what good girls do [2]
title: what good girls do [2]
pairing(s): 2min, minkey
rating: pg-13
wordcount: ~6700
summary: Taeyeon is the new girl at school. Friendless and alone, she stumbles upon an exclusive club of three girls with a strange hobby.
a/n: Wow I forgot how hard it is to sustain chaptered fic.... well here's part two of this, and idk how it turned out, honestly, but hopefully part 3 will bring some clarification....
also, in case you haven't been keeping up with exo and their 234593 teasers and prologues and whatnot, kim jongin = kai = the cutest little boy sm has churned out since lee taemin. just saying.
also, i'm so juiced for the sherlock mv it is not even funny.
also, wasn't sure about the rating for this chapter but... although shit is still relatively innocent, there's a bit of language and some suggestiveness I guess, so I bumped it up a tad.
The first thing Taeyeon did upon joining the club was demand food.
"I haven't eaten anything since this morning," she complained. "And I'm starving."
"Oh no!" Gwiboon exclaimed sympathetically. "Junghee, give her your chips."
"What?" Junghee said. "I was gonna eat those!"
"You had two servings of lunch today," Gwiboon pointed out. "I think you'll live without a few more calories."
Pouting, Junghee handed over the bag of chips, which Taeyeon devoured with astonishing speed.
"Thanks," she beamed.
"Yeah, yeah," Junghee grumbled.
"Ooh!" Eunsook said. "Let's do the initiation rite!"
"We don't have an initiation rite," Junghee said, frowning.
"We can make one up!"
"You had one for me," Gwiboon said, glaring at Junghee. "A traumatizing one, I might add."
"No, we didn't," Eunsook said, looking confused.
"Ah, that was..." Junghee said sheepishly. "That wasn't really, um, an initiation rite..."
"What happened?" asked Taeyeon.
"She molested me," Gwiboon sniffed, pointing at Junghee. "She said that before I could be accepted into the club, I had to prove that I was a good kisser. And then she completely molested me!"
"I mean," Junghee mumbled, "it wasn't strictly official..."
"No," Eunsook said emphatically. "It certainly wasn't."
"You lied to me!" Gwiboon shrieked. "You said it was protocol!"
"I just wanted to try out those pretty little lips of yours, so sue me!" Junghee said defensively. "Besides, I haven't done it since, have I?"
"Back to the point," Eunsook said hurriedly, cutting off an outraged remark from Gwiboon. "Shall we think of an initiation rite for Taeyeon?"
"Is this necessary?" Taeyeon asked timidly.
"Well, I had to go through one," Gwiboon said. "There's no reason you shouldn't, as well."
"Not the same one, though," Eunsook said hastily.
"Unless you want to," Junghee said, shooting Taeyeon a wink.
"No, thank you," Taeyeon said.
"Well," Junghee said, "we are a kissing club, so even if it's not me, I think you should have to kiss someone for your initiation."
"It could be someone ridiculous," Gwiboon suggested, a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Like who?" Eunsook said.
"Maybe... Lee Sungjong?" Gwiboon said.
Junghee groaned.
"Who's that?" Taeyeon and Eunsook asked simultaneously.
"Only the most flamboyantly gay student ever to walk the halls of this school," Junghee said. "Gwiboonie, that's just not fair."
"It would be a challenge!" Gwiboon said. "Right?"
"An impossible challenge."
"Well," Eunsook said, wrinkling her nose. "We don't want this to be too easy, but we don't want it to be too hard, either. Taeyeon, is there anyone you like yet?"
"No," Taeyeon said, thinking immediately of Minho. "Not really."
"I've got a good one," Gwiboon announced suddenly. "Kim Jongin."
"Oh, wait a second," Taeyeon protested. "That mousy kid in my math class? I don't think so."
"He may be mousy now, but he's got definite potential," Gwiboon said authoritatively. "Trust me."
"How do you know?"
"I just know! And," she added, "more importantly, he thinks you're cute."
"No way," Taeyeon said, blushing. "Nobody even looked at me in that class, except to point and laugh at the girl who had water dumped on her at lunch."
"I heard about that," Eunsook said, biting her lip with concern.
"See," Taeyeon sighed. "Everyone knows about it. Everyone thinks I'm a huge loser."
"Well," Junghee said speculatively. "At least now everyone knows your name. There's still time to change their minds about the loser part."
"And Kim Jongin doesn't think you're a loser," Gwiboon put in. "He thinks you're cute. I overheard him and Taemin talking about it."
"So you want me to kiss him?" Taeyeon said in a low voice. She thought about it for a moment. Jongin certainly wasn't bad looking, though he was a little on the thin side. He certainly had a cute little smile. All in all, Taeyeon supposed it could be worse.
"Idea," Junghee said, raising her hand enthusiastically. "Taeyeon has to kiss Jongin, and she has to do it within a certain time frame. And then she's part of the club."
Eunsook hummed thoughtfully. "Interesting."
"I like it," Gwiboon said, as though her approval decided the matter. She turned to Taeyeon. "How does one week sound to you?"
"Just one?" Taeyeon squeaked.
"One week is nothing," Gwiboon scoffed. "Come on, I'm sure you can do it."
"Well," Taeyeon said hesitantly. "You guys will coach me and stuff, right?"
"No," Gwiboon said sternly, "that's for after you make it in."
