You must be Dumb Dumb not to see that Me Gustas Tu
Title: You must be Dumb Dumb not to see that Me Gustas Tu
Pairing: JB/Youngjae
Rating: PG
WC: 2500
Summary: [college!AU] Jaebum just came back from a private talk with his professor, so his mood isn’t the best, when the first thing he sees upon opening the door to his room is that pest of Bambam with his hands beneath Youngjae’s skirt.
AO3 || AFF
*masterpost*
“What the fuck are you doing.”
Jaebum just came back from a private talk with his professor, so his mood isn’t the best, when the first thing he sees upon opening the door to his room is that pest of Bambam with his hands beneath Youngjae’s skirt.
If asked, Jaebum wouldn’t be able to tell you what registered first: the compromising position, or Youngjae in a sailor schoolgirl uniform and askew pigtailed wig.
With a completely undignified squeal Youngjae finally manages to bat Bambam’s hands off him, in order to hide in the bathroom and escape his roommate’s judging eyes. Nevermind that Jaebum is too busy with his own mental crisis over how pretty he finds Youngjae to judge the younger’s, uhm, hobby?
“So, how do I look?” Bambam suddenly pipes up. His voice sounds distant to Jaebum, even though they’re only a couple of steps apart, so he barely acknowledges it.
“Hyung! How do I look?” the freshman insists, twirling to make the skirt of his red dress balloon up and giving Jaebum a coquettish curtsy. Despite being ignored, a mischievous grin still stretches on Bambam’s face in front of the senior’s inability to look away from the door Youngjae retreated behind for more than a second. Feeling pity for his older friends, Bambam decides to explain Jaebum what’s going on.
“We’re doing a mini flashmob. We’re gonna dance to some of the latest girl groups’ hits and needed an extra person,” he says, like it’s every day college male students dress up as otaku’s wet dreams, adding some overly exaggerated hip thrusts for good measure. Jaebum finally manages to focus on the other boy, noticing only then the resemblance of his attire with Red Velvet’s outfits and, by process of elimination, deducing that what Bambam just did is supposed to be part of the “Dumb Dumb” choreography.
“Wanna join us? Thanks to Youngjae hyung we aren’t odd numbered anymore, but we can arrange something, both dress- and choreo-wise,” Bambam asks, enjoying watching the different emotions running through the elder’s face.
“Listen, Pippi Longstocking,” Jaebum growls, fighting the urge to grab the twig-like boy by the collar and throw him out of the room, maybe out of the window, “you can take your gravity defying braids outta here and leave Youngjae alone.” He takes a threatening step forward, but Bambam doesn’t let himself be deterred, despite automatically taking a step or two back because he likes his body intact, thank you very much.
“Okay, okay, no uniform for you. What about filming us?” Bambam suggests with a sudden surge of genius. “Just try not to focus on Youngjae hyung too much, though,” he then adds with a saucy wink.
Jaebum is about to hurl his messenger bag to the insolent freshman when the bathroom door clicks open and Youngjae steps back in the bedroom, a hand hovering defensively over the hem of his skirt while sparing his roommate an awkward glance.
“Let’s get this over with, Bam.”
At those words, Bambam beams and hoots, repeating the same crass version of Dumb Dumb’s dance to celebrate. Jaebum bites his lip as he tries really hard not to rake his eyes up and down Youngjae’s figure or say something he’ll regret, like “you look good,” “you are even cuter,” or “I like you still”.
While Bambam gathers his belongings with non-stop chatters, Jaebum retrieves his videocamera. At Youngjae’s curious and hesitant glance, the older shrugs.
“I never pass a good chance at blackmailing. Jinyoung taught me well,” he says, trying really hard to keep his voice and face serious in front of Youngjae’s endearing whine (oh, come on, anything he does is cute...get a grip, Jaebum). Jaebum then fiddles with his camera to check the settings, not noticing his roommate’s slightly darkening expression as Youngjae mulls over their little exchange, in particular Jinyoung’s mention.
