#206: 오늘은 어제와는 다를 거야
Prompt: #206
Title: 오늘은 어제와는 다를 거야
Pairing: tao/d.o., cameos by other kpop idols
Length: 1820 words
Rating: PG
Warning(s): one instance of a swear word (not used in a deprecating manner)
Summary: Do Kyungsoo was a straight A+ student and didn't do fuck-ups like assume someone was Chinese just because they looked Chinese. Seriously.
Author’s Note: Thank you so much to everyone who sprinted with me and especially to J for helping me with the Swedish. Any mistakes are my own!
The title and cut text are from 김예림's Awoo.
Kyungsoo isn't really sure what to make of him, at first. Chinese by way of. . .he's not sure he even remembers; he'd had his headphones in his ears, working on problem sets, when his mom poked her head around the frame of her doorway and talked at him for a while, waving her hands as he nodded absentmindedly, watching her in his peripheral vision while he puzzled over x and y.
So when he plopped into his seat at the table for supper, the sweet smell of roast apples and the savoury smell of roast pork filling his nose, he was surprised to see a new boy sitting at the table in the guest seat.
"Honey," his mom said, emerging from the hallway, patting her hair down and trying to extract a few errant wood shavings from between the strands, "this is Zitao. I told you about him this afternoon." Kyungsoo had merely nodded again, peering at Zitao in vague curiosity over the platters of food as his dad carried over the soup tureen, setting it in the centre of the table.
"Would you like some soup, Zitao?" his dad asked, and Zitao nodded, eyes large in his face, a mop of dark hair obscuring part of his vision. He looked Chinese.
"您好," Kyungsoo said, over the table as he reached for the salad, and Zitao flushed, eyes staring down at the plate.
"Jag kan inte kinesiska förlåt," he murmured, and even though Kyungsoo couldn't understand what he was saying, it didn't sound like Mandarin, or even Cantonese. Hakka Chinese, maybe?
"Kyungsoo," his mom said, shaking her head, "I knew I should have walked over and pried the headphones off your ears." Kyungsoo shrugged. What did I do? He knew his Mandarin accent wasn't great but it wasn't that bad either.
"Zitao is from Sweden," his dad said, ladling soup into his bowl. "Don't be so stereotypical." Kyungsoo had rolled his eyes at his parents, because honestly what was he supposed to think, but he kept the eye-rolling internal because he was kind of embarrassed. Do Kyungsoo was a straight A+ student and didn't do fuck-ups like assume someone was Chinese just because they looked Chinese. Seriously.
Zitao looked up then, and he didn't look mad, just a bit shy, but also kind of. . .excited? Kyungsoo wasn't really sure.
"Hej," Zitao said, and Kyungsoo smiled back across the table, before dipping his spoon into the soup before it got cold.
At first Kyungsoo thinks that Zitao is mostly just shy and quiet, with a character disproportionate to his tall frame, especially after that first supper. Breakfast the next morning doesn't really prove him wrong, as he's already been sitting at the table for ten solid minutes, halfway through another chapter of his book and scraping the bottom of his cereal bowl before Zitao clumps down the stairs, hair ruffled and rubbing his eyes as his t-shirt pulls up at the waist, revealing-
well-defined abs? Kyungsoo miswallows, coughing into his book as tiny bits of Special K dot the pages before he grabs a glass of orange juice and proceeds to pour it down his throat.
"Good morning honey!" his mom says, pulling out a chair that Zitao promptly slumps into, head drooping over the table as his mom fills a bowl of cereal, pouring milk over it before setting it onto the table in front of Zitao. He snaps upright at that, blinking and trying twice for his spoon before he manages to grasp it in his sleep-clumsy hands.
Normally Kyungsoo would be annoyed; he thinks back to dark memories of Myungsoo literally sleep-walking to school, having to keep one arm on his elbow the entire way so he wouldn't stumble off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, but there's something about Zitao. He doesn't know what it is.
Maybe it's just residual hurt pride from assuming his nationality wrong, but Kyungsoo starts out Zitao's stay at his house as an exchange student with Zitao decidedly having the upper hand.
