(for woohyunized) silly love
❊ for: woohyunized
❊ title: silly love
❊ pairings: kai/d.o
❊ rating: pg13
❊ warnings: some swearing
❊ word count: 6,940
❊ summary: Kyungsoo's a fool in love.
❊ a/n: Thank you for the prompt! I know this is probably not what you expected for it but I hope you like it.
His hands are tapping through the keyboard energetically, the words appearing on the screen while its brightness illuminates his face. He keeps at it for a couple of minutes more until he finally stops.
Kyungsoo starts frowning while reading his essay because the thing doesn’t make any sense. This is ridiculous. He erases the material for what it seems like the hundredth time today and walks away from his desk to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, because maybe that can help him calm a bit and think about the task at hand.
He grabs his cup from his desk and starts walking to the kitchen directly to the coffeemaker to pour some of the still warm liquid. He stays there for a while, sipping from the cup while he tries to come with some ideas for his essay.
A couple of minutes pass by without him coming with anything useful for his work. He closes his eyes and rubs the back of his neck.
It really shouldn’t be this hard. In fact, he likes writing essays because most of the time the words come easily to him and the finished product is always of good quality, to such a degree that his professors always compliment him. But today’s just not his day, because he’s been at it for a while now and he’s still not finished. Heck, not even close to even.
And yeah, of course he could bullshit his way through the thing, it’s not a hard thing to do, but that’s not what he wants. He’s not a mediocre student.
And the thing is that normally he doesn’t take so long in this kind of assignment; but work’s been busy the whole week with new books arriving at the library. So he’s spent his time organizing the new ones and rearranging the older ones the whole time until late which consequently left his homework forgotten until Friday night.
And he’s so exhausted after all he’s done that he wouldn’t be willingly doing this right now if it weren’t to be submitted to his professor’s in a few more hours. But that’s the way things work for university students sometimes, he supposes as he finishes his third cup of the night and washes it before returning to his desk so he can continue with his writing.
He thinks some more before coming with some inspiration for the thing. He starts writing rapidly so he won’t lose the grasp of the idea and goes at it for a couple of minutes more. He feels he can do this before midnight; he still has a couple of hours more.
Unfortunately though, his luck has never been the best. This is proved once again when just half an hour into the writing a loud pounding noise starts filling his room. He lowers his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. He doesn’t even need to look around to locate the source of the distraction to know it’s coming from the dorm next door.
This is unbelievable. First month in the building and they’re already causing trouble for him. This is why he detests freshman year students. They’re too carefree for their own good and a nuisance for everybody else.
Last week had been similar. They started with all the unbearable noise since early night and Kyungsoo was just about to stop by their door to remind them that some people, obviously not them, cherish their silent and calm Friday nights, but just as he was about to have the talk with them Baekhyun had convince him that it wasn’t necessary, he was going to invite him some nice meal outside the campus. And Kyungsoo being the normal economically struggling student he is accepted the offer.
However Kyungsoo’s not stupid. He knows Baekhyun did it only to avoid any kind of confrontation between him and their neighbors; since he’s not exactly the nicest person in the world and he always ends up being unnecessarily rude while talking with strangers; more so if he’s having a bad day.
There’s also the fact that Bakehyun’s not home tonight, had some research to do for some class Kyungsoo doesn’t really care enough to ask for. So he’s alone in their dorm, supposedly working on this essay that is due some hours. Although the chances of him submitting his work are slim at the moment because, his neighbors are watching some stupid movie unnecessarily loud next door.
And the thing is, Kyungsoo’s tired. He’s had a draining week and the last thing he wants is to take even longer doing this work, that and the fact that he has time limit to finish it. He doesn’t really have patience or the time to be waiting for his neighbors to finish their movie.
So it really isn’t surprising when he finds himself walking out his door and stopping in front of theirs. He can hear their laughs and he just knows he won’t be having a nice relationship with his neighbors in the future but at least he’ll be able to finish his essay on time and go to sleep peacefully later. And he can totally live with that. He has done so before no problems.
He knocks one, two, three, four times, maybe one kick, before the noise stops. He can hear someone walking, too slow if he may add, towards the door and now they’re opening.
He prepares himself, his stand perfectly straight, and takes a deep breath, so he won’t seem pathetic in the middle of the argument and in front of some damn freshman students, and lastly puts on his most menacing glare, so they’ll know he’s not joking.
Finally the door opens, and Kyungsoo waits for his neighbor to appear completely so he can complain to his heart’s content.
He is expecting some big and intimidating guy, something like a thug, mainly because if you wait for the worst you’ll be prepare for anything. In front of him though stands a lanky figure. The guy, whom is wearing sweatpants and a white simple cotton shirt, has his body leaning on the door frame and while his hands are occupied tapping on the screen of a phone.
Kyungsoo decides to wait some time until the man decides to look up from his oh so important business to talk.
“’Sup?” Says his neighbor in the most relaxed tone he’s ever heard. But of course he is, he’s not the one about to miss a deadline Kyungsoo thinks bitterly.
“Yes. Hey, could you keep it down? The noise I mean. See, I’m your next door neighbor and all this noise is bothering me” he tries to keep his voice as calm as he can, cause that would only end up in him wasting precious time, which is a luxury he can’t afford at the moment.
However his neighbor is not cooperating at all. “Uh. It’s Friday” the asshole tells him, tilting his head to the side in confusion, as if Kyungsoo didn’t know the damn day.
“Yes. So what?”
“It’s movie night.”
Something snaps inside Kyungsoo. He can’t take this guy’s laid back attitude as if the topic wasn’t an important one. If he ever tried to keep things on a decent level, this guy just ruined it.
“No,” Kyungsoo starts; his voice aggravated “its essay writing night. You’re not the only one in the building, okay? I’ve lived here way before you did and I have the right to be able to spend a quiet night at home finishing my homework, which is due before midnight if I may add, without any kind of interruption.” He takes a deep breath before he continues with the rant that he can no longer hold in “But I can’t do that because it’s ‘movie night’ and apparently you are incapable of watching movies without turning the volume up to its max, but just so you know, I can,” He stops mid sentence because the door opens once again to reveal another person in the entrance of the dorm.
“Sehun, what’s wrong?” the new guy asks the other with his brows furrow before noticing Kyungsoo and probably the now obvious annoyed look he’s displaying. The guy lets out a gasp “I told you that it was too loud! See? We did end up bothering our neighbor!” Sehun doesn’t seem to care much, if the way he waves his hand dismissingly means anything. “We’re very sorry, we’ll keep it down from now on” he assures Kyungsoo before bowing as an apology.
Kyungsoo knows he’s expected to say something but he feels unable to at the moment since he’s being completely absorbed by the fascinating stranger in front f him. He is tall, though not as much as the Sehun fellow, and has lean body, Kyungsoo notices. But what’s most interesting about him is his face. He’s got a thin boyish face with a sharp jaw line; has also full lips and a dainty nose. His eyes are partially covered by his bangs and Kyungsoo thinks is cute how he avoids his gaze, his cheeks have a slight blush, probably because of the embarrassment.
Kyungsoo snaps out of his trance only because he notices how the guy’s expression changes from embarrassed to worry. That and the way said guy appears to be saying something to him as he waves his hand in front of him.
“Right so, I’m gonna get going” he says as he takes a step back from his neighbors’ door.
Sehun just shrugs and gets back inside the dorm, he really seems like the kind of person he can’t stand, while the other guy bows one more time and offers him his apologies once more before waving and getting inside his place.
As soon as Kyungsoo gets inside his own dorm he stops in the entrance and for a moment just standing there pensive; truth to the guys words the horrid noise from next door has stopped and Kyungsoo thanks him mentally before he starts walking to his room to finish his essay. He’s got no time to be thinking about lazy and immature freshman year students, he tells himself, no matter how attractive these may seem they’re just a waste of precious time. And wasting precious time is something only someone as idiotic as Baekhyun would do.
A week has passed since the Friday incident with his neighbors. He managed to finish his essay before the time was up even though he wasn’t completely satisfied with the results of his work. And he was right. His paper wasn’t good enough, and the grade he got was the perfect confirmation of it.
“I can’t believe they ruined my work!” he says as he finishes checking his grades on his phone.
