Cheer for Your Heart (2/3) ✿ for EVERYONE
Baekhyun never shows up to the ice cream parlour. Luhan even promises to sit and keep Jongdae company until she comes, but it gets late and there’s not a peep from Baekhyun. Jongdae texts her, annoyed when she receives no reply.
She finally gets an answer half-way on her walk home and her mood worsens when she sees Chanyeol’s name in the text.
Jongdaeeeee, I’m super sorry I didn’t text back omfg. I was at the movies with Chanyeol!!! :o
Jongdae understands that people aren’t supposed to use their phones in the cinema but still, she can’t help but be affronted that Baekhyun hadn’t said anything to her. A warning would’ve been nice.
Oh, she types back, trying not to sound too offended, lol I waited for you all day!! You didn’t come :/
Baekhyun explains that the movie date had been a surprise and she’d only had half an hour after practice to shower and put her make-up on and get ready and didn’t have time to tell anyone about her change of plans in the middle of it all. Her tone is so contrite with all the sad emojis she uses that Jongdae wonders if she had overreacted over such a small thing. Maybe people in a rush forgot things and it was as simple as that.
She sighs aloud and turns the corner. It’s ok. Luhan was there today so I didn’t miss you too much :D A voice in her head tells her she’s letting Baekhyun walk over her like a doormat, and she’s not too sure what to make of it. This push and pull game was heating up fast.
She suddenly gets an idea just as she reaches her dorm. Hey, you wanna do something this weekend if you’re free? She crosses her fingers, hoping for a yes. Just the two of them, and a day out; no boys, no other people, no Chanyeol and Baekhyun all to herself.
What kind of selfish person am I turning into? she wonders as she lies on her bed, counting cracks in the plaster of the ceiling. I can’t keep wanting her to myself like this.
But it was just one day and that couldn’t hurt, surely. Her phone plays its message tone and the screen lights up.
Yeah! We haven’t hung out in ages!! What should we do?
***
Jongdae’s supposed to be saving up her money to pay tuition fees, but she supposes just a little bit of spending won’t hurt. They meet up at the mall for a splurge in the morning, trying on everything to their fancy and putting outfits together.
“Ooh, I like this one,” Baekhyun gasps, spinning around in front of the mirror in a pink chiffon dress. Jongdae’s not going to tell her that she’ll never have enough boob to fill out the front but Baekhyun seems to have figured it out for herself and changes out of it with a pout on her lips. There’s a pink strapless number with navy polka dots that Baekhyun squeals over how pretty Jongdae looks in it, and the latter snaps it up in a flash.
“My feet are so sore,” Jongdae groans several hours later, plopping down on a bench in the mall’s food court and dumping all her shopping bags on the ground. She grunts as Baekhyun slumps next to her and tries not to think too hard about the scent of Baekhyun’s signature perfume wafting into her nose or the amount of skin to skin contact between them right now.
Baekhyun brushes purple hair away from her face. “Let’s put our feet up and go for a mani-pedi,” she says excitedly, and Jongdae couldn’t refuse if she tried.
They get their nails attended to and a bonus foot spa, with a short massage on top. Jongdae decides on a nice sea blue and Baekhyun picks a dark pink to compliment the colour of her hair, and afterwards they lug all their shopping to Suho’s Scoops to get a sweet treat.
Sehun’s behind the counter today, Joonmyun making sundaes next to her. He glances up, relatively surprised to see the two of them together. He gives Jongdae a questioning look that she purposefully avoids, clinging onto Baekhyun’s arm with the kind of privilege only being besties can provide. They really did have the appearance of a perfect couple.
“Hi guys, what can I get you?” Sehun’s expression is all teeth and eyes crinkled into half-moons; she’s usually not so smiley but Jongdae is very much aware Sehun knows Joonmyun likes girls with long hair and beautiful smiles who read books.
Jongdae orders French vanilla on a cone and wonders which flavour Baekhyun will get to match her mood today.
“I’ll have mint chocolate chip,” Baekhyun declares, and Jongdae’s heart constricts horribly. Of all the things to choose. It’s as if a storm cloud’s decided to start hovering over her head because even Joonmyun is doing the thing where he’s trying to say ‘are you okay’ by contorting his face to convey the message but failing terribly. Baekhyun never gets mint chocolate chip and Jongdae can more or less guess exactly why it’s the flavour of her Chanyeol-less day.
Thankfully, Sehun doesn’t notice and flips her long blonde hair over her shoulder so it doesn’t get in the way of scooping the ice creams (she knows she’s meant to tie it up but Joonmyun likes long hair, she’d once said). The two girls pay and sit in their corner of the parlour and it’s like everything’s back to normal, but it’s not. It just doesn’t feel the same.
“Hey, sourpuss.” Baekhyun passes a freshly manicured hand through Jongdae’s field of vision. “What’s with that look on your face?”