“Alright, let’s go!”
Bambam disrupts the other two’s reverie and ushers them outside.
The walk from the dorms to the park behind the main building never felt this long to Jaebum. Girls would squeal at the sight of Bambam and Youngjae in their cute outfits; nearsighted guys--or maybe frat boys already drunk at four in the afternoon--would catcall the two pretties, while others would stare in confusion (at what is going on or at their own sexuality, they don’t know either). It doesn’t help that Bambam flirts with everyone, indiscriminately.
As soon as they walk past the fountain in the campus’ main square someone calls out, “Excuse me!” causing the three of them to turn to their right, where they see a guy jogging in their direction. He throws Jaebum a brief challenging glance before stopping in front of Youngjae.
“I’m sorry for being so forward, but I didn’t want to risk not being able to see a pretty girl like you anymore,” he says in earnest, this close to shoot hearts from his eyes. Jaebum, on the other hand, would throw real daggers if he had any. “My name is Jinoh, what’s your name?”
The blush on Youngjae’s face can rival the color of Bambam’s dress. He's about to respond that he’s not, in fact, a girl, defending the circumstances that led him to dress like that, when an arm falls heavily on his shoulders and Youngjae feels himself being pulled towards a sturdier body.
“The name is Taken, the last name is Bye. Now, if you excuse us,” Jaebum speaks up with an icy tone, nodding at Bambam to follow him as he all but drags Youngjae away. It isn’t until they’ve reached the park’s outskirts that he lets go of his roommate with an awkward apology.
“It-It’s okay,” Youngjae replies, absentmindedly fiddling with the short sleeves of his uniform. His lips keep twitching in embarrassment, relief, a bit of amusement, and a certain feeling for Jaebum that he can’t describe but that started bugging him fairly recently.
“Hey, guys!” a boisterous voice calls from halfway across the park. Guess whose fault it is they’re in this predicament and you’ll know who just spoke.
“I should’ve known you were involved in this,” Jaebum says dryly, his mood soured by the previous encounter.
“Well, well, look who we have here. Had I known you’d join us, I would’ve insisted with either Jinyoung or Mark some more to keep the teams even,” Jackson rebuts with a smirk, that broadens at Jaebum’s venomous ‘Fuck no’.
“At their refusal we decided to do only Red Velvet, but we managed to drag Youngjae in so we went back to the original plan of dancing to GFriend as well,” Jackson explains. “Yugyeom’s spare outfit should fit you! Hey Brownie, do you mind go retrieve it?” He turns, addressing the younger friend.
“But it’s all the way over to the dorms,” Yugyeom complains with a grimace, not fully ready to repeat the walk of shame. Twice.
Jaebum finally notices the tall freshman, who is wearing the same uniform as Youngjae but he looks massive in his, the color softening him just a bit. The long haired wig with little bows at the sides looks good on him, though.
“I said I won’t participate to whatever you came up with this time. I’m only here to film you all making a fool of yourselves,” Jaebum insists, shaking his camera pointedly. Jackson sniffs defensively, shaking long locks away from his face, and crosses his arms on the green apron covering his broad chest.
“You underestimate our skillZ at girl group dances.”
“Yugyeom and Bambam’s skills, you mean,” Youngjae pipes up. He, too, crosses his arms, but his uniform must be a tad too tight for him, because it’s risking to rip right below the V neck. Jackson waves his words away.
The troublemaker senior crouches in front of his backpack and fishes out his iPod, portable amp dock, and mini megaphone. After causing everyone within range to cringe at the feedback, he calls the other students’ attention with his amplified voice.
“Hi everyone! This is Jackson, and I’m back with another initiative to collect whatever you’re able and willing to donate--being it time, money or food--to the local shelter. Follow my voice to the center of the park and you’ll be able to see me and my friends dancing to Red Velvet and GFriend. We will be even better than the originals, and you can join us if you want to!”
