybe a part of her regrets refusing their benevolent invite (you’re a first year, live a little while you can!), but she knows there is no telling what hour will she be getting back - and that means, she’ll have less time to finish her assigned readings.
While leaning back and watching the streetlight from across the street flicker in silence, Sooyeon sighs. To think so much ‘dilly-dallying’ and ‘rebellious college gatherings’ in her undergrad studies would have made a good scale for appropriate decision making, in all her years, it’s the first time Sooyeon feels suffocated and for once, takes her coat off the hook, slips it on and storms out of the room without looking back.
A three story apartment with a pool is the venue - apparently thrown by an anonymous upperclass who is a socialite of some sort. She really will never understand the hierarchy of social classes, especially something peculiar to this side of the world. It isn’t quite exclusive either, as there are other people who she’s never seen before, or that’s just her defense for her inability to mingle sooner with the law community. Still, she coughs up a few cash just so she can bribe an entrance (maybe verbal invitation is not exactly an invitation, after all).
She’s only been caged in law school for two months, really, nothing to freak out about - not that her parents (or anyone in the family for that matter) understand what it is to be caged.
Take her cousin and a current senior in the same school, Jung Yunho, for example. Apparently he finds it quite amusing to be exchanging numbers with the girls in the junior class. Not that it is her business but she otherwise would have flatly known his promiscuity will be a hidden agendum for attending the party she now finds herself attending as well. To the best of her power, Sooyeon tries not to converse or tangle herself in the same circle of strangers with him. Not that very hard since his target market are older girls.
“Told you she’ll come,” says a girl from behind her, which Sooyeon now recognizes as her roommate Yubin.
“Good to see you out, Jung,” says Jia with her bubblegum hair (Jia’s supposed to dye it back over the weekend after she’s been reprimanded for it, but it seems this doesn’t come into contention just yet). She punches Sooyeon’s shoulder in greeting, completely welcoming and comfortable.
There is little to no conversation in between them, as the two other girls take on the dancefloor instead, leaving Sooyeon to find a better place to sulk over her unattended cases in Torts. As much as she’s convinced it’s the urge of procrastination willing her to be here, a part of her truly just wants to escape and deal with everything else tomorrow. That doesn’t mean she’s about to stop worrying, nonetheless.
She doesn’t grab a glass of champagne, or tequila, whatever floats the bartender’s boat as she sits by the mini-bar, but she's sure not ordering any more of the creepy attention he’s giving her.
Sooyeon then requests for water, because really, that’s the only thing worth downing at this hour.
“How strange.”
She looks up as a man next to her swings his chair to her side, eyeing her with great curiosity. “What is?”
“That a law student refuses to drink free alcohol.”
It causes Sooyeon to smirk, not unkindly, not to a stranger who seems rather charming than what usually is harassing. “I prefer not to. I’m on a strict no alcohol diet.”
He chuckles and stands up, only then does Sooyeon realize how tall the man happens to be. “And if it doesn’t bother you me asking, how long has this diet been going on?”
“Since I started here,” Sooyeon says, unminding his gaze as she receives her tall glass of water. “I mean, you know. I haven’t been out to a party in a while until this one.”
“Really not my kind of parties either,” he winks, leaning now against the counter. “I’m only here for the drinks. Because they’re free. And I’m mooting tomorrow. Being hangover does wonders to your thinking capabilities, by the way. Try it some time. Get drunk, attend class barely awake, and be sober for the next party they throw.”
Sooyeon nods in spite of the laughter she’s tried hard to repress. She holds out her hand and adds, “Sooyeon,” when he just stares at it.
He does not take it after a whole minute, making her red in embarrassment. His head falls on his shoulder, sideways still observing her with those mismatched eyes under the awful red-blue-green synergy of lights. He grabs her hand just before she takes it back, then shakes it in firmly with a nod.
“A pleasure to meet you,” he tells her. “A first year, aren’t you?”
Unsure of whatever stereotype he has running amok in his head at the moment, she flinches. “Yes.”
“Don’t give me that look, I’m not gonna bite,” he then stifles more laugh, Sooyeon rolling her eyes as she takes a drink, deciding it best to ignore him for the rest of the evening. “I know you’d rather want to stay in your room and read, but since you’ve actually had enough nerve to be an adult and come, you might as well start getting to know people around here. It’ll broaden your network once you graduate.”
