[fanfiction] 1+1=3; chapter 05
Title: 1+1=3
Group: U-Kiss
Pairing: Shin Soohyun/Shin Dongho
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Yet another high school AU.
Summary: Shin Soohyun thought working temporarily as a teacher in a high school would be a peaceful, relaxed experience. Clearly, he was oblivious to a number of possibilities.
N/A: I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY THIS IS SO BIG, OH GOD. Also, didn't this come so unexpectedly fast? LOL I really should just go study. And yes, I finally twisted someone's age, whatever.
chapter one; chapter two; chapter three; chapter four;
Chapter five
He’d thought life would go back to normal after ending things - for lack of a better term - with Dongho. It'd seemed like all the things would be exactly like before their bump into each other and he’d just be another teacher and Dongho would remain as just a student. Well, it wasn’t quite like that.
There weren’t any flirtatious glances during class or inappropriate smiles that made him blush vigorously anymore. While it was a relief and he felt much freer to pay attention to what he was saying, he realized, with some agony, that he missed them. He didn’t see the boy smile when he was around anymore and their eyes didn’t meet. Except at that time, that time in which Dongho looked up from his notebook and caught Soohyun gazing at him. He wanted to look away but couldn’t and then, somewhere inside him, he believed Dongho understood why he had said and done all those things. However, after a moment a frown grew on Dongho’s face, a very particular frown of distaste and he directed his eyes back to his notebook.
But it wasn’t like the boy wasn’t ok, Soohyun thought. There were a couple of times in which he’d spotted him with a third year kid, arms intertwined or side hugs, all smiles and deliberately cute gestures and Soohyun decided he didn’t like it. The boy, Lee Kiseop or anything of the like, was a student all the teachers complimented, he had heard about him so many times it made him unusually sick - great grades, attentive and helpful at classes, spectacular in sports and, Soohyun observed with bitterness, notably good looking and still a student, unlike himself. Every time Dongho tugged at his arm on the hallways, he admired Kiseop’s figure a little less.
He pretended he didn’t care, though, and just kept on with his life.
“Why have you been so down these days?” Kevin asked when he visited them at the apartment on a Saturday. He was failing in an attempt to cook something, only being somewhat saved by Soohyun’s guidance, who just grabbed the spoon and took over. Eli and Alexander had gone out to buy something to drink.
“What? I’m not down,” he forced a smile and added the carrots they had sliced before. Kevin stayed silent and only handed him the other ingredients.
“Like, it’s ok if you don’t feel comfortable to talk to me about it, but don’t just lie to me, hyung,” he said quietly after some seconds with an unchanging expression that made Soohyun feel bum. “I can tell when someone’s not fine,” he completed as he finished pouring the sauce into to the bowl.
“Look, it’s not that I don’t want to talk to you about it, it’s just that I don’t want to talk about it at all,” he eyed Kevin warily and tried to make sure the other knew he was being sincere. He seemed to believe Soohyun and just smiled sympathetically.
They kept working on the lunch until a grin formed on Kevin’s face and he looked at the man brightly.
“You know what? Why don’t you come with us to the club tonight?” he prompted with shiny eyes and Soohyun already thought it was a bad idea. “I mean, why not? You don’t have work tomorrow and it’ll be your chance to know the place!”
Soohyun was not as excited about it and tried to talk himself out of it while he still could, but Kevin turned out to be quite insistent once he had something popped into his head.
“I don’t think I’m in the mood to party right now-”
“You don’t have to party, just go somewhere that’s not here or work,” Kevin rolled his eyes at him and stomped a foot to the floor. “Because that is obviously where your problems rest, since all you do is spend time there.”
He was about to retort when the door’s lock thankfully clicked and Eli and Alexander headed in with a bag. The latter had an air of mockery, pausing very seriously in the middle of the living room, where he could be watched by the cooking duo, and called their attention.
“Eli has a girlfriend,” he then singsong-ed childishly, bouncing happily to the kitchen and clapping his hands as Eli placed the bag on the counter with a roll of eyes. Kevin gave a surprised raise of eyebrows and Soohyun frowned at his former college mate.
“Explain the words that leave your mouth, Alexander Eusebio,” Kevin demanded, looking at Eli with wide eyes and the latter just sighed, raising his hands as to say he, too, didn’t understand. Alexander’s eyes glinted before he turned around and walked in a rather showy way to the boy by the counter.