He’s with Baekhyun at the moment because they’re stopping at the university’s coffee shop to buy something before parting ways because Kyungsoo’s gotta go right after that to one of the library provider’s to pick up some books so he can finish rearranging yet again another bunch of them.
He doesn’t really want to do it because he’s not the one in charge of this. Jongdae is, but he had some research to do for one of his classes so he begged Kyungsoo to pick them up for him. Kyungsoo knows what’s like to have a load of homework to do, he’s being there and Jongdae’s always been nice and supportive, so he thinks he can do at least this much for the other.
The only real trouble is the amount of material he has to pick. Apparently there are many boxes and Kyungsoo only has one pair of arms, not to mention he’s not really what one would call strong, so he isn’t really quite sure yet how he’ll manage with the packages.
He asked Baekhyun for help earlier but the other is busy for the rest of the afternoon with some practice for an upcoming play of the drama club, so he’s on his own for this.
“They didn’t do anything man, stop being so dramatic” Baekhyun is also checking his phone while walking alongside Kyungsoo. He obviously doesn’t understand how important grades are nowadays.
“I am not dramatic” Kyungsoo provides as he opens the door of the shop. “And they did ruin it. You know I always get perfect grades on my essays”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes before he speaks “Kyungsoo, you only lost half a point. You are being dramatic. Besides, didn’t you tell me you went to complain to them as soon as the noise started?”
They line up after a couple of girls that are giggling about something he really couldn’t care less but wishes would disappear because they’re being loud.
“I did. But that doesn’t matter because the ideas I was in middle of organizing when their bullshit began were gone by the time I went back to finish the work. I know I’d have gotten a perfect grade hadn’t they ruin everything.”
“Whatever you say Kyungsoo” his friend agrees, waving his hand dismissingly, probably because he knows he won’t win this argument, Kyungsoo’s can be stubborn when he thinks he’s right. And he is certain he’s right about this.
Eventually they get over the topic since it won’t get them anywhere at the moment and continue with some small talk about classmates, TV series and so on.
They advance on the line until they finally get their turns to order their stuff.
Kyungsoo likes to keep it simple so he orders an espresso with no sugar; Baekhyun on the other hand orders some ridiculous shit along the lines of mocha cookie crumble frappuccino or some shit plus a slice of chocolate cake. Kyungsoo is sure the idiot’s gonna die from sugar overdose one of these days.
They’re finished paying for their orders and as they walk towards the exit of the coffee shop when someone crashes against him. His espresso spills on his chest and the liquid trespasses the material of the shirt until it burns Kyungsoo’s skin.
“Oh fuck!” he groans as he rapidly takes his napkin and tries to fix some of the mess on his shirt.
“I’m so sorry!” the other person cries as he takes a step away from him “are you okay?” he asks later when Kyungsoo’s finished with his shirt.
“Obviously not. You should pay more attention to your surroundings” he lifts his head to glare openly at the stranger, but the glare dies the moment he sees his neighbor standing in front of him.
The very same neighbor who ruined what could’ve been a perfect grade on his essay is standing right in front of him now, only that this time he’s messing with his outfit instead of his grades.
“Oh,” recognition flashes in the guy’s eyes and his face flushes immediately “You… I-I’m really sorry about this, again I… this is horrible” he passes a hand through his head and messes his hair before he speaks again. “Do you want me to… fix it?”
Kyungsoo’s only response is blinking in confusion since he doesn’t understand what the other’s referring to.
His disoriented state could also be due to him focusing his attention on the guy’s arms though, since he’s wearing a sleeveless shirt that, if Kyungsoo’s complete honest with himself, looks amazing on him.
“Your shirt I mean,” the other points a finger at his damp shirt “since I messed it up you know” he shrugs awkwardly, not looking Kyungsoo in the eyes.
“Ah no. I think you’ve done enough” and he doesn’t mean to make it sound so harsh, but he only realizes about it until he sees the other’s hurt face. “I mean, there’s nothing to do here, because it’s just a shirt, I just got to wash it and that’s that. It’s no big deal, really. Don’t fret about it”
“But just, let me do something for you in return. I’ve bothered you a lot and that doesn’t sit well with me”
Kyungsoo’s about to say no, because there’s really nothing for the other to do, nothing he wants the other to help with. He doesn’t even want to be around the guy, he makes him feel anxious.
But once again luck demonstrates to be his lifelong enemy because Baekhyun seems to have made some plans on his own so he beats Kyungsoo to it and talks first, completely ignoring the death glare Kyungsoo sends him.
“Hey, I know what you can do to help!” Baekhyun butts in the conversation with a slight smirk.
He just knows this won’t be good.
“Really?” the guy asks with a hopeful smile, and Kyungsoo can’t believe the whole situation because it’s just absurd.
“Yeah! This guy here has do run some errands right about now, but he’s quite short on help so your cooperation would be much appreciated… uh, sorry what was your name?”
The guy’s eyes widen for a second and he raises his eyebrows before answering, “Oh, my name’s Kim Jongin”.
“Nice to meet you Jongin. I’m Byun Baekhyun and the grumpy one’s Do Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun drops his arm on Kyungsoo’s shoulder casually while he flashes a cheeky smile; Kyungsoo sends his friend a grimace before directing his attention at Jongin.
Jongin smiles gently at them and waves his hand softly and it’s so pleasant that Kyungsoo forgets what breathing is for a moment.
“So Jongin,” Baekhyun’s loud voice brings Kyungsoo back from his reverie “Are you going to help him or what?”
“Ah yes. I’ll help, it’s the least I could I do actually” Kyungsoo doesn’t agree with him, since it really wasn’t that big of a deal, but he really does need the help and there’s no one else available at the moment.
And he’s totally not agreeing to this whole thing only because he finds this person intriguing and wants to spend more time them.
No.
Kyungsoo doesn’t even like younger people, they’re immature and troublesome, he just so happens to like the way Jongin dresses and some of his physical attributes a bit. That’s all.
“That’s great! Isn’t it Kyungsoo?”
“Yes. Great” he isn’t amused, and he knows Baekhyun’s aware of it. The bastard looks little to not concern at all though.
Kyungsoo waits for Jongin some minutes outside of the shop, because the younger wanted to buy some iced tea, and as soon as he’s done with his business they’re out for Kyungsoo’s.
Turns out Jongin has a car. This is really convenient because this way they won’t need to take a taxi which will make the work considerable easier. However Kyungsoo’s not fond of the idea of being in a confined space next to the other much.
He enters the car and seats comfortably after he puts on the seatbelt. Jongin does the same and later asks Kyungsoo for directions. Kyungsoo gives him the place they’re supposed to get to and Jongin hums before he starts the engine of the vehicle. He probably knows where the place is because he doesn’t ask Kyungsoo anything else.
They travel in silence for a while; the only sound audible is the low beat of the background music. Jongin hums to the music from time to time while Kyungsoo looks through the window at the display of the city and its people.
At one point he thinks Jongin gets bored from all the silence though, because he makes an attempt to start small conversation with him.
“Hey hyung,” he starts sounding eager to talk about something “how did your essay go? I told you we would keep it down right? Did you finish it?”
“I did.” He comments sourly because remembering his most recent failure is not exactly pleasant to him.
Jongin seems to catch on his sullenness because he turns to look at him with his brows furrowed “Did you not do well on it?”
“I didn’t. It ended up being bullshit”
“Oh” Jongin turns quickly to look to the front.
An awkward silence takes over the car.
Kyungsoo sighs after a while, because that was unnecessary. He’s no particularly mad anymore, not to Jongin at least, and the guy’s being nice to him, even trying to start a conversation and stuff.
So Kyungsoo turns a little so he can catch a better look at Jongin. “Hey, it’s not your fault, really. I had a terrible day that time and it probably reflected on my work. You did help me when you shut all the noise. My grade probably ended up not being so shitty because of it.”
Jongin seems to relax a little after that, and after the awkwardness leaves them he starts talking again about other meaningless topics. Kyungsoo’s not really interested into soccer or whatever sport Jongin’s talking but since his voice is so nice to listen to he listens.
