Bowled over for endlesstars
For: endlesstars
Title: Bowled Over
Pairing(s): Chanyeol/D.O
Rating: PG-13
Length: 7k
Summary: Back in their high school days, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were rival leaders of their teams in the bowling club and their rivalry always seemed to extend towards something else more intense. Seven years later, Chanyeol, a high school teacher himself, is invited to a bowling club reunion in Seoul.
Author's note: Dear endlesstars, I hope you will like this! Bowling! AU, as you requested. Please refer to my final note for some points I added regarding the fic! ;-;
🎳
October 2019
Prep time is long, something Chanyeol generally hates but today he is grateful for it. He hasn't really been in a mood to focus on the copious amount of paperwork he has yet to finish. The English department head, a friendly yet strict guy, Kim Joonmyun, sent him a very passive aggressive email about needing his finalized lesson plans for the last unit of his Grade 3 English class turned in soon.
Chanyeol sighs. He takes his glasses off, thick black frames which he has been meaning to get changed since forever but hasn't had the time or energy to do so during his weekends. Usually, Chanyeol tends to unwind with other male colleagues from the high school he works at. They rent out a couple of alleys at a cheap bowling place during the weekend and frequent a bar. Loser always has to buy everyone else beers. Often times, they all get a table in the back and try to drink each other under the table.
Social drinking. One of Chanyeol's many talents perhaps. He's always been very proud that he can drink well and long before getting red in the face.
He's never been the loser. Not when it comes to bowling. In fact, bowling and Chanyeol have a special relationship which go way back to his own high school days when he was a stressed out student worrying about his university entrance exams. Chanyeol can't recall a time in his life when he hadn't turned to bowling with friends for stress relief.
Joonmyun bought a cake today from the nearby local bakery. It sits on the main desk in the English Department office near the refrigerator. Sunyoung and Joonmyun just had their first baby - a girl. Joonmyun can't stop showing pictures of his baby to everyone. Chanyeol thinks he knows how Joonmyun’s baby looks like at this point better than the proud new father himself.
Helping himself to a slice, Chanyeol collapses back in his chair again and moodily checks the time. 12 P.M. He doesn't know why he's checking for the time already, not when he's going to get home only around 10:30 at night after his university entrance exam coaching classes. It's only his first year at Sinju High School in Namhae, and his first year of teaching in general but already, he's beginning to run himself ragged.
His desktop background is a picture of his sister, Yura and himself in front of their apartment building, back home in Chuncheon. Pulling up his email and minimizing his lesson plan documents, Chanyeol frowns at the sight of Baekhyun's name highlighted in bold black.
The subject of the email reads Kyungbok Bowling Club 2011 Reunion.
Ah. Intriguing. He quickly clicks on it and loads the email.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ before any of you delete this email, ah seriously, please read it!!! with utmost difficulty, i have managed to get most of the other alumni from kyungbok to give me their best available dates for a BOWLING CLUB REUNION! that's right, you read this correctly. ^.^
ah please send me, trusty byun, the dates when you are free and we will book a date at pierrot!! team pcy versus team do!!!!!! let's make it happen again as mature adults with a positive and a good competitive feeling!
i will see all of you in seoul! or else!!!!
Chanyeol groans and proceeds to hold his head in his hands for the next half hour.
Baekhyun couldn't possibly be serious.
🎳
Turns out that Baekhyun was actually extremely serious about this.
"It's not that I don't want to see you," Chanyeol says hastily, at 11 P.M., as he dumps his heavy briefcase onto the backseat of his car. His case is stuffed with a backbreaking stack of English performance tests that he hasn't been grading from his students. Attempting to placate Baekhyun when he suspects that you are trying to avoid him is always a tricky business of sorts.
"Then what is possibly the problem?" Baekhyun asks, exasperated. In the background, the sounds of incessant chatter is apparent. Baekhyun works tirelessly round the clock on his online newspaper, the editor in charge of the entertainment section. "Chanyeol, you don't understand. I don't sleep. I eat shit everyday. Sometimes I live in my car and carry a change of clothing. I just want to unwind and see all of you again. And you haven't even been back to Chuncheon since.... since January! Of all the places you could go teach for your first year, you decided to park your ass in Namhae. I can't even deal with you being so unpredictable anymore these days, I tell you."
Chanyeol rests his forehead on the steering wheel as he listens to Baekhyun's little tirade. Once his best friend managed to talk for a half hour straight. Chanyeol used to think he was talkative but Baekhyun truly has the gift of the gab. He turns the key and starts the ignition, hoping against all odds that the car will warm up soon. The only good thing about driving back to his apartment at this late hour is that he will not end up chugging slowly along behind a tractor and exasperatedly checking his watch for the time.
"I have called you like you said I should," Chanyeol deadpans. "I got to see you. I bought you beer even though you sucked and got so many gutter balls."
Baekhyun sniffles, clearly put out at that accusation. "Well, you were doing your job as my best friend at the time and consoling me about my breakup with Sojin. Come to our reunion! What are you going to do on the island anyway during the long weekend? Just come relax with us in Seoul. You're working yourself much too hard."
"Takes one to know one," Chanyeol says dryly. "You sleep even less than me. I really shouldn't come though. My students have their university entrance exams and I can't really screw around at this period."
"Okay, you have a point, I don't have a life," Baekhyun concedes. "But I know my limits! I'm taking a break. And maybe heading Team PCY again for a change will make some of the fuzz in your brain go away. Seriously, not even a full year in and you're already such a boring teacher type!"
"Team PCY was something I came up with in high school," Chanyeol says, a groan accompanying his words. "I just wanted to kick Kyungsoo's ass because he was the class topper. In what way do you think meeting Kyungsoo will make me less stressed?"
"Well," Baekhyun says. He smacks his lips. Loudly. Obnoxiously. "There was always that, wasn't there?"
"I'm hanging up," Chanyeol says simply.
"No, wait, Chanyeol-"
Chanyeol cuts the call and slumps in his seat before he checks his rear view mirror to reverse out of his parking spot.
As he rounds a turn, his mind treacherously drifts off to high school days.
🎳
November 2011
Grade 3 in Kyungbok High School is killing Chanyeol.
At this point, he's starting to think he doesn't have a life anymore. There's simply no free time and his parents have paid extra for him to cram in an expensive hagwon, a teacher looking over his English, Math, Science and Korean coursework in particular.
Baekhyun seems to have no care about his grades. Not like the way Chanyeol doggedly sits with his textbooks covering the entire surface of his desk. They've both been desk partners since Grade 1 of high school and that hasn't changed till now, their final year.
"I can't get dark circles like you," Baekhyun says, turning up his nose. He's busy replying to his KakaoTalk messages on his phone, hidden discreetly under his desk. Their teacher is scrawling out long lines of English poetry on the board. Chanyeol is pretending to take notes but what he is really doing is memorizing the derivation for Schrödinger's equation, an almost certain question on his Chemistry test.
"If you don't memorize this stupid derivation, you will lose twelve marks on the test," Chanyeol hisses.
"I know the Gas Law equation which will definitely be on that test! Tyrant stood over my shoulder and made sure I learned it all last night. I also learned it in less time than you're taking right now. You're so slow," Baekhyun retorts. He's tipping back in his chair, a silent but definite show of insolence and general irreverence for the school rules.
Since Baekhyun's famous attempt to skip class in Grade 2 and take the express bus to Seoul, his parents have signed him up for monitored evening study sessions at Kyungbok. Their homeroom teacher, a stern old man by the name of Teacher Lee but who the students have secretly christened as Tyrant, walks around the classroom, threateningly hitting his ruler against his desk every once in a while when he catches them dozing off.
"I don't need a babysitter like you to do my homework," Chanyeol grumps at Baekhyun. He gets a smile in return for his meanness. "There's a reason I'm topping this year."
Baekhyun gives him an extremely unimpressed look. "Then explain why Do Kyungsoo's name is listed as the first ranking student in our batch?"
Chanyeol bristles. This is an incredibly sensitive topic for him. Do Kyungsoo, a short and stoic final year student like them, always sits up front in class. His hand is never up like Chanyeol's almost always is but somehow Tyrant always picks Do Kyungsoo over Chanyeol to answer questions. In the past, such as in Year One, this blatant favoritism would infuriate Chanyeol to no end.
Now he took solace in the fact that yes, Do Kyungsoo consistently got better results in both Korean and English but there was one thing Chanyeol thought and prided himself to be better on.
He was a far better bowler.
"Fine, Kyungsoo is first ranking and I am second ranking," Chanyeol says, irritable. "But wait and see. I am going to crush him at the bowling center this Saturday."
Baekhyun merely cackles. "That's what you said last week, didn't you? And his team still managed to win four games even though we did win. But it was by a narrow margin."
Chanyeol squares his shoulders and puffs out his chest. Normally, he always slouches.
"That narrow margin is what makes all the difference and decides who is the winner."
"That also makes him the first ranker and you the second ranker. Making you the loser."
"You shut up!"
🎳
Geonyang Bowling Center is almost always full during weekends but Chanyeol always gets there well ahead of time. He brings his own shoes and a case with the school's bowling balls assigned out to them. Chanyeol is Kyungbok Bowling Club's general caretaker. The center is small with only about six bowling lanes and small cubicles at the back to store shoes while playing.