“You know, we were on the convenience store, minding our own business,” he narrated, eyes teasingly directed to Eli, who sighed again. “Then we went pay for the sodas and all and at the counter was this very pretty girl. When she gave Eli the change, it came along with her phone number and a very meaningful wink,” he giggled, poking Eli’s cheeks. The others laughed, questioningly eyeing Eli, who still was very silent.
“He’s exaggerating,” he said in his defense but Alexander reached for a piece of paper in his back pocket and flashed it between two of his fingers, shooting Eli a knowing look.
Kevin took the note from Alexander’s hands and inspected it before turning his eyes to Eli. “So, will you call her?”
Getting flustered, Eli looked away. “No, I don’t even know her!”
Alexander opened the pudding glass he’d bought in the store for himself and looked at Eli through the corner of his eyes with a rather unreadable expression. “I think you should,” he said, mouthing a spoonful of the strawberry desert. “She was very good looking and also a lot cute.”
Eli looked at him with disbelief, as if he’d just been slapped across the face. Kevin turned around and went back to the oven, gesturing for an unknowing Soohyun to do the same, which he did, a little startled. Alexander pretended Eli wasn’t directing a skeptical stare at him at all and just hummed while eating his pudding.
“I-” Eli started, but swallowed his words, smiling in a clearly fake manner. “You’re right, hyung” he replied and grabbing the piece of paper Kevin had left on the counter. “Maybe I should,” he said before going over to the fridge and organize the bottles of soda in the last row inside it.
“Good,” Alexander said, a little too loudly. When Eli closed the fridge with unnecessary force and walked past him to his bedroom, he raised his voice, “ask her if she has any cute friends, ok?” and the door closed with a bang.
Soohyun didn’t look up from the bowl before him, only slightly glancing at Kevin, who was just as uncomfortable as he was. He wanted to ask what the hell that had been just then, but Alexander seemed to have pretty much forgotten it and asked them if it would take long to finish cooking.
“No, I guess we’ll be done quite soon,” Kevin replied before turning around with a bright smile. “I was telling hyung he should come over to work with us today.”
Before Soohyun could even manifest his disapproval, Alexander beamed and went to stand right beside him. “Oh! Yes, you should! It’ll be so much fun having you there,” he chirped and put a hand around Soohyun’s arm.
“Well, actually-” he tried but was interrupted by Alexander, who had put his head over his shoulder and looked up adorably at him through his eyelashes. Soohyun stayed voiceless, not quite sure of how he could tell Alexander down.
“We’re begging you,” Kevin joined the pleading, claiming the other shoulder, tugging at his arm for emphasis. After being pulled from one side to the other, he closed his eyes and finally agreed, wanting them to step away from the oven and leave him alone at once. They high fived idiotically over success and moved back to the counter, making Soohyun regret his decision already.
*
To say the very least, Soohyun was uncomfortable.
The club was normal. Well, it was fancy and stuff, very stylish with fashionable uniforms for the staff and all that, but it was just as nice as other clubs. It had some tall tables for few people as most of the clients kept standing on the dancing floor. There was quite a number of bartenders, a lot of them foreigners, but no waiters, since waiting tables in such an environment proved to be a very hard task.
He leaned awkwardly against the counter where Alexander was working on a drink for a guy that was urging him to go faster. He looked unpleasantly at Soohyun, who was beginning to get sick of his rudeness and just wished Alexander would be quick so he’d be gone as soon as possible.
“Are you just going to stand like that the entire night?”
He looked back and saw Alexander giggling at him. He made a face.
“I told you I’m not good with this sort of thing,” he got defensive and Alexander rolled his eyes.
“Go mingle, try to find someone pretty to flirt with,” he said with a very mocking catcall and Soohyun wished his friend would get himself some maturity eventually. He just put some money on the counter and asked for a drink.
“I notice you want me gone,” he said with a pout as Alexander hurried to get it done and the latter laughed.
“Just because you don’t want to play around, that doesn’t mean I don’t,” he wiggled one eyebrow at him and Soohyun vaguely thought it had something to do with the scene he and Eli had put on earlier. By the way, they hadn’t spoken ever since Eli closed that door and Soohyun wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out what that was about.
Alexander handed him the glass and made a hand gesture for him to get moving. He went because clearly the boy was no company to keep at the moment. Finding a vacant table, he sat on one of the chairs and looked, completely bored at the people dancing just a few meters away from him. That was exactly why he was so hesitant when Kevin asked him to come - he was awful at situations like that. He didn’t know how to act, where to place his hands, how not to be extremely uncomfortable.
He sipped on his drink when someone called for his attention.
