cheer!au!au
Pairing: Wufan/Baekhyun
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6002
Chanyeol is carefully braiding Kyungsoo’s hair into a loose French braid, stopping every few moments to ask if it hurts, when Jongin saunters up to them triumphantly with two full bags of McDonalds. It smells like a whole lot of chicken nuggets and fries-the nightmare of every girl that has ever tried to diet.
“Did you get barbecue sauce?” Kyungsoo peers into the bag, eyelashes fluttering in anticipation.
“No, the more important question is, did you get ketchup?” Chanyeol rifles through the bag and comes out triumphantly with an assortment of ranch, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and sweet and sour sauce.
“I bring you the entire armada of sauces,” Jongin says smugly, basking in the praises her unnie-deuls give her for doing so well. Sehun sits herself down, stealing a packet of ranch all for herself and a whole box of chicken nuggets. Jongin sits down next to her best friend and helps her pull her falling bra strap up while Sehun nibbles on her chicken nuggets.
Kyungsoo presses a chicken nugget dunked in ketchup up to Chanyeol’s lips, who gratefully bites into the nugget while tying the end of Kyungsoo’s braid. Joonmyun walks over, beaming happily with a small bouquet of roses in one hand and Jongdae’s hand in the other. Jongdae has a happy smile decorating his face instead of his usual half-smirk. The entire table gives happy shrieks, abandoning their seats to run up to Joonmyun and congratulate her.
“He asked you out to Homecoming?!” Jongdae frowns, taking the bouquet of roses back from Joonmyun before they get smashed in the flurry of girls.
“You know you could just ask me yourself? I’m right here,” he says. Joonmyun gives him an apologetic smile but she excitedly nods her head when they completely disregard him anyways.
“He wrote it out on the whiteboard of my last class, and he popped out from behind the teacher’s desk with these flowers. Then he got on his knees, took my hand and asked me out,” Joonmyun says, still slightly dazed. It couldn’t have been easy for Jongdae to ask her out when the physics teacher was notoriously hard on students interrupting class time, but Jongdae was always one of his favorites because he was smart and liked to answer questions in class.
“And Mr. Lee let him?”
“Well, I had to agree to be his TA next year,” Jongdae says. Joonmyun was a senior so she wouldn’t be there next year, but Jongdae would be-it’s one of the cons of dating younger men.
“Noona, I have to go to the Junior Student Council meeting now, but do you want to go dress shopping later?” Joonmyun smiles, nodding excitedly. Jongdae flushes happily, squeezing her hand once before walking away. He looks back at her to wave twice before tripping and disappearing out of view.
“He’s so whipped, how do I get me one of those?” Chanyeol sighs wistfully. Joonmyun was a cheerleader, Treasurer of the Senior Student Council, and Secretary of the Literature Club. Jongdae was President of the Junior Student Council, Vice-President of the Chess Club, and Historian of the Chinese Student Association (even though he wasn’t Chinese). They were basically a perfect couple so the rest of the cheer squad liked to joke and pretend on gag on their cuteness even though they were the entire school’s OTP.
“What’s going on,” Baekhyun asked. She stood on her toes to peer around their group and gasped when she saw Joonmyun’s roses. “Lucky,” Baekhyun whined. Everyone knew Wufan was too shy to ask Baekhyun out even though it was completely obvious to anyone and everyone that he really wanted to ask her. It’s a running bet between Baekhyun and Wufan to see who would ask who out first. Baekhyun was notoriously bold; Wufan was notoriously shy despite his prince-ly demeanor.
“Do you think I should ask him out first,” Baekhyun asked. She took out a French fry and nibbled on it while thinking thoughtfully.
“Let him ask you out first,” Sehun suggested.
“But then he’ll never ask me,” Baekhyun mourned.
“But I already placed my bets on him,” Chanyeol said. Baekhyun smeared her greased fingertips over Chanyeol’s face, relishing on Chanyeol’s upset splutters. Jongin laughed, offering Chanyeol a wet napkin.
“Why are boys so stupid?” Baekhyun whined, leaning on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. The younger girl let Baekhyun lean on her while she reached for her second box of chicken nuggets.
“Why’d you go for a stupid boy,” Joonmyun said in return. Baekhyun scowled at Joonmyun’s bouquet, trying to burn it with her eyes.
“Because I don’t like short ones,” Baekhyun snarked.
“Jongdae isn’t… that short,” Joonmyun defended. Jongdae wasn’t that short, but he was definitely part of the shorter and smaller spectrum of men. Wufan was part of the taller and bigger part of the spectrum, and Baekhyun was beginning to think she was a little too ambitious.
Chanyeol laughed, practically bowling over. “That’s funny,” she said. Joonmyun scowled.
“At least I can get someone that is actually taller than me,” Joonmyun said. Chanyeol shut up because aside from Wufan, she was second tallest person in school. That meant aside from Wufan, who she had entirely platonic feelings for, all the other boys in school were shorter than her. It was a sensitive topic because she was the only one who couldn’t wear heels without feeling out of place. Joonmyun placated her by feeding her a French fry.
“We’ll see,” Chanyeol said vaguely. Sehun nuzzled her face into the back of Chanyeol’s neck in a comforting gesture-all she managed was to smear oily lips all over Chanyeol’s neck.
♥
The locker room is always the busiest right after school starts. That’s when sixth period P.E. comes in and all the athletic people crowd inside. It’s basically a rowdy mess of half-naked girls and the original stench of smelly bathrooms and over-sprayed perfume and body mist. Baekhyun always grumbles about how the girls’ basketball team has their lockers in a separate section with better lockers, better restrooms, and cleaner floors.
“Jongin, I think I had too many French fries,” Sehun complains, grabbing at a pinch of fat around her shorts.
“Do I have a muffin top,” she asks. Jongin shakes her head, pulling her shorts up and tightening it.
“Please, Sehun. Don’t ask me that when I ate fried chicken for all my meals yesterday.” Jongin frowns, pinching her thighs. It’s not like Jongin is fat either when she dances in her free time.
“Jongin you have to remember to eat all your vegetables as well,” Joonmyun nags. Joonmyun gets pinches on her cheeks from her dongsaengs, cooing over her protective side while simultaneously trying to distract Joonmyun from nagging them about their bad eating habits.
Baekhyun’s in the middle of wriggling out of her jeans when Chanyeol walks over and gives her a resounding slap on her ass. She yelps, whipping around to glare at her offender. Chanyeol grins wildly, doing ‘buing buing’ when Baekhyun gives her the middle finger and hisses. It’s a tough life, being a curvy girl.
Chanyeol contemplates doing the same thing to Kyungsoo but the girl slams her locker door and stares at Chanyeol with a challenging look. Kyungsoo may be curvy as well, but no one has the guts to do anything to her when she’s not in the mood to play around.
“Kyungsoo, I love you,” Chanyeol says instead. Kyungsoo shoots her a heart-shaped smile and walks over to one of the mirrors to undo her braid and tie her hair in a tight ponytail.
Baekhyun grumbles, her life is not fair-and her butt hurts now.
Practice goes the same as usual. They run through drills while Sehun, Jongin, and Chanyeol pretend not to be able to see their captain while Baekhyun jabs them with sharp fingers for their jokes. Joonmyun and Kyungsoo follow the drills religiously and make sure to stretch carefully.
“Jumping jacks, we’re doing twenty military style,” Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo blanches and it soon becomes apparent when Baekhyun stares hard enough to realize Kyungsoo isn’t wearing a bra. She smiles devilishly.
♥
“One, two, three. Nineteen! One, two, three. Twenty! Okay, you can have a water break everyone!” Baekhyun subtly splashes some water on Kyungsoo’s white shirt by accident and gives her a back hug. Her hands are strategically spaced with one arm right under Kyungsoo’s boobs and one arm hugging around Kyungsoo’s waist with her hand dipping into the hem of Kyungsoo’s shorts. She captures a few guys from the soccer team gawking and she hollers at them, “Support Cheerleading! We have a car wash fundraiser on Saturday!” Kyungsoo thrashes in Baekhyun’s arms, scowling fiercely with a red face. Kyungsoo might be blushing but Baekhyun is actually sure more than half of it is from anger.
