The Study of Love - 5 [#BOOMGOESNAOMI birthday fic]
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WEDNESDAY / ADVANCED TRIGONOMETRY (8:00-11:00)
Every Wednesday, Sehun makes the long trek to her dorm building, mentally preparing himself for the (beautiful) disaster that is Jung Soojung. He remembers when he first knew of her, when she would visit Taemin’s dorm room down the hall, with a giggly Jinri in tow. Sehun would peer in their direction in curiosity, only an acquaintance with her at best.
He had officially met her freshman year during the spring semester in advanced trigonometry, where they had been study partners (or rather, where Sehun had tried to get Soojung to actually focus in math class instead of having her nose buried in a novel). She is interesting-Soojung, complete with her wardrobe of plaid shirts and skinny jeans-and so he counts it as a blessing from above that they end up in the same calculus class this year (he may or may not have purposely matched his math class with hers, but she doesn’t know and he doesn’t plan to change that).
Taking a deep breath, Sehun knocks on her door.
“What?!” he hears her yell from inside.
“Sheesh. Calm down, Krys,” he rolls his eyes, brushing the hair out of his eyes in exasperation. “It’s not my fault that I’m on time and you aren’t.”
“In my defense,” she shouts from her room-and Sehun wonders if she is ever not stressed in the mornings- “Jinri was talking to me all last night about her feelings and she never shuts up and so now I’m too exhausted for my good!”
“Those dark circles, man. Must be so attractive,” he replies, a tinge of a smirk upon his lips.
The door swings open, revealing a disheveled Soojung. She’s wearing a tanktop and skinny jeans today, and her hair is pulled into a messy braid. He raises one eyebrow, eyes scanning up and down her figure.
“Ow,” he yelps when she smacks him on the shoulder. “What was that for?”
“For being an impatient, inconsiderate, perverted jerk, that’s what,” she shoots daggers at him through her eyes and he shrinks away for a split second.
“Ugh,” he mutters underneath his breath, brushing past her to walk into her dorm room.
Her hands are on her hips. “What do you think you’re doing?”
He doesn’t say anything and snatches a jacket from her coat hanger, hoisting her backpack on his other shoulder. “Did you eat yet?”
And when she doesn’t respond, he unzips his own bag and tosses her a bagel. “I have sushi, too, but we can save that til after class,” he says while draping the jacket over her.
Soojung scoffs at him for being always so over-prepared but after he turns away to close the door, she smiles to herself because she doesn’t know what she would do without him. “Let’s go, then,” she says.
Calculus isn’t really her thing. Thankfully, Sehun is relatively decent at it and actually likes integrating and deriving equations that she will never care about in real life. I just don’t get why you would want to find the volume of rotation of a certain curve, she would say one day and he would somehow take it as a personal insult. Sehun, who (according to Jongin) almost failed out of high school, of all people. It’s because I met you, he would wink in that cavity-inducing way of his whenever she teases him about his 180 degree transformation from a teenage delinquent to a person who actually cares about school.
“Attention,” the professor starts, and she can already feel herself dozing off. Really, 8am classes are not her forte. She feels a jab in her rib cage courtesy of Oh Sehun, and the squeal that comes out from her lips earns her some pointed stares from the other students in the class. Sehun chuckles next to her and she clenches her jaw in determination, hand tightening around her pencil.
An hour and a half of optimization later (didn’t sound that optimal to her, she mutters underneath her breath and Sehun glares at her but then laughs a little more than he should, which she finds absolutely obnoxious), class is dismissed and Soojung practically jumps out of her seat.
“Sushi?” she looks at him hopefully.
He chucks the container at her. “Knew you would say that,” he grins.
“Don’t throw the container at me, Sehun. You’ll hurt them.”
“Them? You mean, the sushi?” he asks incredulously.
Her chin points up in defiance as she walks out of the lecture hall, gracefully shoving sushi in her mouth. He accosts her from behind to grab a few from her. “Tax collection,” he explains.
They walk side by side for a little bit until Krystal spots her favorite campus coffee shop across the plaza. “Time for some coffee,” she says to no one in particular, her loose braid now becoming undone as she prepares to make a beeline for the cafe.
“Wow,” Sehun rolls his eyes for the millionth time that morning and pretends to leave but her hands grab onto his forearm. He can’t exactly refuse her puppy eyes and he swears inwardly. “Fine…”
She orders a green tea frappuccino with a triple-shot of caffeine and when he sends her judging stares, she only says that it’s not her fault that she ended up with calculus at such an ungodly time in the morning. When she gets up to pick up her drink at the counter, Sehun is already there, snatching it away.
“Sehun,” she warns him, her voice becoming dangerously icy.