As burdensome, embarrassing and sometimes borderline illegal as they are, most of Jackson’s crazy stunts stem from honorable intentions, such as helping homeless people or stray pets (except when he accepts to partake in dumb bets). Jaebum has to begrudgingly admit he admires Jackson for that, but never to his face.
Curious to see what shenanigans did Jackson come up with this time, more and more students start flocking to the park and sit on the grass or available benches to watch the show. Satisfied with the number of people gathered, and done setting a folding table with a donation box and a notebook for volunteers to sign up, Jackson calls Bambam over to take position; Yugyeom and Youngjae stand momentarily to the side, and at Jackson’s nod the sophomore presses play.
As soon as the first notes of “Dumb Dumb” start playing and the two students start tapping their fingers on their palms, the audience begins clapping to the beat, even singing along enthusiastically when the refrain hits and cheering loudly at Jackson and Bambam’s exaggerated moves.
Behind the camera, Jaebum is having a hard time containing his chuckles and amused snorts, resulting in the even harder feat of keeping the camera stable. He very determinedly avoids panning it to his left, where Youngjae and Yugyeom are waiting for their turn, because he knows he wouldn’t be able to avoid filming his roommate and only him, and he doesn’t want to give Bambam the pleasure to be right. Besides, this video isn’t for his own viewing pleasure, but rather it’s supposed to be uploaded on the college’s website or something, Jaebum didn’t bother asking; he’ll just send the file to Jackson or Bambam and they’ll take care of the editing.
The audience’s enthusiasm turns up a few notches when the second song team Red Velvet chose, “Happiness”, fades into the slightly harder but still cheery beat of GFriend’s “Me Gustas Tu”, and that’s Yugyeom and Youngjae’s cue to step in. It’s soon the sophomore’s turn to leapfrog Yugyeom’s larger figure, but he manages, showing everyone his tonic thighs and the black shorts he’s wearing under the lilac uniform. Much to the audience’s (and Jaebum’s) delight, Youngjae sings along with his clear voice and sounding only a little out of breath, surprisingly so for someone whose favorite sport is playing online games late at night, driving everyone nuts with his high note during Yuju’s part.
Jaebum can’t hold back his inner Youngjae fanboy any longer and he cheers as well, uncaring if it’ll be heard in the final montage; in Jaebum’s humble opinion, while Yugyeom and Bambam are definitely the best in their group of friends at imitating girl group dances, Jackson and Youngjae held their own egregiously. He keeps things professional, however, limiting Youngjae’s close ups and giving Yugyeom his well deserved shots as well.
At the audience’s shouts for encore following team GFriend’s second performance, “Glass Bead”, Jackson beams and lunges for his iPod, scrolling through his songs until he settles for Twice’s “Cheer Up”. With a nod he instructs the other boys to invite the spectating students to dance along, dragging them up front if necessary.
From the corner of his eye, Jaebum spots the same guy who approached Youngjae earlier: while he prays his displeased growl wasn’t caught by the mic, he has no qualms throwing whatshisface a warning glare when he sees him looking longingly at Youngjae (didn’t he think the sophomore was a girl? Wasn’t he straight? Fuck off). Jaebum gets the shock of his life when he looks back at the monitor and gets a faceful of Youngjae and a giggly girl he successfully pulled right up to the camera, their smiles magnified in the screen and looking 80 shades of adorable doing the sha sha sha move.
“Oh sh--” the senior gasps, cutting himself just in time. The hand Jaebum slapped on his mouth doesn’t do much to hide his own grin as he focuses on the left side of the flipping monitor, feeling the warmth spreading from his neck up to his face in front of Youngjae’s glowing expression; he’s relieved when Youngjae thanks and dismisses the girl before prancing away to drag someone else into this madness, not so much out of jealousy (Jaebum would be lying if he said he didn’t want to be the only one able to see the younger boy’s sunny smiles, though) but of self consciousness, because he feels himself turning into a sap stickier than the one running down the trees surrounding them.
Jackson calls it a wrap after dancing to five more songs and ending with the evergreen “Gee”, thanking everyone who watched and signed up to volunteer or donate to the shelter. The audience disperses while the boys stick around to tidy up, and soon enough they make their way back to the dorms.
