P.D.A
p.d.a
exo/f(x), shinee/f(x) - kai/krystal, taemin/sulli - pg
6301w~
there's this bitter mood of romance in the air and it's unnaturally irritating.
a/n: requested by silentlybelieve, love you and i hope you enjoy this word vomit lol ♥
Jongin is undoubtedly the suckiest study partner one could ask for. Soojung wouldn't say she's much better, but she knows how to do a lot more than just, "I don't understand this shit," "what the hell is going," "can we please finish," and all things otherwise. He's a whiner, Jongin, one of those asshole friends that just complains about how much everything sucks and why everything sucks and why it shouldn't suck, and she has to refrain from reminding him that he sucks just as well.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY, GODDAMN." Soojung sighs loudly, threatening to throw the fat Biology textbook at him, and he holds up his arms in defense with a sour look still on his face. "We could actually get somewhere if you weren't always whining."
Jongin scoffs. "Excuse you, I do a lot more than just whine." Soojung rolls her eyes, about to reply, when her phone vibrates and there is a flashing Jinri on her screen. Jongin leans over and she slides open the text message to see in capital letters, TAEMIN SAT WITH ME AT LUNCH TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"This girl," Soojung mutters, sighing, and Jongin looks over at her with an amused expression. He's nosy, not to forget.
"That's interesting."
"What?"
"Does Jinri like him?"
Soojung gives him a deadpan stare. "Are you blind or are you fucking blind. Was it not obvious already?"
Jongin shrugs, grabbing Soojung's phone and scrolling through their previous texts, only to discover the millions of texts about "taeminnie and his pretty eyes" from Jinri, who has had somewhat of an infatuation since freshman year. "Apparently not. Taemin always says she gives him bad signals."
"Taemin likes her too?"
"Was it not obvious already?" Jongin retorts obnoxiously, an irritating smirk spreading across his face. Soojung throws the textbook towards him and doesn't flinch when it hits his legs soundly - as all assholes deserve, she says.
Soojung joins Jinri for lunch later that week, dropping her tray down next to Jinri who is smiling widely at her phone. "What are you so happy about?" she mutters. There's this bitter mood of romance in the air and it's unnaturally irritating.
"Taemin said he'd come again to sit with me at lunch today."
"Oh, god." Soojung shifts over, picking at her lunch tray. "Should I leave then?"
"No! I want you to meet him, I think you'd really like him."
Soojung grins, because even though this is kind of gross Jinri is also really cute and really hard to say no to. "I already know him, Jinri, he's best friends with Jongin. You guys probably want your alone time." She winks and Jinri giggles, and she is all kinds of adorable in love. Despite this being really gross and all, she'll admit.
"I don't want alone time, that's so awkward. Besides, you have Jongin to talk to!" She smiles, and before Soojung can argue a heavy intruder drops down on the seat next to her, stinking of sweat and cheap cologne.
She turns over to see Jongin unfurling a brown paper lunch bag, his skin dripping of sweat and hair just as soaked. Opposite the two of them, Taemin carefully seats himself next to Jinri, smiling and composed compared to Jongin's boyish looks. Soojung turns back to Jongin and groans. "God, you are so fucking disgusting."
"I haven't even said anything, what the hell are you getting on to me for?!"
"You don't need to say anything for me to get on to you, asshole." Soojung wants to hit him, but Jongin's eating and his food would probably go flying everywhere, and Jinri probably wouldn't appreciate that with what dressing up for Taemin.
Soojung sighs, when Jongin hits her leg and motions at the pair in front of them. Jinri whispers something incoherent to Taemin, who laughs, and she glances under the table to see Taemin playing with Jinri's fingers, their feet slightly interlocked. Soojung coughs. "Um, well, I've got a test to study for, so I'll see you two later."
"Wait, what-" Soojung grabs at Jongin's arm, pulling him up with her and ignoring the confused looks Taemin and Jinri give, opting instead to stare at her untied shoelaces and trying not to trip over them. Improv at its best, as Jongin always says.
Jongin walks Soojung to class later that day, and while Soojung would rather just review for the history test she's got next period, Jongin seems to want nothing more than to discuss the duo project later that week at the dance academy they both attend. "Dude, Yixing said that they are scouts coming to check us out!"
Soojung looks over at Jongin, one eyebrow raised. "You know Yixing can't even translate half the shit he hears back into proper Korean, right?" She scoffs. "Like he heard that."
"Seriously!"
Soojung is about to retort because Jongin is stupid and too gullible for his own good, when she spots Jinri hanging outside of their classroom, giggling, a few steps over indicating the other half of her conversation. Taemin. "Ew."
Jongin laughs, hitting her. "Don't be mean! There's nothing wrong with them flirting."
"Um, yeah there is. It's gross." Jinri is still laughing, and Jongin and Soojung know that Taemin can't crack a decent joke to save his life, and this must be none other than the work of two people in love. The half-bell rings and they both watch as Taemin winks at Jinri, who giggles and attempts to do the same in return. Soojung groans. "God, that's disgusting."
Jongin doesn't say otherwise, wrinkling his nose. "Yeah, alright, I'm leaving. You can walk yourself into class."
"Asshole." He winks at her in response and she would flick him off if this weren't school grounds. Sigh.
They're at Soojung's house again, home alone with Soojung's Biology textbook opened and Jongin's notes sprawled across the bed. "Dude, your handwriting is so shitty. I can't read any of this crap." Soojung looks up at him, holding up a paper with illegible notes scribbled across the lines. "You're, like, not even inside of the margins."
"Screw margins, how am I supposed to write neatly when he talks like seventy words a second." Jongin isn't really paying attention, though, too busy scrolling through Soojung's phone for actual studying. Normally, she wouldn't let anyone go through her personal devices, but Jongin's cracked her password far too many times for her to really care anymore, and he's less annoying when he's occupied anyways. "Jinri texted you, by the way."
"What'd she say?"
Soojung looks over to see him open his mouth before bursting out into a grin, slapping his knee. "Finally! I knew that pussy had it in him," and she raises her eyebrow in response.
"What are you talking about?"
Jongin holds up her cellphone and tosses it to her, spinning around in the chair with a dumb smile on his face. She scrolls through the texts to see TAEMIN ASKED ME OUT!!!!!!!!!! in all capital letters followed by hundreds of exclamation marks, as if they could express any sort of real emotion. It takes her a second to respond, but she finally manages to type out a sort of congratulations, at the last minute adding a smiling emoticon to make it seem a little more genuine.
"At least maybe they'll be less flirty now," Soojung finally says, sighing. "No more coy whatever it is."
Jongin stops spinning in the chair and looks at her, an eyebrow raised as he props one leg up on her bed. "What's up with you?"
"Nothing." Soojung sighs. "Nothing, I guess. Jinri just seems to be really good at this whole relationship thing. Whatever." She smiles, slightly, hoping to avoid the question even though Jongin's a whole lot better at reading people than he is at reading books. "Let's just get back to this shit."
"Whatever you say."
Jongin doesn't pick the subject back up again, and Soojung's not really sure what to think.
Jinri is the most sporadic person Soojung has ever met. It's a good thing, sometimes, but most of the time it ends up being some sort of hell for Soojung as the black and white best friend to the box of 64 colored crayons, and today happens to be no different.
Jinri's over at her place, and the two are sitting in the backyard, lounging in the heat like the world is a better place.
All is well until Jinri opens her mouth.
"Would you mind coming on the next date with me and Taemin?"
Soojung's immediate response is to spit out the fruit juice in her mouth, choking on the liquid, all of which Jinri is completely oblivious too. "What the fuck?"
"I said, would you mind coming on the next date with me and Taemin? Our last date was so awkward and I think it'd be more comfortable if we went on like a double date or something."
