Can I Make It Any More Obvious? (girl!ChenHun, girl!LuKai) [1/2]
Title: Can I Make It Any More Obvious?
Pairing: girl!Chen/girl!Sehun, girl!Lu Han/girl!Kai
Rating: NC-17 overall
Genre(s): romance, fluff, humor, angst, smut
Warning(s): girl!Chen, girl!Sehun, girl!Lu Han, girl!Kai
Word Count: 12,631 overall
Summary: She was a girl, and she was...also a girl. Nonetheless, it was pretty damn obvious. Lu Han wants to know what happens when a skater girl asks out a cheerleader. Fortunately, both she and Jongdae will find out. (sk8er boi AU)
Written for the amnesty round of femmexo.
Part 1 | Part 2
------------------
Sehun bent over to stretch her hamstrings- muscles feeling tight from their last run-through of their routine. She was tempted not to go full-out the next time, but wondered if Jongin, who took her job as cheer captain more seriously than her job as Sehun’s best friend, would let her get away with it.
A loud clang from the metal bleachers had Sehun looking up from her baby pink, chipped nail polish to see two girls with their skateboards getting settled to watch their practice. Sehun frowned. There wasn’t any rule against watching, but she wasn’t used to random girls coming to observe them. Typically the only audience they had was the football players if they finished their own practice early.
“Hey, Jongin,” Sehun said, making her way over to where Jongin was helping one of the freshmen girls with a part of the routine, “There are some skater girls watching our practice…”
Jongin looked over to the bleachers and then back at Sehun, “So?”
“I dunno,” Sehun shrugged, feeling a little stupid for even telling Jongin, “It’s just weird.”
Jongin blinked at her before going back to going over the counts with the younger cheerleader and leaving Sehun feeling stupid, but also self-conscious because she could feel the eyes of the girls on her.
With what was hopefully a disinterested look, Sehun glanced back at the bleachers to try to identify the girls. One of them had long black hair that nearly reached her waist, but was otherwise dressed almost like a boy with an army green skull cap, ripped skinny jeans, and a too-big muscle t-shirt- high-top clad feet propped on the bench in front of her. Sehun had no clue who that was.
When Sehun realized who the other girl was, however, she felt her heart jump and her cheeks flush as she hastily looked away.
The girl’s wavy, brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing the thick, black-rimmed glasses that she always wore. She had on a t-shirt with some punk band’s name emblazoned across the chest, and her knee-high tube socks were clearly visible since she was in a denim mini skirt with a ripped hem.
Her name was Kim Jongdae and she was in Sehun’s European history class. And while she might not have been one of the most popular girls in school, or anything, Sehun couldn’t help but admire her easy confidence and sharp wit. She’d only ever briefly spoken to her, but it was enough for Sehun to know that the other girl completely unnerved her and she wasn’t even sure why. The last thing she needed was to have her observing their cheer practice. Sehun did not enjoy unnecessary stresses in her life.
Trying to look busy, Sehun pulled the elastic band from her hair and pulled her long, stick-straight hair into a tighter ponytail before untying and then retying both of her shoes.
When Jongin called for them to run their routine again, Sehun found herself going full-out- putting enough extra effort into being perfect that even Jongin looked confused despite her constant nagging for Sehun to put more energy into their practices. There was no harm in impressing their unexpected audience though, right?
---
“Which one do you like, again?” Lu Han asked, setting her skateboard down next to her on the metal bleachers and leaning forward to get a better look at the cheerleaders.
Jongdae sighed, “Lu Han, I have literally told you five times. Sehun. The tall, thin one with the long ponytail. And the dead face.”
“Oh the dead face one!” Lu Han exclaimed, clapping her hands once in excitement, “Yeah, she’s pretty.”
Jongdae snorted and went back to staring at the girl in question. She had one class with Sehun and from day one, she hadn’t been able to look away from her model-like beauty. But her shallow interest quickly led to real interest when she started noticing little things about Sehun that endeared her to the other girl. Like the way she always tried to remain impassive when she actually had a playful and cute personality, which Jongdae had observed when she very not-creepily watched her with her friends at lunch. And the fact that she was actually really shy with people that she didn’t know well despite being considered one of the “popular” girls. She knew that Sehun doodled in the margins of her notebook every class, but got top marks on all of her exams. The more she learned about Sehun, the more she liked her and wanted to get close to her.
Of course, as soon as Lu Han, her best friend, had found out about Jongdae’s crush (on a cheerleader, no less), she hadn’t shut up about it. Which led to her convincing Jongdae that they should watch one of the cheer practices. Though with her current view of Sehun in tiny cotton shorts, bending over to retie her shoes, Jongdae couldn’t exactly complain. Maybe Lu Han had had her first good idea ever.
“Hey, is that the captain?” Lu Han asked, interrupting Jongdae’s train of thought about what it would be like to throw Sehun’s legs over her shoulders and- “She’s really cute.”
Jongdae followed Lu Han’s line of sight to a tan girl with big eyes, a high ponytail, and equally short shorts. She definitely was pretty- there was no doubt about that- but Jongdae only had eyes for Sehun.
“I guess so,” she shrugged, going back to watching Sehun fidget and keep covertly glancing in their direction.
“Maybe we should make this a regular thing,” Lu Han suggested, eyes glued to the curve of the cheer captain’s backside, “I don’t have any after school commitments.”
“Of course you don’t,” Jongdae quipped. But they both knew that her schedule was just as wide open.
“What do you think would happen if I asked out a cheerleader?” Lu Han mused, ignoring Jongdae’s uncharacteristically weak insult.
Jongdae was actually wondering the same thing.
---
Jongin shut her locker, mentally going over what homework she had and how she was going to get it all done with the four hours of dance class she had that night. She was so focused on her own thoughts that she nearly knocked into a girl standing behind her.
“Sorry,” she hastily apologized, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and barely glancing at the girl she’d bumped into.
“Hey, Jongin, right?” the girl asked, an unexpected hand on her arm, instead of just saying that’s okay, like Jongin expected.
She blinked in surprise at the smiling, cherubic face of the girl standing in front of her. The girl had her long, black hair in a messy bun on top of her head and she was in what looked like a boys t-shirt, leggings, and a pair of scuffed up high tops. Jongin had no clue who she was or why she was talking to her.
“Uh, yeah,” she said uncomfortably and the girl beamed.
“I’m Lu Han,” she offered, “I saw your cheer practice yesterday.”
Oh, she must have been one of the skater girls Sehun was talking about. Jongin had honestly forgotten.
“You were really good,” Lu Han went on, “I’ve never really watched cheerleading or anything,” she said, gesturing to herself, and Jongin supposed that no, she didn’t look like the cheerleading type, “But I really liked watching you.”
Jongin opened her mouth to respond only to find that the way Lu Han had phrased that- watching you, not watching the squad- had her pausing.
Lu Han, however, didn’t seem deterred by Jongin’s silence.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat?”
Jongin stared at her in confusion.
Why was this random girl asking her to go get something to eat with her?
“I can’t,” Jongin replied, trying not to over think things, “I have dance class tonight.”
Lu Han’s face fell before she smiled again hopefully, “What about tomorrow?”
Jongin frowned. Why wasn’t she going away?
“I have cheer practice again tomorrow.”
Lu Han looked disappointed and Jongin tried to coach herself not to feel guilty.
“Maybe I’ll come watch again,” Lu Han told her when Jongin just stood there.
“Okay,” she shrugged. It wasn’t her business what this girl did with her time. If she wanted to watch the squad practice, she was certainly allowed to.
“See you around, Jongin,” Lu Han said, lips curving up in a way that made Jongin feel kind of strange before she was walking away, leaving Jongin completely confused.
And late.
Jongin had to speed walk in order to make it to the dance studio on time.
---
“Hey, Sehun,” Sehun heard, followed by a tap on the shoulder.
Sehun turned around in her seat to find Jongdae leaning forward at her desk and smiling at her. Sehun felt her stomach twist.
