(for kimchispaghetti) Off Course
For: kimchispaghetti
Title: Off Course
Genre: Romance, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Rating: NC-17
Side-Pairing: sort-of implied Baekyeol I guess
Warnings: mentions of drug use and very brief mentions of suicide
Length: 6,883 words
Summary: Kyungsoo thinks life is like a race track, a giant circle with only one possible course. It takes a spontaneous trip to America and a shy yet insightful boy who can barely speak Korean to prove him wrong.
Notes: Please enjoy!! I promise this isn't as angsty as the warnings make it sound heh <3
“Hey, watch out!”
Kyungsoo is met with a stinging pain against the side of his face immediately after stepping out of the elevator. “Ow,” he says dully. He should've known coming to America was a bad idea.
“Goddammit, I was totally gonna make that shot!” a boy loudly complains from the other side of the hallway, and Kyungsoo looks down to see the soccer ball that had nailed him in the face rolling at his feet. “I get to shoot again.”
“Shut up, Baekhyun,” a taller boy says, stepping away from an actual soccer goal set up on one end of the hallway. Despite his words, there’s no malice in his voice and his face is stretched into a grin. “You haven’t made a single shot this entire game.”
“Seriously, Baekhyun is shit at soccer. Why do I always get stuck on his team?” a third boy complains. Kyungsoo shifts awkwardly, mostly because they’re all speaking English and he’s only picking up about half of the conversation.
“Um…”
“Who are you?” the tall guy suddenly asks Kyungsoo, and he clears his throat nervously.
“M-my name is Do Kyungsoo,” he explains in his somewhat-clumsy English.
“We can speak Korean if that’s easier for you,” the tall guy interjects, suddenly switching languages much to Kyungsoo’s relief.
“Oh, okay. I’m Do Kyungsoo. Uh, I’m studying abroad here for the semester,” he explains with a polite bow. The boy’s face lights up in a grin once again.
“Oh yeah, they told us you were coming!” he says excitedly. “Damn, Baek, your new roommate is cute.”
The boy named Baekhyun walks up to them, seemingly no longer concerned about his intercepted beer pong shot. “Hm,” he says, looking Kyungsoo up and down judgmentally. He pauses on Kyungsoo’s ass. “You like dick?”
Chanyeol slaps Baekhyun on the back of the head. “Don’t scare him,” he whispers through his teeth. He turns back to Kyungsoo happily. “Anyway, welcome to UCLA! My name is Park Chanyeol, and I will be your arbitrary tour guide from here on out.”
The guy that had complained earlier about Baekhyun’s soccer skills suddenly stands up and approaches Kyungsoo. “Kim Jongdae,” he introduces with a grin. “Wow, he is cute. Wanna be my roommate instead?”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Back off,” he snaps. He eyes Kyungsoo, before smiling slightly. “Byun Baekhyun. Nice to meet you, roomie.” Kyungsoo smiles uneasily and nods once.
Chanyeol glances over Baekhyun’s shoulder with a frown. “Uh, my roommate was here a second ago,” Chanyeol mutters in confusion. Kyungsoo vaguely recalls getting a brief glance of a fourth person sitting in the hallway when he’d stepped out of the elevator. “His name is Jongin, he hangs out with us too. He can barely speak Korean though since he was born here… where the hell did he go?” Jongdae snorts.
"He probably ran away at the prospect of socialization," he says dryly. He glances down at his phone, his eyes briefly scanning a message he had apparently received. "Oh, hey, Sehun's wondering where we are."
Chanyeol's expression brightens even more than before. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot!" he says excitedly. He pauses momentarily, before turning to Kyungsoo with a smirk. "What do you say, Kyungsoo, wanna experience your first American party?" Kyungsoo pales, thrown off guard by the sudden proposal.
"What? No," he replies firmly. "I haven't even unpacked yet. Plus, I can't speak English that well, so I don't really feel comfortable-"
"Look," Chanyeol cuts him off. "As your arbitrary tour guide, you have to do what I say. Otherwise, you won't get to enjoy the American college experience at it's full potential. You don't want that, do you?"
Kyungsoo swallows. "No..."
"Then come with us!" Chanyeol encourages. He throws an arm around Kyungsoo's shoulders. "It'll be fun. Trust me."
The party is not fun.
Kyungsoo doesn’t remember most of it, only the awkward beginning where he had followed Chanyeol around like a lost puppy and tried to avoid any conversation whatsoever. At one point someone had handed him an entire Ziploc bag full of brownies and said something to him in rapid English that he didn’t understand, and since he hadn’t eaten since before his flight that morning he didn’t think much before consuming the entire bag.
Next thing he knows, he’s lying on top of what appears to be a dining room table. He stares blankly up at the light fixture above him, letting out an occasional giggle for reasons he can’t really explain. He vaguely processes the party going on around him, but he mostly just concentrates on staying conscious.
"Is this heaven?" Kyungsoo asks himself softly, reaching up toward the light fixture. "Am I dead?"
He doesn't know how long he lays there like that, alone and unable to process anything. Eventually someone that he can’t quite identify shows up and crawls over his limp form.
"Hello, cutie," the strangely familiar voice says, and Kyungsoo thinks he can recognize Jongdae, even through his foggy vision. "What are you doing all alone?"
Kyungsoo honestly just wants to be left in peace so that he can fight the haziness that's threatening to take over his entire body, but he can't even voice this request out loud. Luckily, he doesn't have to.
"Jongdae," a voice suddenly snaps from beside them. "You’re not taking advantage of the exchange student are you?"
Jongdae chuckles and obeys, sliding away from Kyungsoo and back into the floor. "I wasn't gonna do anything, relax," he says, followed by an exasperated sigh. "What are you doing here?"
Jongin holds up the plate in his hands, showing off the wide array of cookies, chips, and pizza. "Free food," the one called Jongin explains shortly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He pauses and glances at Kyungsoo’s barely-conscious form. "...What's wrong with him?"
Jongdae follows Jongin's gaze to Kyungsoo, who's still lying on the table unmoving. He chuckles. "I have a few guesses," Jongdae says. He glances over Jongin's shoulder. "Oh, hey, is that Luhan?" And he's gone before Jongin can get another word in. Jongin curses under his breath.
He stands there for a long time, staring blankly at the limp body of the boy on the table. He's probably fine, it's not like he's in critical condition or anything. Nothing bad will happen if Jongin just leaves him there. Probably.
He takes a step toward the table and clears his throat. "Um, hello?" he says softly, and the boy's eyes shift toward him. Jongin sighs. "Hey, stay with me. You're okay."
The boy just keeps staring at him, his tongue occasionally poking out to wet his dry lips. Jongin groans. "I'm gonna take you home, alright?" The boy doesn't move for several beats, but he eventually nods, giving Jongin all of the permission he needs.
He figures that the easiest way to transport the boy is to carry him on his back, so with some difficulty, he does just that. "Just concentrate on my voice, okay? Don't pass out," he instructs, and the boy hums once in acknowledgement as Jongin transports him through the bustling party and out the door.
It's a lot quieter outside, and Jongin instantly feels a wave of calm wash over him. "It's nice to be away from all that noise, huh?" he says, mostly to himself, but he feels the boy on his back nod slightly. "What was your name again?"
There's a long pause. "Kyungsoo," the boy finally responds, his voice cracking slightly. Jongin nods.
"Right, right," he says, his voice coming out slightly strained as Kyungsoo's weight starts to take a toll on him. "I'm Kim Jongin. I'm Chanyeol's roommate. Um, sorry I didn't introduce myself before. I'm not really good at meeting new people. Though I must say, it's a lot easier when you're baked nearly to the point of unconsciousness."
Kyungsoo shifts slightly. "Baked?" he asks slowly. Jongin chuckles.
"I guess drug education is limited in Korea," he says exasperatedly. "Just be more careful next time, okay? Don’t eat or drink anything that a stranger gives you."
Kyungsoo sniffles. "I'm sorry," he whispers. Jongin smiles.
"Don't worry. I'll help you out this time," he says reassuringly. "From now on, just stay away from suspicious substances. Got it?"
"Got it," Kyungsoo repeats tiredly. He lays his head against Jongin’s back. “I think I am going to die.”
Jongin snorts. “You’re not gonna die,” he promises. “I might, though. You’re heavy.” He expects a protest of some sort, but he feels Kyungsoo’s arms go limp around his neck and he groans exasperatedly. He tightens his grip and uses the rest of his strength to haul the now-unconscious boy back to their dorm.
--
“Kyungsoo, get up!”
Kyungsoo sits up abruptly and is immediately met with a sharp pain in his forehead as it collides with the ceiling above his loft bed. “Ow,” he says dully. He should’ve known coming to America was a bad idea.
He hears a snort of laughter below him, and he leans over the edge of the bed to see Baekhyun grinning at him brightly. “It’s about time. You’ve been asleep for like fifteen hours."
Kyungsoo scrambles around for his phone, groaning miserably when he sees that it's 6:00pm. "Fuck."
"Yeah," Baekhyun says with a smirk. “Bet you never had anything like that happen in Korea.”
Kyungsoo only manages a distressed gurgling sound in response, and he scrambles out of bed and out the door before Baekhyun has the chance to say anything else. He rushes toward the staircase at the end of the hall, punching in a familiar number as he does so.