"You know, up until two minutes ago, you guys didn't even have an initiation rite," Taeyeon remarked. "And now you're getting all strict about your selection process?"
"Idea!" Junghee said loudly, her hand shooting up again. "Taeyeon, if you can do it by Friday, I'll buy you food every day for a week."
"Friday?" Taeyeon said, raising one eyebrow. "But today's Tuesday... that only gives me three days."
"Exactly." Junghee grinned and eyed Taeyeon with a smirk. "That's what makes it a challenge."
"Fine," Taeyeon said. She crossed her arms imperiously. "You better buy me a lot of food."
Junghee clapped her hands delightedly. "That's the spirit!"
"And," Gwiboon said quickly, "if you can kiss Lee Sungjong by Friday as well, Junghee will buy you food for a month."
"Hey, now," Junghee said, looking alarmed. "Don't go putting words in my mouth."
"You're the one who said it was impossible, anyway," Gwiboon said, curling her lips in what might have passed for an innocent smile were it not for the devilish spark in her eyes. "Surely you have nothing to lose?"
"Well, yeah," Junghee said reluctantly. "She probably can't do it."
Taeyeon's nostrils flared at that, and she shot Junghee a resentful glance that only Eunsook saw. The older girl laughed, her eyes crinkling with mirth.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Eunsook told Junghee.
Taeyeon nodded. "I'm already thinking of all the things you're going to buy me," she announced. "I hope your bank account is ready."
It was easy to talk big while in the company of the other three girls, but when faced with the prospect of somehow seducing both Jongin and Sungjong, neither of whom she'd met yet and one of whom was apparently gay, Taeyeon felt a little queasy. The club was holding firm on its ruling not to give her any advice until she'd succeeded in her task ("You have to prove yourself, Taeyeonnie!") but they told her that she should still sit with them during lunch ("We're not completely heartless, okay?") so they could provide moral support.
"And," Junghee had added, "if Jessica tries to mess with you again, we'll be there to make her back down."
Taeyeon had thanked Junghee for the sentiment, but she couldn't imagine that she would ever do anything to provoke Jessica, the blonde girl, ever again. Besides, right now that was the least of her worries. She thought long and hard about how exactly she would get around to locking lips with a strange boy, and one as shy as Kim Jongin to boot. From what little she'd seen of him, she knew that he was hardly the type to initiate any kind of flirtation; getting him to do so seemed a daunting task to a novice kisser. Sungjong was almost outrageously social and friendly, and so if he was at all inclined to kiss her, she had no doubt that she'd be able to find ample opportunity to make that happen. But Jongin was like her - he was, by and large, invisible. Getting him alone would require some scheming.
And so she walked into school the next day with a battle plan.
It was a vague, messy, and flawed plan, but nonetheless it filled her with inexplicable confidence. She caught sight of Jongin walking in the halls before the first bell and smiled at him, managing to look both skittishly shy and incredibly alluring at the same time. A bright red flush spread across Jongin's face as his eyes widened in surprise, and after a moment he smiled cautiously back at her. Taeyeon walked away with a huge grin on her face, so distractedly pleased with herself that she nearly crashed into Minho coming from the other direction.
"Easy there," he said, catching her by the arm and steadying her so she wouldn't fall. "You wanna watch where you're going?"
"Sorry, I'm so sorry," gasped Taeyeon, bowing her head in embarrassment. When she looked up, Minho seemed to be stifling a laugh.
"You know," he remarked, "you don't have to be so formal with me."
"I don't?"
"Nah. We're friends, right?"
"We are?"
"Taeyeon-ah," he said, chuckling. "You look so pained. Do you not want to be friends with me?"
"No, no," she said hurriedly. "I mean, yes. I mean, I do."
"Good," he said, and the way he beamed at her made Taeyeon's heart thud painfully against her ribcage.
"Oh," she said suddenly, thrusting a paper bag at him. "I, um, your jacket. I have your jacket. Thank you for letting me borrow it."
"No problem," he said, taking the bag. "And hey, if there's ever anything else I can do for you, just let me know. I mean, I know how tough it is to be the new kid."
"Thanks," Taeyeon said. "Actually, there is something you might be able to help me with."
"Really?" Minho said. "Shoot."
"Are you friends with Kim Jongin?"
Minho looked taken aback by the question. "Uh, kind of. He's good friends with my best friend, so yeah, I guess we're friends."
"Well, could you tell me... I mean, he just looks like, really smart," Taeyeon said nervously, fiddling with her shirtsleeves. "Is he any good at math?"
"Yeah," Minho said slowly. "I think so."
"That's great," Taeyeon said, smiling. "That's really good. Alright. Thanks, Minho!"
"Anytime," Minho said, bemused. He waved to her as she skipped off happily. "See you around."
To Taeyeon's delight, she found that math was not the only class she shared with Jongin. When she walked into her first period class, English, she spotted him sitting two seats in front of Taemin and Minho. And on top of that, he was sitting alone. She wasted no time in zipping over to him.
"Hi," she said breathlessly, leaning down over his desk. "Is anyone sitting here?"
"Oh," he said, reddening. "No, it's fine."
"Cool," she said. She slid into the chair next to him and pulled out her textbook. "I'm Lee Taeyeon."
"I know," he said, growing even redder. "I'm Kim Jongin."
"I know," she said, smiling.