“Hey,” she replied, trying to play it cool.
“I saw your cheerleading practice yesterday,” Jongdae told her with a friendly grin and Sehun had to stop herself from demanding why.
“I know.” Shit. Should she have pretended she didn’t notice? Was it weird that she’d been kind of watching Jongdae watch her? That was probably weird.
“You’re really good,” Jongdae said earnestly and Sehun struggled to hide the pleased grin that was trying to stretch across her face. There was nothing she could do about the way her cheeks flushed at the compliment, however.
Sehun wondered how bitchy it would seem if she didn’t say thank you because she was afraid that if she did, she’d sound as giddy as she felt. But she needn’t have worried because Jongdae was talking again before she could make a decision.
“I think Lu Han and I are gonna come watch again today, if that’s okay.”
“The other girl you were with?” Sehun asked before she could stop herself.
Jongdae nodded, “But if we’re too distracting, we can skip it…”
There was something about the way her eyes were dancing behind her glasses that had Sehun feeling like she was being teased- like Jongdae knew just how painfully aware of her presence she’d been the entire time. But instead of feeling angry that Jongdae was poking fun at her, she felt her heart flutter in response.
“It’s fine,” she said with a shrug and what was hopefully an indifferent attitude.
“Great,” Jongdae grinned, looking at Sehun like she knew some sort of a secret that Sehun wasn’t privy to. It made her uneasy, but at the same time, she couldn’t deny that she was enjoying the attention.
Because Sehun had always thought that Jongdae was cool. Every girl had some girl that they wished they could be a little bit more like. That was who Jongdae was to Sehun. That was why she could hear her pulse in her ears when Jongdae told her that she’d see her later with an easy quirk of her lips. That’s why Sehun felt like her stomach was in knots the whole afternoon. That’s definitely why Sehun carefully touched up her makeup before practice despite the fact that she was just going to sweat. And that was absolutely the only reason Sehun could practically feel Jongdae’s eyes on her as she stretched and tumbled and ran through the routine, making sure that she was executing everything to the best of her ability.
When Sehun caught sight of the two girls leaving as Jongin called them in at the end of practice, she couldn’t help but feel like whatever this was- Jongdae paying her special attention- was far from over. And the knot of anticipation in her stomach thrilled her as much as it terrified her.
---
Lu Han spotted Jongin as soon as she left the locker room- the last one to leave since she’d stayed behind, practicing the routine alone after the other girls had gone to get their things from their lockers. Jongdae had gone home as soon as the practice had ended- not wanting to come on too strong. But Lu Han had no patience when it came to things like that, so she opted to wait for Jongin in order to invite her out again.
Lu Han was nothing, if not persistent.
“Jongin!” she called, finding it stupidly endearing when Jongin jumped, startled, like Lu Han had been hiding to intentionally scare her.
When Jongin saw that it was her and not some sort of danger, her fearful expression changed to one of confusion, glancing behind her like Lu Han might have been there for someone else despite the fact that Lu Han had told her that she’d come to watch and that she’d very clearly called Jongin’s name.
“Oh, hi…” Jongin trailed off, obviously having forgotten Lu Han’s name. And while that was a little disheartening, Lu Han was determined not to give up!
“Lu Han,” she filled in for her and Jongin smiled in gratitude.
“Sorry,” she flushed, “I’m not very good with names…or dates or…anything like that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not either,” Lu Han assured her, adjusting her backwards snapback and stepping up next to Jongin in order to walk with her out of the gym.
“You remembered my name,” Jongin innocently observed and Lu Han smiled.
“You’re pretty hard to forget.”
Jongin seemed completely at a loss for how to respond to that, but Lu Han wasn’t complaining. Instead, she was thoroughly enjoying the pretty pink flush dusting the other’s cheeks. She always did go for the cute ones.
“So since you’re done with practice,” Lu Han plowed on, holding the gymnasium door open for Jongin to step into the warm evening air, “Do you want to go get a snack?”
The wide eyes Jongin turned on her at the invitation made it seem like this was the first time Lu Han had asked her out. Lu Han smiled at her hopefully, noting the tiny mascara flakes that were under Jongin's eyes from sweating during practice. She wanted to rub her thumbs over the soft skin to wipe them away, but knew that Jongin would surely startle at that.
“I have a lot of homework tonight,” Jongin finally said after staring at Lu Han for what felt like an eternity, like she was trying to work out what was going on in Lu Han’s head. Lu Han thought she was being pretty obvious, but whatever.
“So much that you can’t even take twenty minutes to get a snack with me?” she pressed, pouting in a way she knew was adorable and irresistible to most people she’d tried it on.
Jongin nodded dumbly and Lu Han was so distracted by the swipe of Jongin’s tongue over her lower lip that it took her a second to realize that she’d been turned down.
Even she could see that she shouldn’t push it.
“Alright,” she sighed, not hiding her disappointment, but still remaining teasing about it, “I hope we can eat together soon, though.”
Lu Han reached out and lightly tugged at Jongin’s ponytail, leaving her adorably dumbfounded, before smiling playfully as she turned to walk away.
Maybe she hadn’t succeeded yet, but Lu Han was far from defeated.
---
“I mean, they’ve come to practice twice now,” Sehun was saying, “Just, like, all of the sudden! It’s really strange, right?”
“I guess,” Jongin shrugged, feeling something twisting uncomfortably in her gut. This was a subject she’d have preferred not to touch on. She had much more important things to worry about. Like keeping her grades up so her parents wouldn’t force her to cut down on the number of dance classes she was taking.
“And Jongdae has been talking to me in class, too,” Sehun went on, sitting cross-legged on Jongin’s bed with her calculus notebook open in front of her even though she hadn’t yet looked at it, “I mean, she talked to me a little before. But now it’s every day. Which is weird.”
Jongin made a sound of acknowledgement, hoping that Sehun would drop it they could actually start studying.
“I guess it isn’t totally weird that she’d talk to me,” Sehun backtracked, gaze as restless as her jiggling feet, “But, like, on top of coming to cheer practice to watch…there has to be a reason, right?”
“I don’t know, Sehun,” Jongin muttered, feeling anxiety over the uncertainty she felt regarding Lu Han rising up in the back of her throat.
“But they must have some sort of motivation,” Sehun insisted, nibbling on her thumbnail thoughtfully and frowning down at her knees, “They aren’t the usual type to take an interest in cheerleading.”
“That’s just it,” Jongin snapped, voicing a thought she hadn’t fully realized until it was coming out of her mouth, “They aren’t. There is no good reason for them to be suddenly so interested, so they’re probably just messing with us or something. Maybe it’s a joke. I don’t know, but does it really matter?”
Sehun was looking at her in shock, like Jongin had raised her voice even though she hadn’t.
“Let’s just ignore them and I’m sure they’ll lose interest, okay?” she tried, locking eyes with Sehun and trying to communicate how much she just wanted to forget the whole thing, “But in the meantime, we have a calculus exam to study for.”
Sehun opened her mouth like she was going to refute what Jongin had said before she closed it again and nodded in acquiescence.
Jongin felt a bit guilty for speaking so harshly, but hopefully Lu Han and Jongdae would leave them alone and then they could just forget all about it.
---
Jongdae was no sadist, but she had to admit that she thoroughly enjoyed watching Sehun try to not turn around and look at her all through history class. She could see the tension in Sehun’s frame and the way she very carefully didn’t turn her head so as to accidentally catch a glimpse of Jongdae and it was really cute.
Was it still too early to ask her out? Jongdae didn’t think so. Which was why she fell into step with Sehun after class and smiled to herself when the other girl’s cheeks turned red immediately.
“Your back handsprings looked really good yesterday,” Jongdae told her and Sehun ducked her head self-consciously.
“Thank you,” she muttered, biting her bottom lip and looking like she was trying not to smile.