It picks up on the first ring. "I've been trying to call you all day," is the first thing that Kyungsoo hears, and he's automatically comforted by the familiar voice.
“Hyung,” he breathes, leaning against the wall of the alley next to the dorm building when he finally makes it outside. “Sorry, I was sleeping.”
“Ah,” the voice on the other line replies, unconcerned. “I was worried about you. How is everything going?”
Kyungsoo can feel his hands start to shake. “I don’t know if I can do this. I want to come home,” he says honestly, trying to keep the quiver out of his voice. He swallows. “I’ve been here for one day and I think I almost overdosed on marijuana.”
Much to his surprise, his hyung almost instantly bursts into laughter. “Really? Was it fun? Take advantage of that, because once you get back here you face years of imprisonment for that kind of thing,” he says, and Kyungsoo wants to cry.
“That’s not the point! This is just… so weird. And different,” he swallows. “I’m scared.”
The other boy sighs. “Look, Kyungsoo-yah. Didn’t you insist on going to the US because you wanted different?” he points out. “I’m not gonna let you give up this easily. If you come back now, you’ll regret it and you’ll feel even worse than before.” Kyungsoo sniffles.
“I know,” he mumbles.
“It’s just the culture shock, you’ll get over it in a week or two,” the voice continues. “You need this, Kyungsoo-yah. Don’t be afraid to try new things and have new experiences. I don’t ever want you to think you’re missing out on anything.”
Kyungsoo bites his lip and nods once. “You’re right,” he says softly. “I miss you, Junmyeon-hyung.”
“No you don’t. You’re gonna have a great time over there, enjoy it while you can. I’ll see you in a few months, Soo.”
Kyungsoo just nods again in response, hanging up before the emotions he can feel welling up inside of him spill over. He takes a deep breath.
He doesn’t know how long he stands there, but eventually his peace is interrupted by the door opening behind him and the familiar figure of Chanyeol stepping out into the alley.
“Oh, hey Kyungsoo!” he says cheerfully, lighting the cigarette dangling between his lips. “We’ve been looking for you, what are you doing out here?”
“Nothing,” Kyungsoo replies quickly. “I was just, um, making a phone call.” Chanyeol nods, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
“Did you have fun last night?” he asks with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Kyungsoo pauses, not sure how to respond. He doesn’t want to disappoint Chanyeol or seem like a loser, so he nods.
“Uh huh,” he says dully. Chanyeol laughs.
“Good! “ he says enthusiastically. “Because tonight we’re taking you to your first American nightclub.”
Kyungsoo pales, and his immediate instinct is to come up with some excuse as to why he can’t go. However, Junmyeon’s words ring in his head. Don’t be afraid to try new things and have new experiences. He weeps internally.
“Can’t wait!” he says, his voice cracking. He pauses. "Wait. I can't. I'm not even 21."
Chanyeol snorts. "None of us are. Don't worry about it," he says, waving Kyungsoo off. "Sehun’s fucking the bouncer."
"Oh," Kyungsoo says, his heart dropping slightly. "Okay. Yay."
Chanyeol finishes his cigarette and Kyungsoo follows him back upstairs. They stop in front of the open door to Jongin and Chanyeol's room, where Jongin is lying in bed and Baekhyun and Jongdae are sitting on the floor playing cards.
"Oh, you found him," Baekhyun days off-handedly. "You two should get ready. We want to leave soon."
Chanyeol just nods before going over to sit at the foot of Jongin's bed. Jongin pulls the blanket down from over his head and glances at him. "You're coming with us, right?" Chanyeol asks.
"Nope," Jongin replies instantly. “I would rather be doing pretty much anything else.”
Baekhyun pouts. “Jonginnnn,” he whines, sitting on the bed next to him. “Why don’t you ever wanna hang out with us anymore?” Jongin just shrugs in reply.
“Whatever, your loss,” Chanyeol says casually. He turns back to Kyungsoo. “Go get dressed, wear something hot. Trust me, you’re gonna have a blast tonight.”
"We have to stop meeting like this," Jongin says lightly, patting Kyungsoo's back as he heaves into the toilet. "How did you even make it home?"
Kyungsoo wills his stomach to settle enough for him to speak. "Walked," he mutters, resting his head against the cool porcelain. "Please stop talking."
Jongin chuckles, getting up to grab a bottle of water out of his mini-fridge. Kyungsoo had knocked on his door about fifteen minutes ago, much to Jongin's surprise, and immediately pushed past him and set up camp on his bathroom floor. "Why didn't any of the others come back with you?" he asks, ignoring Kyungsoo's request to shut up. Kyungsoo grabs the bottle of water out of Jongin's hand and chugs it desperately.
"Lost track of them," he mumbles, leaning against the wall tiredly. His English is even worse than usual, but Jongin is able to partially comprehend what he's saying. "Sorry... I don't want to be alone."
Jongin shrugs. "It's fine. I have lots of experience taking care of drunk idiots," he says casually. Kyungsoo frowns. "Forgive my observation, but you don't seem like you can hold your substances very well." Kyungsoo takes several minutes to mentally translate the sentence.
He sighs, curling into a ball and hiccupping slightly. "I never did this... back in Korea," he explains, his words slightly slurred. "I did, uh, business student things. I studied. And stuff."
"Oh, you're a business student?" Jongin asks, rifling through the medicine cabinet for a bottle of Advil. Kyungsoo groans.
"God, no. Not anymore. Not after..." he trails off, completing the thought with a hiccup. Jongin hands him two ibuprofen. "Art now." He makes a gesture similar to someone drawing in order to illustrate his point.
Jongin just nods, sliding down the wall until he's seated and wrapping his arms around his knees. "That's awesome. I'm in the art program too, but for dancing," he explains for the sake of making conversation. "I got a full scholarship. That's the only reason I can afford to go to a school like this..."
Jongin looks over to see Kyungsoo staring at him curiously, and he flushes slightly. "Anyway, feel free to stay in here as long as you want," he says, standing up and brushing himself off. "I'm going back to sleep."
Now it's Kyungsoo's turn to look embarrassed. "Right. Of course. Sorry," he mumbles. Jongin just smiles.
Jongin makes to leave, but he pauses in the doorway. He taps his fingers against the frame and shifts nervously. "Hey, Kyungsoo," he says. "This whole LA college night life isn't really your thing, is it?"
Kyungsoo is quiet for a long time. "Doesn't matter. M'already here," he finally replies with a shrug.
Jongin scratches the back of his neck and hesitates for a moment longer, as if he's gonna say something else, but instead he walks into his room and crawls back into bed.
--
"There's gonna be a huge rager at kappa sigma tonight, you in Soo?"
Kyungsoo feels his heart shatter as he forces a smile. "Totally," he says, his voice cracking. Jongin eyes him curiously over his styrofoam cup of noodles.
"What'd you say?" Jongin asks, and Chanyeol repeats the invitation in English. Jongin glances at Kyungsoo again. "Actually, guys, I was wondering if you all wanted to come to my dance recital tonight."
Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol stare at Jongin blankly.
"You've never invited us to one of your recitals before. Ever," Jongdae says in shock. Jongin just shrugs.
Chanyeol grins. "Of course we'll come!" he says excitedly. "We can go to frat parties any time."
"I never thought you would actually let us see you dance," Baekhyun says, his eyebrow quirked suspiciously. "What brought this on?"
Jongin shrugs again. Kyungsoo stares at him.
"So we're going to watch Jongin dance instead of going to the party?" Kyungsoo asks, a wave of relief instantly watching over him. Chanyeol sends him a sheepish grin.
"Hope you don't mind," he says. "We can hit a party tomorrow night." Kyungsoo shakes his head rapidly.
"No, I definitely don't mind," he says a little too quickly. Jongin snorts under his breath. Chanyeol claps his hands together and smiles brightly.
"Great! Shit, I'm gonna have to go do laundry then. I've been wearing the same pajama pants for like a week," Chanyeol says thoughtfully, grabbing his overflowing hamper.
Jongdae sends Jongin a grin. "I'm gonna go buy you a bouquet or something," he announces, clearly still surprised and excited by the concept of going to see Jongin dance. "Baek, Kyungsoo, come with."
Kyungsoo hesitates. "Erm, actually, I have laundry to do too," he explains. "Go on without me."
They do, and eventually Jongin and Kyungsoo are the only two left in the room. Jongin is avoiding eye contact and Kyungsoo is trying just as hard to make it.
"Hey," Kyungsoo says, and Jongin lifts his head slightly. "Thank you."
Jongin shrugs and clears his throat. "I thought maybe something like this might be more fun for you," he explains. He sighs. "I'm really nervous now, though. I'm kind of... weird about letting my friends see me dance."
Kyungsoo sits on the bed next to him, and Jongin tenses up slightly. "Why? Are you bad?" he asks bluntly, and Jongin chokes a little.
"Um, I mean, no," he says flusteredly. "I just... feel like they're lacking in artistic passion." Kyungsoo laughs loudly, and Jongin smiles, his shy-awkwardness disappearing slightly.
"No kidding," Kyungsoo agrees with a grin.
"Though Baekhyun's ability to take body shots with such speed and precision might be considered an art," Jongin muses, and Kyungsoo laughs again even though he only understood about half of what Jongin said.
They're quiet for a moment. "You and your friends are very different," Kyungsoo muses, and Jongin just smiles and shrugs in reply.
