Running Deep | #TAC ficmix
Running Deep
Kai/Krystal; Taemin/Sulli, pg-13, 7,812 w~
FLUFF OMG I JUST. Basically for the ficmix, I rewrote the whole story to be Jongin’s view this time, added a few scenes, deleted some, and it was fun because I was trying to catch the similar humorous tone bollywoodrecord (Aqsa) used in telling P.D.A via Soojung-centric. I don’t think I delivered the original with justice but I hope you guys enjoy reading this one.
No one will ever ask to have Jongin as a study partner because 1) he is a class-A douche, and 2) because he whines a lot while studying.
“What is this shit.”
If Soojung gets a dime for every time he opens his mouth just to comment about how everything else pretty much sucks and this goddamn public school isn’t providing them enough even while their parents pay their taxes on time, she will be a filthy millionaire. But never enough duct tapes in the world to keep him from protesting about the fucked up education system and how it is so not that important to get into a prestigious university.
“Can we please just finish?”
She lifts the biology book and pretends to stuff it into his mouth. “Can you please just stop whining!”
He shrugs, resisting and putting his hands up. “Pardon me woman I do more than just whine. I may enjoy the comforts of releasing my frustrations about our school’s overly pathetic and unjust teaching methods I still have other hobbies which includes - and of course, you’re not paying attention to me anymore.”
She does not seem to bother, so he pokes and leans over her shoulder as she opens a new message from Jinri, a message in all capital letters ‘TAEMIN SAT WITH ME AT LUNCH TODAY!!!!!!’ and the exclamation marks to attest how strong and true it must be that Soojung might tend to think it being another rumor. By its sentence construction, it’s real enough.
Soojung rolls her eyes when she realizes he’s been looming over, observing the text message while grinning, “Well, this is interesting.”
He picks up her phone as she lies back on her bed, waits for another response from her as he quickly browses through the rest of the thread where it’s all Taemin this, Taemin that, and omg Soojung did you see him play soccer yesterday? He’s so hot before Soojung kicks his knee lightly.
“What’s so interesting?”
“Jinri likes him, then?”
She sits up again and shakes her head, swiping her phone out of his hands. “God, you’re slow.”
“But Taemin tells me Jinri’s just been giving him all the wrong signs or something.”
A little surprise, Soojung tilts her head in wonder. “Taemin likes her too?”
“Too slow, Jung,” he smirks pompously, Soojung frowning and throwing the fat-ass textbook at him. It hits his leg but he doesn’t mind the little pain - Soojung’s irritation has been a quick resolve, he likes to think.
The usual menu at lunch is being served today except there’s hot beef dumpling for side dishes and he strongly believes he’s allergic to it but decides to have two buns and have it in a paper bag before ordering a meal. Before he knows it, Taemin stands right beside him, looking shittier than ever, and Jongin slightly knocks a can of straws at the counter.
“Look what the love bug dragged in.”
“This is not the time for that, Kim Jongin. I am going to sit with Jinri for lunch today. Again.”
“Don’t you like her?”
“That’s exactly why this is getting way more difficult than I thought it should be,” he states their status, as though letting his friend know how far he’s stood or how much he’s held her hand or how he is slowly going to fuck things up if he does not ask her out properly at the soonest possible time.
Jongin smiles, surveying the cafeteria before spotting Soojung, and of course the girl Taemin’s going insane for months now, the Choi Jinri. It’s all at the same time funny and irritating. “Dude, chill. It’s just a girl. You totally got this. Just sit with her and everything is going to be fine.”
“If I sit with her alone one more time and watch her make eye signals with Soojung of how miserably dressed I am, I am seriously going to pee my pants.” Taemin says, already pulling Jongin’s shirt as they make it to their table.
He locates himself next to Soojung, slipping into the seat and opening his bag of dumplings. He hands her both since he knows she just kind of likes them more than anyone else. He’s hair is a little soak from a basketball game with Sehun and the others, slightly dabbing a bit of his perfume before leaving the gym. Taemin on the other hand sits across him quietly, gently even and Jongin notices how Jinri’s full attention falls on him.
Soojung then groans. “God, why.”
He notices it’s him she’s referring to, with those deadly glares. “What the hell Soojung I haven’t even said anything!”
“Oh go to hell,” Soojung mutters, rolling her eyes.
“I believe that’s your thank you for the dumplings, Jongin,” he adds, hitting her leg and motioning at the pair in front of them, being all lovey dovey unstoppably (hey, that rhymes, way to go Jongin). He’s laughing at something Jinri whispers that doesn’t sound too funny, Jongin’s observing their fingers brushing against each other under the table, Taemin’s right leg almost crossing Jinri’s left.
Before finishing her dumplings, Soojung nudges him instantly, standing up and saying, “Well, Jongin and I have a test to study for. And uhm, I guess we’ll see you guys later?”
“Wait, what te -“ Before he knows it, he’s dragged out of his sit by the ever notorious Jung Soojung, his meal barely touched as he leaves and sees his friend advances by giving Jinri a juicebox.
Apparently there is so much of Taemin and Sulli now that Soojung sometimes gags and Jongin just laughs as he nodges her ribs when they stroll the mall one afternoon after dance practice, together with the overly displayed affection shared by two of their closest friends.
Jongin snickers. “I bet they forget we’re actually still here.”
“You know what’s worse than banana frappe?” Soojung starts, finishing her drink and throwing it in the nearest trashbin. She gestures at the tipsy-looking Jinri in front (who isn’t really drunk, she’s just unstable from giggling at some cheap joke Taemin probably said) and the boy beside her holding back a blush so hard to un-see.
Jongin shakes his head. “You’re just being mean, you know that?”
“I’m being realistic, come on,” she adds. “They’re disgusting and embarrassing and really gross.”
“We need to work on that vocabulary of yours.”
Soojung rolls her eyes. “Right. Says the douche who can’t even recognize his own handwriting.”
Mondays are never wonderful for seniors because tonight they’re sitting on the kitchen top, Jongin’s pre-calc book wide open and chocolate chip cookies upon Soojung’s request to their side. “Thanks, Mrs. Kim!” she says in the sweetest voice it makes Jongin roll his eyes because how fake can one girl be, no one in campus can top off Jung’s.
“Jongin’s not dating anyone, right?”
Soojung looks back at Jongin across her, wide-eyed at the instant question from his mom and he feebly shakes his head, eye contact signaling Soojung to not say anymore jokes about anything in particular regarding his love life.
She smiles back. “No one seems that desperate enough I guess, Mrs. Kim. Not that I know any. Why’d you ask?” Soojung receives a kick on her knees from below and she just winces but maintains the smile.
Mrs. Kim chuckles, shaking her head. “Oh, I found two condoms in his wallet, and apparently one was already -”
“THANK YOU MOTHER, WE HAVE A BIG EXAM ON LIMITS TOMORROW!”
His mother, trying to suppress the giggles, pats Soojung’s head before giving Jongin one squeeze of an embrace out of his rage, and then she exits to the living room where she adds, “Stay for dinner if you can, Soojung. We’d love to have you around as often.”
Soojung twirls around her seat, still dying from the enormous amount of hilarity as Jongin continues scrawling down his graphs, considerably turning red as he grits his teeth. She bites her lips before saying anything else.
“So, who’s the lucky -“
“Okay shut up, they weren’t mine.”
“I know because you’re never gonna use them.”
Jongin looks fuming, breaks the tip of his pencil. “Excuse you, I do too. I mean, I will, in the future.”
“Alright,” Soojung knows when Jongin lies, it’s just makes him like Pinocchio for some reason, except instead of a growing nose, his eyes would avert hers and he just sweats a lot when he doesn’t tell the truth. “With who? Any girl in particular I should know of?”
“Is my sex life any of your business?”
“No, it’s the condoms I’m wondering about,” she bursts into another round of laughter. “I mean, I’d understand if you have them in your wallet, because you never know where you end up drunk again and I have to drag you out of there, again. So yeah better be safe than sorry. But an open wrapper?
I mean, you’ve seriously done it?”
“I told you. They weren’t mine,” he shakes his head, still panicking. “Technically. Okay. They were.”
Soojung pretends to gasp. “Oh so who? Wait, wait, is it a girl or a boy? I mean, you always practically hang out with the freakiest group of boys in school anyway so you must have done it with -“
“I hang out with you more and practically always,” Jongin cuts her off. “And no, I didn’t do it. The condoms were mine, however. Chanyeol tells me it’s always safer to bring them just in case I feel… a little weird. It was Junmyeon’s birthday the other week. And he’s still a freaking virgin. So -”
“So you’ve done it with him?”
Jongin thumps her forehead when she gets too near him in her interest to know about such gossip. It’s making his heart beat utterly fast, and he isn’t too sure if it’s because it’s one of the most embarrassing moments of his life retold, but because of the fact that Jung Soojung’s listening to every breath he’s taking at the moment. Maybe both. Maybe just the latter.
“No, Jung! No! Geez, girls who jump around in pigtails make me horny you know that!” He blurts out of frustration. “We inserted the unused - note, unused! - condom in his French book. He has this hot foreign tutor who he says he’s been really into. So I guess during study time, when the girl opened the book -“
“Happy birthday Junmyeon!” Soojung claps her hands. “Someone got it with the French, eh?”
