You don't belong with me (1/?)
Title: You don’t belong with me (1/?)
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance, Humor
Pairing: Jonghyun x girl!key(Gwiboon), platonic Minkey, 2min(Minho x girl!taemin(Taeyeon)), others implied
Word count: 4456
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summary: Gwiboon (also known as Key), is in every way the college’s reigning queen bee- the one that every girl hates but wishes to be. Unfortunately, people like her don’t get the boy of their dreams (handsome, charming neighbor boy with his own rock band) because she’s just not his type; he needs to be with the devoted nerdy girl pining for him. Or is it?
A twist on the usual ‘nice nerdy girl gets boy’ theme!
Inspired by a conversation I had with a friend, where I was like ‘I think, OTPs aside, Gwiboon would be Jonghyun’s ideal type.’ But she went D: and retorted with, ‘No, but look at his girlfriend (Sekyung)! I think Jjong only likes Key because he’s fun to play with and will entertain him.’
I simply replied with a ‘who knows!?’ and wrote fic. So S, this is for you, though I doubt you’d ever read it.
For fic’s sake, the ages/school grades are all sort of glossed over; don’t pay too much attention to it.
Also, in general, I never write het!/genderswitch fics but this idea came to me so naturally :D
And no insults are meant; I was a wallflower myself.
Comments really appreciated~
Minho slid into the seat opposite her and took one look at her and sighed disapprovingly. The school’s star athlete wasn’t all brawn and no brain; he figured it out even on the way here. Walking into the café, his suspicions were confirmed.
Still, he waited for a while before he patiently asked,
“What gives, Key?”
She swirled her drink a bit; looking at the whites and browns in her cup converge together so prettily.
“Hello Minho. I’m using you.”
“I can tell. But mind telling me why? Haven’t we already established that we don’t match?”
“No one else knows that yet.”
Minho rolled his eyes before snatching her affogato and taking a huge sip out of it. Key looked mildly scandalized.
“Payback. And so this is for… oh, Jonghyun again.” He swirled around slightly to look at the gaggle of girls at the corner booth that he already noticed when he came in and noted the one girl he knew Key was also watching. He realized that his one gesture caused half the table of girls to go red in the face. They started whispering among themselves.
“Shut up. And don’t stare at them so blatantly! You’re going to cause them to have nosebleeds. Make googly eyes at me.”
“If you’ll buy me an affogato. The ones here are awesome.” Minho bargained.
Key simply pulled her Miu Miu wallet out and waved it a little desperately.
“You can have anything you like.”
“I’m seriously amazed how far you’d go just to attempt to look evil.” Minho teased, but with no real spite. He flagged the waiter over, ordered his drink and played with the numerous rings adorning Key’s slender fingers, well aware that the wallflower club was watching their every move intently.
The wallflowers- a term coined up by Her Majesty The Queen Diva Gwiboon, better known as Key- were a bunch of girls that were average looking, of fair intelligence but really boring. They were generally shy, geeky and quiet and didn’t fancy school events or sports much. The problem wasn’t so much that they lacked personality or anything; it was that despite their goody-two-shoe-ness, they were horribly gossipy among themselves.
Key was quite the complete opposite of the typical wallflower; which was why ever since years ago, she was labeled as Public Enemy No. 1 by them.
Key knew people often got a misconception of her; or to be precise, not so much a misconception than an exaggeration.
She loved it when those goody two shoes gang stiffened around her; they called her a plethora of names behind her back or sometimes, in a whisper (as if she was blind and deaf) and in general, just hurting. But she learnt, from a young age that the clichéd rhyme of ‘stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ was absolutely true. Sometimes it did hurt though, piercingly so. Why should these people label her when they didn’t even know her?
“How long are we going to keep up this charade then?” Minho interjected softly.
“As in for today?”
“You know that’s not what I mean, Key.”
“As we agreed before dear; when you find your dream girl or I…”
“Get over Jjong?” Minho cut in directly.
“I hate you.” The boy smirked as Key fake-pouted miserably.
“Track and field meet tomorrow so I need to rest early tonight.” He mentioned as an afterthought.
“Yes, I know. We’re going to be there too. I was supposed to meet the girls here to finalize the cheer list but the wallflowers suddenly came along, so I told them we’d meet early in the morning instead. You know how the wallflowers are like towards my angels.”
“So you called me to cover you because it would be lame for you to walk out here alone.”
“Yep. You know me too well. So clever.” She mock-clasped her hands in typical cheerleader fashion, earning a half-smile from the boy.
Minho gave a long suffering sigh. He finished his drink and stood up.
“Come on, I’ll drive you home.”
“Thank you.”
In Key’s opinion, there wasn’t really anything wrong being her. Actually, no, scratch that, she loved being her. She didn’t mind the usual veiled insults by the less popular girls or their jealous looks or their awkward fear of her.
It was just the problem of having to keep up with their ‘expectation’ or reputation of her. She understood she was the stereotypical mean girl. She was queen bee (voted most popular for the 3rd consecutive year), social butterfly extraordinaire (a party was only considered a success if she were present), Cheerleading captain and Dance club’s welfare-in-charge among many other titles.
Yet, was one defined simply by the titles they held?
She was popular, that she understood. But why? For the sole reason she actually bothered and dared to socialize with others. That and because she had an interesting personality.
She was cheerleading captain only because no one wanted the arduous task and the dance girls all thought she would be up to it. That and because the costumes were shiny.
So her skirts were a little on the short side. But she liked her style fine. And she worked so hard for her body; she deserved to be able to dress in any fashion she deemed fit. Was there a problem with being confident and self-aware? And it wasn’t as if she didn’t ever wear t-shirts or anything.