“Hey,” said a female voice and he looked up to see a stunning girl smiling at him, brushing her black bangs off of her forehead. “Can I sit here with you? I think I just broke my high heel.”
“Sure,” he answered and she took the chair before him. They just stayed like that, as Soohyun couldn’t bring himself to think of anything to say. She laughed after some seconds.
“That was a lie, my shoe’s not broken. I thought you are cute and came here to talk to you,” she explained straight forwardly, leaning slightly onto the table. “Should I leave?”
Eyeing her with some surprise, he half smiled and said she could stay. She easily led the conversation, asking him what was his name and what he did and those usual things. When he informed her he was currently working as a substitute teacher, she was taken aback.
“Like, with teenagers?” she grimaced. He confirmed. “Oh, isn’t that tiring? I mean, when I was a teen I was hell, and my friends were worse, to be honest.”
He laughed and nodded. “Well, there are some good things about it, I guess.” He wasn’t thinking about pretty school boys hitting on their teachers. Of course not. “But, like, I’ve been saying all these things and you didn’t even tell me your name.”
She batted her eyelashes and put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, that’s right,” she straightened her back and raised a hand to him. “I’m Baek Hyeongmi, and you?”
“Shin Soohyun,” he shook her hand and they laughed for no apparent reason. She was a senior student of Fashion and was planning to leave the next year to London to work more properly on her career. Soohyun asked her if she was good at English.
“About as fluent as a third grader,” Hyeongmi admitted with a sad face, “but I can totally go around that. If I have to learn something, then I’ll just go ahead and do it, you know?”
Soohyun nodded once again. She was very easy going and talkative, which gave him a lot more space to do the best he was willing to do that day - agree and give occasional comments. After what it felt like minutes, Hyeongmi excused herself to the restroom and he was left alone for the moment being. He glanced at the spot on the counter where Alexander was and noticed he was also talking to a girl while working and rolled his eyes. There was no way that would end well for the sole reason he was an utter failure when it came to girls.
His attention got slowly drained back to the people dancing or just standing on the dance floor, since it was the only place where there was actually something going on. Although it was somewhat boring, just being randomly in the middle of people you don’t even know. He eyed the unknown faces, going from girls that seemed too young to even be there to old guys that looked entirely out of place. He spotted a very particular thing, though. Squinting, he noticed the red hair.
It couldn’t be.
Waiting for the person to turn around, his face fell when he got his confirmation - it was, indeed, Dongho, with another boy from his class, just as reckless as himself, from what Soohyun had observed. They laughed at each other and he could see there was this man trying to rub himself on Dongho, who seemed not to notice or care. When he looked at his direction, Soohyun tried to hide, tried to pretend he hadn’t seen a thing and was just living his life.
However, he realized Dongho was actually coming over, closer and closer, making his way through the crowd and Soohyun looked straight into him. There weren’t any frowns that time, just a very sly, very likely smile on Dongho’s lips. He swallowed drily, panicking because there was no way they could be seen together at that place.
Just when the boy was about to leave the mass of people around him, Hyeongmi came back, sitting beside him this time, a fresh smile on her lips. He looked over to Dongho, who stopped on his tracks and glared at her, suspecting.
“I thought my lip gloss had worn off,” she confessed, closer to his face and rolled her eyes at herself. “I’ve got to stop obsessing over what I look like.”
He half smiled and noticed Dongho’s confidence starting to fall apart and got relieved. Just to make sure, he took one of her hands into his in a way he knew Dongho could see, receiving a surprised glance from her, to which he just shrugged with a curve of lips.
“You look great in anyway, in my opinion,” he said and she smiled contently but his target was actually now slowly being pushed back by the moving bodies that bumped into him, frustration all over his face.
Soohyun tried to pay attention to Hyeongmi, the pretty girl before him that shared of a lot of his interests, even being so different from himself, and was available and the same age as him, but all his mind could focus on was Dongho, who he had once again disappointed in a matter of days, and that man he’d seen lusting after the boy and he looked back to the crowd, eager to spot him again.
After some seconds he saw the red hair and thanked inwardly the kid had such an individual sense of fashion. He was around that man again, that man who was currently talking right next to his ear, two glasses in his hands, one of the being pressed against Dongho’s arm. Flashes of Kevin’s narration and that doctor’s words came rushing to his mind, that guy could hurt Dongho and there he was, just buying whatever small talk he was pushing to him, about to be victimized.
He watched on the edge of his seat, begging the kid not to take it in his thoughts. When Dongho grabbed the glass, smiling lustily, he involuntarily stood up, not even noticing Hyeongmi was in the middle of a sentence when he pushed his way through the crowd, not even bothering to apologize. He took firm hold of Dongho’s wrist, yanking it downwards along with the glass, a rush of relief running his body when it cracked on the floor.