“I think I spent too much today,” Jongdae lies, but it’s probably not completely false. She bites into her ice cream and lets the creamy sweetness flow over her tongue.
“Oh.” Baekhyun licks at her ice cream thoughtfully. “Jongdae, if there was anything bothering you, you’d tell me, right?”
Jongdae blinks. Code red. Change subject immediately. “Uh-huh,” she nods slowly. “We’re friends, aren’t we?” She wasn’t sure where exactly that had come from. She wasn’t the type to be prone to outbursts, but this was something that really stoked the fire.
Baekhyun cocks her head. “Of course we’re friends,” she exclaims, like she’s talking to a child who’s just asked her a dumb question. Then it kind of clicks and falls into place. “Hey, is this about Chanyeol? I know you don’t like guys but- ”
“No, it’s not like that, Baek.” Everything is awkward now.
“Is that why you wanted to hang out this weekend?” Baekhyun asks curiously. She suddenly seems guilty, all interest lost in her ice cream as she stares down at the table. Her fingers pick at the napkin wrapped around her cone. “I’ve been a bad friend, haven’t I… man, I’m so dumb that I let a guy take up all my time.” She looks so apologetic about it that Jongdae wants to hug her and tell her it’s okay.
“I promise I won’t be one of those people who let boyfriends ruin their friendships,” Baekhyun firmly swears. Her waffle cone looks like it’s about to crack under the pressure of her fingers before it starts trembling and small tears gather at the corner of her eyes. “Please don’t be mad at me.”
Wonderful, now Jongdae feels bad for even bringing it up. Her own emotions don’t feel like they belong to her anymore. Instead they dance to the rhythm of Baekhyun, but for now Jongdae settles with being relieved that Baekhyun hasn’t unravelled her entire secret. That was how everything was going to be in the future. Settle for second best. Settle for unrequited feelings.
“Don’t cry,” Jongdae warns her, trying to lift the mood. She pulls out her phone. “If you do I will Instagram it.”
Baekhyun sniffs, but she manages a smile and licks a melted trail of ice cream snaking its way down the side of the cone. “I’m sorry for being a sucky friend,” she moans. Then she leans over the table and grabs Jongdae’s wrist. “You know what, we should find you a girlfriend. Somebody to occupy your time.”
But Jongdae doesn’t want a girlfriend just to occupy her time, or to distract herself with. Maybe she’s dreaming too hard or wasting too much time wishing upon falling stars, but there’s only one girl she wants.
“You know Amber from Chanyeol’s band, don’t you?” Baekhyun nudges her friend. “I dunno if she’s into girls but I heard her practising her rap once and it was mind-blowingly awesome.”
Jongdae makes a face at the mention of Chanyeol’s name, but Baekhyun mistakes it as disinterest towards Amber.
“Oh, come on. Or one of these days, your only remaining option is going to be Luhan.”
Jongdae makes another face because Luhan’s entire existence basically belongs to Minseok, who possesses the density of a tree and doesn’t even know in the slightest. It’s a reflection of Jongdae’s own tragic love life, except Minseok’s sexuality is a giant question mark and Baekhyun’s is just… no. Luhan’s pretty in her own right and Jongdae would date her right off the bat but sparks don’t fly between them and life is a complicated piece of shit that doesn’t make sense. Nevertheless, Jongdae’s somewhat glad that Baekhyun is putting her friend’s interests at heart by attempting to hook her up.
Baekhyun laughs merrily and everything in the world feels alright again.
***
“Hey pumpkin, mind if I video you babes today?”
Tuesday’s rolled around and the cheerleading team is on the outdoor court sweating it out again. Their cheer for the intercollege competition is in the midst of starting to come together and Baekhyun’s spending today putting all the moves into action. The usual spectator is there on there on the bleachers, but today he has a special request.
“Video us?” Baekhyun is stunned. “But we’re not ready for the competition yet! There’s nothing to video…”
Chanyeol grins down at her from his overbearing height and Baekhyun’s insides turn to goo. “Just pretend I’m making a behind-the-scenes clip,” he says, patting her endearingly on the head. “When you win and take home that trophy, I’m going to organize for the footage to be played on a giant screen so everyone can see what makes a champion.”
Baekhyun’s mouth drops open and she flushes several shades redder.
“So cute,” Yixing coos from a distance, shaking Luhan’s arm manically. “Aw, they’re so perfect for each other.”
“Cheesy,” Luhan shakes her head. “Is he learning that from Kris?”
Yixing calls her a meanie.
Baekhyun lets Chanyeol do what he likes. The competition’s no doubt going to be on camera anyway, and the team could well do with some added pressure. She marches back to where the girls have drifted out of their formations and blows her whistle loudly.
“No slacking! Back into position and start over from the prep!”