Jongin grins coyly, staring at her as she works on the f of x. “Hm, looks like someone’s happy they confirmed my sexual orientation.”
“I really don’t care about your sexual orientation you bastard, I just wanted to know who you’re sleeping with and want to know why they exactly want to sleep with you. I mean, just look at you.”
He smirks, flexing his arms and brushing his hair up. “I know. God knew exactly how to create a walking perfection.”
“Yeah, definitely not the ass who brings condoms everyday even though no girl would ever want to date him.”
He tries to dismiss the story but she somehow manages to bring it up in the next hour while waiting for dinner to be prepared. Somehow being bullied by the girl who’s practically the queen bee in bullying the hell out of him doesn’t seem that awful. He learns how to filter through the rest of the unnecessary comments Soojung throws at him, which is also in a bit, enjoyable. It’s not lonesome, studying that is - even if it meant a twenty page script consisting an endless banter of Taylor Swift’s latest album.
“Jinri texted you, by the way.”
“What’d she say?”
“Aw, someone’s getting it alright!” She raises her eyebrows at his reaction, as he slides her phone back to her.
"What are you talking about?" She scrolls to through the text only to find Jinri’s all caps TAEMIN ASKED ME OUT I JUST !!!!!!!!!! and it takes forever to register in her head, until she types out a congratulations even though Soojung isn’t sure it’s something of an achievement considering they both already like each other, and they’ve been heading in that direction anyway since the dawn of time.
“Well, they won’t publicly display affection that much now, right?” Soojung sighs. “No more pretends or play hard to get or… something teenagers do to get the d.”
“Seriously, you still call it ‘the d’?”
“Do you want me to add more condoms to prove how they’ll just all eventually expire because you’re never gonna use your d?”
Jongin calmly settles and looks at her, trying to read her mind every time she makes that face. Too deep, too poetic, too uncharacteristically Soojung. “So what now?”
“Nothing,” she shrugs, which meant it isn’t just nothing. Jongin senses a long drama over the phone tonight. Must be a short confession of how Soojung has feelings for Taemin, or Jinri doesn’t really like Taemin she’s just using him to get to something else - that sort, he’s going to be waiting. “I just find Jinri… to be well, you know, good at this whole relationship thing. Whatever.”
“Come on kids, dinner’s ready!” Mrs. Kim knocks and leaves just as fast.
He doesn’t dwell on the subject anymore and she’s kinda happy he drops it entirely in the next weeks with homecoming around the corner.
He doesn’t hear the next dumbest statement ever until he meets up Taemin over the weekend to play basketball. He hears the question the second time around, and it just gets even dumber every time that he throws the ball across the field and let it settle.
“You just have to! I can’t do this! I like her too much to end up being awkward again,” Taemin says, wiping off his sweat. “I mean. She’s totally going to dump me by tomorrow if I’m this pathetic. I don’t know what to do.”
“You can start with ‘don’t be a pussy’ as an everyday mantra,” Jongin adds, lying down on the grass.
“I think it’d just be more comfortable if we went on a double date or something,” Taemin suggests.
He grabs some dirt and throws it at Taemin when he decides to sit next to him. He seems too distracted to care. “Listen lover boy. Let me emphasize the fact that double date means going in pairs. Tagging along to your next date isn’t a double date. It’s just me third-wheeling. And no, I just can’t be around couples that much who’ll eventually leave me out.”
“Take Soojung with you, duh.”
He snorts. “There goes the joke of the century. Date? Soojung? Do you hear yourself?”
“You guys are inseparable, you know each other more than anyone else, heck more than we even know ourselves,” Taemin reasons out. “I mean what’s the more perfect pair than you and Jinri’s best-est girl friend ever?”
“Dude you’re sounding like her already, just stop,” Jongin retorts. “I mean she’s Soojung! She’s sarcastic and obnoxious and like you said, we know each other too much. That kinda ruins the whole point of going on a date with someone since you’ve practically shared your whole entire life with them. There’s nothing else to share.”
“It’s just like a group hangout or something,” he continues. “There’s nothing wrong with that, okay? It’ll be like old times.”
“Except it won’t be,” Jongin defends. “You’ll be holding hands with Jinri and I’ll be stuck enduring Soojung’s snide remarks about my shoes.”
“Please?”
“You’re paying for the said date. Anything Soojung and I decide to order, you’re going to cough up the dough. Deal?” And they both shake hands, neither one even in the slightest bit as happy because Taemin might be asking a little extra cash from his parents and Jongin’s just signed a lease to hell.
He snatches the ball from him and they start playing another round of free throws that afternoon.
It’s Saturday already the following week, and Jongin drives Taemin personally to Soojung’s house where the princesses are staying, waiting patiently (or in Soojung’s case, dreadfully) for their prince charming to sweep them off the feet of boredom and out the treacherous ordeals of teenage life.
He can’t help himself from frowning. “So the movies, huh?”
“Yup.”
“The first moves always happen at movies, you’re so cliché man.”
“See, you need to learn from me to get it with the girls, alright?”
He sighs, shaking his head as he turns to Soojung’s street. They pull up, the engine dies, and the two men slowly walk in the hippest dashing clothes ever, it’s doubtful to the point that they could actually be this handsome if they just committed to it at an everyday basis.
Taemin tries to ring the bell, but pulls back, nervous and excited. “I can’t do it.”
“I’m already hungry, please just ring the damn bell.”
It resounds inside the house, Jongin even overhearing Soojung’s cry of wanting to just stay at home before hearing another loud thump on the solid wooden floor and he assumes it’s Soojung’s lazy ass.
Jongin notices Taemin’s collar and fixes it, clicking his tongue in annoyance. Before he knows it, the door is open and there’s an audible sigh. “Look who’s all dressed up today.”
He turns at her voice and he swears and breathes he’s never seen Jung Soojung in this light in a long while since middle school’s choir for the midyear talent show. She used to sing, before she decided she wants to dance more, and it’s something Jongin has always admired because she’s something else altogether, like an angel, her voice, that is. Her appearance at that very second proves it, in her white dress and pigtails. Fucking pigtails of all things she can do with her hair.
Taemin brushes past the two of them, falling into Jinri’s arms and whispered I-miss-you’s even though it has to be the loudest noise in the room because Soojung and Jongin have both fallen silent. She shifts uncomfortably, pulling her dress up because she’s wearing strapless, and it won’t stay still unless she does too.
She heads to the doorway, pulling Jongin by the sleeve. “Hey you guys, I’m hungry.”
Jongin follows her, bumps her hip and whispers, “You clean up good.”
“That’s a rude comment and you know that and yet you still stay it,” she looks at him, disgusted. “See this is why no one dates you. 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.
They’re back, ahead of schedule, ahead of the lovebirds because Soojung’s feet are sore and Jongin can’t third-wheel just as much as he can stomach the ‘Babe, let me get that for you!’ while Taemin and Jinri go walking. She falls on the couch with Jongin across her.
“Well, that was fun huh?” She manages after inhaling deep, sarcasm lingered in every word. “They’re so touchy. Geez, it’s nauseating.”
He sits back, and props his legs on Soojung’s lap. She pushes them away but he does it again and he wins because she’s too exhausted to spend more energy on it.
“You’re just jealous.”
She snorts, then laughs. “Please. I don’t need sweaty hands to hold.”
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, cranky.”
His hands tingle after he leaves her, closing the door behind him and smiling. It’s a strange thought but for some reason Jongin ends up thinking about it for the rest of the day (not that he’s going to tell anyone about it either).
How wrong he is, though. In fact it’s had him quite occupied for the rest of the week. He understands that it’s weird why he’s so concerned about holding hands with Soojung now since he’s practically done that countless of times beforehand, even carrying her on his back when they were kids. He tries to avoid their usual table for lunch, because he does not want a double date scenario again just by sitting next to Soojung.
Jongin ends up sitting with his other friends, who seem to have been having an intense debate over the latest episode of Game of Thrones.
“Look, if Jon Snow is dead,” one of them starts, “the whole series becomes pointless. That’s fucking Jon Snow. He doesn’t even die in the book.”
“Yeah, like you read the book.”
“I’m more concerned about Arya. Seriously. Anyone else?”
“Yo,” squeaks Jongin, putting his tray down the table. The others look at him without care and continue on with the debacle as he takes a bite of his apple, setting aside nonetheless two dumplings in a paper bag.
Another five minutes later someone looms over and takes the paper bag. “These are mine I believe,” and then she finds her seat across him. Everyone on the geeky table suddenly shuts their mouth as a human deity decides to share lunch with them. When Soojung realizes all their eyes are on her, she stares back at them and let her mouth hang. “Well?”
“They’ve never seen a Soojung before.”
“Yeah, what are you? Jongin’s girlfriend?”
“Kyungsoo, that’s gross,” Jongin tries to kick the guy at the end of the table.
She rolls her eyes. "And so, it comes to this sad day, where I am sitting with you and your lame ass friends at lunch."
Jongin threatens her with his fork, attempting to at least, since she’d be the last one to feel any threat from him anyway. “Don’t think this is going to be an everyday thing.”