From time to time though he steals glances at Jongin. He catches himself doing it frequently. He wonders why he does it. It must be the way Jongin dresses, he tells himself. The guy’s clothes are not particularly special or anything but on him they look like something from a magazine. Kyungsoo thinks he’s got nice looks and he gives out some nice vibes. Kyungsoo thought he was going to feel completely restless around the other, since he doesn’t deal well around strangers and he also tends t say thoughtless things from time to time. But even though there’s something that can let him relax completely around Jongin, he doesn’t reject the others presence.
He catches Jongin looking at him for a moment, and then he realizes that he must’ve been staring again. He turns rapidly to avoid making the other feel uncomfortable or something alike. And consciously keeps himself looking at the window to avoid any more awkward moments.
They finally reach their destination. He doesn’t really trust Jongin much, since he proved himself to be clumsy earlier, and now that they got a car Kyungsoo thinks it’s a good idea that goes by himself to pick up the boxes. That way there won’t be any kind of incidents and he won’t take advantage of Jongin’s kindness. And he does it his way so even though Jongin insisted on helping him, Kyungsoo picked the boxes up and put them on the car by himself. It doesn’t really take that long, since there were only like three boxes, so they leave relatively early from the provider’s place and get to the library.
Kyungsoo doesn’t take long there because today’s a Saturday and there’s no way he’s going to be working his day off. So he opts for leaving it for Monday.
After he’s off of the building, Kyungsoo’s surprised to see that Jongin’s still there waiting for him. He had thought the other would just leave once he got to the library. But Jongin tells him he’s off to his place and asks Kyungsoo if he wants a ride. He does. So they make it all the way to the dorms together and even though Kyungsoo tries not to, he still ends up stealing glances at the other many times.
They’re in front of Kyungsoo’s door when Jongin talks to him first.
“Kyungsoo hyung”
“Yeah?” Kyungsoo unlocks his door before turning to face the other.
“I just wanted to tell you that,” he takes a small sigh before continuing “if you need any kind of help with anything else, I can lend you a hand, okay?”
He takes a look at Jongin’s sheepish look, and the way he rubs the back f his neck in an anxious manner before he nods. “Sure. I’ll take your word on it.”
“That’s great. Okay so, I’ll get going” The younger says before he retreats to his place.
Sunday mornings are normally Kyungsoo’s favorites. He doesn’t have to work or go to classes or any other kind of social obligation, so he can get up late if he damn pleases, take his daily cup of coffee calmly and enjoy some time reading or anything else that crosses his mind.
However this particular Sunday morning has him standing in front of the coffee maker, empty cup on his hands and a glare fixated on his face because the stupid, stupid, stupid piece of shit that calls himself Baekhyun decided it was a nice idea to start the day ruining the holy coffee maker and now he doesn’t have his early douse of caffeine which means he’ll be all moody until he gets it. And he would go and get it, but coffee doesn’t only control his moodiness but also gives him energy, and without it Kyungsoo doesn’t want to go anywhere, not even to the groceries store, that’s located at the end of the street.
He sits on the living room couch for a while to think about his situation and suddenly Jongin’s words start resonating on his head. Now, Kyungsoo hadn’t actually thought about taking Jongin on his word, he was just being polite to the other, but now that he’s in this predicament he might as well ask his neighbor for some coffee, surely he has some.
He gets to the dorm next and knocks on the door a few times and honestly, these people take too long to attend the door, if Kyungsoo was really in a life or death situation this is the last people he would trust his life to.
The door opens some time later and Kyungsoo chokes on his own spit because in front of him stands Kim Jongin and his only piece of clothing is a pair of deep blue boxers. Kyungsoo can literally feel as the blood travels rapidly to his face and he’s directs his gaze anywhere but to Jongin.
“I- I can come back later,” he says as he coughs a couple times “yeah, I’ll do that, sorry”.
“What? No hyung, why?” he takes a look inside his place and the back at Kyungsoo “It’s not that early anymore, you shouldn’t worry”.
Kyungsoo can’t believe Jongin doesn’t care at all about his state of almost complete nakedness. God, this is awkward.
“Sure if it’s okay with you” he holds a bit tighter the cup in his hands.
“So what is it that you need?” Jongin offers him a smile that makes his blush more prominent if that’s even possible; he just hopes Jongin doesn’t notice.
“”Ah see,” he averts his eyes to the floor to make his state less obvious to Jongin “my coffee maker’s not functioning at the moment and I wanted to ask you if you happened to own one?”
“Yeah I have one” he takes a step aside and then opens the door further “come hyung, I’ll take you to it”.
Jongin takes Kyungsoo inside his dorm and shows him a chair so he can sit while he waits for the coffee, insisting that he’ll make it since Kyungsoo’s a guest and guests shall not move a finger while at his home. Kyungsoo can only laugh at the other’s comment while he tries to looks at anything that isn’t Jongin.
He’s feeling weird. Like he’s not supposed to be in the same room as the other while he’s not dressed appropriately, but he knows there’s nothing wrong in being in only underwear at your own place; Baekhyun does it all the time and Kyungsoo couldn’t care less cause he’d be dead.
But this is Jongin. And somehow it does matter to Kyungsoo because he’s having a hard time breathing and he can feel his heart beat faster at the way Jongin’s toned legs move around the kitchen, and the blush just won’t go away because Jongin’s talking about something and he’s voice so melodious and nice and God why is that coffee taking so long?
After some minutes, that felt like hours really, the coffee’s done and as soon as Jongin finishes pouring it on his cup Kyungsoo stands up and bids the other good bye, probably leaving Jongin confused, but he doesn’t care at the moment since he’s got serious business to attend like the dangerously fast beating of his heart.
He enters his dorm and takes off his shoes at the entrance then he stops all motion. And Kyungsoo’s having a critical moment because why is he so gay? He knew he was attracted to the boy, it was obvious since the first time he saw him, but this much? And so soon? Why?
He’s in the middle of his existential crisis when the door behind him opens and Baekhyun appears all cheery and stupid with some bags on his hands.
“Hey Soo,” he says while lifting the bags towards him “I bought us some donuts, do you want jelly or chocolate cover?”
Kyungsoo looks at his friend with a blank expression before he smacks the back of his head and walks towards his room, completely ignoring the other’s cries and complains.
Stupid Baekhyun, with his stupid donuts and no fucking coffee making Kyungsoo experience things he’s not ready for.
Kyungsoo would’ve liked to never rely on Jongin again. In fact he would’ve loved to never see the other again, completely erasing his presence from his life. But that wouldn’t go well with his unfortunate life. Of course not.
It’s probably the fiftieth time he’s asked for the other’s help in the past two months. He’s becoming a recurrent character in Jongin’s life unwillingly. This is due t the fact that Baekhyun can’t seem to be able to keep his shit together so he keeps on destroying everything around him.
And so Kyungsoo has being forced to ask help from Jongin so many times that he’s developed some kind of tolerance to the way his stomach sinks and his heart flutter’s when he’s around the other. He’s also being exposed to Jongin so many times he’s now able to look the other in the eyes while he’s in the his dorm and the guy’s only wearing his boxers.
The situation’s gotten so ridiculous that Kyungsoo catches himself asking Jongin to help him in stuff he doesn’t even need the other’s help with.
So he’s really not surprised that he’s currently getting lectured by Baekhyun, of all people, because of his recent behavior.
“Kyungsoo are you listening to me?” Baekhyun asks him a hint of anger on his voice.
“Yes. I listened the first five times you said it” he crosses his arms on his chest and avoids the other’s stare.
“Then why did you do it? Why did you let our neighbor fuck up our air conditioner in the middle of the fucking summer Kyungsoo, why?” he walks restlessly around the room while holding a hand fan.
“I told you before, to call someone to clean up the thing, and you didn’t, so I did it” he says defensively.
“You called our next door neighbor Kyungsoo, a sociology major who obviously doesn’t know jack shit about air conditioners to fix ours”
Kyungsoo knows he lost. Because objectively speaking, he knows Jongin knows as much about air conditioners as him and that’s very little, but somehow he just hadn’t been able to control himself and well… this happened. However he won’t admit defeat to Baekhyun anytime soon.
“It’s better than nothing”.
“It obviously isn’t!” he sighs tiredly “Look, I don’t care whose pants you wanna get into, but just don’t mess with the AC in the middle of the summer man, that’s not cool, literally”.
Kyungsoo thanks the heavens when there’s suddenly someone knocking on their door, because he would’ve died if Baekhyun kept on talking anymore.