***
As per their normal habits, Baekhyun accompanies Jongdae to the ice cream parlour after work with the usual skip in her step. It’s not even mint chocolate chip today, with Baekhyun opting for tropical explosion, followed by her typical harassment of Jongdae for picking boring flavours (vanilla) again. Joonmyun watches them with renewed interest, baffled at Jongdae’s sudden turnaround of mood since the weekend. Nevertheless, it’s still good to see the two of them getting on, chatting and giggling in the corner of his parlour and Jongdae dashing back over the other side of the counter to serve the incoming customers.
***
On Friday Baekhyun pushes them at practice again until they’re whining about how they won’t be able to walk to class the next day, moaning about sore legs and being overly sweaty. Jongdae’s spent so much time suspended in the air that she’s sure that her brain has malfunctioned somewhere along the way with all the blood rushing to her head. She’d only stuffed up one part when she accidentally made eye contact with Chanyeol videoing them again. It’s really starting to grind on her nerves but she doesn’t have the heart to tell Baekhyun to make him go away. It was bad enough watching him make Baekhyun giggle by whispering in her ear all the way to the changing rooms after practice.
***
Jongdae help!! I can’t believe it’s Sunday already?? I don’t even know when my roman architecture assignment is due???
Jongdae puts her phone down and shuffles her Mandarin grammar sheets into order. Typical Baekhyun, panicking about homework at the last minute. They don’t share any classes at all and Jongdae doesn’t even have an inkling about what Roman people did with their houses, but thankfully she remembers Baekhyun putting aside the 1000-word essay about a week and a half ago in favour of working on the cheerleading competition.
Wednesday, Jongdae types back, and she can imagine Baekhyun dramatically wiping tears of gratefulness off her face. Remember???
Crap, I don’t think I can go to class tomorrow.
Jongdae rolls her eyes and shoves her stuff into her backpack, slipping her shoes on and texting a reply with one hand as she leaves the dorm. I’m coming over, she says, twisting the key in the lock.
They don’t get much done in terms of the actual essay since Baekhyun’s the one supposed to be writing it, but at least they manage to get her pointed in the right direction and get some things listed to include in her assignment when she gets down to writing it.
“I’m going to buy you lunch next week,” Baekhyun sniffles, pushing her friend out the door, convinced that Jongdae’s done enough already for her that day.
Understandably, Jongdae doesn’t see her around on Monday. She’s not in the campus cafeteria during lunch or in any of the libraries. Baekhyun does text to say she’s working on her assignment at home, so Jongdae’s worries settle.
***
“I didn’t see Baekhyun at all today,” Yixing says, a look of concern flittering across her face. She bites her lower lip nervously and plays with the hem of her skirt.
The team is out on the court for practice, although there’s no sign of their captain anywhere. Half of them have already texted her, with no answer.
“Poor thing,” Minseok sighs. “She gives too much of herself to this competition.”
“Hey, guys!”
They turn their heads to see Baekhyun running towards them, hair untidy and her practice uniform crumpled in several places. Her shoelace is untied and Jongdae is on the verge of yelling for her to stop and do it up before she trips over and hurts herself on the concrete.
Yixing takes her bag off her and puts it aside when Baekhyun comes to a stop, hands on her knees and chest heaving with exertion.
“Sorry… I’m… late,” she pants, wiping her sweaty forehead. Jongdae can see what looks like the start of black circles under her eyes. “Doing… assignment.”
They reassure her that it’s okay (“we didn’t miss you” - Luhan) and she lets them off with an easy practice. They just do some improvement on their footwork and perfecting one of their basket tosses - which Jongdae executes without a slip since Chanyeol’s not here to unnerve her today. And only then does it hit her - he’s not here.
“Where’s Chanyeol?” she blurts out in the middle of a heel stretch. Kyungsoo and Minseok look up from below, where they have Jongdae balanced on their hands above their heads, and come to the same realization.
Baekhyun’s nonplussed by the question. “Oh, he said he had stuff to do today so he couldn’t come,” she shrugs. “And I don’t want him to see me tired and ugly.” She points up at Jongdae’s leg. “Lift a little higher or you’re going to fall over sideways.”
Jongdae straightens her leg a bit more. She wobbles slightly, prompting Yixing and Luhan to step forward to catch her but she regains her balance, and extends her remaining arm out to complete the position. “You’re not ugly, Baek, don’t be silly. Is this better?”
Well, maybe Chanyeol had a life and had better things to do than record his girlfriend at cheer practice. It’s a pretty good start to the week in Jongdae’s opinion.
They pack up at the end of practice and trek into the changing rooms, still chirpy and less grouchy than their previously more gruelling sessions. Luhan and Yixing converse in the corner next to Jongdae in their native Chinese and Baekhyun makes her way over, wedging herself between the benches with her normal clothes in one hand and her backpack in the other.