By the end of the period, Taeyeon had made several observations about Jongin that she felt would help her in her quest to make him kiss her. Firstly, she discovered that Jongin was, like herself, the type of person whose cheerfulness and energy increased exponentially over time as you got to know him. At the beginning of the period he was quiet, reserved, replying to her whispered questions with one-word answers. By the end they were holding a regular conversation, with each of them addressing the other with animation and excitement. Taeyeon found that Jongin shared her interest in dancing, and they discussed the school's dance club; they'd both missed the cutoff for tryouts, but they wondered if they could make an appeal to the leaders of the club and gain late admittance. Several times during the period, Jung Yunho glared at them sternly from his position at the blackboard and cut off their talk, but then the conversation simply transferred from spoken to written word, as the two of them scribbled notes to each other in the margins of their notebooks in a kind of conspiratorial camaraderie. After that, Taeyeon was forced to admit to herself that Jongin was by no means mousy and shy, as she had initially believed.
Secondly, she learned that he was truly a valuable study asset. Whenever she had trouble with an English pronunciation or grammar concept, Jongin, who seemed to understand the material effortlessly, didn't hesitate to help her. English, which was in Taeyeon's opinion an incomprehensible, irrational, and just plain stupid language, made so much more sense when Jongin carefully explained some of its more confusing aspects. Especially when the teacher sped through topics without fully explaining them, Taeyeon felt extremely grateful to be sitting with Jongin, who was turning out to be possibly the most diligent seat partner she could ever have chosen.
And thirdly, Taeyeon realized the extent of the friendship between Kim Jongin and Lee Taemin. Every few minutes Taemin would lean forward, tap Jongin on the shoulder, and mutter something that made no sense to Taeyeon but was obviously the source of some highly amusing inside joke between them. Jongin would smile reservedly, Taemin would grin and giggle like a maniac, and then Yunho would bark at him to shut his mouth before he found himself with yet another detention. That only caused Taemin to grin ever wider and nudge the back of Jongin's chair with his foot, and Jongin would shake his head and resolutely ignore him. Still, as he conversed with Taeyeon, Taemin's name cropped up with consistent frequency. Jongin would mention that Taemin liked to dance as well, that Taemin had taught him how to skateboard, that he and Taemin had grown up next door neighbors and were practically brothers. Taeyeon began to feel that it would be difficult to persuade Jongin to do anything that Taemin didn't approve of, and she realized with disgust that she might have to befriend both of them before Jongin would kiss her. The idea repulsed her; Taemin was immature and unpleasant and she wanted nothing to do with him, ever. But it was purely for the sake of her entry to the club, and besides, Taemin was friends with Minho, so this could be a way to grow closer to him, as well.
(Not that she wanted to grow close to Minho as anything but friends, of course.)
As she left the classroom, Jongin walked with her.
"So what class do you have next?" he asked.
"Physics," she replied with a grimace. "I hate science."
"Ah, that's too bad," he said. "Physics is pretty neat."
"There's just so much math involved," Taeyeon sighed, hugging her books to her chest. "I'm terrible at math."
"Oh." Jongin looked as though something was on the tip of his tongue, but he said nothing.
"I'm so bad at math," Taeyeon continued, "that I bet I could really benefit from a tutor."
Jongin nodded, glancing at her timidly.
"You're good at math, right?"
"I guess so," he mumbled.
"Maybe you could tutor me!"
"I'm not a very good teacher," he said, ducking his head in embarrassment.
"You totally are. Just now, you taught me more English than the actual teacher did!"
"That was - "
"Come on," Taeyeon wheedled. "Be my tutor. I really want you to."
A deep blush spread over Jongin's cheeks. "I - I don't know..."
"Please?" Taeyeon grabbed his arm and widened her eyes adorably. "Please?"
And finally, to Taeyeon's unabashed delight, he said yes.
In the middle of art class, Gwiboon sidled over to Taeyeon and asked how her progress was going.
"Pretty good," Taeyeon told her excitedly. "I got him to agree to tutor me in math."
"Wow," Gwiboon said appreciatively. "Nice."
"Yeah," Taeyeon said, smiling. "He's a nice guy."
"Whoa." Gwiboon paused and looked up from her oil pastels. "Do you like him?"
"What? No!" Taeyeon sputtered.
"You totally do," Gwiboon squealed. "You totally like him! This is so cute."
"I don't like him," Taeyeon insisted. "I just think he's nice, okay?"
"Oh, sure," Gwiboon smirked. "Sure, sweetie."
Taeyeon sighed and returned to her still life of flowers and a bunch of grapes. There was no point in arguing with Gwiboon.
Taeyeon had planned on hanging out with Gwiboon during PE, but the other girl shot her down in the locker room.
"Taeyeon, no offense but I don't think you're ready to be friends with my friends yet," Gwiboon told her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Taeyeon said, hurt.
"They're just... I can't explain it. You wouldn't get along. I have yet to train you," Gwiboon said. She pulled on her gym shorts. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"
"Okay," Taeyeon said dully. She pulled her short hair into a ponytail. "See you."
On the field, Taeyeon caught sight of Amber and Chaerin. They waved her over, and gratefully Taeyeon jogged to join them.
"Hey, what's with the long face?" Amber said. "Something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine," Taeyeon said.
"You look cute with your hair up," Chaerin offered.
"Thanks," Taeyeon said, flushing.
"Where's Min?" Amber asked impatiently. "We can't play with three."
"Technically, we can," Chaerin said, sounding bored. "We've been doing it all semester."