He looks at her innocently, eyes blinking in mischief as he takes a few quick sips from her straw. “Mmm, good.”
She has to kick him in the shins to get him to let go of her drink. “Feisty,” he laughs, but then freezes when her hand stops mere inches from his cheek.
“You better stop before I ruin your oh-so-pretty face and kick you off the prestigious Jung Soojung friend list.”
“You better stop drinking that green tea frappe before you consume way too many calories and fat and suffer from a heart attack at the age of 21,” he shoots back.
He dodges her foot. “Not in the crotch!” he shouts, eyes narrowing. He laughs nervously. “Calm down, Krys, I’m obviously trying to protect you and your health. Stop jumping to conclusions,” he sticks her tongue out at her.
She’s not touched at the slightest but sighs in exasperation. “Nice try, Sehun. You’re almost as bad as Taemin.”
“I try, I really do,” he laughs as he settles down next to her, watching her drink while occasionally checking his phone. A few minutes pass and he keeps eyeing her frappuccinao. “It tasted really good though,” he says bluntly, and she doesn’t know why, but she feels like being nice today. She reaches for another straw.
“Okay, fine, we can share,” she gives in, as she stabs the straw in. “Here,” she slides it across the table. And as they sit there in silence (a rarity for them, to be honest), she can’t help but think that maybe calculus on Wednesdays isn’t so bad, after all.
That is, until Sehun breaks the quiet by commenting on how easy the chemistry homework was last night and Soojung just cannot handle this kid and his smartass ego. “Tell me again how you did so badly in high school?” she asks, half in awe, half in disgust. She wants to wipe the stupid grin off his face.
He doesn’t answer her question and instead stands up abruptly. “Come on! Let’s get something substantial to eat for lunch and then meet up with Jongin for chemistry!”
She heaves a gigantic sigh. The day is going to be a lot longer than she thought.
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Women are complicated.
L.T.
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WEDNESDAY / CHEMISTRY (13:00-16:00)
"Hey. Hey Soojung. Psssst. Soojung. Soojung."
Jongin snickers and Sehun hits him, grinning as he leans forward on his elbows. "Soojung. Jung Soojung."
"What the fuck do you want, Sehun? Can't you see that I'm busy?"
Sehun snorts uncharacteristically and pinches her arm, and next to him Jongin giggles obnoxiously. "I don't understand why you're doing your schoolwork, it's not like Mr. Lee's here watching us. He's probably not even gonna show up, knowing him."
"So?"
Jongin's the one to speak up this time. "So talk to us!"
"No, why would I do that? You guys talk about the stupidest things."
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
Sehun snorts again, kicking the both of them with his annoyingly long legs, and chastises them with his equally annoying patronizing tone. "Little kids. Too cute." He doesn't flinch when Soojung raises her pen to throw at him and goes back to pestering her, pushing the fat Chemistry textbook back and forth while she tries to keep up with her notes.
After about five minutes of relentless bothering, he figures she isn't going to let up and turns back to Jongin instead, punching him in the arm.
"What the fuck."
"Do you wanna see a movie this weekend?"
Jongin is still rubbing his arm, raising an eyebrow at Sehun. "What movie?"
"Godzilla came out, and you know-"
"-how you love Bryan Cranston, yeah, yeah, nerd."
"Breaking Bad isn't for nerds, you moron, it's for-"
"-intellectuals invested in the science of chemistry, because that's definitely not what a nerd is."
"Shut the fuck up, Jongin, at least I don't still watch anime like some child-"
"Anime isn't just for kids! Adults can-"
"-enjoy simple television shows just for easy watching, sure, dweeb-"
Soojung smirks, looking up from her papers to eye the both of them. "You guys are so fucking gay, it's wonderful. I can't believe you two complete each other's sentences, that is so cute."
Her voice is dripping with sarcasm but Sehun ignores it, wrapping his arms around Jongin and pushing his head into the crook of his best friend's neck. "Ever since the second grade-" but Jongin manages to shove him off before he finishes, yelling something incomprehensible but probably along the lines of what an idiot Sehun is. He's heard the mantra before. He crosses his arms over his chest and watches as Jongin eyes Soojung nervously, and he smiles to himself. His best friend is so stupid.
Soojung goes back to her work eventually and Sehun leans in towards Jongin again, his eyes twinkling. "Hey, asshole."
"What."
"Did Taemin ask Jinri out yet?"
Jongin snorts. "No, he's such a wuss. I told him like six times over text message the other day and he just kept chickening out. I mean, he fucking took a literature class because she likes poetry. I don't understand why he can destroy his grade point average for her and then not take her out for lunch."