In a perfect world in which they were together, Jongdae would have grabbed Sehun’s hands to get her to face her and then she’d have kissed those lips until Sehun couldn’t even try to stop the smile from coming.
However, they were just in the regular world where that would probably earn Jongdae a punch in the face, or at least a very confused, scarred Sehun.
So instead, Jongdae opted to go through with her initial plan to ask Sehun out.
What would happen if she asked out a popular cheerleader? Lu Han’s question was going to be answered in a moment.
“Are you free to get dinner with me tonight?” Jongdae asked before Sehun could scurry away like she often seemed to whenever Jongdae tried talking to her.
The look Sehun gave her was genuinely surprised, like nothing could have prepared her for Jongdae’s innocent (or not?) invitation.
“U-um,” she stuttered, looking around like she was afraid someone had overheard what Jongdae had said.
Maybe this had been a bad idea. She’d thought that Sehun had been interested and it had never seemed like Sehun thought any less of Jongdae despite the fact that they hung out with very different crowds, but maybe she’d been mistaken.
“I have dance class tonight,” Sehun blurted out when Jongdae had been about to take back what she’d said.
Sehun shifted her weight and fiddled with the hem of her mini skirt with the hand that wasn’t holding onto her books, lower lip clamped between her teeth again.
“It’s okay-” Jongdae started to tell her, not wanting Sehun to feel too bad. It was probably best that Sehun was actually busy so they could both pretend that that’s all the rejection meant.
“But!” Sehun cut her off, tongue wetting her lips nervously, “I’m free tomorrow.”
Jongdae was left with her mouth open, ready to finish the sentence she’d started before Sehun had interrupted her.
And then she was grinning, watching as Sehun fidgeted nervously and shifted from foot to foot even as she tried to keep her face blank.
“Great,” Jongdae said and could tell that Sehun let out a relieved breath at that, as though Jongdae hadn’t been the one to initiate the date, “Do you want to meet by the fountain downtown at six tomorrow, then?”
“Okay,” Sehun breathed, straightening up and shooting an unimpressed look at a boy who was staring at her long legs, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With that, Sehun shot her a small smile before schooling her face back into its default expression, tossing her hair over her shoulder haughtily, and striding away with maybe a little bit more of a bounce in her step than she usually had.
Jongdae fought against fist-pumping in the middle of the hall. Her newly dyed fire-engine red hair was garnering enough attention as it was.
---
“Hey, Jongin!” Lu Han called, propelling herself forward on her skateboard to catch up to Jongin outside of their school. It was Friday afternoon, so this was her last chance to talk to Jongin before the weekend.
To her credit, Jongin seemed a little less startled this time.
“Hi,” Jongin replied, still seeming so confused as to why Lu Han was talking to her, which was, in turn, perplexing to Lu Han who knew she had the subtly of a neon sign.
“Do you remember my name, this time?” Lu Han teased, stepping off her skateboard and easily using her foot to tilt the board up to grab hold of it.
Jongin flushed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and shyly murmuring, “Lu Han.”
Lu Han cheered, unconcerned about the stares she received from a few passersby.
“How about I treat you to coffee as a reward for remembering my name?” she offered, trying to tighten her ponytail with the hand that wasn’t occupied holding her skateboard and only managing to mess it up more.
Jongin seemed to choke on nothing before she said, “I don’t drink coffee.”
“Tea, then,” Lu Han amended, “Or juice. Or milk. Or ice cream. Or-“
“There’s my mom,” Jongin cut her off, face red and eyes looking anywhere but at Lu Han, “Ihavetogo.”
Jongin made an impressively hasty exit, climbing into a silver minivan and disappearing from view before Lu Han could try to insist. Or plan for another day.
She let out an annoyed huff as the car drove away. Getting Jongin to go on a date with her was proving to be more difficult than she would have imagined.
---
Sehun was early for her…date? No, couldn’t be date. Meet up. Her meet up with Jongdae. She lived near enough to the downtown area of her small town that she could walk, but in walking too fast in anticipation, she’d arrived five minutes early.
After school, Sehun had gone home and changed out of her skinny jeans and blouse combo and into a pink ruffled sundress that she hadn’t had the opportunity to wear yet. She’d swapped her beat up black flats for a pair of flat sandals (she almost went for heels, but then remembered how much shorter than her Jongdae already was) and had re-straightened her already straight hair just to make sure it looked perfect. But now she was left to stew in her nerves as she waited for Jongdae to arrive.
As she looked down at the hundreds of coins at the bottom of the fountain, she was taken by a sudden thought: what if Jongdae didn’t even show up? What if Jongin had been right and Jongdae had just been messing with her? What if-
“Hey, Sehun,” Jongdae greeted her, walking easily up to where she was standing at the edge of the fountain and smiling at her.
Jongdae was in the same clothes that she’d worn to school that day- a band t-shirt, dark wash skinnies, and her green, low top converse- but Sehun still thought that she looked amazing.
In a normal way. Like how she’d appreciate any girl who looked nice. Right.
She could feel Jongdae taking in her ensemble and she flushed.
“You look really nice,” Jongdae told her earnestly.
Sehun quietly thanked her, mostly managing to bite back the giggle that wanted to escape.
“Are you hungry?” Jongdae asked then, tilting her head to get Sehun to follow as she started walking.
“A little,” Sehun replied honestly, because while she knew she actually was hungry, she was too preoccupied with the butterflies in her stomach to notice.
“And how do you feel about hotdogs?”
Sehun looked at Jongdae like she was out of her mind. Was that code for something or..?
“Because I was thinking of showing you the seven wonders of our town, and the hotdog stand is the first stop.”
Sehun blinked.
“We have seven wonders?”
Jongdae shrugged, looking over at Sehun and grinning, “I think we do.”
“Okay…”
“So hotdogs?” Jongdae prompted, leading the way toward the lone hotdog vender in their little town.
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Great!” Jongdae grabbed Sehun’s elbow to steer her in the right direction and even just the brief contact had Sehun’s heart jumping, “Off to Wonder Number One!”
---
“So what’s number two?” Sehun asked as she swallowed the last bite of her hotdog, chasing it down with the bottle of water Jongdae had bought for her.
“We’re walking there now,” Jongdae informed her, having already finished her hotdog, which Sehun was immensely grateful for because who knew watching Jongdae eat a hotdog would be so enticing? And Sehun wasn’t even a dude. She was ashamed.
Sehun looked around, trying to guess what the next wonder was. There wasn't really anything in their town that she found particularly interesting. She supposed that she could understand why the hotdog vendor was one considering how small their town was. Most other small towns probably didn't have any street food. But six more wonders in their boring town?
“Ta da!” Jongdae announced, stopping on the sidewalk.
Sehun stopped beside her, looking around to try to figure out what she was supposed to be seeing.
“Um...”
“This alley,” Jongdae specified, but Sehun wasn't sure what was so special about it.
“Why-?”
“If you just look at this alley and ignore everything else around you and kind of squint, you can almost imagine that you're in a big city,” she explained.
Sehun looked back at the alley, doing what Jongdae said and ignoring the small-town vibe that was surrounding them. And strangely enough, Jongdae was right. The alley was small and dirty with a dumpster and a fire escape coming down the side of one of the buildings. If she hadn't been aware of where this alley was located, she'd probably think that it was in a sizable city and not in their little nowhere town.
“See?” Jongdae asked eagerly and Sehun laughed despite herself.
“You're right,” she admitted, “I never would have even thought to look at this alley before.”
Jongdae beamed.
“Where's number three?” Sehun asked, curiosity peaked.
“We have to drive there,” Jongdae informed her, turning back in the direction they'd come from and motioning for Sehun to follow.
“I don't have a car...”
“Don't worry,” Jongdae said, smiling over her shoulder in a way that had Sehun's heart picking up speed, “I drove here.”
Five minutes later found Sehun in the passenger seat of Jongdae's beat up car that was at least ten years old.