"But now that we have Taeyeon, we shouldn't have to," Amber said, frustrated. She stamped her foot on the ground. "Damn it, Min!"
"I think Minyoung might be sick," Chaerin said speculatively. "That or just skipping school with her weird friends."
"Irresponsible," Amber muttered. "Shit. Well, I guess we have no choice."
"Hold on," Chaerin said, watching something over Taeyeon's shoulder. "Isn't that - ?"
"Taeyeon-ah!" cried Taemin, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. He bounded over to Taeyeon and grinned. "Hi."
"Uh, hello," Taeyeon said, confused. She searched Taemin's eyes carefully. "What do you want?"
"Jeez," Taemin said, scratching his head. "You're so cold. I just noticed that you guys were down one player. I was wondering if you needed someone to fill in."
"Really?" Amber said, perking up. "You'll play with us?"
"Are you serious?" Taeyeon said skeptically.
"Yeah, of course," Taemin said.
"There's no other reason you came to play with us?" Taeyeon pressed.
"Well, I mean," Taemin said, "I did get kicked out of the boys' game."
Chaerin laughed.
"It's alright," Amber said with dignity. "Take Min's place - it'll be you and Taeyeon versus me and Chaerin."
"Awesome," Taemin said. "Winning team right here!" He raised his hand to Taeyeon for a high five, which she pointedly ignored.
"Yeah right," Chaerin snorted. She turned to Amber. "Let's kill it."
But, as it turned out, Taemin was actually a decent soccer player. His thin, muscled legs handled the ball effortlessly, and when he wound up and kicked, the ball shot with surprising velocity into the net. After the first two goals, Chaerin and Amber stopped laughing and joking about how they were going to destroy the Pretty Faces. After the fifth goal, they were yelling death threats and shoving viciously as they tried in vain to gain possession. The final score was nine to nothing, and Taemin graciously shook hands with the losers as they fumed and glared.
"Good game, all," he said glibly. He winked at Taeyeon. "You're pretty good."
"Thanks," she said cautiously.
"For a girl."
"YAH!" she exclaimed, drawing back one fist to pummel him.
"Gotta go," he said quickly, sprinting back to the boys' game, where he was immediately swooped up in Minho's arms.
"That little brat," Taeyeon spat.
"We're never letting him play with us again," Amber said decisively.
"Amen," sniffed Chaerin.
"Isn't this class over soon?" Taeyeon asked, looking around.
"Yeah," Amber said. "And then it'll be feeding time for the hordes of gossip-hungry cliques at this school."
"You say that like you don't have your own little clique," Chaerin said. "And you so do. Everyone does."
"Yeah but, see," Amber said, "People like Jung Jessica are so snotty and stuck up that they won't even talk to someone not in their own little social circle. And people like you and me are not that close-minded."
"You must be super dedicated to your anti-popular kids crusade," Chaerin remarked, "because you do realize that you're talking shit about your best friend's older sister, right?"
"Of course I know that," Amber said. "And of course I'm not against popular kids. Hell, you're a popular kid. It's just that one group that really pisses me off."
"Who?" Taemin said. "Jung Jessica?"
"Yeah. Her and a bunch of seniors, plus a couple juniors, plus Joohyun, who's in our grade. They do everything in this little pack, and they think they're so much better than everyone else - they, like, symbolize everything that's wrong with high school."
"You really dislike them," Taeyeon noted.
"Which is ironic," Chaerin put in, "because Jessica's little sister, Krystal, is Amber's best friend."
"Krystal is cool," Amber said defensively.
"No, she's not," Chaerin said, crossing her arms. "She's even worse than Jessica. Honestly, I have no idea how you put up with her."
"Whatever," Amber said. "The point is, this school is way too segregated. It's like, everyone should just be able to get along, you know? There are too many catfights here."
"Amber's from America," Chaerin explained to Taeyeon. "The land of the free or something."
"Yo," Amber said with a laugh. "Yo, dawg."
"Well, I agree," Taeyeon said softly. "I dislike the cliques as well."
"Mm," Chaerin said sympathetically. "I saw what happened at lunch yesterday, that was rough. You want to sit with us today? Me and Seunghyun oppa would take care of you."
"It's okay," Taeyeon declined, shaking her head. "I already have people to sit with."
"Really? Who?" Amber said curiously. "It's not Lee Taemin and Choi Minho, is it?"
"No, no," Taeyeon said, wrinkling her nose. She pointed to Gwiboon's knot of friends on the opposite side of the field. "Gwiboon, Junghee, and Eunsook. I'm sitting with them."
Chaerin's eyebrows shot up, and Amber's jaw dropped.
"Wait, seriously?"
"You're sitting with the In Crowd already? How the hell did that happen?" Amber said, awed.
"Honestly," Taeyeon said with a grimace, "I have no idea."
Today, Taeyeon had packed her own lunch. She walked into the cafeteria clutching it tightly, her eyes making a wide sweep of the room to locate any of the club members. Almost at once she saw Junghee and Eunsook waving to her enthusiastically, Eunsook bouncing up and down and completely oblivious to the stares her jiggling cleavage was attracting. Junghee slapped her on the arm and they both stopped waving as Taeyeon made her way over.
"Taeyeonnie!" Eunsook cried. "You look so cute with your hair up like that!"
"Oh," Taeyeon said, her hand flying up to her hurried ponytail. She pulled it loose, letting her hair hang loosely around her face again. "That was just for soccer."