"Hey, hey, he's trying!" Sehun and Jongin both look up to Soojung, who is leaning forward on her elbows, trying to butt her way into their conversation. Sehun raises his eyebrow, but Jongin just looks even more excited.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I was talking to him during tutoring, it's not like he's completely useless. He's making some attempt. He kind of switched topics before I got anywhere with the conversation about him and Jinri, but I'm pretty sure he's trying."
Sehun nudges Jongin, grinning. "Remember that one time he told us he walked her to anthropology class and it turns out he was just following like three feet behind her." Jongin bursts out laughing, hitting Sehun in the arm, and Soojung watches the two of them in amusement.
"That was fucking hilarious, oh my god, he's so stupid."
"Hey! Aren't you two best friends?"
Jongin pretends to wipe a tear from his eye, turning to Soojung. "Yeah, so? He's such a wimp when it comes to her, how can you not make fun of him."
"I don't see you doing anything about the girl you like," Sehun retorts, raising his eyebrows, and Jongin reddens.
"Shut the hell up, nerd."
Sehun laughs and Soojung smiles, shaking her head. Her friends are so dumb, it's ridiculous. "Okay you guys, shut up. I can't concentrate."
Jongin's expression turns from embarrassed to hurt to annoyance, and he hits Sehun in the arm. "You see what you did?!" he whisper-yells, and Sehun snorts, patting him on the thigh before turning back to Soojung.
"Since you can't even pay attention, how about we all leave?" Sehun suggests. "It's been like-" Sehun checks his wrist, realizes he isn't wearing a watch, and decides to approximate, "half an hour into class and Mr. Lee still hasn't shown up. I told you he wasn't coming."
Jongin nods along in response. "Yeah, yeah, let's do that!"
Soojung doesn't pay any attention to either of them until she notices them packing up, Jongin arranging his books in order while Sehun absentmindedly drops them all at once into his book bag. She panics and stands up, her beautiful notes scattering everywhere. "WAIT YOU CAN'T LEAVE."
Jongin glances at Sehun, who looks just as surprised as he feels, and then turns back to her. "Why?"
"Just - just because. You can't go."
Sehun smirks. "Why? Someone you're looking for?"
Soojung glares at him, kicking him from under the table, and he doesn't even flinch. Jongin glances back between the two of them with a bewildered expression on his face. "What? What's going on?"
"Soojung has a little crush on Minho~"
"Who?"
Sehun motions behind them at a taller guy sitting near the front of the class, head thrown back as he laughs at one of their senior's jokes. He looks familiar, but Jongin can't pinpoint the reason why. "Him. He's on the soccer team."
Soojung kicks him again, and her face is a little red but otherwise she looks the same. Pissed, but that's a daily expression they all put up with, so nothing out of the norm. "I don't have a crush on him, you moron. I said he was cute once like last year."
"Oh, so it doesn't matter anymore?" Soojung shakes her head. "Fine, I'll just go tell him right now. The infamous Jung Soojung said she thinks he was 'cute once, like last year.'" She shoots up, then, grabbing on to Sehun's arm and whacking him in the back of the head with her free hand, and Sehun is laughing too hard to even register the pain.
Jongin has a scowl on his face, and he plops back down behind their lab table. He grabs one of the bottles filled with distilled water from the middle of the table and starts swishing it around angrily. "I heard that guy is a total whore," he mutters.
Sehun snorts, slapping Jongin in the back now that Soojung has recovered. "You didn't even know who he was a second ago."
"Shut up, stupid," and Sehun laughs, dodging the pen Soojung actually does throw at him so it hits Jongin instead. Jongin doesn't even seem to notice, still swirling the distilled water in quick, frustrated motions. The pen clatters to the floor and Soojung watches sadly as it rolls away towards Minho's table. No getting that back now.
The door opens, then, and Jongin drops the bottle in surprise. It falls to the table, water spilling everywhere, and only Soojung notices, giggling with her hand covering her mouth. Sehun groans from behind them and the two of them look up to see Mr. Lee arranging his books on top of the front lab table, his glasses crooked and his tie a wrinkled mess.
Sehun shakes his head and his arms flop across the table in exasperation. "I told you guys. We should've left when we had the chance."
Soojung hits him and then stands up from where her work is scattered all over the desk, pulling Jongin with her. "Come on, let's go clean this stupid mess before Mr. Lee sees. You know how he throws a fit when we dirty up his stuff."
They walk past Minho in the process and Jongin glares daggers into the back of his head, and Soojung giggles again, linking her arm with Jongin and pulling him away towards the sink. Behind them, Sehun sighs, twirling his own pen in between his hands as Mr. Lee begins his lecture.
He supposes they could be kind of cute, too.
( next part )