The Study of Love [#BOOMGOESNAOMI birthday fic]
For Naomi
No matter how-
mean, fake cute, snarky, adorable, sweet, crazy
-you get, know that we love you
(and you owe us BIG time, ktnx).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Kisses from,
MONDAY / INTRO TO ANTHROPOLOGY (8:30-10:00)
Jinri is up a good two hours before her first class. The sun is barely up when she leaves her dorm, her red hair a surprising pop of color in the otherwise bleary too-early morning light. There are only a few students milling the quad; most of them were Med students who have been up all night interning at the University’s hospital a few buildings down from where she was headed for breakfast.
She pulls down at the skirt she is wearing, inwardly cursing at herself for forgetting to do the laundry the week before and having to borrow her roommate’s clothes because it was too early to go to the Laundromat now and she always (always) needed to have a big breakfast first thing before heading off to her classes. She wonders how Soojung managed to walk around wearing her skirts but decided to not to bother to find a reason. It didn’t matter if she was comfortable or not. What mattered was that she got out of the dorm dressed and arrived to class early.
That and she really needed the comfort of a breakfast burrito on a Monday. Because Mondays always sucked and processed cheese and meat is a must for sucktastic days.
Monday don’t always completely suck though, Jinri muses as she takes a big bite out of her breakfast. Chewing absentmindedly, she let her lips curl into a little smile as she thought of her first class and who she was bound to see there. Though she would rather die than to admit it, there were good things about Mondays that she liked best-like the breakfast burrito being half-off only during that particular day and the fact that in an hour and three minutes, she’d be seated in her Intro to Anthropology class… discreetly watching the door for the cute rumple of a boy she’d been eyeing since the semester began.
It helped a lot that Anthro Eye-Candy was her roommate’s childhood friend so she got to see him often but it was even better knowing they had a class together without other acquaintances in the way.
Her lips widened into a full-fledged grin at the thought of Lee Taemin. His good looks, quirking smile and his whole general presence made everything about the course easier. No matter how sleep-deprived he looked, her crush always seemed to manage to look more adorable than ever! And that was saying a lot since she is about ninety percent sure their professor was Lucifer himself as everyone of her class, including herself, was beginning to look like the living dead.
Glancing at her watch, she yelps at the time and jumps out of the stool. Power-walking towards her building, Jinri tries hard to school her features into a nonchalant expression-just in case Anthro Eye-Candy was actually early to class.
(Which he wasn’t, per usual. But that is not the point. The point is he’s cute and sweet and he carried my books once and gosh, he was so nice-making small talk and walking me to my next class that one time-)
I’m a lady after all, she tells herself, making a bee-line towards the seat next to the aisle seat on the third row. I don’t want to seem too eager. Even though technically he doesn’t know I like him at all.
A quick look at the clock told her that there was five minutes to go before Professor Park showed up and locked the door so Jinri silently sent a prayer to God that her crush wouldn’t be late.
» » » » »
Taemin wakes up on a pool of his own drool, clutching a two-inch long pencil in his right hand with his lower back aching for having slept sitting and over his desk. He blinks at his vibrating phone ringing in front of him, the words GET THE FUCK UP blaring bright on the screen as it continues to wail in his otherwise quiet dorm room. Yawning, he picks it up with his free hand and silences the alarm, wiping his mouth on the arm of his sweatshirt at the same time as he slowly pushed his chair back and stood.
His bones hurt; cracking as he stretches limbs he thinks is bound to fall off of him if he didn’t get a better rhythm for his studying soon. Four months in and Taemin felt like he was gaining nothing for his efforts-his body ready to shut down at any moment. Looking around his room, he sighs as he picks up a pair of pants off the floor, sniffing it for half-a-second before deciding to pull it on.
His alarm had been ringing for twenty-minutes before he’d gotten up and his first class of the week was in ten minutes. His professors were not fans of tardy students, and he was already feeling shitty enough as it is on a Monday.
Hello, Future, you’re looking pretty fucking bleak at the moment.
College, he’s convinced as he jogs down the stairs, is the education that moves both slower and faster any half-a-decade of anyone’s life. But it is especially troublesome when he is forced to drag his limbs down the Southeast Wing of SooMan University’s Main Building and into his eight-thirty AM Intro to Anthropology class.
Taemin had figured that the course would be breeze. His sunbaes from High School had all told him so, ruffling his hair exactly two years and a half ago before they all went to University themselves. Jung Yunho, his hyung from his high school’s dance club, visited once to check up on the club-telling stories about how good University life was and how great it felt to be free to begin making marks on the world.
He looked up to Yunho like a good hoobae and when the older man shared that the “Intro to Anthropology class with Dr. Park Yoochun is the easiest” course, Taemin wasted no time and signed up for it without another thought. On that day, after the final step to complete his enrollment had ended, he had felt on top of the world-so fucking proud of himself for getting into the dream University of his Choice along with some of his best friends in the world. And he knew (just knew) that things were going to go his way because he was ‘in it to win it’ and ha-bloody fucking-ha.