Baekhyun’s the one that get’s opens the door and Kyungsoo’s surprised to see Jongin at the entrance, looking sheepish at his friend.
“Oh hello Jongin, Are you here to fix anything else?” Baekhyun’s angriness evident in his voice.
“Baekhyun hyung” the younger says with an apologetic face. “I know messing with the AC wasn’t cool, literally” Kyungsoo knows he’s completely fucked when he laughs at the ridiculous joke.
Apparently Baekhyun knows this too because he just rolls his eyes and leaves the room, muttering something about stupid crushes and oblivious people.
“Jongin, what are you doing here?” Kyungsoo’s asks as Jongin enters the place.
“I just wanted to apologize to Baekhyun hyung for the AC thing, and tell you that I talked to a friend of mine, and he said he’ll be coming tomorrow to fix the whole thing, so you won’t have to worry about that anymore” Jongin fidgets on the living room, looking completely mortified for the whole thing.
Kyungsoo thinks he’s cute “Okay, how much will that be?”
Jongin’s eyes widen “Oh God hyung no, you’re not paying anything, I’m the one who messed things up, let me handle it”
Jongin’s just so kind and perfect, Kyungsoo wants to throw up or die because he can’t handle it.
A few days later after the AC incident find Kyungsoo looking through the instructions manual of the new desk he just bought for the living room. He’s been at it for quite a while now and it still makes no sense to him but Jongin insists that he understands the whole stuff so he’s just gonna trust the other on this task, even though experience has taught him not to.
He finally gives up on the manual and leaves the living room to go to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for Jongin, since he’s breaking his skull at the moment to help him yet once again.
And Kyungsoo appreciates it.
That’s why he’s trying to be nicer to Jongin after all slavery has been abolished for years now and Kyungsoo wants to improve the dynamics of their relationship. Even though the fluttering of his heart wouldn’t go away he thinks a normal friendship would be nice.
He finishes preparing some sandwiches and chips and walks to the living room with them, so Jongin can grab some and rest for a while. Kyungsoo likes seeing him eating his food because he always compliments him and Kyungsoo lives for those moments.
However his happiness doesn’t last that long because once he puts everything on the table Sehun opens of the place.
“Hey is Jongin here?” his eyes search for said person until he locates him and he smiles, then walks to the coach and sits on it “’Sup man do you wanna hang out?” Kyungsoo decides not to comment on the way Sehun just walked into as if he owns the place.
“I can’t” Jongin says as he one of the sandwiches he made for him “I promised Kyungsoo hyung I’d help him with this thing”.
Sehun takes a step from the couch and looks carefully at the table, then he looks at Jongin with a sly smile “Well, let me tell you,” he takes the box and puts it next to the actual table “it doesn’t look like the model at all man”.
“Shut up, you ass, I’m working on it” Jongin’s says in the middle of eating the sandwich then looks at Kyungsoo “Hyung, this is really good!”
Apparently that directs Sehun’s attention to the food and he walks until he’s next to Jongin and looks at them “Wow, those look really good”
“They’re Jongin’s” Kyungsoo says defensively.
“Oh, I don’t mind sharing” Jongin declares as he grabs some more.
Kyungsoo looks as Sehun grabs one of the sandwiches and start eating and Kyungsoo raises from the couch “I’ll prepare some more then” he announces as he makes his way to the kitchen .
He’s in the middle of preparing more snacks when he hears the door opening once more and Baekhyun doesn’t take long before he makes his presence notice.
“Hey guys what are you doing here?”
Kyungsoo notices from afar how Baekhyun approaches Jongin and Sehun; the first one working some more on the table and the other lazing around on the couch.
“Aw Jongin, I feel so sorry for you,” Baekhyun speaks once more, his voice not sounding apologetic at all “Kyungsoo’s sure giving you a hard time isn’t it? You can say no to him every now and then you know?”
“Are you kidding? This guy’s incapable of saying no. He’s the purest cinnamon roll on the whole world!” The assholes laugh as if they’re actually funny.
“Well but,” Baekhyun starts talking once again and Kyungsoo just knows this won’t be good for him “not all’s bad. I mean, Kyungsoo treats him way better than the average person”
“You mean he treats him like an actual human being?” Kyungsoo thinks Sehun would be more likeable if he learned how to keep his mouth shut.
“Yes! Exactly!” Baekhyun too would be more popular if he kept quiet for long periods of time.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jongin on the other hand can talk as much as he wants, Kyungsoo thinks, because his voice just so nice to hear. “He doesn’t treat me any differently than you guys.” What?
“You’re joking right?” Kyungsoo for the first time in his life agrees with Baekhyun.
“I’m not” he can listen to someone moving around and he supposes it must be Jongin standing from the floor. “I think he hasn’t even forgiven me completely for the essay incident”.
“Jongin if he hadn’t forgiven you for that you’d be treated like me” Sehun assures the other.
“But he glares at me all the time” he hears Jongin complain in a grave voice.
And Kyungsoo can’t believe he’s been misunderstood so badly because none of the things Jongin has said are accurate to what he’s actually being doing, or intending to do, at all.
He leaves the kitchen rapidly and walks until he’s in the living breathing harshly. He looks at Jongin and the other seems to realize what he just said.
“Hyung I-”
“I forgave you a long time ago, for the essay thing” Kyungsoo blurts without hesitation. He can’t believe the other’s been so mistaken about his feeling all this time. “And I don’t dislike you at all. I can’t. I- you...” and he would’ve continued had not being for the giggles he catches at some point.
He suddenly remembers they’re not alone, Baekhyun and Sehun are here, and as soon as he realizes about that he feels his face heating up.
His body moves faster than his mind and he finds himself a minute later in his room, walking restlessly around it.
He feels a hole in the middle of his stomach, his heart beating so fast he fears for a heart attack and his legs weak. He can’t believe what just happened. How could he be so bold? Now Jongin probably thinks he’s some weirdo, he won’t ever again be able to look at the other in the face.
He’s walking around the room in circles when someone knocks at the door. He stops. He can’t bring himself to say anything, so he just looks quietly as the person opens it slowly.
Kyungsoo’s eyes widen in surprise when he sees Jongin enter his room and approaches him cautiously as if Kyungsoo somehow could escape his room, how silly. He stops in front of him and coughs before speaking.
“Hyung,” Jongin’s voice sounds unsure, scared even “do you like me?”
Kyungsoo feels the blood rush to his face as he opens his mouth hesitantly “I- Yes” he loks at his feet as soon as he says it, because he doesn’t really wanna see Jongin’s reaction.
He doesn’t know what Jongin will do with this information and he’s not sure he wants to know in all honestly.
They stay silent for a couple of minutes until Jongin decides to finally speak.
“I like you too”
Kyungsoo raises his head quickly, his eyes as wide as they can get and he’s waiting for Jongin to say something more.
Jongin laughs. “I really did thought you hadn’t forgiven me for that time you know; and you kept sending weird looks at me from time to time, so I thought for sure they were glares” he looks to the side as if to avoid Kyungsoo’s stare. “But I also thought that if you kept me around you through all this time then maybe it would be possible to make you forgive one day so then I could finally invite for an actual date or something, instead of just using helping you around as an excuse to spend more time with you” Jongin returns his glance at Kyungsoo, as if he’s waiting for him to say something, but Kyungsoo’s in a state of shock right and he’s having a hard time catching his breath. “Sehun said I was an idiot” he says nervously after some more time passes “Come on hyung, say something. This is not nice of you”
When Kyungsoo finally reacts the first thing he does is pull Jongin by the neck to give him a kiss on the cheek. He would’ve liked to kiss him on the lips, but he doesn’t dare to do it. He doesn’t think his heart would be able to take it.
“I think a date would be nice” he licks his lips before continuing “and I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. I’m not really good at conveying my feelings to others” Jongin laughs heartily at that and Kyungsoo feels warm all over his body.
“That’s okay I’m also not good at reading people so I guess we’re both at fault” Jongin’s smile is so bright Kyungsoo thins it could really illuminate the whole city. He takes Kyungsoo’s hand on his own before adding softly “So, is it okay if I invite you to dinner tomorrow?”
“Dinner tomorrow sounds perfect” If Kyungsoo’s honest with himself though, anything with Jongin’s perfect.