It doesn't hurt that Zitao accidentally lets slip that he's been practicing wushu for as long as he can remember. Kyungsoo definitely isn't impressed by that kind of thing at all.
When school starts the next week, Kyungsoo is surprised to find out that he and Zitao are the same age. Zitao seems so much younger somehow. . .he's just not used to being in the same class, even Myungsoo, who'd been the youngest exchange student, was a year ahead.
"Make sure Zitao finds all his classes okay?" his mom scolds him, fixing his eyes in hers firmly for a moment before completely destroying his hair. Kyungsoo scowls.
"Mom," he complains, "Zitao knows English! He'll be fine." His mom ignores him though, pausing in front of Zitao who, even though he towers over her, still seems like a small boy, especially in his cap and red backpack. How are you even fifteen years old?
"If Kyungsoo gives you any problems or anyone is mean, you tell me right away okay?" she says, ruffling his hair as he gives her a gummy smile. "I'll know if you don't!" Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, but glances away in case she notices. His mom really does have eyes in the back of her head, and he wouldn't put it past her to hack into the school security camera system if she feels it's necessary. Helicopter parents these days.
Zitao seems a little nervous walking to school though, his back of his hand bumping against Kyungsoo's as they walk; he keeps flinching back and apologizing and finally Kyungsoo just takes Zitao's hand in his and pulls him along.
"Come on or we'll be late," he says, ignoring the slight flush painting ZItao's cheeks.
They're in the same home room, and Kyungsoo watches Zitao with a small smile on his face as the tall boy stands at the front of the classroom, mumbling "Vad ska jag säga. . ." before he proceeds to introduce himself in impeccable though heavily accented English. It's only when Zitao glances towards Kyungsoo's seat when he's done his impromptu introduction, his eyes looking for something like. . .approval? that Kyungsoo realizes he's smiling, and quickly slips his mouth down into the palm of the hand he's been resting his chin on.
They don't have the same classes after that, because even though they're both in IB sections, Zitao is joining the left wing classroom since it's smaller. Kyungsoo catches himself wondering how Zitao is doing, and decides to check on him for lunch, eying the security camera in the hallway speculatively before he gives it a wave. Hi Mom.
The other students are clustered around Zitao; faces interested as he talks about Sweden and his school and the winter and his wushu practices-his face is so open and happy and Kyungsoo thinks he's adorable. No I don't.
He just leans against the doorway, not wanting to interrupt the conversation, when Eunji looks up and sees Kyungsoo waiting.
"Hey Zitao!" she says, grinning, "Kyungsoo is waiting for you!" Zitao looks up and Kyungsoo is unprepared for the smile that spreads across Zitao's face. Taemin looks speculative.
"What's your connection to Kyungsoo anyway?" he asks, and Kyungsoo realizes that none of the people in his grade are used to him having an exchange student his age, if they've even noticed that his family hosts exchange students at all. Kyungsoo certainly hasn't talked about it. He's just about to step in and explain, when he hears Zitao mumbling under his breath.
"Vad ska jag säga. . ." Zitao says, biting his lip in thought. "Jag är tillsammans med Kyungsoo." He blinks, shakes his head. "Nej, det blir fel. Jag är med Kyungsoo." His face brightens as he obviously figures out how to explain, and Kyungsoo waits patiently, even though his stomach is growling and he sincerely hopes the cafeteria hasn't run out of pizza by the time they finally get there.
"I'm with Kyungsoo!" Zitao says, grinning as he stands up and steps over to where Kyungsoo is standing in the doorway, one foot in the hall, slightly shellshocked as Zitao takes him by the hand and pulls him along.
"Are we having lunch now?" Zitao asks, and Kyungsoo just nods, tongue a tangle in his mouth as Sungjong remarks to the room behind him,
"I guess Kyungsoo is finally dating then?"
