EXO: Crush Crush Crush (girls!Suho/Chen)
Title: Crush Crush Crush
Pairing: Suho/Chen
Rating: PG
Warnings: Genderswap (Jongdae, Joonmyun, Chanyeol)
Word Count: 3k
Summary: When starting at her new high school, Jongdae never would have expected to befriend beautiful cheerleader Joonmyun.
Notes: Due to real life, the fic ended up shorter than originally planned, but I hope you still enjoy! Originally written for criticalcapture.
Standing confidently in the front of the room, Jongdae only half listens to the teacher introduce her to a dozen or so curious students. It's not every day that a new student is introduced a month into the new school year, at a private high school meant for the wealthier part of the cities population no less. Jongdae is by no means rich, almost the opposite with her family's money stretched thin, but she's okay with that. It wasn't money that got her into this school, but her grades, which were high enough to earn her a rare scholarship.
A rare enough scholarship that there were problems with paperwork at the admission's office, forcing her to start a whole month late. Jongdae doesn't feel too bitter over it, as it allowed her to finish up at her part-time job for a month without school interfering, earning her extra pocket money.
The looks vary from pure curiosity to disdain, nothing Jongdae wasn't expecting, as she's then asked to give a short introduction. She does so, looks at her teacher for approval, then moves to an empty desk near the middle of the room.
Jongdae is careful to avoid eye contact while walking to the desk, hoping to avoid upsetting any of her classmates so early into her arrival. As much as she knows she could handle anything thrown at her, that didn't mean Jongdae wanted to start something on her first day. She was at the school for a reason, and that was to study and learn.
Plopping herself down, she sets her bag next to her chair, and starts pulling out a notebook and pencil. When sitting back up, Jongdae notices that the boy sitting next to her is watching her, flashing her a smile that looks oddly rectangular. He nods his head when Jongdae raises a brow at him, then turns his head to the other side of him where a tall and gangly looking girl is leaning forward trying to get a look at the new student. Or, at least that's what it looks like to Jongdae.
By some miracle, Jongdae is able to ignore the staring and focus on the lesson, hastily scribbling away notes. She'll have to see if any of her classmates will be nice enough to give her the notes she's missing. Maybe Rectangle-Smile or Tall-and-Gangly, they both look friendly enough.
She's closing her notebook, having written down their assignment for the night, when someone speaks from her left.
"Hey, new girl."
New girl? Excuse her, Jongdae's name had been introduced at the beginning of class. She's just about to call him Rectangle-Smile, when Tall-and-Gangly interrupts.
"Baekhyun," she hisses, hitting 'Baekhyun' rather hard across the arm. "She has a name. Jongdae, remember?"
Baekhyun winces, rubbing his arm but continues to smile. "Sorry, I have a bad memory for names."
Jongdae chuckles, lips curling up into her signature grin. "That's okay. Every time you call me new girl, I'll just use it as an excuse to call you Rectangle Smile."
Tall-and-Gangly guffaws, face buried in her hands to minimize the noise. When she does uncover her face, she's smiling so widely that Jongdae's convinced she can see all of her very white teeth.
"That was funny," Tall-and-Gangly says, disregarding Baekhyun's offended sniff, smile still firmly in place. "It's nice to meet you Jongdae, I'm Chanyeol. This here is Baekhyun."
"I can introduce myself, thank you," Baekhyun frowns at Chanyeol, though from Jongdae's angle he doesn't look all that upset.
Chanyeol shrugs, her crisp white button-up moving stiffly with the movement. "Got to it before you did, sorry," Chanyeol says, not sounding sorry at all.
Jongdae chuckles, watching as the two bicker back and forth in manner that suggests years of friendship. It makes her miss her own friends, all left behind at a public high school, where they'll have little time to get together. Instead of letting it get her down, at least get her down too much, Jongdae tries to see it as an opportunity to widen her friendship circle.
"Hey, Jongdae." Chanyeol and Baekhyun are standing up now, their materials tucked away in bags and staring at her curiously. It was Chanyeol who had spoken. "Is it your lunch period next?"