❊ title: silly love
❊ pairings: kai/d.o
❊ rating: pg13
❊ warnings: some swearing
❊ word count: 6,940
❊ summary: Kyungsoo's a fool in love.
❊ a/n: Thank you for the prompt! I know this is probably not what you expected for it but I hope you like it.
His hands are tapping through the keyboard energetically, the words appearing on the screen while its brightness illuminates his face. He keeps at it for a couple of minutes more until he finally stops.
Kyungsoo starts frowning while reading his essay because the thing doesn’t make any sense. This is ridiculous. He erases the material for what it seems like the hundredth time today and walks away from his desk to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, because maybe that can help him calm a bit and think about the task at hand.
He grabs his cup from his desk and starts walking to the kitchen directly to the coffeemaker to pour some of the still warm liquid. He stays there for a while, sipping from the cup while he tries to come with some ideas for his essay.
A couple of minutes pass by without him coming with anything useful for his work. He closes his eyes and rubs the back of his neck.
It really shouldn’t be this hard. In fact, he likes writing essays because most of the time the words come easily to him and the finished product is always of good quality, to such a degree that his professors always compliment him. But today’s just not his day, because he’s been at it for a while now and he’s still not finished. Heck, not even close to even.
And yeah, of course he could bullshit his way through the thing, it’s not a hard thing to do, but that’s not what he wants. He’s not a mediocre student.
And the thing is that normally he doesn’t take so long in this kind of assignment; but work’s been busy the whole week with new books arriving at the library. So he’s spent his time organizing the new ones and rearranging the older ones the whole time until late which consequently left his homework forgotten until Friday night.
And he’s so exhausted after all he’s done that he wouldn’t be willingly doing this right now if it weren’t to be submitted to his professor’s in a few more hours. But that’s the way things work for university students sometimes, he supposes as he finishes his third cup of the night and washes it before returning to his desk so he can continue with his writing.
He thinks some more before coming with some inspiration for the thing. He starts writing rapidly so he won’t lose the grasp of the idea and goes at it for a couple of minutes more. He feels he can do this before midnight; he still has a couple of hours more.
Unfortunately though, his luck has never been the best. This is proved once again when just half an hour into the writing a loud pounding noise starts filling his room. He lowers his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. He doesn’t even need to look around to locate the source of the distraction to know it’s coming from the dorm next door.
This is unbelievable. First month in the building and they’re already causing trouble for him. This is why he detests freshman year students. They’re too carefree for their own good and a nuisance for everybody else.
Last week had been similar. They started with all the unbearable noise since early night and Kyungsoo was just about to stop by their door to remind them that some people, obviously not them, cherish their silent and calm Friday nights, but just as he was about to have the talk with them Baekhyun had convince him that it wasn’t necessary, he was going to invite him some nice meal outside the campus. And Kyungsoo being the normal economically struggling student he is accepted the offer.
However Kyungsoo’s not stupid. He knows Baekhyun did it only to avoid any kind of confrontation between him and their neighbors; since he’s not exactly the nicest person in the world and he always ends up being unnecessarily rude while talking with strangers; more so if he’s having a bad day.
There’s also the fact that Bakehyun’s not home tonight, had some research to do for some class Kyungsoo doesn’t really care enough to ask for. So he’s alone in their dorm, supposedly working on this essay that is due some hours. Although the chances of him submitting his work are slim at the moment because, his neighbors are watching some stupid movie unnecessarily loud next door.
And the thing is, Kyungsoo’s tired. He’s had a draining week and the last thing he wants is to take even longer doing this work, that and the fact that he has time limit to finish it. He doesn’t really have patience or the time to be waiting for his neighbors to finish their movie.
So it really isn’t surprising when he finds himself walking out his door and stopping in front of theirs. He can hear their laughs and he just knows he won’t be having a nice relationship with his neighbors in the future but at least he’ll be able to finish his essay on time and go to sleep peacefully later. And he can totally live with that. He has done so before no problems.
He knocks one, two, three, four times, maybe one kick, before the noise stops. He can hear someone walking, too slow if he may add, towards the door and now they’re opening.
He prepares himself, his stand perfectly straight, and takes a deep breath, so he won’t seem pathetic in the middle of the argument and in front of some damn freshman students, and lastly puts on his most menacing glare, so they’ll know he’s not joking.
Finally the door opens, and Kyungsoo waits for his neighbor to appear completely so he can complain to his heart’s content.
He is expecting some big and intimidating guy, something like a thug, mainly because if you wait for the worst you’ll be prepare for anything. In front of him though stands a lanky figure. The guy, whom is wearing sweatpants and a white simple cotton shirt, has his body leaning on the door frame and while his hands are occupied tapping on the screen of a phone.
Kyungsoo decides to wait some time until the man decides to look up from his oh so important business to talk.
“’Sup?” Says his neighbor in the most relaxed tone he’s ever heard. But of course he is, he’s not the one about to miss a deadline Kyungsoo thinks bitterly.
“Yes. Hey, could you keep it down? The noise I mean. See, I’m your next door neighbor and all this noise is bothering me” he tries to keep his voice as calm as he can, cause that would only end up in him wasting precious time, which is a luxury he can’t afford at the moment.
However his neighbor is not cooperating at all. “Uh. It’s Friday” the asshole tells him, tilting his head to the side in confusion, as if Kyungsoo didn’t know the damn day.
“Yes. So what?”
“It’s movie night.”
Something snaps inside Kyungsoo. He can’t take this guy’s laid back attitude as if the topic wasn’t an important one. If he ever tried to keep things on a decent level, this guy just ruined it.
“No,” Kyungsoo starts; his voice aggravated “its essay writing night. You’re not the only one in the building, okay? I’ve lived here way before you did and I have the right to be able to spend a quiet night at home finishing my homework, which is due before midnight if I may add, without any kind of interruption.” He takes a deep breath before he continues with the rant that he can no longer hold in “But I can’t do that because it’s ‘movie night’ and apparently you are incapable of watching movies without turning the volume up to its max, but just so you know, I can,” He stops mid sentence because the door opens once again to reveal another person in the entrance of the dorm.
“Sehun, what’s wrong?” the new guy asks the other with his brows furrow before noticing Kyungsoo and probably the now obvious annoyed look he’s displaying. The guy lets out a gasp “I told you that it was too loud! See? We did end up bothering our neighbor!” Sehun doesn’t seem to care much, if the way he waves his hand dismissingly means anything. “We’re very sorry, we’ll keep it down from now on” he assures Kyungsoo before bowing as an apology.
Kyungsoo knows he’s expected to say something but he feels unable to at the moment since he’s being completely absorbed by the fascinating stranger in front f him. He is tall, though not as much as the Sehun fellow, and has lean body, Kyungsoo notices. But what’s most interesting about him is his face. He’s got a thin boyish face with a sharp jaw line; has also full lips and a dainty nose. His eyes are partially covered by his bangs and Kyungsoo thinks is cute how he avoids his gaze, his cheeks have a slight blush, probably because of the embarrassment.
Kyungsoo snaps out of his trance only because he notices how the guy’s expression changes from embarrassed to worry. That and the way said guy appears to be saying something to him as he waves his hand in front of him.
“Right so, I’m gonna get going” he says as he takes a step back from his neighbors’ door.
Sehun just shrugs and gets back inside the dorm, he really seems like the kind of person he can’t stand, while the other guy bows one more time and offers him his apologies once more before waving and getting inside his place.
As soon as Kyungsoo gets inside his own dorm he stops in the entrance and for a moment just standing there pensive; truth to the guys words the horrid noise from next door has stopped and Kyungsoo thanks him mentally before he starts walking to his room to finish his essay. He’s got no time to be thinking about lazy and immature freshman year students, he tells himself, no matter how attractive these may seem they’re just a waste of precious time. And wasting precious time is something only someone as idiotic as Baekhyun would do.
A week has passed since the Friday incident with his neighbors. He managed to finish his essay before the time was up even though he wasn’t completely satisfied with the results of his work. And he was right. His paper wasn’t good enough, and the grade he got was the perfect confirmation of it.
“I can’t believe they ruined my work!” he says as he finishes checking his grades on his phone.