"A double date? Going with one extra person isn't a double date, Jinri. It's called third-wheeling." Soojung sits up on the chair, still coughing because the juice isn't out of her system and Jinri doesn't really know the meaning of filtering her thoughts. Her spontaneity is really dangerous sometimes, Soojung thinks. "I think I'll have to pass on this offer."
"It's not just gonna be you, stupid." Jinri shifts in the lawn chair to look at Soojung, eyes squinting from the sunlight beating down on them. "Take Jongin with you!"
Soojung snorts. "That's hilarious, Jinri. There is no way in hell I am having Jongin as my date, alright?"
"Why not?!"
"Because he's Jongin! He's weird and gangly and you don't go on a date with your best friend!"
"Come on, please! For me." Soojung glances over at Jinri, who is making her stupid pouty face, eyes wide and lips pursed together. She really hates being friends with someone that always looks so cute. Sigh. "Besides, it's not gonna do you any harm. You've taken him to every dance we've ever been to, how does that not count as a date? Plus, he's Taemin's best friend, which will make it even less awkward. Please?"
Soojung groans. "FINE. But this is the only time. And you have to tell him."
Jinri squeals and turns back to her lawn chair, suddenly spouting off questions and answers and suggestions on what to wear and where to go and when to do it and how to plan it, and Soojung wonders if all of her life was meant to be some sort of hell. It's working, if anything.
They decide on Saturday of next week, from Soojung's house to Jongin's car to the movie theaters, where the stereotypical first moves are made and Soojung's kind of regretting agreeing to this.
The doorbell rings, and Soojung stands up, groaning. "Can me and Jongin just stay home?" she mutters, and Jinri kicks her from her seat on the couch. "Fine, fine, alright." She drags herself to the door, opening it to see Jongin with his back turned to the door, helping Taemin his collar. She sighs. "Hello, so nice to see you all dressed up."
Jongin turns around, and his eyes widen a little bit as he steps inside, Taemin brushing past the two of them straight to Jinri. It's like he's never seen her dressed up before or something, and Soojung shifts in her dress uncomfortably, pushing him slightly as she turns to Taemin and Jinri. "We're leaving, lovebirds, if you plan on joining us."
Jinri giggles and pulls Taemin up from the couch, holding his hand all the way out the door. Jongin waits for Soojung to get outside before following after her, and then bumps her at the hip. "You look good, you know."
"What the hell is this, high school musical?" She turns to look at him with a disgusted expression. "Of course I look good, asshole."
Jongin rolls his eyes, and he is evidently nothing but an asshole because he doesn't even open the car door for her. They grab driver's seat and passenger and end up bickering over which radio station to play while Jinri and Taemin play perfect couple in the back, and then fight over the arm rest during the movies while Taemin has his arm around Jinri and whispers to her every other minute or so about something that is most definitely not movie-related.
"Well, that fucking sucked." They're back again at Soojung's house, except Taemin and Jinri have gone out walking and Soojung is ready to die, sitting on the couch with Jongin across from her. "Why are they always so touchy? God, it's disgusting."
"You're just jealous," Jongin says, admiring his hands as he props his legs up on Soojung's lap.
"Of not having someone's sweaty hand to hold? Oh, yes, that definitely sounds so romantic."
Jongin rolls his eyes, shaking his head at her. He stands up suddenly and flips his hair out of his eyes before grabbing her hand, massaging her fingers as he holds it. "Not everyone's hands are sweaty, you know," and then his hands are gone, and he's laughing. "But whatever. I'm gonna go pick up Taemin, it's getting late. See you tomorrow, grouchy."
Soojung would remind him tomorrow is Sunday and she has no reason to see him on Sundays, but she doesn't because her hands are still tingling and his hands weren't sweaty. They were kind of nice, actually.
(but she wouldn't ever admit that to anyone but herself, soojung thinks.
if even that.)
The dance project has been arranged and Jongin and Soojung are partners (inevitably, because although he sucks at most things in life jongin is one hell of a good dancer), a mismatched hip hop routine for a duo that don't do much besides the classics. "Dude, I don't even know what song we're supposed to dance to. Like, Seo Taiji and the Boys or something? What the fuck?"
"You're so stupid." Soojung is flipping through the list of selected songs, trying to find one that has a manageable beat and something Jongin won't complain about. "Why would we dance to that?"
Jongin aims at a kick at her from where he's seated, rolling his eyes. "It was just a suggestion, asshole."
"Whatever." She slides the book towards him and lays back against the cold wood floor, sighing because sometimes dance sucks and she'd rather just be twirling to shit that won't determine her future. "Just choose a song. And be glad you've got a good dancer as a partner, you douche."
Jongin throws her a devious look, pretending to toss his cropped hair to the side as . "When you're the better looking half you don't need the talent."
"Better looking half? Um, maybe in some alternate universe, sure."
Jongin snorts. "If by alternate universe you mean this one, then yeah, I'm definitely better looking." Soojung opens her mouth to respond but then he adds, "Besides, Jinri thinks I'm pretty hot," and her throat closes up at that, because Jinri? He shrugs, still flipping through the pages of the song list even though she can't quite focus anymore. "She told me once that if Taemin was out of the picture - because apparently he's totally her type, whatever the hell that means - she'd totally date me."
Soojung blinks, and Jongin's arrogance gets the best of her because she takes off one of her shoes then and tosses it at him, smirking when it hits his chest harshly. "Better looking half, my ass. Yeah, right, keep dreaming."
Her seat is occupied at lunch, later that week. Soojung normally doesn't mind sitting with Taemin and Jinri when Jongin's there, but he's skipped out on her that day to sit with his weird, geeky friends from his math class and she doesn't think she can handle all the pda-ing by herself.
"And so, it comes to the sad day, where I am sitting with you and your lame ass friends at lunch."
Jongin kicks her under the table, shooting her a look that would be threatening to anyone but her. "Keep your snide remarks to yourself, why don't you?" and she holds up her hands in defense, when the guy sitting next to her bumps her slightly, headphones in his ears and oblivious to the term personal space. Soojung raises her eyebrow and Jongin sighs. "That's Sehun. He's kind of an asshole, ignore him."
"I can hear you," the guy says, now coined Sehun, and Soojung glances over to be half-blinded by his platinum blonde hair. "Don't fuck with me, you little shit," he growls, and this guy, he's a little intimidating. "Who even are you?"
"Uh, Soojung. Me and Jongin go to the same dance academy."
"Ah, right. And what are you guys, like, dating or something?"
"No, what the fuck-"
The guy sitting next to Sehun cuts him off, slapping him in the back. "God, Sehun, don't be such a dick." He turns to look at Soojung and he's got these big, clear eyes, a massive smile that makes him look more of an awkward giraffe than anything else. "I'm Chanyeol, by the way, Park Chanyeol."
"And also a whore, ignore him too," Jongin says, scrolling through text messages on his phone so casually that it seems like his friends are normally this weird and obnoxious.
"I am not!"
Sehun snorts and whispers something under his breath, of which only Chanyeol hears and starts raging about, and Soojung could not have regretted this more. She leans over to Jongin, whispering, "Why do you sit with these people?"
Jongin shrugs. "They can be funny, sometimes. Plus, Sehun lives next to me, and Chanyeol is basically nailed into every big party for the rest of this year."
"Well, still, they're freaks-"
Jongin kicks her again under the table, making a face. He opens his mouth, probably to say something regarding his friends, when Sehun turns to them from his bickering with Chanyeol and smirks. "You guys are so totally dating, I'm not blind." Chanyeol makes a move to hit him again when Sehun points under the table, obviously convinced of his theory. "They're even playing footsies, I mean look at them! His foot is right in between hers," and Chanyeol looks down underneath the table to see their legs interlocked, only because Jongin's legs are endless and Soojung was planning on kicking him right back.