"You look cute with it down, too," Junghee said. "Anyways. How're things going with Kim Jongin?"
"Good," Taeyeon said, sitting down. "I'm starving."
"But where's Gwiboon?" Eunsook asked, peering out at the crowd. "Don't you have fourth period with her?"
"Right," Taeyeon said, "but we didn't hang out together."
"Why not?" Junghee asked, frowning.
"She... well, I wanted to play soccer, and she didn't," Taeyeon explained. She decided to omit the part about her not being good enough to associate with Gwiboon's friends; the last thing she wanted was to sound ungrateful. "So I played with Amber and Chaerin."
"Ooh, Amber," Junghee said, giggling. "I like her. Gwiboon's kissed her a couple of times."
"Really?" Taeyeon said. "Is she gay, then?"
"Who knows?" Eunsook said with a shrug. "Gwiboonie's not exactly gay. Maybe Amber was just feeling bored and bicurious."
"And besides," Junghee added. "She is American."
"Who's American?" Gwiboon said, plopping down next to Taeyeon. "What'd I miss?"
"We were talking about your sexcapades with the female gender," Junghee said without taking her eyes off of Taeyeon. "Specifically Amber."
"Oh," Gwiboon said, taking a sip from her bottle of mineral water. "Don't use the word sexcapades, though. It implies so much more than what actually happened."
"What actually happened, then?"
"What usually happens in a kissing club?" Gwiboon says. "We kissed. That's it."
"Alright, whatever," Junghee said dismissively. "Well, Taeyeon was just telling us about her progress with Jongin."
"I already know about that," Gwiboon interrupted. "He's tutoring her. But what about Sungjong?"
"I don't even have any classes with him," Taeyeon pointed out. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to kiss him without meeting him first."
"I'm sure you'll work something out," Eunsook said kindly. "I believe you can do it."
"For the sake of my poor wallet," Junghee said, "I hope you don't. I mean, Christ. How am I supposed to buy you food when you eat so much."
Taeyeon smiled innocently. "I'm sure you'll manage, unni."
Junghee groaned.
"Also," Eunsook said, turning to Gwiboon. "Make sure you come to the meeting this afternoon. You're not busy, are you?"
"No," Gwiboon said, "I can make time. Why is it so important?"
"We just want to make sure everyone comes today," Eunsook said vaguely, "so we can all talk."
"Okay," Gwiboon huffed, "fine. Be all secretive."
"Well, it's just," Eunsook said, glancing at Taeyeon, "there's some stuff we haven't explained yet. Some stuff we need to discuss."
"Sure, that narrows it down," Gwiboon said. "Okay, whatever. Let's talk about something else right now."
"Like what?" Junghee asked idly, poking covertly at Eunsook's breasts. "Could we talk about how cute this year's freshman class is? Because they are really cute. I just want to sleep with the freshman class."
"Slut," Gwiboon coughed.
"They are kind of cute, aren't they," Eunsook said thoughtfully. "Taemin is rather adorable."
"He's mine, so back off," Junghee said at once. "I totally called dibs him."
"You can't call dibs on a person," Gwiboon said scathingly. "Besides, I bet he'd choose Taeyeon or me over you in a heartbeat. So get over yourself."
"Why are you so mean to me?" Junghee sulked. "I was just trying to say that Taemin is the cutest boy I have ever seen in my life."
"No, what you were trying to say is that just because you've kissed him, the rest of us shouldn't be allowed to look at him," Gwiboon said witheringly. "And that's stupid, and it completely defeats the purpose of the club."
"Let's not fight," Eunsook said helplessly.
"You kissed Taemin?" Taeyeon said incredulously to Junghee. "Why?"
"He's a handsome kid!"
"He's an asshole."
"He can be okay," Gwiboon interjected. "He was my lab partner a couple months ago, and I mean... he's kind of stupid, but he's a good person."
"He's good at soccer," Taeyeon said, "I'll give him that, but really, I don't see what else could possibly be 'good' about him."
"His looks," Junghee said.
"That's all you care about, isn't it," Eunsook said dryly.
"Taemin is nice," Gwiboon continued, ignoring Eunsook and Junghee, "but I'll take Minho every time."
"Really." Taeyeon tried not to sound too interested. "Why's that?"
"I mean - it's Minho," Gwiboon said, as though her reasoning should be obvious. "He's a soccer god, he's got perfect looks, he's charming, and smart to boot. I don't see what's not to like."
Eunsook and Junghee exchanged glances.
"Gwiboonie," Eunsook began gently.
"Save it, unni," Junghee said tersely. "We'll talk after school."
Gwiboon eyed them both suspiciously. The topic of conversation turned to how awful all of the English teachers were, but Gwiboon was strangely silent. When the bell rang, she rose without a word and stomped dramatically off to her next class.
"What's gotten into her?" Taeyeon wondered.
"It's probably just that time of the month," Junghee said. "Don't worry about her. She can be kind of a bitch, but you love her anyway."
Taeyeon made sure she and Jongin sat together during math. He seemed somehow nervous about sitting with her, but excited all the same.
"So, you really want me to tutor you in math?" he said once the teacher had turned them loose to work in pairs on a problem set.
"Yeah," she said. "Math is my worst subject - worse than English, if you can believe that."
"Well," he said with a little laugh. "I guess we should figure out where you need help, then."