“Work today?” she inquires. She steps out of her skirt and lets it drop to the floor.
Jongdae nods, swallowing hard and steeling every part of herself to not stare when Baekhyun strips her sweaty top off and throws it down to join her skirt. Baekhyun is soft and toned and feminine in all the right places, her figure honed from years of cheerleading, and Jongdae just wants to run her hands over the planes of bare skin and kiss it.
“Um, is it okay if I don’t come today?” Baekhyun bites down on her lower lip.
“Are you still doing your assignment?” Jongdae asks. Most likely, she thinks with a small smile to herself.
“Yeah…” Baekhyun at least has the decency to look guilty, rubbing the back of her head. “I’ve just got one last bit to do, I promise!”
Oh. Jongdae offers to help with anything else even though she knows zilch about classical subjects, but apparently Kyungsoo’s already been enlisted to do the final proofreading of the essay. She wishes her team captain luck and after a few more words of encouragement to bolster her motivation, Jongdae heads off.
Work is neither busy nor slow, but the constant trickle of customers is enough to keep her on her feet for an hour or two. Business has died down and Jongdae’s just given the ice cream scoops a quick clean when Luhan pops in, arms around a big brown paper bag of goodies from the bakery down the road.
“Yo yo yo, what’s the ice cream of the day?”
Jongdae pats her hands dry on her apron. “We don’t have an ice cream of the day,” she says dryly. “The maple shortcake one’s nice though. Sehun put it in yesterday.”
“’Kay, I’ll have a single scoop. Want a chocolate croissant? They’re delicious!” Luhan digs around in her paper bag for the half-price items she’d bought just before the bakery’s closing. Jongdae supposes she shouldn’t say no, so she fetches a plate from the kitchen for Luhan to put it on as she scoops out the ice cream. They chat idly over the counter, sharing their excitement for the upcoming competition to some clarification on Mandarin sentence structure to what Minseok wore today and Jongdae swats her friend good-naturedly with a hand.
“I don’t think I’ve ever paid that much attention to what someone wore for a period of one day,” Jongdae laughs. “Luhan.” She folds a napkin into a triangle and wraps it around a cone before sticking it into the cone dispenser.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone pay so much attention to Byun Baekhyun, but here we are,” the blonde shoots back, and Jongdae’s eye twitches slightly. The door buzzer goes off and her words get stuck in her mouth.
“Aw, really? Isn’t it, uh, too cold for ice cream?” Chanyeol’s deep voice isn’t booming loud, but Jongdae can hear him from where she’s stationed behind the counter. Luhan’s head swivels around, an eyebrow raised.
The blonde female hanging off Chanyeol’s arm is pulling him inside Suho’s Scoops, while he’s clearly trying to avoid coming in without offending her.
“Please, Channie? I’ve never been here before!” she insists. “Look, it’s such a cute little place!”
Jongdae’s suspicions are suddenly on high alert before she even stops to think through the situation logically. She watches Chanyeol relent and give in, letting himself be dragged in by the girl with her arm looped through his, and before Jongdae can pull herself together they’re making a beeline for the counter. Pretty mystery female doesn’t seem uncomfortable being so close to Chanyeol, looking more than happy to stick even closer to him, as if they were in… in a relationship or something.
“Luhan, buy some ice cream,” she hisses, and Luhan blinks in confusion. “Uh, Joonmyun, can you come out for a sec?”
Joonmyun’s head appears from the kitchen, where he’s fixing himself a snack. “What’s wrong?” he asks, concerned.
“I - I just need to get some more cones from the store room for someone…”
“Righto, coming.”
Jongdae leaves Luhan standing stupefied on the other side of the counter and abandons her half-folded napkins to flee into the store room at the back, where she berates herself for acting so rashly as soon as she’s alone.
Dammit, Jongdae, what are you doing? You don’t even know who she is, ugh. I bet that’s his sister and I just made myself look totally stupid.
She peeks out of the store room to wait until Joonmyun’s finished making their ice creams before coming back out. She makes sure she’s grabbed a stack of cones to validate her white lie before scurrying past her boss.
“Thanks,” she mumbles, and fortunately Joonmyun nods back at her and disappears into the kitchen again to tend to his grilled cheese.
Luhan’s still staring at her from the other side of the ice cream freezer, holding the paper cup of boysenberry ice cream she’s just bought. “Hey,” she whispers, tipping her head slightly in Chanyeol’s direction. “Isn’t - isn’t he… Jongdae, what’s going on?”
“The hell if I know,” Jongdae huffs. She continues folding napkins and wrapping them around cones, shoving them into the cone dispenser with probably more force than necessary. She sneaks a glance out of the corner of her eye at the pair sitting across from each other at a table, where they’re feeding each other ice cream with their spoons.