"Are you guys really dating?"
"What?! No, we're not dating, why the hell do you keep asking that?" She picks up her lunch tray, kicking Jongin again for good measures before pushing her chair back and stepping away from the table. "This is stupid, I'm leaving."
She eats in the library for the rest of the week.
Soojung doesn't even know why she still invites him over to study, really. She doesn't even remember once getting anything productive done with him over, besides maybe the tangents he drags her into about the stupidity of today's educational system and why they shouldn't be forced to learn (although in all reality, jongin just likes to rambles a bunch of bullshit and soojung just likes to play pretend).
Jinri is in the midst of texting her about their date to the amusement park, and how they're going out for dinner later that evening, and how she wishes Soojung was there and Soojung is glad she is not.
"I wonder what they talk about when they're alone."
Jongin snorts, flipping through her notes despite always complaining about her chicken scratch. "Like butterflies or something gay like that." Soojung makes a face at him and he shrugs, sighing. "I don't know, man, Taemin's such a baby. He still giggles when he hears the word sex."
Soojung giggles, looking up to see Jongin with his eyebrow raised. "What?"
"Don't tell me you're like that too."
"Like what? I wasn't even laughing about that, asshole."
He scoffs, rolling his eyes as he props his legs up on her bed, and Soojung has to resist the urge to push them off. "Yeah, alright. I bet you and Jinri still talk about like, I don't know, holding hands with boys or something."
"We do not." She hits his leg, turning to the Biology textbook even though she doesn't remember what they were even studying. "Jinri's already kissed a guy, we don't need to talk about whether we can get someone to hold our hands, asshole. Ten bucks you and Taemin only ever talk about getting laid."
Jongin snorts again, his legs naturally falling off of the bed. "And what, have you never kissed anyone be-"
Soojung's eyes widen, and it takes a second but then Jongin's do too, and then the front door opens and there's a yell from downstairs, Soojung's mom calling up to them for dinner. She can feel herself turning red and Jongin, apparently, remembers just as well because he picks himself up off of her chair and doesn't bother to separate his notes from hers.
"Uh, I think I should probably leave now." Soojung gets off the bed and Jongin takes a step back, scratching at his head. "Um. Yeah. I'll go."
"Yeah. Alright. See you tomorrow."
He nods at her slightly and is out the door in the next second, and Soojung has to refrain herself from walking him down and making a rude remark about his pants that don't fit and how his hat makes him look like some sort of street thug. She wonders why it took him so long to remember.
(the summer before their freshman year, soojung failed dance camp auditions because she didn't have the right look and couldn't dance gracefully like the rest of the girls, tall and gangly and thin-limbed, stringy hair and not pretty enough because high school is when girls are supposed to become beautiful.
the summer before their freshman year, soojung's first kiss was stolen by jongin, a secret to the universe, after crying in her backyard for two days straight because she wasn't good enough for the world.
"i still like you even if you aren't that good."
jongin was never quite the best at comforting, soojung thinks, but his lips were soft at the time, and sweet like the cotton candy they'd stolen earlier that day, mischief at its finest. she remembers her first kiss better than her second, which was the week before school started and they were supposed to be more than the secret summer romance in the young adult novels.
there was no third to follow. maybe jongin forgot to ask, or maybe soojung forgot to remind.
it becomes the miserable story of her first kiss and her last. they don't dwell on it again.)
She has been handed the homecoming announcement flyers at least six times during the first half of the day alone. Jongin and her are sitting at the opposite end of the lunch table from Jinri and Taemin, away from the PDA and even further away from Jongin's weirdass friends. "This is so fucking stupid, I mean, what type of theme is masquerade to homecoming? Is no one supposed to have a date or something?"
Jongin shrugs, twirling the soggy macaroni with his plastic fork. "Don't ask me, ask the homecoming committee."
"And talk to those snobby whores? Please."
He snorts, looking up at her with a twinkle in his eyes before the smile on his face falters and he's judging her for something or another. Soojung raises her eyebrow, prompting him. Jongin sighs. "So I take it you're not going?"
"There is no way in hell that I am dressing up for some stupid masquerade event. I don't even look good in dresses, seriously." Jongin opens his mouth to retort but he doesn't say what she expects to hear and she sighs when he's not looking. "What?"
"Even if someone asked you?"
Soojung laughs, the last hit catching in her throat when she says the questioning in his eyes, and she would rather not dwell on summer romances and petty things they once had the time to worry about. "I'm pretty sure no one would ask me," she says, smirking as she slides her untouched lunch tray towards the bins at the end of the table. "Besides, I've got better things to do than go out of my way to have a boy tell me I look beautiful. Tell me something I don't know."
Jongin snorts, looking up at her with the matching smirk. "I know, right?"
She smiles and stands up from the table, leaving to her class on her own, and it doesn't hit her until much later, when she shouldn't be dwelling on the petty little things in the middle of the night. He never disagreed, and Soojung wonders if that was the scary part.
Jinri invites over her over later that weekend and it's the first time they've hung out on their own since Taemin and his displays of affection have intruded on their blossoming friendship. Or as Soojung likes to put it, at least. Jinri is trying to find some food and Soojung is sitting on the bar stool, turning back and forth as she twirls a strand of her hair around her finger. "Jinri."
"Hm?"
"I have a question."
She looks back from the food cabinet, raising her eyebrow. "Is this about Jongin?"
What the fuck. Soojung's eyes widen a little bit, and she would question the obvious if Jinri wasn't her best friend. "Uh… Yeah." Jinri turns around completely from the cabinet, leaning against the door frame and smirking - it's weird, because Jinri is supposed to be her innocent best friend just in love, but now she's hinting at the inevitable (as if, really) and it unnerves her.
"Continue."
Soojung sighs. "I don't know. I think he likes me?" She tells Jinri about the incident at her house, leaving out the awkward freshman years, and the homecoming discussion at lunch earlier that week. "Plus, I saw him yesterday in the hallways and he was flirting with some girl and normally I wouldn't really care, but he just kept looking at me weirdly like he wanted me to do something about it. I don't know."
Jinri shuts the cabinet door and walks over to the opposite side of the table, resting her arms on the table. "So?"
"What do you mean, so? So what?"
"So, do you like him?"
Soojung snorts. "As if. I just don't want him to go ruining our little friendship." She'd be lying if she said that wasn't the truth, but she'd be lying if she said it was too. Jongin's just confusing, and that's all the reality that she needs to accept.
Jongin's over for the first time since his last runout, and attempting to study for the first time - another one of his changes, but Soojung doesn't mention it and Jongin doesn't ask her to. The room is silent, save for the hip hop playing on Soojung's iHome, when her cell phone rings and they both look up, catching each other's eyes. Soojung grins awkwardly and grabs her phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Soojung, I need your help."
Jongin raises his eyebrow and she mouths Jinri, covering the bottom half of the phone as the latter launches into a series of self-answered questions about homecoming. What to wear, where to go, how to match, what's for dinner, how to do her hair, all the useless questions that come along with attending preppy school events. Jinri only hangs up after an hour and a half of her own advice, of which Soojung has barely spoken ten words and Jinri has satisfied herself.
"What was that all about?"
Soojung rolls her eyes. "Homecoming. Taemin finally asked her and I guess she's freaking out about it because this is her first time going with someone and all. You know how it is."
"Then why do you look so annoyed?"