Baekhyun scampers off before Kyungsoo can grab ahold of her and murder her in a most painful way.
Kyungsoo is not one to let people off easy; it’s not within her nature. The basketball team walks over to their side of the gym with the water fountain to get some water and Baekhyun finds herself staring forlornly at Wufan while they work their way through When Baekhyun turns around, Kyungsoo deftly pinches the back of Baekhyun’s bra and laughs when Baekhyun yelps at the feeling of her bra unclasping. Wufan whips his head around when he hears her but his face instantaneously reddens at the sight of her clutching her the front and back of her chest. He coughs, choking on water and spluttering it all over his face. It dribbles down his jersey and Yixing has to ask if he’s okay.
Wufan pointedly tries not to look at Baekhyun when he motions over her chest.
“You might want to fix that, I’m just yeah. Okay, bye,” he says. He walks off quickly while Baekhyun stands and splutters. Jongin helpfully sticks her hands up Baekhyun’s shirt and redoes the clasp. Chanyeol not so subtly high-fives Kyungsoo.
“Traitor,” she hisses. Chanyeol leers, slapping Baekhyun’s butt which catches Wufan’s attention.
“GET SOME,” she yells. She earns two laps around the gym. Baekhyun doesn’t understand why her friends are like this. Wufan’s ears are bright red and he seems entirely too determined not to look their way anymore. Baekhyun frowns, she sort of wishes he would try to take longer peeks. The problems of pining over a shy gentleman, she muses.
♥
They decide that their bubble tea break after practice is well-deserved. Joonmyun decides to treat all of them as the eldest of the group. They all clamor up to the counter, shouting various drinks at the cashier named Luhan who seems mildly scared at the group of six girls who seem a little too excited about bubble tea. Luhan fumbles around the cash register with a panicked expression; no amount of experience could have prepared him for this.
Thankfully, Minseok steps up to the counter to save the day. He’s the soccer oppa who graduated the year before. All the girls chorus, “Oppa! We missed you!” He gives them a bright grin and they coo over his gummy smile before they tell him their orders and he somehow manages to decipher all their orders as they shout it to him all at once.
Kyungsoo stands behind all of them, thinking contemplatively. “Hey Kyungsoo, what do you feel like today?”
“Coffee milk tea,” she says. Minseok jingles the tip jar and smiles mischievously.
“Anything else for me today?” Kyungsoo slips a folded piece of paper into the jar. Minseok pauses, reaching into the jar and opening the slip of paper. He glances at her with the paper in his hand, silently asking her if it’s for him. Kyungsoo keeps a calm face but her fingers are clasped together tightly. She nods slightly. No one else knows what’s going on so they wait with bated breath.
On the paper it says, “Go to Homecoming with me.”
After a moment, Minseok whistles, “That’s quite a big tip, don’t you think? Is it for me?” He smiles, and Kyungsoo blushes with a hard frown quivering on her face.
“Yes,” she murmurs. She clears her throat. “Yes.”
He leans closer to her with his forearms resting on the counter, turning his head to the side. “Do I get a popo at least if I say yes?” There is a massive amount of shrieking when Kyungsoo steps closer with her eyes squeezed shut and gives him a quick peck on the cheek.
“It’s going on Facebook,” Baekhyun screeches. She takes their picture as Kyungsoo stands closer to the counter and Minseok slings an arm around her. Kyungsoo visibly relaxes in his arms, legs feeling like jelly from the suspense of it all. He helps to hold her up, just like she expected he would.
“GET SOME,” Chanyeol yells far too loud for a bubble tea shop. Kyungsoo finally gets the chance to feel young and shy instead of her usual mature image. Her heart-shaped smile blooms. Minseok grins, his oppa image radiating despite his boyish looks. And somehow it works.
The great part about the celebratory event is that Minseok decides it would be fine to use his employee discount on all of them. The feeling of happiness is so intense Minseok ends up with a wad of cash in the tip jar and lots of kiss marks all over his face (and a slightly disgruntled Kyungsoo who carefully wipes it off his face.) (“Oppa, you’re mine now. Don’t let other girls touch you.”)
“Bro, how do you do that,” Luhan asks. Minseok shrugs. It’s the power of having the oppa aura.
“Maybe because I didn’t graduate from an all-boys high school,” Minseok says. Luhan sighs.
♥
Kyungsoo is the center of attention now. They’re all buzzing with shock, sitting in silence while they rapidly upload it on every social media possible because Kyungsoo actually asked someone out even though so many people wanted to go with her to Homecoming.
It’s a period of mourning for many people. It gets retweeted, shared, and a hundred likes and favorites goes towards their picture within ten minutes. Two out of six cheerleaders are already going out with someone to Homecoming and it’s a battle to the death for the rest of them.
“I wanted a real man,” Kyungsoo says contemplatively while sipping on her milk tea. Wolf whistles go around.
“Don’t we all,” Joonmyun says pointedly. Then they stare at Baekhyun.
“Well at least he looks like a man,” Chanyeol says. She gets socked between the boobs.
“Unnie,” Chanyeol shrieks, shaking Joonmyun’s arm. Joonmyun sighs, her life is so difficult. Baekhyun sticks out her tongue and Chanyeol kicks her under the table. It’s miraculous none of their drinks spill over the table. Sehun sips on her chocolate milk tea, contemplating whether she should get a refill. Jongin’s already back at the counter.
“Excuse me, can I have some popcorn chicken?” The waiter from before steps up to ring Jongin’s order.
“Anything else for you?” Jongin shakes her head, pauses, then opens her mouth before closing it again.
“No,” she says.
“Are you sure,” Luhan asks. Jongin purses her lips, as if she’s thinking about it carefully. She knows the unnie-deuls don’t like it when she watches soccer in their presence because she tends to forget to pay attention to them but tonight it’s ManU versus Chelsea and she really wants to watch Chelsea beat dumb Manchester United.
“Actually… can you change the channel? It’s ManU versus Chelsea today,” she requests timidly. Her heart jumps a little when Luhan changes the channel without even asking which channel it’s on.
“Actually, I wanted to watch it too,” he says. She pays for the popcorn chicken and sits down while waiting for her order. Jongin sits down, fiddling with her receipt. Luhan oppa is kind of cool.
“Aigo, is our Jonginnie blushing?” Sehun teases despite being the youngest.
“Omo omo,” Baekhyun teases, poking Jongin’s cheeks.
“Unnieeeeeee,” Jongin whines, “it’s not like that.”
“You like Luhan oppa? He’s really nice; I met him through Jongdae,” Joonmyun says.
“How,” Jongin whispers. She doesn’t want Luhan to know she was inquiring about him.
“Luhan tutored Jongdae in Mandarin for a while when they went to the same school before Jongdae transferred.” It was common knowledge that Jongdae used to come from an all-boys school, which was the source of his initial popularity. Every girl tried and failed to get him flustered but all Joonmyun had to do was give him a smile and a pat on the shoulder to get him spluttering and following her around like a lost puppy. It’s the Joonmyun effect.
“I see,” Jongin says. Luhan was smart and he liked soccer. Luhan approaches the table with a smile and her popcorn chicken. He has muscular legs. She chokes on her strawberry milk tea at the thought. Baekhyun hands her a napkin while Chanyeol unhelpfully thumps her back.
“Are you okay?” Luhan asks. “Should I grab more napkins?” Jongin flushes and shakes her head. Nope, she doesn’t need any help at all. Luhan leans in a little closer and she can smell his cologne. She squirms a bit and closes her legs tightly, maybe she does need a little help.
“I’m okay,” she says. Luhan smiles before walking back behind the counter. God, he’s like actually really cute. ManU scores a goal and Luhan cheers loudly. Jongin stares daggers at Luhan.
Just. Kidding.
♥
The next day, Baekhyun wakes up late and ends up going to school without makeup. She hides her eyebags with a pair of glasses but nothing hides her from almost walking into a pole. Wufan jogs up to her, gently steering her away with one arm.
“Are you alright today,” he asks. Concern is tinged in his voice and it’s just all so sweet. She smiles up at him, eyes crinkled and baring her signature rectangular smile that has Wufan’s breath hitching. She’s like a small puppy and he kind of just wants to cuddle her to his chest like the rest of his stuffed animal collection. It’s wrong to say that boys must never like cute things because Baekhyun is literally the cutest thing alive (in his opinion at least).