“Oh, like I would want that.” She holds up her hands in defense, when the guy sitting next to her bumps her slightly, headphones in his ears and oblivious to her personal space.
Jongin sighs. “That's Sehun. He's kind of an asshole, ignore him.”
"I can hear you, fucker," this dude says and turns to them, attention now out of music. “Am I required to socialize with her? Who is this?”
Soojung’s lips twist a little in annoyance. “I’m Soojung. I go to the same dance academy as Jongin.”
“So you… you’re his girlfriend?”
“God, why does everyone think I’m your girl, what have you been telling them?” Soojung almost shouts at the boy across her, and Jongin shakes his head defensively, at the same time hitting Sehun below the table.
“Are you the girl Jongin’s reserving his entire con -“
The guy behind Sehun slaps his back, stopping him. "Sehun, don't be such a dick." He looks at Soojung, with his big eyes and a smile that frightens babies she sure can bet on it. And he’s tall, she’s come to realize. “I’m Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol.”
“Complete whore, ignore him too,” Jongin leans in to say it, then goes back to scrolling through his text messages as casual as he can since all of his friends are deliberately this horrible around other people outside their clique.
"I am not!"
The one to Jongin’s left smiles cleanly and fixes his collar before holding out his hand. “Please forgive them. I’m Junmyeon by the way. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Soojung represses her snicker before receiving a glare from Jongin. “Hey, Junmyeon!” She’s hesitant in shaking his hand but does it out of respect from that entire happy birthday prank from the rest of them guys.
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. “Unlike girls, we don’t have a dress code of wearing pink on Wednesdays.”
"Well, still, they're freaks-"
“They’re fun. Sehun lives next to me, Chanyeol has access to all the big parties, Kyungsoo’s got nobody to sit with so we adopted him and Junmyeon is running for class president this year. It gives you power in politics, you know? So it’s all good.”
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 can’t they stop asking me that?” She picks up her lunch tray, kicking Jongin again. "This is stupid, I'm leaving."
She exits the cafeteria so it worries Jongin where she’ll end up going to. Not far he predicts. “Dude aren’t you gonna go after her? Your girlfriend just walked out on you.”
He throws a banana peel at Sehun’s face and decides he would want to finish his meal before he chooses to chase girls and their screwed up logic about things.
“Hey, you know what’s worse than the educational system?” Soojung starts one lunch time a few weeks after sitting with Jongin’s lame ass friends and Jinri and Taemin’s PDA.
He chews on his kimchi, then looks up. “Other than my grade in English? Wait, wait, Taemin’s shitty puns?”
She smirks aptly. “Fucking homecoming, that’s what’s worse.” Soojung waves around twenty pieces of flyers in her hand then puts it in front of her. “Are they not concerned about saving trees instead by not printing half of this shit? Like who would even go to this insanely hormonal-driven parties?”
“Why, what’s the theme? Slutty Halloween?”
Soojung rolls her eyes at him. “Masquerade! I mean, how does that work? Like aren’t singles invited?”
“I don’t have all the answers young Padawan, ask the homecoming committee!”
“And talk to those stuck up bitches like they’re on top of the world? Pft, a bunch of plastics.”
Jongin chuckles. “Hey, are you doing a Mean Girls reference?”
“Focus Jongin,” Soojung responds. “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.”
“So you’re really not going?”
She folds her arms. “Duh.”
He tries to hide a sigh but she catches it and waits for him to say something else, expecting that is to say something else but he just loses his grip on words, ending up with, "Even if someone asked you?"
Jongin tries to see her eyes glimmering at the question, almost hoping but at the same time already rejecting the very thought that anyone would so does she even have choice, of course she’ll say no, she won’t attend. It’s not the party’s the problem, nor the clothes, nor the people - Soojung’s just waiting for someone to come up and ask her out but that’s just Jongin’s observation and he likes to crack Soojung in the most oblivious manner in the best way he can. It gets on his good side for some reason.
“I’m pretty sure no one would bother,” she replies, grabbing the paper bag full of dumplings from Jongin’s tray. “Besides I’ve got better things to do than go out of my way just to have a boy tell me I look gorgeous. Tell me something I don’t know.”
He smirks, opening the paper bag for her, and then handing her the dumpling. She looks up expectantly, locks gazes and eventually lowers her head.
Jongin snorts. “I know right? We need something new around here.”
She smiles and gets to class afterwards. Jongin blushes at what he just said and it’s hurting his head that he’s stopped trying to disagree with her or bring her ideals down. That’s not how things work, not between the two of them at least, but he lets it slip, this time, because it’s this type of things that makes him completely wonder how things have truly changed yet at the same time, they’re still right where they started.
The only class that Jongin has where Soojung isn’t is English and he shares this one with Taemin. Today the teacher’s out but they’re stuck in their room reading some important literature they all pretend to have understood or else they’ll fail the rest of the year.
“Dude.”
Taemin’s on his phone, fingers quick as he types his message with heart emoticons at the end. “Yeah?”
“Taemin.”
“Yeah I’m listening, what?”
Jongin swipes the other boy’s phone immediately and puts it inside his backpack, too far of an arm reach for Taemin. He smirks while his friend grimaces and pays finally the attention he’s been needing.
“What? She’s going to call in five minutes, this better be important.”
Jongin raises both of his hands. “Look man, I’m just… I really need to talk to you. About a girl.”
“Hey wait is this about that one party you guys went and didn’t invite me over?” Taemin wonders. “But I guess it was fine because it was our monthsary and I just can’t miss our eighth week of being together.”
“You know you’re lucky I tolerate all the shit you say,” Jongin replies. “Dude, can we talk about Soojung?”
“What about… oh man, don’t tell me you’re - ”
Jongin clicks his tongue, annoyed. “No, no. It’s not that. Well, if I think what you think is that, then maybe it is.”
“You’re finally getting it, aren’t you?”
“The what?”
“The more than friends thing? You’re finally noticing it,” Taemin laughs, patting his back. “Jinri and I have been betting on who is going first and apparently I win.”
“Wait, you guys put on a bet on us? And I thought I was an asshole.”
His friend shakes his head. “It’s kinda inevitable anyway. The chemistry between you is just too real to not miss. Yes, you don’t need dates to get to know each other. You’re so comfortable around each other it’s amazing how you two survived those years without developing romance in between those times you’re together. You know, she could be your Jinri.”
“Soojung doesn’t like to call every fifteen minutes if that’s what you’re saying,” Jongin takes his phone out and tosses it back to Taemin, rolling his eyes as the pet names continue and he can’t understand a single thing about Hamlet.
It’s the first time he’s been over after hellish moments maintaining Jinri and Taemin’s relationship afloat (because really, once your friends are going out on dates, you become their personal assistant, addressing not only physical and financial requirements but also emotional supporters). He’s never share how he truly finds Soojung’s room quite adorable and it’s silent now because both refuse to talk about anything. That until her phone rings and they stare at each other for one brief moment before Soojung picks up and finds Jinri on the other line.
“HE ASKED ME TO HOMECOMING!!!!!”
Jongin’s unable to hide a beam, overhearing the girl and Soojung just slouches back in disdain, because really it’s pathetic: 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.
“She knows how to wear out an ear.”
“She must be just nervous and freaking out,” Jongin says. “Why do you look so annoyed? Aren’t you happy for her?”
He rolls his chair up next to the bed, elbows propping as he stares at her, her hair falling down the side of the bed. She meets his eyes. “I don’t know. Everyone talks about homecoming too much, they don’t have to rub it in that I can’t go because I have no on.”
She looks delicate, like a helpless baby chick out of her mother’s nest or out of an incubator. The glow-in-dark sticker collection on the ceiling illuminates her cheekbones the most, and he’s just realized it’s getting dark already, too dark for reading but I guess they merely procrastinated every time they end up in her room to study.
“If you’re that worried, we could always go together,” he says and he just receives a blow on the arm, unable to hide that this time it actually did hurt.
“Woman, are you on steroids?”
"Is that any way to ask a girl to homecoming, asshole?" He’s taken aback but she scoffs and he turns a little red because he might as well say everything else he’s going to end up regretting. "Besides, I don't even want to go. Let’s just drop it."
Soojung doesn’t go, but Jongin does.
With no one apparently, which just eventually causes her to end up being the one behind the camera, taking homecoming shots of every attendee and their dates, professing endless love of a lifetime even though she’s betting they’ll totally be gone in the summer or in the first year of college. Jongin ultimately just lands a spot right behind her, telling her at which angle is ideal, holding her hand as she presses buttons of the Nikon (Junmyeon comes with his girlfriend and previously tutor, but she doesn’t try to kid about their backstory while Jongin stands behind her).
Finally Taemin and Jinri stand in front of them, Jongin’s yelling Taemin to just put an arm around the girl and Soojung feels so much pride in getting Jinri this once in a lifetime opportunity of dating her ultimate crush since middle school.
Jongin and Soojung don’t stay for too long, slow dances and alcoholic cocktails emerge in midway so perhaps it’s time to leave.
“You sure you don’t want to dance? At least once?”
“I’ve had enough dancing earlier at the studio, thank you very much,” Soojung tells him and he drives her home afterwards, getting all the pictures printed and hanged to dry inside her bedroom. Jongin drops on her bed first, Soojung pushing him over so she can have more room and she raises Taemin and Jinri’s photo.