She could afford the newest fashions and the nicest accessories, but that was because her parents, for lack of better words, had the money for it. Indeed, she was pampered but only because material wants made up for emotional needs. There were only so many handbags one could buy to fill the void left by a perennially empty house. Sometimes she rather wished her parents were at home rather than giving her money for new shoes, not that she’d ever say it. Being home alone all the time meant that she was disgustingly self reliant and independent. She could even whip up a storm; cook as well as some amateur chefs, thank you very much.
Her honesty (which was frankly a bit too…frank) was misconstrued as brutal, sarcastic and ill-intentioned. Nicole, one of Key’s closest friends and fellow cheerleader would gladly attest to that after being called fat by her one too many times. Poor Nana was called airhead by her so many times she lost count. Key knew it was a bad habit but that was the way she was. She never tried to be purposefully hostile towards the wallflowers but sometimes, they really grated on her nerves so much.
They called her man-eater or sometimes, the heartbreaker, but damn it, she wasn’t interested in any of the guys that came her way. Of course; it wasn’t as if she was exactly bad with the opposite gender- men were fairly silly and easy to read. The one person whom she wanted was a complex puzzle that she would never figure out.
The thing about Kim Jonghyun was that he was in neither category of Jock nor Geek. Had he been, Key wouldn’t be in such a dratted conundrum. It was only until college, when the social lines were clearly drawn when she realized they were pretty much on different sides and that she actually, really liked him.
He was first and foremost a musician. The sensitive sort with a deep soul and played gorgeous indie music at underground gigs. He was sort of intelligent (made the top ten list again), not very sport-inclined (but not to the point of hopeless either though), was part of the student council and was fairly popular with the geek crowd. That was the sort of boy the wallflowers coveted. In fact, the whole school knew that one wallflower (the actually rather pretty one, but really boring) had the biggest crush on him and he seemed to like her back. They matched; he was supposed to be with nice sweet girls like her. He was the sort that Key probably should not have her eye on and in a different league from her.
She wasn’t his type.
That was what Key had been trying to tell herself for the longest time. It would have been preferable- the gorgeous star player or the cute geeky top student. But no, her heart was for the one boy not meant for her.
Key sat on her usual spot at the window sill in her room when the light suddenly came on in said boy’s bedroom.
Yes, how clichéd, Jonghyun was her neighbor and their bedrooms faced each other’s.
He looked out of his window and spotted her. The chocolate-haired boy waved and grinned his usual charming grin. He walked to his bedside and picked up his whiteboard. Key similarly reached for hers(tucked right behind her cushion).
“Hello,hello.” Key rolled her eyes reading the opposite board.
Ever since they were young, it had been a thing of theirs to communicate this way. They’d gone out together in fourth grade to buy matching whiteboards after failing to come up with a successful code. And it’d lasted to now. Despite the social divide-in school they didn’t really speak to each other that much-; but when they were home, they’d converse with each other in this way. It was apparently cheaper than texting.
There was a ridiculous episode where Jonghyun was grounded but Key was desperately trying to finish her history assignment on World War 2. She almost begged Mrs. Kim (Jjong’s mother obviously, not hers- her mom was off in France at some biomedical seminar) but the lady had refused to let the boy out. Jjong had simultaneously taunted and helped her (by busily scribbling useful information) using that white board.
“Hello back, raptor-boy.”
“No meetings tonight?”
Long story. You’d laugh if I told you, she thought. Instead, she slowly wrote on her board,
“Nope, cancelled. You? No gigs tonight?”
“Nah. Got one on Friday at Primadonna with FTI though; Hongki’s down with the flu so I’m subbing.”
She mentally took that down. Primadonna she could go; it was the sort of place she occasionally went and she was pretty good friends with two FT Island members- Jaejin and Seunghyun.
She just raised a thumb up in response. He smiled and raised a v-sign before returning to his board.
“So. Tomorrow as usual?” he wrote.
Ah, tomorrow was Thursday again. She smiled to herself. Oh wait, no.
“No. Track meet. You going?”
“…” he was probably weighing the pros and cons.
“If you’re not, I’ll see you later in the evening.”
“No victory dinners with your girls?”
“They’re probably going on dates after that. I’m not into being a light bulb.”
“Aww.”
“(>.<)” she drew.
“It’s okay, I don’t think Onew-hyung is going either, we have council stuff to do.”
“Boring much?”
“Hey, I’ll cut your pompom budget.”
“Jinki likes me. He’s not an evil meanie like you :P”
“Fine, fine. Jinki’s too soft. So I’ll see you around somewhere after seven.”
“Yeah. Go to bed!”
Jonghyun put down his board and Key immediately steeled herself but her heart still skipped that beat when he blew her a kiss. Oh, that cheesy, cheeky bastard. Wasn’t that what she was supposed to do, instead of him?
She pretended to receive the kiss and just waved and pulled her curtains close.
Minho gave her a slight awkward and sheepish expression; not one at all suitable for a boy who just broke the inter-varsity record for high jump. Sweat trickled slowly down his angular face.
“I know you’re not going to be too happy about this.”
Key wrinkled her nose a bit but smiled slightly.
“Ah well. We’ve discussed this; it’s tradition. Besides, I’m pretty grimy too and the cameras are waiting. But also really, congratulations on winning!” With that, Key gave one of her best male friends a sincere hug that would inevitably end up on the school papers tomorrow.
Key had declined Minho’s offer of going to celebrate with the rest of the track team after the meet ended-she didn’t know them all that well and she suspected one of them liked her- and as she had predicted, her cheerleaders all had something on- dates, unfinished assignments, family matters.
So she ended up walking home alone. It wasn’t exactly something she disliked doing or anything; quite the contrary, she didn’t actually mind walking- it was because people expected her to drive everywhere in her shiny Celica so she did. But now that it was late in the evening, where barely anyone was around, she could relax.