“How long have you been practicing for this?” Jaebum asks as soon as he and Youngjae step into their bedroom, barely giving the younger the time to remove the long wig with a relieved sigh.
“Uhm, a week? Yeah, Jackson hyung and Bambam started pestering me around last Tuesday,” Youngjae replies pensively, his voice strained in the effort to undo the uniform zipper on his back. Why couldn’t the shirt and skirt be separate, damn it.
Jaebum observes him for a moment before stepping up and forcing Youngjae to turn, one hand on his shoulder and the other reaching for the zipper.
“Quit squirming and let me help,” he mumbles gruffly, glad his roommate can’t see his face.
Sentiment reciprocated by Youngjae: the action may be brief, but he freezes under Jaebum’s touch nonetheless. Sure he’s reading too much into things and not wanting to give his own unclear feelings for the elder the chance to screw things up, Youngjae thanks Jaebum brightly as usual, then snatches the t-shirt and sweats he previously left on his chair to get changed.
Jaebum is pretty sure he imagined the hint of strain to Youngjae’s smile before the boy retreated in the bathroom. Pushing the thought to the side, Jaebum doesn’t wait for him to come back to compliment Youngjae’s performance.
“I already knew you could sing, but it came as a pleasant surprise to see you dance as well. And singing while dancing, too! Some idols would be jealous.”
The laughter ringing through the closed bathroom door is bashful but hearty, and Jaebum can’t help but grin, butterflies tickling inside his ribcage.
He doesn’t want to think about how he’s going to miss it when he graduates.
Fffff, the ending is rushed, I didn't know how to conclude it :X
Btw, little reminder that the events of these drabbles don’t follow a linear timeline: this particular episode is supposed to take place some time in the spring, but who knows what month/season the ones I write next will take place, so 2jae’s feelings might take a step forward and two backwards :L
Let me know if you want me to reorder the drabbles once i’m done with the whole series (when???), even though it’d go against the whole “Rewind” concept XD
Pairing: JB/Youngjae
Rating: PG
WC: 2500
Summary: [college!AU] Jaebum just came back from a private talk with his professor, so his mood isn’t the best, when the first thing he sees upon opening the door to his room is that pest of Bambam with his hands beneath Youngjae’s skirt.
AO3 || AFF
*masterpost*
“What the fuck are you doing.”
Jaebum just came back from a private talk with his professor, so his mood isn’t the best, when the first thing he sees upon opening the door to his room is that pest of Bambam with his hands beneath Youngjae’s skirt.
If asked, Jaebum wouldn’t be able to tell you what registered first: the compromising position, or Youngjae in a sailor schoolgirl uniform and askew pigtailed wig.
With a completely undignified squeal Youngjae finally manages to bat Bambam’s hands off him, in order to hide in the bathroom and escape his roommate’s judging eyes. Nevermind that Jaebum is too busy with his own mental crisis over how pretty he finds Youngjae to judge the younger’s, uhm, hobby?
“So, how do I look?” Bambam suddenly pipes up. His voice sounds distant to Jaebum, even though they’re only a couple of steps apart, so he barely acknowledges it.
“Hyung! How do I look?” the freshman insists, twirling to make the skirt of his red dress balloon up and giving Jaebum a coquettish curtsy. Despite being ignored, a mischievous grin still stretches on Bambam’s face in front of the senior’s inability to look away from the door Youngjae retreated behind for more than a second. Feeling pity for his older friends, Bambam decides to explain Jaebum what’s going on.
“We’re doing a mini flashmob. We’re gonna dance to some of the latest girl groups’ hits and needed an extra person,” he says, like it’s every day college male students dress up as otaku’s wet dreams, adding some overly exaggerated hip thrusts for good measure. Jaebum finally manages to focus on the other boy, noticing only then the resemblance of his attire with Red Velvet’s outfits and, by process of elimination, deducing that what Bambam just did is supposed to be part of the “Dumb Dumb” choreography.