Saturdays, from five to seven in the evenings, is when the club has their nights.
Kyungsoo pads in, just as Chanyeol is tying up his shoes. He's flanked on both sides by a lanky boy and a girl from Grade 2. Soojung and Jongin. They're on his team. Chanyeol offers Kyungsoo a terse nod of acknowledgment.
"Where's Baekhyun and Jongdae?" Kyungsoo asks.
Chanyeol bristles. To anyone else, this would seem like a very casually posed question except that Baekhyun and Jongdae are on Chanyeol's team and almost always late. It's something that Kyungsoo perpetually turns his nose up at.
"They're on their way," Chanyeol fires back. "Anyway, all of us are early. So what does it matter?"
Kyungsoo holds both hands up in mock surrender. Behind him, Jongin snickers and Soojung rolls her eyes at him. She's busy texting on her phone, fingers moving swiftly across her Samsung touch screen at high speed.
"Calm down, Park," Kyungsoo says. "I was just asking. There's no need to take such immediate offense. I do need to win this game and then rush off for my weekend coaching. Some of us are very busy, you know?"
A tiny smirk is playing on the corners of his mouth. A very full mouth. Chanyeol hates himself for noticing these things, he really does. Kyungsoo is short, much shorter than Chanyeol. He's got enough of a Napoleon complex however that most times, just from the way Kyungsoo tends to look at people and size them up, Chanyeol finds himself feeling smaller most times.
"Not all of us are dense enough to need coaching during the weekend," Chanyeol scoffs.
Raising an eyebrow, Kyungsoo fixes Chanyeol with a withering look. He slowly stalks up to Chanyeol, his movements slow and measured. Kyungsoo's small. Slight. Nevertheless, his hair is floppy and a dyed brown shade, always in his face, and it always looks incredibly soft to touch. Sometimes Chanyeol's fingers itch to just. Reach out and just.
He gives himself a mental shake to snap out of it. But that tight feeling in his chest, the one that always happens whenever Kyungsoo is in such near proximity,never dissipates ever.
"Just wait and see," Kyungsoo breathes out. "I'm going to beat you on the entrance exams."
Even though his heart is in his mouth, Chanyeol feigns an unimpressed look. "Don't get too cocky, you little shit. Just because you're topping performance test scores doesn't count for anything. The entrance exams are all that matter."
Kyungsoo assesses him silently. The expression on his face is unreadable. Chanyeol can faintly hear the sounds of the other boys sniggering at him but it fails to register. Not when Kyungsoo is all up in his personal space, making him all sorts of flustered and pissed.
"Looks like your loser friends are here," Kyungsoo says softly. Chanyeol starts. Baekhyun and Jongdae file in, chattering and looking just as irritatingly complacent as ever.
🎳
Baekhyun is the weakest player in Chanyeol's team and he is always very cheerful about it so he's happy to go first.
"Can you at least aim for a spare in your first frame," Chanyeol begs. "I'm not even asking for a perfect strike here, Baek."
"We shall see," Baekhyun singsongs, and Chanyeol sighs. He hangs back, chewing on his lower lip anxiously.
Kyungsoo's first player from his team, Jongin, has already scored a strike in his first frame. A smug expression sits firmly on Kyungsoo's face and it doesn't fail to drive Chanyeol up the wall with how hot it looks.
Baekhyun ends up knocking three pins down with ball one in his first frame. As the ball comes rolling back to him, Chanyeol grabs his elbow and hisses, "Hold the ball higher as you throw, you shortie, how many times do I have to keep telling you? Gives it more spin and there is better direction to the momentum of the ball!"
"Calm down, ahjusshi," Baekhyun complains, as he fits slender fingers into the holes of the black bowling ball. "You are always such a nerd about this shit. It's just a game, not science or the Olympics."
"Physics is part and parcel of any sport," Chanyeol grumbles back, but he doesn't press on, aware that when he's annoyed, Baekhyun tends to do exactly what he's told not to do.
Exactly as he feared, Baekhyun gets a dismal number of another three pins down with ball two in his second frame. He has the indecency not to look highly put out about it like Chanyeol is currently feeling either.
Jongdae cackles. He's busy chatting it up with Liyin, his girlfriend and a foreign student who joined their batch in Grade 2.
"Have you seen this guy," Chanyeol tells Jongdae, while glaring at an unaffected Baekhyun who has the audacity to cheer Soojung loudly on as she gets into her bowling stance. "He has no shame. Now he's hitting on Soojung."
"That's just like you and Kyungsoo," Jongdae says.
He gets a smack upside his head from an irritable Chanyeol for that one.
🎳
Chanyeol scowls at his screen. The total score blinks back at him in bright red, an offensive 290.
Meanwhile Kyungsoo's score is a perfect 300.
"This is terrible and none of you care about our reputation really," Chanyeol rants at them. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo advances towards him with the bowling ball Team DO used for their frames.
"Good game," Kyungsoo says, and he's grinning. "As expected, I won this round."
"Yeah well, there is always next week," Chanyeol says, making a face at him.
"Or," Kyungsoo's eyes have a glint in them. "You could stay back and bowl with me."
"What happened to weekend coaching," Chanyeol asks, in a mocking tone.
"Turned out beating you is so much more entertaining and I got an extra hour to spare for you," Kyungsoo says simply.
Baekhyun and Jongdae give Chanyeol a ton of salacious winks as they both toe off their bowling shoes and slip back into their sneakers.
Chanyeol turns a bright red.
"Have fun," Baekhyun says.
"Practice safe sex," Jongdae adds.
"Shut up," Chanyeol grouses weakly at them.
🎳
They end up doing a whole set of ten frames again, just the two of them. Chanyeol is positively sweating. However, the adrenaline high he's getting off of this challenge is far too intense for him to care about the fact that his phone in his pocket is buzzing with text notifications from his irritated mother wanting to know why he isn't back at home with his head bent over his textbooks.
"Did you finish cramming everything for Math," Kyungsoo asks after their third frame. He's managed to get perfect strikes on everything and he's looking extremely winded for breath.
Chanyeol sends his ball flying down the lane in the side hook motion he's practiced to get down perfect over the past four years. He debates on whether he should give Kyungsoo an evasive answer like what most of the competitive class toppers give each other.
"Oh, not really." "There's so much to finish and I'm only done about ten percent of the exam prep." "Ugh, I'm going to fail everything."
Those are some of the answers he could give. But his fingers are starting to ache and oh, what the hell, this was a strike. He got all ten pins down. He's feeling like honesty is also an option.
"Yeah," Chanyeol says shortly. "I'm done reviewing all of it for the second time too."
Kyungsoo whistles in appreciation. "Nice. I've done that with all the Science workbooks."
"Huh," Chanyeol says. He chances a look at Kyungsoo. For once, the other boy isn't wearing a smug smile or smirk. He isn't wearing his other default expression which is often a delightful mixture of affront and exasperation whenever he has to deal with Chanyeol.
So Chanyeol offers Kyungsoo a tentative smile in return.
And Kyungsoo smiles back at Chanyeol.
🎳
"You're not so annoying, Park."
"You're not so ... short like Baekhyun."
Kyungsoo slugs him for that but there's a huge goofy smile on his face and Chanyeol cannot deny how he's helplessly entranced by it.
Since last year, after an experimental kiss with Baekhyun, Chanyeol has come to terms with his sexuality. He's never been like Baekhyun either. While Baekhyun seemed to think it was fun, and surely enough the awkward one-time sex they'd had produced good orgasms. Orgasms were fun.
But Chanyeol hadn't been able to stop questioning himself after that. He'd never really crushed on any of the girls, talked wistfully about how pretty any of them were and daydreamed about making out with one like Baekhyun constantly did.
Boys on the other hand. Chanyeol couldn't stop staring at them.
Instead of going home to cram like the studious kids that they are, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo end up at a dak galbi joint, chattering nonstop.
Chanyeol asked for his dish to be prepared with extra gochujang. Kyungsoo is looking at him gobble down his chicken with wide eyes.
"That probably tastes like fire in your mouth," he says, sounding doubtful.
Chanyeol laughs at him.
"Yeah, yeah, it really is," he says, flashing Kyungsoo a wide grin. "But in my opinion, the spicier the better really. I think it just tastes so good."
He gulps when Kyungsoo looks at him and shakes his head. The gesture is soft, soft and fond. Not like anything to do with this intense bowling-and-grades rivalry they've had going on for the past three years really.
"What do you want to do?"
"Like .... what program I'm going to apply for in university?"
"Yeah," Kyungsoo says quietly. "My father wants me to become an engineer."
"That sounds like a good fit for you," Chanyeol muses. "If-if you want it." He hastily amends. "My parents don't really care as long as I manage to get into any SKY university. My sister is a Yonsei graduate. So there's all this pressure for me to follow through. So many expectations."
"Ohhh," Kyungsoo manages to say, through a mouthful of chicken. His cheeks bulge out with all the meat in his mouth and for a fleeting instant all Chanyeol can manage to coherently summon in his head is cute.
Ugh.
"Yeah, I do want it," Kyungsoo says thoughtfully after he's swallowed. "I think it would be fun."
"Yeah," Chanyeol says, with a nod. "When do you think you'll enlist?"