“It was my cousin's,” she'd explained, “He didn't take very good care of it, but he sold it to me for next to nothing, so I can't really complain.”
Jongdae's skateboard was in the backseat and there was a skull pendent hanging from the rear view mirror. It was silly, but Sehun felt special that she'd been invited into Jongdae's private space. It wasn't like it was her bedroom (she flushed at that thought, but quickly dismissed it), but it was still a place that not just any, random person would be welcome.
“How long have you been cheerleading?” Jongdae asked as they turned onto a residential street, leaving the town center behind them.
“Since I was a freshman,” Sehun told her, tucking her hair behind her ear and then quickly untucking it so it wouldn't get bent that way, “But I've been in dance classes since I was three. And I did gymnastics in middle school. Jongin and I both did gymnastics because we decided that we wanted to do cheerleading in high school.”
“All of that is really amazing to me,” Jongdae said, glancing at Sehun before looking back out at the road, “Because I can't dance or do flips or anything like that.” She laughed and Sehun almost wished she wasn't so charmed.
“You can do other stuff though,” Sehun pointed out, probably unnecessarily, “Like skateboard. I'd probably fall off.”
Jongdae chuckled, “I can teach you sometime, if you want.”
Sehun imagined Jongdae helping her get her balance with her hands on her waist and felt her stomach swoop.
“Maybe,” she replied coolly and Jongdae just grinned like she knew what Sehun was thinking.
“Well, here we are,” Jongdae announced, pulling over and parking next to the curb.
“Here?” Sehun questioned, climbing out of the car and looking around at the nondescript street. It looked just like every other street of houses in their small town.
“Over here,” Jongdae beckoned and Sehun followed her to the sidewalk in front of a small house that was painted forest green. And then she looked at the front lawn and wow.
She'd noticed the small fountain with a sculpture of a boy and girl under an umbrella that was positioned next to the narrow path to the front door, but she'd never seen the vast assortment of miniature statues covering the lawn. There were little houses arranged like they were in a neighborhood. There were storefronts and cars and even tiny little people. It was like an entire, miniature town was set up in this front yard and Sehun had never seen anything like it.
“Wow,” she breathed, bending down to get a better look, “Who even knew this was here? I mean, obviously you, but...”
Jongdae laughed, crouching down next to her and looking at Sehun instead of at the miniature set up.
Sehun could feel Jongdae's gaze on her as she looked at the pair of girls in front of the tiny ice cream shop.
“I'm glad you like it,” Jongdae said, voice soft and Sehun felt the fluttering in her stomach increase.
So far, she'd done a pretty good job of convincing herself that Jongdae wasn't interested in her in a romantic way, but with the sun setting over them as they quietly looked at this little, fanciful town, Sehun couldn't stop the way her heart was racing. What if this really was a date...?
“Come on,” Jongdae urged, gently tugging on Sehun's elbow as she stood up, “We should go if we're going to be able to see number four before we lose the light.”
Sehun followed her back to the car, feeling like she was floating in a trance with the way her head felt fuzzy and her skin was tingling where Jongdae's fingers had touched.
The short drive to the next place was quiet, but not because they didn't have anything to talk about. It was as though the air was charged with something- like something important was hovering around them and neither of them wanted to wreck it.
“Number four,” Jongdae told her, parking against the curb again and motioning across the street, “We don't need to get out of the car to see this one.”
Sehun looked at the house Jongdae had pointed to, sticking out like a sore thumb in a row of typical colonial houses with perfectly manicured lawns.
This house looked like it had been put together with scraps from a junkyard- different types of siding making the outer walls look like patchwork, strange metal and wood pieces affixed to the roof, and the window shutters all different.
“What-?”
“I don't even know,” Jongdae replied, knowing just what Sehun was thinking, and her laugh broke some of the nearly suffocating anticipation that had filled the car.
“It's so ugly!” Sehun marveled and Jongdae chuckled again.
“Yes, it is.”
Sehun snorted and found herself smiling at Jongdae even as she fought with herself over what all of this meant.
Not the strange things stapled to the house. Who knew what those meant? But the way Jongdae looked at her and the fact that she'd spent the past couple of hours taking Sehun on a tour of their town. Could she really...?
“Where's your house from here?” Jongdae asked and Sehun was brought out of her musings.
“But we only saw four wonders,” she pointed out, “I thought you said there were seven.”
Jongdae grinned as she pulled away from the curb, “I can't show them all to you in one day. I'll take you to the other three next time.”
Sehun flushed and smiled into her lap at the idea of next time.
---
It was only a five minute drive to Sehun's house from there, so it was almost too soon when Jongdae pulled into the driveway and cut the engine.
“Thanks for coming with me on my weird tour,” Jongdae said, turning toward Sehun and shooting her a sheepish smile.
“Thank you for taking me,” Sehun replied shyly.
Jongdae was looking at her so softly that Sehun was nearly frozen in her seat, heart pounding so hard she thought that Jongdae must have been able to hear it.
Sehun might have been able to previously make an argument that Jongdae wasn't interested in her like that, but in that moment, it was impossible to deny that this had been a date. At least in Jongdae's eyes. And probably Sehun's as well.
Jongdae leaning in didn't catch Sehun by surprise, exactly. After the realization that the other girl was, in fact, romantically interested in her, it was basically what Sehun had been expecting. That didn't mean that she was ready for it, though.
At the last second, Sehun leaned back and quickly opened the car door to stumble out into her driveway- heart slamming against her ribcage and hands shaking with what could have been reality had Sehun let it.
“Thanks again!” she said, voice shaky and too high, “See you Monday!”
And then she was high-tailing it into her house, not having the guts to look back to see Jongdae's reaction to her embarrassingly hasty retreat.
With the front door closed behind her, Sehun slumped against the wall of the entryway- hand over her heart and breath coming fast like she'd run the whole way home.
The reality that, had she let her, Jongdae would have kissed her rested heavily on Sehun's mind, only overshadowed by the overwhelmingly undeniable epiphany that Sehun had really, really wanted her to.
---
It was nine PM on a Friday night, and while most high school students would consider that way too early for bed, Jongin was positively wiped out. On top of her full day of school, she had had four hours of dance class followed by an hour of studying in order to get some of her homework out of the way. Then there was the fact that Jongin had to be up by seven the next morning to cheer at the football game the following day that had her collapsing into bed as soon as she'd showered- wet hair soaking through her pillowcase and making the fabric stick uncomfortably to her cheek when she rolled over.
But for as tired as she was, Jongin was kept awake by her racing brain- as always trying to figure out when she'd get all of her homework done over the weekend and over the next week with her cheerleading practice and dance classes. And then she couldn't stop herself from going over the routines she'd worked on that day as well as trying to figure out a better formation for the cheer routine after the flyers dismounted and they moved into the dance section.
She knew that she would be awake for hours if she let her brain go, and she just couldn't afford that with how busy she was going to be.
There was really only one thing that would quiet her mind and tire her out, both, so before she could get too stressed about the paper she had due that Wednesday, Jongin slid her hand down her torso and over the cotton of her underwear to press between her widening thighs.
She never thought about anything when she did this, instead just focusing on the tingles of pleasure that radiated through her body at each pass of her fingers over her fabric-covered core until the material was damp against her fingertips. Then she'd slide her hand under the waistband of her underwear and stroke against her wetness until she came- mind blanking and body surging through each wave of pleasure until she was exhausted and ready to fall into sleep.
It was always just the colors sparking behind her closed lids and the focus to find release that consumed her when she pleasured herself. It was a task that served a purpose and did no more than that. It was an enjoyable task, sure. But it wasn't about her desire that stemmed from the need for another person. It was just about her and her body, plain and simple.
But that night, when she was too close to the edge to care or to stop it, images of long hair and tight jeans and bright smiles that were too enthusiastic to be considered pretty flashed through her mind as she lost control of her body and came.
That was the first time she failed to sleep even after bringing herself to orgasm- plagued with an endless reel of images of a girl she never predicted she'd give a second thought.