“Wanna join us? Thanks to Youngjae hyung we aren’t odd numbered anymore, but we can arrange something, both dress- and choreo-wise,” Bambam asks, enjoying watching the different emotions running through the elder’s face.
“Listen, Pippi Longstocking,” Jaebum growls, fighting the urge to grab the twig-like boy by the collar and throw him out of the room, maybe out of the window, “you can take your gravity defying braids outta here and leave Youngjae alone.” He takes a threatening step forward, but Bambam doesn’t let himself be deterred, despite automatically taking a step or two back because he likes his body intact, thank you very much.
“Okay, okay, no uniform for you. What about filming us?” Bambam suggests with a sudden surge of genius. “Just try not to focus on Youngjae hyung too much, though,” he then adds with a saucy wink.
Jaebum is about to hurl his messenger bag to the insolent freshman when the bathroom door clicks open and Youngjae steps back in the bedroom, a hand hovering defensively over the hem of his skirt while sparing his roommate an awkward glance.
“Let’s get this over with, Bam.”
At those words, Bambam beams and hoots, repeating the same crass version of Dumb Dumb’s dance to celebrate. Jaebum bites his lip as he tries really hard not to rake his eyes up and down Youngjae’s figure or say something he’ll regret, like “you look good,” “you are even cuter,” or “I like you still”.
While Bambam gathers his belongings with non-stop chatters, Jaebum retrieves his videocamera. At Youngjae’s curious and hesitant glance, the older shrugs.
“I never pass a good chance at blackmailing. Jinyoung taught me well,” he says, trying really hard to keep his voice and face serious in front of Youngjae’s endearing whine (oh, come on, anything he does is cute...get a grip, Jaebum). Jaebum then fiddles with his camera to check the settings, not noticing his roommate’s slightly darkening expression as Youngjae mulls over their little exchange, in particular Jinyoung’s mention.
“Alright, let’s go!”
Bambam disrupts the other two’s reverie and ushers them outside.
The walk from the dorms to the park behind the main building never felt this long to Jaebum. Girls would squeal at the sight of Bambam and Youngjae in their cute outfits; nearsighted guys--or maybe frat boys already drunk at four in the afternoon--would catcall the two pretties, while others would stare in confusion (at what is going on or at their own sexuality, they don’t know either). It doesn’t help that Bambam flirts with everyone, indiscriminately.
As soon as they walk past the fountain in the campus’ main square someone calls out, “Excuse me!” causing the three of them to turn to their right, where they see a guy jogging in their direction. He throws Jaebum a brief challenging glance before stopping in front of Youngjae.
“I’m sorry for being so forward, but I didn’t want to risk not being able to see a pretty girl like you anymore,” he says in earnest, this close to shoot hearts from his eyes. Jaebum, on the other hand, would throw real daggers if he had any. “My name is Jinoh, what’s your name?”
The blush on Youngjae’s face can rival the color of Bambam’s dress. He's about to respond that he’s not, in fact, a girl, defending the circumstances that led him to dress like that, when an arm falls heavily on his shoulders and Youngjae feels himself being pulled towards a sturdier body.
“The name is Taken, the last name is Bye. Now, if you excuse us,” Jaebum speaks up with an icy tone, nodding at Bambam to follow him as he all but drags Youngjae away. It isn’t until they’ve reached the park’s outskirts that he lets go of his roommate with an awkward apology.
“It-It’s okay,” Youngjae replies, absentmindedly fiddling with the short sleeves of his uniform. His lips keep twitching in embarrassment, relief, a bit of amusement, and a certain feeling for Jaebum that he can’t describe but that started bugging him fairly recently.
“Hey, guys!” a boisterous voice calls from halfway across the park. Guess whose fault it is they’re in this predicament and you’ll know who just spoke.
“I should’ve known you were involved in this,” Jaebum says dryly, his mood soured by the previous encounter.