Kyungsoo's shoulders sag at that. "I have no idea," he admits, with a heavy sigh. "I could get it out of the way after first year at college is done. That's what my father did. But I don't know. I'm the kind of guy who'd want to get it out of the way as soon as possible. What about you?"
"I might push it off," Chanyeol admits. "I want to become a teacher. So I want to teach for a few years and then enlist."
"Wow, you really have it all planned out, don't you?" Kyungsoo says admiringly. Chanyeol blushes, and ducks his head. He concentrates on shoveling more spicy chicken into his mouth.
"I guess I do," he mumbles.
"I envy you sometimes," Kyungsoo says suddenly, and that makes Chanyeol start.
"Why?"
"I don't know," Kyungsoo muses. "You seem to have it all sorted out."
"Funny that," Chanyeol says, with a wry smile. "I envied you for the exact same thing too."
They share a look of understanding, and in that moment, Chanyeol wonders if Kyungsoo can hear the sound of his heart rapidly pounding in his chest.
🎳
That had been the first and last time they had a meaningful conversation. In December, their entrance exam results were out, and both of them were back to being competitive albeit now it was slightly more playful.
Tyrant put up the results on a huge chart in their classroom like the asshole he was.
Kyungsoo beat Chanyeol with better grades in all the subjects.
Chanyeol ended up not attending school for the next two days, far too ashamed to even show his face. Anyway, school didn't matter anymore even though they still had to attend. The entrance exams were over. His grades were excellent, enough to get him into Yonsei like his brilliant sister really, but he hadn't beat Kyungsoo.
Try as he might, Chanyeol was petty like that and couldn't let bygones be bygones. He couldn't be happy for Kyungsoo on that account.
🎳
November 2019
Like Baekhyun said, there had always been that.
Chanyeol is nervous. He checked into a hostel for the weekend in Seoul a couple hours earlier and showered. He's dressed nicely for the occasion - a fitted black shirt with his sleeves rolled up and tight black skinnies. He took great care with his hair, despairing over it in the mirror provided in his room, finally deciding to let his bangs hang in his eyes.
Additionally, he feels stupid and conscious for trying so hard to look good. Anyway.
Pierrot Strike is filled to the brim with foreigners when Chanyeol gets in. The bowling lanes are all illuminated in blue and like all the times he's stopped by whenever he's in Gangnam, the electro music is loud. Headache-inducing.
He's getting old.
Chanyeol meets the rest of the Bowling Club ex-members near the furthermost bowling lane from the bar.
"Prime spot," Baekhyun jokes, pulling Chanyeol into a rib-crushing hug. He's dressed in a flashy pink shirt and green jeans.
"I have two questions for you. Why are you still so short and also why are you still dressing like a teenager," Chanyeol returns, and his good reflexes help him avoid Baekhyun elbowing him in the gut.
"Shut up, Chanyeol! This guy is seriously still such an asshole-"
"Are you dissing me too," Kyungsoo pipes up, and Chanyeol's heart seems to land up in his gut at the sound of his voice. Still handsome and that red shirt shows off his pecs, a treacherous small part of his brain whispers.
"Kyungsoo," Chanyeol says stupidly.
Kyungsoo smiles at him, clearly amused.
"Chanyeol," he says.
They shake hands in a most awkward handshake (made awkward by Baekhyun's insufferable knowing look) and Chanyeol hopes his palm doesn't feel too clammy. After all, it's not like he's been extremely nervous about this reunion. No, not at all.
"Why are you still so tall," Jongdae complains, but the silly grin on his face as he pulls Chanyeol into a one-armed hug is full of warmth. "And now you really are like a beanstalk. What's up, man, how have you been."
"Good, good. Are you still with Liyin or am I hopelessly out of the loop?"
"No, no, my god man, that was high school. Now I'm sexy, free and single." It's occupied with a sleazy wink and Chanyeol pretends to look horrified.
"Spare me, please, you are only two of those things."
"Hey now!"
Jongin and Soojung pull him into a hug together, and Chanyeol's shrewd eyes catch the matching bands on both their ring fingers.
"Got married last June," Jongin says. "Her parents wanted to do the most ridiculous traditional wedding shoot at Jeju, can you believe that?"
"By that, he means he was a miser and sucker who listened to them while crying about his wallet," Soojung quips, and Jongin pouts.
Chanyeol laughs. "It's good to see Soojung is still running the show here."
"Of course she is, I just do whatever she says," Jongin jokes. Nevertheless, there is truth in those words for Soojung preens and within the next minute, Jongin is already obediently scuttling off to the bar to buy his wife another drink.
Chanyeol takes a deep breath. He can feel Kyungsoo's eyes burning into his back as he bends over to toe off his sneakers.
So far, the evening seems to have started off well. Maybe it won't be as stressful as he thought.
🎳
Kyungsoo meets him at the bar when they're both done their ten frames, corners him when Chanyeol is ordering himself a drink.
"How have you been?"
Chanyeol nearly drops his drink, caught unaware because Kyungsoo is right behind him.
"Hey," he says softly. "Yeah, I've been okay."
Kyungsoo wets his lips. Chanyeol fights hard not to stare at his mouth (it's always been so ... sensual and full) like a besotted fool. God, it's been years and he's still reacting the same way.
"Baekhyun tells me you're teaching now in Namhae," Kyungsoo says.
"Yeah," Chanyeol says jerkily. "I wanted a change of pace." He wonders why he feels the need to be so damn defensive about his decision to relocate to Gyeongnam province. Probably because the move itself is so unusual. Not many new teachers decide to move out of Gangwon province and teach all the way down south in the country. He’s well aware that while it’s a choice, it’s always going to be considered one that is far too bold.
“Why not Busan then?” Kyungsoo asks, intrigued. “Changwon even.”
“I did consider it,” Chanyeol says slowly. “But it seemed far too competitive.
That manages to make Kyungsoo laugh. Hell, even Chanyeol joins in. He’s well aware it sounds rich coming from him of all people.
“You … went to Namhae … to avoid competitive work environments?” Kyungsoo says, with complete incredulity painted on his face. “Pardon me for saying this but wow. You have really changed a lot.”
Chanyeol tips his glass at Kyungsoo and smiles, feeling extremely awkward. He takes a sip of his Jack and coke. “I guess I have changed then,” he cedes.
“Come now, you never considered any major city then,” Kyungsoo presses. He is very much amused. “Not even Jinju?”
“Not even Jinju,” Chanyeol confirms, with a sheepish grin. “Too many conservative teachers in their system.”
Kyungsoo snorts. “As if you would be better off in Namhae then.”
“I just wanted a clean start, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol says quietly. “I just wanted to work somewhere peaceful and quiet.” His vulnerability must be showing for the amused look on Kyungsoo’s face softens.
“Sorry,” he apologizes. “I just found it so fascinating.”
“It’s nice to be found fascinating,” Chanyeol says, tone deliberately playful and light. “What about you?”
“Civil engineer, Wonju,” Kyungsoo says wryly. “Got the job right after I graduated. I’m predictable.”
“Ah,” Chanyeol says. He tracks the bobbing movement of Kyungsoo’s adam’s apple as he takes a sip from his can of imported beer far too keenly for his own liking. “Being predictable is not so bad if you’re enjoying your life.”
“Trust me, I am not enjoying my life,” Kyungsoo says, rolling his eyes. “Then again …. who is at our age?”
“You have a point.”
“So. How is it like teaching kids in Namhae?”
“It seriously felt like hearing another different language, I have to tell you,” Chanyeol says earnestly. “Totally different! I was dying in the beginning because I couldn’t understand their Korean. But now I’m okay.”
“Ohhh, that’s good to hear,” Kyungsoo says. Once again, he’s got that look in his eyes, a fond look. “You’re such a hard worker. But you sound really happy.”
“It feels like I’ve gone back to school. Of course the principal picked the new teacher to have homeroom duties,” Chanyeol says. He can’t stop smiling now, glowing from Kyungsoo’s praise. Back in high school, they barely exchanged words with each other save for mean quips exchanged in plentiful abandon.
“Looks like that hasn’t been a problem for you.” Kyungsoo proceeds to give Chanyeol a blatant onceover, and Chanyeol thinks his cheeks are on fire from such bold appraisal of his person. He’d have thought Kyungsoo would be shy in the matters of flirting and seduction.
Maybe Kyungsoo knows that when it’s Chanyeol, he’s practically got Chanyeol eagerly lapping the palm of his hand.
Maybe that’s why he is so confident.
🎳
Soojung is in Jongin’s lap and they are making out. Baekhyun whistled at them and made a few jokes. Now however, he is a tired drunk with his head flopped on Chanyeol’s left shoulder, and his right serving as a (bony) pillow for Kyungsoo. Chanyeol is also drunk and tired, feeling like he is in an American sitcom of sorts when a cackling Jongdae takes a picture of them and then collapses on the floor shortly thereafter.
Kyungsoo is holding his hand. He is also doing a thing that is making Chanyeol feel aroused and sleepy at the same time, rubbing his thumb repeatedly over the inside of Chanyeol’s wrist.
“You weren’t at school when they announced the results.” Kyungsoo’s voice is softly reproachful, tinged with hurt.
Chanyeol bites his lip. He’s spent years feeling like an ass about that.