“What are you doing?” Dongho shrieked and there was something clearly wrong with him, about the way he spoke and looked.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” he yelled at him over the music, receiving an indignant stare but still not letting go of the wrist. “Do you even know this guy? He could be trying to hurt you, you idiot!”
“What makes you so much better than him, then?” he retorted and Soohyun couldn’t really find an answer to that.
“Hey,” and a hand projected itself on Soohyun’s shoulder, “I don’t think he needs your help, alright? He’s way too grown up already,” the man said behind him, trying to intimidate him. Soohyun snorted and grabbed his arm, twisting it in a way not even he knew he could muster.
“I think you should shut your mouth and just get going,” he snarled and the man wasn’t that much of a tough guy, immediately pulling his arm back and turning around, saying something about it not being worth it. Soohyun turned furious eyes to Dongho, who returned the look right back at him. He pulled the boy’s arm and led him to the staff restricted room from where he’d gotten in thanks to his friends.
Letting go of him, Soohyun closed the door and sighed to himself. When he turned around, Dongho was thrown to the floor, probably having lost his balance when Soohyun pushed him inside.
“Why are you so troublesome?” he asked more to himself than to the boy, who got back to his feet with some difficulty.
“Why do you have to be such a loser?” he snapped back, much calmer all of a sudden.
Soohyun paused and analyzed his posture, how he was fighting to stand straight and curved an eyebrow before taking hold of his jaw and bringing his mouth close to his face, not quite believing it when the distinct smell of alcohol invaded his nose.
“And on top of that you are drunk? Oh, My God,” he whispered.
Dongho smiled dreamily in his hands, fingers grasping his elbows. “I thought you were going to kiss me, songsaengnim,” he giggled and Soohyun blinked. But just a few seconds later, the grin turned into a pout, which acquired a mad aspect by a furrow of eyebrows. “But why would you kiss me, right? Afterall, I’m just a kid and you’re a dumbass,” he muttered and blindly hit Soohyun’s chest, freeing himself from the hold.
“I can’t believe you put yourself under danger just because of that,” he was about to give a lengthy lecture when Dongho stopped him.
“Just because of that?” he repeated incredulously before stopping to shake his head in confusion. “Wait, why do you act like you care? It’s not like you actually give a damn about me, go back to your old, tasteless bitch, she’s probably looking for you now,” he said in a groggy loud voice and tried to reach for the door. Soohyun had to hold his arms so he wouldn’t fall, not being able to walk and be mad at the same time in his current state. “Let go of me, I’m coming back!”
“Dongho, that man could have slipped something into that drink, something to make you unable to defend yourself if he tried to hurt you or molest you, can’t you just see it?” he was getting quite desperate at the other’s obliviousness, trying to keep him in place as he persisted in wiggling in an attempt of breaking free.
“Then he’s an idiot,” Dongho shouted, “because I would have gone willingly,” he said to Soohyun’s face, his features scrunching up in an weird sensation of pain. “You know why?” Soohyun just sighed and shook his head, not sure he wanted to listen to Dongho talking about himself like that. “Because there’s someone who wants me and likes the way I am. Even if you think you’re too good for me, too right for my taste, even if you don’t care, there are people who want me out there,” he shouted on the top of his lungs and there were tears all over his face by the time he stopped to catch his breath. Soohyun watched as he sobbed again and again, his chest twisting, almost making it hard to breathe because Dongho broke down right before his eyes because of him and he didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know if he should do something.
He wanted to say he cared, he cared and wished he could give him something, anything that was better than this but couldn’t, fuck, why didn’t Dongho see it was beyond his own power? As Dongho kept insulting him in all the forms his anesthetized mind could remember, he just wished he could say he was sorry and have all the pain the boy was experiencing gone for good. But his voice got stuck in his throat and he settled for putting his arms around the hysterical boy, firmly holding the waggling arms until he finally got tired and hoarse and completely broken.
Soohyun closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of Dongho’s head as the boy drenched his shirt with tears, still sobbing and hugging Soohyun back, so dearly, so depending. He drew patterns on the boy’s back with his fingers, waiting until it was all out.
“I don’t get it,” Dongho mumbled into his shoulder, already completely numb and with dry, bloodshot eyes, “why can’t we just be together?”
After some seconds, Soohyun raised his voice, and it came out low and hesitating.
“I don’t know either.”