“I’m great,” Baekhyun says, yawning cutely. She doesn’t even bother to cover her mouth, but she doesn’t have bad breath so Wufan doesn’t mind. She rubs the edges of her eyes with the balls of her fists, trying to wake herself up. She scrunches her nose and furrows her eyebrows, slapping her cheeks lightly. Wufan melts. He sort of feels like Olive whenever she melts for Popeyes-which should really be the other way around because he is the tough man. (But then Baekhyun snuggles up to his warm body and grins up at him and he melts.
Jongdae and Joonmyun trail after the couple, watching from a distance. “Why doesn’t he just ask her out?”
“Be a little more sensitive than that,” Joonmyun says, “Wufan is like a small animal that needs to be approached with caution. He might run away if you rush at him.”
Jongdae stares at his girlfriend incredulously. “Small animal? You realize he could probably crush me with his foot right?”
Joonmyun hums. “Unfortunately.”
Jongdae reels back, “Babe?”
She walks ahead as Jongdae stops to pout. He vows to drink more milk. (He’s not that short, is he?)
♥
Fridays the quad is reserved especially for pep rallies and announcements. Baekhyun fixes her skirt, making sure they don’t bunch up too high around her thighs. Joonmyun goes around handing out the pom-poms while Kyungsoo carefully ties the ribbons in their hair.
“Do we have the flyers,” Chanyeol asks. Jongin hands them to her, while Chanyeol looks over them to check if they have the right information. Chanyeol sits down when Kyungsoo requests to tie the ribbon in her hair and can’t quite reach.
“Where is Sehun,” Baekhyun asks. It’s not that hard to do a headcount when someone is missing because there is only six people. Jongin purses her lips. Chelsea lost to ManU the night before and she’s still feeling sulky.
“I think Tao wanted to talk to her.”
“TAO, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BRING CANDLES TO SCHOOL.”
Joonmyun pauses after handing a set of pom-pops to Baekhyun. “Yup, that’s my man.”
“IT’S NOT ROMANTIC IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY BURN SOMETHING DOWN WITH CANDLES DURING DAYLIGHT.”
Cheers erupt despite Jongdae’s nagging and Sehun struts up to them with a twenty dollar gift card for bubble tea and a Happy Meal from McDonalds. “A real man knows how to get what he wants,” Sehun says airily. If that isn’t a subtle jab at Wufan, Baekhyun doesn’t know what is. A girl can only do so much waiting.
Fuck bitches. Baekhyun steals Sehun’s Happy Meal toy.
♥
“I don’t get why he doesn’t just ask me out,” Baekhyun whines. Chanyeol pouts sulkily, arranging her music sheets in front of her. It’s sixth period on a Friday, Chanyeol honestly just wants to go home and cry about how she doesn’t have a date yet either. She plans on gaining ten pounds and watching Gintama until her eyes begin to burn.
“Hey, at least you know someone actually wants to ask you out.” Chanyeol sighs, absentmindedly strumming a sad tune on her guitar.
“We’re in this together,” Baekhyun says. Loners for life. She’s going to live with a hundred cats and a thousand tubs of ice cream and potato swirls on sticks. Carbs are her only friend-and Chanyeol. But then again, maybe she’ll have to rethink the whole cat thing if her only friend is going to be allergic to cats.
“Hey Chanyeol,” Yixing says, dimple showing cutely on his face. He’s wearing a gray cardigan today; it’s loose enough that Chanyeol can appreciatively scan her eyes over his tight wife-beater.
Chanyeol smiles, “Oppa, sit next to me so I don’t have to listen to Baekhyun whine.” She pats the seat next to her while Baekhyun snarls. Yixing pats Baekhyun on the head before pulling out his guitar and his music sheets. Yixing takes the seat and slings his arm around Chanyeol’s shoulders. Even though she’s a little taller with shoulders a little broader than Yixing, he doesn’t treat her any differently. She totally feels like a lady and that thought has her giggling before breaking out into loud hiccupping laughs. Yixing smiles and laughs with her even though he doesn’t really know what’s so funny but everything about Chanyeol has always been infectious anyways.
“I have no one to go to Homecoming with,” Chanyeol says. Yixing makes a noise of surprise even though she’s been whining about it every day since they made the announcement of the Homecoming date. Despite his reputation for being spaced-out quite often, he gets the message pretty quickly this time. He gets down to his knees, cramped between music stands and plastic chairs. He holds his guitar pick up to her.
“In that case, Chanyeol-my very cutest guitar player-will you go to Homecoming with me?”
“Really?!” Chanyeol grins, taking the guitar pick and landing a very wet and lip glossed kiss on Yixing’s cheek. “Oppa, you’re the best!” He stands up, eyes curving in happy half-moons.
Chanyeol smiles slyly at Baekhyun. Chanyeol is no longer her best friend until Wufan asks her out. Also, she’s buying a hundred cats and setting them loose in Chanyeol’s house. (Not really, but she’s tempted.)
♥
Saturday comes quickly. They gather at Kyungsoo’s house in the morning, blinking away sleep. Kyungsoo’s already up and in her kitchen apron with two trays of rice krispies cooling. She dutifully slaps away all attempts of grubby hands trying to sneak a taste.
Chanyeol is actually pretty useful in the kitchen if Kyungsoo has to grudgingly admit it. While Chanyeol isn’t on Kyungsoo’s level yet, Chanyeol whips up a batch of chocolate chip cookies in thirty minutes flat. They’re just the right amount of chewy with a slightly crisp exterior and all the right amount of chocolate-y. (“I call them mouth orgasms,” Chanyeol says proudly.)
As per usual, Jongin and Sehun try to lick cake batter under the guise of helping Kyungsoo bake cupcakes. Kyungsoo can be rather vicious when she wants to be and threatens to hide fish bones in all the meals she prepares for them for at least a month. Joonmyun pipes pretty swirls of buttercream in Kyungsoo’s macarons and gets praised for actually helping. Jongdae is Joonmyun’s shadow and clings to her back and whines about how they should be cuddling or going on a date. His whining doesn’t last for long because Kyungsoo makes him cut fruits up for fruit tarts and forcefully tears them apart.
However, when Minseok swings by with some takeout coffee and donuts, Kyungsoo melts into his arms and demands a cuddle session on the couch while she has everyone doing something in the kitchen. But it’s still like she has eyes in the back of her head when she calmly barks out warning every time an alarm goes off in her head that says someone is trying to defile the cleanliness of the baked goods.
♥
Exo High’s Cheer Squad Car Wash Fundraiser is a huge hit. As to be expected, Baekhyun blasts all the Girl’s Generation songs she owns and sings along every time the tip jar gets full. She’s dressed extra flirty with her hair in curled pigtails and her dashingly white shirt and denim short shorts. She also nearly causes a car accident when she winks, does the bend-and-snap, and says, “I’m Genie for you boy.” She brings her A-Game because she’s dead set on getting new uniforms for the next season.
Chanyeol has loads of fun with the hose, spraying everyone’s chest every moment she gets. (The main reason why there’s so much in the tip jar if they’re being very honest.) Chanyeol decided to wear an old volunteer shirt, carefully cut out to show her very neon colored sports bra, and paired it with her biker shorts. There’s really no point spraying water at Chanyeol when you can practically see everything anyways. At one point Kyungsoo snaps and shoves the hose inside Chanyeol’s shorts. Being naturally inclined to the heat, Chanyeol shrieks when her shorts become incredibly cold and she’s so much like a damp and sad puppy that Kyungsoo takes pity on her and feeds her a macaron from the bake sale.
Joonmyun is great at collecting potential customers, waving around prettily made signs at the sidewalk by the car wash location. Jongdae stands relatively close, holding out a sign as well but with a disgruntled look on his face because people should stop looking at his girlfriend like they want to hit on her. Joonmyun doesn’t normally wear shorts because her legs are milky white and she always gets uncomfortable when people stare but it was more logical than wearing full jeans when the prospects of getting wet were very high when Chanyeol has a hose in her hands.