“I was jealous,” he admits.
“Thought we were friends,” Kyungsoo says. “Did you know that all I ever wanted back then was to be your friend, Park?” He laughs, and it is so wistful, Chanyeol thinks he’s been turned inside out from the intensity of what he’s feeling at the moment.
“Yeah?” His own voice is thick. His tongue feels like it’s turned to cotton. He wants to press his lips to the top of Kyungsoo’s head. He wants to just hold Kyungsoo.
“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. He burrows further into Chanyeol’s side.
“This flirting makes me feel very sick,” Baekhyun moans from Chanyeol’s other side. “I might throw up on your lap, Chanyeol. Right on top of your fucking boner, man. What the fuck.”
“Shut up, Baekhyun!”
However, it’s far too late. Kyungsoo gets a good look at Chanyeol’s boner and he pulls away instantly.
“I …. I got to go,” Kyungsoo says. His cheeks are dusted with pink.
Chanyeol stares at him. The embarrassment he is currently feeling is beyond description. “Uhm. Okay.”
He pushes Baekhyun’s head off of his shoulder once Kyungsoo has made his hasty exit.
“Ow,” Baekhyun whines. He looks very much like a wounded puppy. Far too cute for Chanyeol to be properly mad at him.
“What did you just do? We were having a Proper Conversation.”
“You mean, he was going around in circles,” Baekhyun deadpans. “And you were happily going around in circles with him like you were both on a fucking carousel. Is that how you flirt anyway? That is embarrassing, man. You need help.”
Then Baekhyun proceeds to throw up right on top of Chanyeol’s boner.
🎳
December 2019
The Gyeongnam Province school board sends Chanyeol the most ridiculous paperwork to fill out. Currently, he is in the middle of typing up a very tedious report they need filled out about the temporary teachers who came to invigilate the Grade 3 students during the entrance exam period. His eyes are bloodshot, and his hand constantly reaches for the huge mug of coffee sitting on his desk.
In the chair next to him sits Joonmyun with his baby. Her name is Joonmi and she is currently making some very inconsolable sounds.
“She’s more her mother’s child than mine,” Joonmyun informs Chanyeol, looking forlorn.
“Uh huh.”
How Joonmyun managed to bring his baby to work is beyond Chanyeol’s ability to understand in the first place but he offers Joonmyun a very carefully neutral smile and goes back to hunching over his desktop. All day, Joonmyun’s Grade 2 English students have been cooing at Joonmi like she’s a local celebrity of sorts. For once, they’re not on Naver, searching up news on their favourite idols so Chanyeol figures Joonmi is a classroom management tactic.
He wouldn’t put it past Joonmyun to use his own newborn child for that purpose.
“Can you hold Joonmi? I have to get her bottle out,” Joonmyun says very seriously.
“I-”
Chanyeol finds himself with a lapful of happy gurgling baby. Joonmi’s fingers curl around Chanyeol’s index finger very resolutely and she looks up to flash him with a toothless smile. He does his best not to grimace when she leaves a trail of saliva all over the sleeve of his preppy grey sweater.
“Oh my, don’t you two look cute together!” Joonmyun exclaims. He fishes out his phone, bottle of formula completely forgotten. “Would you like a picture with Joonmi?”
Chanyeol suspects Joonmyun isn’t really giving him any choice in the matter. “Uh alright.”
🎳
Chanyeol ends up posting the picture of a drooling happy Joonmi in his lap on his Facebook. He figures, why not. He looks cute and well, so does the baby. Baekhyun likes it almost immediately and adds a snarky who’s the other dadㅋㅋㅋㅋ comment. When Chanyeol wakes up next morning, he’s disconcerted to find that among the thirty people who liked his picture, one of them was Do Kyungsoo.
Ugh, that man. Most puzzling person ever.
🎳
Creeping up close to his classroom window, Chanyeol narrows his eyes at the sight of one of his students, Oh Sehun, smoking in the school premises. That kid has been a thorn in his side, showing no interest in his exams all these months and skipping classes regularly. A couple of his female students excitedly told him the kid is an ulzzang and everyone always likes his pictures.
Somehow, surprisingly so, Sehun ended up getting one of the highest exam scores in his homeroom class.
Chanyeol raps his knuckles against the window. That doesn’t seem to work. He slides the window open and yells: “YAH, OH SEHUN!”
The kid jumps up high in the air and so does his weird blond bob of hair. He hastily drops his cigarette and stubs it out.
Shaking his head in amusement, Chanyeol slides the window back shut, chuckling to himself.
🎳
It feels good to be done with the entrance exams. The next challenge is to keeping his students focused on school when their work doesn’t count anymore. Chanyeol locks down his classroom at 7 PM and hums cheerily to himself. No heavy briefcase to haul all the way to his car in the school parking lot.
He’s stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of Kyungsoo leaning against his car, holding a white packet in his hands and looking most uncharacteristically nervous.
“Uhm.”
“Hello?” Kyungsoo offers. Tentatively. When Chanyeol doesn’t respond, still dumbstruck, he tries again.
“What,” Chanyeol says, with a sharp exhale when he’s managed to find his voice again. There is a huge lump of emotion stuck in his throat and it won’t go up or down. “What on earth are you doing in Namhae, Do Kyungsoo?”
Kyungsoo shrugs. He looks a little too good in his fitted white shirt and beige slacks. Chanyeol swallows hard. He must be dreaming.
“Back in Seoul,” Kyungsoo starts, all jerky-like. “I believe I made a very quick getaway.”
Chanyeol raises his brows. “You sure did exactly that.” He notices Kyungsoo flinch at the evident bitterness in his voice but he waits for Kyungsoo to explain. Chanyeol figures he is entitled to that much.
“I panicked,” Kyungsoo says in a rush. “Look Chanyeol, I don’t have any good reason for why I bailed like that. Baekhyun was just being so …. direct, and I wasn’t ready to …. admit it to myself back then just yet.”
“Admit what,” Chanyeol murmurs. He’s closed the distance between them. This is hardly the time or place however for what Kyungsoo is doing.
Kyungsoo himself seems to realize that for his eyes dart around nervously.
“We should get out of here, Chanyeol,” he says softly. “I … uhm. I rented out a seaside villa for the week.”
Chanyeol’s eyes widen in shock. “You did what?”
“I’m here for a week,” Kyungsoo wrings his hands together. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know if you would be mad at me but I was determined to apologize no matter what it took and here-” he thrusts the package in Chanyeol’s hands. “It’s dak galbi from Chuncheon. Extra spicy.” He looks up, his expression a mixture of fondness and desperation.
Chanyeol laughs out loud when his stomach decides to make its presence known with an embarrassingly loud rumble.
He can’t lie. This is a pretty good peace offering. Not to mention, Kyungsoo looks all sorts of cute and flustered and worried it’s almost endearing and Chanyeol thinks he’s falling for Kyungsoo all over again.
“Okay,” Chanyeol concedes. “Let’s go to your villa and eat. I cannot lie to you. I’m so hungry I might collapse any moment soon.”
🎳
The first thing Kyungsoo does once the door shuts behind them is pin Chanyeol up against it and presses his lips firmly against Chanyeol’s.
Gasping, Chanyeol goes pliant and boneless in Kyungsoo’s hold. He bends his head down, clutching onto Kyungsoo’s slender shoulders for dear life as Kyungsoo holds his waist firmly. When they part, Chanyeol is a dazed, trembling mess in Kyungsoo’s hold.
Kyungsoo licks his lips, eyes dark and filled with immense satisfaction.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for ages now,” Kyungsoo admits.
“Yeah?” Chanyeol asks thickly.
“Mm hmm,” Kyungsoo affirms, a lazy smile curving the tips of his full mouth upwards. “I wanted to pin you up and kiss you so much in high school. I’m sorry I never did that.”
Chanyeol sighs. “You have got to stop throwing curveballs at me, Do Kyungsoo. Tell me why you ran away that night and made me feel like such an overeager fool.”
“I just panicked,” Kyungsoo mumbles. “It’s you. I just. That wasn’t the right time for me. I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have just left. I just couldn’t admit it to myself, you know.”
“Admit what?” Chanyeol timidly asks once again. His heart is hammering in his chest and honestly, can it stop doing that? Kyungsoo is well on his way to effectively giving Chanyeol heart failure one of these days.
“I think I might be in love with you, Park Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo confesses. The smile on his face is sweet, reaching the very crinkles of his eyes. “No, I don’t think so. I know so.”
Chanyeol sags against the door frame.
“Did that seriously just take you seven years to tell me?”
“If I’d waited for you to say it, we would have had to wait till after army service,” Kyungsoo retorts. “At least, I said it now. That too …. I had to beg Baekhyun to organize that reunion. Imagine another five years of quietly liking each other’s Facebook pictures and pining silently.”
Chanyeol pouts at him. He rests his long, skinny arms on Kyungsoo’s shoulders, beaming down at Kyungsoo.
“You should make it up to me, you know,” he starts, with a huge grin on his face.
Kyungsoo’s hands move from the small of Chanyeol’s back to splay firmly against his butt, suggestive.
“Oh trust me, I definitely plan on it.”