Of course nothing good ever came to feeling like you were King for a day. He found that out quickly when the esteemed Park Yoochun, MD walked in and yelled at everyone to shut the fuck up on that first day of University. That first class had set the tone for the rest of his freshman year. Sleepless nights, coffee-and-ramen days and endless papers occupying the most of his hours and leaving him helpless and wondering what in the hell was the good people said about University?
His mind conjures up an image of a smiling, red-haired girl and his lips instantly twitches into a smile. No matter how shitty Taemin felt, just the simple thought of his pretty classmate made him feel ten-times lighter. He hadn’t had the courage to walk up to her and actually ask her out yet but he knows he will. He had, after all, already walked her to her next class somewhat. Thought it felt a little more him waiting a minute till she got out of their class and helping her carry her books because no one else was helping and-
God, why am I such a loser? Taemin bemoans to himself, mentally wringing his neck for such a weak play. He had to man up sooner or later. I’ll ask her out-hopefully before Anthro kills me.
Taemin only narrowly beats his Professor from entering the room by a few feet and he practically dives into the first available seat he sees. The sharp movement sends his bag flying out of his grip, spilling the contents on his classmate’s lap.
It wouldn’t have been mortifying if it were any other person but it was just his damn luck that it had to be on her lap. The girl.
“Uh… um…” Taemin begins to stammer, unsure of what to say or do (for that matter) now that the girl is looking up at him in surprise. She’s even prettier up close and he kinda hates that he’s not at all looking his best-and dagnabbit Lee Taemin, pull yourself together!
He’s only about to open his mouth when their professor walks in and slams the door closed and the girl pulls him down to the free seat next to her on the aisle.
“Everyone, shut up and sit down,” says Professor Park, standing tall and fierce up front. And while Taemin is surely listening, he is distracted as well-his arm feeling electrified by the close proximity to the red-haired girl who made his Mondays bearable.
The professor projects a slide of a man and woman standing face-to-face before looking back at the class with a mischievous glint in his eye. Mischievous was dangerous when it came to their professor and everyone in the room held their breaths.
Taemin steels himself for the announcement but can’t help to glance to his right. The girl looks back at him with a small tentative smile, her cheeks rosy (Is she blushing?) before turning away to face the board.
“We’re going to talk about something relevant to each and every one of you today, and by Friday I am going to pick two representatives in the class to present the topic.” Their professor says, grinning now as he eyed his students one by one.
Taemin practically gulps when his gaze finally lands on him and stays. Oh shit.
“The topic is on the Trials of Love as Men and Women understand it.” Professor Park announces in a flourish, slamming his hands on the table and jolting the students to sit up straight. “Who wants to point out questions first?”
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MONDAY / [AFTER] PHILOSOPHY 101 (10:00-11:00)
“There’s a special place in hell for people who take the last Oreos off their friend’s secret stash without permission.”
It is after class on a Monday and to no surprise, he finds Jinri disappointed standing in the middle of her dorm room floor. Sehun rolls his eyes the moment she cusses, tossing his backpack unto the top bunk and climbing up. His female friend starts ranting about how it took her forever-standing at the grocery line-to get those cookies and how she had already bought Sehun extra the last time he stayed at the girls’ dorm so really shouldn’t you bring me Oreos too, you freeloader?
He lets her mumble to herself for the next ten minutes because sometimes the female species need to vent. Even if the reason was as petty as running out of their favorite go-to snack.
“Are you done, Ssul?”
Jinri dives onto her bed below, feeling the exhaustion of the day. “I’m not okay.”
Before pulling out his Philosophy notes from his backpack, Sehun (being Oh Sehun the smooth talker) looks down at her from his space on the top bunk-his blonde hair practically glowing as he hovers just under the fluorescent light. “I know exactly what’s gonna make you feel better.”
She blows the short fringes of red hair off her face; quietly indifferent to whatever it was Sehun was mumbling about. She guesses in a deadpan tone. “That you suddenly have constipation for your gluttony?”
Sehun shakes his head and grins. “Nope. How about a date with Anthro Eye-Candy Lee Taemin?”
Blushing instantly at the very idea, Jinri kicks her socked foot upward-missing Sehun’s face with only a couple of centimeters away while her best friend laughs his head off at the attempted attack and yelling, “Get that thing away from me! The smell of your foot can kill a whole army!”
“You are the worst!” cries Jinri, getting out and off her bed to hit Sehun’s shins mercilessly with a rolled up sheaf of paper. (It didn’t have much of an effect but the Sehun is used to it by now. Thirteen years of leg-whacking has given him iron shins.)