A quick peek at her schedule confirms that she does have lunch next, so she nods to the duo while getting up. Both look excited at her answer, leading Jongdae to realize the two of them are also heading to lunch now.
"We'll show you the way, then we can all sit together." Baekhyun smiles, the action looking no less rectangular in the short time Jongdae has seen it.
"Sounds good."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Jongdae tries to look inconspicuous, all too aware of how odd she must look sitting by herself in the cafeteria. While on their way to lunch Baekhyun and Chanyeol both discovered she brought her own lunch, which neither had understood despite Jongdae's explanation of lunch prices, and had left her at a table with express instructions to make sure no one took their seats. As much as Jongdae values her position as seat saver, which is not at all, she's starting to which she hadn't been left by herself. More and more students were casting her curious looks, and she wasn't up to fielding more questions to people she didn't know. She made an exception for Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but they were going to be the only ones if she had any say in the matter.
Of course it wasn't going to go her way, that would be too lucky.
"Hey, it's the new girl."
Jongdae looks up to see a group of two boys and a girl staring at her with open curiosity. It makes Jongdae feel like she's some kind of science project they've been tasked with identifying, but are too afraid of getting close. One of the boys has his arm draped over the girl's shoulders, keeping her tucked up against his side, while the other boy is standing slightly separate from them. Jongdae suspects he may have been the one to speak up first.
"Hey, people I don't know." Jongdae frowns at them, hoping they'll get the hint she's not interested in striking up a conversation. They don't, or they ignore it.
Boy-Attached-to-Girl snorts, eyes narrowing, "Hey, no need to be rude."
"Yeah, because calling me new girl isn't rude at all." Jongdae shoots back, watching as the three of them take on a more defensive stance at her words.
"Hey now, we're just trying to be-" Loner-boy starts, only to be cut off by a new presence.
"Excuse me, what's going on here?" Standing next to the table, looking at Jongdae's three unwanted guests, is the prettiest girl Jongdae has seen in a while. Pitch black hair is pulled up in a high ponytail with a large blue hair-bow, showing off the elegant slope of her pale neck. From there Jongdae's eyes are drawn to her slim figure, shown through a well-fitted cheerleading outfit, leading to long creamy legs.
So distracted by what she's seeing, Jongdae misses most of the conversation, only tuning in to hear one of the boys apologize. Then all three are scurrying away, much like mice to Jongdae's amusement, but that quickly dies when she becomes the focus of the cheerleader's attention. Now that she has a clear view of her face, Jongdae feels her stomach drop at the beautiful smile directed to her, pink lips upturned gently.
"I'm sorry about that, some of the students can be assholes at times."
Jongdae's jaw drops, surprise being the only excuse she has for what she says next. "Um, uh yeah. Schools have those sometimes. Should you even be describing them like that?"
The girl blinks at her, cheeks turning a dusty pink. "Perhaps not, but it doesn't make it any less true." She looks thoughtful for a moment, eying Jongdae curiously, before bowing slightly. "I'm Joonmyun, I don't think I've seen you around our school before, are you new?"
Joonmyun, it's a pretty name, Jongdae can't help but think. A pretty name for a beautiful girl. "Hi Joonmyun, I'm Jongdae. Yeah, today's my first day here."
"Welcome! I hope the rest of your day goes by well." Joonmyun smiles prettily, eyes upturning into little rainbows, crinkling around the edges.
"Oh, thank you." Jongdae stammers, feeling very flustered. It's not often she feels this way as a result of someone else, but has she mentioned how gorgeous Joonmyun is?
She's saved from having to find anything else to say by Baekhyun and Chanyeol showing up, placing plates of food on the table. Jongdae only has a brief moment to notice how the food appears to have come from a five star restaurant, then her attention is back on the cheerleader.
"Oh, Noona, what are you doing here? Don't you have a student council thing to go to?" Baekhyun interrupts, eyes drifting between Jongdae and Joonmyun.