🎳
Final author's note:
grade 3 of high school in korea is grade 12
dak galbi is a chuncheon specialty dish :)
some of the places in this story are fictional and some are not :)))
Title: Bowled Over
Pairing(s): Chanyeol/D.O
Rating: PG-13
Length: 7k
Summary: Back in their high school days, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were rival leaders of their teams in the bowling club and their rivalry always seemed to extend towards something else more intense. Seven years later, Chanyeol, a high school teacher himself, is invited to a bowling club reunion in Seoul.
Author's note: Dear endlesstars, I hope you will like this! Bowling! AU, as you requested. Please refer to my final note for some points I added regarding the fic! ;-;
🎳
October 2019
Prep time is long, something Chanyeol generally hates but today he is grateful for it. He hasn't really been in a mood to focus on the copious amount of paperwork he has yet to finish. The English department head, a friendly yet strict guy, Kim Joonmyun, sent him a very passive aggressive email about needing his finalized lesson plans for the last unit of his Grade 3 English class turned in soon.
Chanyeol sighs. He takes his glasses off, thick black frames which he has been meaning to get changed since forever but hasn't had the time or energy to do so during his weekends. Usually, Chanyeol tends to unwind with other male colleagues from the high school he works at. They rent out a couple of alleys at a cheap bowling place during the weekend and frequent a bar. Loser always has to buy everyone else beers. Often times, they all get a table in the back and try to drink each other under the table.
Social drinking. One of Chanyeol's many talents perhaps. He's always been very proud that he can drink well and long before getting red in the face.
He's never been the loser. Not when it comes to bowling. In fact, bowling and Chanyeol have a special relationship which go way back to his own high school days when he was a stressed out student worrying about his university entrance exams. Chanyeol can't recall a time in his life when he hadn't turned to bowling with friends for stress relief.
Joonmyun bought a cake today from the nearby local bakery. It sits on the main desk in the English Department office near the refrigerator. Sunyoung and Joonmyun just had their first baby - a girl. Joonmyun can't stop showing pictures of his baby to everyone. Chanyeol thinks he knows how Joonmyun’s baby looks like at this point better than the proud new father himself.
Helping himself to a slice, Chanyeol collapses back in his chair again and moodily checks the time. 12 P.M. He doesn't know why he's checking for the time already, not when he's going to get home only around 10:30 at night after his university entrance exam coaching classes. It's only his first year at Sinju High School in Namhae, and his first year of teaching in general but already, he's beginning to run himself ragged.
His desktop background is a picture of his sister, Yura and himself in front of their apartment building, back home in Chuncheon. Pulling up his email and minimizing his lesson plan documents, Chanyeol frowns at the sight of Baekhyun's name highlighted in bold black.
The subject of the email reads Kyungbok Bowling Club 2011 Reunion.
Ah. Intriguing. He quickly clicks on it and loads the email.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ before any of you delete this email, ah seriously, please read it!!! with utmost difficulty, i have managed to get most of the other alumni from kyungbok to give me their best available dates for a BOWLING CLUB REUNION! that's right, you read this correctly. ^.^
ah please send me, trusty byun, the dates when you are free and we will book a date at pierrot!! team pcy versus team do!!!!!! let's make it happen again as mature adults with a positive and a good competitive feeling!
i will see all of you in seoul! or else!!!!
Chanyeol groans and proceeds to hold his head in his hands for the next half hour.
Baekhyun couldn't possibly be serious.
🎳
Turns out that Baekhyun was actually extremely serious about this.
"It's not that I don't want to see you," Chanyeol says hastily, at 11 P.M., as he dumps his heavy briefcase onto the backseat of his car. His case is stuffed with a backbreaking stack of English performance tests that he hasn't been grading from his students. Attempting to placate Baekhyun when he suspects that you are trying to avoid him is always a tricky business of sorts.
"Then what is possibly the problem?" Baekhyun asks, exasperated. In the background, the sounds of incessant chatter is apparent. Baekhyun works tirelessly round the clock on his online newspaper, the editor in charge of the entertainment section. "Chanyeol, you don't understand. I don't sleep. I eat shit everyday. Sometimes I live in my car and carry a change of clothing. I just want to unwind and see all of you again. And you haven't even been back to Chuncheon since.... since January! Of all the places you could go teach for your first year, you decided to park your ass in Namhae. I can't even deal with you being so unpredictable anymore these days, I tell you."
Chanyeol rests his forehead on the steering wheel as he listens to Baekhyun's little tirade. Once his best friend managed to talk for a half hour straight. Chanyeol used to think he was talkative but Baekhyun truly has the gift of the gab. He turns the key and starts the ignition, hoping against all odds that the car will warm up soon. The only good thing about driving back to his apartment at this late hour is that he will not end up chugging slowly along behind a tractor and exasperatedly checking his watch for the time.
"I have called you like you said I should," Chanyeol deadpans. "I got to see you. I bought you beer even though you sucked and got so many gutter balls."
Baekhyun sniffles, clearly put out at that accusation. "Well, you were doing your job as my best friend at the time and consoling me about my breakup with Sojin. Come to our reunion! What are you going to do on the island anyway during the long weekend? Just come relax with us in Seoul. You're working yourself much too hard."
"Takes one to know one," Chanyeol says dryly. "You sleep even less than me. I really shouldn't come though. My students have their university entrance exams and I can't really screw around at this period."
"Okay, you have a point, I don't have a life," Baekhyun concedes. "But I know my limits! I'm taking a break. And maybe heading Team PCY again for a change will make some of the fuzz in your brain go away. Seriously, not even a full year in and you're already such a boring teacher type!"
"Team PCY was something I came up with in high school," Chanyeol says, a groan accompanying his words. "I just wanted to kick Kyungsoo's ass because he was the class topper. In what way do you think meeting Kyungsoo will make me less stressed?"
"Well," Baekhyun says. He smacks his lips. Loudly. Obnoxiously. "There was always that, wasn't there?"
"I'm hanging up," Chanyeol says simply.
"No, wait, Chanyeol-"
Chanyeol cuts the call and slumps in his seat before he checks his rear view mirror to reverse out of his parking spot.
As he rounds a turn, his mind treacherously drifts off to high school days.
🎳
November 2011
Grade 3 in Kyungbok High School is killing Chanyeol.
At this point, he's starting to think he doesn't have a life anymore. There's simply no free time and his parents have paid extra for him to cram in an expensive hagwon, a teacher looking over his English, Math, Science and Korean coursework in particular.
Baekhyun seems to have no care about his grades. Not like the way Chanyeol doggedly sits with his textbooks covering the entire surface of his desk. They've both been desk partners since Grade 1 of high school and that hasn't changed till now, their final year.
"I can't get dark circles like you," Baekhyun says, turning up his nose. He's busy replying to his KakaoTalk messages on his phone, hidden discreetly under his desk. Their teacher is scrawling out long lines of English poetry on the board. Chanyeol is pretending to take notes but what he is really doing is memorizing the derivation for Schrödinger's equation, an almost certain question on his Chemistry test.
"If you don't memorize this stupid derivation, you will lose twelve marks on the test," Chanyeol hisses.
"I know the Gas Law equation which will definitely be on that test! Tyrant stood over my shoulder and made sure I learned it all last night. I also learned it in less time than you're taking right now. You're so slow," Baekhyun retorts. He's tipping back in his chair, a silent but definite show of insolence and general irreverence for the school rules.
Since Baekhyun's famous attempt to skip class in Grade 2 and take the express bus to Seoul, his parents have signed him up for monitored evening study sessions at Kyungbok. Their homeroom teacher, a stern old man by the name of Teacher Lee but who the students have secretly christened as Tyrant, walks around the classroom, threateningly hitting his ruler against his desk every once in a while when he catches them dozing off.
"I don't need a babysitter like you to do my homework," Chanyeol grumps at Baekhyun. He gets a smile in return for his meanness. "There's a reason I'm topping this year."
Baekhyun gives him an extremely unimpressed look. "Then explain why Do Kyungsoo's name is listed as the first ranking student in our batch?"
Chanyeol bristles. This is an incredibly sensitive topic for him. Do Kyungsoo, a short and stoic final year student like them, always sits up front in class. His hand is never up like Chanyeol's almost always is but somehow Tyrant always picks Do Kyungsoo over Chanyeol to answer questions. In the past, such as in Year One, this blatant favoritism would infuriate Chanyeol to no end.
Now he took solace in the fact that yes, Do Kyungsoo consistently got better results in both Korean and English but there was one thing Chanyeol thought and prided himself to be better on.
He was a far better bowler.
"Fine, Kyungsoo is first ranking and I am second ranking," Chanyeol says, irritable. "But wait and see. I am going to crush him at the bowling center this Saturday."
Baekhyun merely cackles. "That's what you said last week, didn't you? And his team still managed to win four games even though we did win. But it was by a narrow margin."
Chanyeol squares his shoulders and puffs out his chest. Normally, he always slouches.
"That narrow margin is what makes all the difference and decides who is the winner."
"That also makes him the first ranker and you the second ranker. Making you the loser."
"You shut up!"
🎳
Geonyang Bowling Center is almost always full during weekends but Chanyeol always gets there well ahead of time. He brings his own shoes and a case with the school's bowling balls assigned out to them. Chanyeol is Kyungbok Bowling Club's general caretaker. The center is small with only about six bowling lanes and small cubicles at the back to store shoes while playing.