"They are what they are," he says vaguely. He glances at his nightstand. "I have to go down to the auditorium and get ready. I'll see you later?" Kyungsoo nods rapidly in response.
"Can't wait," he says honestly, and Jongin grabs a duffle bag off of his desk and throws it over his shoulder before leaving Kyungsoo alone.
The first thing that Kyungsoo does is run down the steps and out into the back alley he'd used for previously and dials Junmyeon's number. He picks up on the second ring. "Are you okay?" Junmyeon asks, immediately worrying like he always does whenever Kyungsoo calls him. Kyungsoo smiles to himself.
"Yeah, hyung, I'm really great," he replies brightly. Junmyeon lets out a small sigh of relief, and not for the first time Kyungsoo feels bad about making the older man feel so constantly on edge. "I just had a minute so I thought I'd call."
"Ah, so you found a free moment between hitting bongs and taking shots to talk to your hyung?" Junmyeon replies teasingly, and Kyungsoo lets out an unamused snort.
"Cut it out," he whines. "I'm not doing anything like that tonight, Chanyeol's roommate invited us to go to his dance recital. Have I mentioned Jongin?"
Junmyeon hums in thought. "I don't think so," he eventually concludes. "Are you and him close?"
For some reason, the question makes Kyungsoo embarrassed. "Oh, um, no. Not really," he admits. "He's kind of hard to talk to since he's really shy, and his Korean isn't that good. He's really nice though! And I'm really excited to watch him dance, I bet he's great at it."
Junmyeon chuckles. "Wow, Soo, I haven't heard you be this excited about something in a long time" Junmyeon muses. "Is this Jongin kid good-looking?"
Kyungsoo scowls deeply and lets noise of protest. "It's not like that," he says dryly. "I'm just excited for a change of scenery."
"Well, I'm glad. A change in scenery is why I sent you there in the first place."
Kyungsoo is about to respond, probably with unimportant ramblings about how the rest of his week had gone, when his phone beeps and signals that he has a call on the other line. "Hyung, Chanyeol's calling. I have to go," he tells Junmyeon, and like usual, he hangs up before any goodbyes can be exchanged. He sighs deeply at the loss of contact before he switches the call over.
"Soo, where are you? We're gonna leave now and meet Baek and Chen there," Chanyeol's deep voice rumbles through the line.
"I'll be right there," Kyungsoo promises, pocketing his phone and running back up the steps in anticipation.
The auditorium isn't very full, so the four of them manage to get seats right up front. "Oh look, Sehunnie's performing too," Jongdae points out, and the three of them continue to laugh and gossip about more of their friends that Kyungsoo doesn't know. He doesn't mind, though, he's content with just staring up at the curtains on stage excitedly.
Once the show starts, Kyungsoo instantly feels himself unwind and relax for the first time since coming to UCLA. He's always liked live performances like this; he used to drag Junmyeon to musicals and ballets all the time back before he'd started college and all of his free time had been sucked away. He watches each act with extreme interest, and he thinks that this is probably the most fun he's had in months.
Jongin is the last performer, and once he starts dancing, Kyungsoo immediately understands that it's because anyone that might have gone after him would have looked embarrassingly untalented in comparison.
The way Jongin dances reminds Kyungsoo of painting. Painting has always been Kyungsoo's strongest medium of art, because it's the one that he loves the most. The way the brush glides over the paper, a mere puppet of it's masters will, reminds Kyungsoo strongly of the way Jongin's body is moving on stage. It's pure creation and art and beauty and Kyungsoo is absolutely moved by every second of it.
They meet Jongin backstage, where Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Jongdae all clap him on the back and give him generic compliments. Kyungsoo is quiet for a while, trying to come up with the words to describe how Jongin's performance had made him feel.
"You're an artist, Jongin," he finally settles on, trying to speak English as clearly as possible to get his point across the way he wants to.
Jongin grins so brightly that his eyes crinkle up and nearly shut completely, and Kyungsoo swears he can almost see the shy, awkward Jongin melting away before his eyes. And just like that, whatever barrier had been between them is broken, and for the first time Kyungsoo thinks that maybe coming to America hadn’t been a mistake after all.
--
“Kyungsoo can’t hang out tonight, he has plans with me,” Jongin informs Chanyeol before the latter can even excitedly spew out whatever ridiculous endeavor he’d probably had planned. Chanyeol blinks, looking from Kyungsoo to Jongin in shock.
“Oh, um, okay,” Chanyeol says confusedly. He eyes them suspiciously. “You two wanna be alone, huh?”
Jongin flushes slightly, but holds his ground. “I just want to take him somewhere,” he says vaguely. “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your job, arbitrary tour guide-sshi.”
Chanyeol just laughs and shrugs easily. “Alright, have fun you two! Stay safe,” he says with a wink, and Jongin splutters before grabbing Kyungsoo’s arm and pulling him out of the room.
“Where are we going?” Kyungsoo asks, flustered by Jongin’s sudden take-charge attitude. Jongin smiles brightly.
“I want to show you what I like to do in my free time while Chanyeol and the others are drinking themselves into a coma,” he says cheerfully. “I have a feeling you’ll like it better.” Kyungsoo just nods and follows along in curiosity.
They take a short bus trip to another part of campus, and Jongin leads them along a back street for about a mile before they finally reach what appears to be an abandoned, overgrown soccer field. The bleachers are packed, and instead of players, three sports cars with racing stripes painted down the sides are stationed in the middle of the weeded grass.
“Hey, Jongin!” A tall boy with blonde hair suddenly runs up to them, a wad of cash in one of his enormous hands. “You betting tonight?”
Jongin shakes his head. “Nah, I’m broke,” he explains sheepishly. “I just brought a friend to watch. Kyungsoo meet Kris, Kris meet Kyungsoo.” Kris turns to Kyungsoo.
“Hey, Kyungsoo. What about you? Wanna place a bet?” he asks kindly. Kyungsoo stares at him, struggling to understand him due to his fast speech and slight accent that Kyungsoo guesses is Canadian. He also isn’t really sure what’s going on.
Jongin immediately comes to his rescue. “It’s a street race,” he explains simply. “Do you wanna put any money toward who you want to win?”
Kyungsoo glances over Kris’s shoulder at the cars lined up, revving their engines in anticipation. For some reason, a red one on the far left catches his eye. “I will place a bet on that one,” he says, pointing to it. Kris grins brightly.
“Good choice! Zitao’s a loose cannon,” he says fondly, and Kyungsoo just nods at the unfamiliar idiom. Jongin chuckles and waits for Kyungsoo to deposit his money before pulling him over toward one of the sets of bleachers.
They sit at the top, away from most of the other spectators. “This is what you like to do?” Kyungsoo asks, looking around in fascination. “I never would have… expected.” Jongin just chuckles and shrugs.
Kyungsoo takes out his sketch pad that he usually has on him, beginning to doodle the sports cars and making a detailed sketch of the ovular route he imagines them racing down. “Look, they’re about to take off!” Jongin says, grabbing Kyungsoo’s arm to get his attention and pointing to the revved-up cars excitedly. A girl drops two checkered flags and Kyungsoo watches in fascination as the cars take off from the field and onto the open road, not taking his eyes away until they all disappear around a corner.
Jongin stares at Kyungsoo’s sketchbook in interest. “That’s wrong, you know,” he says, and Kyungsoo startles. Jongin clucks his tongue and takes the sketchbook out of Kyungsoo’s lap. “This isn’t a raceway, there isn’t just one path that they go around over and over again. You really have a one-track mind, don’t you?” He chuckles at his pun, but Kyungsoo doesn’t really get it.
“What do you mean?” he asks slowly. Jongin flips the page over and takes Kyungsoo’s pencil.
Kyungsoo watches as Jongin draws something that looks a little like a maze; a series of curved and twisted paths spreading across the page like branches on a tree. He finishes off the quick sketch by doodling a checkered line at the end of all of the paths. “See? The drivers can go down any of these roads and choose whatever path they want, it’s all up to them,” Jongin explains. “They all lead to the finish line.” Kyungsoo blinks slowly.
“Ah,” he says. He looks away and nods once in understanding. “This is a metaphor, isn’t it.” He says the last part in Korean since he doesn’t know how to translate it, but Jongin seems to understand.
Jongin smiles and hands the sketchbook back to Kyungsoo gently. “Everything isn’t black and white,” he says, and Kyungsoo doesn’t meet his eyes. “When you lived in Korea, you felt like your business degree was going to lead you down a bleak, dead-end path, so you came here, right? And then you thought that the only way to experience the American college life was to drink and party and do all of the crazy shit you see in movies. Well, it doesn’t always have to be like that. You shouldn’t just do what you think you have to do, you should do what makes you happy.”
Kyungsoo clutches his notebook until his knuckles turn white. “Can I tell you something?” he asks, his voice small. Jongin nods curiously. Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and begins his story in a jumbled mix of English and Korean that he hopes Jongin can understand. “You’re right, about all of that. I hated my life in Korea. I felt like… my life was going in one direction, and no matter what I did my future would never change. It bothered me so much... I felt like… I couldn’t escape. So, I tried to jump off of a bridge.”
Kyungsoo says the last part quickly and steadily, and he doesn’t even turn to see Jongin’s reaction. “Someone saw me and called the police before I could go through with it, but it really made Junmyeon upset. Junmyeon is my best friend… I’ve known him since I was little. My parents haven’t been around for a long time, so he kind of looks after me,” he continues steadily. “Junmyeon begged me to tell him some way that he could help me, and coming here was the solution we came up with. He bought me a plane ticket to America and that was that.”