This couldn't continue.
Part 2
Pairing: girl!Chen/girl!Sehun, girl!Lu Han/girl!Kai
Rating: NC-17 overall
Genre(s): romance, fluff, humor, angst, smut
Warning(s): girl!Chen, girl!Sehun, girl!Lu Han, girl!Kai
Word Count: 12,631 overall
Summary: She was a girl, and she was...also a girl. Nonetheless, it was pretty damn obvious. Lu Han wants to know what happens when a skater girl asks out a cheerleader. Fortunately, both she and Jongdae will find out. (sk8er boi AU)
Written for the amnesty round of femmexo.
Part 1 | Part 2
------------------
Sehun bent over to stretch her hamstrings- muscles feeling tight from their last run-through of their routine. She was tempted not to go full-out the next time, but wondered if Jongin, who took her job as cheer captain more seriously than her job as Sehun’s best friend, would let her get away with it.
A loud clang from the metal bleachers had Sehun looking up from her baby pink, chipped nail polish to see two girls with their skateboards getting settled to watch their practice. Sehun frowned. There wasn’t any rule against watching, but she wasn’t used to random girls coming to observe them. Typically the only audience they had was the football players if they finished their own practice early.
“Hey, Jongin,” Sehun said, making her way over to where Jongin was helping one of the freshmen girls with a part of the routine, “There are some skater girls watching our practice…”
Jongin looked over to the bleachers and then back at Sehun, “So?”
“I dunno,” Sehun shrugged, feeling a little stupid for even telling Jongin, “It’s just weird.”
Jongin blinked at her before going back to going over the counts with the younger cheerleader and leaving Sehun feeling stupid, but also self-conscious because she could feel the eyes of the girls on her.
With what was hopefully a disinterested look, Sehun glanced back at the bleachers to try to identify the girls. One of them had long black hair that nearly reached her waist, but was otherwise dressed almost like a boy with an army green skull cap, ripped skinny jeans, and a too-big muscle t-shirt- high-top clad feet propped on the bench in front of her. Sehun had no clue who that was.
When Sehun realized who the other girl was, however, she felt her heart jump and her cheeks flush as she hastily looked away.
The girl’s wavy, brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing the thick, black-rimmed glasses that she always wore. She had on a t-shirt with some punk band’s name emblazoned across the chest, and her knee-high tube socks were clearly visible since she was in a denim mini skirt with a ripped hem.
Her name was Kim Jongdae and she was in Sehun’s European history class. And while she might not have been one of the most popular girls in school, or anything, Sehun couldn’t help but admire her easy confidence and sharp wit. She’d only ever briefly spoken to her, but it was enough for Sehun to know that the other girl completely unnerved her and she wasn’t even sure why. The last thing she needed was to have her observing their cheer practice. Sehun did not enjoy unnecessary stresses in her life.
Trying to look busy, Sehun pulled the elastic band from her hair and pulled her long, stick-straight hair into a tighter ponytail before untying and then retying both of her shoes.
When Jongin called for them to run their routine again, Sehun found herself going full-out- putting enough extra effort into being perfect that even Jongin looked confused despite her constant nagging for Sehun to put more energy into their practices. There was no harm in impressing their unexpected audience though, right?
---
“Which one do you like, again?” Lu Han asked, setting her skateboard down next to her on the metal bleachers and leaning forward to get a better look at the cheerleaders.
Jongdae sighed, “Lu Han, I have literally told you five times. Sehun. The tall, thin one with the long ponytail. And the dead face.”
“Oh the dead face one!” Lu Han exclaimed, clapping her hands once in excitement, “Yeah, she’s pretty.”
Jongdae snorted and went back to staring at the girl in question. She had one class with Sehun and from day one, she hadn’t been able to look away from her model-like beauty. But her shallow interest quickly led to real interest when she started noticing little things about Sehun that endeared her to the other girl. Like the way she always tried to remain impassive when she actually had a playful and cute personality, which Jongdae had observed when she very not-creepily watched her with her friends at lunch. And the fact that she was actually really shy with people that she didn’t know well despite being considered one of the “popular” girls. She knew that Sehun doodled in the margins of her notebook every class, but got top marks on all of her exams. The more she learned about Sehun, the more she liked her and wanted to get close to her.
Of course, as soon as Lu Han, her best friend, had found out about Jongdae’s crush (on a cheerleader, no less), she hadn’t shut up about it. Which led to her convincing Jongdae that they should watch one of the cheer practices. Though with her current view of Sehun in tiny cotton shorts, bending over to retie her shoes, Jongdae couldn’t exactly complain. Maybe Lu Han had had her first good idea ever.
“Hey, is that the captain?” Lu Han asked, interrupting Jongdae’s train of thought about what it would be like to throw Sehun’s legs over her shoulders and- “She’s really cute.”
Jongdae followed Lu Han’s line of sight to a tan girl with big eyes, a high ponytail, and equally short shorts. She definitely was pretty- there was no doubt about that- but Jongdae only had eyes for Sehun.
“I guess so,” she shrugged, going back to watching Sehun fidget and keep covertly glancing in their direction.
“Maybe we should make this a regular thing,” Lu Han suggested, eyes glued to the curve of the cheer captain’s backside, “I don’t have any after school commitments.”
“Of course you don’t,” Jongdae quipped. But they both knew that her schedule was just as wide open.
“What do you think would happen if I asked out a cheerleader?” Lu Han mused, ignoring Jongdae’s uncharacteristically weak insult.
Jongdae was actually wondering the same thing.
---
Jongin shut her locker, mentally going over what homework she had and how she was going to get it all done with the four hours of dance class she had that night. She was so focused on her own thoughts that she nearly knocked into a girl standing behind her.
“Sorry,” she hastily apologized, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and barely glancing at the girl she’d bumped into.
“Hey, Jongin, right?” the girl asked, an unexpected hand on her arm, instead of just saying that’s okay, like Jongin expected.
She blinked in surprise at the smiling, cherubic face of the girl standing in front of her. The girl had her long, black hair in a messy bun on top of her head and she was in what looked like a boys t-shirt, leggings, and a pair of scuffed up high tops. Jongin had no clue who she was or why she was talking to her.
“Uh, yeah,” she said uncomfortably and the girl beamed.
“I’m Lu Han,” she offered, “I saw your cheer practice yesterday.”
Oh, she must have been one of the skater girls Sehun was talking about. Jongin had honestly forgotten.
“You were really good,” Lu Han went on, “I’ve never really watched cheerleading or anything,” she said, gesturing to herself, and Jongin supposed that no, she didn’t look like the cheerleading type, “But I really liked watching you.”
Jongin opened her mouth to respond only to find that the way Lu Han had phrased that- watching you, not watching the squad- had her pausing.
Lu Han, however, didn’t seem deterred by Jongin’s silence.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat?”
Jongin stared at her in confusion.
Why was this random girl asking her to go get something to eat with her?
“I can’t,” Jongin replied, trying not to over think things, “I have dance class tonight.”
Lu Han’s face fell before she smiled again hopefully, “What about tomorrow?”
Jongin frowned. Why wasn’t she going away?
“I have cheer practice again tomorrow.”
Lu Han looked disappointed and Jongin tried to coach herself not to feel guilty.
“Maybe I’ll come watch again,” Lu Han told her when Jongin just stood there.
“Okay,” she shrugged. It wasn’t her business what this girl did with her time. If she wanted to watch the squad practice, she was certainly allowed to.
“See you around, Jongin,” Lu Han said, lips curving up in a way that made Jongin feel kind of strange before she was walking away, leaving Jongin completely confused.
And late.
Jongin had to speed walk in order to make it to the dance studio on time.
---
“Hey, Sehun,” Sehun heard, followed by a tap on the shoulder.
Sehun turned around in her seat to find Jongdae leaning forward at her desk and smiling at her. Sehun felt her stomach twist.