She sighs, falling back against the bed to stare at the star covered ceiling. Her and Jongin had decorated it the night of her eighth birthday with his special, glow-in-the-dark sticker collection, the pretty ones he had never shared with anyone. Soojung guesses it's been there ever since, them. "I don't know, it's just annoying how all everyone talks about is homecoming. No need to rub it in."
Jongin rolls the chair up next to the bed, propping his elbows up on the comforter as he stares down at her. Soojung glances over to meet his eyes, and he's got really stunning eyes. The kinds girls 'melt into' in the movies, or however it goes.
What the hell is happening here.
"Well, if you're really that concerned, we could go together." He smiles cheekily, and Soojung feels like she probably would have overreacted right then if her first instinct wasn't to hit him soundly on the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Is that any way to ask a girl to homecoming, asshole?" Jongin looks kind of surprised, but she just scoffs and turns away before she allows herself to say anything she could possibly regret. "Besides, I don't even want to go. Nothing sounds less appealing than dressing up for the gayest event one could probably ever attend in their lifetime." He doesn't seem to agree.
The award for the best floral design just happens to be Soojung's next door neighbor, and they end up being where Jinri and Taemin's homecoming shots are taken, Soojung behind the camera and Jongin yelling at Taemin from the back to not be a pussy and put his arm around Jinri. It's a fun event, in any case, and Soojung feels strangely like a mom sending her child off with her husband despite the fact that both Taemin and Jinri are older than her and probably much more experienced in that case.
Jongin has no reason to stay, after their little photo shoot is done, but Soojung doesn't tell him to leave and Jongin doesn't offer to and so they end up back in her room, all alone because Sooyeon's been gone and the parents are workaholics.
He falls on to her bed first, and Soojung pushes him over so there's enough room for the both of them. She sighs. "They look cute together." Jongin laughs. "What?"
"Finally you think so?"
Soojung raises her eyebrow at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You were always so bitter about their relationship."
"I was not!"
Jongin shrugs, turning to look at her with a smile playing on his lips. "Seemed like that to me."
"I wasn't… Bitter about their relationship. I just thought it was weird." Soojung turns over to the side so she is looking at him straight, swallowing because if they were any closer she just might - not. "I mean, they've known each other for the longest time. Dating your friend just seems weird. Even if they weren't that good of friends before, still."
His smile falters a little bit but he doesn't break his gaze away from her, and Jongin has this way about him that is modelesque, perfect and imperfect at the same time. Soojung blinks and turns on her back again. "So you think it's weird if you date your best friend?"
"I guess. Why?"
"I don't know." Jongin shrugs, and she watches as his Adam's apple bobs in his neck as he swallows nervously. "It was just a question." It's silent, after that, and Soojung understands and she wonders if Jongin knows she does. He takes a deep breath, and then turns to look at her when,
"I don't-"
"Do you-"
They both stop, and Soojung looks over to see his eyes wide, heart probably racing under his thin t-shirt. "That was weird," she says, and he breaks out into a sort of smile that is Jongin-like but not completely there. She doesn't continue and Jongin doesn't either, and the silence is nothing short of completely awkward until he finally decides to open his mouth.
"I don't think friends dating is all that bad," he mutters. Soojung swallows.
"I never said it was a bad thing, I just think it's kind of weird-"
"which basically means it's a bad thing-"
"and it'd be kind of awkward for to just start dating your friend-"
"which basically means you wouldn't do it-"
"but I never said I wouldn't do it."
Jongin turns over to look at her and Soojung forces herself to look back, and she thinks her heart might be racing a little bit too but it isn't necessarily a bad thing and Jongin could be that friend. What have Taemin and Jinri done to her, honestly. "So you don't think it's impossible?" She shakes her head and his smile after that is a genuine Jongin smile, and she thinks she loves him a little too much for this.
The duo rehearsal continues into the next month, and Soojung and Jongin practice that weekend for two hours straight, no interruptions except for the one water break they force each other to take. The room is sweaty and dirty at the end of their rehearsal, if only for the excess amount of sweat the two of them have poured off and the fog of the mirrors with the heat collecting inside.
Soojung falls on the floor first, Jongin sitting next to her with his phone in his hands. He holds the cell up to the mirror and aims it at the corner, and she glances over at him weirdly. "What are you doing?"
"There's this weird thing near the closet that looks like a demon or something."
"Where?" She sits up, leaning over to his side, but she doesn't see anything in the mirror except the dusty green closet and their reflection. "I don't see anything."
Jongin points furiously, shaking his arm. "That little black thing!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
Jongin groans, grabbing her hand and pointing at the mirror himself, and now she can't see anything, everything except their barely interlocked hands a complete blur. "Do you see it now?" She doesn't, but Soojung nods anyways and he sighs, shaking his head and dropping their arms even though he doesn't let her hand go. "So stupid," he mumbles. She doesn't care to disagree.
There's a massive group date out to the movies, of which Soojung finds herself conveniently invited and drags Jongin along with her, finding a seat in the back of the movie theater with him at her side. It's becoming weird going places without him, now that Jinri is taken and she feels all alone all the time.
Jongin groans. "What even are we watching."
"I don't know, some horror movie? The girl that invited me is crazy about this shit."
"Weirdo."
Soojung uses this as an excuse to hit him, letting her arm fall on to his armrest, leaning over because this could not be anymore obvious. Jongin's also kind of an idiot, though, and his people-reading skills have apparently failed on him because it takes halfway into the movie when Soojung finally forces out a bored scream that Jongin finally reaches for her hand.
He holds on and doesn't let it go and maybe it's finally happening.
They are in Biology, at the back of the room in the lab desks, taking lecture notes when the room suddenly shakes and the class looks toward the windows to see the clouds darkening, rain pouring. First storm of the season, and all.
Soojung turns to Jongin, who swallows and looks away from the window, back to the teacher who also seems to be distracted. His leg is bouncing up and down, and his free hand is shaking under the table. She smiles, because they are in their last year of high school and Jongin is still scared of storms, ever since kids in the pre-school class. Way to grow up, she should say.
Instead, Soojung just reaches down and squeezes his hand, and she doesn't mind when he squeezes back.
Jongin comes over later that week, when it is still thunder storming, and they find shelter in her room, Jongin sitting back against the pillows and Soojung across from him. They are playing go fish, the deck of cards in between them with seven cards in hand. It's Jongin's turns. "Do you have any-"
The lights flicker, then, once or twice before the power finally kills and Jongin screams, the cards flying everywhere because he is the most dramatic asshole to ever exist. "HOLY SHIT."
"Dude, calm down, it's just a power outage-"
"I CAN'T DO THUNDERSTORMS-"
"Jongin, calm down!"
"FUCK FUCK FUCK-"
"JONGIN!"
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT. OH MY GOD. WHAT. WHAT DO YOU WANT."
"Do you still like me?"
There is a silence, and she can feel the tension between them. "What the fuck type of question is that when I'm hyperventilating," he finally says, but it comes out more like a statement than it does a question and she kind of wants to quit right then, but she can't so she doesn't, and Soojung pushes on.
"Just answer me!"
"No, what the hell-"
"Just say yes or no."
"No, I'm not answering that-"
"Just answer the fucking question-"
"YES FINE YES I STILL LIKE YOU. God. Are you happy?"
"No, you asshole." Soojung reaches out and finds his shirt in the dark, fisting her hand around it and bringing him towards her until their lips finally meet, and it's surprising how easily she finds them in the blackness. She can feel Jongin's heart racing under her palm, and she's not really sure what it's coming from but she kisses him anyways, not stopping because there is no resistance, and she thinks this is how it should have been all along.