Sehun and Jongin work pretty efficiently at the little tent they have set up for the bake sale. Except every ten minutes or so, they decide they urgently need well-deserved breaks to post pictures on Instagram and send Snapchats to everyone they know.
Wufan rolls into the car wash with his BMW half an hour after it starts. He shows Joonmyun his pre-paid ticket and steps out when Baekhyun signals for him to drive into the spot on the far right.
“Why, hey there stud,” she greets cheekily. He smiles back, closing his door and greets her with a half hug since she’s incredibly wet (which is something he’s trying really hard not to think about.)
“Wow, you guys look like you made a lot of money,” he says. She grins, preening in the praise because obviously it was her ingenious idea to have it in the first place.
“You know how I do,” she replies, “Also we’re trying to milk you out of all your money so buy something from the bake sale too.” It’s not like Wufan has ever been able to say no to her and he still can’t. He buys a brownie and hopes Sehun hasn’t managed to spike it. It’s actually a really good brownie and Wufan is so invested in the baked goods that he quite pay as much attention as he would normally have to the cute girls washing his car.
“Why isn’t he looking,” Baekhyun hisses. She’s tempted to put a dent in Wufan’s car but she’s also trying to score a date with him so she refrains.
“Maybe you aren’t sudsy enough,” Chanyeol says. Kyungsoo frowns, diligently trying to make the windows sparkle and shine. Chanyeol ends up piling so much soap suds on Baekhyun that Wufan walks over to wipe it off her. (“You look like you’re taking a bubble bath,” he coos.)(She frowns so hard. Mission failed.)
♥
Later that night, Baekhyun sulks as she comes to terms with the fact that Wufan will probably never ask her to Homecoming. Her headband perched cutely on her head seems to droop with her mood.
“Baek-unnie, your tears will wash off your face mask,” Sehun clucks disapprovingly. Baekhyun hiccups, pouting because she’s breaking out from all the stress of it anyways. Kyungsoo is nice sometimes; she grabs a few tissues, dabbing at Baekhyun’s tears.
“Am I not pretty, Sehunnie?” Baekhyun’s eyes are brimmed with unshed tears. Sehun licks her lips nervously, crying girls are not her forte.
“JONGIN-AH! AM I PRETTY?” Jongin laughs nervously, crying girls aren’t exactly her forte either. Luckily, Joonmyun decides to take over and hands Baekhyun the Happy Meal toy she took from Sehun. Pouting, Baekhyun makes motorcycle sound effects with her mouth while Joonmyun heats up butter for the popcorn. They offer Baekhyun tissues and carefully restrain her when they watch Frozen and she starts screaming profanities at Hans. “MEN ARE NO GOOD CREATURES OF PURE EVIL.”
While Baekhyun is a handful, she knocks out by the time the credits start rolling as per usual. She’s cute when she’s asleep, clutching her blanket and one of the throw pillows they have on the couch. That’s when everyone decides enough is enough and Wufan wakes up at 2 in the morning to multiple ominous texts about what is going to happen to him if he doesn’t ask Baekhyun to Homecoming.
The most ominous being from Joonmyun, the usually cheery cheerleader who threatens to have him deported back to Canada through her connections. It’s not like he wasn’t going to ask her but Baekhyun is just so cute he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He turns to Ace, his alpaca plushie for his opinion.
The answer dawns in him and he does a small ‘hwaiting~’ before deciding he needs to buy some flowers in the morning.
♥
It’s exactly midnight, the day after, when Baekhyun hears noises by her window. She’s not a light sleeper, but it continues long enough that she’s roused from her sleep. Seriously, what the fuck, her room is on the second floor. Wearily, Baekhyun walks over to her window with a sturdy baton in hand. If she’s going to be confronting a robber at ass-o-clock and interrupt her REM cycle, someone is going to pay.
She peers out her window, frowning when she sees pebbles being thrown at her window. She hopes they don’t leave marks. The pebbles stop but the person below cups their hands and yells in English, “But soft! What light through yonder wind breaks?”
Baekhyun struggles to open her window. “Yah, you better hope it’s not my window that breaks.”
Wufan smiles sheepishly, dropping the pebbles stocked in his hand. He looks alarmingly handsome with a simple red hoodie and loose jeans. Her face lights up the minute she sees him pull out a bouquet of red roses and a box of chocolates. It’s late and Baekhyun doesn’t want to risk waking up her parents.
“Hey Romero, wait a minute,” Baekhyun says. She ignores how Wufan corrects her because she doesn’t really care for English literature as much as Joonmyun. (He could be Romero, Romeo, or Romano; it’s all the same thing.) Decidedly, she throws on an oversized jumper before climbing out her window and scaling down the tree.
“Will you catch me if I fall?” Wufan nods, putting the flowers down stretching his arms out. He’s not very strong for a basketball player, and while he does catch her in his arms, they both fall to the ground.
“Hey,” Wufan says, smiling gummily at her.
“Hi,” Baekhyun says, smiling back. They lay there for a moment, staring at each other before Wufan finally decides to sit up. He cradles Baekhyun on his lap so she doesn’t dirty her sleeping shorts on the grass. This is probably the most intimate they’ve ever been together for people that aren’t actually together.
“So, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to Homecoming. Is it too late?”
Baekhyun balks. “What took you so long?
Inwardly, she’s sagging in relief. She thought he’d never ask. She pinches his cheeks, pouting angrily.
“Seriously, I was thinking really hard on what to get you because you deserve the best but I had to think really hard. It was so stupid because the answer was right in front of me the whole time.”
“Flowers and chocolates?”
Wufan smiles cheekily, “Me. Obviously I’m the best. The flowers and chocolates were just a nice touch.”
Baekhyun smiles serenely before pushing Wufan down and smushing his face into wet grass. She’s tempted to sit on his face until he begs for mercy but she feels merciful today since he finally grew some balls to ask her out.
“You’re buying my ticket and my dress too,” she says and gets a limp thumbs-up in return. She returns to her room, but she can’t sleep at night when she’s too busy staring at the flowers on her bedside table.
♥
The next day, Jongin gets a text from Luhan.
[TXT]
FRM: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
TO: Me
y arnt u asking me to ur prom D:
[TXT]
FRM: Jongin♥
TO: ManU Lover 4ever
Its homecming n bc i dont like you
[TXT]
FRM: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
TO: Me
ill buy u chckn ;DDD
[TXT]
FRM: Jongin ♥
TO: ManU Lover 4ever
deal is off if you buy me anything less than 6 piece
[TXT]
FRM: Chicken Guy
TO: Me
ill buy u the 12 piece :”)))))
[TXT]
FRM: Jongin ♥
TO: ManU Lover 4ever
k
Jongin looks up from her phone to find five eyes staring at her curiously. She smiles shyly and gives them a high pitched laugh. “I’m going to Homecoming?” Simultaneously, they shriek and everyone grabs for Jongin’s phone and try to read her text messages.
“Unnie, don’t,” Jongin whines when Chanyeol tries to read them out loud.
“And now the only one left is our poor daughter Baekhyun,” Sehun says with a sigh. Baekhyun pokes Sehun with her fork for disrespecting her elder but she generally looks pleased and not unhappy like they thought she would be.
“Who says I was the last,” Baekhyun says smugly. She snaps her fingers a few times until it catches Wufan’s attention and he walks away from his table to sit next to her and wrap his arm loosely around her waist.
“Hey babe, what’s up?” She smiles, eyes turning into pretty crescents.
“Nothing much,” she sing-songs. He laughs and gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“You’re silly,” he coos. Kyungsoo pretends to gag into her kimbap.
“When did this happen,” Sehun whispers.
“You’re sillier,” she giggles.
“Gross, it’s so gross. I’m going to puke,” Kyungsoo says.
“I think it’s cute,” Joonmyun argues.
“You call Jongdae your Cutie Patootie. Your opinions are invalid,” Sehun says nonchalantly.
“Yeah, why do you do that? He doesn’t even have an ass.” Joonmyun frowns. Haters gonna hate.
“You’re cute,” Wufan says.
“You’re cuter,” Baekhyun says.
“Gross,” Kyungsoo says.