Dongho tightened his hug slightly.
Group: U-Kiss
Pairing: Shin Soohyun/Shin Dongho
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Yet another high school AU.
Summary: Shin Soohyun thought working temporarily as a teacher in a high school would be a peaceful, relaxed experience. Clearly, he was oblivious to a number of possibilities.
N/A: I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY THIS IS SO BIG, OH GOD. Also, didn't this come so unexpectedly fast? LOL I really should just go study. And yes, I finally twisted someone's age, whatever.
chapter one; chapter two; chapter three; chapter four;
Chapter five
He’d thought life would go back to normal after ending things - for lack of a better term - with Dongho. It'd seemed like all the things would be exactly like before their bump into each other and he’d just be another teacher and Dongho would remain as just a student. Well, it wasn’t quite like that.
There weren’t any flirtatious glances during class or inappropriate smiles that made him blush vigorously anymore. While it was a relief and he felt much freer to pay attention to what he was saying, he realized, with some agony, that he missed them. He didn’t see the boy smile when he was around anymore and their eyes didn’t meet. Except at that time, that time in which Dongho looked up from his notebook and caught Soohyun gazing at him. He wanted to look away but couldn’t and then, somewhere inside him, he believed Dongho understood why he had said and done all those things. However, after a moment a frown grew on Dongho’s face, a very particular frown of distaste and he directed his eyes back to his notebook.
But it wasn’t like the boy wasn’t ok, Soohyun thought. There were a couple of times in which he’d spotted him with a third year kid, arms intertwined or side hugs, all smiles and deliberately cute gestures and Soohyun decided he didn’t like it. The boy, Lee Kiseop or anything of the like, was a student all the teachers complimented, he had heard about him so many times it made him unusually sick - great grades, attentive and helpful at classes, spectacular in sports and, Soohyun observed with bitterness, notably good looking and still a student, unlike himself. Every time Dongho tugged at his arm on the hallways, he admired Kiseop’s figure a little less.
He pretended he didn’t care, though, and just kept on with his life.
“Why have you been so down these days?” Kevin asked when he visited them at the apartment on a Saturday. He was failing in an attempt to cook something, only being somewhat saved by Soohyun’s guidance, who just grabbed the spoon and took over. Eli and Alexander had gone out to buy something to drink.
“What? I’m not down,” he forced a smile and added the carrots they had sliced before. Kevin stayed silent and only handed him the other ingredients.
“Like, it’s ok if you don’t feel comfortable to talk to me about it, but don’t just lie to me, hyung,” he said quietly after some seconds with an unchanging expression that made Soohyun feel bum. “I can tell when someone’s not fine,” he completed as he finished pouring the sauce into to the bowl.
“Look, it’s not that I don’t want to talk to you about it, it’s just that I don’t want to talk about it at all,” he eyed Kevin warily and tried to make sure the other knew he was being sincere. He seemed to believe Soohyun and just smiled sympathetically.
They kept working on the lunch until a grin formed on Kevin’s face and he looked at the man brightly.
“You know what? Why don’t you come with us to the club tonight?” he prompted with shiny eyes and Soohyun already thought it was a bad idea. “I mean, why not? You don’t have work tomorrow and it’ll be your chance to know the place!”
Soohyun was not as excited about it and tried to talk himself out of it while he still could, but Kevin turned out to be quite insistent once he had something popped into his head.
“I don’t think I’m in the mood to party right now-”
“You don’t have to party, just go somewhere that’s not here or work,” Kevin rolled his eyes at him and stomped a foot to the floor. “Because that is obviously where your problems rest, since all you do is spend time there.”
He was about to retort when the door’s lock thankfully clicked and Eli and Alexander headed in with a bag. The latter had an air of mockery, pausing very seriously in the middle of the living room, where he could be watched by the cooking duo, and called their attention.
“Eli has a girlfriend,” he then singsong-ed childishly, bouncing happily to the kitchen and clapping his hands as Eli placed the bag on the counter with a roll of eyes. Kevin gave a surprised raise of eyebrows and Soohyun frowned at his former college mate.
“Explain the words that leave your mouth, Alexander Eusebio,” Kevin demanded, looking at Eli with wide eyes and the latter just sighed, raising his hands as to say he, too, didn’t understand. Alexander’s eyes glinted before he turned around and walked in a rather showy way to the boy by the counter.
“You know, we were on the convenience store, minding our own business,” he narrated, eyes teasingly directed to Eli, who sighed again. “Then we went pay for the sodas and all and at the counter was this very pretty girl. When she gave Eli the change, it came along with her phone number and a very meaningful wink,” he giggled, poking Eli’s cheeks. The others laughed, questioningly eyeing Eli, who still was very silent.