Joonmyun rolls here eyes, the action much more attractive than Jongdae should find it, and responds, "Yes, Baekhyun, I do have a 'student council thing'. I was on my way when I stopped to say hi, but I'll have to go now." Her outfit flutters around her as she turns back to Jongdae, smiling again. "It was nice meeting you Jongdae, maybe we'll be seeing each other again." Joonmyun hesitates for a moment before continuing, "Nice shirt by the way. If you haven't seen the recent movies yet, you should."
With that, Joonmyun walks away, leaving a stunned table behind.
"I didn't know Unnie liked Star Trek," Chanyeol muses with a shrug. "Doesn't really fit with the whole cheerleader image. But I suppose being student council President doesn't either."
"Is that what your shirt is about? I was wondering, not many students here choose to wear graphic tees." Baekhyun looks at Jongdae's shirt more closely, as though he's suddenly going to understand it. Jongdae would feel more self conscious under the scrutiny it she wasn't so distracted by what Chanyeol had said.
"Wait, wait. student council President?" Jongdae half asks, hoping the two understand what she's getting at.
"Yeah, Joonmyun-unnie is the President and she's part of the cheerleading squad. She could have been head cheerleader but she passed it up for student council."
With both of those responsibilities on top of her classwork, Jongdae could only imagine how busy Joonmyun is. It made it less likely that Jongdae would run into her, which meant little chance of getting to know her better.
"She must be very busy," Jongdae says, not realizing how despondent she sounds. Unfortunately for her, both Baekhyun and Chanyeol pick up on it immediately.
Chanyeol is nodding as she replies, "Yeah, but somehow she always manages to make time for socializing. There really isn't anyone who goes to school here who she doesn't know."
Jongdae feels hope bubble up, again unaware of how she's broadcasting her emotions.
Baekhyun looks at her suspiciously. "You just met her, Joonmyun isn't that exciting, I promise."
"It's not that," Jongdae defends, feeling her cheeks heat up. "I was just looking forward to having another friend, what with being new."
"Uh huh, friends." Chanyeol drags out the latter word sarcastically, looking at Jongdae knowingly.
Spluttering, Jongdae scrambles to find something to say. Instead she whines, "Why are you saying that? Isn't our friendship a little too new to be teasing each other?"
"Our friendship started with teasing," Baekhyun scoffs, staring at Jongdae judgmentally. "So I'm going to guess no, it it's too early in our friendship."
Chanyeol drapes an arm over Baekhyun's shoulders, quickly staring at him through narrowed eyes before shifting her attention. "Look, Jongdae, teasing aside I think it's cute. And let's not lie, Joonmyun is very pretty. Well, apart from when she's smiling to forcefully, then it's kind of painful to look at.
"If there's one thing I've thought about Joonmyun, it's that she doesn't give herself enough downtime between her busy schedule," Chanyeol continues. "Always work, and not enough time simply hanging out with friends. I think it would be great for the two of you to start hanging out."
"Maybe you two can even watch those movies Joonmyun brought up earlier," Baekhyun waggles his brows, and it doesn't take either of the girl's long to figure out what he's hinting at. Seconds later he's practically doubled over, Chanyeol having elbowed him rather hard in the side.
"Ignore him," Chanyeol speaks up over Baekhyun's moaning. "If you want to hang out with Joonmyun, I recommend catching her at the end of cheer practice today. It starts right after school, and should be over by four, you can catch her as she's leaving. Ask her to hang out, thank her for earlier, whatever you wanna do. Okay?"
"Umm, okay?" Not okay, actually, Jongdae thinks, but she doesn't have any better ideas so she doesn't say so. She's not sure if she's actually going to show up at Joonmyun's cheer practice, only time would tell.
Until then, Jongdae starts eating her lunch. She has a lot to think about through the rest of her classes that day.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I can do this, I can do this, I can do this," Jongdae chants under her breath. She's sitting against a tree just outside of the school gymnasium, where cheer practice is about to finish.