They started in on the problem set, and Jongin patiently walked Taeyeon through the steps of expanding a binomial. As he spoke, gesturing with his pencil to emphasize the importance of using the proper coefficients, Taeyeon gazed with interest into the deep brown of his eyes, noting with a little spark of pleasure that his face grew red and flustered whenever their eyes met. After a while, she grew fascinated with his lips as well, and she watched them distractedly as they opened, closed, stretched, puckered, were occasionally wetted with a quick swipe of tongue. She wondered how a boy could have such rich, plump lips. She wondered what they tasted like.
"Taeyeon? Are you listening?"
"What? Oh - yeah!" Taeyeon said with a start. Her elbow knocked against the desk, sending her pencil clattering to the ground between their chairs. "Sorry."
She bent to pick it up, and as she rose from the ground, she found herself close - too close - to Jongin. Her nose was nearly brushing his jacket as she sat back up.
"Sorry," she murmured, her face lingering near his. They were breathing the same air, then, and Taeyeon's heart was pounding so hard she thought it might leave her chest altogether. She could nearly taste him, he was so close, and he wanted to kiss her, she was sure of it -
"It's okay," he replied shakily as he jerked away from her, his face flaming. "Um, so back to Pascal's Triangle..."
For the rest of the period, Taeyeon remained fixated on how good Jongin smelled, and Jongin, though he continued to help her on the problem set, refused to meet her eyes. When the bell rang and they were both swept up in the bustle of chattering teenagers leaving the classroom, Taeyeon managed to catch him by the elbow of his jacket and make arrangements for their upcoming tutoring session.
"Is tomorrow okay?" she asked.
"Sure," he said. "Do you want to do it at your house or mine?"
"Mine should be okay," she said. "We can take the bus there. Ah, my mom won't be there, though... is that okay with you?"
"Yeah," he said, and for some reason began to blush. "That's fine."
"Great! So I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Yeah. See you."
Taeyeon had a free period then, and she skipped off to the library feeling very accomplished. It was exhilarating, in a scary kind of way, to know that her first kiss was just around the corner. She thought of how gorgeous Jongin's lips were, how close she'd been to feeling them against her own, and her teeth chattered with anticipation as she imagined just how the next day's events would play out. The two of them would ride the bus together, sharing her headphones and smiling at the music on her iPod. She might even be so bold as to cuddle with him a little. Then, when they were at her house, settled in and studying hard, she'd be cutely concentrating on a problem when Jongin would break the silence and grab her hand.
"Taeyeon-ah," he would say, his face set and his voice serious. "I can't take this anymore."
"Take what?" she would respond, her eyes wide and clueless.
"You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," he would say, leaning close to her. "I can't help but want to kiss you."
"Jongin-ah..."
"Don't talk."
And then she would close her eyes and he would kiss her and fireworks would go off behind her eyelids and fill her with explosions of the very best kind.
By the time she got to the library, Taeyeon had run through the scenario three times in her head, and each time it just felt more perfect. The only aspect of the scene that was even slightly unrealistic was the "concentrating cutely" bit. Taeyeon thought she could probably act cute, but concentrating on math was always a struggle. If she was to focus all of her energy on looking nice and kissable, she decided that it would behoove her to actually learn the math lesson; after all, what fun would it be to have an actual tutoring session?
She strolled down a couple of library aisles searching for a copy of the math textbook. The cool, quiet calm of the library began to seep through her skin, and she smiled vacantly as she traced the spines of the shelves' numerous dusty tomes. The books were smooth and satiny to the touch, and she couldn't help but imagine the magical moment of the kiss once more - she would run her hands all through his hair and over his collarbones and down his arms and maybe let her palms rest on his chest, savoring the heated pulse of his heartbeat...
And then Taeyeon's daydreams came to an abrupt end, halted by the soft giggles coming from the end of the very end of the very farthest aisle. A low male voice began murmuring something, and then a female voice whispered a response. And this would have been normal and good and fine, and Taeyeon would have withdrawn once more to her active imagination and walked away and forgotten about it, if she hadn't also detected the slow slide of fabric on fabric, an almost inaudible rustling friction, and the faintest trembling of the book shelf. Curiously, apprehensively, she turned the corner of the library aisle, and, in one quick glance, took in the silhouette of two figures melded into one.
She spun away, shocked, and covered her face as she processed what she had seen: that had been two people kissing. Kissing. In the library, of all places. Taeyeon was scandalized and outraged and everything a decent person ought to be after seeing such a thing, but she didn't walk away. She tread quietly back to her vantage point just around the corner from the oblivious couple and opened her eyes wide. The two figures, moving slowly, sinuously against each other were shaded from the buzzing white lights of the library's main room, but Taeyeon squinted into the darkness and slowly, gradually, was able to make out every detail of the tryst. She saw the girl's hands fisted in the shoulders of the boy's uniform. She saw the boy's lean neck bending, angling to suit the girl's shorter stature. She saw his hands, his sensuous fingers, working themselves unhurriedly from the curve of the girl's hips to her creamy thighs, which were spread and held taut around his legs. She saw the way the girl, flushed and frenzied, smirked invitingly between kisses and wound her body against his in slow, tantalizing waves; she saw how the boy tightened his grip on her at that, patience in his face but fire in his eyes.
Taeyeon saw it all, and it was too late to unsee it. She saw it all, and she missed nothing. Least of all the fact that the two sharing furtive kisses in the library were Minho and Gwiboon.