Kyungsoo is definitely going to clear it up right away but Zitao is so. . .funny somehow. . .stuffing pizza in his mouth but pausing to carefully wipe tomato sauce off his bottom lip, slightly puffy in the sunlight; he's probably been chewing it while he thinks of how to say things, Kyungsoo thinks to himself, and misses his mouth with the slice of pizza in his grasp, managing to smear tomato sauce on his face. He's quickly reaching for a napkin, embarrassed, when Zitao reaches over the table and wipes the sauce off.
Kyungsoo flushes; it's a reflex! But that's the moment when Taekwoon decides to sit down on the bench next to him, dragging Wonshik behind him. Taekwoon is a senior, unlike Wonsik who's in their class too, but he does whatever he wants, and right now he's looking at Kyungsoo with an expression that seems like approval before nodding quietly at Wonshik, and Kyungsoo doesn't say anything at all.
"So you two are boyfriends?" Dasom says, plopping down on the seat next to Zitao, and Zitao looks both confused and embarrassed, eyes darting over to Kyungsoo, who opens his mouth-and closes it.
"Yes we're-?" Zitao doesn't seem to know how to explain, so Kyungsoo takes the ball.
"Yeah," he hums, and bites into another slice of pizza. Next to him, Taekwoon smiles.
When they get home from school, his mom is waiting at the door, hair knotted up messily at the top of her head and black plastic-rimmed glasses perched lop-sided on her nose, out of breath as though she's dashed up from her workstation, which she probably has.
"How was your day at school?" she asks Zitao, taking his backpack and sitting him down at the counter, sliding a plate of dad's cookies in front of him.
Zitao grins, taking a bite. "I made friends!" he exclaims happily, spraying cookie crumbs everywhere before he apologizes, wiping them up with a napkin. Kyungsoo's mom grins, and then glances over at Kyungsoo.
"How did you know I was watching?" she asks, and Kyungsoo just looks at her. Well, duh, as he reaches over to grab a cookie. "Fine," she says, sulking slightly, but it's all good.
Zitao glances over at Kyungsoo, who grins back. Even though Zitao is kind of handsy and his character doesn't match his appearance at first glance, it's fun having an exchange student in his grade. Kyungsoo finds he's actually looking forward to tomorrow, when he can go to school with Zitao again.
Title: 오늘은 어제와는 다를 거야
Pairing: tao/d.o., cameos by other kpop idols
Length: 1820 words
Rating: PG
Warning(s): one instance of a swear word (not used in a deprecating manner)
Summary: Do Kyungsoo was a straight A+ student and didn't do fuck-ups like assume someone was Chinese just because they looked Chinese. Seriously.
Author’s Note: Thank you so much to everyone who sprinted with me and especially to J for helping me with the Swedish. Any mistakes are my own!
The title and cut text are from 김예림's Awoo.
Kyungsoo isn't really sure what to make of him, at first. Chinese by way of. . .he's not sure he even remembers; he'd had his headphones in his ears, working on problem sets, when his mom poked her head around the frame of her doorway and talked at him for a while, waving her hands as he nodded absentmindedly, watching her in his peripheral vision while he puzzled over x and y.
So when he plopped into his seat at the table for supper, the sweet smell of roast apples and the savoury smell of roast pork filling his nose, he was surprised to see a new boy sitting at the table in the guest seat.
"Honey," his mom said, emerging from the hallway, patting her hair down and trying to extract a few errant wood shavings from between the strands, "this is Zitao. I told you about him this afternoon." Kyungsoo had merely nodded again, peering at Zitao in vague curiosity over the platters of food as his dad carried over the soup tureen, setting it in the centre of the table.
"Would you like some soup, Zitao?" his dad asked, and Zitao nodded, eyes large in his face, a mop of dark hair obscuring part of his vision. He looked Chinese.
"您好," Kyungsoo said, over the table as he reached for the salad, and Zitao flushed, eyes staring down at the plate.
"Jag kan inte kinesiska förlåt," he murmured, and even though Kyungsoo couldn't understand what he was saying, it didn't sound like Mandarin, or even Cantonese. Hakka Chinese, maybe?
"Kyungsoo," his mom said, shaking her head, "I knew I should have walked over and pried the headphones off your ears." Kyungsoo shrugged. What did I do? He knew his Mandarin accent wasn't great but it wasn't that bad either.