Humming a random girl group song under her breath; Key was suddenly taken aback when a hand tapped her on the shoulder. Spinning around, the person she was supposed to head home to meet was right in front of her.
“Not driving today?”
“Jjong!” Her heart continued to beat madly-a mixture of shock and at seeing him.
He smiled.
“Let’s go home together.” She nodded; he grabbed the bagful of pompoms and clothes from her arms and they started their way home.
“I caught a bit of the meet today.”
“Oh?”
“We’d happened to pass by the track so we stopped to watch Minho do the high jump. He’s really inhuman.”
Key smiled; a sort of motherly pride. Minho really probably sort of was non-human.
“Are you guys… going out or something?” Jonghyun suddenly asked.
“Ah.”
“Minho’s victory hug.” Jonghyun said, as if it explained everything. So he saw.
It was tradition in a way and certainly very very stereotypical; a sunbae named Choi Siwon had started it. Like Minho, Siwon was an elite sportsperson, the school’s star jock. And when he had won in any event, he would walk up to the head cheerleader and hug her. Of course, the jock and the cheerleader were dating, a match made in heaven. Minho and Key had discussed this prior to the start of the school term. They each had a role to play and neither wanted to lose face.
“I… Hmm. I’m not sure yet.” Key tried the coy route, unsure how she should say it. What did Jonghyun think about it?
“You two match well.” Jonghyun remarked happily and she felt her heart sink like a stone in a deep icy lake.
On Thursdays, generally Jonghyun was home early too and he’d come over to eat with her (mooch off her, as Key preferred to call it) and they’d finish up homework assignments before watching videos or playing video games. Today was no exception as she poured the vinaigrette dressing unto the green salad.
Jonghyun stared at her working for the math equation she had been doing. She was stuck on it for the longest time and couldn’t solve it but she didn’t want to let it go and do the next question either. Grimly, she thought, it was very much like her ‘crush’ on the silly boy seated in the living room.
A faintly puzzled expression appeared on his face.
“Why would you do it like that?” he mumbled to himself.
Because I have no idea how else to do it.
She diced the white onion and mixed it with the salad.
“Why don’t you just directly solve it?”
How?
“Hmm. If we try a different method?” He was still speaking to himself; oblivious, but Key was already hurting from the ironic heartache.
Stupid unrequited love was tiring.
“I got it Key-ah.”
“Huh?” She schooled her features back to that of nonchalance and walked towards him, sitting on the couch.
“There’s only one answer. Here! Q.E.D.”
He worked out the solution; she peered at it and wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Indeed, unlike what she thought, there was and always would only be one clear correct answer, ‘quite easily done’ since the other was inapplicable to the question. Just like how they’d never work out and there was only one for Kim Jonghyun. It was time for her to give up wasn’t it?
She laughed hollowly.
“I understand, Jjong. I finally do. Here. Eat your salad.”
The thing was that it took her all these years to realize she liked him, so how many more would it take for her to stop?
“Wow. Key. Um, you look like you haven’t slept in days.” Jinwoon commented; an arm coiled around Nicole.
“Ha.” She probably really did look like a walking corpse; having not been able to sleep until almost four a.m. Makeup couldn’t conceal her eye bags and she was left with faint circles.
“You okay?” Asked Nicole worriedly.
She gave a non-committal ‘hmm’ and poked her dubious school lunch which was some mystery kimbap-lookalike thing with strange ingredients inside; hardly her favorite dish in the world.
Minho slid into the empty chair next to her and held out a wrapped sandwich from an outside deli. She looked at him.
Why couldn’t she and Minho click? She thought miserably. They were perfect- which other guy would notice you forgot your lunch and remember you hate school food.
Instead, she looked to opposite the cafeteria where Jonghyun was seated and in conversation with the nerd girl. He coincidentally looked in her direction and he raised his brow a little in greeting, unnoticed by either of their tables.
She looked away and bit into her sandwich.
Minho sighed, so maybe he noticed. The athlete was always so disturbingly observant. Leaning fractionally towards her, he said almost inaudibly,
“Get a grip on yourself, Key.”
How she wished she could.
She just nodded coolly in response.
“So, when are the tryouts for the newbies?” Nana asked; unwittingly but managing to successfully snap Key out of her moody state.
Recruiting season was coming up and the clubs were all getting ready to welcome new members. Being instrumental to choosing new people; Key naturally loved the topic.
“Next two weeks.” She answered with more energy than she had the entire day. Beside her she thought she heard Minho chuckle.
“Which reminds me, there’s a lot we’ve got to be preparing, Miss Dance-in-charge.” She shot a glance at Nicole who pretended not to hear. Jinwoon laughed and prodded her gently in the side.
“Don’t worry! Seohyun and Hara have it under control.”
Nicole was a superb dancer and highly popular; hence the reason for her being elected In-charge, but she was quite the laidback planner.
“Under control? We almost lost out to the Symphonic band for our usual showcase area because somebody forgot to tell the council that we were taking that spot again this year.” She hissed, her voice rising in pitch as she folded her arms. Fortunately Jonghyun had asked out of curiosity a week ago why the dance club wasn’t applying for their usual spot which resulted in her frantically hounding and annoying Jinki the next morning at the Council room. Or else, the area would have gone to the band, which was also home to the most wallflowers ever.
Nicole looked slightly sheepish.
“But Key, I have you around to help me!”
She rolled her eyes in response, but everyone knew the truth. Nicole might have been in-charge, but the true obstacle that a new person who wanted to join the highly esteemed girls’ dance club was the popular queen. Cheerleading was even more out of the question; her squad only consisted of dancers.
“We’ll get all the good people anyway.” She said sniffily and Nicole giggled.
“So Minho, you’re going to be overall Sports coordinator again?” Asked Dongwoon.