Feeling almost lightheaded, Taeyeon drew back at last and crept away from the aisle, making her way shakily to where she had left her backpack, in the study area of the library. Arriving at her chair, she sat. She became aware that she was breathing heavily in the otherwise quiet room, and she pressed her hands to her mouth, hard, and squeezed her eyes shut, as though that would block out the images flying through her mind. Her eyes flew open again, and she stared down at the imitation wood grain of the table. This was just too much to take in - Minho, perfect Minho, being so bold as to kiss Gwiboon, Gwiboon, in the back of the library? What was happening?
But she had known - hadn't she? - that the two had kissed before. Gwiboon had dutifully reported it to the club, and their fifteen kisses were carefully noted on the whiteboard. So this little rendezvous was hardly surprising, aside from perhaps the location. And the two were perfectly within their rights to kiss any time they wanted, wherever they wanted, as far as Taeyeon was concerned. It was none of her business when and where they decided to meet, and what they wanted to do together.
Still, she couldn't help but feel completely shaken.
She had told herself not to like Minho. She had promised herself that she wouldn't fall for him. But now, having seen him so passionately kiss another girl, she couldn't deny that the feelings stirring in her chest were hurt and jealousy. She barely knew Minho; it was wrong of her to feel so bitter and hateful towards Gwiboon right now. But she couldn't help it. It was one thing to see names and numbers on a whiteboard. It was quite another to see with her own eyes what those fifteen kisses added up to.
Taeyeon spent the rest of her free period distracted and jumpy, staring vacantly into her lap and trying to stop thinking about how it sounded when Minho exhaled into Gwiboon's skin. When she saw the two of them slinking out from the back aisle, she turned red as a beet and immediately busied herself by pretending to work on her math sheet. As she moved her pencil randomly over the paper and let her gaze wander over the various equations, she realized that she didn't really know how to do any of the problems. And she remembered that she had never actually retrieved a textbook from the library shelves. As the bell rang and students began to shuffle out of the library and into the noisy, crowded halls, she groaned.
So much for studying.
"Where the fuck is Gwiboon?" Junghee said impatiently.
"Probably sucking face with Minho," Eunsook said, frowning down at her history homework. "She'll turn up."
Taeyeon said nothing.
The three of them had convened in the club room shortly after school had ended, but for some reason Eunsook and Junghee didn't seem to be concerned any longer with Taeyeon's progress in her initiation mission. She didn't mind not being interrogated, of course, especially given that her mind was still fixated on what she'd witnessed in the library - she hadn’t given another thought to Jongin since her brief venture into voyeurism. But she did find it intriguing that Eunsook and Junghee seemed to be worried about the same thing she was. From what she'd picked up of their whispered conferences, they wanted Gwiboon there so they could lecture her, presumably about Minho, if the frequency with which they mentioned him was anything to go by.
But it had been half an hour since school had let out, and still there was no sign of Gwiboon.
"I'm calling her," Junghee said decisively. "If she's decided to skip or something, then we're going to go straight to her house and she is going to fucking get it."
"Let's wait another five minutes," Eunsook suggested. "I'm sure she's coming - "
"I'm here!" Gwiboon announced loudly, bursting into the small room and taking them al by surprise. "Did you miss me?"
"Yeah, we fucking missed you, princess," Junghee snorted derisively. She crossed her arms and furrowed her eyebrows angrily, but the slight upturn of her lips belied her affection for the younger girl.
"Well, don't be sad," Gwiboon said breezily. "I'm here now." She settled into one of the chairs and set her bag down on the table. "What'd I miss?"
"Nothing," Eunsook said. "We were just waiting for you to get here."
"Why?" Gwiboon asked. "Are we playing a game? Are we going to help Taeyeonnie? Are we going to eat food? I love food."
"Gwiboon. You know why," Eunsook said. Gwiboon scowled, all the animation drained from her face.
"No, I don't," she said, a challenge in her voice. "Tell me."
"We just wanted to ask," Junghee said, "if you and Minho were getting... you know. Serious."
Taeyeon stared intently at Gwiboon as they all waited for her response.
"No," she said defiantly after a short pause. "We're not. God."
"It's just that you spend so much time with him," Eunsook said gently. "And the way you talk about him - "
"There's nothing between us," Gwiboon snapped.
Junghee raised one eyebrow. "Nothing?"
"Well, not much," Gwiboon amended. "Not nearly enough for us to be 'serious,' whatever that means."
"You know what it means," Junghee said sharply. "And you know what happens if you have a steady boyfriend."
Taeyeon raised her hand. "I don't know what happens."
"You can't be in the club," Junghee said bluntly. "Having a boyfriend kind of takes the fun out of kissing lots of people, you know?"
"Oh," Taeyeon said.
"Look, I get it," Gwiboon said. Her face was hard and set. "I'll stop kissing Minho."
"Yes," Eunsook said serenely. "See that you do."
pairing(s): 2min, minkey
rating: pg-13
wordcount: ~6700
summary: Taeyeon is the new girl at school. Friendless and alone, she stumbles upon an exclusive club of three girls with a strange hobby.
a/n: Wow I forgot how hard it is to sustain chaptered fic.... well here's part two of this, and idk how it turned out, honestly, but hopefully part 3 will bring some clarification....
also, in case you haven't been keeping up with exo and their 234593 teasers and prologues and whatnot, kim jongin = kai = the cutest little boy sm has churned out since lee taemin. just saying.
also, i'm so juiced for the sherlock mv it is not even funny.
also, wasn't sure about the rating for this chapter but... although shit is still relatively innocent, there's a bit of language and some suggestiveness I guess, so I bumped it up a tad.