He stops whining when they are under the covers and what happens after that is their own private display of affection.
requests of the day
otp
chanyeol/seohyun
sehun
joon
lee jonghyun/seohyun
krystal????
exo/f(x), shinee/f(x) - kai/krystal, taemin/sulli - pg
6301w~
there's this bitter mood of romance in the air and it's unnaturally irritating.
a/n: requested by silentlybelieve, love you and i hope you enjoy this word vomit lol ♥
Jongin is undoubtedly the suckiest study partner one could ask for. Soojung wouldn't say she's much better, but she knows how to do a lot more than just, "I don't understand this shit," "what the hell is going," "can we please finish," and all things otherwise. He's a whiner, Jongin, one of those asshole friends that just complains about how much everything sucks and why everything sucks and why it shouldn't suck, and she has to refrain from reminding him that he sucks just as well.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY, GODDAMN." Soojung sighs loudly, threatening to throw the fat Biology textbook at him, and he holds up his arms in defense with a sour look still on his face. "We could actually get somewhere if you weren't always whining."
Jongin scoffs. "Excuse you, I do a lot more than just whine." Soojung rolls her eyes, about to reply, when her phone vibrates and there is a flashing Jinri on her screen. Jongin leans over and she slides open the text message to see in capital letters, TAEMIN SAT WITH ME AT LUNCH TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"This girl," Soojung mutters, sighing, and Jongin looks over at her with an amused expression. He's nosy, not to forget.
"That's interesting."
"What?"
"Does Jinri like him?"
Soojung gives him a deadpan stare. "Are you blind or are you fucking blind. Was it not obvious already?"
Jongin shrugs, grabbing Soojung's phone and scrolling through their previous texts, only to discover the millions of texts about "taeminnie and his pretty eyes" from Jinri, who has had somewhat of an infatuation since freshman year. "Apparently not. Taemin always says she gives him bad signals."
"Taemin likes her too?"
"Was it not obvious already?" Jongin retorts obnoxiously, an irritating smirk spreading across his face. Soojung throws the textbook towards him and doesn't flinch when it hits his legs soundly - as all assholes deserve, she says.
Soojung joins Jinri for lunch later that week, dropping her tray down next to Jinri who is smiling widely at her phone. "What are you so happy about?" she mutters. There's this bitter mood of romance in the air and it's unnaturally irritating.
"Taemin said he'd come again to sit with me at lunch today."
"Oh, god." Soojung shifts over, picking at her lunch tray. "Should I leave then?"
"No! I want you to meet him, I think you'd really like him."
Soojung grins, because even though this is kind of gross Jinri is also really cute and really hard to say no to. "I already know him, Jinri, he's best friends with Jongin. You guys probably want your alone time." She winks and Jinri giggles, and she is all kinds of adorable in love. Despite this being really gross and all, she'll admit.
"I don't want alone time, that's so awkward. Besides, you have Jongin to talk to!" She smiles, and before Soojung can argue a heavy intruder drops down on the seat next to her, stinking of sweat and cheap cologne.
She turns over to see Jongin unfurling a brown paper lunch bag, his skin dripping of sweat and hair just as soaked. Opposite the two of them, Taemin carefully seats himself next to Jinri, smiling and composed compared to Jongin's boyish looks. Soojung turns back to Jongin and groans. "God, you are so fucking disgusting."
"I haven't even said anything, what the hell are you getting on to me for?!"
"You don't need to say anything for me to get on to you, asshole." Soojung wants to hit him, but Jongin's eating and his food would probably go flying everywhere, and Jinri probably wouldn't appreciate that with what dressing up for Taemin.
Soojung sighs, when Jongin hits her leg and motions at the pair in front of them. Jinri whispers something incoherent to Taemin, who laughs, and she glances under the table to see Taemin playing with Jinri's fingers, their feet slightly interlocked. Soojung coughs. "Um, well, I've got a test to study for, so I'll see you two later."
"Wait, what-" Soojung grabs at Jongin's arm, pulling him up with her and ignoring the confused looks Taemin and Jinri give, opting instead to stare at her untied shoelaces and trying not to trip over them. Improv at its best, as Jongin always says.
Jongin walks Soojung to class later that day, and while Soojung would rather just review for the history test she's got next period, Jongin seems to want nothing more than to discuss the duo project later that week at the dance academy they both attend. "Dude, Yixing said that they are scouts coming to check us out!"
Soojung looks over at Jongin, one eyebrow raised. "You know Yixing can't even translate half the shit he hears back into proper Korean, right?" She scoffs. "Like he heard that."
"Seriously!"
Soojung is about to retort because Jongin is stupid and too gullible for his own good, when she spots Jinri hanging outside of their classroom, giggling, a few steps over indicating the other half of her conversation. Taemin. "Ew."
Jongin laughs, hitting her. "Don't be mean! There's nothing wrong with them flirting."
"Um, yeah there is. It's gross." Jinri is still laughing, and Jongin and Soojung know that Taemin can't crack a decent joke to save his life, and this must be none other than the work of two people in love. The half-bell rings and they both watch as Taemin winks at Jinri, who giggles and attempts to do the same in return. Soojung groans. "God, that's disgusting."
Jongin doesn't say otherwise, wrinkling his nose. "Yeah, alright, I'm leaving. You can walk yourself into class."
"Asshole." He winks at her in response and she would flick him off if this weren't school grounds. Sigh.
They're at Soojung's house again, home alone with Soojung's Biology textbook opened and Jongin's notes sprawled across the bed. "Dude, your handwriting is so shitty. I can't read any of this crap." Soojung looks up at him, holding up a paper with illegible notes scribbled across the lines. "You're, like, not even inside of the margins."
"Screw margins, how am I supposed to write neatly when he talks like seventy words a second." Jongin isn't really paying attention, though, too busy scrolling through Soojung's phone for actual studying. Normally, she wouldn't let anyone go through her personal devices, but Jongin's cracked her password far too many times for her to really care anymore, and he's less annoying when he's occupied anyways. "Jinri texted you, by the way."
"What'd she say?"
Soojung looks over to see him open his mouth before bursting out into a grin, slapping his knee. "Finally! I knew that pussy had it in him," and she raises her eyebrow in response.
"What are you talking about?"
Jongin holds up her cellphone and tosses it to her, spinning around in the chair with a dumb smile on his face. She scrolls through the texts to see TAEMIN ASKED ME OUT!!!!!!!!!! in all capital letters followed by hundreds of exclamation marks, as if they could express any sort of real emotion. It takes her a second to respond, but she finally manages to type out a sort of congratulations, at the last minute adding a smiling emoticon to make it seem a little more genuine.
"At least maybe they'll be less flirty now," Soojung finally says, sighing. "No more coy whatever it is."
Jongin stops spinning in the chair and looks at her, an eyebrow raised as he props one leg up on her bed. "What's up with you?"
"Nothing." Soojung sighs. "Nothing, I guess. Jinri just seems to be really good at this whole relationship thing. Whatever." She smiles, slightly, hoping to avoid the question even though Jongin's a whole lot better at reading people than he is at reading books. "Let's just get back to this shit."
"Whatever you say."
Jongin doesn't pick the subject back up again, and Soojung's not really sure what to think.
Jinri is the most sporadic person Soojung has ever met. It's a good thing, sometimes, but most of the time it ends up being some sort of hell for Soojung as the black and white best friend to the box of 64 colored crayons, and today happens to be no different.
Jinri's over at her place, and the two are sitting in the backyard, lounging in the heat like the world is a better place.
All is well until Jinri opens her mouth.
"Would you mind coming on the next date with me and Taemin?"
Soojung's immediate response is to spit out the fruit juice in her mouth, choking on the liquid, all of which Jinri is completely oblivious too. "What the fuck?"
"I said, would you mind coming on the next date with me and Taemin? Our last date was so awkward and I think it'd be more comfortable if we went on like a double date or something."