Minho was football captain, but he also was part of the Track team and had a spot in basketball too. Key called him ridiculously inhuman but the boy loved his sports and excelled at them. He couldn’t be captain of all three (actually, not just three, there were a few other clubs that wanted him as leader); there was too much workload involved, so the council simply came up with a solution. He would be overall sports coordinator and help to manage and advise all the different sporting clubs.
“Who else would take the ghastly job?” sniped Key.
“Who else would want to be Cheerleading captain?” Minho retorted, looking like he wanted to stick his tongue out. It was uncharacteristic of him but even he had his childish moments. The perfect gentleman could be such a kid sometimes.
Point taken.
She gave a slight shrug and flipped her hair as the rest of their ‘popular table’ laughed raucously.
Two weeks passed quickly; with copious amounts of schoolwork, intense practice and preparation for orientation. But it was finally the day where she got to handpick new members and choose the direction the club was heading. The people whom she chose today would succeed their legacy and continue the spirit. Nana had just looked dazed and Nicole skeptical when she had passionately uttered her entire speech at their favorite café.
Nothing could and would go wrong.
Until the big day itself when Key ran late after she overslept, forgot the important assignment that was due, left her favorite sweater at home (with said sweater having her wallet in its pockets) and remembered a council budget meeting only when Minho (whose polo-shirt she destroyed when she knocked over her juice at lunch) came to get her after half an hour past. Oh and she possibly misplaced her pompoms.
When Key finally rushed to the dance studio, she was worse for wear and not in the best of moods. So when she saw strange people lurking outside the studio, she couldn’t help but look at the slightly suspiciously. This was really strange; there were actually some wallflowers outside of the dance studio. Usually they kept clear and far away from her precious sanctuary or whatever the wallflowers called it; the evil queen’s lair or something.
There was a slightly hushed whisper but she just ignored it haughtily (tiredly as well) and walked into the room.
“Oh Key, I’m so glad you’re here.” Nicole flounced towards her looking slightly flustered. The new people must have come in already.
“Sorry. I was in some discussion with the council over club finances and stuff. Ooh, are the newbies here already?”
“Shh. They’re behind the partition.” Hyorin put a hand up toward her lips. Key nodded and Minyoung started a quick rundown. They had already introduced the committee and how the audition was conducted. There was no need to specifically mention Key; there was nobody in the school that didn’t know who she was and the power she held. If the newbies had wondered where the missing queen bee was (probably thought she was putting on her usual airs anyway); they’d wisely kept their mouths shut.
“Okay, give me a sec.” Key grabbed her mirror from her bag and inspected her face for a second. With her luck today, there was probably ink or something equally unpleasant on her face.
“Sure, would you like a throne as well?” Nicole teased. Key mock-glared at her as she motioned for the committee to sit in position. She took her seat on the right of Nicole and schooled her features into one of practiced boredom as she took out her nail file.
There were images one had to upkeep.
Hara went next door to get the first applicant and Key filed her nails idly, wondering where the heck her pompoms could have disappeared to. When she finally looked up, the first thing that caught her eyes was a girl with short blonde hair dressed in a soft yellow hoodie layered upon a grey tank top and aquamarine skinny jeans. She was so small and pretty and fragile looking. But despite the skinny exterior; there was a sort of strength and power that emanated. She was a blend of silk and steel:
One look and Key adored her already.
“Hello sweetie.”
The girl blinked a little. She kept silent for a moment then blinked again before replying with a soft ‘hello’ and a small, slightly awkward smile.
Oh no. She wasn’t a wallflower was she?
But strangely, if she really were a wallflower, she was a very adorable-looking one. Key had the urge to go over and pinch her, despite the younger girl pretty much consisting of skin and bones.
Nicole gave Key a knowing look before she shrugged and spoke,
“Uh. Okay, if you’re ready, just let us know, we’ll put the music on.”
“Actually, I’m…” Before the girl could continue, there was a loud noise coming from next door and a sudden opening and re-closing of the partition. Minho appeared (in a nice new shirt which she knew he stashed in his locker) wide eyed, holding a paper bag.
“Um. Sorry for the interruption girls.” He looked around, slightly uncomfortable.
Everyone stared at the sudden intruder, the only person of the opposite gender (a very fine specimen too).
“No wonder there’s such a commotion.” Key said wryly.
He walked towards her as he studied the new face surreptitiously. He cleared his throat as he held out the paper bag to Key.
“You left your pompoms in the council room.”
“Aah. Thanks!”
The new girl looked a little bewildered. Minho had oddly parked himself next to Key and didn’t seem to attempt to leave, so Key just let him be.
“Sorry dear, you’re ready to go?”
“Oh yes. I um. Can start right now.”
The familiar thumping beats of the Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Boom Boom Pow’ came on and Key was enthralled by the girl’s sudden transformation. Her quiet demeanor was instantly shed; replaced by a stronger, almost aggressive personality.
The moment she started to dance, it took everyone’s breath away. Key had expected something more feminine; but her style was beautiful old school hip hop that was masculine and powerful and she had thrown in some strong popping and locking to spice up her impromptu choreography. It was hard to impress Key, but this girl definitely did. Hell, the girl was awesome.
When she finished, Key actually clapped a little, earning raised eyebrows from everyone.
“Sweetheart. Um, you said your name was… Lee Taeyeon huh.” She consulted her clipboard, looking at the girl’s details.
Her shyness suddenly resurfaced and she nodded.
“Ah, just Tae is fine though.”
“Okay. Usually I never say this, but I’m so wowed by you.” Next to Key, Minho gave a small mutter that sounded like ‘definitely’ but he had a slight grin on his face.
“Plus you’re experienced; you look practically born to dance, so we’re definitely taking you.”
The girl beamed; a true and tangible smile despite becoming even more bashful from all the praise. Key wanted to shriek; the girl was just too adorable.