“He’s exaggerating,” he said in his defense but Alexander reached for a piece of paper in his back pocket and flashed it between two of his fingers, shooting Eli a knowing look.
Kevin took the note from Alexander’s hands and inspected it before turning his eyes to Eli. “So, will you call her?”
Getting flustered, Eli looked away. “No, I don’t even know her!”
Alexander opened the pudding glass he’d bought in the store for himself and looked at Eli through the corner of his eyes with a rather unreadable expression. “I think you should,” he said, mouthing a spoonful of the strawberry desert. “She was very good looking and also a lot cute.”
Eli looked at him with disbelief, as if he’d just been slapped across the face. Kevin turned around and went back to the oven, gesturing for an unknowing Soohyun to do the same, which he did, a little startled. Alexander pretended Eli wasn’t directing a skeptical stare at him at all and just hummed while eating his pudding.
“I-” Eli started, but swallowed his words, smiling in a clearly fake manner. “You’re right, hyung” he replied and grabbing the piece of paper Kevin had left on the counter. “Maybe I should,” he said before going over to the fridge and organize the bottles of soda in the last row inside it.
“Good,” Alexander said, a little too loudly. When Eli closed the fridge with unnecessary force and walked past him to his bedroom, he raised his voice, “ask her if she has any cute friends, ok?” and the door closed with a bang.
Soohyun didn’t look up from the bowl before him, only slightly glancing at Kevin, who was just as uncomfortable as he was. He wanted to ask what the hell that had been just then, but Alexander seemed to have pretty much forgotten it and asked them if it would take long to finish cooking.
“No, I guess we’ll be done quite soon,” Kevin replied before turning around with a bright smile. “I was telling hyung he should come over to work with us today.”
Before Soohyun could even manifest his disapproval, Alexander beamed and went to stand right beside him. “Oh! Yes, you should! It’ll be so much fun having you there,” he chirped and put a hand around Soohyun’s arm.
“Well, actually-” he tried but was interrupted by Alexander, who had put his head over his shoulder and looked up adorably at him through his eyelashes. Soohyun stayed voiceless, not quite sure of how he could tell Alexander down.
“We’re begging you,” Kevin joined the pleading, claiming the other shoulder, tugging at his arm for emphasis. After being pulled from one side to the other, he closed his eyes and finally agreed, wanting them to step away from the oven and leave him alone at once. They high fived idiotically over success and moved back to the counter, making Soohyun regret his decision already.
*
To say the very least, Soohyun was uncomfortable.
The club was normal. Well, it was fancy and stuff, very stylish with fashionable uniforms for the staff and all that, but it was just as nice as other clubs. It had some tall tables for few people as most of the clients kept standing on the dancing floor. There was quite a number of bartenders, a lot of them foreigners, but no waiters, since waiting tables in such an environment proved to be a very hard task.
He leaned awkwardly against the counter where Alexander was working on a drink for a guy that was urging him to go faster. He looked unpleasantly at Soohyun, who was beginning to get sick of his rudeness and just wished Alexander would be quick so he’d be gone as soon as possible.
“Are you just going to stand like that the entire night?”
He looked back and saw Alexander giggling at him. He made a face.
“I told you I’m not good with this sort of thing,” he got defensive and Alexander rolled his eyes.
“Go mingle, try to find someone pretty to flirt with,” he said with a very mocking catcall and Soohyun wished his friend would get himself some maturity eventually. He just put some money on the counter and asked for a drink.
“I notice you want me gone,” he said with a pout as Alexander hurried to get it done and the latter laughed.
“Just because you don’t want to play around, that doesn’t mean I don’t,” he wiggled one eyebrow at him and Soohyun vaguely thought it had something to do with the scene he and Eli had put on earlier. By the way, they hadn’t spoken ever since Eli closed that door and Soohyun wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out what that was about.
Alexander handed him the glass and made a hand gesture for him to get moving. He went because clearly the boy was no company to keep at the moment. Finding a vacant table, he sat on one of the chairs and looked, completely bored at the people dancing just a few meters away from him. That was exactly why he was so hesitant when Kevin asked him to come - he was awful at situations like that. He didn’t know how to act, where to place his hands, how not to be extremely uncomfortable.
He sipped on his drink when someone called for his attention.
“Hey,” said a female voice and he looked up to see a stunning girl smiling at him, brushing her black bangs off of her forehead. “Can I sit here with you? I think I just broke my high heel.”
