Title: To Write Love on His Arms
Pairing: 2min, Jongkey (if you squint)
Rating: NC-17 (for later chapters)
Genre: AU, fluff, smut, high school, romance
Summary: Minho is one of the most popular boys in school and has his world come crashing down around him when he has to move. Taemin has had a crush on Minho since he could remember and decided he was going to do something about it with his last chance to make his move.
The day only got worse for the soccer player. He knew without a doubt he failed his science test. Then in second period he was paired off with the most annoyingly high pitched girl in the entire class. He had to cringe through an analysis of poetry with the female and tried not to plug his ears to keep them from bleeding. By third period, Minho was ready to yell at anyone who talked to him. The teenager automatically shuffled to his seat in the back and absentmindedly let his eyes wander over the class. When he sat down his eyes fell on the back of a head covered in slightly curled auburn hair and recognized it as the boy he had almost ran over that morning. How he never noticed the male before came to a slight shock to him. Maybe it was the fact that he sat in the front and was already writing something.
Taemin was scribbling down the homework for the night and sighed softly. The younger boy wasn’t exactly the top of the class and had his own struggles, especially in the current English class. He had to work to keep his grades to make sure he was able to get into at least one decent college. The only two classes the teen looked forward to were his dance class and English. The latter had only one obvious reason, the boy in the back row.
“Class, get out your books and conjugate the words on the board. Turn them in at the end of class,” Mr. Park stated, motioning to the list of thirty words on the blackboard before walking back to his desk.
Several groans met the teacher’s request followed by the sound of shuffled papers and zippers. The sound of pens scratching and the flipping of text book pages soon filled the air as people bent over their desks. Minho didn’t see the point in doing his work when he wouldn’t be there at the end of the month, even though it was only a few days into the first week. Finally the dark haired male sighed and pulled out his English book and opened it and grabbed his pencil but made no move to actually start writing. He was going to lunch soon and that was when he was going to break the news to everyone.
Taemin had been copying the conjugations and peeked at the back corner and smiled as he saw the object of his affection staring blankly into space. He looked deep in thought and the smaller boy knew he would give anything to crawl inside the teen’s head and see what he was thinking about. Finally after staring for a good five minutes, Taemin turned his attention back to his work and finished it with ten minutes to spare for the rest of the class time.
The paler male reached for the book that had been perched on his desk since the beginning of class and cracked it open, picking up where a handsome prince turned out to be the most wretched person the young girl that featured in the story had met. He fell quickly into the story, getting lost in a daring world of dragons and endless love. Taemin was so lost in his own little world that he didn’t notice the eyes trained on his back.
Minho was so lost in his own thoughts he never realized he had been staring hard at the back of the bent over boy in the front row. He finally pulled himself back into reality and noticed the person he had been staring at was now reading a book. His auburn hair almost obscured his entire face, but Minho could still see the small upturn of the other boy’s lips. The tall boy briefly wondered what the book contained that held Taemin's attention.
Slowly the distraught teen let his eyes trail back down to his paper and noticed he had only conjugated one word and only part of the second word. Minho gave a soft groan and began to write down as many conjugations as he could in the five minute time limit he had. The scrawl on the paper was barely even legible as he turned in only ten out of the thirty words at the end of class and headed to his locker.
--
“What in fucking hell Minho!” Jonghyun was staring disbelievingly at his friend as he nodded solemnly, barely flinching at the crass language. “Your dad can’t make you move in the middle of the year! And right after Christmas too!”
A few of the surrounding tables had quieted a little as they leaned in discretely to eavesdrop on the popular table. “Shhh, could you say it any louder. I really don’t want the whole student population to know,” though the chances of that were starting to seem thin since the tables quickly switched from quiet observers to gossiping whispers. Minho groaned knowing he would be bombarded with people who acted like he was their best friend before the end of the school day.
Onew looked solemn and flicked a piece of chestnut brown hair out of his eye. “Minho, you realize that no matter how under wraps you want this, everyone will know by the end of the week. It’s the price of our status.”
“Sometimes I wish my ‘status’ wasn’t so big,” the soccer buff mumbled sadly.
Jonghyun sounded troubled as he took the conversation back to the most important subject. “You can’t go to Seoul. It’s two and a half hours away by train.” The blonde dino had been Minho’s friend since primary school and could not bare the thought of facing school life without him.
“You don’t think I haven’t realized that yet? I can’t exactly stop living with my parents either. They’re paying my college tuition,” the boy sounded distraught.