Once classes finished, Baekhyun and Chanyeol had wished Jongdae good luck and gone off somewhere. Without anything else to do, Jongdae grabbed her bags and plopped down somewhere Joonmyun would see her, doing homework while patiently waiting. But now that the end of cheer practice was nearing, Jongdae was starting to feel more and more anxious. If Joonmyun was as busy as her new friends made it sound, than Joonmyun probably wouldn't have time to talk to Jongdae.
Before Jongdae could change her mind and make a speedy retreat, students in uniform start trickling out of the building while chatting loudly. It doesn't take long before Joonmyun is coming through the doors, talking with another dimpled smiling cheerleader. It takes just as long for Joonmyun to notice Jongdae, waving off the girl 'Yixing'.
"Hi Jongdae!" She greets cheerfully, looking as beautiful and put together as she did during lunch, not like she just got out of practice.
"Hey," Jongdae greets back, tucking hair behind her ear. If the other girl picks up on the nervous tick, she doesn't point it out.
"What brings you out this way? Shouldn't you be home by now?" Joonmyun asks, looking genuinely interested much to Jongdae's surprise.
Shrugging, Jongdae tries to sound casual, hoping more than anything she's not coming off as some sort of creepy stalker. "Doing homework. Thought I'd take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts and sit outside while I do it."
Joonmyun nods in understanding, the motion almost exaggerated. "I love doing homework outside when I can."
"It also gave me an excuse to walk about the grounds and find the different areas of school," Jongdae continues, watching as Joonmyun's gaze becomes thoughtful.
"Are you doing anything right now?"
The unexpected question almost causes Jongdae to choke on the air she's breathing, instead she stares at Joonmyun with wide eyes.
"What?" Joonmyun sounds a bit panicky at Jongdae's silent response. "You can tell me if you're busy, I just thought I'd offer to take you on a tour if you were free."
That snaps Jongdae out of her stupor. "Oh, you don't have to, Unnie. I know you're very busy."
Joonmyun chuckles, looking relieved. "Let me guess, Baekhyun and Chanyeol talked about me at lunch after I left."
"Just a little bit," Jongdae admits sheepishly. "Mostly that you tend to be busy."
Joonmyun rolls her eyes, the action looking oddly fond. "That's those two for you. A duo of pranksters, but still very caring of others.
"But what do you say, want the grand tour of the school? It's not much, but I'll make sure you know where everything is," Joonmyun offers again.
After a short second of debate, Jongdae is enthusiastically nodding her head, standing up and brushing grass off of her pants. Joonmyun grins, waiting until Jongdae has everything packed away before looping their arms together. The action has Jongdae's stomach swooping, the stretch of skin pressed against Joonmyun's tingling pleasantly.
"Did Baekhyun and Chanyeol say anything else about me that I should know about? They didn't try to scare you away from me did they?" Joonmyun laughs, looking like she's joking but still curious about what exactly Jongdae was told.
"Not really. Chanyeol was surprised that you're familiar with Star Trek, but other than that, they mostly just encouraged me to say hi."
Joonmyun grins at her, cheeks tinted a pleasant pink. "Well, I'm glad we ran into each other than. It's almost like you placed yourself outside of the gym on purpose to catch me." Jongdae gets a knowing look at that.
"What? I don't know what you're talking about, why would I have done that?" It's painful how red and hot Jongdae's face feels, knowing that Joonmyun can see right through her.
"Hey, like I said, I'm glad we ran into each other. We should plan to hang out some time, maybe can see a movie or something?" Joonmyun expects, catching Jongdae off guard again. It's secretly exactly what Jongdae wants, but to hear Joonmyun ask before she has to is causing the nervous butterflies in her chest to fly crazily.
"Oh, okay. That sounds nice," Jongdae finally responds, voice uncharacteristically quiet. It's not often that she's left feeling shy, but something about Joonmyun seems to bring out her uncertainty.
"Great! It's a date then!" Joonmyun laughs brightly, tugging Jongdae even closer by their arms still looped together.
For a brief moment, Jongdae truly believes that she stops breathing.
A date.
"So cute," Joonmyun coos at her, smiling even brighter, almost to the point where it's past attractive.