He pauses, finally turning to face Jongin. “Honestly, Jongin, if it weren’t for you, I would have found a way to make myself miserable here, too,” Kyungsoo says. He smiles shakily, trying to read Jongin’s expression. “I wish I would have met you a long time ago.”
Jongin stares at him, before reaching out to grab Kyungsoo’s hand gently. “Hey,” he says softly. “Can I kiss you?”
Kyungsoo lets out a burst of surprised laughter, and he stares up at Jongin with a shy smile. “Okay,” he agrees.
Jongin’s lips are soft and slightly clumsy from nervousness, so Kyungsoo lightly drags his fingers through his hair to calm him down. Kyungsoo can’t help but smile into the kiss because for the first time since he can remember he’s really, truly happy.
They only pull away when they can once again hear the roaring of car engines approaching. They turn just in time to see the red car swerving onto the field just barely ahead of the other two.
“You won!” Jongin says excitedly. Kyungsoo beams at him.
“Yeah,” he says, his voice overflowing with fondness for the boy in front of him. “I did.”
--
When they return to the dorms Chanyeol and Baekhyun are... busy in Kyungsoo's room, so Kyungsoo is forced to follow Jongin into his. Not that he really minds, especially due to the fact that they end up making out on Jongin's bed shortly after.
"You're really good at this," Kyungsoo compliments when he comes up for air. Jongin grins, laying back and pulling Kyungsoo on top of him.
"Thanks," he replies cheerfully. "You're not too bad either. We should have done this forever ago."
"No kidding." Kyungsoo leans down to capture Jongin's lips again, humming contently as Jongin reaches up to thread his fingers through his hair. He can't help the small moan that escapes him when he shifts his hips slightly. Jongin pulls away.
"Um," the younger says, swallowing thickly. "Hyung... do you want to... uh, are we gonna..." He trails off and stares desperately at Kyungsoo, like he's begging him to understand without him actually having to say it.
Kyungsoo bites his lip. "If you want," he says, and he really hopes that Jongin wants because he sure as hell does. Jongin nods immediately.
"I do. I want to," he says, slightly less nervously. He hesitates. "It's just that. I've never... um."
Kyungsoo's eyes widen. "Oh my god, you’ve never had sex?" he asks. Jongin looks immediately offended.
"What, no, I… Do you honestly think I'm a virgin? I'm nineteen years old and I'm not ugly," Jongin says bluntly. He sighs. "I've just never... received... before."
Kyungsoo blinks in surprise. "Oh, um, okay," he says, sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck. "It's fine, I can bottom. I don't really mind either way." Jongin shakes his head rapidly.
"No, no, I want to," he admits. “I mean, that's how I've always imagined it.” Kyungsoo smirks and raises an eyebrow.
"You've imagined this, huh?" he says teasingly. Jongin pouts.
"Shut up," he mumbles. "Of course I have. I like you."
Kyungsoo smiles tenderly and places a soft kiss on Jongin's lips. "Okay. I'll go slow," he says softly. "Let hyung take care of you." Jongin flushes softly and nods.
Kyungsoo captures Jongin’s lips again, reaching down to undo his jeans at the same time. Jongin slips his hands under Kyungsoo’s shirt and breaks the kiss temporarily to pull it over his head. He lets out a sharp gasp when Kyungsoo reaches his hand into his boxers and pulls out his cock, stroking it gently. “A-ah, hyung,” he breathes, glancing over at his desk and gesturing to it. “There are… supplies in there. Top drawer.” Kyungsoo nods and gets up, and Jongin takes the opportunity to shed his remaining clothes.
“This will feel weird,” Kyungsoo warns, kissing his way down Jongin’s stomach until he’s lying at eye-level with his cock. He pushes Jongin’s legs up so that they’re bent at the knees. “Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?”
“Okay,” Jongin says breathily as he watches Kyungsoo slather his fingers with lube. Kyungsoo gently circles the rim of Jongin’s hole with his first finger, before quickly thrusting it in up to the knuckle. Jongin’s breath catches in his throat.
“Am I hurting you?” Kyungsoo asks in concern, and Jongin quickly shakes his head.
“No,” he says reassuringly. “Keep going.”
Kyungsoo nods, concentrating on carefully working Jongin open. He inserts a second finger and Jongin lets out a small whimper, and Kyungsoo notices that his cock has gone down slightly. He pulls himself forward on his elbows, and before Jongin even realizes what he’s doing, he closes his mouth around his member. Jongin lets out a yelp of surprise.
“W-what are you… shit, Kyungsoo…” Jongin moans, his hips bucking as Kyungsoo continues to scissor him and suck his cock at the same time. Much to the elder’s satisfaction, Jongin begins to rapidly swell back to full hardness.
Jongin watches as Kyungsoo’s lips turn bright red from the stretch around his cock, drool beginning to accumulate along the sides as he eagerly bobs up and down. He occasionally lets Jongin’s length slide into the back of his throat as he presses his nose against his torso and holds it there for a few moments, and Jongin has to bite his fist to keep from screaming in pleasure. “Hyung, fuck, please,” Jongin moans, the intense sensations crashing over him in waves. “Stop, I’m gonna… please just, put it in.”
Kyungsoo obeys Jongin’s request, pulling off of his cock and leaving a trail of saliva from it to his mouth. Jongin almost comes from the sight alone. “Please,” Jongin whimpers again, his voice cracking pathetically. Kyungsoo smiles, stripping himself of his pants and underwear before crawling back up so that they’re face-to-face.
“I’ll be gentle,” Kyungsoo promises in a hushed whisper, his eyes falling to Jongin’s lips before he leans down and captures them once more. Jongin hears Kyungsoo jack himself off a few times with his lubed hand before he lines himself up with the younger’s clenching hole. And then all at once, Kyungsoo enters him.
It hurts, a lot, and Jongin breaks the kiss to let out a gasp of pain and digs his nails hard into the skin of Kyungsoo’s back. Kyungsoo kisses the side of his neck softly and whispers words of apology, pausing and waiting for Jongin to adjust.
Jongin clenches his teeth and lets out a few shuddering breaths, and after he manages to calm himself down, the pain eventually dulls. “Okay,” he breathes. “Go ahead, move.”
Kyungsoo starts off slowly, trying to hold back the noises of pleasure from slipping through his lips until he knows that Jongin is enjoying himself, too. After several thrusts, Jongin stops gasping in pain every time Kyungsoo moves, and the feeling goes from nearly excruciating to a dull ache.
“Jongin, can I…” Kyungsoo moans, his hips moving steadily as he tries to contain himself. “Is it okay if I speed up a little?”
Jongin nods. “Yeah, yeah, go ahead,” he says, burying his face into Kyungsoo’s shoulder as the elder increases his pace.
Kyungsoo grunts, no longer holding back as he rapidly plunges in and out of Jongin’s tight hole. “You feel… so amazing,” Kyungsoo breathes against Jongin’s neck, before kissing it softly. “You’re so tight and… fuck.”
Jongin feels his arousal skyrocket as Kyungsoo begins to whisper what Jongin can only assume are profanities in Korean into his ear. Suddenly, Kyungsoo pulls up one of Jongin’s legs so that it’s wrapped around his waist, and Jongin feels Kyungsoo’s cock hit a spot inside of him that has him seeing stars and screaming several expletives.
“Fuck, was that…” Jongin breathes, trying to keep from shouting out in unadulterated pleasure every time Kyungsoo hits that spot. “A-ah, yes, right there, yes.”
A series of ah’s continue to spill uncontrollably from Jongin’s lips, and he’s suddenly really glad that he’d asked Kyungsoo to top. Kyungsoo’s hips begin to move at a more sporadic pace, and Jongin lifts up his head to make eye contact, brushing the sweaty hair out of the older boy’s face.
“Fuck,” Kyungsoo whispers in English, and Jongin moans. “I’m gonna come.”
Jongin nods rapidly. “Me too,” he chokes out. “I’m so close… please, hyung. Touch me.”
Kyungsoo does, reaching his hand between them and jerking Jongin off with practiced strokes. Between the stimulation and the constant abuse of his prostate, Jongin is coming after only a few pumps of Kyungsoo’s hand, biting down hard on the elder’s bottom lip as he spurts his load all over both of their stomachs.
Kyungsoo isn’t far behind, and he makes to pull out but Jongin wraps both of his legs around him before he has the chance. “Come inside me,” Jongin whispers in Korean, and Kyungsoo comes so hard that his vision temporarily whites out.
They lay side by side for a while afterwards, catching their breath and trying to recover. Jongin turns his head toward Kyungsoo and smiles softly, and Kyungsoo returns it and places a kiss on his nose.
When he finds the energy, Kyungsoo reaches to grab his phone off of the bedside table where he’d left it.
Kyungsoo snorts to himself, continuing to read as Junmyeon sends a second message.
Kyungsoo glances at Jongin, who’s looking over his shoulder and staring at the unfamiliar hangul with narrowed eyes. “What the hell does that say? Wow, if you’re gonna be my boyfriend I should really work on my Korean,” Jongin says with a sigh. Kyungsoo grins widely.
“Boyfriend?” he asks, and Jongin just blushes and turns on his side, muttering something about being sleepy. Kyungsoo laughs.