Onew stuck his chopsticks into a piece of chicken then popped it into his mouth. “It isn’t going to be the same without you. But you know you gotta leave with a big bang. Maybe you should finally get with Yuri and break up with her in front of the entire school your last day.”
“That’s a little harsh Jinki-hyung. Just because she dumped you for Jiyoung at the dance doesn’t mean you have to make Minho accomplish your revenge,” Jonghyun snapped at the steadily eating boy.
Minho spaced out, blocking the conversation from his mind as he thought about what he would do the last month in school. Maybe he could actually have that party he wanted for once. Or he could skip several days and never do make ups since there was no use in it. But even in his musings he knew he had to keep up his grades for his parents’ sake, or else he’d be grounded, moving or not.
As random scenes of spending his last days at Bundang High School flitted through his mind, the entire cafeteria slowly spread the news about the well-liked boy’s move. Taemin was sitting in the far corner with his small group of friends, which consisted of his best friend Key and a few people from his dance class. They were chatting about the upcoming show for the entire school and solos they had tried out for a couple of days before.
“Taemin’s definitely getting the popping solo,” Jokwon stated confidently.
The auburn haired boy leaned forward a little with a small smile. “That’s not a given Jo. I had to go up against Hyunseung remember. You know seonsaengnim gives solos to seniors before she gives them to juniors.”
“Doesn’t matter. You blew all of them out of the water and Hyunseung can’t do that move you did… with the leg flail. You have it in the bag Taemin,” Key said matter-of-factly.
Taemin had opened his mouth to protest again but was cut off as a girl from the intermediate dance class waltzed up behind Jokwon and kissed the short haired brunette on the cheek. “You’ll never believe the news.”
“What is it jagiya?” Jokwon asked with genuine interest.
Theshort haired girl sat down next to her boyfriend and turned to the whole table with a serious face. “Choi Minho is moving because his appa is going broke.”
The entire group leaned forward, normally Taemin wasn’t interested in the life of the more popular but this dealt with Minho so he was all ears. Random gasps of, “No way,” and “Finally,” answered Gain as she nodded at their shocked expressions. “It’s totally true. I heard from Jessica who heard it from Sunny who sits right by Minho’s table.”
Key scoffed and rolled his eyes, recognizing it immediately as a rumor. Plus he also knew Taemin would get sucked in and become too dramatic for him to handle at the moment. “I bet he isn’t moving Gain~shi. It sounds like a whole bunch of bogus to me. Next time, tell us something you hear directly from the boy himself.”
“But it’s true. He’s also going to date Yuri~shi,” Gain defended her accusations against the diva teen.
Key peeked over to his best friend and saw he had lost all of his color and was staring blankly at the table. “Gain it’s just a rumor.”
The girl sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe it is.”
The well-dressed male stood up and grabbed lightly onto Taemin’s shoulder. “You want to go get something from the drink machine with me?” The younger boy nodded feebly and stood with him and walked with him through the maze of tables. Key had directed them so they could walk straight past Minho’s table to see if they could pick up on some of the conversation. The entire group looked solemn and the blonde Key knew as Jonghyun was positively sulking.
“I hate your appa.”
“I do too.”
Key saw the pained look on his friend’s face and moved him quickly past the table. He knew of Taemin’s crush since it first formulated. The diva could tell it was ripping apart the small boy, but then again what had passed between Jonghyun and Minho wasn’t enough for them to say he was officially moving.
The pair stopped in front of the vending machines and Taemin leaned against it with a broken hearted sigh. “He…he’s moving.” The frail looking male sounded so sad that it almost brought tears to his friend’s eyes.
“Taeminnie… we don’t know if he’s really moving,” the older boy said putting money into a machine to avoid looking at Taemin.
The latter groaned and hit his head on the nearby wall. “But he is. You heard Gain~shi.”
“Gain produces more gossip than anyone else in this school.”
The shorter boy closed his eyes and sighed. “Maybe I should have told him, no he would have ridiculed me for five years.”
“Taemin~ah, you know better than anyone else that if you don’t take risks you never know if something is possible. Who’s the one that had all odds against him for trying out in the school play and got the second lead because he practiced night and day for it?” Key asked.
Taemin shuffled his feet and looked down, answering meekly, “Me.”
The diva gave a small smirk as he pulled out a bag of sour gummy works from the vending machine. “Now who’s going to try to win over Minho even if he’s moving away?”
Taemin raised his eyes, a look of uncertainty but determination rested in their depths. “Me.”
Chapter 3