“Hey,” she replied, trying to play it cool.
“I saw your cheerleading practice yesterday,” Jongdae told her with a friendly grin and Sehun had to stop herself from demanding why.
“I know.” Shit. Should she have pretended she didn’t notice? Was it weird that she’d been kind of watching Jongdae watch her? That was probably weird.
“You’re really good,” Jongdae said earnestly and Sehun struggled to hide the pleased grin that was trying to stretch across her face. There was nothing she could do about the way her cheeks flushed at the compliment, however.
Sehun wondered how bitchy it would seem if she didn’t say thank you because she was afraid that if she did, she’d sound as giddy as she felt. But she needn’t have worried because Jongdae was talking again before she could make a decision.
“I think Lu Han and I are gonna come watch again today, if that’s okay.”
“The other girl you were with?” Sehun asked before she could stop herself.
Jongdae nodded, “But if we’re too distracting, we can skip it…”
There was something about the way her eyes were dancing behind her glasses that had Sehun feeling like she was being teased- like Jongdae knew just how painfully aware of her presence she’d been the entire time. But instead of feeling angry that Jongdae was poking fun at her, she felt her heart flutter in response.
“It’s fine,” she said with a shrug and what was hopefully an indifferent attitude.
“Great,” Jongdae grinned, looking at Sehun like she knew some sort of a secret that Sehun wasn’t privy to. It made her uneasy, but at the same time, she couldn’t deny that she was enjoying the attention.
Because Sehun had always thought that Jongdae was cool. Every girl had some girl that they wished they could be a little bit more like. That was who Jongdae was to Sehun. That was why she could hear her pulse in her ears when Jongdae told her that she’d see her later with an easy quirk of her lips. That’s why Sehun felt like her stomach was in knots the whole afternoon. That’s definitely why Sehun carefully touched up her makeup before practice despite the fact that she was just going to sweat. And that was absolutely the only reason Sehun could practically feel Jongdae’s eyes on her as she stretched and tumbled and ran through the routine, making sure that she was executing everything to the best of her ability.
When Sehun caught sight of the two girls leaving as Jongin called them in at the end of practice, she couldn’t help but feel like whatever this was- Jongdae paying her special attention- was far from over. And the knot of anticipation in her stomach thrilled her as much as it terrified her.
---
Lu Han spotted Jongin as soon as she left the locker room- the last one to leave since she’d stayed behind, practicing the routine alone after the other girls had gone to get their things from their lockers. Jongdae had gone home as soon as the practice had ended- not wanting to come on too strong. But Lu Han had no patience when it came to things like that, so she opted to wait for Jongin in order to invite her out again.
Lu Han was nothing, if not persistent.
“Jongin!” she called, finding it stupidly endearing when Jongin jumped, startled, like Lu Han had been hiding to intentionally scare her.
When Jongin saw that it was her and not some sort of danger, her fearful expression changed to one of confusion, glancing behind her like Lu Han might have been there for someone else despite the fact that Lu Han had told her that she’d come to watch and that she’d very clearly called Jongin’s name.
“Oh, hi…” Jongin trailed off, obviously having forgotten Lu Han’s name. And while that was a little disheartening, Lu Han was determined not to give up!
“Lu Han,” she filled in for her and Jongin smiled in gratitude.
“Sorry,” she flushed, “I’m not very good with names…or dates or…anything like that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not either,” Lu Han assured her, adjusting her backwards snapback and stepping up next to Jongin in order to walk with her out of the gym.
“You remembered my name,” Jongin innocently observed and Lu Han smiled.
“You’re pretty hard to forget.”
Jongin seemed completely at a loss for how to respond to that, but Lu Han wasn’t complaining. Instead, she was thoroughly enjoying the pretty pink flush dusting the other’s cheeks. She always did go for the cute ones.
“So since you’re done with practice,” Lu Han plowed on, holding the gymnasium door open for Jongin to step into the warm evening air, “Do you want to go get a snack?”
The wide eyes Jongin turned on her at the invitation made it seem like this was the first time Lu Han had asked her out. Lu Han smiled at her hopefully, noting the tiny mascara flakes that were under Jongin's eyes from sweating during practice. She wanted to rub her thumbs over the soft skin to wipe them away, but knew that Jongin would surely startle at that.
“I have a lot of homework tonight,” Jongin finally said after staring at Lu Han for what felt like an eternity, like she was trying to work out what was going on in Lu Han’s head. Lu Han thought she was being pretty obvious, but whatever.
“So much that you can’t even take twenty minutes to get a snack with me?” she pressed, pouting in a way she knew was adorable and irresistible to most people she’d tried it on.
Jongin nodded dumbly and Lu Han was so distracted by the swipe of Jongin’s tongue over her lower lip that it took her a second to realize that she’d been turned down.
Even she could see that she shouldn’t push it.
“Alright,” she sighed, not hiding her disappointment, but still remaining teasing about it, “I hope we can eat together soon, though.”
Lu Han reached out and lightly tugged at Jongin’s ponytail, leaving her adorably dumbfounded, before smiling playfully as she turned to walk away.
Maybe she hadn’t succeeded yet, but Lu Han was far from defeated.
---
“I mean, they’ve come to practice twice now,” Sehun was saying, “Just, like, all of the sudden! It’s really strange, right?”
“I guess,” Jongin shrugged, feeling something twisting uncomfortably in her gut. This was a subject she’d have preferred not to touch on. She had much more important things to worry about. Like keeping her grades up so her parents wouldn’t force her to cut down on the number of dance classes she was taking.
“And Jongdae has been talking to me in class, too,” Sehun went on, sitting cross-legged on Jongin’s bed with her calculus notebook open in front of her even though she hadn’t yet looked at it, “I mean, she talked to me a little before. But now it’s every day. Which is weird.”
Jongin made a sound of acknowledgement, hoping that Sehun would drop it they could actually start studying.
“I guess it isn’t totally weird that she’d talk to me,” Sehun backtracked, gaze as restless as her jiggling feet, “But, like, on top of coming to cheer practice to watch…there has to be a reason, right?”
“I don’t know, Sehun,” Jongin muttered, feeling anxiety over the uncertainty she felt regarding Lu Han rising up in the back of her throat.
“But they must have some sort of motivation,” Sehun insisted, nibbling on her thumbnail thoughtfully and frowning down at her knees, “They aren’t the usual type to take an interest in cheerleading.”
“That’s just it,” Jongin snapped, voicing a thought she hadn’t fully realized until it was coming out of her mouth, “They aren’t. There is no good reason for them to be suddenly so interested, so they’re probably just messing with us or something. Maybe it’s a joke. I don’t know, but does it really matter?”
Sehun was looking at her in shock, like Jongin had raised her voice even though she hadn’t.
“Let’s just ignore them and I’m sure they’ll lose interest, okay?” she tried, locking eyes with Sehun and trying to communicate how much she just wanted to forget the whole thing, “But in the meantime, we have a calculus exam to study for.”
Sehun opened her mouth like she was going to refute what Jongin had said before she closed it again and nodded in acquiescence.
Jongin felt a bit guilty for speaking so harshly, but hopefully Lu Han and Jongdae would leave them alone and then they could just forget all about it.
---
Jongdae was no sadist, but she had to admit that she thoroughly enjoyed watching Sehun try to not turn around and look at her all through history class. She could see the tension in Sehun’s frame and the way she very carefully didn’t turn her head so as to accidentally catch a glimpse of Jongdae and it was really cute.
Was it still too early to ask her out? Jongdae didn’t think so. Which was why she fell into step with Sehun after class and smiled to herself when the other girl’s cheeks turned red immediately.
“Your back handsprings looked really good yesterday,” Jongdae told her and Sehun ducked her head self-consciously.
“Thank you,” she muttered, biting her bottom lip and looking like she was trying not to smile.
In a perfect world in which they were together, Jongdae would have grabbed Sehun’s hands to get her to face her and then she’d have kissed those lips until Sehun couldn’t even try to stop the smile from coming.