Jongdae can't wait.
Pairing: Suho/Chen
Rating: PG
Warnings: Genderswap (Jongdae, Joonmyun, Chanyeol)
Word Count: 3k
Summary: When starting at her new high school, Jongdae never would have expected to befriend beautiful cheerleader Joonmyun.
Notes: Due to real life, the fic ended up shorter than originally planned, but I hope you still enjoy! Originally written for criticalcapture.
Standing confidently in the front of the room, Jongdae only half listens to the teacher introduce her to a dozen or so curious students. It's not every day that a new student is introduced a month into the new school year, at a private high school meant for the wealthier part of the cities population no less. Jongdae is by no means rich, almost the opposite with her family's money stretched thin, but she's okay with that. It wasn't money that got her into this school, but her grades, which were high enough to earn her a rare scholarship.
A rare enough scholarship that there were problems with paperwork at the admission's office, forcing her to start a whole month late. Jongdae doesn't feel too bitter over it, as it allowed her to finish up at her part-time job for a month without school interfering, earning her extra pocket money.
The looks vary from pure curiosity to disdain, nothing Jongdae wasn't expecting, as she's then asked to give a short introduction. She does so, looks at her teacher for approval, then moves to an empty desk near the middle of the room.
Jongdae is careful to avoid eye contact while walking to the desk, hoping to avoid upsetting any of her classmates so early into her arrival. As much as she knows she could handle anything thrown at her, that didn't mean Jongdae wanted to start something on her first day. She was at the school for a reason, and that was to study and learn.
Plopping herself down, she sets her bag next to her chair, and starts pulling out a notebook and pencil. When sitting back up, Jongdae notices that the boy sitting next to her is watching her, flashing her a smile that looks oddly rectangular. He nods his head when Jongdae raises a brow at him, then turns his head to the other side of him where a tall and gangly looking girl is leaning forward trying to get a look at the new student. Or, at least that's what it looks like to Jongdae.
By some miracle, Jongdae is able to ignore the staring and focus on the lesson, hastily scribbling away notes. She'll have to see if any of her classmates will be nice enough to give her the notes she's missing. Maybe Rectangle-Smile or Tall-and-Gangly, they both look friendly enough.
She's closing her notebook, having written down their assignment for the night, when someone speaks from her left.
"Hey, new girl."
New girl? Excuse her, Jongdae's name had been introduced at the beginning of class. She's just about to call him Rectangle-Smile, when Tall-and-Gangly interrupts.
"Baekhyun," she hisses, hitting 'Baekhyun' rather hard across the arm. "She has a name. Jongdae, remember?"
Baekhyun winces, rubbing his arm but continues to smile. "Sorry, I have a bad memory for names."
Jongdae chuckles, lips curling up into her signature grin. "That's okay. Every time you call me new girl, I'll just use it as an excuse to call you Rectangle Smile."
Tall-and-Gangly guffaws, face buried in her hands to minimize the noise. When she does uncover her face, she's smiling so widely that Jongdae's convinced she can see all of her very white teeth.
"That was funny," Tall-and-Gangly says, disregarding Baekhyun's offended sniff, smile still firmly in place. "It's nice to meet you Jongdae, I'm Chanyeol. This here is Baekhyun."
"I can introduce myself, thank you," Baekhyun frowns at Chanyeol, though from Jongdae's angle he doesn't look all that upset.
Chanyeol shrugs, her crisp white button-up moving stiffly with the movement. "Got to it before you did, sorry," Chanyeol says, not sounding sorry at all.
Jongdae chuckles, watching as the two bicker back and forth in manner that suggests years of friendship. It makes her miss her own friends, all left behind at a public high school, where they'll have little time to get together. Instead of letting it get her down, at least get her down too much, Jongdae tries to see it as an opportunity to widen her friendship circle.
"Hey, Jongdae." Chanyeol and Baekhyun are standing up now, their materials tucked away in bags and staring at her curiously. It was Chanyeol who had spoken. "Is it your lunch period next?"