“I can’t believe he still hasn’t asked you out! Did he learn nothing from me in high school? Has be only been growing his invisible beard without us knowing? And what was that you told me the other day when he walked you from Anthropology? He’s so manly, he carried my books for me, oh my god! Pfft, Jinri, you’re such a girl.”
The door swings open just before Jinri was just about to respond, revealing her roommate and friend, Soojung behind it-her headphones on and looking nonchalant as she took in Sehun’s position on her bed and Jinri’s indignant expression before dumping her things into a pile on the floor.
All too quickly Sehun’s laughter fades, practically jumping off the bed and clearing his throat while Jinri opens her arms in exasperation.
“Do you ever knock? Do you not see the door?”
“Nope, can’t hear you,” Soojung half-shouts, pointing to the device attached to her ears. She rummages through Jinri’s desk then, searching for a particular item she doesn’t even mention what its’ for and slipping it into her pocket. Then without breaking her rhythm, she picks up a worn library copy of The Lovely Bones and waved it around as a greeting to the two occupants in the room-as if to say that they were doing a damn well good job of keeping her stuff safe by hiding it in her own roommate’s things.
Jinri shakes her head and intones, “Uh, you’re welcome?”
“I love you too, bitch,” she kisses Jinri in the air as she holds the door open once again before turning back to give Sehun a thumbs-up.
“Dude, thanks for the sushi earlier. Calculus was a pain.” Soojung says before skipping out and disappearing down the hall.
Turning back to her companion, Jinri couldn’t help but giggle at the sight Sehun made-his face all lit up on the brief moment Jung Soojung happened to be in the same room. “Wow, that look on your face is so manly.” She teases, rolling her eyes as Sehun snaps out of his reverie, blushes and looks away.
He gave a weak shrug in defeat. “Yeah, I’m all about being a man.”
“And why haven’t you asked Soojung out?”
They’ve already been through this conversation a million times before and while he had been a fun, teasing mood earlier on, Sehun just wasn’t up for any unwelcomed questions about his lack of a love life (or really, the lack of his manly charisma around one Jung Soojung). Instead he moves to toss his Philo book over Jinri’s head before placing himself on the floor, his legs sprawled out as he heaves his laptop out of his bag.
Jinri doesn’t seem perturbed at all at the near hit, still standing and staring at him, expecting nonetheless to be answered.
He uncaps his marker. “Are we not going to start on that Philo report yet? Unlike some of us who are free tomorrow morning, you have that Anatomy class to prepare for so… chop-chop, Choi! We don’t have enough time to work on this.”
“Why haven’t you asked Soojung out?” She stresses, smiling now and Sehun just knows she won’t stop asking until he actually responds to the question.
And so he relents. Totally against his will.
“Because she’s a brat and we’re just friends? And Jongin’s really into her, and then there’s this Minho guy too, so no-I don’t even like her that much. She’s just always tagging along…”
He’s babbling-badly-and not meeting his best friend’s eyes but Sehun knows all too well that Jinri loved to relentlessly pursue the issue until she got the honest truth out of him. It was an evil trait, to be honest, one that worked too often on him and it was only just after five-fifteen in the afternoon.
“The issue is not about Soojung and I, okay? There is no me-and-her but there could be a you-and-Taemin. So tell me this: Why are you and Taemin not going out yet? So much potential is there and yet nothing happens. You’re driving me crazy!”
It was a low-blow but Sehun knew that if he asks, Jinri would give up on pushing the issue of his. At least for now. The momentary reprieve is welcomed, thankfully, by a jerk of her shoulder and a reply so quiet he has to lean in to hear: “Because he hasn’t asked me out yet.”
Jinri pouts and eyes him with a glare, “You so owe me Oreos. Double fucking stuff!” And Sehun only grins in reply. Her friend might have stopped her from poking at his girl-troubles now but the discussion wasn’t over. For now she had better things to think about, better suggestions… her thoughts stray towards the new topic in her Anthropology class…
A date with Lee Taemin, huh?
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Sehun and his stupid suggestions.
As if I wasn’t already wondering why Taemin hadn’t asked me out yet enough!
I wish he’d take his own advice… that little peepsqueak.
If it were easy to confess your emotions to someone, there wouldn’t be a need to wonder.
And if the world wasn’t so obtuse, then I would have taken the first step months ago.
I would have stopped and looked up at him before going into my next class,
smile and say, “Hey, would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?”
And if he had said yes, then fantastic.
If he had said no, then there was always time and ice cream.
But society is not fair.
And feminism isn’t as nearly prolific as we’d like to think.
There are still set standards to confer, lines to follow, traditions…
Each of us are still obligated to follow the ways of our ancestors, our culture.
If a woman could freely love a man and not wonder if it made her look
-desperate, wanton, lonely, pathetic, weak-
Everything might be a little rosier.
But it’s not.
(I pray that someday it will.)
C.J.
( next part )