Saturdays, from five to seven in the evenings, is when the club has their nights.
Kyungsoo pads in, just as Chanyeol is tying up his shoes. He's flanked on both sides by a lanky boy and a girl from Grade 2. Soojung and Jongin. They're on his team. Chanyeol offers Kyungsoo a terse nod of acknowledgment.
"Where's Baekhyun and Jongdae?" Kyungsoo asks.
Chanyeol bristles. To anyone else, this would seem like a very casually posed question except that Baekhyun and Jongdae are on Chanyeol's team and almost always late. It's something that Kyungsoo perpetually turns his nose up at.
"They're on their way," Chanyeol fires back. "Anyway, all of us are early. So what does it matter?"
Kyungsoo holds both hands up in mock surrender. Behind him, Jongin snickers and Soojung rolls her eyes at him. She's busy texting on her phone, fingers moving swiftly across her Samsung touch screen at high speed.
"Calm down, Park," Kyungsoo says. "I was just asking. There's no need to take such immediate offense. I do need to win this game and then rush off for my weekend coaching. Some of us are very busy, you know?"
A tiny smirk is playing on the corners of his mouth. A very full mouth. Chanyeol hates himself for noticing these things, he really does. Kyungsoo is short, much shorter than Chanyeol. He's got enough of a Napoleon complex however that most times, just from the way Kyungsoo tends to look at people and size them up, Chanyeol finds himself feeling smaller most times.
"Not all of us are dense enough to need coaching during the weekend," Chanyeol scoffs.
Raising an eyebrow, Kyungsoo fixes Chanyeol with a withering look. He slowly stalks up to Chanyeol, his movements slow and measured. Kyungsoo's small. Slight. Nevertheless, his hair is floppy and a dyed brown shade, always in his face, and it always looks incredibly soft to touch. Sometimes Chanyeol's fingers itch to just. Reach out and just.
He gives himself a mental shake to snap out of it. But that tight feeling in his chest, the one that always happens whenever Kyungsoo is in such near proximity,never dissipates ever.
"Just wait and see," Kyungsoo breathes out. "I'm going to beat you on the entrance exams."
Even though his heart is in his mouth, Chanyeol feigns an unimpressed look. "Don't get too cocky, you little shit. Just because you're topping performance test scores doesn't count for anything. The entrance exams are all that matter."
Kyungsoo assesses him silently. The expression on his face is unreadable. Chanyeol can faintly hear the sounds of the other boys sniggering at him but it fails to register. Not when Kyungsoo is all up in his personal space, making him all sorts of flustered and pissed.
"Looks like your loser friends are here," Kyungsoo says softly. Chanyeol starts. Baekhyun and Jongdae file in, chattering and looking just as irritatingly complacent as ever.
🎳
Baekhyun is the weakest player in Chanyeol's team and he is always very cheerful about it so he's happy to go first.
"Can you at least aim for a spare in your first frame," Chanyeol begs. "I'm not even asking for a perfect strike here, Baek."
"We shall see," Baekhyun singsongs, and Chanyeol sighs. He hangs back, chewing on his lower lip anxiously.
Kyungsoo's first player from his team, Jongin, has already scored a strike in his first frame. A smug expression sits firmly on Kyungsoo's face and it doesn't fail to drive Chanyeol up the wall with how hot it looks.
Baekhyun ends up knocking three pins down with ball one in his first frame. As the ball comes rolling back to him, Chanyeol grabs his elbow and hisses, "Hold the ball higher as you throw, you shortie, how many times do I have to keep telling you? Gives it more spin and there is better direction to the momentum of the ball!"
"Calm down, ahjusshi," Baekhyun complains, as he fits slender fingers into the holes of the black bowling ball. "You are always such a nerd about this shit. It's just a game, not science or the Olympics."
"Physics is part and parcel of any sport," Chanyeol grumbles back, but he doesn't press on, aware that when he's annoyed, Baekhyun tends to do exactly what he's told not to do.
Exactly as he feared, Baekhyun gets a dismal number of another three pins down with ball two in his second frame. He has the indecency not to look highly put out about it like Chanyeol is currently feeling either.
Jongdae cackles. He's busy chatting it up with Liyin, his girlfriend and a foreign student who joined their batch in Grade 2.
"Have you seen this guy," Chanyeol tells Jongdae, while glaring at an unaffected Baekhyun who has the audacity to cheer Soojung loudly on as she gets into her bowling stance. "He has no shame. Now he's hitting on Soojung."
"That's just like you and Kyungsoo," Jongdae says.
He gets a smack upside his head from an irritable Chanyeol for that one.
🎳
Chanyeol scowls at his screen. The total score blinks back at him in bright red, an offensive 290.
Meanwhile Kyungsoo's score is a perfect 300.
"This is terrible and none of you care about our reputation really," Chanyeol rants at them. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo advances towards him with the bowling ball Team DO used for their frames.
"Good game," Kyungsoo says, and he's grinning. "As expected, I won this round."
"Yeah well, there is always next week," Chanyeol says, making a face at him.
"Or," Kyungsoo's eyes have a glint in them. "You could stay back and bowl with me."
"What happened to weekend coaching," Chanyeol asks, in a mocking tone.
"Turned out beating you is so much more entertaining and I got an extra hour to spare for you," Kyungsoo says simply.
Baekhyun and Jongdae give Chanyeol a ton of salacious winks as they both toe off their bowling shoes and slip back into their sneakers.
Chanyeol turns a bright red.
"Have fun," Baekhyun says.
"Practice safe sex," Jongdae adds.
"Shut up," Chanyeol grouses weakly at them.
🎳
They end up doing a whole set of ten frames again, just the two of them. Chanyeol is positively sweating. However, the adrenaline high he's getting off of this challenge is far too intense for him to care about the fact that his phone in his pocket is buzzing with text notifications from his irritated mother wanting to know why he isn't back at home with his head bent over his textbooks.
"Did you finish cramming everything for Math," Kyungsoo asks after their third frame. He's managed to get perfect strikes on everything and he's looking extremely winded for breath.
Chanyeol sends his ball flying down the lane in the side hook motion he's practiced to get down perfect over the past four years. He debates on whether he should give Kyungsoo an evasive answer like what most of the competitive class toppers give each other.
"Oh, not really." "There's so much to finish and I'm only done about ten percent of the exam prep." "Ugh, I'm going to fail everything."
Those are some of the answers he could give. But his fingers are starting to ache and oh, what the hell, this was a strike. He got all ten pins down. He's feeling like honesty is also an option.
"Yeah," Chanyeol says shortly. "I'm done reviewing all of it for the second time too."
Kyungsoo whistles in appreciation. "Nice. I've done that with all the Science workbooks."
"Huh," Chanyeol says. He chances a look at Kyungsoo. For once, the other boy isn't wearing a smug smile or smirk. He isn't wearing his other default expression which is often a delightful mixture of affront and exasperation whenever he has to deal with Chanyeol.
So Chanyeol offers Kyungsoo a tentative smile in return.
And Kyungsoo smiles back at Chanyeol.
🎳
"You're not so annoying, Park."
"You're not so ... short like Baekhyun."
Kyungsoo slugs him for that but there's a huge goofy smile on his face and Chanyeol cannot deny how he's helplessly entranced by it.
Since last year, after an experimental kiss with Baekhyun, Chanyeol has come to terms with his sexuality. He's never been like Baekhyun either. While Baekhyun seemed to think it was fun, and surely enough the awkward one-time sex they'd had produced good orgasms. Orgasms were fun.
But Chanyeol hadn't been able to stop questioning himself after that. He'd never really crushed on any of the girls, talked wistfully about how pretty any of them were and daydreamed about making out with one like Baekhyun constantly did.
Boys on the other hand. Chanyeol couldn't stop staring at them.
Instead of going home to cram like the studious kids that they are, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo end up at a dak galbi joint, chattering nonstop.
Chanyeol asked for his dish to be prepared with extra gochujang. Kyungsoo is looking at him gobble down his chicken with wide eyes.
"That probably tastes like fire in your mouth," he says, sounding doubtful.
Chanyeol laughs at him.
"Yeah, yeah, it really is," he says, flashing Kyungsoo a wide grin. "But in my opinion, the spicier the better really. I think it just tastes so good."
He gulps when Kyungsoo looks at him and shakes his head. The gesture is soft, soft and fond. Not like anything to do with this intense bowling-and-grades rivalry they've had going on for the past three years really.
"What do you want to do?"
"Like .... what program I'm going to apply for in university?"
"Yeah," Kyungsoo says quietly. "My father wants me to become an engineer."
"That sounds like a good fit for you," Chanyeol muses. "If-if you want it." He hastily amends. "My parents don't really care as long as I manage to get into any SKY university. My sister is a Yonsei graduate. So there's all this pressure for me to follow through. So many expectations."
"Ohhh," Kyungsoo manages to say, through a mouthful of chicken. His cheeks bulge out with all the meat in his mouth and for a fleeting instant all Chanyeol can manage to coherently summon in his head is cute.
Ugh.
"Yeah, I do want it," Kyungsoo says thoughtfully after he's swallowed. "I think it would be fun."
"Yeah," Chanyeol says, with a nod. "When do you think you'll enlist?"