A quick peek at her schedule confirms that she does have lunch next, so she nods to the duo while getting up. Both look excited at her answer, leading Jongdae to realize the two of them are also heading to lunch now.
"We'll show you the way, then we can all sit together." Baekhyun smiles, the action looking no less rectangular in the short time Jongdae has seen it.
"Sounds good."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Jongdae tries to look inconspicuous, all too aware of how odd she must look sitting by herself in the cafeteria. While on their way to lunch Baekhyun and Chanyeol both discovered she brought her own lunch, which neither had understood despite Jongdae's explanation of lunch prices, and had left her at a table with express instructions to make sure no one took their seats. As much as Jongdae values her position as seat saver, which is not at all, she's starting to which she hadn't been left by herself. More and more students were casting her curious looks, and she wasn't up to fielding more questions to people she didn't know. She made an exception for Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but they were going to be the only ones if she had any say in the matter.
Of course it wasn't going to go her way, that would be too lucky.
"Hey, it's the new girl."
Jongdae looks up to see a group of two boys and a girl staring at her with open curiosity. It makes Jongdae feel like she's some kind of science project they've been tasked with identifying, but are too afraid of getting close. One of the boys has his arm draped over the girl's shoulders, keeping her tucked up against his side, while the other boy is standing slightly separate from them. Jongdae suspects he may have been the one to speak up first.
"Hey, people I don't know." Jongdae frowns at them, hoping they'll get the hint she's not interested in striking up a conversation. They don't, or they ignore it.
Boy-Attached-to-Girl snorts, eyes narrowing, "Hey, no need to be rude."
"Yeah, because calling me new girl isn't rude at all." Jongdae shoots back, watching as the three of them take on a more defensive stance at her words.
"Hey now, we're just trying to be-" Loner-boy starts, only to be cut off by a new presence.
"Excuse me, what's going on here?" Standing next to the table, looking at Jongdae's three unwanted guests, is the prettiest girl Jongdae has seen in a while. Pitch black hair is pulled up in a high ponytail with a large blue hair-bow, showing off the elegant slope of her pale neck. From there Jongdae's eyes are drawn to her slim figure, shown through a well-fitted cheerleading outfit, leading to long creamy legs.
So distracted by what she's seeing, Jongdae misses most of the conversation, only tuning in to hear one of the boys apologize. Then all three are scurrying away, much like mice to Jongdae's amusement, but that quickly dies when she becomes the focus of the cheerleader's attention. Now that she has a clear view of her face, Jongdae feels her stomach drop at the beautiful smile directed to her, pink lips upturned gently.
"I'm sorry about that, some of the students can be assholes at times."
Jongdae's jaw drops, surprise being the only excuse she has for what she says next. "Um, uh yeah. Schools have those sometimes. Should you even be describing them like that?"
The girl blinks at her, cheeks turning a dusty pink. "Perhaps not, but it doesn't make it any less true." She looks thoughtful for a moment, eying Jongdae curiously, before bowing slightly. "I'm Joonmyun, I don't think I've seen you around our school before, are you new?"
Joonmyun, it's a pretty name, Jongdae can't help but think. A pretty name for a beautiful girl. "Hi Joonmyun, I'm Jongdae. Yeah, today's my first day here."
"Welcome! I hope the rest of your day goes by well." Joonmyun smiles prettily, eyes upturning into little rainbows, crinkling around the edges.
"Oh, thank you." Jongdae stammers, feeling very flustered. It's not often she feels this way as a result of someone else, but has she mentioned how gorgeous Joonmyun is?
She's saved from having to find anything else to say by Baekhyun and Chanyeol showing up, placing plates of food on the table. Jongdae only has a brief moment to notice how the food appears to have come from a five star restaurant, then her attention is back on the cheerleader.
"Oh, Noona, what are you doing here? Don't you have a student council thing to go to?" Baekhyun interrupts, eyes drifting between Jongdae and Joonmyun.