"A double date? Going with one extra person isn't a double date, Jinri. It's called third-wheeling." Soojung sits up on the chair, still coughing because the juice isn't out of her system and Jinri doesn't really know the meaning of filtering her thoughts. Her spontaneity is really dangerous sometimes, Soojung thinks. "I think I'll have to pass on this offer."
"It's not just gonna be you, stupid." Jinri shifts in the lawn chair to look at Soojung, eyes squinting from the sunlight beating down on them. "Take Jongin with you!"
Soojung snorts. "That's hilarious, Jinri. There is no way in hell I am having Jongin as my date, alright?"
"Why not?!"
"Because he's Jongin! He's weird and gangly and you don't go on a date with your best friend!"
"Come on, please! For me." Soojung glances over at Jinri, who is making her stupid pouty face, eyes wide and lips pursed together. She really hates being friends with someone that always looks so cute. Sigh. "Besides, it's not gonna do you any harm. You've taken him to every dance we've ever been to, how does that not count as a date? Plus, he's Taemin's best friend, which will make it even less awkward. Please?"
Soojung groans. "FINE. But this is the only time. And you have to tell him."
Jinri squeals and turns back to her lawn chair, suddenly spouting off questions and answers and suggestions on what to wear and where to go and when to do it and how to plan it, and Soojung wonders if all of her life was meant to be some sort of hell. It's working, if anything.
They decide on Saturday of next week, from Soojung's house to Jongin's car to the movie theaters, where the stereotypical first moves are made and Soojung's kind of regretting agreeing to this.
The doorbell rings, and Soojung stands up, groaning. "Can me and Jongin just stay home?" she mutters, and Jinri kicks her from her seat on the couch. "Fine, fine, alright." She drags herself to the door, opening it to see Jongin with his back turned to the door, helping Taemin his collar. She sighs. "Hello, so nice to see you all dressed up."
Jongin turns around, and his eyes widen a little bit as he steps inside, Taemin brushing past the two of them straight to Jinri. It's like he's never seen her dressed up before or something, and Soojung shifts in her dress uncomfortably, pushing him slightly as she turns to Taemin and Jinri. "We're leaving, lovebirds, if you plan on joining us."
Jinri giggles and pulls Taemin up from the couch, holding his hand all the way out the door. Jongin waits for Soojung to get outside before following after her, and then bumps her at the hip. "You look good, you know."
"What the hell is this, high school musical?" She turns to look at him with a disgusted expression. "Of course I look good, asshole."
Jongin rolls his eyes, and he is evidently nothing but an asshole because he doesn't even open the car door for her. They grab driver's seat and passenger and end up bickering over which radio station to play while Jinri and Taemin play perfect couple in the back, and then fight over the arm rest during the movies while Taemin has his arm around Jinri and whispers to her every other minute or so about something that is most definitely not movie-related.
"Well, that fucking sucked." They're back again at Soojung's house, except Taemin and Jinri have gone out walking and Soojung is ready to die, sitting on the couch with Jongin across from her. "Why are they always so touchy? God, it's disgusting."
"You're just jealous," Jongin says, admiring his hands as he props his legs up on Soojung's lap.
"Of not having someone's sweaty hand to hold? Oh, yes, that definitely sounds so romantic."
Jongin rolls his eyes, shaking his head at her. He stands up suddenly and flips his hair out of his eyes before grabbing her hand, massaging her fingers as he holds it. "Not everyone's hands are sweaty, you know," and then his hands are gone, and he's laughing. "But whatever. I'm gonna go pick up Taemin, it's getting late. See you tomorrow, grouchy."
Soojung would remind him tomorrow is Sunday and she has no reason to see him on Sundays, but she doesn't because her hands are still tingling and his hands weren't sweaty. They were kind of nice, actually.
(but she wouldn't ever admit that to anyone but herself, soojung thinks.
if even that.)
The dance project has been arranged and Jongin and Soojung are partners (inevitably, because although he sucks at most things in life jongin is one hell of a good dancer), a mismatched hip hop routine for a duo that don't do much besides the classics. "Dude, I don't even know what song we're supposed to dance to. Like, Seo Taiji and the Boys or something? What the fuck?"
"You're so stupid." Soojung is flipping through the list of selected songs, trying to find one that has a manageable beat and something Jongin won't complain about. "Why would we dance to that?"
Jongin aims at a kick at her from where he's seated, rolling his eyes. "It was just a suggestion, asshole."
"Whatever." She slides the book towards him and lays back against the cold wood floor, sighing because sometimes dance sucks and she'd rather just be twirling to shit that won't determine her future. "Just choose a song. And be glad you've got a good dancer as a partner, you douche."
Jongin throws her a devious look, pretending to toss his cropped hair to the side as . "When you're the better looking half you don't need the talent."
"Better looking half? Um, maybe in some alternate universe, sure."
Jongin snorts. "If by alternate universe you mean this one, then yeah, I'm definitely better looking." Soojung opens her mouth to respond but then he adds, "Besides, Jinri thinks I'm pretty hot," and her throat closes up at that, because Jinri? He shrugs, still flipping through the pages of the song list even though she can't quite focus anymore. "She told me once that if Taemin was out of the picture - because apparently he's totally her type, whatever the hell that means - she'd totally date me."
Soojung blinks, and Jongin's arrogance gets the best of her because she takes off one of her shoes then and tosses it at him, smirking when it hits his chest harshly. "Better looking half, my ass. Yeah, right, keep dreaming."
Her seat is occupied at lunch, later that week. Soojung normally doesn't mind sitting with Taemin and Jinri when Jongin's there, but he's skipped out on her that day to sit with his weird, geeky friends from his math class and she doesn't think she can handle all the pda-ing by herself.
"And so, it comes to the sad day, where I am sitting with you and your lame ass friends at lunch."
Jongin kicks her under the table, shooting her a look that would be threatening to anyone but her. "Keep your snide remarks to yourself, why don't you?" and she holds up her hands in defense, when the guy sitting next to her bumps her slightly, headphones in his ears and oblivious to the term personal space. Soojung raises her eyebrow and Jongin sighs. "That's Sehun. He's kind of an asshole, ignore him."
"I can hear you," the guy says, now coined Sehun, and Soojung glances over to be half-blinded by his platinum blonde hair. "Don't fuck with me, you little shit," he growls, and this guy, he's a little intimidating. "Who even are you?"
"Uh, Soojung. Me and Jongin go to the same dance academy."
"Ah, right. And what are you guys, like, dating or something?"
"No, what the fuck-"
The guy sitting next to Sehun cuts him off, slapping him in the back. "God, Sehun, don't be such a dick." He turns to look at Soojung and he's got these big, clear eyes, a massive smile that makes him look more of an awkward giraffe than anything else. "I'm Chanyeol, by the way, Park Chanyeol."
"And also a whore, ignore him too," Jongin says, scrolling through text messages on his phone so casually that it seems like his friends are normally this weird and obnoxious.
"I am not!"
Sehun snorts and whispers something under his breath, of which only Chanyeol hears and starts raging about, and Soojung could not have regretted this more. She leans over to Jongin, whispering, "Why do you sit with these people?"
Jongin shrugs. "They can be funny, sometimes. Plus, Sehun lives next to me, and Chanyeol is basically nailed into every big party for the rest of this year."
"Well, still, they're freaks-"
Jongin kicks her again under the table, making a face. He opens his mouth, probably to say something regarding his friends, when Sehun turns to them from his bickering with Chanyeol and smirks. "You guys are so totally dating, I'm not blind." Chanyeol makes a move to hit him again when Sehun points under the table, obviously convinced of his theory. "They're even playing footsies, I mean look at them! His foot is right in between hers," and Chanyeol looks down underneath the table to see their legs interlocked, only because Jongin's legs are endless and Soojung was planning on kicking him right back.