Kyungsoo's shoulders sag at that. "I have no idea," he admits, with a heavy sigh. "I could get it out of the way after first year at college is done. That's what my father did. But I don't know. I'm the kind of guy who'd want to get it out of the way as soon as possible. What about you?"
"I might push it off," Chanyeol admits. "I want to become a teacher. So I want to teach for a few years and then enlist."
"Wow, you really have it all planned out, don't you?" Kyungsoo says admiringly. Chanyeol blushes, and ducks his head. He concentrates on shoveling more spicy chicken into his mouth.
"I guess I do," he mumbles.
"I envy you sometimes," Kyungsoo says suddenly, and that makes Chanyeol start.
"Why?"
"I don't know," Kyungsoo muses. "You seem to have it all sorted out."
"Funny that," Chanyeol says, with a wry smile. "I envied you for the exact same thing too."
They share a look of understanding, and in that moment, Chanyeol wonders if Kyungsoo can hear the sound of his heart rapidly pounding in his chest.
🎳
That had been the first and last time they had a meaningful conversation. In December, their entrance exam results were out, and both of them were back to being competitive albeit now it was slightly more playful.
Tyrant put up the results on a huge chart in their classroom like the asshole he was.
Kyungsoo beat Chanyeol with better grades in all the subjects.
Chanyeol ended up not attending school for the next two days, far too ashamed to even show his face. Anyway, school didn't matter anymore even though they still had to attend. The entrance exams were over. His grades were excellent, enough to get him into Yonsei like his brilliant sister really, but he hadn't beat Kyungsoo.
Try as he might, Chanyeol was petty like that and couldn't let bygones be bygones. He couldn't be happy for Kyungsoo on that account.
🎳
November 2019
Like Baekhyun said, there had always been that.
Chanyeol is nervous. He checked into a hostel for the weekend in Seoul a couple hours earlier and showered. He's dressed nicely for the occasion - a fitted black shirt with his sleeves rolled up and tight black skinnies. He took great care with his hair, despairing over it in the mirror provided in his room, finally deciding to let his bangs hang in his eyes.
Additionally, he feels stupid and conscious for trying so hard to look good. Anyway.
Pierrot Strike is filled to the brim with foreigners when Chanyeol gets in. The bowling lanes are all illuminated in blue and like all the times he's stopped by whenever he's in Gangnam, the electro music is loud. Headache-inducing.
He's getting old.
Chanyeol meets the rest of the Bowling Club ex-members near the furthermost bowling lane from the bar.
"Prime spot," Baekhyun jokes, pulling Chanyeol into a rib-crushing hug. He's dressed in a flashy pink shirt and green jeans.
"I have two questions for you. Why are you still so short and also why are you still dressing like a teenager," Chanyeol returns, and his good reflexes help him avoid Baekhyun elbowing him in the gut.
"Shut up, Chanyeol! This guy is seriously still such an asshole-"
"Are you dissing me too," Kyungsoo pipes up, and Chanyeol's heart seems to land up in his gut at the sound of his voice. Still handsome and that red shirt shows off his pecs, a treacherous small part of his brain whispers.
"Kyungsoo," Chanyeol says stupidly.
Kyungsoo smiles at him, clearly amused.
"Chanyeol," he says.
They shake hands in a most awkward handshake (made awkward by Baekhyun's insufferable knowing look) and Chanyeol hopes his palm doesn't feel too clammy. After all, it's not like he's been extremely nervous about this reunion. No, not at all.
"Why are you still so tall," Jongdae complains, but the silly grin on his face as he pulls Chanyeol into a one-armed hug is full of warmth. "And now you really are like a beanstalk. What's up, man, how have you been."
"Good, good. Are you still with Liyin or am I hopelessly out of the loop?"
"No, no, my god man, that was high school. Now I'm sexy, free and single." It's occupied with a sleazy wink and Chanyeol pretends to look horrified.
"Spare me, please, you are only two of those things."
"Hey now!"
Jongin and Soojung pull him into a hug together, and Chanyeol's shrewd eyes catch the matching bands on both their ring fingers.
"Got married last June," Jongin says. "Her parents wanted to do the most ridiculous traditional wedding shoot at Jeju, can you believe that?"
"By that, he means he was a miser and sucker who listened to them while crying about his wallet," Soojung quips, and Jongin pouts.
Chanyeol laughs. "It's good to see Soojung is still running the show here."
"Of course she is, I just do whatever she says," Jongin jokes. Nevertheless, there is truth in those words for Soojung preens and within the next minute, Jongin is already obediently scuttling off to the bar to buy his wife another drink.
Chanyeol takes a deep breath. He can feel Kyungsoo's eyes burning into his back as he bends over to toe off his sneakers.
So far, the evening seems to have started off well. Maybe it won't be as stressful as he thought.
🎳
Kyungsoo meets him at the bar when they're both done their ten frames, corners him when Chanyeol is ordering himself a drink.
"How have you been?"
Chanyeol nearly drops his drink, caught unaware because Kyungsoo is right behind him.
"Hey," he says softly. "Yeah, I've been okay."
Kyungsoo wets his lips. Chanyeol fights hard not to stare at his mouth (it's always been so ... sensual and full) like a besotted fool. God, it's been years and he's still reacting the same way.
"Baekhyun tells me you're teaching now in Namhae," Kyungsoo says.
"Yeah," Chanyeol says jerkily. "I wanted a change of pace." He wonders why he feels the need to be so damn defensive about his decision to relocate to Gyeongnam province. Probably because the move itself is so unusual. Not many new teachers decide to move out of Gangwon province and teach all the way down south in the country. He’s well aware that while it’s a choice, it’s always going to be considered one that is far too bold.
“Why not Busan then?” Kyungsoo asks, intrigued. “Changwon even.”
“I did consider it,” Chanyeol says slowly. “But it seemed far too competitive.
That manages to make Kyungsoo laugh. Hell, even Chanyeol joins in. He’s well aware it sounds rich coming from him of all people.
“You … went to Namhae … to avoid competitive work environments?” Kyungsoo says, with complete incredulity painted on his face. “Pardon me for saying this but wow. You have really changed a lot.”
Chanyeol tips his glass at Kyungsoo and smiles, feeling extremely awkward. He takes a sip of his Jack and coke. “I guess I have changed then,” he cedes.
“Come now, you never considered any major city then,” Kyungsoo presses. He is very much amused. “Not even Jinju?”
“Not even Jinju,” Chanyeol confirms, with a sheepish grin. “Too many conservative teachers in their system.”
Kyungsoo snorts. “As if you would be better off in Namhae then.”
“I just wanted a clean start, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol says quietly. “I just wanted to work somewhere peaceful and quiet.” His vulnerability must be showing for the amused look on Kyungsoo’s face softens.
“Sorry,” he apologizes. “I just found it so fascinating.”
“It’s nice to be found fascinating,” Chanyeol says, tone deliberately playful and light. “What about you?”
“Civil engineer, Wonju,” Kyungsoo says wryly. “Got the job right after I graduated. I’m predictable.”
“Ah,” Chanyeol says. He tracks the bobbing movement of Kyungsoo’s adam’s apple as he takes a sip from his can of imported beer far too keenly for his own liking. “Being predictable is not so bad if you’re enjoying your life.”
“Trust me, I am not enjoying my life,” Kyungsoo says, rolling his eyes. “Then again …. who is at our age?”
“You have a point.”
“So. How is it like teaching kids in Namhae?”
“It seriously felt like hearing another different language, I have to tell you,” Chanyeol says earnestly. “Totally different! I was dying in the beginning because I couldn’t understand their Korean. But now I’m okay.”
“Ohhh, that’s good to hear,” Kyungsoo says. Once again, he’s got that look in his eyes, a fond look. “You’re such a hard worker. But you sound really happy.”
“It feels like I’ve gone back to school. Of course the principal picked the new teacher to have homeroom duties,” Chanyeol says. He can’t stop smiling now, glowing from Kyungsoo’s praise. Back in high school, they barely exchanged words with each other save for mean quips exchanged in plentiful abandon.
“Looks like that hasn’t been a problem for you.” Kyungsoo proceeds to give Chanyeol a blatant onceover, and Chanyeol thinks his cheeks are on fire from such bold appraisal of his person. He’d have thought Kyungsoo would be shy in the matters of flirting and seduction.
Maybe Kyungsoo knows that when it’s Chanyeol, he’s practically got Chanyeol eagerly lapping the palm of his hand.
Maybe that’s why he is so confident.
🎳
Soojung is in Jongin’s lap and they are making out. Baekhyun whistled at them and made a few jokes. Now however, he is a tired drunk with his head flopped on Chanyeol’s left shoulder, and his right serving as a (bony) pillow for Kyungsoo. Chanyeol is also drunk and tired, feeling like he is in an American sitcom of sorts when a cackling Jongdae takes a picture of them and then collapses on the floor shortly thereafter.
Kyungsoo is holding his hand. He is also doing a thing that is making Chanyeol feel aroused and sleepy at the same time, rubbing his thumb repeatedly over the inside of Chanyeol’s wrist.
“You weren’t at school when they announced the results.” Kyungsoo’s voice is softly reproachful, tinged with hurt.
Chanyeol bites his lip. He’s spent years feeling like an ass about that.
“I was jealous,” he admits.