Joonmyun rolls here eyes, the action much more attractive than Jongdae should find it, and responds, "Yes, Baekhyun, I do have a 'student council thing'. I was on my way when I stopped to say hi, but I'll have to go now." Her outfit flutters around her as she turns back to Jongdae, smiling again. "It was nice meeting you Jongdae, maybe we'll be seeing each other again." Joonmyun hesitates for a moment before continuing, "Nice shirt by the way. If you haven't seen the recent movies yet, you should."
With that, Joonmyun walks away, leaving a stunned table behind.
"I didn't know Unnie liked Star Trek," Chanyeol muses with a shrug. "Doesn't really fit with the whole cheerleader image. But I suppose being student council President doesn't either."
"Is that what your shirt is about? I was wondering, not many students here choose to wear graphic tees." Baekhyun looks at Jongdae's shirt more closely, as though he's suddenly going to understand it. Jongdae would feel more self conscious under the scrutiny it she wasn't so distracted by what Chanyeol had said.
"Wait, wait. student council President?" Jongdae half asks, hoping the two understand what she's getting at.
"Yeah, Joonmyun-unnie is the President and she's part of the cheerleading squad. She could have been head cheerleader but she passed it up for student council."
With both of those responsibilities on top of her classwork, Jongdae could only imagine how busy Joonmyun is. It made it less likely that Jongdae would run into her, which meant little chance of getting to know her better.
"She must be very busy," Jongdae says, not realizing how despondent she sounds. Unfortunately for her, both Baekhyun and Chanyeol pick up on it immediately.
Chanyeol is nodding as she replies, "Yeah, but somehow she always manages to make time for socializing. There really isn't anyone who goes to school here who she doesn't know."
Jongdae feels hope bubble up, again unaware of how she's broadcasting her emotions.
Baekhyun looks at her suspiciously. "You just met her, Joonmyun isn't that exciting, I promise."
"It's not that," Jongdae defends, feeling her cheeks heat up. "I was just looking forward to having another friend, what with being new."
"Uh huh, friends." Chanyeol drags out the latter word sarcastically, looking at Jongdae knowingly.
Spluttering, Jongdae scrambles to find something to say. Instead she whines, "Why are you saying that? Isn't our friendship a little too new to be teasing each other?"
"Our friendship started with teasing," Baekhyun scoffs, staring at Jongdae judgmentally. "So I'm going to guess no, it it's too early in our friendship."
Chanyeol drapes an arm over Baekhyun's shoulders, quickly staring at him through narrowed eyes before shifting her attention. "Look, Jongdae, teasing aside I think it's cute. And let's not lie, Joonmyun is very pretty. Well, apart from when she's smiling to forcefully, then it's kind of painful to look at.
"If there's one thing I've thought about Joonmyun, it's that she doesn't give herself enough downtime between her busy schedule," Chanyeol continues. "Always work, and not enough time simply hanging out with friends. I think it would be great for the two of you to start hanging out."
"Maybe you two can even watch those movies Joonmyun brought up earlier," Baekhyun waggles his brows, and it doesn't take either of the girl's long to figure out what he's hinting at. Seconds later he's practically doubled over, Chanyeol having elbowed him rather hard in the side.
"Ignore him," Chanyeol speaks up over Baekhyun's moaning. "If you want to hang out with Joonmyun, I recommend catching her at the end of cheer practice today. It starts right after school, and should be over by four, you can catch her as she's leaving. Ask her to hang out, thank her for earlier, whatever you wanna do. Okay?"
"Umm, okay?" Not okay, actually, Jongdae thinks, but she doesn't have any better ideas so she doesn't say so. She's not sure if she's actually going to show up at Joonmyun's cheer practice, only time would tell.
Until then, Jongdae starts eating her lunch. She has a lot to think about through the rest of her classes that day.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I can do this, I can do this, I can do this," Jongdae chants under her breath. She's sitting against a tree just outside of the school gymnasium, where cheer practice is about to finish.