“Well, well, look who we have here. Had I known you’d join us, I would’ve insisted with either Jinyoung or Mark some more to keep the teams even,” Jackson rebuts with a smirk, that broadens at Jaebum’s venomous ‘Fuck no’.
“At their refusal we decided to do only Red Velvet, but we managed to drag Youngjae in so we went back to the original plan of dancing to GFriend as well,” Jackson explains. “Yugyeom’s spare outfit should fit you! Hey Brownie, do you mind go retrieve it?” He turns, addressing the younger friend.
“But it’s all the way over to the dorms,” Yugyeom complains with a grimace, not fully ready to repeat the walk of shame. Twice.
Jaebum finally notices the tall freshman, who is wearing the same uniform as Youngjae but he looks massive in his, the color softening him just a bit. The long haired wig with little bows at the sides looks good on him, though.
“I said I won’t participate to whatever you came up with this time. I’m only here to film you all making a fool of yourselves,” Jaebum insists, shaking his camera pointedly. Jackson sniffs defensively, shaking long locks away from his face, and crosses his arms on the green apron covering his broad chest.
“You underestimate our skillZ at girl group dances.”
“Yugyeom and Bambam’s skills, you mean,” Youngjae pipes up. He, too, crosses his arms, but his uniform must be a tad too tight for him, because it’s risking to rip right below the V neck. Jackson waves his words away.
The troublemaker senior crouches in front of his backpack and fishes out his iPod, portable amp dock, and mini megaphone. After causing everyone within range to cringe at the feedback, he calls the other students’ attention with his amplified voice.
“Hi everyone! This is Jackson, and I’m back with another initiative to collect whatever you’re able and willing to donate--being it time, money or food--to the local shelter. Follow my voice to the center of the park and you’ll be able to see me and my friends dancing to Red Velvet and GFriend. We will be even better than the originals, and you can join us if you want to!”
As burdensome, embarrassing and sometimes borderline illegal as they are, most of Jackson’s crazy stunts stem from honorable intentions, such as helping homeless people or stray pets (except when he accepts to partake in dumb bets). Jaebum has to begrudgingly admit he admires Jackson for that, but never to his face.
Curious to see what shenanigans did Jackson come up with this time, more and more students start flocking to the park and sit on the grass or available benches to watch the show. Satisfied with the number of people gathered, and done setting a folding table with a donation box and a notebook for volunteers to sign up, Jackson calls Bambam over to take position; Yugyeom and Youngjae stand momentarily to the side, and at Jackson’s nod the sophomore presses play.
As soon as the first notes of “Dumb Dumb” start playing and the two students start tapping their fingers on their palms, the audience begins clapping to the beat, even singing along enthusiastically when the refrain hits and cheering loudly at Jackson and Bambam’s exaggerated moves.
Behind the camera, Jaebum is having a hard time containing his chuckles and amused snorts, resulting in the even harder feat of keeping the camera stable. He very determinedly avoids panning it to his left, where Youngjae and Yugyeom are waiting for their turn, because he knows he wouldn’t be able to avoid filming his roommate and only him, and he doesn’t want to give Bambam the pleasure to be right. Besides, this video isn’t for his own viewing pleasure, but rather it’s supposed to be uploaded on the college’s website or something, Jaebum didn’t bother asking; he’ll just send the file to Jackson or Bambam and they’ll take care of the editing.
The audience’s enthusiasm turns up a few notches when the second song team Red Velvet chose, “Happiness”, fades into the slightly harder but still cheery beat of GFriend’s “Me Gustas Tu”, and that’s Yugyeom and Youngjae’s cue to step in. It’s soon the sophomore’s turn to leapfrog Yugyeom’s larger figure, but he manages, showing everyone his tonic thighs and the black shorts he’s wearing under the lilac uniform. Much to the audience’s (and Jaebum’s) delight, Youngjae sings along with his clear voice and sounding only a little out of breath, surprisingly so for someone whose favorite sport is playing online games late at night, driving everyone nuts with his high note during Yuju’s part.