“I suppose that is true,” Sooyeon hums in response. “What made you to take up law?”
“Me?” he seems surprised, taken aback at the question but later finds his resolve, smirking. “I’m here because it interests me.”
“That’s it?” Sooyeon doesn’t mean to sound rather disappointed but her message comes across a little harsh.
He frowns, crossing his arms. “What other reason do I need?”
I don’t know, maybe an entire family of lawyers who have kids and grandkids managing firms, expecting you to jump into the same big shoes. Her tongue gets stuck in the roof of her mouth before proceeding, unsure now how to word her next inquiry but settles with an amicable “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” he adds. “Not everyone here is lucky to be coming from a great lineage of defenders of justice. Not everyone can get into law school, after all.”
Taken aback by his knowledge, Sooyeon steps down her seat, before he exhales out of consideration. He leans closer, a hand pointing at the man in the middle of the dancefloor. She recognizes the failing fashion sense from a mile back.
“Yunho over there,” he whispers. “Top of his class, undate-able because of his powerful family. Anyone who might end up marrying him has to be able to outsmart or be better than the dude. You might have heard of them. A Jung.”
It elicits butterflies in her stomach, completely convinced that she’s denied him the truth about her name. Then again, after a fraction of a second, Sooyeon realizes she never really got his name, either.
Thinking she’s been taken advantage, Sooyeon promptly turns to him, a grimace already drawn on her face as quick as her reaction. “I never got your name, sir.”
He seems to comprehend her distrust, all first years have it - the positive outlook but doubtful assessment of everyone around them and Sooyeon wears it now like an armor. As he is about to respond, a lean heavier arm grabs him from behind, cutting him short of revealing any more information due to the fact that it’s been disclosed faster than he can do so himself.
“Shim Changmin, why aren’t you behind the piano?” Yunho scolds, half drunk, half displeased. Sooyeon is sleepy but she gathers to hear the name long enough to realize who her mysterious snarky acquaintance is.
“Shim? As in from the Jung and Shim, right?” Sooyeon wonders, not out of betrayal, but of amusement. Hypocrisy at its finest, she’ll like to rub it in further in Changmin’s shocked face, if it were not how Yunho’s attention now finds her, recognizing the petite brunette.
“Little sis!” Even though she’s not exactly his sister, Yunho has been using the pet name ever since she’s started law school. “Was Changmin hitting on you?”
Sooyeon shakes her head, giggling as the said man’s cheeks burn a beat red. “Apparently, he was trying to engage me in philosophical approaches on mooting for the prosecution.”
“He’s definitely not your type though,” Yunho replies, pushing the man towards Sooyeon playfully. His control is well-acknowledged, a few inches more and Changmin will have toppled over Sooyeon if it weren’t for his quick reaction.
“I wasn’t hitting on her,” Changmin glares defensively, considerate of Yunho’s state. “And besides, I don’t think she even has a type.”
“Intelligent, free, spontaneous and real,” Sooyeon enumerates, tittering at this.
“See!” Yunho gestures with vigor. “You don’t qualify as spontaneous. And you’re definitely not real, dude.”
Containing his frustration, Changmin rolls his eyes. “Those were the requisites of a valid consent in Contracts Law. Yunho, please.”
“You guys are boring,” Yunho fake-yawns, shoulders slump back in his drunken state. “I’m going to look for Boa.”
Changmin shakes his head as his friend leaves, now returning to Sooyeon who waits for him to say something out of the awkward introduction but somehow, one way or another, the moment warrants no less than another handshake, as he grins timidly.
“Where were we?”
Back at the dormitory that night Sooyeon phones an important person from a hundred miles away, waiting to hear for the groggy response of the one voice she’s been needing. She makes her way to the bed and leaves the rest of her homework unattended till the sun comes up.
“Why’d you call?” comes in Soojung’s voice, Sooyeon’s baby sister. “Something wrong? Law school killing you yet?”
“No, no,” Sooyeon whispers, appreciative that Soojung still hasn’t gone to bed but at the same time quite remorseful that she isn’t getting enough rest while she still is allowed to.
“Everything’s fine,” her smile attests to that, if anyone will notice. “Everything’s wonderful. I … I called to tell you that I just realized that.”