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a/n: for krystal beta-ed by naomi kinda lmao k bye it took me a million years to get it out
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6002
Chanyeol is carefully braiding Kyungsoo’s hair into a loose French braid, stopping every few moments to ask if it hurts, when Jongin saunters up to them triumphantly with two full bags of McDonalds. It smells like a whole lot of chicken nuggets and fries-the nightmare of every girl that has ever tried to diet.
“Did you get barbecue sauce?” Kyungsoo peers into the bag, eyelashes fluttering in anticipation.
“No, the more important question is, did you get ketchup?” Chanyeol rifles through the bag and comes out triumphantly with an assortment of ranch, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and sweet and sour sauce.
“I bring you the entire armada of sauces,” Jongin says smugly, basking in the praises her unnie-deuls give her for doing so well. Sehun sits herself down, stealing a packet of ranch all for herself and a whole box of chicken nuggets. Jongin sits down next to her best friend and helps her pull her falling bra strap up while Sehun nibbles on her chicken nuggets.
Kyungsoo presses a chicken nugget dunked in ketchup up to Chanyeol’s lips, who gratefully bites into the nugget while tying the end of Kyungsoo’s braid. Joonmyun walks over, beaming happily with a small bouquet of roses in one hand and Jongdae’s hand in the other. Jongdae has a happy smile decorating his face instead of his usual half-smirk. The entire table gives happy shrieks, abandoning their seats to run up to Joonmyun and congratulate her.
“He asked you out to Homecoming?!” Jongdae frowns, taking the bouquet of roses back from Joonmyun before they get smashed in the flurry of girls.
“You know you could just ask me yourself? I’m right here,” he says. Joonmyun gives him an apologetic smile but she excitedly nods her head when they completely disregard him anyways.
“He wrote it out on the whiteboard of my last class, and he popped out from behind the teacher’s desk with these flowers. Then he got on his knees, took my hand and asked me out,” Joonmyun says, still slightly dazed. It couldn’t have been easy for Jongdae to ask her out when the physics teacher was notoriously hard on students interrupting class time, but Jongdae was always one of his favorites because he was smart and liked to answer questions in class.
“And Mr. Lee let him?”
“Well, I had to agree to be his TA next year,” Jongdae says. Joonmyun was a senior so she wouldn’t be there next year, but Jongdae would be-it’s one of the cons of dating younger men.
“Noona, I have to go to the Junior Student Council meeting now, but do you want to go dress shopping later?” Joonmyun smiles, nodding excitedly. Jongdae flushes happily, squeezing her hand once before walking away. He looks back at her to wave twice before tripping and disappearing out of view.
“He’s so whipped, how do I get me one of those?” Chanyeol sighs wistfully. Joonmyun was a cheerleader, Treasurer of the Senior Student Council, and Secretary of the Literature Club. Jongdae was President of the Junior Student Council, Vice-President of the Chess Club, and Historian of the Chinese Student Association (even though he wasn’t Chinese). They were basically a perfect couple so the rest of the cheer squad liked to joke and pretend on gag on their cuteness even though they were the entire school’s OTP.
“What’s going on,” Baekhyun asked. She stood on her toes to peer around their group and gasped when she saw Joonmyun’s roses. “Lucky,” Baekhyun whined. Everyone knew Wufan was too shy to ask Baekhyun out even though it was completely obvious to anyone and everyone that he really wanted to ask her. It’s a running bet between Baekhyun and Wufan to see who would ask who out first. Baekhyun was notoriously bold; Wufan was notoriously shy despite his prince-ly demeanor.
“Do you think I should ask him out first,” Baekhyun asked. She took out a French fry and nibbled on it while thinking thoughtfully.
“Let him ask you out first,” Sehun suggested.
“But then he’ll never ask me,” Baekhyun mourned.
“But I already placed my bets on him,” Chanyeol said. Baekhyun smeared her greased fingertips over Chanyeol’s face, relishing on Chanyeol’s upset splutters. Jongin laughed, offering Chanyeol a wet napkin.
“Why are boys so stupid?” Baekhyun whined, leaning on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. The younger girl let Baekhyun lean on her while she reached for her second box of chicken nuggets.
“Why’d you go for a stupid boy,” Joonmyun said in return. Baekhyun scowled at Joonmyun’s bouquet, trying to burn it with her eyes.
“Because I don’t like short ones,” Baekhyun snarked.
“Jongdae isn’t… that short,” Joonmyun defended. Jongdae wasn’t that short, but he was definitely part of the shorter and smaller spectrum of men. Wufan was part of the taller and bigger part of the spectrum, and Baekhyun was beginning to think she was a little too ambitious.
Chanyeol laughed, practically bowling over. “That’s funny,” she said. Joonmyun scowled.
“At least I can get someone that is actually taller than me,” Joonmyun said. Chanyeol shut up because aside from Wufan, she was second tallest person in school. That meant aside from Wufan, who she had entirely platonic feelings for, all the other boys in school were shorter than her. It was a sensitive topic because she was the only one who couldn’t wear heels without feeling out of place. Joonmyun placated her by feeding her a French fry.
“We’ll see,” Chanyeol said vaguely. Sehun nuzzled her face into the back of Chanyeol’s neck in a comforting gesture-all she managed was to smear oily lips all over Chanyeol’s neck.
♥
The locker room is always the busiest right after school starts. That’s when sixth period P.E. comes in and all the athletic people crowd inside. It’s basically a rowdy mess of half-naked girls and the original stench of smelly bathrooms and over-sprayed perfume and body mist. Baekhyun always grumbles about how the girls’ basketball team has their lockers in a separate section with better lockers, better restrooms, and cleaner floors.
“Jongin, I think I had too many French fries,” Sehun complains, grabbing at a pinch of fat around her shorts.
“Do I have a muffin top,” she asks. Jongin shakes her head, pulling her shorts up and tightening it.
“Please, Sehun. Don’t ask me that when I ate fried chicken for all my meals yesterday.” Jongin frowns, pinching her thighs. It’s not like Jongin is fat either when she dances in her free time.
“Jongin you have to remember to eat all your vegetables as well,” Joonmyun nags. Joonmyun gets pinches on her cheeks from her dongsaengs, cooing over her protective side while simultaneously trying to distract Joonmyun from nagging them about their bad eating habits.
Baekhyun’s in the middle of wriggling out of her jeans when Chanyeol walks over and gives her a resounding slap on her ass. She yelps, whipping around to glare at her offender. Chanyeol grins wildly, doing ‘buing buing’ when Baekhyun gives her the middle finger and hisses. It’s a tough life, being a curvy girl.
Chanyeol contemplates doing the same thing to Kyungsoo but the girl slams her locker door and stares at Chanyeol with a challenging look. Kyungsoo may be curvy as well, but no one has the guts to do anything to her when she’s not in the mood to play around.
“Kyungsoo, I love you,” Chanyeol says instead. Kyungsoo shoots her a heart-shaped smile and walks over to one of the mirrors to undo her braid and tie her hair in a tight ponytail.
Baekhyun grumbles, her life is not fair-and her butt hurts now.
Practice goes the same as usual. They run through drills while Sehun, Jongin, and Chanyeol pretend not to be able to see their captain while Baekhyun jabs them with sharp fingers for their jokes. Joonmyun and Kyungsoo follow the drills religiously and make sure to stretch carefully.
“Jumping jacks, we’re doing twenty military style,” Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo blanches and it soon becomes apparent when Baekhyun stares hard enough to realize Kyungsoo isn’t wearing a bra. She smiles devilishly.
♥
“One, two, three. Nineteen! One, two, three. Twenty! Okay, you can have a water break everyone!” Baekhyun subtly splashes some water on Kyungsoo’s white shirt by accident and gives her a back hug. Her hands are strategically spaced with one arm right under Kyungsoo’s boobs and one arm hugging around Kyungsoo’s waist with her hand dipping into the hem of Kyungsoo’s shorts. She captures a few guys from the soccer team gawking and she hollers at them, “Support Cheerleading! We have a car wash fundraiser on Saturday!” Kyungsoo thrashes in Baekhyun’s arms, scowling fiercely with a red face. Kyungsoo might be blushing but Baekhyun is actually sure more than half of it is from anger.