However, they were just in the regular world where that would probably earn Jongdae a punch in the face, or at least a very confused, scarred Sehun.
So instead, Jongdae opted to go through with her initial plan to ask Sehun out.
What would happen if she asked out a popular cheerleader? Lu Han’s question was going to be answered in a moment.
“Are you free to get dinner with me tonight?” Jongdae asked before Sehun could scurry away like she often seemed to whenever Jongdae tried talking to her.
The look Sehun gave her was genuinely surprised, like nothing could have prepared her for Jongdae’s innocent (or not?) invitation.
“U-um,” she stuttered, looking around like she was afraid someone had overheard what Jongdae had said.
Maybe this had been a bad idea. She’d thought that Sehun had been interested and it had never seemed like Sehun thought any less of Jongdae despite the fact that they hung out with very different crowds, but maybe she’d been mistaken.
“I have dance class tonight,” Sehun blurted out when Jongdae had been about to take back what she’d said.
Sehun shifted her weight and fiddled with the hem of her mini skirt with the hand that wasn’t holding onto her books, lower lip clamped between her teeth again.
“It’s okay-” Jongdae started to tell her, not wanting Sehun to feel too bad. It was probably best that Sehun was actually busy so they could both pretend that that’s all the rejection meant.
“But!” Sehun cut her off, tongue wetting her lips nervously, “I’m free tomorrow.”
Jongdae was left with her mouth open, ready to finish the sentence she’d started before Sehun had interrupted her.
And then she was grinning, watching as Sehun fidgeted nervously and shifted from foot to foot even as she tried to keep her face blank.
“Great,” Jongdae said and could tell that Sehun let out a relieved breath at that, as though Jongdae hadn’t been the one to initiate the date, “Do you want to meet by the fountain downtown at six tomorrow, then?”
“Okay,” Sehun breathed, straightening up and shooting an unimpressed look at a boy who was staring at her long legs, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With that, Sehun shot her a small smile before schooling her face back into its default expression, tossing her hair over her shoulder haughtily, and striding away with maybe a little bit more of a bounce in her step than she usually had.
Jongdae fought against fist-pumping in the middle of the hall. Her newly dyed fire-engine red hair was garnering enough attention as it was.
---
“Hey, Jongin!” Lu Han called, propelling herself forward on her skateboard to catch up to Jongin outside of their school. It was Friday afternoon, so this was her last chance to talk to Jongin before the weekend.
To her credit, Jongin seemed a little less startled this time.
“Hi,” Jongin replied, still seeming so confused as to why Lu Han was talking to her, which was, in turn, perplexing to Lu Han who knew she had the subtly of a neon sign.
“Do you remember my name, this time?” Lu Han teased, stepping off her skateboard and easily using her foot to tilt the board up to grab hold of it.
Jongin flushed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and shyly murmuring, “Lu Han.”
Lu Han cheered, unconcerned about the stares she received from a few passersby.
“How about I treat you to coffee as a reward for remembering my name?” she offered, trying to tighten her ponytail with the hand that wasn’t occupied holding her skateboard and only managing to mess it up more.
Jongin seemed to choke on nothing before she said, “I don’t drink coffee.”
“Tea, then,” Lu Han amended, “Or juice. Or milk. Or ice cream. Or-“
“There’s my mom,” Jongin cut her off, face red and eyes looking anywhere but at Lu Han, “Ihavetogo.”
Jongin made an impressively hasty exit, climbing into a silver minivan and disappearing from view before Lu Han could try to insist. Or plan for another day.
She let out an annoyed huff as the car drove away. Getting Jongin to go on a date with her was proving to be more difficult than she would have imagined.
---
Sehun was early for her…date? No, couldn’t be date. Meet up. Her meet up with Jongdae. She lived near enough to the downtown area of her small town that she could walk, but in walking too fast in anticipation, she’d arrived five minutes early.
After school, Sehun had gone home and changed out of her skinny jeans and blouse combo and into a pink ruffled sundress that she hadn’t had the opportunity to wear yet. She’d swapped her beat up black flats for a pair of flat sandals (she almost went for heels, but then remembered how much shorter than her Jongdae already was) and had re-straightened her already straight hair just to make sure it looked perfect. But now she was left to stew in her nerves as she waited for Jongdae to arrive.
As she looked down at the hundreds of coins at the bottom of the fountain, she was taken by a sudden thought: what if Jongdae didn’t even show up? What if Jongin had been right and Jongdae had just been messing with her? What if-
“Hey, Sehun,” Jongdae greeted her, walking easily up to where she was standing at the edge of the fountain and smiling at her.
Jongdae was in the same clothes that she’d worn to school that day- a band t-shirt, dark wash skinnies, and her green, low top converse- but Sehun still thought that she looked amazing.
In a normal way. Like how she’d appreciate any girl who looked nice. Right.
She could feel Jongdae taking in her ensemble and she flushed.
“You look really nice,” Jongdae told her earnestly.
Sehun quietly thanked her, mostly managing to bite back the giggle that wanted to escape.
“Are you hungry?” Jongdae asked then, tilting her head to get Sehun to follow as she started walking.
“A little,” Sehun replied honestly, because while she knew she actually was hungry, she was too preoccupied with the butterflies in her stomach to notice.
“And how do you feel about hotdogs?”
Sehun looked at Jongdae like she was out of her mind. Was that code for something or..?
“Because I was thinking of showing you the seven wonders of our town, and the hotdog stand is the first stop.”
Sehun blinked.
“We have seven wonders?”
Jongdae shrugged, looking over at Sehun and grinning, “I think we do.”
“Okay…”
“So hotdogs?” Jongdae prompted, leading the way toward the lone hotdog vender in their little town.
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Great!” Jongdae grabbed Sehun’s elbow to steer her in the right direction and even just the brief contact had Sehun’s heart jumping, “Off to Wonder Number One!”
---
“So what’s number two?” Sehun asked as she swallowed the last bite of her hotdog, chasing it down with the bottle of water Jongdae had bought for her.
“We’re walking there now,” Jongdae informed her, having already finished her hotdog, which Sehun was immensely grateful for because who knew watching Jongdae eat a hotdog would be so enticing? And Sehun wasn’t even a dude. She was ashamed.
Sehun looked around, trying to guess what the next wonder was. There wasn't really anything in their town that she found particularly interesting. She supposed that she could understand why the hotdog vendor was one considering how small their town was. Most other small towns probably didn't have any street food. But six more wonders in their boring town?
“Ta da!” Jongdae announced, stopping on the sidewalk.
Sehun stopped beside her, looking around to try to figure out what she was supposed to be seeing.
“Um...”
“This alley,” Jongdae specified, but Sehun wasn't sure what was so special about it.
“Why-?”
“If you just look at this alley and ignore everything else around you and kind of squint, you can almost imagine that you're in a big city,” she explained.
Sehun looked back at the alley, doing what Jongdae said and ignoring the small-town vibe that was surrounding them. And strangely enough, Jongdae was right. The alley was small and dirty with a dumpster and a fire escape coming down the side of one of the buildings. If she hadn't been aware of where this alley was located, she'd probably think that it was in a sizable city and not in their little nowhere town.
“See?” Jongdae asked eagerly and Sehun laughed despite herself.
“You're right,” she admitted, “I never would have even thought to look at this alley before.”
Jongdae beamed.
“Where's number three?” Sehun asked, curiosity peaked.
“We have to drive there,” Jongdae informed her, turning back in the direction they'd come from and motioning for Sehun to follow.
“I don't have a car...”
“Don't worry,” Jongdae said, smiling over her shoulder in a way that had Sehun's heart picking up speed, “I drove here.”
Five minutes later found Sehun in the passenger seat of Jongdae's beat up car that was at least ten years old.
“It was my cousin's,” she'd explained, “He didn't take very good care of it, but he sold it to me for next to nothing, so I can't really complain.”