“Sure,” he answered and she took the chair before him. They just stayed like that, as Soohyun couldn’t bring himself to think of anything to say. She laughed after some seconds.
“That was a lie, my shoe’s not broken. I thought you are cute and came here to talk to you,” she explained straight forwardly, leaning slightly onto the table. “Should I leave?”
Eyeing her with some surprise, he half smiled and said she could stay. She easily led the conversation, asking him what was his name and what he did and those usual things. When he informed her he was currently working as a substitute teacher, she was taken aback.
“Like, with teenagers?” she grimaced. He confirmed. “Oh, isn’t that tiring? I mean, when I was a teen I was hell, and my friends were worse, to be honest.”
He laughed and nodded. “Well, there are some good things about it, I guess.” He wasn’t thinking about pretty school boys hitting on their teachers. Of course not. “But, like, I’ve been saying all these things and you didn’t even tell me your name.”
She batted her eyelashes and put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, that’s right,” she straightened her back and raised a hand to him. “I’m Baek Hyeongmi, and you?”
“Shin Soohyun,” he shook her hand and they laughed for no apparent reason. She was a senior student of Fashion and was planning to leave the next year to London to work more properly on her career. Soohyun asked her if she was good at English.
“About as fluent as a third grader,” Hyeongmi admitted with a sad face, “but I can totally go around that. If I have to learn something, then I’ll just go ahead and do it, you know?”
Soohyun nodded once again. She was very easy going and talkative, which gave him a lot more space to do the best he was willing to do that day - agree and give occasional comments. After what it felt like minutes, Hyeongmi excused herself to the restroom and he was left alone for the moment being. He glanced at the spot on the counter where Alexander was and noticed he was also talking to a girl while working and rolled his eyes. There was no way that would end well for the sole reason he was an utter failure when it came to girls.
His attention got slowly drained back to the people dancing or just standing on the dance floor, since it was the only place where there was actually something going on. Although it was somewhat boring, just being randomly in the middle of people you don’t even know. He eyed the unknown faces, going from girls that seemed too young to even be there to old guys that looked entirely out of place. He spotted a very particular thing, though. Squinting, he noticed the red hair.
It couldn’t be.
Waiting for the person to turn around, his face fell when he got his confirmation - it was, indeed, Dongho, with another boy from his class, just as reckless as himself, from what Soohyun had observed. They laughed at each other and he could see there was this man trying to rub himself on Dongho, who seemed not to notice or care. When he looked at his direction, Soohyun tried to hide, tried to pretend he hadn’t seen a thing and was just living his life.
However, he realized Dongho was actually coming over, closer and closer, making his way through the crowd and Soohyun looked straight into him. There weren’t any frowns that time, just a very sly, very likely smile on Dongho’s lips. He swallowed drily, panicking because there was no way they could be seen together at that place.
Just when the boy was about to leave the mass of people around him, Hyeongmi came back, sitting beside him this time, a fresh smile on her lips. He looked over to Dongho, who stopped on his tracks and glared at her, suspecting.
“I thought my lip gloss had worn off,” she confessed, closer to his face and rolled her eyes at herself. “I’ve got to stop obsessing over what I look like.”
He half smiled and noticed Dongho’s confidence starting to fall apart and got relieved. Just to make sure, he took one of her hands into his in a way he knew Dongho could see, receiving a surprised glance from her, to which he just shrugged with a curve of lips.
“You look great in anyway, in my opinion,” he said and she smiled contently but his target was actually now slowly being pushed back by the moving bodies that bumped into him, frustration all over his face.
Soohyun tried to pay attention to Hyeongmi, the pretty girl before him that shared of a lot of his interests, even being so different from himself, and was available and the same age as him, but all his mind could focus on was Dongho, who he had once again disappointed in a matter of days, and that man he’d seen lusting after the boy and he looked back to the crowd, eager to spot him again.
After some seconds he saw the red hair and thanked inwardly the kid had such an individual sense of fashion. He was around that man again, that man who was currently talking right next to his ear, two glasses in his hands, one of the being pressed against Dongho’s arm. Flashes of Kevin’s narration and that doctor’s words came rushing to his mind, that guy could hurt Dongho and there he was, just buying whatever small talk he was pushing to him, about to be victimized.
He watched on the edge of his seat, begging the kid not to take it in his thoughts. When Dongho grabbed the glass, smiling lustily, he involuntarily stood up, not even noticing Hyeongmi was in the middle of a sentence when he pushed his way through the crowd, not even bothering to apologize. He took firm hold of Dongho’s wrist, yanking it downwards along with the glass, a rush of relief running his body when it cracked on the floor.