"Are you guys really dating?"
"What?! No, we're not dating, why the hell do you keep asking that?" She picks up her lunch tray, kicking Jongin again for good measures before pushing her chair back and stepping away from the table. "This is stupid, I'm leaving."
She eats in the library for the rest of the week.
Soojung doesn't even know why she still invites him over to study, really. She doesn't even remember once getting anything productive done with him over, besides maybe the tangents he drags her into about the stupidity of today's educational system and why they shouldn't be forced to learn (although in all reality, jongin just likes to rambles a bunch of bullshit and soojung just likes to play pretend).
Jinri is in the midst of texting her about their date to the amusement park, and how they're going out for dinner later that evening, and how she wishes Soojung was there and Soojung is glad she is not.
"I wonder what they talk about when they're alone."
Jongin snorts, flipping through her notes despite always complaining about her chicken scratch. "Like butterflies or something gay like that." Soojung makes a face at him and he shrugs, sighing. "I don't know, man, Taemin's such a baby. He still giggles when he hears the word sex."
Soojung giggles, looking up to see Jongin with his eyebrow raised. "What?"
"Don't tell me you're like that too."
"Like what? I wasn't even laughing about that, asshole."
He scoffs, rolling his eyes as he props his legs up on her bed, and Soojung has to resist the urge to push them off. "Yeah, alright. I bet you and Jinri still talk about like, I don't know, holding hands with boys or something."
"We do not." She hits his leg, turning to the Biology textbook even though she doesn't remember what they were even studying. "Jinri's already kissed a guy, we don't need to talk about whether we can get someone to hold our hands, asshole. Ten bucks you and Taemin only ever talk about getting laid."
Jongin snorts again, his legs naturally falling off of the bed. "And what, have you never kissed anyone be-"
Soojung's eyes widen, and it takes a second but then Jongin's do too, and then the front door opens and there's a yell from downstairs, Soojung's mom calling up to them for dinner. She can feel herself turning red and Jongin, apparently, remembers just as well because he picks himself up off of her chair and doesn't bother to separate his notes from hers.
"Uh, I think I should probably leave now." Soojung gets off the bed and Jongin takes a step back, scratching at his head. "Um. Yeah. I'll go."
"Yeah. Alright. See you tomorrow."
He nods at her slightly and is out the door in the next second, and Soojung has to refrain herself from walking him down and making a rude remark about his pants that don't fit and how his hat makes him look like some sort of street thug. She wonders why it took him so long to remember.
(the summer before their freshman year, soojung failed dance camp auditions because she didn't have the right look and couldn't dance gracefully like the rest of the girls, tall and gangly and thin-limbed, stringy hair and not pretty enough because high school is when girls are supposed to become beautiful.
the summer before their freshman year, soojung's first kiss was stolen by jongin, a secret to the universe, after crying in her backyard for two days straight because she wasn't good enough for the world.
"i still like you even if you aren't that good."
jongin was never quite the best at comforting, soojung thinks, but his lips were soft at the time, and sweet like the cotton candy they'd stolen earlier that day, mischief at its finest. she remembers her first kiss better than her second, which was the week before school started and they were supposed to be more than the secret summer romance in the young adult novels.
there was no third to follow. maybe jongin forgot to ask, or maybe soojung forgot to remind.
it becomes the miserable story of her first kiss and her last. they don't dwell on it again.)
She has been handed the homecoming announcement flyers at least six times during the first half of the day alone. Jongin and her are sitting at the opposite end of the lunch table from Jinri and Taemin, away from the PDA and even further away from Jongin's weirdass friends. "This is so fucking stupid, I mean, what type of theme is masquerade to homecoming? Is no one supposed to have a date or something?"
Jongin shrugs, twirling the soggy macaroni with his plastic fork. "Don't ask me, ask the homecoming committee."
"And talk to those snobby whores? Please."
He snorts, looking up at her with a twinkle in his eyes before the smile on his face falters and he's judging her for something or another. Soojung raises her eyebrow, prompting him. Jongin sighs. "So I take it you're not going?"
"There is no way in hell that I am dressing up for some stupid masquerade event. I don't even look good in dresses, seriously." Jongin opens his mouth to retort but he doesn't say what she expects to hear and she sighs when he's not looking. "What?"
"Even if someone asked you?"
Soojung laughs, the last hit catching in her throat when she says the questioning in his eyes, and she would rather not dwell on summer romances and petty things they once had the time to worry about. "I'm pretty sure no one would ask me," she says, smirking as she slides her untouched lunch tray towards the bins at the end of the table. "Besides, I've got better things to do than go out of my way to have a boy tell me I look beautiful. Tell me something I don't know."
Jongin snorts, looking up at her with the matching smirk. "I know, right?"
She smiles and stands up from the table, leaving to her class on her own, and it doesn't hit her until much later, when she shouldn't be dwelling on the petty little things in the middle of the night. He never disagreed, and Soojung wonders if that was the scary part.
Jinri invites over her over later that weekend and it's the first time they've hung out on their own since Taemin and his displays of affection have intruded on their blossoming friendship. Or as Soojung likes to put it, at least. Jinri is trying to find some food and Soojung is sitting on the bar stool, turning back and forth as she twirls a strand of her hair around her finger. "Jinri."
"Hm?"
"I have a question."
She looks back from the food cabinet, raising her eyebrow. "Is this about Jongin?"
What the fuck. Soojung's eyes widen a little bit, and she would question the obvious if Jinri wasn't her best friend. "Uh… Yeah." Jinri turns around completely from the cabinet, leaning against the door frame and smirking - it's weird, because Jinri is supposed to be her innocent best friend just in love, but now she's hinting at the inevitable (as if, really) and it unnerves her.
"Continue."
Soojung sighs. "I don't know. I think he likes me?" She tells Jinri about the incident at her house, leaving out the awkward freshman years, and the homecoming discussion at lunch earlier that week. "Plus, I saw him yesterday in the hallways and he was flirting with some girl and normally I wouldn't really care, but he just kept looking at me weirdly like he wanted me to do something about it. I don't know."
Jinri shuts the cabinet door and walks over to the opposite side of the table, resting her arms on the table. "So?"
"What do you mean, so? So what?"
"So, do you like him?"
Soojung snorts. "As if. I just don't want him to go ruining our little friendship." She'd be lying if she said that wasn't the truth, but she'd be lying if she said it was too. Jongin's just confusing, and that's all the reality that she needs to accept.
Jongin's over for the first time since his last runout, and attempting to study for the first time - another one of his changes, but Soojung doesn't mention it and Jongin doesn't ask her to. The room is silent, save for the hip hop playing on Soojung's iHome, when her cell phone rings and they both look up, catching each other's eyes. Soojung grins awkwardly and grabs her phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Soojung, I need your help."
Jongin raises his eyebrow and she mouths Jinri, covering the bottom half of the phone as the latter launches into a series of self-answered questions about homecoming. What to wear, where to go, how to match, what's for dinner, how to do her hair, all the useless questions that come along with attending preppy school events. Jinri only hangs up after an hour and a half of her own advice, of which Soojung has barely spoken ten words and Jinri has satisfied herself.
"What was that all about?"
Soojung rolls her eyes. "Homecoming. Taemin finally asked her and I guess she's freaking out about it because this is her first time going with someone and all. You know how it is."
"Then why do you look so annoyed?"