This was going to be an interesting school term.
chapter two
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance, Humor
Pairing: Jonghyun x girl!key(Gwiboon), platonic Minkey, 2min(Minho x girl!taemin(Taeyeon)), others implied
Word count: 4456
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summary: Gwiboon (also known as Key), is in every way the college’s reigning queen bee- the one that every girl hates but wishes to be. Unfortunately, people like her don’t get the boy of their dreams (handsome, charming neighbor boy with his own rock band) because she’s just not his type; he needs to be with the devoted nerdy girl pining for him. Or is it?
A twist on the usual ‘nice nerdy girl gets boy’ theme!
Inspired by a conversation I had with a friend, where I was like ‘I think, OTPs aside, Gwiboon would be Jonghyun’s ideal type.’ But she went D: and retorted with, ‘No, but look at his girlfriend (Sekyung)! I think Jjong only likes Key because he’s fun to play with and will entertain him.’
I simply replied with a ‘who knows!?’ and wrote fic. So S, this is for you, though I doubt you’d ever read it.
For fic’s sake, the ages/school grades are all sort of glossed over; don’t pay too much attention to it.
Also, in general, I never write het!/genderswitch fics but this idea came to me so naturally :D
And no insults are meant; I was a wallflower myself.
Comments really appreciated~
Minho slid into the seat opposite her and took one look at her and sighed disapprovingly. The school’s star athlete wasn’t all brawn and no brain; he figured it out even on the way here. Walking into the café, his suspicions were confirmed.
Still, he waited for a while before he patiently asked,
“What gives, Key?”
She swirled her drink a bit; looking at the whites and browns in her cup converge together so prettily.
“Hello Minho. I’m using you.”
“I can tell. But mind telling me why? Haven’t we already established that we don’t match?”
“No one else knows that yet.”
Minho rolled his eyes before snatching her affogato and taking a huge sip out of it. Key looked mildly scandalized.
“Payback. And so this is for… oh, Jonghyun again.” He swirled around slightly to look at the gaggle of girls at the corner booth that he already noticed when he came in and noted the one girl he knew Key was also watching. He realized that his one gesture caused half the table of girls to go red in the face. They started whispering among themselves.
“Shut up. And don’t stare at them so blatantly! You’re going to cause them to have nosebleeds. Make googly eyes at me.”
“If you’ll buy me an affogato. The ones here are awesome.” Minho bargained.
Key simply pulled her Miu Miu wallet out and waved it a little desperately.
“You can have anything you like.”
“I’m seriously amazed how far you’d go just to attempt to look evil.” Minho teased, but with no real spite. He flagged the waiter over, ordered his drink and played with the numerous rings adorning Key’s slender fingers, well aware that the wallflower club was watching their every move intently.
The wallflowers- a term coined up by Her Majesty The Queen Diva Gwiboon, better known as Key- were a bunch of girls that were average looking, of fair intelligence but really boring. They were generally shy, geeky and quiet and didn’t fancy school events or sports much. The problem wasn’t so much that they lacked personality or anything; it was that despite their goody-two-shoe-ness, they were horribly gossipy among themselves.
Key was quite the complete opposite of the typical wallflower; which was why ever since years ago, she was labeled as Public Enemy No. 1 by them.
Key knew people often got a misconception of her; or to be precise, not so much a misconception than an exaggeration.
She loved it when those goody two shoes gang stiffened around her; they called her a plethora of names behind her back or sometimes, in a whisper (as if she was blind and deaf) and in general, just hurting. But she learnt, from a young age that the clichéd rhyme of ‘stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ was absolutely true. Sometimes it did hurt though, piercingly so. Why should these people label her when they didn’t even know her?
“How long are we going to keep up this charade then?” Minho interjected softly.
“As in for today?”
“You know that’s not what I mean, Key.”
“As we agreed before dear; when you find your dream girl or I…”
“Get over Jjong?” Minho cut in directly.
“I hate you.” The boy smirked as Key fake-pouted miserably.
“Track and field meet tomorrow so I need to rest early tonight.” He mentioned as an afterthought.
“Yes, I know. We’re going to be there too. I was supposed to meet the girls here to finalize the cheer list but the wallflowers suddenly came along, so I told them we’d meet early in the morning instead. You know how the wallflowers are like towards my angels.”
“So you called me to cover you because it would be lame for you to walk out here alone.”
“Yep. You know me too well. So clever.” She mock-clasped her hands in typical cheerleader fashion, earning a half-smile from the boy.
Minho gave a long suffering sigh. He finished his drink and stood up.
“Come on, I’ll drive you home.”
“Thank you.”
In Key’s opinion, there wasn’t really anything wrong being her. Actually, no, scratch that, she loved being her. She didn’t mind the usual veiled insults by the less popular girls or their jealous looks or their awkward fear of her.
It was just the problem of having to keep up with their ‘expectation’ or reputation of her. She understood she was the stereotypical mean girl. She was queen bee (voted most popular for the 3rd consecutive year), social butterfly extraordinaire (a party was only considered a success if she were present), Cheerleading captain and Dance club’s welfare-in-charge among many other titles.
Yet, was one defined simply by the titles they held?
She was popular, that she understood. But why? For the sole reason she actually bothered and dared to socialize with others. That and because she had an interesting personality.
She was cheerleading captain only because no one wanted the arduous task and the dance girls all thought she would be up to it. That and because the costumes were shiny.
So her skirts were a little on the short side. But she liked her style fine. And she worked so hard for her body; she deserved to be able to dress in any fashion she deemed fit. Was there a problem with being confident and self-aware? And it wasn’t as if she didn’t ever wear t-shirts or anything.