“What are you doing?” Dongho shrieked and there was something clearly wrong with him, about the way he spoke and looked.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” he yelled at him over the music, receiving an indignant stare but still not letting go of the wrist. “Do you even know this guy? He could be trying to hurt you, you idiot!”
“What makes you so much better than him, then?” he retorted and Soohyun couldn’t really find an answer to that.
“Hey,” and a hand projected itself on Soohyun’s shoulder, “I don’t think he needs your help, alright? He’s way too grown up already,” the man said behind him, trying to intimidate him. Soohyun snorted and grabbed his arm, twisting it in a way not even he knew he could muster.
“I think you should shut your mouth and just get going,” he snarled and the man wasn’t that much of a tough guy, immediately pulling his arm back and turning around, saying something about it not being worth it. Soohyun turned furious eyes to Dongho, who returned the look right back at him. He pulled the boy’s arm and led him to the staff restricted room from where he’d gotten in thanks to his friends.
Letting go of him, Soohyun closed the door and sighed to himself. When he turned around, Dongho was thrown to the floor, probably having lost his balance when Soohyun pushed him inside.
“Why are you so troublesome?” he asked more to himself than to the boy, who got back to his feet with some difficulty.
“Why do you have to be such a loser?” he snapped back, much calmer all of a sudden.
Soohyun paused and analyzed his posture, how he was fighting to stand straight and curved an eyebrow before taking hold of his jaw and bringing his mouth close to his face, not quite believing it when the distinct smell of alcohol invaded his nose.
“And on top of that you are drunk? Oh, My God,” he whispered.
Dongho smiled dreamily in his hands, fingers grasping his elbows. “I thought you were going to kiss me, songsaengnim,” he giggled and Soohyun blinked. But just a few seconds later, the grin turned into a pout, which acquired a mad aspect by a furrow of eyebrows. “But why would you kiss me, right? Afterall, I’m just a kid and you’re a dumbass,” he muttered and blindly hit Soohyun’s chest, freeing himself from the hold.
“I can’t believe you put yourself under danger just because of that,” he was about to give a lengthy lecture when Dongho stopped him.
“Just because of that?” he repeated incredulously before stopping to shake his head in confusion. “Wait, why do you act like you care? It’s not like you actually give a damn about me, go back to your old, tasteless bitch, she’s probably looking for you now,” he said in a groggy loud voice and tried to reach for the door. Soohyun had to hold his arms so he wouldn’t fall, not being able to walk and be mad at the same time in his current state. “Let go of me, I’m coming back!”
“Dongho, that man could have slipped something into that drink, something to make you unable to defend yourself if he tried to hurt you or molest you, can’t you just see it?” he was getting quite desperate at the other’s obliviousness, trying to keep him in place as he persisted in wiggling in an attempt of breaking free.
“Then he’s an idiot,” Dongho shouted, “because I would have gone willingly,” he said to Soohyun’s face, his features scrunching up in an weird sensation of pain. “You know why?” Soohyun just sighed and shook his head, not sure he wanted to listen to Dongho talking about himself like that. “Because there’s someone who wants me and likes the way I am. Even if you think you’re too good for me, too right for my taste, even if you don’t care, there are people who want me out there,” he shouted on the top of his lungs and there were tears all over his face by the time he stopped to catch his breath. Soohyun watched as he sobbed again and again, his chest twisting, almost making it hard to breathe because Dongho broke down right before his eyes because of him and he didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know if he should do something.
He wanted to say he cared, he cared and wished he could give him something, anything that was better than this but couldn’t, fuck, why didn’t Dongho see it was beyond his own power? As Dongho kept insulting him in all the forms his anesthetized mind could remember, he just wished he could say he was sorry and have all the pain the boy was experiencing gone for good. But his voice got stuck in his throat and he settled for putting his arms around the hysterical boy, firmly holding the waggling arms until he finally got tired and hoarse and completely broken.
Soohyun closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of Dongho’s head as the boy drenched his shirt with tears, still sobbing and hugging Soohyun back, so dearly, so depending. He drew patterns on the boy’s back with his fingers, waiting until it was all out.
“I don’t get it,” Dongho mumbled into his shoulder, already completely numb and with dry, bloodshot eyes, “why can’t we just be together?”
After some seconds, Soohyun raised his voice, and it came out low and hesitating.
“I don’t know either.”
Dongho tightened his hug slightly.