He’s with Baekhyun at the moment because they’re stopping at the university’s coffee shop to buy something before parting ways because Kyungsoo’s gotta go right after that to one of the library provider’s to pick up some books so he can finish rearranging yet again another bunch of them.
He doesn’t really want to do it because he’s not the one in charge of this. Jongdae is, but he had some research to do for one of his classes so he begged Kyungsoo to pick them up for him. Kyungsoo knows what’s like to have a load of homework to do, he’s being there and Jongdae’s always been nice and supportive, so he thinks he can do at least this much for the other.
The only real trouble is the amount of material he has to pick. Apparently there are many boxes and Kyungsoo only has one pair of arms, not to mention he’s not really what one would call strong, so he isn’t really quite sure yet how he’ll manage with the packages.
He asked Baekhyun for help earlier but the other is busy for the rest of the afternoon with some practice for an upcoming play of the drama club, so he’s on his own for this.
“They didn’t do anything man, stop being so dramatic” Baekhyun is also checking his phone while walking alongside Kyungsoo. He obviously doesn’t understand how important grades are nowadays.
“I am not dramatic” Kyungsoo provides as he opens the door of the shop. “And they did ruin it. You know I always get perfect grades on my essays”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes before he speaks “Kyungsoo, you only lost half a point. You are being dramatic. Besides, didn’t you tell me you went to complain to them as soon as the noise started?”
They line up after a couple of girls that are giggling about something he really couldn’t care less but wishes would disappear because they’re being loud.
“I did. But that doesn’t matter because the ideas I was in middle of organizing when their bullshit began were gone by the time I went back to finish the work. I know I’d have gotten a perfect grade hadn’t they ruin everything.”
“Whatever you say Kyungsoo” his friend agrees, waving his hand dismissingly, probably because he knows he won’t win this argument, Kyungsoo’s can be stubborn when he thinks he’s right. And he is certain he’s right about this.
Eventually they get over the topic since it won’t get them anywhere at the moment and continue with some small talk about classmates, TV series and so on.
They advance on the line until they finally get their turns to order their stuff.
Kyungsoo likes to keep it simple so he orders an espresso with no sugar; Baekhyun on the other hand orders some ridiculous shit along the lines of mocha cookie crumble frappuccino or some shit plus a slice of chocolate cake. Kyungsoo is sure the idiot’s gonna die from sugar overdose one of these days.
They’re finished paying for their orders and as they walk towards the exit of the coffee shop when someone crashes against him. His espresso spills on his chest and the liquid trespasses the material of the shirt until it burns Kyungsoo’s skin.
“Oh fuck!” he groans as he rapidly takes his napkin and tries to fix some of the mess on his shirt.
“I’m so sorry!” the other person cries as he takes a step away from him “are you okay?” he asks later when Kyungsoo’s finished with his shirt.
“Obviously not. You should pay more attention to your surroundings” he lifts his head to glare openly at the stranger, but the glare dies the moment he sees his neighbor standing in front of him.
The very same neighbor who ruined what could’ve been a perfect grade on his essay is standing right in front of him now, only that this time he’s messing with his outfit instead of his grades.
“Oh,” recognition flashes in the guy’s eyes and his face flushes immediately “You… I-I’m really sorry about this, again I… this is horrible” he passes a hand through his head and messes his hair before he speaks again. “Do you want me to… fix it?”
Kyungsoo’s only response is blinking in confusion since he doesn’t understand what the other’s referring to.
His disoriented state could also be due to him focusing his attention on the guy’s arms though, since he’s wearing a sleeveless shirt that, if Kyungsoo’s complete honest with himself, looks amazing on him.
“Your shirt I mean,” the other points a finger at his damp shirt “since I messed it up you know” he shrugs awkwardly, not looking Kyungsoo in the eyes.
“Ah no. I think you’ve done enough” and he doesn’t mean to make it sound so harsh, but he only realizes about it until he sees the other’s hurt face. “I mean, there’s nothing to do here, because it’s just a shirt, I just got to wash it and that’s that. It’s no big deal, really. Don’t fret about it”
“But just, let me do something for you in return. I’ve bothered you a lot and that doesn’t sit well with me”
Kyungsoo’s about to say no, because there’s really nothing for the other to do, nothing he wants the other to help with. He doesn’t even want to be around the guy, he makes him feel anxious.
But once again luck demonstrates to be his lifelong enemy because Baekhyun seems to have made some plans on his own so he beats Kyungsoo to it and talks first, completely ignoring the death glare Kyungsoo sends him.
“Hey, I know what you can do to help!” Baekhyun butts in the conversation with a slight smirk.
He just knows this won’t be good.
“Really?” the guy asks with a hopeful smile, and Kyungsoo can’t believe the whole situation because it’s just absurd.
“Yeah! This guy here has do run some errands right about now, but he’s quite short on help so your cooperation would be much appreciated… uh, sorry what was your name?”
The guy’s eyes widen for a second and he raises his eyebrows before answering, “Oh, my name’s Kim Jongin”.
“Nice to meet you Jongin. I’m Byun Baekhyun and the grumpy one’s Do Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun drops his arm on Kyungsoo’s shoulder casually while he flashes a cheeky smile; Kyungsoo sends his friend a grimace before directing his attention at Jongin.
Jongin smiles gently at them and waves his hand softly and it’s so pleasant that Kyungsoo forgets what breathing is for a moment.
“So Jongin,” Baekhyun’s loud voice brings Kyungsoo back from his reverie “Are you going to help him or what?”
“Ah yes. I’ll help, it’s the least I could I do actually” Kyungsoo doesn’t agree with him, since it really wasn’t that big of a deal, but he really does need the help and there’s no one else available at the moment.
And he’s totally not agreeing to this whole thing only because he finds this person intriguing and wants to spend more time them.
No.
Kyungsoo doesn’t even like younger people, they’re immature and troublesome, he just so happens to like the way Jongin dresses and some of his physical attributes a bit. That’s all.
“That’s great! Isn’t it Kyungsoo?”
“Yes. Great” he isn’t amused, and he knows Baekhyun’s aware of it. The bastard looks little to not concern at all though.
Kyungsoo waits for Jongin some minutes outside of the shop, because the younger wanted to buy some iced tea, and as soon as he’s done with his business they’re out for Kyungsoo’s.
Turns out Jongin has a car. This is really convenient because this way they won’t need to take a taxi which will make the work considerable easier. However Kyungsoo’s not fond of the idea of being in a confined space next to the other much.
He enters the car and seats comfortably after he puts on the seatbelt. Jongin does the same and later asks Kyungsoo for directions. Kyungsoo gives him the place they’re supposed to get to and Jongin hums before he starts the engine of the vehicle. He probably knows where the place is because he doesn’t ask Kyungsoo anything else.
They travel in silence for a while; the only sound audible is the low beat of the background music. Jongin hums to the music from time to time while Kyungsoo looks through the window at the display of the city and its people.
At one point he thinks Jongin gets bored from all the silence though, because he makes an attempt to start small conversation with him.
“Hey hyung,” he starts sounding eager to talk about something “how did your essay go? I told you we would keep it down right? Did you finish it?”
“I did.” He comments sourly because remembering his most recent failure is not exactly pleasant to him.
Jongin seems to catch on his sullenness because he turns to look at him with his brows furrowed “Did you not do well on it?”
“I didn’t. It ended up being bullshit”
“Oh” Jongin turns quickly to look to the front.
An awkward silence takes over the car.
Kyungsoo sighs after a while, because that was unnecessary. He’s no particularly mad anymore, not to Jongin at least, and the guy’s being nice to him, even trying to start a conversation and stuff.
So Kyungsoo turns a little so he can catch a better look at Jongin. “Hey, it’s not your fault, really. I had a terrible day that time and it probably reflected on my work. You did help me when you shut all the noise. My grade probably ended up not being so shitty because of it.”
Jongin seems to relax a little after that, and after the awkwardness leaves them he starts talking again about other meaningless topics. Kyungsoo’s not really interested into soccer or whatever sport Jongin’s talking but since his voice is so nice to listen to he listens.