Title: Off Course
Genre: Romance, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Rating: NC-17
Side-Pairing: sort-of implied Baekyeol I guess
Warnings: mentions of drug use and very brief mentions of suicide
Length: 6,883 words
Summary: Kyungsoo thinks life is like a race track, a giant circle with only one possible course. It takes a spontaneous trip to America and a shy yet insightful boy who can barely speak Korean to prove him wrong.
Notes: Please enjoy!! I promise this isn't as angsty as the warnings make it sound heh <3
“Hey, watch out!”
Kyungsoo is met with a stinging pain against the side of his face immediately after stepping out of the elevator. “Ow,” he says dully. He should've known coming to America was a bad idea.
“Goddammit, I was totally gonna make that shot!” a boy loudly complains from the other side of the hallway, and Kyungsoo looks down to see the soccer ball that had nailed him in the face rolling at his feet. “I get to shoot again.”
“Shut up, Baekhyun,” a taller boy says, stepping away from an actual soccer goal set up on one end of the hallway. Despite his words, there’s no malice in his voice and his face is stretched into a grin. “You haven’t made a single shot this entire game.”
“Seriously, Baekhyun is shit at soccer. Why do I always get stuck on his team?” a third boy complains. Kyungsoo shifts awkwardly, mostly because they’re all speaking English and he’s only picking up about half of the conversation.
“Um…”
“Who are you?” the tall guy suddenly asks Kyungsoo, and he clears his throat nervously.
“M-my name is Do Kyungsoo,” he explains in his somewhat-clumsy English.
“We can speak Korean if that’s easier for you,” the tall guy interjects, suddenly switching languages much to Kyungsoo’s relief.
“Oh, okay. I’m Do Kyungsoo. Uh, I’m studying abroad here for the semester,” he explains with a polite bow. The boy’s face lights up in a grin once again.
“Oh yeah, they told us you were coming!” he says excitedly. “Damn, Baek, your new roommate is cute.”
The boy named Baekhyun walks up to them, seemingly no longer concerned about his intercepted beer pong shot. “Hm,” he says, looking Kyungsoo up and down judgmentally. He pauses on Kyungsoo’s ass. “You like dick?”
Chanyeol slaps Baekhyun on the back of the head. “Don’t scare him,” he whispers through his teeth. He turns back to Kyungsoo happily. “Anyway, welcome to UCLA! My name is Park Chanyeol, and I will be your arbitrary tour guide from here on out.”
The guy that had complained earlier about Baekhyun’s soccer skills suddenly stands up and approaches Kyungsoo. “Kim Jongdae,” he introduces with a grin. “Wow, he is cute. Wanna be my roommate instead?”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Back off,” he snaps. He eyes Kyungsoo, before smiling slightly. “Byun Baekhyun. Nice to meet you, roomie.” Kyungsoo smiles uneasily and nods once.
Chanyeol glances over Baekhyun’s shoulder with a frown. “Uh, my roommate was here a second ago,” Chanyeol mutters in confusion. Kyungsoo vaguely recalls getting a brief glance of a fourth person sitting in the hallway when he’d stepped out of the elevator. “His name is Jongin, he hangs out with us too. He can barely speak Korean though since he was born here… where the hell did he go?” Jongdae snorts.
"He probably ran away at the prospect of socialization," he says dryly. He glances down at his phone, his eyes briefly scanning a message he had apparently received. "Oh, hey, Sehun's wondering where we are."
Chanyeol's expression brightens even more than before. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot!" he says excitedly. He pauses momentarily, before turning to Kyungsoo with a smirk. "What do you say, Kyungsoo, wanna experience your first American party?" Kyungsoo pales, thrown off guard by the sudden proposal.
"What? No," he replies firmly. "I haven't even unpacked yet. Plus, I can't speak English that well, so I don't really feel comfortable-"
"Look," Chanyeol cuts him off. "As your arbitrary tour guide, you have to do what I say. Otherwise, you won't get to enjoy the American college experience at it's full potential. You don't want that, do you?"
Kyungsoo swallows. "No..."
"Then come with us!" Chanyeol encourages. He throws an arm around Kyungsoo's shoulders. "It'll be fun. Trust me."
The party is not fun.
Kyungsoo doesn’t remember most of it, only the awkward beginning where he had followed Chanyeol around like a lost puppy and tried to avoid any conversation whatsoever. At one point someone had handed him an entire Ziploc bag full of brownies and said something to him in rapid English that he didn’t understand, and since he hadn’t eaten since before his flight that morning he didn’t think much before consuming the entire bag.
Next thing he knows, he’s lying on top of what appears to be a dining room table. He stares blankly up at the light fixture above him, letting out an occasional giggle for reasons he can’t really explain. He vaguely processes the party going on around him, but he mostly just concentrates on staying conscious.
"Is this heaven?" Kyungsoo asks himself softly, reaching up toward the light fixture. "Am I dead?"
He doesn't know how long he lays there like that, alone and unable to process anything. Eventually someone that he can’t quite identify shows up and crawls over his limp form.
"Hello, cutie," the strangely familiar voice says, and Kyungsoo thinks he can recognize Jongdae, even through his foggy vision. "What are you doing all alone?"
Kyungsoo honestly just wants to be left in peace so that he can fight the haziness that's threatening to take over his entire body, but he can't even voice this request out loud. Luckily, he doesn't have to.
"Jongdae," a voice suddenly snaps from beside them. "You’re not taking advantage of the exchange student are you?"
Jongdae chuckles and obeys, sliding away from Kyungsoo and back into the floor. "I wasn't gonna do anything, relax," he says, followed by an exasperated sigh. "What are you doing here?"
Jongin holds up the plate in his hands, showing off the wide array of cookies, chips, and pizza. "Free food," the one called Jongin explains shortly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He pauses and glances at Kyungsoo’s barely-conscious form. "...What's wrong with him?"
Jongdae follows Jongin's gaze to Kyungsoo, who's still lying on the table unmoving. He chuckles. "I have a few guesses," Jongdae says. He glances over Jongin's shoulder. "Oh, hey, is that Luhan?" And he's gone before Jongin can get another word in. Jongin curses under his breath.
He stands there for a long time, staring blankly at the limp body of the boy on the table. He's probably fine, it's not like he's in critical condition or anything. Nothing bad will happen if Jongin just leaves him there. Probably.
He takes a step toward the table and clears his throat. "Um, hello?" he says softly, and the boy's eyes shift toward him. Jongin sighs. "Hey, stay with me. You're okay."
The boy just keeps staring at him, his tongue occasionally poking out to wet his dry lips. Jongin groans. "I'm gonna take you home, alright?" The boy doesn't move for several beats, but he eventually nods, giving Jongin all of the permission he needs.
He figures that the easiest way to transport the boy is to carry him on his back, so with some difficulty, he does just that. "Just concentrate on my voice, okay? Don't pass out," he instructs, and the boy hums once in acknowledgement as Jongin transports him through the bustling party and out the door.
It's a lot quieter outside, and Jongin instantly feels a wave of calm wash over him. "It's nice to be away from all that noise, huh?" he says, mostly to himself, but he feels the boy on his back nod slightly. "What was your name again?"
There's a long pause. "Kyungsoo," the boy finally responds, his voice cracking slightly. Jongin nods.
"Right, right," he says, his voice coming out slightly strained as Kyungsoo's weight starts to take a toll on him. "I'm Kim Jongin. I'm Chanyeol's roommate. Um, sorry I didn't introduce myself before. I'm not really good at meeting new people. Though I must say, it's a lot easier when you're baked nearly to the point of unconsciousness."
Kyungsoo shifts slightly. "Baked?" he asks slowly. Jongin chuckles.
"I guess drug education is limited in Korea," he says exasperatedly. "Just be more careful next time, okay? Don’t eat or drink anything that a stranger gives you."
Kyungsoo sniffles. "I'm sorry," he whispers. Jongin smiles.
"Don't worry. I'll help you out this time," he says reassuringly. "From now on, just stay away from suspicious substances. Got it?"
"Got it," Kyungsoo repeats tiredly. He lays his head against Jongin’s back. “I think I am going to die.”
Jongin snorts. “You’re not gonna die,” he promises. “I might, though. You’re heavy.” He expects a protest of some sort, but he feels Kyungsoo’s arms go limp around his neck and he groans exasperatedly. He tightens his grip and uses the rest of his strength to haul the now-unconscious boy back to their dorm.
--
“Kyungsoo, get up!”
Kyungsoo sits up abruptly and is immediately met with a sharp pain in his forehead as it collides with the ceiling above his loft bed. “Ow,” he says dully. He should’ve known coming to America was a bad idea.
He hears a snort of laughter below him, and he leans over the edge of the bed to see Baekhyun grinning at him brightly. “It’s about time. You’ve been asleep for like fifteen hours."
Kyungsoo scrambles around for his phone, groaning miserably when he sees that it's 6:00pm. "Fuck."
"Yeah," Baekhyun says with a smirk. “Bet you never had anything like that happen in Korea.”
Kyungsoo only manages a distressed gurgling sound in response, and he scrambles out of bed and out the door before Baekhyun has the chance to say anything else. He rushes toward the staircase at the end of the hall, punching in a familiar number as he does so.
It picks up on the first ring. "I've been trying to call you all day," is the first thing that Kyungsoo hears, and he's automatically comforted by the familiar voice.