She could afford the newest fashions and the nicest accessories, but that was because her parents, for lack of better words, had the money for it. Indeed, she was pampered but only because material wants made up for emotional needs. There were only so many handbags one could buy to fill the void left by a perennially empty house. Sometimes she rather wished her parents were at home rather than giving her money for new shoes, not that she’d ever say it. Being home alone all the time meant that she was disgustingly self reliant and independent. She could even whip up a storm; cook as well as some amateur chefs, thank you very much.
Her honesty (which was frankly a bit too…frank) was misconstrued as brutal, sarcastic and ill-intentioned. Nicole, one of Key’s closest friends and fellow cheerleader would gladly attest to that after being called fat by her one too many times. Poor Nana was called airhead by her so many times she lost count. Key knew it was a bad habit but that was the way she was. She never tried to be purposefully hostile towards the wallflowers but sometimes, they really grated on her nerves so much.
They called her man-eater or sometimes, the heartbreaker, but damn it, she wasn’t interested in any of the guys that came her way. Of course; it wasn’t as if she was exactly bad with the opposite gender- men were fairly silly and easy to read. The one person whom she wanted was a complex puzzle that she would never figure out.
The thing about Kim Jonghyun was that he was in neither category of Jock nor Geek. Had he been, Key wouldn’t be in such a dratted conundrum. It was only until college, when the social lines were clearly drawn when she realized they were pretty much on different sides and that she actually, really liked him.
He was first and foremost a musician. The sensitive sort with a deep soul and played gorgeous indie music at underground gigs. He was sort of intelligent (made the top ten list again), not very sport-inclined (but not to the point of hopeless either though), was part of the student council and was fairly popular with the geek crowd. That was the sort of boy the wallflowers coveted. In fact, the whole school knew that one wallflower (the actually rather pretty one, but really boring) had the biggest crush on him and he seemed to like her back. They matched; he was supposed to be with nice sweet girls like her. He was the sort that Key probably should not have her eye on and in a different league from her.
She wasn’t his type.
That was what Key had been trying to tell herself for the longest time. It would have been preferable- the gorgeous star player or the cute geeky top student. But no, her heart was for the one boy not meant for her.
Key sat on her usual spot at the window sill in her room when the light suddenly came on in said boy’s bedroom.
Yes, how clichéd, Jonghyun was her neighbor and their bedrooms faced each other’s.
He looked out of his window and spotted her. The chocolate-haired boy waved and grinned his usual charming grin. He walked to his bedside and picked up his whiteboard. Key similarly reached for hers(tucked right behind her cushion).
“Hello,hello.” Key rolled her eyes reading the opposite board.
Ever since they were young, it had been a thing of theirs to communicate this way. They’d gone out together in fourth grade to buy matching whiteboards after failing to come up with a successful code. And it’d lasted to now. Despite the social divide-in school they didn’t really speak to each other that much-; but when they were home, they’d converse with each other in this way. It was apparently cheaper than texting.
There was a ridiculous episode where Jonghyun was grounded but Key was desperately trying to finish her history assignment on World War 2. She almost begged Mrs. Kim (Jjong’s mother obviously, not hers- her mom was off in France at some biomedical seminar) but the lady had refused to let the boy out. Jjong had simultaneously taunted and helped her (by busily scribbling useful information) using that white board.
“Hello back, raptor-boy.”
“No meetings tonight?”
Long story. You’d laugh if I told you, she thought. Instead, she slowly wrote on her board,
“Nope, cancelled. You? No gigs tonight?”
“Nah. Got one on Friday at Primadonna with FTI though; Hongki’s down with the flu so I’m subbing.”
She mentally took that down. Primadonna she could go; it was the sort of place she occasionally went and she was pretty good friends with two FT Island members- Jaejin and Seunghyun.
She just raised a thumb up in response. He smiled and raised a v-sign before returning to his board.
“So. Tomorrow as usual?” he wrote.
Ah, tomorrow was Thursday again. She smiled to herself. Oh wait, no.
“No. Track meet. You going?”
“…” he was probably weighing the pros and cons.
“If you’re not, I’ll see you later in the evening.”
“No victory dinners with your girls?”
“They’re probably going on dates after that. I’m not into being a light bulb.”
“Aww.”
“(>.<)” she drew.
“It’s okay, I don’t think Onew-hyung is going either, we have council stuff to do.”
“Boring much?”
“Hey, I’ll cut your pompom budget.”
“Jinki likes me. He’s not an evil meanie like you :P”
“Fine, fine. Jinki’s too soft. So I’ll see you around somewhere after seven.”
“Yeah. Go to bed!”
Jonghyun put down his board and Key immediately steeled herself but her heart still skipped that beat when he blew her a kiss. Oh, that cheesy, cheeky bastard. Wasn’t that what she was supposed to do, instead of him?
She pretended to receive the kiss and just waved and pulled her curtains close.
Minho gave her a slight awkward and sheepish expression; not one at all suitable for a boy who just broke the inter-varsity record for high jump. Sweat trickled slowly down his angular face.
“I know you’re not going to be too happy about this.”
Key wrinkled her nose a bit but smiled slightly.
“Ah well. We’ve discussed this; it’s tradition. Besides, I’m pretty grimy too and the cameras are waiting. But also really, congratulations on winning!” With that, Key gave one of her best male friends a sincere hug that would inevitably end up on the school papers tomorrow.
Key had declined Minho’s offer of going to celebrate with the rest of the track team after the meet ended-she didn’t know them all that well and she suspected one of them liked her- and as she had predicted, her cheerleaders all had something on- dates, unfinished assignments, family matters.
So she ended up walking home alone. It wasn’t exactly something she disliked doing or anything; quite the contrary, she didn’t actually mind walking- it was because people expected her to drive everywhere in her shiny Celica so she did. But now that it was late in the evening, where barely anyone was around, she could relax.