Jongdae's skateboard was in the backseat and there was a skull pendent hanging from the rear view mirror. It was silly, but Sehun felt special that she'd been invited into Jongdae's private space. It wasn't like it was her bedroom (she flushed at that thought, but quickly dismissed it), but it was still a place that not just any, random person would be welcome.
“How long have you been cheerleading?” Jongdae asked as they turned onto a residential street, leaving the town center behind them.
“Since I was a freshman,” Sehun told her, tucking her hair behind her ear and then quickly untucking it so it wouldn't get bent that way, “But I've been in dance classes since I was three. And I did gymnastics in middle school. Jongin and I both did gymnastics because we decided that we wanted to do cheerleading in high school.”
“All of that is really amazing to me,” Jongdae said, glancing at Sehun before looking back out at the road, “Because I can't dance or do flips or anything like that.” She laughed and Sehun almost wished she wasn't so charmed.
“You can do other stuff though,” Sehun pointed out, probably unnecessarily, “Like skateboard. I'd probably fall off.”
Jongdae chuckled, “I can teach you sometime, if you want.”
Sehun imagined Jongdae helping her get her balance with her hands on her waist and felt her stomach swoop.
“Maybe,” she replied coolly and Jongdae just grinned like she knew what Sehun was thinking.
“Well, here we are,” Jongdae announced, pulling over and parking next to the curb.
“Here?” Sehun questioned, climbing out of the car and looking around at the nondescript street. It looked just like every other street of houses in their small town.
“Over here,” Jongdae beckoned and Sehun followed her to the sidewalk in front of a small house that was painted forest green. And then she looked at the front lawn and wow.
She'd noticed the small fountain with a sculpture of a boy and girl under an umbrella that was positioned next to the narrow path to the front door, but she'd never seen the vast assortment of miniature statues covering the lawn. There were little houses arranged like they were in a neighborhood. There were storefronts and cars and even tiny little people. It was like an entire, miniature town was set up in this front yard and Sehun had never seen anything like it.
“Wow,” she breathed, bending down to get a better look, “Who even knew this was here? I mean, obviously you, but...”
Jongdae laughed, crouching down next to her and looking at Sehun instead of at the miniature set up.
Sehun could feel Jongdae's gaze on her as she looked at the pair of girls in front of the tiny ice cream shop.
“I'm glad you like it,” Jongdae said, voice soft and Sehun felt the fluttering in her stomach increase.
So far, she'd done a pretty good job of convincing herself that Jongdae wasn't interested in her in a romantic way, but with the sun setting over them as they quietly looked at this little, fanciful town, Sehun couldn't stop the way her heart was racing. What if this really was a date...?
“Come on,” Jongdae urged, gently tugging on Sehun's elbow as she stood up, “We should go if we're going to be able to see number four before we lose the light.”
Sehun followed her back to the car, feeling like she was floating in a trance with the way her head felt fuzzy and her skin was tingling where Jongdae's fingers had touched.
The short drive to the next place was quiet, but not because they didn't have anything to talk about. It was as though the air was charged with something- like something important was hovering around them and neither of them wanted to wreck it.
“Number four,” Jongdae told her, parking against the curb again and motioning across the street, “We don't need to get out of the car to see this one.”
Sehun looked at the house Jongdae had pointed to, sticking out like a sore thumb in a row of typical colonial houses with perfectly manicured lawns.
This house looked like it had been put together with scraps from a junkyard- different types of siding making the outer walls look like patchwork, strange metal and wood pieces affixed to the roof, and the window shutters all different.
“What-?”
“I don't even know,” Jongdae replied, knowing just what Sehun was thinking, and her laugh broke some of the nearly suffocating anticipation that had filled the car.
“It's so ugly!” Sehun marveled and Jongdae chuckled again.
“Yes, it is.”
Sehun snorted and found herself smiling at Jongdae even as she fought with herself over what all of this meant.
Not the strange things stapled to the house. Who knew what those meant? But the way Jongdae looked at her and the fact that she'd spent the past couple of hours taking Sehun on a tour of their town. Could she really...?
“Where's your house from here?” Jongdae asked and Sehun was brought out of her musings.
“But we only saw four wonders,” she pointed out, “I thought you said there were seven.”
Jongdae grinned as she pulled away from the curb, “I can't show them all to you in one day. I'll take you to the other three next time.”
Sehun flushed and smiled into her lap at the idea of next time.
---
It was only a five minute drive to Sehun's house from there, so it was almost too soon when Jongdae pulled into the driveway and cut the engine.
“Thanks for coming with me on my weird tour,” Jongdae said, turning toward Sehun and shooting her a sheepish smile.
“Thank you for taking me,” Sehun replied shyly.
Jongdae was looking at her so softly that Sehun was nearly frozen in her seat, heart pounding so hard she thought that Jongdae must have been able to hear it.
Sehun might have been able to previously make an argument that Jongdae wasn't interested in her like that, but in that moment, it was impossible to deny that this had been a date. At least in Jongdae's eyes. And probably Sehun's as well.
Jongdae leaning in didn't catch Sehun by surprise, exactly. After the realization that the other girl was, in fact, romantically interested in her, it was basically what Sehun had been expecting. That didn't mean that she was ready for it, though.
At the last second, Sehun leaned back and quickly opened the car door to stumble out into her driveway- heart slamming against her ribcage and hands shaking with what could have been reality had Sehun let it.
“Thanks again!” she said, voice shaky and too high, “See you Monday!”
And then she was high-tailing it into her house, not having the guts to look back to see Jongdae's reaction to her embarrassingly hasty retreat.
With the front door closed behind her, Sehun slumped against the wall of the entryway- hand over her heart and breath coming fast like she'd run the whole way home.
The reality that, had she let her, Jongdae would have kissed her rested heavily on Sehun's mind, only overshadowed by the overwhelmingly undeniable epiphany that Sehun had really, really wanted her to.
---
It was nine PM on a Friday night, and while most high school students would consider that way too early for bed, Jongin was positively wiped out. On top of her full day of school, she had had four hours of dance class followed by an hour of studying in order to get some of her homework out of the way. Then there was the fact that Jongin had to be up by seven the next morning to cheer at the football game the following day that had her collapsing into bed as soon as she'd showered- wet hair soaking through her pillowcase and making the fabric stick uncomfortably to her cheek when she rolled over.
But for as tired as she was, Jongin was kept awake by her racing brain- as always trying to figure out when she'd get all of her homework done over the weekend and over the next week with her cheerleading practice and dance classes. And then she couldn't stop herself from going over the routines she'd worked on that day as well as trying to figure out a better formation for the cheer routine after the flyers dismounted and they moved into the dance section.
She knew that she would be awake for hours if she let her brain go, and she just couldn't afford that with how busy she was going to be.
There was really only one thing that would quiet her mind and tire her out, both, so before she could get too stressed about the paper she had due that Wednesday, Jongin slid her hand down her torso and over the cotton of her underwear to press between her widening thighs.
She never thought about anything when she did this, instead just focusing on the tingles of pleasure that radiated through her body at each pass of her fingers over her fabric-covered core until the material was damp against her fingertips. Then she'd slide her hand under the waistband of her underwear and stroke against her wetness until she came- mind blanking and body surging through each wave of pleasure until she was exhausted and ready to fall into sleep.
It was always just the colors sparking behind her closed lids and the focus to find release that consumed her when she pleasured herself. It was a task that served a purpose and did no more than that. It was an enjoyable task, sure. But it wasn't about her desire that stemmed from the need for another person. It was just about her and her body, plain and simple.
But that night, when she was too close to the edge to care or to stop it, images of long hair and tight jeans and bright smiles that were too enthusiastic to be considered pretty flashed through her mind as she lost control of her body and came.
That was the first time she failed to sleep even after bringing herself to orgasm- plagued with an endless reel of images of a girl she never predicted she'd give a second thought.
This couldn't continue.
Part 2