“They look so cute together.” Jongin laughs at her some more.
“What?”
“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."
“No, not really,” Soojung turns over to the side, so they end up looking straight at each other. Too close, Jongin swallows. Too close, he thinks he whispered beautiful right at her but thanks the heavens his mouth is closed. “I just found it weird. I mean, they’ve known each other for the longest time. Dating a friend is just… you know, weird.”
His gaze doesn’t falter, but a smile is long gone. He stares far deeper, running deep into Soojung still constantly trying to read her and she blinks looking away. “So you just find it weird when friends date?”
“Pretty much. Why?”
“Just wondering,” he shrugs, looking again at the galaxy ceiling they made when they were kids. “It was just a question.” Which really wasn’t. Jongin wish she stops waiting on him to say things, she knows very well his actions are impulsive and his words are a slur when he’s nervous. He inhales deep, and then turns around to look at her as she starts,
“I don't -”
“Do you-”
They don’t exactly know how they end up starting speaking both at the same time and hardly even making sense because the other refuses to finish. She bites her lips in hesitation and Jongin waits. Waits, until she starts talking again. She doesn’t so maybe that’s his cue.
“I don't think friends dating is all that bad, ” he finally decides.
“I never said it was a bad thing, I just think it's kind of weird-”
Jongin responds at once “ -which basically means it's a bad thing-”
“ -but I never said I wouldn't do it. ”
And so that’s how it goes, him looking over her and she greatly takes the leap of looking back and he wonders at this distance could she hear his heart making those unnecessary clumsy beats that they will never dance to together? It’s not exactly a bad thing, in fact he kinda likes it. He likes to think she does too.
“So you think it’s possible?”
They both smile, his boyish grin and her innocent one. He just loves her in all the smallest grandeur there is.
It’s in biology and they take the lab desks at the back for the first time in the whole year. His taking down lecture notes, again outside his margins when the room eventually shakes and the skies outside turn gray, rain heavily crashing on the streets and the field.
His shivering and sweating at the same time, unable to look away from the window outside, his legs bouncing up and down from the under the table, his fist clenched, and he bites his lips as he shuts his eyes.
It’s always been a scary for him, which is a stupid phobia Soojung often says. He remembers crawling into Soojung’s comforters and mat when it pours way back in kindergarten. She always gave him a hand to hold and sometimes old habits die hard: years after he finds the same hand, squeezing him in the most comforting manner. He goes back to listening to the lecture.
For some reason they end up at the movies a lot of times and it just becomes almost inconvenient when Jongin’s not with Soojung so he lets her drag him into finding a seat in the back of the movie theater, fighting once more about the armrest but settles when the show starts.
She eventually groans midway through the movie. “What the hell are we watching.”
"I don't know, some horror movie? The girl that invited me is crazy about this shit."
"She’s such a weirdo.”
He feels when her fist connects with his chest, letting her arm fall on to his armrest, leaning over to his side every time some oldie appeared in the screen and surprising the rest of the watchers. Jongin’s dumb because he can’t quite get it and it’s when Soojung starts screaming out of boredom does he finally reach out for her hand and take her into his arms.
It feels just about right, he decides.
It’s dance practice at the studio but they end up studying for the first wave of exams heading their way. It’s funny because she’s in her tights and leotards while he’s wearing loose almost-pajama pants and they’ve seen each other in way worse clothes but for some reason they cannot manage to look at each other properly, shyly reading through their biology textbooks from across the room, both their backs mirror to mirror, them facing each other.
Her phone vibrates across the floor and it’s Jinri again, telling Soojung about their date at the amusement park.
“OMIGOD, LIKE HE TOTALLY HELD MY HAND WHEN WE WENT UP THE OCTOPUS AND… I JUST WOW I WISH YOU WERE HERE!” She’s set the call on speaker so Jongin gets to hear it too.
She rolls her eyes, setting them at Jongin. “Yeah, we wish we could be there too. Have fun kids. Bye!”
She’s just glad she doesn’t have to spend another second witnessing it. Listening to it becomes a tedious chore enough, maybe because it’s becoming too sweet for her own good. They fall silent again after that, until Soojung sighs.
"I wonder what they talk about when they're alone."
He looks up from his book, snorting at that. “It’s probably rainbows and shit.” She chuckles lightly before pensively forgetting that she still needs to read chapter 3 of the circulatory system. “Taemin’s such a baby you know. He touches a condom and he’s like, “Wow fuck, how do I use this?” He’s that stupid.”
Soojung giggles and Jongin’s eyebrows are raised.
“What?” He goes to her side, taking his big book with him and sits beside her. "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. "Yeah, alright. I bet you and Jinri still talk about like, I don't know, holding hands with boys or something."
"We’re not fetuses, you know.” She hits his leg, turning to the Biology textbook even though she forgets exactly what they were supposed to be studying about. "Jinri's already had one boyfriend before and she’s kissed about two more, 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 is sex and how many girls you’ve gotten laid."
“And how many girls do you think I’ve already gotten laid?”
Soojung laughs, as if waiting for this exact day to give her best response yet. “Zero, of course!”
Jongin snorts again, facing her once more. "And what, like have you never kissed before -”
Soojung’s eyes widen and Jongin’s follow in its suit and before they know it, Yixing enters in the doorway, swaying his towel over to the other side and taking off his earphones as the two other people break apart. Jongin turns red at the memory, picking his book up and doesn’t bother to give back her highlighters.
“I… I… I think I should go.” He stutters, getting up and not looking back.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
He nods at her slightly and is out the door in the next second, and Jongin has to stop himself from commenting anymore about how the way she looks even stupider with her hair down while studying in dance clothes and those huge thighs or her sweaty loose blouse. And he still doesn’t want to say it, but he hates her for remembering such a memory he never ever tries to bring up again until that very minute. He’s still red when he meets the rain outside, and his car is a block away and he can’t make a run for it when the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes.
It’s not something he can quite overcome yet as an 18-year-old.
(Right after middle school, dance camp auditions comes up and Jongin successfully makes it to top one while Soojung fails because they all say she can’t capture the right look and she isn’t as graceful like the rest of the girls all blooming thanks to puberty.
His first kiss has been hers too, the universe never decided to tell anyone. Because she’s been crying in the backyard and the world still didn’t believe she’s good enough.
“I still like you, you know.”
Jongin’s hideous hair and nervous laughter makes Soojung think a little, but not too long when his lips connects with hers, the way they make her want more. It’s rather simple, stolen, just a feeble attempt at comforting her.
They don’t share another one after that, because Soojung ends up forgetting and Jongin decides it’s always better to move on from little slip ups and tiny mistakes.
Except, he’s realized in a long while, perhaps they aren’t at all that.)
A little drenched Jongin backs away from the sidewalk; it’s past twilight now, backpack now worn on both shoulders. Entering the dance studio once more, he whimpers every time the thunder growls and he feels the whole building is shaking with him, the walls closing in on him. He winces, cringes, lets out a small cry of fear. Crouching, he sits and covers his ears, eyes shut but the lightning still manages to reflect behind his lids and it frightens him more.
“Hey! Hey! I’m here, hey!”
Her voice is barely heard but he focuses on that, focuses on the arms wrapped around his waist suddenly as she closes him in a strong comforting embrace. “There, there, it’s not going to hurt you. You’re not wearing an underwired bra.”
He laughs, in tears, embarrassed. “God, Soojung.”
“They say lightning will hit you if you wear an underwired bra,” Soojung responds, looking at him now and waiting for him to stop shaking.
“Are… are you wearing one because if you get hit, then I’ll get hit with you since we’re kinda hugging and -“
“Someone’s learning their physics well,” she mutters. “Besides you don’t ask girls that, you dick.”
“Someone’s learning how to say the d word well,” he teases, but eventually loses it again when the thunder roars at them and he’s burying himself in Soojung’s arms. They’re quite strong, he’s realized, and he’s just lucky. The light flickers until they’re totally out and he trembles even further, sitting down now on the floor, cowering.
“Shit, it’s getting stronger! SHIT.”
“Dude, relax it’s just power outage.”
“Fuck, I can’t take this anymore. Fuck.”
“Jongin!”
“Fucking shit, what do you want? God. What? Make it stop.”
“Do you still like me?”
There is a silence, finally, and he tenses when he sees her eye to eye. “What type of fucking question is that when I'm hyperventilating?”
Soojung pushes on. “Just answer me!”
Jongin shakes his head. “The fucking hell is wrong with you-”
“Yes or no, dammit!”
“YES OF COURSE YES I STILL LIKE YOU.” He spits it out, seeing her frown even some more, eyes already watery at the answer. “Happy now?”
“No, you asshole.” Before Jongin knows it, Soojung reaches over him and finds his lips in the darkness, and he pulls her closer, easily finding out now that it’s surprisingly easy to kiss her this much and this big and this worth it that his heart races, and she can feel Soojung’s too. For some reason who needs dates, when they’ve already known each other for as long as they can remember, and now it feels like they do. They know which ear is ticklish and which hand is abrasive.
(And they both know, for some reason, it should’ve been like this all along.)