From time to time though he steals glances at Jongin. He catches himself doing it frequently. He wonders why he does it. It must be the way Jongin dresses, he tells himself. The guy’s clothes are not particularly special or anything but on him they look like something from a magazine. Kyungsoo thinks he’s got nice looks and he gives out some nice vibes. Kyungsoo thought he was going to feel completely restless around the other, since he doesn’t deal well around strangers and he also tends t say thoughtless things from time to time. But even though there’s something that can let him relax completely around Jongin, he doesn’t reject the others presence.
He catches Jongin looking at him for a moment, and then he realizes that he must’ve been staring again. He turns rapidly to avoid making the other feel uncomfortable or something alike. And consciously keeps himself looking at the window to avoid any more awkward moments.
They finally reach their destination. He doesn’t really trust Jongin much, since he proved himself to be clumsy earlier, and now that they got a car Kyungsoo thinks it’s a good idea that goes by himself to pick up the boxes. That way there won’t be any kind of incidents and he won’t take advantage of Jongin’s kindness. And he does it his way so even though Jongin insisted on helping him, Kyungsoo picked the boxes up and put them on the car by himself. It doesn’t really take that long, since there were only like three boxes, so they leave relatively early from the provider’s place and get to the library.
Kyungsoo doesn’t take long there because today’s a Saturday and there’s no way he’s going to be working his day off. So he opts for leaving it for Monday.
After he’s off of the building, Kyungsoo’s surprised to see that Jongin’s still there waiting for him. He had thought the other would just leave once he got to the library. But Jongin tells him he’s off to his place and asks Kyungsoo if he wants a ride. He does. So they make it all the way to the dorms together and even though Kyungsoo tries not to, he still ends up stealing glances at the other many times.
They’re in front of Kyungsoo’s door when Jongin talks to him first.
“Kyungsoo hyung”
“Yeah?” Kyungsoo unlocks his door before turning to face the other.
“I just wanted to tell you that,” he takes a small sigh before continuing “if you need any kind of help with anything else, I can lend you a hand, okay?”
He takes a look at Jongin’s sheepish look, and the way he rubs the back f his neck in an anxious manner before he nods. “Sure. I’ll take your word on it.”
“That’s great. Okay so, I’ll get going” The younger says before he retreats to his place.
Sunday mornings are normally Kyungsoo’s favorites. He doesn’t have to work or go to classes or any other kind of social obligation, so he can get up late if he damn pleases, take his daily cup of coffee calmly and enjoy some time reading or anything else that crosses his mind.
However this particular Sunday morning has him standing in front of the coffee maker, empty cup on his hands and a glare fixated on his face because the stupid, stupid, stupid piece of shit that calls himself Baekhyun decided it was a nice idea to start the day ruining the holy coffee maker and now he doesn’t have his early douse of caffeine which means he’ll be all moody until he gets it. And he would go and get it, but coffee doesn’t only control his moodiness but also gives him energy, and without it Kyungsoo doesn’t want to go anywhere, not even to the groceries store, that’s located at the end of the street.
He sits on the living room couch for a while to think about his situation and suddenly Jongin’s words start resonating on his head. Now, Kyungsoo hadn’t actually thought about taking Jongin on his word, he was just being polite to the other, but now that he’s in this predicament he might as well ask his neighbor for some coffee, surely he has some.
He gets to the dorm next and knocks on the door a few times and honestly, these people take too long to attend the door, if Kyungsoo was really in a life or death situation this is the last people he would trust his life to.
The door opens some time later and Kyungsoo chokes on his own spit because in front of him stands Kim Jongin and his only piece of clothing is a pair of deep blue boxers. Kyungsoo can literally feel as the blood travels rapidly to his face and he’s directs his gaze anywhere but to Jongin.
“I- I can come back later,” he says as he coughs a couple times “yeah, I’ll do that, sorry”.
“What? No hyung, why?” he takes a look inside his place and the back at Kyungsoo “It’s not that early anymore, you shouldn’t worry”.
Kyungsoo can’t believe Jongin doesn’t care at all about his state of almost complete nakedness. God, this is awkward.
“Sure if it’s okay with you” he holds a bit tighter the cup in his hands.
“So what is it that you need?” Jongin offers him a smile that makes his blush more prominent if that’s even possible; he just hopes Jongin doesn’t notice.
“”Ah see,” he averts his eyes to the floor to make his state less obvious to Jongin “my coffee maker’s not functioning at the moment and I wanted to ask you if you happened to own one?”
“Yeah I have one” he takes a step aside and then opens the door further “come hyung, I’ll take you to it”.
Jongin takes Kyungsoo inside his dorm and shows him a chair so he can sit while he waits for the coffee, insisting that he’ll make it since Kyungsoo’s a guest and guests shall not move a finger while at his home. Kyungsoo can only laugh at the other’s comment while he tries to looks at anything that isn’t Jongin.
He’s feeling weird. Like he’s not supposed to be in the same room as the other while he’s not dressed appropriately, but he knows there’s nothing wrong in being in only underwear at your own place; Baekhyun does it all the time and Kyungsoo couldn’t care less cause he’d be dead.
But this is Jongin. And somehow it does matter to Kyungsoo because he’s having a hard time breathing and he can feel his heart beat faster at the way Jongin’s toned legs move around the kitchen, and the blush just won’t go away because Jongin’s talking about something and he’s voice so melodious and nice and God why is that coffee taking so long?
After some minutes, that felt like hours really, the coffee’s done and as soon as Jongin finishes pouring it on his cup Kyungsoo stands up and bids the other good bye, probably leaving Jongin confused, but he doesn’t care at the moment since he’s got serious business to attend like the dangerously fast beating of his heart.
He enters his dorm and takes off his shoes at the entrance then he stops all motion. And Kyungsoo’s having a critical moment because why is he so gay? He knew he was attracted to the boy, it was obvious since the first time he saw him, but this much? And so soon? Why?
He’s in the middle of his existential crisis when the door behind him opens and Baekhyun appears all cheery and stupid with some bags on his hands.
“Hey Soo,” he says while lifting the bags towards him “I bought us some donuts, do you want jelly or chocolate cover?”
Kyungsoo looks at his friend with a blank expression before he smacks the back of his head and walks towards his room, completely ignoring the other’s cries and complains.
Stupid Baekhyun, with his stupid donuts and no fucking coffee making Kyungsoo experience things he’s not ready for.
Kyungsoo would’ve liked to never rely on Jongin again. In fact he would’ve loved to never see the other again, completely erasing his presence from his life. But that wouldn’t go well with his unfortunate life. Of course not.
It’s probably the fiftieth time he’s asked for the other’s help in the past two months. He’s becoming a recurrent character in Jongin’s life unwillingly. This is due t the fact that Baekhyun can’t seem to be able to keep his shit together so he keeps on destroying everything around him.
And so Kyungsoo has being forced to ask help from Jongin so many times that he’s developed some kind of tolerance to the way his stomach sinks and his heart flutter’s when he’s around the other. He’s also being exposed to Jongin so many times he’s now able to look the other in the eyes while he’s in the his dorm and the guy’s only wearing his boxers.
The situation’s gotten so ridiculous that Kyungsoo catches himself asking Jongin to help him in stuff he doesn’t even need the other’s help with.
So he’s really not surprised that he’s currently getting lectured by Baekhyun, of all people, because of his recent behavior.
“Kyungsoo are you listening to me?” Baekhyun asks him a hint of anger on his voice.
“Yes. I listened the first five times you said it” he crosses his arms on his chest and avoids the other’s stare.
“Then why did you do it? Why did you let our neighbor fuck up our air conditioner in the middle of the fucking summer Kyungsoo, why?” he walks restlessly around the room while holding a hand fan.
“I told you before, to call someone to clean up the thing, and you didn’t, so I did it” he says defensively.
“You called our next door neighbor Kyungsoo, a sociology major who obviously doesn’t know jack shit about air conditioners to fix ours”
Kyungsoo knows he lost. Because objectively speaking, he knows Jongin knows as much about air conditioners as him and that’s very little, but somehow he just hadn’t been able to control himself and well… this happened. However he won’t admit defeat to Baekhyun anytime soon.
“It’s better than nothing”.
“It obviously isn’t!” he sighs tiredly “Look, I don’t care whose pants you wanna get into, but just don’t mess with the AC in the middle of the summer man, that’s not cool, literally”.
Kyungsoo thanks the heavens when there’s suddenly someone knocking on their door, because he would’ve died if Baekhyun kept on talking anymore.