“Hyung,” he breathes, leaning against the wall of the alley next to the dorm building when he finally makes it outside. “Sorry, I was sleeping.”
“Ah,” the voice on the other line replies, unconcerned. “I was worried about you. How is everything going?”
Kyungsoo can feel his hands start to shake. “I don’t know if I can do this. I want to come home,” he says honestly, trying to keep the quiver out of his voice. He swallows. “I’ve been here for one day and I think I almost overdosed on marijuana.”
Much to his surprise, his hyung almost instantly bursts into laughter. “Really? Was it fun? Take advantage of that, because once you get back here you face years of imprisonment for that kind of thing,” he says, and Kyungsoo wants to cry.
“That’s not the point! This is just… so weird. And different,” he swallows. “I’m scared.”
The other boy sighs. “Look, Kyungsoo-yah. Didn’t you insist on going to the US because you wanted different?” he points out. “I’m not gonna let you give up this easily. If you come back now, you’ll regret it and you’ll feel even worse than before.” Kyungsoo sniffles.
“I know,” he mumbles.
“It’s just the culture shock, you’ll get over it in a week or two,” the voice continues. “You need this, Kyungsoo-yah. Don’t be afraid to try new things and have new experiences. I don’t ever want you to think you’re missing out on anything.”
Kyungsoo bites his lip and nods once. “You’re right,” he says softly. “I miss you, Junmyeon-hyung.”
“No you don’t. You’re gonna have a great time over there, enjoy it while you can. I’ll see you in a few months, Soo.”
Kyungsoo just nods again in response, hanging up before the emotions he can feel welling up inside of him spill over. He takes a deep breath.
He doesn’t know how long he stands there, but eventually his peace is interrupted by the door opening behind him and the familiar figure of Chanyeol stepping out into the alley.
“Oh, hey Kyungsoo!” he says cheerfully, lighting the cigarette dangling between his lips. “We’ve been looking for you, what are you doing out here?”
“Nothing,” Kyungsoo replies quickly. “I was just, um, making a phone call.” Chanyeol nods, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
“Did you have fun last night?” he asks with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Kyungsoo pauses, not sure how to respond. He doesn’t want to disappoint Chanyeol or seem like a loser, so he nods.
“Uh huh,” he says dully. Chanyeol laughs.
“Good! “ he says enthusiastically. “Because tonight we’re taking you to your first American nightclub.”
Kyungsoo pales, and his immediate instinct is to come up with some excuse as to why he can’t go. However, Junmyeon’s words ring in his head. Don’t be afraid to try new things and have new experiences. He weeps internally.
“Can’t wait!” he says, his voice cracking. He pauses. "Wait. I can't. I'm not even 21."
Chanyeol snorts. "None of us are. Don't worry about it," he says, waving Kyungsoo off. "Sehun’s fucking the bouncer."
"Oh," Kyungsoo says, his heart dropping slightly. "Okay. Yay."
Chanyeol finishes his cigarette and Kyungsoo follows him back upstairs. They stop in front of the open door to Jongin and Chanyeol's room, where Jongin is lying in bed and Baekhyun and Jongdae are sitting on the floor playing cards.
"Oh, you found him," Baekhyun days off-handedly. "You two should get ready. We want to leave soon."
Chanyeol just nods before going over to sit at the foot of Jongin's bed. Jongin pulls the blanket down from over his head and glances at him. "You're coming with us, right?" Chanyeol asks.
"Nope," Jongin replies instantly. “I would rather be doing pretty much anything else.”
Baekhyun pouts. “Jonginnnn,” he whines, sitting on the bed next to him. “Why don’t you ever wanna hang out with us anymore?” Jongin just shrugs in reply.
“Whatever, your loss,” Chanyeol says casually. He turns back to Kyungsoo. “Go get dressed, wear something hot. Trust me, you’re gonna have a blast tonight.”
"We have to stop meeting like this," Jongin says lightly, patting Kyungsoo's back as he heaves into the toilet. "How did you even make it home?"
Kyungsoo wills his stomach to settle enough for him to speak. "Walked," he mutters, resting his head against the cool porcelain. "Please stop talking."
Jongin chuckles, getting up to grab a bottle of water out of his mini-fridge. Kyungsoo had knocked on his door about fifteen minutes ago, much to Jongin's surprise, and immediately pushed past him and set up camp on his bathroom floor. "Why didn't any of the others come back with you?" he asks, ignoring Kyungsoo's request to shut up. Kyungsoo grabs the bottle of water out of Jongin's hand and chugs it desperately.
"Lost track of them," he mumbles, leaning against the wall tiredly. His English is even worse than usual, but Jongin is able to partially comprehend what he's saying. "Sorry... I don't want to be alone."
Jongin shrugs. "It's fine. I have lots of experience taking care of drunk idiots," he says casually. Kyungsoo frowns. "Forgive my observation, but you don't seem like you can hold your substances very well." Kyungsoo takes several minutes to mentally translate the sentence.
He sighs, curling into a ball and hiccupping slightly. "I never did this... back in Korea," he explains, his words slightly slurred. "I did, uh, business student things. I studied. And stuff."
"Oh, you're a business student?" Jongin asks, rifling through the medicine cabinet for a bottle of Advil. Kyungsoo groans.
"God, no. Not anymore. Not after..." he trails off, completing the thought with a hiccup. Jongin hands him two ibuprofen. "Art now." He makes a gesture similar to someone drawing in order to illustrate his point.
Jongin just nods, sliding down the wall until he's seated and wrapping his arms around his knees. "That's awesome. I'm in the art program too, but for dancing," he explains for the sake of making conversation. "I got a full scholarship. That's the only reason I can afford to go to a school like this..."
Jongin looks over to see Kyungsoo staring at him curiously, and he flushes slightly. "Anyway, feel free to stay in here as long as you want," he says, standing up and brushing himself off. "I'm going back to sleep."
Now it's Kyungsoo's turn to look embarrassed. "Right. Of course. Sorry," he mumbles. Jongin just smiles.
Jongin makes to leave, but he pauses in the doorway. He taps his fingers against the frame and shifts nervously. "Hey, Kyungsoo," he says. "This whole LA college night life isn't really your thing, is it?"
Kyungsoo is quiet for a long time. "Doesn't matter. M'already here," he finally replies with a shrug.
Jongin scratches the back of his neck and hesitates for a moment longer, as if he's gonna say something else, but instead he walks into his room and crawls back into bed.
--
"There's gonna be a huge rager at kappa sigma tonight, you in Soo?"
Kyungsoo feels his heart shatter as he forces a smile. "Totally," he says, his voice cracking. Jongin eyes him curiously over his styrofoam cup of noodles.
"What'd you say?" Jongin asks, and Chanyeol repeats the invitation in English. Jongin glances at Kyungsoo again. "Actually, guys, I was wondering if you all wanted to come to my dance recital tonight."
Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol stare at Jongin blankly.
"You've never invited us to one of your recitals before. Ever," Jongdae says in shock. Jongin just shrugs.
Chanyeol grins. "Of course we'll come!" he says excitedly. "We can go to frat parties any time."
"I never thought you would actually let us see you dance," Baekhyun says, his eyebrow quirked suspiciously. "What brought this on?"
Jongin shrugs again. Kyungsoo stares at him.
"So we're going to watch Jongin dance instead of going to the party?" Kyungsoo asks, a wave of relief instantly watching over him. Chanyeol sends him a sheepish grin.
"Hope you don't mind," he says. "We can hit a party tomorrow night." Kyungsoo shakes his head rapidly.
"No, I definitely don't mind," he says a little too quickly. Jongin snorts under his breath. Chanyeol claps his hands together and smiles brightly.
"Great! Shit, I'm gonna have to go do laundry then. I've been wearing the same pajama pants for like a week," Chanyeol says thoughtfully, grabbing his overflowing hamper.
Jongdae sends Jongin a grin. "I'm gonna go buy you a bouquet or something," he announces, clearly still surprised and excited by the concept of going to see Jongin dance. "Baek, Kyungsoo, come with."
Kyungsoo hesitates. "Erm, actually, I have laundry to do too," he explains. "Go on without me."
They do, and eventually Jongin and Kyungsoo are the only two left in the room. Jongin is avoiding eye contact and Kyungsoo is trying just as hard to make it.
"Hey," Kyungsoo says, and Jongin lifts his head slightly. "Thank you."
Jongin shrugs and clears his throat. "I thought maybe something like this might be more fun for you," he explains. He sighs. "I'm really nervous now, though. I'm kind of... weird about letting my friends see me dance."
Kyungsoo sits on the bed next to him, and Jongin tenses up slightly. "Why? Are you bad?" he asks bluntly, and Jongin chokes a little.
"Um, I mean, no," he says flusteredly. "I just... feel like they're lacking in artistic passion." Kyungsoo laughs loudly, and Jongin smiles, his shy-awkwardness disappearing slightly.
"No kidding," Kyungsoo agrees with a grin.
"Though Baekhyun's ability to take body shots with such speed and precision might be considered an art," Jongin muses, and Kyungsoo laughs again even though he only understood about half of what Jongin said.
They're quiet for a moment. "You and your friends are very different," Kyungsoo muses, and Jongin just smiles and shrugs in reply.
"They are what they are," he says vaguely. He glances at his nightstand. "I have to go down to the auditorium and get ready. I'll see you later?" Kyungsoo nods rapidly in response.