Kai/Krystal; Taemin/Sulli, pg-13, 7,812 w~
FLUFF OMG I JUST. Basically for the ficmix, I rewrote the whole story to be Jongin’s view this time, added a few scenes, deleted some, and it was fun because I was trying to catch the similar humorous tone bollywoodrecord (Aqsa) used in telling P.D.A via Soojung-centric. I don’t think I delivered the original with justice but I hope you guys enjoy reading this one.
No one will ever ask to have Jongin as a study partner because 1) he is a class-A douche, and 2) because he whines a lot while studying.
“What is this shit.”
If Soojung gets a dime for every time he opens his mouth just to comment about how everything else pretty much sucks and this goddamn public school isn’t providing them enough even while their parents pay their taxes on time, she will be a filthy millionaire. But never enough duct tapes in the world to keep him from protesting about the fucked up education system and how it is so not that important to get into a prestigious university.
“Can we please just finish?”
She lifts the biology book and pretends to stuff it into his mouth. “Can you please just stop whining!”
He shrugs, resisting and putting his hands up. “Pardon me woman I do more than just whine. I may enjoy the comforts of releasing my frustrations about our school’s overly pathetic and unjust teaching methods I still have other hobbies which includes - and of course, you’re not paying attention to me anymore.”
She does not seem to bother, so he pokes and leans over her shoulder as she opens a new message from Jinri, a message in all capital letters ‘TAEMIN SAT WITH ME AT LUNCH TODAY!!!!!!’ and the exclamation marks to attest how strong and true it must be that Soojung might tend to think it being another rumor. By its sentence construction, it’s real enough.
Soojung rolls her eyes when she realizes he’s been looming over, observing the text message while grinning, “Well, this is interesting.”
He picks up her phone as she lies back on her bed, waits for another response from her as he quickly browses through the rest of the thread where it’s all Taemin this, Taemin that, and omg Soojung did you see him play soccer yesterday? He’s so hot before Soojung kicks his knee lightly.
“What’s so interesting?”
“Jinri likes him, then?”
She sits up again and shakes her head, swiping her phone out of his hands. “God, you’re slow.”
“But Taemin tells me Jinri’s just been giving him all the wrong signs or something.”
A little surprise, Soojung tilts her head in wonder. “Taemin likes her too?”
“Too slow, Jung,” he smirks pompously, Soojung frowning and throwing the fat-ass textbook at him. It hits his leg but he doesn’t mind the little pain - Soojung’s irritation has been a quick resolve, he likes to think.
The usual menu at lunch is being served today except there’s hot beef dumpling for side dishes and he strongly believes he’s allergic to it but decides to have two buns and have it in a paper bag before ordering a meal. Before he knows it, Taemin stands right beside him, looking shittier than ever, and Jongin slightly knocks a can of straws at the counter.
“Look what the love bug dragged in.”
“This is not the time for that, Kim Jongin. I am going to sit with Jinri for lunch today. Again.”
“Don’t you like her?”
“That’s exactly why this is getting way more difficult than I thought it should be,” he states their status, as though letting his friend know how far he’s stood or how much he’s held her hand or how he is slowly going to fuck things up if he does not ask her out properly at the soonest possible time.
Jongin smiles, surveying the cafeteria before spotting Soojung, and of course the girl Taemin’s going insane for months now, the Choi Jinri. It’s all at the same time funny and irritating. “Dude, chill. It’s just a girl. You totally got this. Just sit with her and everything is going to be fine.”
“If I sit with her alone one more time and watch her make eye signals with Soojung of how miserably dressed I am, I am seriously going to pee my pants.” Taemin says, already pulling Jongin’s shirt as they make it to their table.
He locates himself next to Soojung, slipping into the seat and opening his bag of dumplings. He hands her both since he knows she just kind of likes them more than anyone else. He’s hair is a little soak from a basketball game with Sehun and the others, slightly dabbing a bit of his perfume before leaving the gym. Taemin on the other hand sits across him quietly, gently even and Jongin notices how Jinri’s full attention falls on him.
Soojung then groans. “God, why.”
He notices it’s him she’s referring to, with those deadly glares. “What the hell Soojung I haven’t even said anything!”
“Oh go to hell,” Soojung mutters, rolling her eyes.
“I believe that’s your thank you for the dumplings, Jongin,” he adds, hitting her leg and motioning at the pair in front of them, being all lovey dovey unstoppably (hey, that rhymes, way to go Jongin). He’s laughing at something Jinri whispers that doesn’t sound too funny, Jongin’s observing their fingers brushing against each other under the table, Taemin’s right leg almost crossing Jinri’s left.
Before finishing her dumplings, Soojung nudges him instantly, standing up and saying, “Well, Jongin and I have a test to study for. And uhm, I guess we’ll see you guys later?”
“Wait, what te -“ Before he knows it, he’s dragged out of his sit by the ever notorious Jung Soojung, his meal barely touched as he leaves and sees his friend advances by giving Jinri a juicebox.
Apparently there is so much of Taemin and Sulli now that Soojung sometimes gags and Jongin just laughs as he nodges her ribs when they stroll the mall one afternoon after dance practice, together with the overly displayed affection shared by two of their closest friends.
Jongin snickers. “I bet they forget we’re actually still here.”
“You know what’s worse than banana frappe?” Soojung starts, finishing her drink and throwing it in the nearest trashbin. She gestures at the tipsy-looking Jinri in front (who isn’t really drunk, she’s just unstable from giggling at some cheap joke Taemin probably said) and the boy beside her holding back a blush so hard to un-see.
Jongin shakes his head. “You’re just being mean, you know that?”
“I’m being realistic, come on,” she adds. “They’re disgusting and embarrassing and really gross.”
“We need to work on that vocabulary of yours.”
Soojung rolls her eyes. “Right. Says the douche who can’t even recognize his own handwriting.”
Mondays are never wonderful for seniors because tonight they’re sitting on the kitchen top, Jongin’s pre-calc book wide open and chocolate chip cookies upon Soojung’s request to their side. “Thanks, Mrs. Kim!” she says in the sweetest voice it makes Jongin roll his eyes because how fake can one girl be, no one in campus can top off Jung’s.
“Jongin’s not dating anyone, right?”
Soojung looks back at Jongin across her, wide-eyed at the instant question from his mom and he feebly shakes his head, eye contact signaling Soojung to not say anymore jokes about anything in particular regarding his love life.
She smiles back. “No one seems that desperate enough I guess, Mrs. Kim. Not that I know any. Why’d you ask?” Soojung receives a kick on her knees from below and she just winces but maintains the smile.
Mrs. Kim chuckles, shaking her head. “Oh, I found two condoms in his wallet, and apparently one was already -”
“THANK YOU MOTHER, WE HAVE A BIG EXAM ON LIMITS TOMORROW!”
His mother, trying to suppress the giggles, pats Soojung’s head before giving Jongin one squeeze of an embrace out of his rage, and then she exits to the living room where she adds, “Stay for dinner if you can, Soojung. We’d love to have you around as often.”
Soojung twirls around her seat, still dying from the enormous amount of hilarity as Jongin continues scrawling down his graphs, considerably turning red as he grits his teeth. She bites her lips before saying anything else.
“So, who’s the lucky -“
“Okay shut up, they weren’t mine.”
“I know because you’re never gonna use them.”
Jongin looks fuming, breaks the tip of his pencil. “Excuse you, I do too. I mean, I will, in the future.”
“Alright,” Soojung knows when Jongin lies, it’s just makes him like Pinocchio for some reason, except instead of a growing nose, his eyes would avert hers and he just sweats a lot when he doesn’t tell the truth. “With who? Any girl in particular I should know of?”
“Is my sex life any of your business?”
“No, it’s the condoms I’m wondering about,” she bursts into another round of laughter. “I mean, I’d understand if you have them in your wallet, because you never know where you end up drunk again and I have to drag you out of there, again. So yeah better be safe than sorry. But an open wrapper?
I mean, you’ve seriously done it?”
“I told you. They weren’t mine,” he shakes his head, still panicking. “Technically. Okay. They were.”
Soojung pretends to gasp. “Oh so who? Wait, wait, is it a girl or a boy? I mean, you always practically hang out with the freakiest group of boys in school anyway so you must have done it with -“
“I hang out with you more and practically always,” Jongin cuts her off. “And no, I didn’t do it. The condoms were mine, however. Chanyeol tells me it’s always safer to bring them just in case I feel… a little weird. It was Junmyeon’s birthday the other week. And he’s still a freaking virgin. So -”
“So you’ve done it with him?”
Jongin thumps her forehead when she gets too near him in her interest to know about such gossip. It’s making his heart beat utterly fast, and he isn’t too sure if it’s because it’s one of the most embarrassing moments of his life retold, but because of the fact that Jung Soojung’s listening to every breath he’s taking at the moment. Maybe both. Maybe just the latter.
“No, Jung! No! Geez, girls who jump around in pigtails make me horny you know that!” He blurts out of frustration. “We inserted the unused - note, unused! - condom in his French book. He has this hot foreign tutor who he says he’s been really into. So I guess during study time, when the girl opened the book -“
“Happy birthday Junmyeon!” Soojung claps her hands. “Someone got it with the French, eh?”