Baekhyun scampers off before Kyungsoo can grab ahold of her and murder her in a most painful way.
Kyungsoo is not one to let people off easy; it’s not within her nature. The basketball team walks over to their side of the gym with the water fountain to get some water and Baekhyun finds herself staring forlornly at Wufan while they work their way through When Baekhyun turns around, Kyungsoo deftly pinches the back of Baekhyun’s bra and laughs when Baekhyun yelps at the feeling of her bra unclasping. Wufan whips his head around when he hears her but his face instantaneously reddens at the sight of her clutching her the front and back of her chest. He coughs, choking on water and spluttering it all over his face. It dribbles down his jersey and Yixing has to ask if he’s okay.
Wufan pointedly tries not to look at Baekhyun when he motions over her chest.
“You might want to fix that, I’m just yeah. Okay, bye,” he says. He walks off quickly while Baekhyun stands and splutters. Jongin helpfully sticks her hands up Baekhyun’s shirt and redoes the clasp. Chanyeol not so subtly high-fives Kyungsoo.
“Traitor,” she hisses. Chanyeol leers, slapping Baekhyun’s butt which catches Wufan’s attention.
“GET SOME,” she yells. She earns two laps around the gym. Baekhyun doesn’t understand why her friends are like this. Wufan’s ears are bright red and he seems entirely too determined not to look their way anymore. Baekhyun frowns, she sort of wishes he would try to take longer peeks. The problems of pining over a shy gentleman, she muses.
♥
They decide that their bubble tea break after practice is well-deserved. Joonmyun decides to treat all of them as the eldest of the group. They all clamor up to the counter, shouting various drinks at the cashier named Luhan who seems mildly scared at the group of six girls who seem a little too excited about bubble tea. Luhan fumbles around the cash register with a panicked expression; no amount of experience could have prepared him for this.
Thankfully, Minseok steps up to the counter to save the day. He’s the soccer oppa who graduated the year before. All the girls chorus, “Oppa! We missed you!” He gives them a bright grin and they coo over his gummy smile before they tell him their orders and he somehow manages to decipher all their orders as they shout it to him all at once.
Kyungsoo stands behind all of them, thinking contemplatively. “Hey Kyungsoo, what do you feel like today?”
“Coffee milk tea,” she says. Minseok jingles the tip jar and smiles mischievously.
“Anything else for me today?” Kyungsoo slips a folded piece of paper into the jar. Minseok pauses, reaching into the jar and opening the slip of paper. He glances at her with the paper in his hand, silently asking her if it’s for him. Kyungsoo keeps a calm face but her fingers are clasped together tightly. She nods slightly. No one else knows what’s going on so they wait with bated breath.
On the paper it says, “Go to Homecoming with me.”
After a moment, Minseok whistles, “That’s quite a big tip, don’t you think? Is it for me?” He smiles, and Kyungsoo blushes with a hard frown quivering on her face.
“Yes,” she murmurs. She clears her throat. “Yes.”
He leans closer to her with his forearms resting on the counter, turning his head to the side. “Do I get a popo at least if I say yes?” There is a massive amount of shrieking when Kyungsoo steps closer with her eyes squeezed shut and gives him a quick peck on the cheek.
“It’s going on Facebook,” Baekhyun screeches. She takes their picture as Kyungsoo stands closer to the counter and Minseok slings an arm around her. Kyungsoo visibly relaxes in his arms, legs feeling like jelly from the suspense of it all. He helps to hold her up, just like she expected he would.
“GET SOME,” Chanyeol yells far too loud for a bubble tea shop. Kyungsoo finally gets the chance to feel young and shy instead of her usual mature image. Her heart-shaped smile blooms. Minseok grins, his oppa image radiating despite his boyish looks. And somehow it works.
The great part about the celebratory event is that Minseok decides it would be fine to use his employee discount on all of them. The feeling of happiness is so intense Minseok ends up with a wad of cash in the tip jar and lots of kiss marks all over his face (and a slightly disgruntled Kyungsoo who carefully wipes it off his face.) (“Oppa, you’re mine now. Don’t let other girls touch you.”)
“Bro, how do you do that,” Luhan asks. Minseok shrugs. It’s the power of having the oppa aura.
“Maybe because I didn’t graduate from an all-boys high school,” Minseok says. Luhan sighs.
♥
Kyungsoo is the center of attention now. They’re all buzzing with shock, sitting in silence while they rapidly upload it on every social media possible because Kyungsoo actually asked someone out even though so many people wanted to go with her to Homecoming.
It’s a period of mourning for many people. It gets retweeted, shared, and a hundred likes and favorites goes towards their picture within ten minutes. Two out of six cheerleaders are already going out with someone to Homecoming and it’s a battle to the death for the rest of them.
“I wanted a real man,” Kyungsoo says contemplatively while sipping on her milk tea. Wolf whistles go around.
“Don’t we all,” Joonmyun says pointedly. Then they stare at Baekhyun.
“Well at least he looks like a man,” Chanyeol says. She gets socked between the boobs.
“Unnie,” Chanyeol shrieks, shaking Joonmyun’s arm. Joonmyun sighs, her life is so difficult. Baekhyun sticks out her tongue and Chanyeol kicks her under the table. It’s miraculous none of their drinks spill over the table. Sehun sips on her chocolate milk tea, contemplating whether she should get a refill. Jongin’s already back at the counter.
“Excuse me, can I have some popcorn chicken?” The waiter from before steps up to ring Jongin’s order.
“Anything else for you?” Jongin shakes her head, pauses, then opens her mouth before closing it again.
“No,” she says.
“Are you sure,” Luhan asks. Jongin purses her lips, as if she’s thinking about it carefully. She knows the unnie-deuls don’t like it when she watches soccer in their presence because she tends to forget to pay attention to them but tonight it’s ManU versus Chelsea and she really wants to watch Chelsea beat dumb Manchester United.
“Actually… can you change the channel? It’s ManU versus Chelsea today,” she requests timidly. Her heart jumps a little when Luhan changes the channel without even asking which channel it’s on.
“Actually, I wanted to watch it too,” he says. She pays for the popcorn chicken and sits down while waiting for her order. Jongin sits down, fiddling with her receipt. Luhan oppa is kind of cool.
“Aigo, is our Jonginnie blushing?” Sehun teases despite being the youngest.
“Omo omo,” Baekhyun teases, poking Jongin’s cheeks.
“Unnieeeeeee,” Jongin whines, “it’s not like that.”
“You like Luhan oppa? He’s really nice; I met him through Jongdae,” Joonmyun says.
“How,” Jongin whispers. She doesn’t want Luhan to know she was inquiring about him.
“Luhan tutored Jongdae in Mandarin for a while when they went to the same school before Jongdae transferred.” It was common knowledge that Jongdae used to come from an all-boys school, which was the source of his initial popularity. Every girl tried and failed to get him flustered but all Joonmyun had to do was give him a smile and a pat on the shoulder to get him spluttering and following her around like a lost puppy. It’s the Joonmyun effect.
“I see,” Jongin says. Luhan was smart and he liked soccer. Luhan approaches the table with a smile and her popcorn chicken. He has muscular legs. She chokes on her strawberry milk tea at the thought. Baekhyun hands her a napkin while Chanyeol unhelpfully thumps her back.
“Are you okay?” Luhan asks. “Should I grab more napkins?” Jongin flushes and shakes her head. Nope, she doesn’t need any help at all. Luhan leans in a little closer and she can smell his cologne. She squirms a bit and closes her legs tightly, maybe she does need a little help.
“I’m okay,” she says. Luhan smiles before walking back behind the counter. God, he’s like actually really cute. ManU scores a goal and Luhan cheers loudly. Jongin stares daggers at Luhan.
Just. Kidding.
♥
The next day, Baekhyun wakes up late and ends up going to school without makeup. She hides her eyebags with a pair of glasses but nothing hides her from almost walking into a pole. Wufan jogs up to her, gently steering her away with one arm.
“Are you alright today,” he asks. Concern is tinged in his voice and it’s just all so sweet. She smiles up at him, eyes crinkled and baring her signature rectangular smile that has Wufan’s breath hitching. She’s like a small puppy and he kind of just wants to cuddle her to his chest like the rest of his stuffed animal collection. It’s wrong to say that boys must never like cute things because Baekhyun is literally the cutest thing alive (in his opinion at least).