Baekhyun’s the one that get’s opens the door and Kyungsoo’s surprised to see Jongin at the entrance, looking sheepish at his friend.
“Oh hello Jongin, Are you here to fix anything else?” Baekhyun’s angriness evident in his voice.
“Baekhyun hyung” the younger says with an apologetic face. “I know messing with the AC wasn’t cool, literally” Kyungsoo knows he’s completely fucked when he laughs at the ridiculous joke.
Apparently Baekhyun knows this too because he just rolls his eyes and leaves the room, muttering something about stupid crushes and oblivious people.
“Jongin, what are you doing here?” Kyungsoo’s asks as Jongin enters the place.
“I just wanted to apologize to Baekhyun hyung for the AC thing, and tell you that I talked to a friend of mine, and he said he’ll be coming tomorrow to fix the whole thing, so you won’t have to worry about that anymore” Jongin fidgets on the living room, looking completely mortified for the whole thing.
Kyungsoo thinks he’s cute “Okay, how much will that be?”
Jongin’s eyes widen “Oh God hyung no, you’re not paying anything, I’m the one who messed things up, let me handle it”
Jongin’s just so kind and perfect, Kyungsoo wants to throw up or die because he can’t handle it.
A few days later after the AC incident find Kyungsoo looking through the instructions manual of the new desk he just bought for the living room. He’s been at it for quite a while now and it still makes no sense to him but Jongin insists that he understands the whole stuff so he’s just gonna trust the other on this task, even though experience has taught him not to.
He finally gives up on the manual and leaves the living room to go to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for Jongin, since he’s breaking his skull at the moment to help him yet once again.
And Kyungsoo appreciates it.
That’s why he’s trying to be nicer to Jongin after all slavery has been abolished for years now and Kyungsoo wants to improve the dynamics of their relationship. Even though the fluttering of his heart wouldn’t go away he thinks a normal friendship would be nice.
He finishes preparing some sandwiches and chips and walks to the living room with them, so Jongin can grab some and rest for a while. Kyungsoo likes seeing him eating his food because he always compliments him and Kyungsoo lives for those moments.
However his happiness doesn’t last that long because once he puts everything on the table Sehun opens of the place.
“Hey is Jongin here?” his eyes search for said person until he locates him and he smiles, then walks to the coach and sits on it “’Sup man do you wanna hang out?” Kyungsoo decides not to comment on the way Sehun just walked into as if he owns the place.
“I can’t” Jongin says as he one of the sandwiches he made for him “I promised Kyungsoo hyung I’d help him with this thing”.
Sehun takes a step from the couch and looks carefully at the table, then he looks at Jongin with a sly smile “Well, let me tell you,” he takes the box and puts it next to the actual table “it doesn’t look like the model at all man”.
“Shut up, you ass, I’m working on it” Jongin’s says in the middle of eating the sandwich then looks at Kyungsoo “Hyung, this is really good!”
Apparently that directs Sehun’s attention to the food and he walks until he’s next to Jongin and looks at them “Wow, those look really good”
“They’re Jongin’s” Kyungsoo says defensively.
“Oh, I don’t mind sharing” Jongin declares as he grabs some more.
Kyungsoo looks as Sehun grabs one of the sandwiches and start eating and Kyungsoo raises from the couch “I’ll prepare some more then” he announces as he makes his way to the kitchen .
He’s in the middle of preparing more snacks when he hears the door opening once more and Baekhyun doesn’t take long before he makes his presence notice.
“Hey guys what are you doing here?”
Kyungsoo notices from afar how Baekhyun approaches Jongin and Sehun; the first one working some more on the table and the other lazing around on the couch.
“Aw Jongin, I feel so sorry for you,” Baekhyun speaks once more, his voice not sounding apologetic at all “Kyungsoo’s sure giving you a hard time isn’t it? You can say no to him every now and then you know?”
“Are you kidding? This guy’s incapable of saying no. He’s the purest cinnamon roll on the whole world!” The assholes laugh as if they’re actually funny.
“Well but,” Baekhyun starts talking once again and Kyungsoo just knows this won’t be good for him “not all’s bad. I mean, Kyungsoo treats him way better than the average person”
“You mean he treats him like an actual human being?” Kyungsoo thinks Sehun would be more likeable if he learned how to keep his mouth shut.
“Yes! Exactly!” Baekhyun too would be more popular if he kept quiet for long periods of time.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jongin on the other hand can talk as much as he wants, Kyungsoo thinks, because his voice just so nice to hear. “He doesn’t treat me any differently than you guys.” What?
“You’re joking right?” Kyungsoo for the first time in his life agrees with Baekhyun.
“I’m not” he can listen to someone moving around and he supposes it must be Jongin standing from the floor. “I think he hasn’t even forgiven me completely for the essay incident”.
“Jongin if he hadn’t forgiven you for that you’d be treated like me” Sehun assures the other.
“But he glares at me all the time” he hears Jongin complain in a grave voice.
And Kyungsoo can’t believe he’s been misunderstood so badly because none of the things Jongin has said are accurate to what he’s actually being doing, or intending to do, at all.
He leaves the kitchen rapidly and walks until he’s in the living breathing harshly. He looks at Jongin and the other seems to realize what he just said.
“Hyung I-”
“I forgave you a long time ago, for the essay thing” Kyungsoo blurts without hesitation. He can’t believe the other’s been so mistaken about his feeling all this time. “And I don’t dislike you at all. I can’t. I- you...” and he would’ve continued had not being for the giggles he catches at some point.
He suddenly remembers they’re not alone, Baekhyun and Sehun are here, and as soon as he realizes about that he feels his face heating up.
His body moves faster than his mind and he finds himself a minute later in his room, walking restlessly around it.
He feels a hole in the middle of his stomach, his heart beating so fast he fears for a heart attack and his legs weak. He can’t believe what just happened. How could he be so bold? Now Jongin probably thinks he’s some weirdo, he won’t ever again be able to look at the other in the face.
He’s walking around the room in circles when someone knocks at the door. He stops. He can’t bring himself to say anything, so he just looks quietly as the person opens it slowly.
Kyungsoo’s eyes widen in surprise when he sees Jongin enter his room and approaches him cautiously as if Kyungsoo somehow could escape his room, how silly. He stops in front of him and coughs before speaking.
“Hyung,” Jongin’s voice sounds unsure, scared even “do you like me?”
Kyungsoo feels the blood rush to his face as he opens his mouth hesitantly “I- Yes” he loks at his feet as soon as he says it, because he doesn’t really wanna see Jongin’s reaction.
He doesn’t know what Jongin will do with this information and he’s not sure he wants to know in all honestly.
They stay silent for a couple of minutes until Jongin decides to finally speak.
“I like you too”
Kyungsoo raises his head quickly, his eyes as wide as they can get and he’s waiting for Jongin to say something more.
Jongin laughs. “I really did thought you hadn’t forgiven me for that time you know; and you kept sending weird looks at me from time to time, so I thought for sure they were glares” he looks to the side as if to avoid Kyungsoo’s stare. “But I also thought that if you kept me around you through all this time then maybe it would be possible to make you forgive one day so then I could finally invite for an actual date or something, instead of just using helping you around as an excuse to spend more time with you” Jongin returns his glance at Kyungsoo, as if he’s waiting for him to say something, but Kyungsoo’s in a state of shock right and he’s having a hard time catching his breath. “Sehun said I was an idiot” he says nervously after some more time passes “Come on hyung, say something. This is not nice of you”
When Kyungsoo finally reacts the first thing he does is pull Jongin by the neck to give him a kiss on the cheek. He would’ve liked to kiss him on the lips, but he doesn’t dare to do it. He doesn’t think his heart would be able to take it.
“I think a date would be nice” he licks his lips before continuing “and I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. I’m not really good at conveying my feelings to others” Jongin laughs heartily at that and Kyungsoo feels warm all over his body.
“That’s okay I’m also not good at reading people so I guess we’re both at fault” Jongin’s smile is so bright Kyungsoo thins it could really illuminate the whole city. He takes Kyungsoo’s hand on his own before adding softly “So, is it okay if I invite you to dinner tomorrow?”
“Dinner tomorrow sounds perfect” If Kyungsoo’s honest with himself though, anything with Jongin’s perfect.