Jongin grins coyly, staring at her as she works on the f of x. “Hm, looks like someone’s happy they confirmed my sexual orientation.”
“I really don’t care about your sexual orientation you bastard, I just wanted to know who you’re sleeping with and want to know why they exactly want to sleep with you. I mean, just look at you.”
He smirks, flexing his arms and brushing his hair up. “I know. God knew exactly how to create a walking perfection.”
“Yeah, definitely not the ass who brings condoms everyday even though no girl would ever want to date him.”
He tries to dismiss the story but she somehow manages to bring it up in the next hour while waiting for dinner to be prepared. Somehow being bullied by the girl who’s practically the queen bee in bullying the hell out of him doesn’t seem that awful. He learns how to filter through the rest of the unnecessary comments Soojung throws at him, which is also in a bit, enjoyable. It’s not lonesome, studying that is - even if it meant a twenty page script consisting an endless banter of Taylor Swift’s latest album.
“Jinri texted you, by the way.”
“What’d she say?”
“Aw, someone’s getting it alright!” She raises her eyebrows at his reaction, as he slides her phone back to her.
"What are you talking about?" She scrolls to through the text only to find Jinri’s all caps TAEMIN ASKED ME OUT I JUST !!!!!!!!!! and it takes forever to register in her head, until she types out a congratulations even though Soojung isn’t sure it’s something of an achievement considering they both already like each other, and they’ve been heading in that direction anyway since the dawn of time.
“Well, they won’t publicly display affection that much now, right?” Soojung sighs. “No more pretends or play hard to get or… something teenagers do to get the d.”
“Seriously, you still call it ‘the d’?”
“Do you want me to add more condoms to prove how they’ll just all eventually expire because you’re never gonna use your d?”
Jongin calmly settles and looks at her, trying to read her mind every time she makes that face. Too deep, too poetic, too uncharacteristically Soojung. “So what now?”
“Nothing,” she shrugs, which meant it isn’t just nothing. Jongin senses a long drama over the phone tonight. Must be a short confession of how Soojung has feelings for Taemin, or Jinri doesn’t really like Taemin she’s just using him to get to something else - that sort, he’s going to be waiting. “I just find Jinri… to be well, you know, good at this whole relationship thing. Whatever.”
“Come on kids, dinner’s ready!” Mrs. Kim knocks and leaves just as fast.
He doesn’t dwell on the subject anymore and she’s kinda happy he drops it entirely in the next weeks with homecoming around the corner.
He doesn’t hear the next dumbest statement ever until he meets up Taemin over the weekend to play basketball. He hears the question the second time around, and it just gets even dumber every time that he throws the ball across the field and let it settle.
“You just have to! I can’t do this! I like her too much to end up being awkward again,” Taemin says, wiping off his sweat. “I mean. She’s totally going to dump me by tomorrow if I’m this pathetic. I don’t know what to do.”
“You can start with ‘don’t be a pussy’ as an everyday mantra,” Jongin adds, lying down on the grass.
“I think it’d just be more comfortable if we went on a double date or something,” Taemin suggests.
He grabs some dirt and throws it at Taemin when he decides to sit next to him. He seems too distracted to care. “Listen lover boy. Let me emphasize the fact that double date means going in pairs. Tagging along to your next date isn’t a double date. It’s just me third-wheeling. And no, I just can’t be around couples that much who’ll eventually leave me out.”
“Take Soojung with you, duh.”
He snorts. “There goes the joke of the century. Date? Soojung? Do you hear yourself?”
“You guys are inseparable, you know each other more than anyone else, heck more than we even know ourselves,” Taemin reasons out. “I mean what’s the more perfect pair than you and Jinri’s best-est girl friend ever?”
“Dude you’re sounding like her already, just stop,” Jongin retorts. “I mean she’s Soojung! She’s sarcastic and obnoxious and like you said, we know each other too much. That kinda ruins the whole point of going on a date with someone since you’ve practically shared your whole entire life with them. There’s nothing else to share.”
“It’s just like a group hangout or something,” he continues. “There’s nothing wrong with that, okay? It’ll be like old times.”
“Except it won’t be,” Jongin defends. “You’ll be holding hands with Jinri and I’ll be stuck enduring Soojung’s snide remarks about my shoes.”
“Please?”
“You’re paying for the said date. Anything Soojung and I decide to order, you’re going to cough up the dough. Deal?” And they both shake hands, neither one even in the slightest bit as happy because Taemin might be asking a little extra cash from his parents and Jongin’s just signed a lease to hell.
He snatches the ball from him and they start playing another round of free throws that afternoon.
It’s Saturday already the following week, and Jongin drives Taemin personally to Soojung’s house where the princesses are staying, waiting patiently (or in Soojung’s case, dreadfully) for their prince charming to sweep them off the feet of boredom and out the treacherous ordeals of teenage life.
He can’t help himself from frowning. “So the movies, huh?”
“Yup.”
“The first moves always happen at movies, you’re so cliché man.”
“See, you need to learn from me to get it with the girls, alright?”
He sighs, shaking his head as he turns to Soojung’s street. They pull up, the engine dies, and the two men slowly walk in the hippest dashing clothes ever, it’s doubtful to the point that they could actually be this handsome if they just committed to it at an everyday basis.
Taemin tries to ring the bell, but pulls back, nervous and excited. “I can’t do it.”
“I’m already hungry, please just ring the damn bell.”
It resounds inside the house, Jongin even overhearing Soojung’s cry of wanting to just stay at home before hearing another loud thump on the solid wooden floor and he assumes it’s Soojung’s lazy ass.
Jongin notices Taemin’s collar and fixes it, clicking his tongue in annoyance. Before he knows it, the door is open and there’s an audible sigh. “Look who’s all dressed up today.”
He turns at her voice and he swears and breathes he’s never seen Jung Soojung in this light in a long while since middle school’s choir for the midyear talent show. She used to sing, before she decided she wants to dance more, and it’s something Jongin has always admired because she’s something else altogether, like an angel, her voice, that is. Her appearance at that very second proves it, in her white dress and pigtails. Fucking pigtails of all things she can do with her hair.
Taemin brushes past the two of them, falling into Jinri’s arms and whispered I-miss-you’s even though it has to be the loudest noise in the room because Soojung and Jongin have both fallen silent. She shifts uncomfortably, pulling her dress up because she’s wearing strapless, and it won’t stay still unless she does too.
She heads to the doorway, pulling Jongin by the sleeve. “Hey you guys, I’m hungry.”
Jongin follows her, bumps her hip and whispers, “You clean up good.”
“That’s a rude comment and you know that and yet you still stay it,” she looks at him, disgusted. “See this is why no one dates you. 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.
They’re back, ahead of schedule, ahead of the lovebirds because Soojung’s feet are sore and Jongin can’t third-wheel just as much as he can stomach the ‘Babe, let me get that for you!’ while Taemin and Jinri go walking. She falls on the couch with Jongin across her.
“Well, that was fun huh?” She manages after inhaling deep, sarcasm lingered in every word. “They’re so touchy. Geez, it’s nauseating.”
He sits back, and props his legs on Soojung’s lap. She pushes them away but he does it again and he wins because she’s too exhausted to spend more energy on it.
“You’re just jealous.”
She snorts, then laughs. “Please. I don’t need sweaty hands to hold.”
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, cranky.”
His hands tingle after he leaves her, closing the door behind him and smiling. It’s a strange thought but for some reason Jongin ends up thinking about it for the rest of the day (not that he’s going to tell anyone about it either).
How wrong he is, though. In fact it’s had him quite occupied for the rest of the week. He understands that it’s weird why he’s so concerned about holding hands with Soojung now since he’s practically done that countless of times beforehand, even carrying her on his back when they were kids. He tries to avoid their usual table for lunch, because he does not want a double date scenario again just by sitting next to Soojung.
Jongin ends up sitting with his other friends, who seem to have been having an intense debate over the latest episode of Game of Thrones.
“Look, if Jon Snow is dead,” one of them starts, “the whole series becomes pointless. That’s fucking Jon Snow. He doesn’t even die in the book.”
“Yeah, like you read the book.”
“I’m more concerned about Arya. Seriously. Anyone else?”
“Yo,” squeaks Jongin, putting his tray down the table. The others look at him without care and continue on with the debacle as he takes a bite of his apple, setting aside nonetheless two dumplings in a paper bag.
Another five minutes later someone looms over and takes the paper bag. “These are mine I believe,” and then she finds her seat across him. Everyone on the geeky table suddenly shuts their mouth as a human deity decides to share lunch with them. When Soojung realizes all their eyes are on her, she stares back at them and let her mouth hang. “Well?”
“They’ve never seen a Soojung before.”
“Yeah, what are you? Jongin’s girlfriend?”
“Kyungsoo, that’s gross,” Jongin tries to kick the guy at the end of the table.
She rolls her eyes. "And so, it comes to this sad day, where I am sitting with you and your lame ass friends at lunch."
Jongin threatens her with his fork, attempting to at least, since she’d be the last one to feel any threat from him anyway. “Don’t think this is going to be an everyday thing.”