“Dara, I think I’m going to get brain freeze if you make me eat any more,” she hears Chanyeol say. Whatever else he says is cut off by Dara leaning across the table and dropping a kiss on his lips. It would be pretty cute if, say, Jongdae didn’t happen to know them.
“Oh my god.” Luhan’s mouth drops open as she looks back and forth between them and Jongdae. “This is fucked up… I thought he was going out with Baek…”
“He is.” Jongdae feels anger bubbling up inside her. The next time she looks up again she catches Chanyeol’s eyes for a split second before he looks away, and she realizes that he knows Jongdae is onto him. The atmosphere in the ice cream parlour is suddenly eerily uncomfortable despite the amount of people happily eating their desserts around them.
“I can’t believe this. That lying asshole,” Luhan mutters angrily. The paper cup she’s holding threatens to crumple in her hand. “I’m gonna tell-”
“Don’t,” Jongdae cuts in sharply. Chanyeol throws a look at them, but doesn’t give away that he’s heard anything they’ve said.
“What? Are you just going to let him do what he wants?”
Jongdae puts the last cone into the dispenser and picks up the stack of cones she’d brought out from the store room. There’s nowhere for them to go. “I don’t want to hurt her,” she says quietly, ignoring Luhan’s noise of indignant protest. “I don’t know who that girl is. Please don’t, Luhan. Promise me. Let me take care of it.”
The blonde regards her seriously. She knows Baekhyun means everything to Jongdae, but leaving her into the dark just seems to be the worst thing to do right now. “I hope you don’t regret this, you know,” she says. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Yeah.” Jongdae sees Dara check her phone and frown. She says something to Chanyeol that sounds like she’s supposed to be somewhere else soon. They two of them quickly finish the last of their ice cream and Jongdae nearly misses Chanyeol’s expression of relief as Dara takes his hand and leads him out the door. “Yeah, I hope so too.”
Luhan sighs. She puts her paper cup of ice cream on the counter, the spoon still sitting in it. “It melted. Can I have some more ice cream?”
***
“Ugh,” Baekhyun complains, throwing her backpack onto the grass next to where Jongdae is, “that was awful.”
They didn’t manage to meet for lunch as Baekhyun’s been rushing to finish her assignment all morning, but their lunch hour’s over and they’ve agreed to go and chill on one of the university lawns.
Jongdae tilts her sunglasses down from where she’s lying on the grass, a novel splayed out on her stomach. “Did you hand it in?” she asks.
“Yep, but I just half-assed the references at the end. Professor Jang can suck it up. Man, I’m so tired...” Baekhyun flops down beside Jongdae to enjoy the afternoon sunshine, yawning and closing her eyes for a well-deserved catnap. Her hair fans out, purple stark against the green grass, and Jongdae can smell the scent of her perfume. The dark smudges under Baekhyun’s eyes look more prominent and Jongdae resists the urge to sweep her fingers across Baekhyun’s face, run her fingers across the skin beneath her eyes and across her cheeks and plump lips, pink and shiny with lip gloss. She’s glad she’s got her sunnies on to hide the fact that she staring, but Baekhyun’s the kind of person who embodies the word beautiful and doesn’t know it. How could she bear to make tears run down that face?
Yesterday’s incident at the ice cream parlour crosses her mind. She’d walked home while thinking about it, gotten back to her dorm and made kimchi jigae while thinking about it, and even gotten told off this morning in her Chinese history class for being distracted.
“You should’ve made Chanyeol help you,” Jongdae says, trying to pawn it off as a joke and not an accusation.
“Nah, he knows even less about Roman architecture than you do.” Baekhyun waves her hand dismissively. “He said he had a friend visiting from another state yesterday so he couldn’t help anyway. Besides, Kyungsoo already did a lot of the checking and I just had to fix up little bits here and there.”
“A friend from another state?” Jongdae’s puzzled. Did Park Chanyeol kiss all his friends from other states and take them out on ice cream dates?
“Yeah, why? Did you see them hanging out?”
“No, just wondering… I’m glad you and him get on so well.” Jongdae swallows down the lump in her throat.
Baekhyun simply nods, smiles brightly and replies with “uh-huh” so innocently that Jongdae is certain her friend knows nobody by the name of Dara.
***
By Friday Baekhyun’s back to her normal bouncy self. She throws all her guts back into cheerleading now that she’s free of assignments, and it shows clearly in cheer practice that afternoon.
“Yes!” she yells, exploding out of their six-strong formation and punching the air repeatedly, “yes, yes, yes! We got it, we got it!” They've managed to put their completed routine together today, with all their jumps and tosses and footwork all in the right place.
“Does that mean we're done for the day?” Yixing asks hopefully. She's ever the hard worker and has never not given her best shot at everything, but her face is red from the workout and beads of sweat roll down her neck and into her top. Somewhere in the back of the formation Luhan is lying on the concrete panting, a worried Minseok crouched next to her.