“Thought we were friends,” Kyungsoo says. “Did you know that all I ever wanted back then was to be your friend, Park?” He laughs, and it is so wistful, Chanyeol thinks he’s been turned inside out from the intensity of what he’s feeling at the moment.
“Yeah?” His own voice is thick. His tongue feels like it’s turned to cotton. He wants to press his lips to the top of Kyungsoo’s head. He wants to just hold Kyungsoo.
“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. He burrows further into Chanyeol’s side.
“This flirting makes me feel very sick,” Baekhyun moans from Chanyeol’s other side. “I might throw up on your lap, Chanyeol. Right on top of your fucking boner, man. What the fuck.”
“Shut up, Baekhyun!”
However, it’s far too late. Kyungsoo gets a good look at Chanyeol’s boner and he pulls away instantly.
“I …. I got to go,” Kyungsoo says. His cheeks are dusted with pink.
Chanyeol stares at him. The embarrassment he is currently feeling is beyond description. “Uhm. Okay.”
He pushes Baekhyun’s head off of his shoulder once Kyungsoo has made his hasty exit.
“Ow,” Baekhyun whines. He looks very much like a wounded puppy. Far too cute for Chanyeol to be properly mad at him.
“What did you just do? We were having a Proper Conversation.”
“You mean, he was going around in circles,” Baekhyun deadpans. “And you were happily going around in circles with him like you were both on a fucking carousel. Is that how you flirt anyway? That is embarrassing, man. You need help.”
Then Baekhyun proceeds to throw up right on top of Chanyeol’s boner.
🎳
December 2019
The Gyeongnam Province school board sends Chanyeol the most ridiculous paperwork to fill out. Currently, he is in the middle of typing up a very tedious report they need filled out about the temporary teachers who came to invigilate the Grade 3 students during the entrance exam period. His eyes are bloodshot, and his hand constantly reaches for the huge mug of coffee sitting on his desk.
In the chair next to him sits Joonmyun with his baby. Her name is Joonmi and she is currently making some very inconsolable sounds.
“She’s more her mother’s child than mine,” Joonmyun informs Chanyeol, looking forlorn.
“Uh huh.”
How Joonmyun managed to bring his baby to work is beyond Chanyeol’s ability to understand in the first place but he offers Joonmyun a very carefully neutral smile and goes back to hunching over his desktop. All day, Joonmyun’s Grade 2 English students have been cooing at Joonmi like she’s a local celebrity of sorts. For once, they’re not on Naver, searching up news on their favourite idols so Chanyeol figures Joonmi is a classroom management tactic.
He wouldn’t put it past Joonmyun to use his own newborn child for that purpose.
“Can you hold Joonmi? I have to get her bottle out,” Joonmyun says very seriously.
“I-”
Chanyeol finds himself with a lapful of happy gurgling baby. Joonmi’s fingers curl around Chanyeol’s index finger very resolutely and she looks up to flash him with a toothless smile. He does his best not to grimace when she leaves a trail of saliva all over the sleeve of his preppy grey sweater.
“Oh my, don’t you two look cute together!” Joonmyun exclaims. He fishes out his phone, bottle of formula completely forgotten. “Would you like a picture with Joonmi?”
Chanyeol suspects Joonmyun isn’t really giving him any choice in the matter. “Uh alright.”
🎳
Chanyeol ends up posting the picture of a drooling happy Joonmi in his lap on his Facebook. He figures, why not. He looks cute and well, so does the baby. Baekhyun likes it almost immediately and adds a snarky who’s the other dadㅋㅋㅋㅋ comment. When Chanyeol wakes up next morning, he’s disconcerted to find that among the thirty people who liked his picture, one of them was Do Kyungsoo.
Ugh, that man. Most puzzling person ever.
🎳
Creeping up close to his classroom window, Chanyeol narrows his eyes at the sight of one of his students, Oh Sehun, smoking in the school premises. That kid has been a thorn in his side, showing no interest in his exams all these months and skipping classes regularly. A couple of his female students excitedly told him the kid is an ulzzang and everyone always likes his pictures.
Somehow, surprisingly so, Sehun ended up getting one of the highest exam scores in his homeroom class.
Chanyeol raps his knuckles against the window. That doesn’t seem to work. He slides the window open and yells: “YAH, OH SEHUN!”
The kid jumps up high in the air and so does his weird blond bob of hair. He hastily drops his cigarette and stubs it out.
Shaking his head in amusement, Chanyeol slides the window back shut, chuckling to himself.
🎳
It feels good to be done with the entrance exams. The next challenge is to keeping his students focused on school when their work doesn’t count anymore. Chanyeol locks down his classroom at 7 PM and hums cheerily to himself. No heavy briefcase to haul all the way to his car in the school parking lot.
He’s stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of Kyungsoo leaning against his car, holding a white packet in his hands and looking most uncharacteristically nervous.
“Uhm.”
“Hello?” Kyungsoo offers. Tentatively. When Chanyeol doesn’t respond, still dumbstruck, he tries again.
“What,” Chanyeol says, with a sharp exhale when he’s managed to find his voice again. There is a huge lump of emotion stuck in his throat and it won’t go up or down. “What on earth are you doing in Namhae, Do Kyungsoo?”
Kyungsoo shrugs. He looks a little too good in his fitted white shirt and beige slacks. Chanyeol swallows hard. He must be dreaming.
“Back in Seoul,” Kyungsoo starts, all jerky-like. “I believe I made a very quick getaway.”
Chanyeol raises his brows. “You sure did exactly that.” He notices Kyungsoo flinch at the evident bitterness in his voice but he waits for Kyungsoo to explain. Chanyeol figures he is entitled to that much.
“I panicked,” Kyungsoo says in a rush. “Look Chanyeol, I don’t have any good reason for why I bailed like that. Baekhyun was just being so …. direct, and I wasn’t ready to …. admit it to myself back then just yet.”
“Admit what,” Chanyeol murmurs. He’s closed the distance between them. This is hardly the time or place however for what Kyungsoo is doing.
Kyungsoo himself seems to realize that for his eyes dart around nervously.
“We should get out of here, Chanyeol,” he says softly. “I … uhm. I rented out a seaside villa for the week.”
Chanyeol’s eyes widen in shock. “You did what?”
“I’m here for a week,” Kyungsoo wrings his hands together. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know if you would be mad at me but I was determined to apologize no matter what it took and here-” he thrusts the package in Chanyeol’s hands. “It’s dak galbi from Chuncheon. Extra spicy.” He looks up, his expression a mixture of fondness and desperation.
Chanyeol laughs out loud when his stomach decides to make its presence known with an embarrassingly loud rumble.
He can’t lie. This is a pretty good peace offering. Not to mention, Kyungsoo looks all sorts of cute and flustered and worried it’s almost endearing and Chanyeol thinks he’s falling for Kyungsoo all over again.
“Okay,” Chanyeol concedes. “Let’s go to your villa and eat. I cannot lie to you. I’m so hungry I might collapse any moment soon.”
🎳
The first thing Kyungsoo does once the door shuts behind them is pin Chanyeol up against it and presses his lips firmly against Chanyeol’s.
Gasping, Chanyeol goes pliant and boneless in Kyungsoo’s hold. He bends his head down, clutching onto Kyungsoo’s slender shoulders for dear life as Kyungsoo holds his waist firmly. When they part, Chanyeol is a dazed, trembling mess in Kyungsoo’s hold.
Kyungsoo licks his lips, eyes dark and filled with immense satisfaction.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for ages now,” Kyungsoo admits.
“Yeah?” Chanyeol asks thickly.
“Mm hmm,” Kyungsoo affirms, a lazy smile curving the tips of his full mouth upwards. “I wanted to pin you up and kiss you so much in high school. I’m sorry I never did that.”
Chanyeol sighs. “You have got to stop throwing curveballs at me, Do Kyungsoo. Tell me why you ran away that night and made me feel like such an overeager fool.”
“I just panicked,” Kyungsoo mumbles. “It’s you. I just. That wasn’t the right time for me. I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have just left. I just couldn’t admit it to myself, you know.”
“Admit what?” Chanyeol timidly asks once again. His heart is hammering in his chest and honestly, can it stop doing that? Kyungsoo is well on his way to effectively giving Chanyeol heart failure one of these days.
“I think I might be in love with you, Park Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo confesses. The smile on his face is sweet, reaching the very crinkles of his eyes. “No, I don’t think so. I know so.”
Chanyeol sags against the door frame.
“Did that seriously just take you seven years to tell me?”
“If I’d waited for you to say it, we would have had to wait till after army service,” Kyungsoo retorts. “At least, I said it now. That too …. I had to beg Baekhyun to organize that reunion. Imagine another five years of quietly liking each other’s Facebook pictures and pining silently.”
Chanyeol pouts at him. He rests his long, skinny arms on Kyungsoo’s shoulders, beaming down at Kyungsoo.
“You should make it up to me, you know,” he starts, with a huge grin on his face.
Kyungsoo’s hands move from the small of Chanyeol’s back to splay firmly against his butt, suggestive.
“Oh trust me, I definitely plan on it.”
🎳
Final author's note:
grade 3 of high school in korea is grade 12
dak galbi is a chuncheon specialty dish :)
some of the places in this story are fictional and some are not :)))