"Zitao is from Sweden," his dad said, ladling soup into his bowl. "Don't be so stereotypical." Kyungsoo had rolled his eyes at his parents, because honestly what was he supposed to think, but he kept the eye-rolling internal because he was kind of embarrassed. Do Kyungsoo was a straight A+ student and didn't do fuck-ups like assume someone was Chinese just because they looked Chinese. Seriously.
Zitao looked up then, and he didn't look mad, just a bit shy, but also kind of. . .excited? Kyungsoo wasn't really sure.
"Hej," Zitao said, and Kyungsoo smiled back across the table, before dipping his spoon into the soup before it got cold.
At first Kyungsoo thinks that Zitao is mostly just shy and quiet, with a character disproportionate to his tall frame, especially after that first supper. Breakfast the next morning doesn't really prove him wrong, as he's already been sitting at the table for ten solid minutes, halfway through another chapter of his book and scraping the bottom of his cereal bowl before Zitao clumps down the stairs, hair ruffled and rubbing his eyes as his t-shirt pulls up at the waist, revealing-
well-defined abs? Kyungsoo miswallows, coughing into his book as tiny bits of Special K dot the pages before he grabs a glass of orange juice and proceeds to pour it down his throat.
"Good morning honey!" his mom says, pulling out a chair that Zitao promptly slumps into, head drooping over the table as his mom fills a bowl of cereal, pouring milk over it before setting it onto the table in front of Zitao. He snaps upright at that, blinking and trying twice for his spoon before he manages to grasp it in his sleep-clumsy hands.
Normally Kyungsoo would be annoyed; he thinks back to dark memories of Myungsoo literally sleep-walking to school, having to keep one arm on his elbow the entire way so he wouldn't stumble off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, but there's something about Zitao. He doesn't know what it is.
Maybe it's just residual hurt pride from assuming his nationality wrong, but Kyungsoo starts out Zitao's stay at his house as an exchange student with Zitao decidedly having the upper hand.
It doesn't hurt that Zitao accidentally lets slip that he's been practicing wushu for as long as he can remember. Kyungsoo definitely isn't impressed by that kind of thing at all.
When school starts the next week, Kyungsoo is surprised to find out that he and Zitao are the same age. Zitao seems so much younger somehow. . .he's just not used to being in the same class, even Myungsoo, who'd been the youngest exchange student, was a year ahead.
"Make sure Zitao finds all his classes okay?" his mom scolds him, fixing his eyes in hers firmly for a moment before completely destroying his hair. Kyungsoo scowls.
"Mom," he complains, "Zitao knows English! He'll be fine." His mom ignores him though, pausing in front of Zitao who, even though he towers over her, still seems like a small boy, especially in his cap and red backpack. How are you even fifteen years old?
"If Kyungsoo gives you any problems or anyone is mean, you tell me right away okay?" she says, ruffling his hair as he gives her a gummy smile. "I'll know if you don't!" Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, but glances away in case she notices. His mom really does have eyes in the back of her head, and he wouldn't put it past her to hack into the school security camera system if she feels it's necessary. Helicopter parents these days.
Zitao seems a little nervous walking to school though, his back of his hand bumping against Kyungsoo's as they walk; he keeps flinching back and apologizing and finally Kyungsoo just takes Zitao's hand in his and pulls him along.
"Come on or we'll be late," he says, ignoring the slight flush painting ZItao's cheeks.
They're in the same home room, and Kyungsoo watches Zitao with a small smile on his face as the tall boy stands at the front of the classroom, mumbling "Vad ska jag säga. . ." before he proceeds to introduce himself in impeccable though heavily accented English. It's only when Zitao glances towards Kyungsoo's seat when he's done his impromptu introduction, his eyes looking for something like. . .approval? that Kyungsoo realizes he's smiling, and quickly slips his mouth down into the palm of the hand he's been resting his chin on.