Once classes finished, Baekhyun and Chanyeol had wished Jongdae good luck and gone off somewhere. Without anything else to do, Jongdae grabbed her bags and plopped down somewhere Joonmyun would see her, doing homework while patiently waiting. But now that the end of cheer practice was nearing, Jongdae was starting to feel more and more anxious. If Joonmyun was as busy as her new friends made it sound, than Joonmyun probably wouldn't have time to talk to Jongdae.
Before Jongdae could change her mind and make a speedy retreat, students in uniform start trickling out of the building while chatting loudly. It doesn't take long before Joonmyun is coming through the doors, talking with another dimpled smiling cheerleader. It takes just as long for Joonmyun to notice Jongdae, waving off the girl 'Yixing'.
"Hi Jongdae!" She greets cheerfully, looking as beautiful and put together as she did during lunch, not like she just got out of practice.
"Hey," Jongdae greets back, tucking hair behind her ear. If the other girl picks up on the nervous tick, she doesn't point it out.
"What brings you out this way? Shouldn't you be home by now?" Joonmyun asks, looking genuinely interested much to Jongdae's surprise.
Shrugging, Jongdae tries to sound casual, hoping more than anything she's not coming off as some sort of creepy stalker. "Doing homework. Thought I'd take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts and sit outside while I do it."
Joonmyun nods in understanding, the motion almost exaggerated. "I love doing homework outside when I can."
"It also gave me an excuse to walk about the grounds and find the different areas of school," Jongdae continues, watching as Joonmyun's gaze becomes thoughtful.
"Are you doing anything right now?"
The unexpected question almost causes Jongdae to choke on the air she's breathing, instead she stares at Joonmyun with wide eyes.
"What?" Joonmyun sounds a bit panicky at Jongdae's silent response. "You can tell me if you're busy, I just thought I'd offer to take you on a tour if you were free."
That snaps Jongdae out of her stupor. "Oh, you don't have to, Unnie. I know you're very busy."
Joonmyun chuckles, looking relieved. "Let me guess, Baekhyun and Chanyeol talked about me at lunch after I left."
"Just a little bit," Jongdae admits sheepishly. "Mostly that you tend to be busy."
Joonmyun rolls her eyes, the action looking oddly fond. "That's those two for you. A duo of pranksters, but still very caring of others.
"But what do you say, want the grand tour of the school? It's not much, but I'll make sure you know where everything is," Joonmyun offers again.
After a short second of debate, Jongdae is enthusiastically nodding her head, standing up and brushing grass off of her pants. Joonmyun grins, waiting until Jongdae has everything packed away before looping their arms together. The action has Jongdae's stomach swooping, the stretch of skin pressed against Joonmyun's tingling pleasantly.
"Did Baekhyun and Chanyeol say anything else about me that I should know about? They didn't try to scare you away from me did they?" Joonmyun laughs, looking like she's joking but still curious about what exactly Jongdae was told.
"Not really. Chanyeol was surprised that you're familiar with Star Trek, but other than that, they mostly just encouraged me to say hi."
Joonmyun grins at her, cheeks tinted a pleasant pink. "Well, I'm glad we ran into each other than. It's almost like you placed yourself outside of the gym on purpose to catch me." Jongdae gets a knowing look at that.
"What? I don't know what you're talking about, why would I have done that?" It's painful how red and hot Jongdae's face feels, knowing that Joonmyun can see right through her.
"Hey, like I said, I'm glad we ran into each other. We should plan to hang out some time, maybe can see a movie or something?" Joonmyun expects, catching Jongdae off guard again. It's secretly exactly what Jongdae wants, but to hear Joonmyun ask before she has to is causing the nervous butterflies in her chest to fly crazily.
"Oh, okay. That sounds nice," Jongdae finally responds, voice uncharacteristically quiet. It's not often that she's left feeling shy, but something about Joonmyun seems to bring out her uncertainty.
"Great! It's a date then!" Joonmyun laughs brightly, tugging Jongdae even closer by their arms still looped together.
For a brief moment, Jongdae truly believes that she stops breathing.
A date.
"So cute," Joonmyun coos at her, smiling even brighter, almost to the point where it's past attractive.
Jongdae can't wait.