Humming a random girl group song under her breath; Key was suddenly taken aback when a hand tapped her on the shoulder. Spinning around, the person she was supposed to head home to meet was right in front of her.
“Not driving today?”
“Jjong!” Her heart continued to beat madly-a mixture of shock and at seeing him.
He smiled.
“Let’s go home together.” She nodded; he grabbed the bagful of pompoms and clothes from her arms and they started their way home.
“I caught a bit of the meet today.”
“Oh?”
“We’d happened to pass by the track so we stopped to watch Minho do the high jump. He’s really inhuman.”
Key smiled; a sort of motherly pride. Minho really probably sort of was non-human.
“Are you guys… going out or something?” Jonghyun suddenly asked.
“Ah.”
“Minho’s victory hug.” Jonghyun said, as if it explained everything. So he saw.
It was tradition in a way and certainly very very stereotypical; a sunbae named Choi Siwon had started it. Like Minho, Siwon was an elite sportsperson, the school’s star jock. And when he had won in any event, he would walk up to the head cheerleader and hug her. Of course, the jock and the cheerleader were dating, a match made in heaven. Minho and Key had discussed this prior to the start of the school term. They each had a role to play and neither wanted to lose face.
“I… Hmm. I’m not sure yet.” Key tried the coy route, unsure how she should say it. What did Jonghyun think about it?
“You two match well.” Jonghyun remarked happily and she felt her heart sink like a stone in a deep icy lake.
On Thursdays, generally Jonghyun was home early too and he’d come over to eat with her (mooch off her, as Key preferred to call it) and they’d finish up homework assignments before watching videos or playing video games. Today was no exception as she poured the vinaigrette dressing unto the green salad.
Jonghyun stared at her working for the math equation she had been doing. She was stuck on it for the longest time and couldn’t solve it but she didn’t want to let it go and do the next question either. Grimly, she thought, it was very much like her ‘crush’ on the silly boy seated in the living room.
A faintly puzzled expression appeared on his face.
“Why would you do it like that?” he mumbled to himself.
Because I have no idea how else to do it.
She diced the white onion and mixed it with the salad.
“Why don’t you just directly solve it?”
How?
“Hmm. If we try a different method?” He was still speaking to himself; oblivious, but Key was already hurting from the ironic heartache.
Stupid unrequited love was tiring.
“I got it Key-ah.”
“Huh?” She schooled her features back to that of nonchalance and walked towards him, sitting on the couch.
“There’s only one answer. Here! Q.E.D.”
He worked out the solution; she peered at it and wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Indeed, unlike what she thought, there was and always would only be one clear correct answer, ‘quite easily done’ since the other was inapplicable to the question. Just like how they’d never work out and there was only one for Kim Jonghyun. It was time for her to give up wasn’t it?
She laughed hollowly.
“I understand, Jjong. I finally do. Here. Eat your salad.”
The thing was that it took her all these years to realize she liked him, so how many more would it take for her to stop?
“Wow. Key. Um, you look like you haven’t slept in days.” Jinwoon commented; an arm coiled around Nicole.
“Ha.” She probably really did look like a walking corpse; having not been able to sleep until almost four a.m. Makeup couldn’t conceal her eye bags and she was left with faint circles.
“You okay?” Asked Nicole worriedly.
She gave a non-committal ‘hmm’ and poked her dubious school lunch which was some mystery kimbap-lookalike thing with strange ingredients inside; hardly her favorite dish in the world.
Minho slid into the empty chair next to her and held out a wrapped sandwich from an outside deli. She looked at him.
Why couldn’t she and Minho click? She thought miserably. They were perfect- which other guy would notice you forgot your lunch and remember you hate school food.
Instead, she looked to opposite the cafeteria where Jonghyun was seated and in conversation with the nerd girl. He coincidentally looked in her direction and he raised his brow a little in greeting, unnoticed by either of their tables.
She looked away and bit into her sandwich.
Minho sighed, so maybe he noticed. The athlete was always so disturbingly observant. Leaning fractionally towards her, he said almost inaudibly,
“Get a grip on yourself, Key.”
How she wished she could.
She just nodded coolly in response.
“So, when are the tryouts for the newbies?” Nana asked; unwittingly but managing to successfully snap Key out of her moody state.
Recruiting season was coming up and the clubs were all getting ready to welcome new members. Being instrumental to choosing new people; Key naturally loved the topic.
“Next two weeks.” She answered with more energy than she had the entire day. Beside her she thought she heard Minho chuckle.
“Which reminds me, there’s a lot we’ve got to be preparing, Miss Dance-in-charge.” She shot a glance at Nicole who pretended not to hear. Jinwoon laughed and prodded her gently in the side.
“Don’t worry! Seohyun and Hara have it under control.”
Nicole was a superb dancer and highly popular; hence the reason for her being elected In-charge, but she was quite the laidback planner.
“Under control? We almost lost out to the Symphonic band for our usual showcase area because somebody forgot to tell the council that we were taking that spot again this year.” She hissed, her voice rising in pitch as she folded her arms. Fortunately Jonghyun had asked out of curiosity a week ago why the dance club wasn’t applying for their usual spot which resulted in her frantically hounding and annoying Jinki the next morning at the Council room. Or else, the area would have gone to the band, which was also home to the most wallflowers ever.
Nicole looked slightly sheepish.
“But Key, I have you around to help me!”
She rolled her eyes in response, but everyone knew the truth. Nicole might have been in-charge, but the true obstacle that a new person who wanted to join the highly esteemed girls’ dance club was the popular queen. Cheerleading was even more out of the question; her squad only consisted of dancers.
“We’ll get all the good people anyway.” She said sniffily and Nicole giggled.
“So Minho, you’re going to be overall Sports coordinator again?” Asked Dongwoon.