"Can't wait," he says honestly, and Jongin grabs a duffle bag off of his desk and throws it over his shoulder before leaving Kyungsoo alone.
The first thing that Kyungsoo does is run down the steps and out into the back alley he'd used for previously and dials Junmyeon's number. He picks up on the second ring. "Are you okay?" Junmyeon asks, immediately worrying like he always does whenever Kyungsoo calls him. Kyungsoo smiles to himself.
"Yeah, hyung, I'm really great," he replies brightly. Junmyeon lets out a small sigh of relief, and not for the first time Kyungsoo feels bad about making the older man feel so constantly on edge. "I just had a minute so I thought I'd call."
"Ah, so you found a free moment between hitting bongs and taking shots to talk to your hyung?" Junmyeon replies teasingly, and Kyungsoo lets out an unamused snort.
"Cut it out," he whines. "I'm not doing anything like that tonight, Chanyeol's roommate invited us to go to his dance recital. Have I mentioned Jongin?"
Junmyeon hums in thought. "I don't think so," he eventually concludes. "Are you and him close?"
For some reason, the question makes Kyungsoo embarrassed. "Oh, um, no. Not really," he admits. "He's kind of hard to talk to since he's really shy, and his Korean isn't that good. He's really nice though! And I'm really excited to watch him dance, I bet he's great at it."
Junmyeon chuckles. "Wow, Soo, I haven't heard you be this excited about something in a long time" Junmyeon muses. "Is this Jongin kid good-looking?"
Kyungsoo scowls deeply and lets noise of protest. "It's not like that," he says dryly. "I'm just excited for a change of scenery."
"Well, I'm glad. A change in scenery is why I sent you there in the first place."
Kyungsoo is about to respond, probably with unimportant ramblings about how the rest of his week had gone, when his phone beeps and signals that he has a call on the other line. "Hyung, Chanyeol's calling. I have to go," he tells Junmyeon, and like usual, he hangs up before any goodbyes can be exchanged. He sighs deeply at the loss of contact before he switches the call over.
"Soo, where are you? We're gonna leave now and meet Baek and Chen there," Chanyeol's deep voice rumbles through the line.
"I'll be right there," Kyungsoo promises, pocketing his phone and running back up the steps in anticipation.
The auditorium isn't very full, so the four of them manage to get seats right up front. "Oh look, Sehunnie's performing too," Jongdae points out, and the three of them continue to laugh and gossip about more of their friends that Kyungsoo doesn't know. He doesn't mind, though, he's content with just staring up at the curtains on stage excitedly.
Once the show starts, Kyungsoo instantly feels himself unwind and relax for the first time since coming to UCLA. He's always liked live performances like this; he used to drag Junmyeon to musicals and ballets all the time back before he'd started college and all of his free time had been sucked away. He watches each act with extreme interest, and he thinks that this is probably the most fun he's had in months.
Jongin is the last performer, and once he starts dancing, Kyungsoo immediately understands that it's because anyone that might have gone after him would have looked embarrassingly untalented in comparison.
The way Jongin dances reminds Kyungsoo of painting. Painting has always been Kyungsoo's strongest medium of art, because it's the one that he loves the most. The way the brush glides over the paper, a mere puppet of it's masters will, reminds Kyungsoo strongly of the way Jongin's body is moving on stage. It's pure creation and art and beauty and Kyungsoo is absolutely moved by every second of it.
They meet Jongin backstage, where Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Jongdae all clap him on the back and give him generic compliments. Kyungsoo is quiet for a while, trying to come up with the words to describe how Jongin's performance had made him feel.
"You're an artist, Jongin," he finally settles on, trying to speak English as clearly as possible to get his point across the way he wants to.
Jongin grins so brightly that his eyes crinkle up and nearly shut completely, and Kyungsoo swears he can almost see the shy, awkward Jongin melting away before his eyes. And just like that, whatever barrier had been between them is broken, and for the first time Kyungsoo thinks that maybe coming to America hadn’t been a mistake after all.
--
“Kyungsoo can’t hang out tonight, he has plans with me,” Jongin informs Chanyeol before the latter can even excitedly spew out whatever ridiculous endeavor he’d probably had planned. Chanyeol blinks, looking from Kyungsoo to Jongin in shock.
“Oh, um, okay,” Chanyeol says confusedly. He eyes them suspiciously. “You two wanna be alone, huh?”
Jongin flushes slightly, but holds his ground. “I just want to take him somewhere,” he says vaguely. “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your job, arbitrary tour guide-sshi.”
Chanyeol just laughs and shrugs easily. “Alright, have fun you two! Stay safe,” he says with a wink, and Jongin splutters before grabbing Kyungsoo’s arm and pulling him out of the room.
“Where are we going?” Kyungsoo asks, flustered by Jongin’s sudden take-charge attitude. Jongin smiles brightly.
“I want to show you what I like to do in my free time while Chanyeol and the others are drinking themselves into a coma,” he says cheerfully. “I have a feeling you’ll like it better.” Kyungsoo just nods and follows along in curiosity.
They take a short bus trip to another part of campus, and Jongin leads them along a back street for about a mile before they finally reach what appears to be an abandoned, overgrown soccer field. The bleachers are packed, and instead of players, three sports cars with racing stripes painted down the sides are stationed in the middle of the weeded grass.
“Hey, Jongin!” A tall boy with blonde hair suddenly runs up to them, a wad of cash in one of his enormous hands. “You betting tonight?”
Jongin shakes his head. “Nah, I’m broke,” he explains sheepishly. “I just brought a friend to watch. Kyungsoo meet Kris, Kris meet Kyungsoo.” Kris turns to Kyungsoo.
“Hey, Kyungsoo. What about you? Wanna place a bet?” he asks kindly. Kyungsoo stares at him, struggling to understand him due to his fast speech and slight accent that Kyungsoo guesses is Canadian. He also isn’t really sure what’s going on.
Jongin immediately comes to his rescue. “It’s a street race,” he explains simply. “Do you wanna put any money toward who you want to win?”
Kyungsoo glances over Kris’s shoulder at the cars lined up, revving their engines in anticipation. For some reason, a red one on the far left catches his eye. “I will place a bet on that one,” he says, pointing to it. Kris grins brightly.
“Good choice! Zitao’s a loose cannon,” he says fondly, and Kyungsoo just nods at the unfamiliar idiom. Jongin chuckles and waits for Kyungsoo to deposit his money before pulling him over toward one of the sets of bleachers.
They sit at the top, away from most of the other spectators. “This is what you like to do?” Kyungsoo asks, looking around in fascination. “I never would have… expected.” Jongin just chuckles and shrugs.
Kyungsoo takes out his sketch pad that he usually has on him, beginning to doodle the sports cars and making a detailed sketch of the ovular route he imagines them racing down. “Look, they’re about to take off!” Jongin says, grabbing Kyungsoo’s arm to get his attention and pointing to the revved-up cars excitedly. A girl drops two checkered flags and Kyungsoo watches in fascination as the cars take off from the field and onto the open road, not taking his eyes away until they all disappear around a corner.
Jongin stares at Kyungsoo’s sketchbook in interest. “That’s wrong, you know,” he says, and Kyungsoo startles. Jongin clucks his tongue and takes the sketchbook out of Kyungsoo’s lap. “This isn’t a raceway, there isn’t just one path that they go around over and over again. You really have a one-track mind, don’t you?” He chuckles at his pun, but Kyungsoo doesn’t really get it.
“What do you mean?” he asks slowly. Jongin flips the page over and takes Kyungsoo’s pencil.
Kyungsoo watches as Jongin draws something that looks a little like a maze; a series of curved and twisted paths spreading across the page like branches on a tree. He finishes off the quick sketch by doodling a checkered line at the end of all of the paths. “See? The drivers can go down any of these roads and choose whatever path they want, it’s all up to them,” Jongin explains. “They all lead to the finish line.” Kyungsoo blinks slowly.
“Ah,” he says. He looks away and nods once in understanding. “This is a metaphor, isn’t it.” He says the last part in Korean since he doesn’t know how to translate it, but Jongin seems to understand.
Jongin smiles and hands the sketchbook back to Kyungsoo gently. “Everything isn’t black and white,” he says, and Kyungsoo doesn’t meet his eyes. “When you lived in Korea, you felt like your business degree was going to lead you down a bleak, dead-end path, so you came here, right? And then you thought that the only way to experience the American college life was to drink and party and do all of the crazy shit you see in movies. Well, it doesn’t always have to be like that. You shouldn’t just do what you think you have to do, you should do what makes you happy.”
Kyungsoo clutches his notebook until his knuckles turn white. “Can I tell you something?” he asks, his voice small. Jongin nods curiously. Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and begins his story in a jumbled mix of English and Korean that he hopes Jongin can understand. “You’re right, about all of that. I hated my life in Korea. I felt like… my life was going in one direction, and no matter what I did my future would never change. It bothered me so much... I felt like… I couldn’t escape. So, I tried to jump off of a bridge.”
Kyungsoo says the last part quickly and steadily, and he doesn’t even turn to see Jongin’s reaction. “Someone saw me and called the police before I could go through with it, but it really made Junmyeon upset. Junmyeon is my best friend… I’ve known him since I was little. My parents haven’t been around for a long time, so he kind of looks after me,” he continues steadily. “Junmyeon begged me to tell him some way that he could help me, and coming here was the solution we came up with. He bought me a plane ticket to America and that was that.”