“I’m great,” Baekhyun says, yawning cutely. She doesn’t even bother to cover her mouth, but she doesn’t have bad breath so Wufan doesn’t mind. She rubs the edges of her eyes with the balls of her fists, trying to wake herself up. She scrunches her nose and furrows her eyebrows, slapping her cheeks lightly. Wufan melts. He sort of feels like Olive whenever she melts for Popeyes-which should really be the other way around because he is the tough man. (But then Baekhyun snuggles up to his warm body and grins up at him and he melts.
Jongdae and Joonmyun trail after the couple, watching from a distance. “Why doesn’t he just ask her out?”
“Be a little more sensitive than that,” Joonmyun says, “Wufan is like a small animal that needs to be approached with caution. He might run away if you rush at him.”
Jongdae stares at his girlfriend incredulously. “Small animal? You realize he could probably crush me with his foot right?”
Joonmyun hums. “Unfortunately.”
Jongdae reels back, “Babe?”
She walks ahead as Jongdae stops to pout. He vows to drink more milk. (He’s not that short, is he?)
♥
Fridays the quad is reserved especially for pep rallies and announcements. Baekhyun fixes her skirt, making sure they don’t bunch up too high around her thighs. Joonmyun goes around handing out the pom-poms while Kyungsoo carefully ties the ribbons in their hair.
“Do we have the flyers,” Chanyeol asks. Jongin hands them to her, while Chanyeol looks over them to check if they have the right information. Chanyeol sits down when Kyungsoo requests to tie the ribbon in her hair and can’t quite reach.
“Where is Sehun,” Baekhyun asks. It’s not that hard to do a headcount when someone is missing because there is only six people. Jongin purses her lips. Chelsea lost to ManU the night before and she’s still feeling sulky.
“I think Tao wanted to talk to her.”
“TAO, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BRING CANDLES TO SCHOOL.”
Joonmyun pauses after handing a set of pom-pops to Baekhyun. “Yup, that’s my man.”
“IT’S NOT ROMANTIC IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY BURN SOMETHING DOWN WITH CANDLES DURING DAYLIGHT.”
Cheers erupt despite Jongdae’s nagging and Sehun struts up to them with a twenty dollar gift card for bubble tea and a Happy Meal from McDonalds. “A real man knows how to get what he wants,” Sehun says airily. If that isn’t a subtle jab at Wufan, Baekhyun doesn’t know what is. A girl can only do so much waiting.
Fuck bitches. Baekhyun steals Sehun’s Happy Meal toy.
♥
“I don’t get why he doesn’t just ask me out,” Baekhyun whines. Chanyeol pouts sulkily, arranging her music sheets in front of her. It’s sixth period on a Friday, Chanyeol honestly just wants to go home and cry about how she doesn’t have a date yet either. She plans on gaining ten pounds and watching Gintama until her eyes begin to burn.
“Hey, at least you know someone actually wants to ask you out.” Chanyeol sighs, absentmindedly strumming a sad tune on her guitar.
“We’re in this together,” Baekhyun says. Loners for life. She’s going to live with a hundred cats and a thousand tubs of ice cream and potato swirls on sticks. Carbs are her only friend-and Chanyeol. But then again, maybe she’ll have to rethink the whole cat thing if her only friend is going to be allergic to cats.
“Hey Chanyeol,” Yixing says, dimple showing cutely on his face. He’s wearing a gray cardigan today; it’s loose enough that Chanyeol can appreciatively scan her eyes over his tight wife-beater.
Chanyeol smiles, “Oppa, sit next to me so I don’t have to listen to Baekhyun whine.” She pats the seat next to her while Baekhyun snarls. Yixing pats Baekhyun on the head before pulling out his guitar and his music sheets. Yixing takes the seat and slings his arm around Chanyeol’s shoulders. Even though she’s a little taller with shoulders a little broader than Yixing, he doesn’t treat her any differently. She totally feels like a lady and that thought has her giggling before breaking out into loud hiccupping laughs. Yixing smiles and laughs with her even though he doesn’t really know what’s so funny but everything about Chanyeol has always been infectious anyways.
“I have no one to go to Homecoming with,” Chanyeol says. Yixing makes a noise of surprise even though she’s been whining about it every day since they made the announcement of the Homecoming date. Despite his reputation for being spaced-out quite often, he gets the message pretty quickly this time. He gets down to his knees, cramped between music stands and plastic chairs. He holds his guitar pick up to her.
“In that case, Chanyeol-my very cutest guitar player-will you go to Homecoming with me?”
“Really?!” Chanyeol grins, taking the guitar pick and landing a very wet and lip glossed kiss on Yixing’s cheek. “Oppa, you’re the best!” He stands up, eyes curving in happy half-moons.
Chanyeol smiles slyly at Baekhyun. Chanyeol is no longer her best friend until Wufan asks her out. Also, she’s buying a hundred cats and setting them loose in Chanyeol’s house. (Not really, but she’s tempted.)
♥
Saturday comes quickly. They gather at Kyungsoo’s house in the morning, blinking away sleep. Kyungsoo’s already up and in her kitchen apron with two trays of rice krispies cooling. She dutifully slaps away all attempts of grubby hands trying to sneak a taste.
Chanyeol is actually pretty useful in the kitchen if Kyungsoo has to grudgingly admit it. While Chanyeol isn’t on Kyungsoo’s level yet, Chanyeol whips up a batch of chocolate chip cookies in thirty minutes flat. They’re just the right amount of chewy with a slightly crisp exterior and all the right amount of chocolate-y. (“I call them mouth orgasms,” Chanyeol says proudly.)
As per usual, Jongin and Sehun try to lick cake batter under the guise of helping Kyungsoo bake cupcakes. Kyungsoo can be rather vicious when she wants to be and threatens to hide fish bones in all the meals she prepares for them for at least a month. Joonmyun pipes pretty swirls of buttercream in Kyungsoo’s macarons and gets praised for actually helping. Jongdae is Joonmyun’s shadow and clings to her back and whines about how they should be cuddling or going on a date. His whining doesn’t last for long because Kyungsoo makes him cut fruits up for fruit tarts and forcefully tears them apart.
However, when Minseok swings by with some takeout coffee and donuts, Kyungsoo melts into his arms and demands a cuddle session on the couch while she has everyone doing something in the kitchen. But it’s still like she has eyes in the back of her head when she calmly barks out warning every time an alarm goes off in her head that says someone is trying to defile the cleanliness of the baked goods.
♥
Exo High’s Cheer Squad Car Wash Fundraiser is a huge hit. As to be expected, Baekhyun blasts all the Girl’s Generation songs she owns and sings along every time the tip jar gets full. She’s dressed extra flirty with her hair in curled pigtails and her dashingly white shirt and denim short shorts. She also nearly causes a car accident when she winks, does the bend-and-snap, and says, “I’m Genie for you boy.” She brings her A-Game because she’s dead set on getting new uniforms for the next season.
Chanyeol has loads of fun with the hose, spraying everyone’s chest every moment she gets. (The main reason why there’s so much in the tip jar if they’re being very honest.) Chanyeol decided to wear an old volunteer shirt, carefully cut out to show her very neon colored sports bra, and paired it with her biker shorts. There’s really no point spraying water at Chanyeol when you can practically see everything anyways. At one point Kyungsoo snaps and shoves the hose inside Chanyeol’s shorts. Being naturally inclined to the heat, Chanyeol shrieks when her shorts become incredibly cold and she’s so much like a damp and sad puppy that Kyungsoo takes pity on her and feeds her a macaron from the bake sale.
Joonmyun is great at collecting potential customers, waving around prettily made signs at the sidewalk by the car wash location. Jongdae stands relatively close, holding out a sign as well but with a disgruntled look on his face because people should stop looking at his girlfriend like they want to hit on her. Joonmyun doesn’t normally wear shorts because her legs are milky white and she always gets uncomfortable when people stare but it was more logical than wearing full jeans when the prospects of getting wet were very high when Chanyeol has a hose in her hands.