Jaebum can’t hold back his inner Youngjae fanboy any longer and he cheers as well, uncaring if it’ll be heard in the final montage; in Jaebum’s humble opinion, while Yugyeom and Bambam are definitely the best in their group of friends at imitating girl group dances, Jackson and Youngjae held their own egregiously. He keeps things professional, however, limiting Youngjae’s close ups and giving Yugyeom his well deserved shots as well.
At the audience’s shouts for encore following team GFriend’s second performance, “Glass Bead”, Jackson beams and lunges for his iPod, scrolling through his songs until he settles for Twice’s “Cheer Up”. With a nod he instructs the other boys to invite the spectating students to dance along, dragging them up front if necessary.
From the corner of his eye, Jaebum spots the same guy who approached Youngjae earlier: while he prays his displeased growl wasn’t caught by the mic, he has no qualms throwing whatshisface a warning glare when he sees him looking longingly at Youngjae (didn’t he think the sophomore was a girl? Wasn’t he straight? Fuck off). Jaebum gets the shock of his life when he looks back at the monitor and gets a faceful of Youngjae and a giggly girl he successfully pulled right up to the camera, their smiles magnified in the screen and looking 80 shades of adorable doing the sha sha sha move.
“Oh sh--” the senior gasps, cutting himself just in time. The hand Jaebum slapped on his mouth doesn’t do much to hide his own grin as he focuses on the left side of the flipping monitor, feeling the warmth spreading from his neck up to his face in front of Youngjae’s glowing expression; he’s relieved when Youngjae thanks and dismisses the girl before prancing away to drag someone else into this madness, not so much out of jealousy (Jaebum would be lying if he said he didn’t want to be the only one able to see the younger boy’s sunny smiles, though) but of self consciousness, because he feels himself turning into a sap stickier than the one running down the trees surrounding them.
Jackson calls it a wrap after dancing to five more songs and ending with the evergreen “Gee”, thanking everyone who watched and signed up to volunteer or donate to the shelter. The audience disperses while the boys stick around to tidy up, and soon enough they make their way back to the dorms.
“How long have you been practicing for this?” Jaebum asks as soon as he and Youngjae step into their bedroom, barely giving the younger the time to remove the long wig with a relieved sigh.
“Uhm, a week? Yeah, Jackson hyung and Bambam started pestering me around last Tuesday,” Youngjae replies pensively, his voice strained in the effort to undo the uniform zipper on his back. Why couldn’t the shirt and skirt be separate, damn it.
Jaebum observes him for a moment before stepping up and forcing Youngjae to turn, one hand on his shoulder and the other reaching for the zipper.
“Quit squirming and let me help,” he mumbles gruffly, glad his roommate can’t see his face.
Sentiment reciprocated by Youngjae: the action may be brief, but he freezes under Jaebum’s touch nonetheless. Sure he’s reading too much into things and not wanting to give his own unclear feelings for the elder the chance to screw things up, Youngjae thanks Jaebum brightly as usual, then snatches the t-shirt and sweats he previously left on his chair to get changed.
Jaebum is pretty sure he imagined the hint of strain to Youngjae’s smile before the boy retreated in the bathroom. Pushing the thought to the side, Jaebum doesn’t wait for him to come back to compliment Youngjae’s performance.
“I already knew you could sing, but it came as a pleasant surprise to see you dance as well. And singing while dancing, too! Some idols would be jealous.”
The laughter ringing through the closed bathroom door is bashful but hearty, and Jaebum can’t help but grin, butterflies tickling inside his ribcage.
He doesn’t want to think about how he’s going to miss it when he graduates.
Fffff, the ending is rushed, I didn't know how to conclude it :X
Btw, little reminder that the events of these drabbles don’t follow a linear timeline: this particular episode is supposed to take place some time in the spring, but who knows what month/season the ones I write next will take place, so 2jae’s feelings might take a step forward and two backwards :L
Let me know if you want me to reorder the drabbles once i’m done with the whole series (when???), even though it’d go against the whole “Rewind” concept XD