They don't have the same classes after that, because even though they're both in IB sections, Zitao is joining the left wing classroom since it's smaller. Kyungsoo catches himself wondering how Zitao is doing, and decides to check on him for lunch, eying the security camera in the hallway speculatively before he gives it a wave. Hi Mom.
The other students are clustered around Zitao; faces interested as he talks about Sweden and his school and the winter and his wushu practices-his face is so open and happy and Kyungsoo thinks he's adorable. No I don't.
He just leans against the doorway, not wanting to interrupt the conversation, when Eunji looks up and sees Kyungsoo waiting.
"Hey Zitao!" she says, grinning, "Kyungsoo is waiting for you!" Zitao looks up and Kyungsoo is unprepared for the smile that spreads across Zitao's face. Taemin looks speculative.
"What's your connection to Kyungsoo anyway?" he asks, and Kyungsoo realizes that none of the people in his grade are used to him having an exchange student his age, if they've even noticed that his family hosts exchange students at all. Kyungsoo certainly hasn't talked about it. He's just about to step in and explain, when he hears Zitao mumbling under his breath.
"Vad ska jag säga. . ." Zitao says, biting his lip in thought. "Jag är tillsammans med Kyungsoo." He blinks, shakes his head. "Nej, det blir fel. Jag är med Kyungsoo." His face brightens as he obviously figures out how to explain, and Kyungsoo waits patiently, even though his stomach is growling and he sincerely hopes the cafeteria hasn't run out of pizza by the time they finally get there.
"I'm with Kyungsoo!" Zitao says, grinning as he stands up and steps over to where Kyungsoo is standing in the doorway, one foot in the hall, slightly shellshocked as Zitao takes him by the hand and pulls him along.
"Are we having lunch now?" Zitao asks, and Kyungsoo just nods, tongue a tangle in his mouth as Sungjong remarks to the room behind him,
"I guess Kyungsoo is finally dating then?"
Kyungsoo is definitely going to clear it up right away but Zitao is so. . .funny somehow. . .stuffing pizza in his mouth but pausing to carefully wipe tomato sauce off his bottom lip, slightly puffy in the sunlight; he's probably been chewing it while he thinks of how to say things, Kyungsoo thinks to himself, and misses his mouth with the slice of pizza in his grasp, managing to smear tomato sauce on his face. He's quickly reaching for a napkin, embarrassed, when Zitao reaches over the table and wipes the sauce off.
Kyungsoo flushes; it's a reflex! But that's the moment when Taekwoon decides to sit down on the bench next to him, dragging Wonshik behind him. Taekwoon is a senior, unlike Wonsik who's in their class too, but he does whatever he wants, and right now he's looking at Kyungsoo with an expression that seems like approval before nodding quietly at Wonshik, and Kyungsoo doesn't say anything at all.
"So you two are boyfriends?" Dasom says, plopping down on the seat next to Zitao, and Zitao looks both confused and embarrassed, eyes darting over to Kyungsoo, who opens his mouth-and closes it.
"Yes we're-?" Zitao doesn't seem to know how to explain, so Kyungsoo takes the ball.
"Yeah," he hums, and bites into another slice of pizza. Next to him, Taekwoon smiles.
When they get home from school, his mom is waiting at the door, hair knotted up messily at the top of her head and black plastic-rimmed glasses perched lop-sided on her nose, out of breath as though she's dashed up from her workstation, which she probably has.
"How was your day at school?" she asks Zitao, taking his backpack and sitting him down at the counter, sliding a plate of dad's cookies in front of him.
Zitao grins, taking a bite. "I made friends!" he exclaims happily, spraying cookie crumbs everywhere before he apologizes, wiping them up with a napkin. Kyungsoo's mom grins, and then glances over at Kyungsoo.
"How did you know I was watching?" she asks, and Kyungsoo just looks at her. Well, duh, as he reaches over to grab a cookie. "Fine," she says, sulking slightly, but it's all good.
Zitao glances over at Kyungsoo, who grins back. Even though Zitao is kind of handsy and his character doesn't match his appearance at first glance, it's fun having an exchange student in his grade. Kyungsoo finds he's actually looking forward to tomorrow, when he can go to school with Zitao again.