Sehun and Jongin work pretty efficiently at the little tent they have set up for the bake sale. Except every ten minutes or so, they decide they urgently need well-deserved breaks to post pictures on Instagram and send Snapchats to everyone they know.
Wufan rolls into the car wash with his BMW half an hour after it starts. He shows Joonmyun his pre-paid ticket and steps out when Baekhyun signals for him to drive into the spot on the far right.
“Why, hey there stud,” she greets cheekily. He smiles back, closing his door and greets her with a half hug since she’s incredibly wet (which is something he’s trying really hard not to think about.)
“Wow, you guys look like you made a lot of money,” he says. She grins, preening in the praise because obviously it was her ingenious idea to have it in the first place.
“You know how I do,” she replies, “Also we’re trying to milk you out of all your money so buy something from the bake sale too.” It’s not like Wufan has ever been able to say no to her and he still can’t. He buys a brownie and hopes Sehun hasn’t managed to spike it. It’s actually a really good brownie and Wufan is so invested in the baked goods that he quite pay as much attention as he would normally have to the cute girls washing his car.
“Why isn’t he looking,” Baekhyun hisses. She’s tempted to put a dent in Wufan’s car but she’s also trying to score a date with him so she refrains.
“Maybe you aren’t sudsy enough,” Chanyeol says. Kyungsoo frowns, diligently trying to make the windows sparkle and shine. Chanyeol ends up piling so much soap suds on Baekhyun that Wufan walks over to wipe it off her. (“You look like you’re taking a bubble bath,” he coos.)(She frowns so hard. Mission failed.)
♥
Later that night, Baekhyun sulks as she comes to terms with the fact that Wufan will probably never ask her to Homecoming. Her headband perched cutely on her head seems to droop with her mood.
“Baek-unnie, your tears will wash off your face mask,” Sehun clucks disapprovingly. Baekhyun hiccups, pouting because she’s breaking out from all the stress of it anyways. Kyungsoo is nice sometimes; she grabs a few tissues, dabbing at Baekhyun’s tears.
“Am I not pretty, Sehunnie?” Baekhyun’s eyes are brimmed with unshed tears. Sehun licks her lips nervously, crying girls are not her forte.
“JONGIN-AH! AM I PRETTY?” Jongin laughs nervously, crying girls aren’t exactly her forte either. Luckily, Joonmyun decides to take over and hands Baekhyun the Happy Meal toy she took from Sehun. Pouting, Baekhyun makes motorcycle sound effects with her mouth while Joonmyun heats up butter for the popcorn. They offer Baekhyun tissues and carefully restrain her when they watch Frozen and she starts screaming profanities at Hans. “MEN ARE NO GOOD CREATURES OF PURE EVIL.”
While Baekhyun is a handful, she knocks out by the time the credits start rolling as per usual. She’s cute when she’s asleep, clutching her blanket and one of the throw pillows they have on the couch. That’s when everyone decides enough is enough and Wufan wakes up at 2 in the morning to multiple ominous texts about what is going to happen to him if he doesn’t ask Baekhyun to Homecoming.
The most ominous being from Joonmyun, the usually cheery cheerleader who threatens to have him deported back to Canada through her connections. It’s not like he wasn’t going to ask her but Baekhyun is just so cute he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He turns to Ace, his alpaca plushie for his opinion.
The answer dawns in him and he does a small ‘hwaiting~’ before deciding he needs to buy some flowers in the morning.
♥
It’s exactly midnight, the day after, when Baekhyun hears noises by her window. She’s not a light sleeper, but it continues long enough that she’s roused from her sleep. Seriously, what the fuck, her room is on the second floor. Wearily, Baekhyun walks over to her window with a sturdy baton in hand. If she’s going to be confronting a robber at ass-o-clock and interrupt her REM cycle, someone is going to pay.
She peers out her window, frowning when she sees pebbles being thrown at her window. She hopes they don’t leave marks. The pebbles stop but the person below cups their hands and yells in English, “But soft! What light through yonder wind breaks?”
Baekhyun struggles to open her window. “Yah, you better hope it’s not my window that breaks.”
Wufan smiles sheepishly, dropping the pebbles stocked in his hand. He looks alarmingly handsome with a simple red hoodie and loose jeans. Her face lights up the minute she sees him pull out a bouquet of red roses and a box of chocolates. It’s late and Baekhyun doesn’t want to risk waking up her parents.
“Hey Romero, wait a minute,” Baekhyun says. She ignores how Wufan corrects her because she doesn’t really care for English literature as much as Joonmyun. (He could be Romero, Romeo, or Romano; it’s all the same thing.) Decidedly, she throws on an oversized jumper before climbing out her window and scaling down the tree.
“Will you catch me if I fall?” Wufan nods, putting the flowers down stretching his arms out. He’s not very strong for a basketball player, and while he does catch her in his arms, they both fall to the ground.
“Hey,” Wufan says, smiling gummily at her.
“Hi,” Baekhyun says, smiling back. They lay there for a moment, staring at each other before Wufan finally decides to sit up. He cradles Baekhyun on his lap so she doesn’t dirty her sleeping shorts on the grass. This is probably the most intimate they’ve ever been together for people that aren’t actually together.
“So, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to Homecoming. Is it too late?”
Baekhyun balks. “What took you so long?
Inwardly, she’s sagging in relief. She thought he’d never ask. She pinches his cheeks, pouting angrily.
“Seriously, I was thinking really hard on what to get you because you deserve the best but I had to think really hard. It was so stupid because the answer was right in front of me the whole time.”
“Flowers and chocolates?”
Wufan smiles cheekily, “Me. Obviously I’m the best. The flowers and chocolates were just a nice touch.”
Baekhyun smiles serenely before pushing Wufan down and smushing his face into wet grass. She’s tempted to sit on his face until he begs for mercy but she feels merciful today since he finally grew some balls to ask her out.
“You’re buying my ticket and my dress too,” she says and gets a limp thumbs-up in return. She returns to her room, but she can’t sleep at night when she’s too busy staring at the flowers on her bedside table.
♥
The next day, Jongin gets a text from Luhan.
[TXT]
FRM: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
TO: Me
y arnt u asking me to ur prom D:
[TXT]
FRM: Jongin♥
TO: ManU Lover 4ever
Its homecming n bc i dont like you
[TXT]
FRM: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
TO: Me
ill buy u chckn ;DDD
[TXT]
FRM: Jongin ♥
TO: ManU Lover 4ever
deal is off if you buy me anything less than 6 piece
[TXT]
FRM: Chicken Guy
TO: Me
ill buy u the 12 piece :”)))))
[TXT]
FRM: Jongin ♥
TO: ManU Lover 4ever
k
Jongin looks up from her phone to find five eyes staring at her curiously. She smiles shyly and gives them a high pitched laugh. “I’m going to Homecoming?” Simultaneously, they shriek and everyone grabs for Jongin’s phone and try to read her text messages.
“Unnie, don’t,” Jongin whines when Chanyeol tries to read them out loud.
“And now the only one left is our poor daughter Baekhyun,” Sehun says with a sigh. Baekhyun pokes Sehun with her fork for disrespecting her elder but she generally looks pleased and not unhappy like they thought she would be.
“Who says I was the last,” Baekhyun says smugly. She snaps her fingers a few times until it catches Wufan’s attention and he walks away from his table to sit next to her and wrap his arm loosely around her waist.
“Hey babe, what’s up?” She smiles, eyes turning into pretty crescents.
“Nothing much,” she sing-songs. He laughs and gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“You’re silly,” he coos. Kyungsoo pretends to gag into her kimbap.
“When did this happen,” Sehun whispers.
“You’re sillier,” she giggles.
“Gross, it’s so gross. I’m going to puke,” Kyungsoo says.
“I think it’s cute,” Joonmyun argues.
“You call Jongdae your Cutie Patootie. Your opinions are invalid,” Sehun says nonchalantly.
“Yeah, why do you do that? He doesn’t even have an ass.” Joonmyun frowns. Haters gonna hate.
“You’re cute,” Wufan says.
“You’re cuter,” Baekhyun says.
“Gross,” Kyungsoo says.
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a/n: for krystal beta-ed by naomi kinda lmao k bye it took me a million years to get it out