He pauses, finally turning to face Jongin. “Honestly, Jongin, if it weren’t for you, I would have found a way to make myself miserable here, too,” Kyungsoo says. He smiles shakily, trying to read Jongin’s expression. “I wish I would have met you a long time ago.”
Jongin stares at him, before reaching out to grab Kyungsoo’s hand gently. “Hey,” he says softly. “Can I kiss you?”
Kyungsoo lets out a burst of surprised laughter, and he stares up at Jongin with a shy smile. “Okay,” he agrees.
Jongin’s lips are soft and slightly clumsy from nervousness, so Kyungsoo lightly drags his fingers through his hair to calm him down. Kyungsoo can’t help but smile into the kiss because for the first time since he can remember he’s really, truly happy.
They only pull away when they can once again hear the roaring of car engines approaching. They turn just in time to see the red car swerving onto the field just barely ahead of the other two.
“You won!” Jongin says excitedly. Kyungsoo beams at him.
“Yeah,” he says, his voice overflowing with fondness for the boy in front of him. “I did.”
--
When they return to the dorms Chanyeol and Baekhyun are... busy in Kyungsoo's room, so Kyungsoo is forced to follow Jongin into his. Not that he really minds, especially due to the fact that they end up making out on Jongin's bed shortly after.
"You're really good at this," Kyungsoo compliments when he comes up for air. Jongin grins, laying back and pulling Kyungsoo on top of him.
"Thanks," he replies cheerfully. "You're not too bad either. We should have done this forever ago."
"No kidding." Kyungsoo leans down to capture Jongin's lips again, humming contently as Jongin reaches up to thread his fingers through his hair. He can't help the small moan that escapes him when he shifts his hips slightly. Jongin pulls away.
"Um," the younger says, swallowing thickly. "Hyung... do you want to... uh, are we gonna..." He trails off and stares desperately at Kyungsoo, like he's begging him to understand without him actually having to say it.
Kyungsoo bites his lip. "If you want," he says, and he really hopes that Jongin wants because he sure as hell does. Jongin nods immediately.
"I do. I want to," he says, slightly less nervously. He hesitates. "It's just that. I've never... um."
Kyungsoo's eyes widen. "Oh my god, you’ve never had sex?" he asks. Jongin looks immediately offended.
"What, no, I… Do you honestly think I'm a virgin? I'm nineteen years old and I'm not ugly," Jongin says bluntly. He sighs. "I've just never... received... before."
Kyungsoo blinks in surprise. "Oh, um, okay," he says, sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck. "It's fine, I can bottom. I don't really mind either way." Jongin shakes his head rapidly.
"No, no, I want to," he admits. “I mean, that's how I've always imagined it.” Kyungsoo smirks and raises an eyebrow.
"You've imagined this, huh?" he says teasingly. Jongin pouts.
"Shut up," he mumbles. "Of course I have. I like you."
Kyungsoo smiles tenderly and places a soft kiss on Jongin's lips. "Okay. I'll go slow," he says softly. "Let hyung take care of you." Jongin flushes softly and nods.
Kyungsoo captures Jongin’s lips again, reaching down to undo his jeans at the same time. Jongin slips his hands under Kyungsoo’s shirt and breaks the kiss temporarily to pull it over his head. He lets out a sharp gasp when Kyungsoo reaches his hand into his boxers and pulls out his cock, stroking it gently. “A-ah, hyung,” he breathes, glancing over at his desk and gesturing to it. “There are… supplies in there. Top drawer.” Kyungsoo nods and gets up, and Jongin takes the opportunity to shed his remaining clothes.
“This will feel weird,” Kyungsoo warns, kissing his way down Jongin’s stomach until he’s lying at eye-level with his cock. He pushes Jongin’s legs up so that they’re bent at the knees. “Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?”
“Okay,” Jongin says breathily as he watches Kyungsoo slather his fingers with lube. Kyungsoo gently circles the rim of Jongin’s hole with his first finger, before quickly thrusting it in up to the knuckle. Jongin’s breath catches in his throat.
“Am I hurting you?” Kyungsoo asks in concern, and Jongin quickly shakes his head.
“No,” he says reassuringly. “Keep going.”
Kyungsoo nods, concentrating on carefully working Jongin open. He inserts a second finger and Jongin lets out a small whimper, and Kyungsoo notices that his cock has gone down slightly. He pulls himself forward on his elbows, and before Jongin even realizes what he’s doing, he closes his mouth around his member. Jongin lets out a yelp of surprise.
“W-what are you… shit, Kyungsoo…” Jongin moans, his hips bucking as Kyungsoo continues to scissor him and suck his cock at the same time. Much to the elder’s satisfaction, Jongin begins to rapidly swell back to full hardness.
Jongin watches as Kyungsoo’s lips turn bright red from the stretch around his cock, drool beginning to accumulate along the sides as he eagerly bobs up and down. He occasionally lets Jongin’s length slide into the back of his throat as he presses his nose against his torso and holds it there for a few moments, and Jongin has to bite his fist to keep from screaming in pleasure. “Hyung, fuck, please,” Jongin moans, the intense sensations crashing over him in waves. “Stop, I’m gonna… please just, put it in.”
Kyungsoo obeys Jongin’s request, pulling off of his cock and leaving a trail of saliva from it to his mouth. Jongin almost comes from the sight alone. “Please,” Jongin whimpers again, his voice cracking pathetically. Kyungsoo smiles, stripping himself of his pants and underwear before crawling back up so that they’re face-to-face.
“I’ll be gentle,” Kyungsoo promises in a hushed whisper, his eyes falling to Jongin’s lips before he leans down and captures them once more. Jongin hears Kyungsoo jack himself off a few times with his lubed hand before he lines himself up with the younger’s clenching hole. And then all at once, Kyungsoo enters him.
It hurts, a lot, and Jongin breaks the kiss to let out a gasp of pain and digs his nails hard into the skin of Kyungsoo’s back. Kyungsoo kisses the side of his neck softly and whispers words of apology, pausing and waiting for Jongin to adjust.
Jongin clenches his teeth and lets out a few shuddering breaths, and after he manages to calm himself down, the pain eventually dulls. “Okay,” he breathes. “Go ahead, move.”
Kyungsoo starts off slowly, trying to hold back the noises of pleasure from slipping through his lips until he knows that Jongin is enjoying himself, too. After several thrusts, Jongin stops gasping in pain every time Kyungsoo moves, and the feeling goes from nearly excruciating to a dull ache.
“Jongin, can I…” Kyungsoo moans, his hips moving steadily as he tries to contain himself. “Is it okay if I speed up a little?”
Jongin nods. “Yeah, yeah, go ahead,” he says, burying his face into Kyungsoo’s shoulder as the elder increases his pace.
Kyungsoo grunts, no longer holding back as he rapidly plunges in and out of Jongin’s tight hole. “You feel… so amazing,” Kyungsoo breathes against Jongin’s neck, before kissing it softly. “You’re so tight and… fuck.”
Jongin feels his arousal skyrocket as Kyungsoo begins to whisper what Jongin can only assume are profanities in Korean into his ear. Suddenly, Kyungsoo pulls up one of Jongin’s legs so that it’s wrapped around his waist, and Jongin feels Kyungsoo’s cock hit a spot inside of him that has him seeing stars and screaming several expletives.
“Fuck, was that…” Jongin breathes, trying to keep from shouting out in unadulterated pleasure every time Kyungsoo hits that spot. “A-ah, yes, right there, yes.”
A series of ah’s continue to spill uncontrollably from Jongin’s lips, and he’s suddenly really glad that he’d asked Kyungsoo to top. Kyungsoo’s hips begin to move at a more sporadic pace, and Jongin lifts up his head to make eye contact, brushing the sweaty hair out of the older boy’s face.
“Fuck,” Kyungsoo whispers in English, and Jongin moans. “I’m gonna come.”
Jongin nods rapidly. “Me too,” he chokes out. “I’m so close… please, hyung. Touch me.”
Kyungsoo does, reaching his hand between them and jerking Jongin off with practiced strokes. Between the stimulation and the constant abuse of his prostate, Jongin is coming after only a few pumps of Kyungsoo’s hand, biting down hard on the elder’s bottom lip as he spurts his load all over both of their stomachs.
Kyungsoo isn’t far behind, and he makes to pull out but Jongin wraps both of his legs around him before he has the chance. “Come inside me,” Jongin whispers in Korean, and Kyungsoo comes so hard that his vision temporarily whites out.
They lay side by side for a while afterwards, catching their breath and trying to recover. Jongin turns his head toward Kyungsoo and smiles softly, and Kyungsoo returns it and places a kiss on his nose.
When he finds the energy, Kyungsoo reaches to grab his phone off of the bedside table where he’d left it.
Kyungsoo snorts to himself, continuing to read as Junmyeon sends a second message.
Kyungsoo glances at Jongin, who’s looking over his shoulder and staring at the unfamiliar hangul with narrowed eyes. “What the hell does that say? Wow, if you’re gonna be my boyfriend I should really work on my Korean,” Jongin says with a sigh. Kyungsoo grins widely.
“Boyfriend?” he asks, and Jongin just blushes and turns on his side, muttering something about being sleepy. Kyungsoo laughs.