“Oh, like I would want that.” She holds up her hands in defense, when the guy sitting next to her bumps her slightly, headphones in his ears and oblivious to her personal space.
Jongin sighs. “That's Sehun. He's kind of an asshole, ignore him.”
"I can hear you, fucker," this dude says and turns to them, attention now out of music. “Am I required to socialize with her? Who is this?”
Soojung’s lips twist a little in annoyance. “I’m Soojung. I go to the same dance academy as Jongin.”
“So you… you’re his girlfriend?”
“God, why does everyone think I’m your girl, what have you been telling them?” Soojung almost shouts at the boy across her, and Jongin shakes his head defensively, at the same time hitting Sehun below the table.
“Are you the girl Jongin’s reserving his entire con -“
The guy behind Sehun slaps his back, stopping him. "Sehun, don't be such a dick." He looks at Soojung, with his big eyes and a smile that frightens babies she sure can bet on it. And he’s tall, she’s come to realize. “I’m Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol.”
“Complete whore, ignore him too,” Jongin leans in to say it, then goes back to scrolling through his text messages as casual as he can since all of his friends are deliberately this horrible around other people outside their clique.
"I am not!"
The one to Jongin’s left smiles cleanly and fixes his collar before holding out his hand. “Please forgive them. I’m Junmyeon by the way. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Soojung represses her snicker before receiving a glare from Jongin. “Hey, Junmyeon!” She’s hesitant in shaking his hand but does it out of respect from that entire happy birthday prank from the rest of them guys.
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. “Unlike girls, we don’t have a dress code of wearing pink on Wednesdays.”
"Well, still, they're freaks-"
“They’re fun. Sehun lives next to me, Chanyeol has access to all the big parties, Kyungsoo’s got nobody to sit with so we adopted him and Junmyeon is running for class president this year. It gives you power in politics, you know? So it’s all good.”
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 can’t they stop asking me that?” She picks up her lunch tray, kicking Jongin again. "This is stupid, I'm leaving."
She exits the cafeteria so it worries Jongin where she’ll end up going to. Not far he predicts. “Dude aren’t you gonna go after her? Your girlfriend just walked out on you.”
He throws a banana peel at Sehun’s face and decides he would want to finish his meal before he chooses to chase girls and their screwed up logic about things.
“Hey, you know what’s worse than the educational system?” Soojung starts one lunch time a few weeks after sitting with Jongin’s lame ass friends and Jinri and Taemin’s PDA.
He chews on his kimchi, then looks up. “Other than my grade in English? Wait, wait, Taemin’s shitty puns?”
She smirks aptly. “Fucking homecoming, that’s what’s worse.” Soojung waves around twenty pieces of flyers in her hand then puts it in front of her. “Are they not concerned about saving trees instead by not printing half of this shit? Like who would even go to this insanely hormonal-driven parties?”
“Why, what’s the theme? Slutty Halloween?”
Soojung rolls her eyes at him. “Masquerade! I mean, how does that work? Like aren’t singles invited?”
“I don’t have all the answers young Padawan, ask the homecoming committee!”
“And talk to those stuck up bitches like they’re on top of the world? Pft, a bunch of plastics.”
Jongin chuckles. “Hey, are you doing a Mean Girls reference?”
“Focus Jongin,” Soojung responds. “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.”
“So you’re really not going?”
She folds her arms. “Duh.”
He tries to hide a sigh but she catches it and waits for him to say something else, expecting that is to say something else but he just loses his grip on words, ending up with, "Even if someone asked you?"
Jongin tries to see her eyes glimmering at the question, almost hoping but at the same time already rejecting the very thought that anyone would so does she even have choice, of course she’ll say no, she won’t attend. It’s not the party’s the problem, nor the clothes, nor the people - Soojung’s just waiting for someone to come up and ask her out but that’s just Jongin’s observation and he likes to crack Soojung in the most oblivious manner in the best way he can. It gets on his good side for some reason.
“I’m pretty sure no one would bother,” she replies, grabbing the paper bag full of dumplings from Jongin’s tray. “Besides I’ve got better things to do than go out of my way just to have a boy tell me I look gorgeous. Tell me something I don’t know.”
He smirks, opening the paper bag for her, and then handing her the dumpling. She looks up expectantly, locks gazes and eventually lowers her head.
Jongin snorts. “I know right? We need something new around here.”
She smiles and gets to class afterwards. Jongin blushes at what he just said and it’s hurting his head that he’s stopped trying to disagree with her or bring her ideals down. That’s not how things work, not between the two of them at least, but he lets it slip, this time, because it’s this type of things that makes him completely wonder how things have truly changed yet at the same time, they’re still right where they started.
The only class that Jongin has where Soojung isn’t is English and he shares this one with Taemin. Today the teacher’s out but they’re stuck in their room reading some important literature they all pretend to have understood or else they’ll fail the rest of the year.
“Dude.”
Taemin’s on his phone, fingers quick as he types his message with heart emoticons at the end. “Yeah?”
“Taemin.”
“Yeah I’m listening, what?”
Jongin swipes the other boy’s phone immediately and puts it inside his backpack, too far of an arm reach for Taemin. He smirks while his friend grimaces and pays finally the attention he’s been needing.
“What? She’s going to call in five minutes, this better be important.”
Jongin raises both of his hands. “Look man, I’m just… I really need to talk to you. About a girl.”
“Hey wait is this about that one party you guys went and didn’t invite me over?” Taemin wonders. “But I guess it was fine because it was our monthsary and I just can’t miss our eighth week of being together.”
“You know you’re lucky I tolerate all the shit you say,” Jongin replies. “Dude, can we talk about Soojung?”
“What about… oh man, don’t tell me you’re - ”
Jongin clicks his tongue, annoyed. “No, no. It’s not that. Well, if I think what you think is that, then maybe it is.”
“You’re finally getting it, aren’t you?”
“The what?”
“The more than friends thing? You’re finally noticing it,” Taemin laughs, patting his back. “Jinri and I have been betting on who is going first and apparently I win.”
“Wait, you guys put on a bet on us? And I thought I was an asshole.”
His friend shakes his head. “It’s kinda inevitable anyway. The chemistry between you is just too real to not miss. Yes, you don’t need dates to get to know each other. You’re so comfortable around each other it’s amazing how you two survived those years without developing romance in between those times you’re together. You know, she could be your Jinri.”
“Soojung doesn’t like to call every fifteen minutes if that’s what you’re saying,” Jongin takes his phone out and tosses it back to Taemin, rolling his eyes as the pet names continue and he can’t understand a single thing about Hamlet.
It’s the first time he’s been over after hellish moments maintaining Jinri and Taemin’s relationship afloat (because really, once your friends are going out on dates, you become their personal assistant, addressing not only physical and financial requirements but also emotional supporters). He’s never share how he truly finds Soojung’s room quite adorable and it’s silent now because both refuse to talk about anything. That until her phone rings and they stare at each other for one brief moment before Soojung picks up and finds Jinri on the other line.
“HE ASKED ME TO HOMECOMING!!!!!”
Jongin’s unable to hide a beam, overhearing the girl and Soojung just slouches back in disdain, because really it’s pathetic: 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.
“She knows how to wear out an ear.”
“She must be just nervous and freaking out,” Jongin says. “Why do you look so annoyed? Aren’t you happy for her?”
He rolls his chair up next to the bed, elbows propping as he stares at her, her hair falling down the side of the bed. She meets his eyes. “I don’t know. Everyone talks about homecoming too much, they don’t have to rub it in that I can’t go because I have no on.”
She looks delicate, like a helpless baby chick out of her mother’s nest or out of an incubator. The glow-in-dark sticker collection on the ceiling illuminates her cheekbones the most, and he’s just realized it’s getting dark already, too dark for reading but I guess they merely procrastinated every time they end up in her room to study.
“If you’re that worried, we could always go together,” he says and he just receives a blow on the arm, unable to hide that this time it actually did hurt.
“Woman, are you on steroids?”
"Is that any way to ask a girl to homecoming, asshole?" He’s taken aback but she scoffs and he turns a little red because he might as well say everything else he’s going to end up regretting. "Besides, I don't even want to go. Let’s just drop it."
Soojung doesn’t go, but Jongin does.
With no one apparently, which just eventually causes her to end up being the one behind the camera, taking homecoming shots of every attendee and their dates, professing endless love of a lifetime even though she’s betting they’ll totally be gone in the summer or in the first year of college. Jongin ultimately just lands a spot right behind her, telling her at which angle is ideal, holding her hand as she presses buttons of the Nikon (Junmyeon comes with his girlfriend and previously tutor, but she doesn’t try to kid about their backstory while Jongin stands behind her).
Finally Taemin and Jinri stand in front of them, Jongin’s yelling Taemin to just put an arm around the girl and Soojung feels so much pride in getting Jinri this once in a lifetime opportunity of dating her ultimate crush since middle school.
Jongin and Soojung don’t stay for too long, slow dances and alcoholic cocktails emerge in midway so perhaps it’s time to leave.
“You sure you don’t want to dance? At least once?”
“I’ve had enough dancing earlier at the studio, thank you very much,” Soojung tells him and he drives her home afterwards, getting all the pictures printed and hanged to dry inside her bedroom. Jongin drops on her bed first, Soojung pushing him over so she can have more room and she raises Taemin and Jinri’s photo.