She sighs, falling back against the bed to stare at the star covered ceiling. Her and Jongin had decorated it the night of her eighth birthday with his special, glow-in-the-dark sticker collection, the pretty ones he had never shared with anyone. Soojung guesses it's been there ever since, them. "I don't know, it's just annoying how all everyone talks about is homecoming. No need to rub it in."
Jongin rolls the chair up next to the bed, propping his elbows up on the comforter as he stares down at her. Soojung glances over to meet his eyes, and he's got really stunning eyes. The kinds girls 'melt into' in the movies, or however it goes.
What the hell is happening here.
"Well, if you're really that concerned, we could go together." He smiles cheekily, and Soojung feels like she probably would have overreacted right then if her first instinct wasn't to hit him soundly on the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Is that any way to ask a girl to homecoming, asshole?" Jongin looks kind of surprised, but she just scoffs and turns away before she allows herself to say anything she could possibly regret. "Besides, I don't even want to go. Nothing sounds less appealing than dressing up for the gayest event one could probably ever attend in their lifetime." He doesn't seem to agree.
The award for the best floral design just happens to be Soojung's next door neighbor, and they end up being where Jinri and Taemin's homecoming shots are taken, Soojung behind the camera and Jongin yelling at Taemin from the back to not be a pussy and put his arm around Jinri. It's a fun event, in any case, and Soojung feels strangely like a mom sending her child off with her husband despite the fact that both Taemin and Jinri are older than her and probably much more experienced in that case.
Jongin has no reason to stay, after their little photo shoot is done, but Soojung doesn't tell him to leave and Jongin doesn't offer to and so they end up back in her room, all alone because Sooyeon's been gone and the parents are workaholics.
He falls on to her bed first, and Soojung pushes him over so there's enough room for the both of them. She sighs. "They look cute together." Jongin laughs. "What?"
"Finally you think so?"
Soojung raises her eyebrow at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You were always so bitter about their relationship."
"I was not!"
Jongin shrugs, turning to look at her with a smile playing on his lips. "Seemed like that to me."
"I wasn't… Bitter about their relationship. I just thought it was weird." Soojung turns over to the side so she is looking at him straight, swallowing because if they were any closer she just might - not. "I mean, they've known each other for the longest time. Dating your friend just seems weird. Even if they weren't that good of friends before, still."
His smile falters a little bit but he doesn't break his gaze away from her, and Jongin has this way about him that is modelesque, perfect and imperfect at the same time. Soojung blinks and turns on her back again. "So you think it's weird if you date your best friend?"
"I guess. Why?"
"I don't know." Jongin shrugs, and she watches as his Adam's apple bobs in his neck as he swallows nervously. "It was just a question." It's silent, after that, and Soojung understands and she wonders if Jongin knows she does. He takes a deep breath, and then turns to look at her when,
"I don't-"
"Do you-"
They both stop, and Soojung looks over to see his eyes wide, heart probably racing under his thin t-shirt. "That was weird," she says, and he breaks out into a sort of smile that is Jongin-like but not completely there. She doesn't continue and Jongin doesn't either, and the silence is nothing short of completely awkward until he finally decides to open his mouth.
"I don't think friends dating is all that bad," he mutters. Soojung swallows.
"I never said it was a bad thing, I just think it's kind of weird-"
"which basically means it's a bad thing-"
"and it'd be kind of awkward for to just start dating your friend-"
"which basically means you wouldn't do it-"
"but I never said I wouldn't do it."
Jongin turns over to look at her and Soojung forces herself to look back, and she thinks her heart might be racing a little bit too but it isn't necessarily a bad thing and Jongin could be that friend. What have Taemin and Jinri done to her, honestly. "So you don't think it's impossible?" She shakes her head and his smile after that is a genuine Jongin smile, and she thinks she loves him a little too much for this.
The duo rehearsal continues into the next month, and Soojung and Jongin practice that weekend for two hours straight, no interruptions except for the one water break they force each other to take. The room is sweaty and dirty at the end of their rehearsal, if only for the excess amount of sweat the two of them have poured off and the fog of the mirrors with the heat collecting inside.
Soojung falls on the floor first, Jongin sitting next to her with his phone in his hands. He holds the cell up to the mirror and aims it at the corner, and she glances over at him weirdly. "What are you doing?"
"There's this weird thing near the closet that looks like a demon or something."
"Where?" She sits up, leaning over to his side, but she doesn't see anything in the mirror except the dusty green closet and their reflection. "I don't see anything."
Jongin points furiously, shaking his arm. "That little black thing!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
Jongin groans, grabbing her hand and pointing at the mirror himself, and now she can't see anything, everything except their barely interlocked hands a complete blur. "Do you see it now?" She doesn't, but Soojung nods anyways and he sighs, shaking his head and dropping their arms even though he doesn't let her hand go. "So stupid," he mumbles. She doesn't care to disagree.
There's a massive group date out to the movies, of which Soojung finds herself conveniently invited and drags Jongin along with her, finding a seat in the back of the movie theater with him at her side. It's becoming weird going places without him, now that Jinri is taken and she feels all alone all the time.
Jongin groans. "What even are we watching."
"I don't know, some horror movie? The girl that invited me is crazy about this shit."
"Weirdo."
Soojung uses this as an excuse to hit him, letting her arm fall on to his armrest, leaning over because this could not be anymore obvious. Jongin's also kind of an idiot, though, and his people-reading skills have apparently failed on him because it takes halfway into the movie when Soojung finally forces out a bored scream that Jongin finally reaches for her hand.
He holds on and doesn't let it go and maybe it's finally happening.
They are in Biology, at the back of the room in the lab desks, taking lecture notes when the room suddenly shakes and the class looks toward the windows to see the clouds darkening, rain pouring. First storm of the season, and all.
Soojung turns to Jongin, who swallows and looks away from the window, back to the teacher who also seems to be distracted. His leg is bouncing up and down, and his free hand is shaking under the table. She smiles, because they are in their last year of high school and Jongin is still scared of storms, ever since kids in the pre-school class. Way to grow up, she should say.
Instead, Soojung just reaches down and squeezes his hand, and she doesn't mind when he squeezes back.
Jongin comes over later that week, when it is still thunder storming, and they find shelter in her room, Jongin sitting back against the pillows and Soojung across from him. They are playing go fish, the deck of cards in between them with seven cards in hand. It's Jongin's turns. "Do you have any-"
The lights flicker, then, once or twice before the power finally kills and Jongin screams, the cards flying everywhere because he is the most dramatic asshole to ever exist. "HOLY SHIT."
"Dude, calm down, it's just a power outage-"
"I CAN'T DO THUNDERSTORMS-"
"Jongin, calm down!"
"FUCK FUCK FUCK-"
"JONGIN!"
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT. OH MY GOD. WHAT. WHAT DO YOU WANT."
"Do you still like me?"
There is a silence, and she can feel the tension between them. "What the fuck type of question is that when I'm hyperventilating," he finally says, but it comes out more like a statement than it does a question and she kind of wants to quit right then, but she can't so she doesn't, and Soojung pushes on.
"Just answer me!"
"No, what the hell-"
"Just say yes or no."
"No, I'm not answering that-"
"Just answer the fucking question-"
"YES FINE YES I STILL LIKE YOU. God. Are you happy?"
"No, you asshole." Soojung reaches out and finds his shirt in the dark, fisting her hand around it and bringing him towards her until their lips finally meet, and it's surprising how easily she finds them in the blackness. She can feel Jongin's heart racing under her palm, and she's not really sure what it's coming from but she kisses him anyways, not stopping because there is no resistance, and she thinks this is how it should have been all along.
He stops whining when they are under the covers and what happens after that is their own private display of affection.
requests of the day
otp
chanyeol/seohyun
sehun
joon
lee jonghyun/seohyun
krystal????