There's a solid fifteen minutes left until the end of their practice but Baekhyun lets them off early, skipping all the way to the changing rooms with her bag slung over her shoulder and singing at the top of her voice. “Practice next Tuesday!” she announces to the team, still half-naked and digging around in her bag for her shorts, “we're gonna get this perfect and win that competition!”
The changing room erupts into a cheer.
“Put some pants on first,” Kyungsoo says, swiping up Baekhyun's shorts from under the bench and throwing them at her.
Baekhyun squeaks and scurries away with them. “Soo's evil,” she pouts at Jongdae, pulling her shorts up her legs.
Jongdae laughs and bends over to tie her laces up. “That's because you're being an evil slave driver of a captain,” she jokes. She pulls the strings of her duffel bag tight and hoists it over her shoulder. “Are you coming for ice cream today?”
Baekhyun perks up at the mention of dessert. “Of course! Wait for me, I gotta text Chanyeol first!”
It's almost like his name is a button now, setting off a rush of fury in Jongdae's system. Keep calm, she tells herself, gritting her teeth in her efforts to keep her face straight.
“Why do you need to text him?” she asks, hoping she doesn't come off as too demanding, but Baekhyun's attention isn't even focused on her. Her fingers tap rapidly on her phone as she types out a message to her boyfriend.
We got so much done!! We got the whole thing right c: Next practice we're going to work on it some more and fix and add more if we need to. Come and check us out on Tuesday pls??
She suddenly notices Jongdae's peering over her shoulder and yelps, clutching her phone to her chest so nobody can see it. “He thinks I'm cute when I'm excited about cheerleading,” she mumbles, a blush suffusing her cheeks. “So he always asks how practice is going.”
Well, Jongdae thinks with much amusement, at least she's not the only one.
“Hi unnie,” Sehun says when Jongdae walks in to take over from her shift, waving at them. She motions for Jongdae to come over behind the counter as Baekhyun heads straight for the ice cream freezer.
“Hey. What's up?” Jongdae squeezes past Sehun into the back of the shop to change into her work uniform. She slips the black t-shirt over her head, the cute Joonmyun chibi printed on it smiling back with his thumbs up.
“Joonmyun wants to talk to you. He said to keep an eye out for when you came in.” Sehun takes her own t-shirt off, sounding somewhat concerned (although Jongdae suspects it's more concern for Joonmyun than anybody else).
“Oh, right. Thanks, I'll go and find him.” Jongdae ties her hair up into a neat bun, bidding Sehun goodbye.
Not even a moment later Joonmyun sticks his head into the back. “We need to talk,” he states. “Right now.”
Jongdae tilts her head in confusion. “What's wrong? Did something happen?” she asks.
“I don't know,” Joonmyun grumbles. “Park Chanyeol was here yesterday with the girl from Tuesday. She likes the ice cream and I doubt she'll hesitate to come again. I'm not blind, Jongdae, and I know it's none of my business,” he warns, waggling a finger in her face, “but if the two of them show up today while Baekhyun is here-”
Jongdae's hands fly to her mouth. “Oh my god,” she gasps. “Shit. I have to tell her-” She dashes past Joonmyun, only just remembering to thank him for looking out for them, and bursts into the front of the parlour to find a nightmare waiting for her.
“You didn't have to do that! I just - I - you lied to me!” Baekhyun cries shrilly, tears streaming down her face. She stands off against a nonchalant Chanyeol, with Dara next to him, whose lofty expression and unbothered stance make her look like she barely cares.
“I guess you were kind of dumb,” Chanyeol shrugs, and Baekhyun struggles to hold back a sob. “You got played like a fool, pumpkin.”
“Fuck, I'm too late,” Jongdae curses under her breath as Baekhyun starts screaming at Chanyeol, much to the interest of the other customers in the ice cream parlour. “Baek-” she starts, but Baekhyun hasn't even noticed she's there.
“I hate you!” Baekhyun shrieks at Chanyeol, her fingers white from gripping her belongings so hard. “You stupid, stupid-“
“Take your arguments outside, you three,” Joonmyun's orders, voice as steely as his gaze. “This is not the place for that.”
“But-” Jongdae glances between Chanyeol and her boss. She can't just leave Baekhyun by herself, especially not now. If there was anybody terrible at defending themselves either physically or verbally, it would be Baekhyun. She just wasn't the type to insult people off the bat. “Let me go and talk to them!”
Joonmyun nods at the line of customers, half of who are craning their necks to see the commotion outside. “You have a job, Jongdae.”
Jongdae bites down on her lip to contain her frustration, watching Dara smile with satisfaction as she leads Chanyeol out the door. "Goddammit," she mutters. "Sorry, Joonmyun. Hi there, madam, what can I get you?"