“They look so cute together.” Jongin laughs at her some more.
“What?”
“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."
“No, not really,” Soojung turns over to the side, so they end up looking straight at each other. Too close, Jongin swallows. Too close, he thinks he whispered beautiful right at her but thanks the heavens his mouth is closed. “I just found it weird. I mean, they’ve known each other for the longest time. Dating a friend is just… you know, weird.”
His gaze doesn’t falter, but a smile is long gone. He stares far deeper, running deep into Soojung still constantly trying to read her and she blinks looking away. “So you just find it weird when friends date?”
“Pretty much. Why?”
“Just wondering,” he shrugs, looking again at the galaxy ceiling they made when they were kids. “It was just a question.” Which really wasn’t. Jongin wish she stops waiting on him to say things, she knows very well his actions are impulsive and his words are a slur when he’s nervous. He inhales deep, and then turns around to look at her as she starts,
“I don't -”
“Do you-”
They don’t exactly know how they end up starting speaking both at the same time and hardly even making sense because the other refuses to finish. She bites her lips in hesitation and Jongin waits. Waits, until she starts talking again. She doesn’t so maybe that’s his cue.
“I don't think friends dating is all that bad, ” he finally decides.
“I never said it was a bad thing, I just think it's kind of weird-”
Jongin responds at once “ -which basically means it's a bad thing-”
“ -but I never said I wouldn't do it. ”
And so that’s how it goes, him looking over her and she greatly takes the leap of looking back and he wonders at this distance could she hear his heart making those unnecessary clumsy beats that they will never dance to together? It’s not exactly a bad thing, in fact he kinda likes it. He likes to think she does too.
“So you think it’s possible?”
They both smile, his boyish grin and her innocent one. He just loves her in all the smallest grandeur there is.
It’s in biology and they take the lab desks at the back for the first time in the whole year. His taking down lecture notes, again outside his margins when the room eventually shakes and the skies outside turn gray, rain heavily crashing on the streets and the field.
His shivering and sweating at the same time, unable to look away from the window outside, his legs bouncing up and down from the under the table, his fist clenched, and he bites his lips as he shuts his eyes.
It’s always been a scary for him, which is a stupid phobia Soojung often says. He remembers crawling into Soojung’s comforters and mat when it pours way back in kindergarten. She always gave him a hand to hold and sometimes old habits die hard: years after he finds the same hand, squeezing him in the most comforting manner. He goes back to listening to the lecture.
For some reason they end up at the movies a lot of times and it just becomes almost inconvenient when Jongin’s not with Soojung so he lets her drag him into finding a seat in the back of the movie theater, fighting once more about the armrest but settles when the show starts.
She eventually groans midway through the movie. “What the hell are we watching.”
"I don't know, some horror movie? The girl that invited me is crazy about this shit."
"She’s such a weirdo.”
He feels when her fist connects with his chest, letting her arm fall on to his armrest, leaning over to his side every time some oldie appeared in the screen and surprising the rest of the watchers. Jongin’s dumb because he can’t quite get it and it’s when Soojung starts screaming out of boredom does he finally reach out for her hand and take her into his arms.
It feels just about right, he decides.
It’s dance practice at the studio but they end up studying for the first wave of exams heading their way. It’s funny because she’s in her tights and leotards while he’s wearing loose almost-pajama pants and they’ve seen each other in way worse clothes but for some reason they cannot manage to look at each other properly, shyly reading through their biology textbooks from across the room, both their backs mirror to mirror, them facing each other.
Her phone vibrates across the floor and it’s Jinri again, telling Soojung about their date at the amusement park.
“OMIGOD, LIKE HE TOTALLY HELD MY HAND WHEN WE WENT UP THE OCTOPUS AND… I JUST WOW I WISH YOU WERE HERE!” She’s set the call on speaker so Jongin gets to hear it too.
She rolls her eyes, setting them at Jongin. “Yeah, we wish we could be there too. Have fun kids. Bye!”
She’s just glad she doesn’t have to spend another second witnessing it. Listening to it becomes a tedious chore enough, maybe because it’s becoming too sweet for her own good. They fall silent again after that, until Soojung sighs.
"I wonder what they talk about when they're alone."
He looks up from his book, snorting at that. “It’s probably rainbows and shit.” She chuckles lightly before pensively forgetting that she still needs to read chapter 3 of the circulatory system. “Taemin’s such a baby you know. He touches a condom and he’s like, “Wow fuck, how do I use this?” He’s that stupid.”
Soojung giggles and Jongin’s eyebrows are raised.
“What?” He goes to her side, taking his big book with him and sits beside her. "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. "Yeah, alright. I bet you and Jinri still talk about like, I don't know, holding hands with boys or something."
"We’re not fetuses, you know.” She hits his leg, turning to the Biology textbook even though she forgets exactly what they were supposed to be studying about. "Jinri's already had one boyfriend before and she’s kissed about two more, 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 is sex and how many girls you’ve gotten laid."
“And how many girls do you think I’ve already gotten laid?”
Soojung laughs, as if waiting for this exact day to give her best response yet. “Zero, of course!”
Jongin snorts again, facing her once more. "And what, like have you never kissed before -”
Soojung’s eyes widen and Jongin’s follow in its suit and before they know it, Yixing enters in the doorway, swaying his towel over to the other side and taking off his earphones as the two other people break apart. Jongin turns red at the memory, picking his book up and doesn’t bother to give back her highlighters.
“I… I… I think I should go.” He stutters, getting up and not looking back.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
He nods at her slightly and is out the door in the next second, and Jongin has to stop himself from commenting anymore about how the way she looks even stupider with her hair down while studying in dance clothes and those huge thighs or her sweaty loose blouse. And he still doesn’t want to say it, but he hates her for remembering such a memory he never ever tries to bring up again until that very minute. He’s still red when he meets the rain outside, and his car is a block away and he can’t make a run for it when the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes.
It’s not something he can quite overcome yet as an 18-year-old.
(Right after middle school, dance camp auditions comes up and Jongin successfully makes it to top one while Soojung fails because they all say she can’t capture the right look and she isn’t as graceful like the rest of the girls all blooming thanks to puberty.
His first kiss has been hers too, the universe never decided to tell anyone. Because she’s been crying in the backyard and the world still didn’t believe she’s good enough.
“I still like you, you know.”
Jongin’s hideous hair and nervous laughter makes Soojung think a little, but not too long when his lips connects with hers, the way they make her want more. It’s rather simple, stolen, just a feeble attempt at comforting her.
They don’t share another one after that, because Soojung ends up forgetting and Jongin decides it’s always better to move on from little slip ups and tiny mistakes.
Except, he’s realized in a long while, perhaps they aren’t at all that.)
A little drenched Jongin backs away from the sidewalk; it’s past twilight now, backpack now worn on both shoulders. Entering the dance studio once more, he whimpers every time the thunder growls and he feels the whole building is shaking with him, the walls closing in on him. He winces, cringes, lets out a small cry of fear. Crouching, he sits and covers his ears, eyes shut but the lightning still manages to reflect behind his lids and it frightens him more.
“Hey! Hey! I’m here, hey!”
Her voice is barely heard but he focuses on that, focuses on the arms wrapped around his waist suddenly as she closes him in a strong comforting embrace. “There, there, it’s not going to hurt you. You’re not wearing an underwired bra.”
He laughs, in tears, embarrassed. “God, Soojung.”
“They say lightning will hit you if you wear an underwired bra,” Soojung responds, looking at him now and waiting for him to stop shaking.
“Are… are you wearing one because if you get hit, then I’ll get hit with you since we’re kinda hugging and -“
“Someone’s learning their physics well,” she mutters. “Besides you don’t ask girls that, you dick.”
“Someone’s learning how to say the d word well,” he teases, but eventually loses it again when the thunder roars at them and he’s burying himself in Soojung’s arms. They’re quite strong, he’s realized, and he’s just lucky. The light flickers until they’re totally out and he trembles even further, sitting down now on the floor, cowering.
“Shit, it’s getting stronger! SHIT.”
“Dude, relax it’s just power outage.”
“Fuck, I can’t take this anymore. Fuck.”
“Jongin!”
“Fucking shit, what do you want? God. What? Make it stop.”
“Do you still like me?”
There is a silence, finally, and he tenses when he sees her eye to eye. “What type of fucking question is that when I'm hyperventilating?”
Soojung pushes on. “Just answer me!”
Jongin shakes his head. “The fucking hell is wrong with you-”
“Yes or no, dammit!”
“YES OF COURSE YES I STILL LIKE YOU.” He spits it out, seeing her frown even some more, eyes already watery at the answer. “Happy now?”
“No, you asshole.” Before Jongin knows it, Soojung reaches over him and finds his lips in the darkness, and he pulls her closer, easily finding out now that it’s surprisingly easy to kiss her this much and this big and this worth it that his heart races, and she can feel Soojung’s too. For some reason who needs dates, when they’ve already known each other for as long as they can remember, and now it feels like they do. They know which ear is ticklish and which hand is abrasive.
(And they both know, for some reason, it should’ve been like this all along.)