Minho was football captain, but he also was part of the Track team and had a spot in basketball too. Key called him ridiculously inhuman but the boy loved his sports and excelled at them. He couldn’t be captain of all three (actually, not just three, there were a few other clubs that wanted him as leader); there was too much workload involved, so the council simply came up with a solution. He would be overall sports coordinator and help to manage and advise all the different sporting clubs.
“Who else would take the ghastly job?” sniped Key.
“Who else would want to be Cheerleading captain?” Minho retorted, looking like he wanted to stick his tongue out. It was uncharacteristic of him but even he had his childish moments. The perfect gentleman could be such a kid sometimes.
Point taken.
She gave a slight shrug and flipped her hair as the rest of their ‘popular table’ laughed raucously.
Two weeks passed quickly; with copious amounts of schoolwork, intense practice and preparation for orientation. But it was finally the day where she got to handpick new members and choose the direction the club was heading. The people whom she chose today would succeed their legacy and continue the spirit. Nana had just looked dazed and Nicole skeptical when she had passionately uttered her entire speech at their favorite café.
Nothing could and would go wrong.
Until the big day itself when Key ran late after she overslept, forgot the important assignment that was due, left her favorite sweater at home (with said sweater having her wallet in its pockets) and remembered a council budget meeting only when Minho (whose polo-shirt she destroyed when she knocked over her juice at lunch) came to get her after half an hour past. Oh and she possibly misplaced her pompoms.
When Key finally rushed to the dance studio, she was worse for wear and not in the best of moods. So when she saw strange people lurking outside the studio, she couldn’t help but look at the slightly suspiciously. This was really strange; there were actually some wallflowers outside of the dance studio. Usually they kept clear and far away from her precious sanctuary or whatever the wallflowers called it; the evil queen’s lair or something.
There was a slightly hushed whisper but she just ignored it haughtily (tiredly as well) and walked into the room.
“Oh Key, I’m so glad you’re here.” Nicole flounced towards her looking slightly flustered. The new people must have come in already.
“Sorry. I was in some discussion with the council over club finances and stuff. Ooh, are the newbies here already?”
“Shh. They’re behind the partition.” Hyorin put a hand up toward her lips. Key nodded and Minyoung started a quick rundown. They had already introduced the committee and how the audition was conducted. There was no need to specifically mention Key; there was nobody in the school that didn’t know who she was and the power she held. If the newbies had wondered where the missing queen bee was (probably thought she was putting on her usual airs anyway); they’d wisely kept their mouths shut.
“Okay, give me a sec.” Key grabbed her mirror from her bag and inspected her face for a second. With her luck today, there was probably ink or something equally unpleasant on her face.
“Sure, would you like a throne as well?” Nicole teased. Key mock-glared at her as she motioned for the committee to sit in position. She took her seat on the right of Nicole and schooled her features into one of practiced boredom as she took out her nail file.
There were images one had to upkeep.
Hara went next door to get the first applicant and Key filed her nails idly, wondering where the heck her pompoms could have disappeared to. When she finally looked up, the first thing that caught her eyes was a girl with short blonde hair dressed in a soft yellow hoodie layered upon a grey tank top and aquamarine skinny jeans. She was so small and pretty and fragile looking. But despite the skinny exterior; there was a sort of strength and power that emanated. She was a blend of silk and steel:
One look and Key adored her already.
“Hello sweetie.”
The girl blinked a little. She kept silent for a moment then blinked again before replying with a soft ‘hello’ and a small, slightly awkward smile.
Oh no. She wasn’t a wallflower was she?
But strangely, if she really were a wallflower, she was a very adorable-looking one. Key had the urge to go over and pinch her, despite the younger girl pretty much consisting of skin and bones.
Nicole gave Key a knowing look before she shrugged and spoke,
“Uh. Okay, if you’re ready, just let us know, we’ll put the music on.”
“Actually, I’m…” Before the girl could continue, there was a loud noise coming from next door and a sudden opening and re-closing of the partition. Minho appeared (in a nice new shirt which she knew he stashed in his locker) wide eyed, holding a paper bag.
“Um. Sorry for the interruption girls.” He looked around, slightly uncomfortable.
Everyone stared at the sudden intruder, the only person of the opposite gender (a very fine specimen too).
“No wonder there’s such a commotion.” Key said wryly.
He walked towards her as he studied the new face surreptitiously. He cleared his throat as he held out the paper bag to Key.
“You left your pompoms in the council room.”
“Aah. Thanks!”
The new girl looked a little bewildered. Minho had oddly parked himself next to Key and didn’t seem to attempt to leave, so Key just let him be.
“Sorry dear, you’re ready to go?”
“Oh yes. I um. Can start right now.”
The familiar thumping beats of the Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Boom Boom Pow’ came on and Key was enthralled by the girl’s sudden transformation. Her quiet demeanor was instantly shed; replaced by a stronger, almost aggressive personality.
The moment she started to dance, it took everyone’s breath away. Key had expected something more feminine; but her style was beautiful old school hip hop that was masculine and powerful and she had thrown in some strong popping and locking to spice up her impromptu choreography. It was hard to impress Key, but this girl definitely did. Hell, the girl was awesome.
When she finished, Key actually clapped a little, earning raised eyebrows from everyone.
“Sweetheart. Um, you said your name was… Lee Taeyeon huh.” She consulted her clipboard, looking at the girl’s details.
Her shyness suddenly resurfaced and she nodded.
“Ah, just Tae is fine though.”
“Okay. Usually I never say this, but I’m so wowed by you.” Next to Key, Minho gave a small mutter that sounded like ‘definitely’ but he had a slight grin on his face.
“Plus you’re experienced; you look practically born to dance, so we’re definitely taking you.”
The girl beamed; a true and tangible smile despite becoming even more bashful from all the praise. Key wanted to shriek; the girl was just too adorable.
This was going to be an interesting school term.
chapter two