Despite how fast she scoops all the customers their ice cream, Baekhyun is already gone by the time Jongdae flings open the front door to find her. She lets out an angry growl and storms back inside. Work drags on and the temptation to get her phone out to text Baekhyun is overpowering but she resists, asking her boss for anything he wants done and busying herself with menial task after task. Joonmyun watches her like a hawk.
“Look after her,” is all he says after they're closed and he's letting Jongdae out of the shop.
Jongdae grunts in reply. She spends the entire walk home wondering what to say.
I'm sorry I haven't been telling you everything. She deletes it straightaway.
Hey, there's something I should've told you… She snorts at how stupid she sounds. She deletes it that too and sighs deeply, kicking violently at a pebble in her path.
Do you want to talk? I'm here for you, she eventually settles with. She makes a detour to the supermarket to buy some groceries, avidly checking her phone after every item she takes off the shelf. Baekhyun doesn't answer, not until Jongdae's back in her dorm making something to eat. Her message is short and simple and it makes tears well up in Jongdae's eyes.
He was sending all those videos he recorded to Dara. I don't want to talk to anybody right now. I need to think on my own.
The screen lights up with another text.
Thanks for looking out for me.
Jongdae can't tell if that's sarcasm or an expression of gratitude but it doesn't matter because it hurts either way, and tears are already running down her cheeks.
***
Baekhyun basically vanishes over the weekend. Jongdae's agreed to let her have her own space and time to think, but Baekhyun doesn't make contact with her at all. She considers asking the other team members but in the end, she figures it would lead to them asking more questions than Jongdae getting actual answers. She wasn't the type to go and share people's business with others.
She mulls over it all weekend. It's constantly distracting, like a splinter in her thumb. She can't even do her revision without thinking about what Baekhyun's doing. It eats away at her insides until on Sunday night, Jongdae throws down her Mandarin vocabulary flash cards in defeat and goes to sleep.
***
Baekhyun doesn't show up on Monday. It's uncharacteristic of her to skip any of her classes and her circle of friends know it, questions at the ready as soon as Jongdae sits down at the table with her lunch tray.
“Where's Baek?” Minseok asks. “Is she busy with another assignment?”
They all look at Jongdae, who starts sweating in her seat. “We went out for dinner last night and she thinks the prawn was a little funny," she lies. Boy, she’s getting good at lying.
“Oh no,” Yixing gasps, pulling out her phone. "I'm going to tell her to go to the doctor-”
“Oh, no no, Yixing, I already made her promise to go...” Jongdae hurriedly reaches out and pats her team mate on the arm in attempt to stop her. “She's probably resting in bed. I'm planning to go and check on her after my 2 o'clock lecture.”
Yixing seems to put the dots together and puts her phone away, not wanting to disturb Baekhyun if she's sleeping. “Okay... I hope she feels better soon. Do you know if we'll still have practice tomorrow?”
“This is Byun Baekhyun we're talking about,” Luhan snorts. “She wouldn't give up a chance to run us into the ground for the world. Her lifeline is cheerleading, I shit you not.”
But she's maintaining eye contact with Jongdae, and the message she's trying to convey is clear. You stuffed up, didn't you.
***
Jongdae turns up at Baekhyun's dorm bang on 3 o'clock, food and drink in one hand and her heart feeling like it's going to erupt from her chest. Baekhyun's roommate lets her in.
“She's been holed up in her room for days,” she says, shaking her head sadly. “She won't stop crying and won't tell me anything.”
Jongdae assures her she'll do her best. She takes a breath to calm her nerves and knocks on Baekhyun's door. “Baek?” she tries. ‘Are you in there? It's me, Jongdae.”
There's nothing but silence and the overbearing door that keeps the two of them apart. Jongdae's determined not to give up. She raises her hand and is about to knock again when she hears the sound of the lock clicking, and the door opens a crack.
Jongdae doesn't have the guts to tell Baekhyun she looks like shit.
Baekhyun peers out from her room. Her eyes are red and puffy and her complexion is pale, like she's sickly and hasn't seen sunlight or a decent meal in a while.
“J-Jongdae?” she says weakly, hiccupping. “Why are you here?”
Jongdae sighs. “Why do you think? Can I come in?”
Baekhyun opens the door for her. The room is a mess. There are tissues lying everywhere and a pile of dirty bowls lie stacked up on the desk, chopsticks on the floor. Jongdae opens the curtains and windows before making Baekhyun sit on the bed.
“Here, I brought you some food,” she says, unpacking the sushi she'd bought from the cafeteria. She hands it over with a pair of disposable chopsticks and a bottle of orange juice.
Baekhyun sniffs gratefully and wipes her eyes. “You didn't have to,” she says, but Jongdae shushes her and urges her to eat. “Oh my god, Jongdae, you didn't even have to come over… I wasn’t trying to avoid you, honestly, I just didn’t want you see me all pathetic and crying my eyes out over a dumb guy…”
The sushi never really makes it to Baekhyun’s mouth; it wobbles precariously between her chopsticks, her lips quivering in the same way with the effort of holding everything in, and she drops it back into the container and buries her face in her hands.
“I’m the stupid one,” she wails, bursting into tears. “I can’t believe I just went and believed everything he said to me, just like that! I deserved-”
“No, Baekhyun, listen to me,” Jongdae interrupts, placing her hands on Baekhyun’s shoulders, “You didn’t deserve any of that. None of it, do you hear me?”
Baekhyun sobs harder, fresh tears dripping down her cheeks. Jongdae doesn’t say anything, just pulls Baekhyun towards her, wrapping her arms around her like she’s a fragile child to be protected. She lets her cry it out, rubbing her back with a comforting hand and murmuring in her ear. Her tears leave a wet patch on Jongdae’s cardigan as she cries until she can’t cry anymore, fingers clutching Jongdae’s arms and her face a swollen, damp mess.
Jongdae holds her until Baekhyun’s snivelling dies down, revelling in the warmth of having her so close; she holds her until she says nothing for so long that Jongdae think she’s fallen asleep.
“He said he didn’t care about me,” Baekhyun says, voice so quiet that Jongdae has to strain to hear her properly. “I had a use, and I fulfilled it. That’s what he told me in the shop.” She lifts her head from where it’s been resting on Jongdae’s shoulder to look at her with an expression that Jongdae can’t quite decipher. “I’m glad you were out the back and didn’t hear what he said about me.”
Jongdae looks back down at her and sees hurt, despair, betrayal. She tears her eyes away and without even thinking about it, raises her hand to stroke Baekhyun’s hair.
“Don’t feel like you have to tell me things that you don’t want to,” she says gently. Her fingers catch on a tangle in Baekhyun’s purple locks.
“He two-timed me from the beginning,” Baekhyun says, wiping her cheeks of tears. “He’s been with Dara for years. He didn’t record our practices because he actually gave a shit about me.”
“I… I did kind of think it was strange that a basketballer would want anything to do with cheerleading.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
“He was sending videos to Dara, wasn’t he-”
“Jongdae, do you know who Dara is?”
Jongdae falters. She hadn’t thought that far, had only assumed said female was Chanyeol’s girlfriend of some unknown origin. “…No?”
“Dara is vice-captain of YG’s cheerleading team.”
Oh. Of course. It all comes together in Jongdae’s head. Her stomach feels queasy at the thought of it. 2NE1 were going to be present at the intercollege competition this year, head to head with SM. So Chanyeol had just been a go-between, a spy in enemy territory. It still makes Jongdae sick. He had to have some backbone to take advantage of people and show not even the slightest remorse.
“They were watching us the whole time, seeing what we were doing, maybe even copying us,” Baekhyun chokes back tears. “And - and when we were getting ice cream last week, Chanyeol said you saw him and Dara on Tuesday. He said even you were against me, because you didn’t say a word.”
Jongdae freezes, the blood draining from her face. A million and one excuses rush her to her mind, but she pushes them away; how many more lies did Baekhyun want to hear?
Although her face is impassive, Baekhyun seems to have felt the stiffness in Jongdae’s posture.
“I know you didn’t want to tell me,” she sighs, her fingers picking at a stray thread in Jongdae’s cardigan. “He had to be lying. I know you would never want to hurt me like that, so it’s okay that you didn’t say anything at all.”
“Oh, Baekhyun.” Jongdae tightens her arms around her, closing her eyes, breathing in her warm softness. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you earlier… I just didn’t know where to go from there.”
“Just forget about it. Jongdae, what am I supposed to do for the competition now?”
Jongdae plucks the chopsticks from Baekhyun’s hand and picks up a piece of sushi for her. “Eat first,” she says firmly.
Baekhyun nods weakly, wolfing down her food like she’s starving. She’s doesn’t even care that Jongdae’s doting on her like this, feeding her piece after piece of sushi and making sure she eats it all.
“Thanks for coming over,” she mumbles between mouthfuls, lowering her head in a way that would make others think she was ashamed. “Seriously, where would I be without you...”
“Well, how was I meant to just leave you here by yourself? We’re going to deal with this one step at a time, okay?”
”Okay,” Baekhyun says, but she still sounds unsure.
“Good. Starting with practice Tuesday tomorrow, are we still going ahead with it?”
This time, there’s not even hint of hesitation in her voice - not when it comes to the sport that owns her heart.
“We’re going to. It’s too late to back out now, and YG can go to hell.”
Both of them know the competition is only two weeks away.
Jongdae’s lips curve into a smile. Dedication like that, she thinks, is what makes people fall in love.
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