The first thing Taeyeon did upon joining the club was demand food.
"I haven't eaten anything since this morning," she complained. "And I'm starving."
"Oh no!" Gwiboon exclaimed sympathetically. "Junghee, give her your chips."
"What?" Junghee said. "I was gonna eat those!"
"You had two servings of lunch today," Gwiboon pointed out. "I think you'll live without a few more calories."
Pouting, Junghee handed over the bag of chips, which Taeyeon devoured with astonishing speed.
"Thanks," she beamed.
"Yeah, yeah," Junghee grumbled.
"Ooh!" Eunsook said. "Let's do the initiation rite!"
"We don't have an initiation rite," Junghee said, frowning.
"We can make one up!"
"You had one for me," Gwiboon said, glaring at Junghee. "A traumatizing one, I might add."
"No, we didn't," Eunsook said, looking confused.
"Ah, that was..." Junghee said sheepishly. "That wasn't really, um, an initiation rite..."
"What happened?" asked Taeyeon.
"She molested me," Gwiboon sniffed, pointing at Junghee. "She said that before I could be accepted into the club, I had to prove that I was a good kisser. And then she completely molested me!"
"I mean," Junghee mumbled, "it wasn't strictly official..."
"No," Eunsook said emphatically. "It certainly wasn't."
"You lied to me!" Gwiboon shrieked. "You said it was protocol!"
"I just wanted to try out those pretty little lips of yours, so sue me!" Junghee said defensively. "Besides, I haven't done it since, have I?"
"Back to the point," Eunsook said hurriedly, cutting off an outraged remark from Gwiboon. "Shall we think of an initiation rite for Taeyeon?"
"Is this necessary?" Taeyeon asked timidly.
"Well, I had to go through one," Gwiboon said. "There's no reason you shouldn't, as well."
"Not the same one, though," Eunsook said hastily.
"Unless you want to," Junghee said, shooting Taeyeon a wink.
"No, thank you," Taeyeon said.
"Well," Junghee said, "we are a kissing club, so even if it's not me, I think you should have to kiss someone for your initiation."
"It could be someone ridiculous," Gwiboon suggested, a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Like who?" Eunsook said.
"Maybe... Lee Sungjong?" Gwiboon said.
Junghee groaned.
"Who's that?" Taeyeon and Eunsook asked simultaneously.
"Only the most flamboyantly gay student ever to walk the halls of this school," Junghee said. "Gwiboonie, that's just not fair."
"It would be a challenge!" Gwiboon said. "Right?"
"An impossible challenge."
"Well," Eunsook said, wrinkling her nose. "We don't want this to be too easy, but we don't want it to be too hard, either. Taeyeon, is there anyone you like yet?"
"No," Taeyeon said, thinking immediately of Minho. "Not really."
"I've got a good one," Gwiboon announced suddenly. "Kim Jongin."
"Oh, wait a second," Taeyeon protested. "That mousy kid in my math class? I don't think so."
"He may be mousy now, but he's got definite potential," Gwiboon said authoritatively. "Trust me."
"How do you know?"
"I just know! And," she added, "more importantly, he thinks you're cute."
"No way," Taeyeon said, blushing. "Nobody even looked at me in that class, except to point and laugh at the girl who had water dumped on her at lunch."
"I heard about that," Eunsook said, biting her lip with concern.
"See," Taeyeon sighed. "Everyone knows about it. Everyone thinks I'm a huge loser."
"Well," Junghee said speculatively. "At least now everyone knows your name. There's still time to change their minds about the loser part."
"And Kim Jongin doesn't think you're a loser," Gwiboon put in. "He thinks you're cute. I overheard him and Taemin talking about it."
"So you want me to kiss him?" Taeyeon said in a low voice. She thought about it for a moment. Jongin certainly wasn't bad looking, though he was a little on the thin side. He certainly had a cute little smile. All in all, Taeyeon supposed it could be worse.
"Idea," Junghee said, raising her hand enthusiastically. "Taeyeon has to kiss Jongin, and she has to do it within a certain time frame. And then she's part of the club."
Eunsook hummed thoughtfully. "Interesting."
"I like it," Gwiboon said, as though her approval decided the matter. She turned to Taeyeon. "How does one week sound to you?"
"Just one?" Taeyeon squeaked.
"One week is nothing," Gwiboon scoffed. "Come on, I'm sure you can do it."
"Well," Taeyeon said hesitantly. "You guys will coach me and stuff, right?"
"No," Gwiboon said sternly, "that's for after you make it in."
"You know, up until two minutes ago, you guys didn't even have an initiation rite," Taeyeon remarked. "And now you're getting all strict about your selection process?"
"Idea!" Junghee said loudly, her hand shooting up again. "Taeyeon, if you can do it by Friday, I'll buy you food every day for a week."
"Friday?" Taeyeon said, raising one eyebrow. "But today's Tuesday... that only gives me three days."
"Exactly." Junghee grinned and eyed Taeyeon with a smirk. "That's what makes it a challenge."
"Fine," Taeyeon said. She crossed her arms imperiously. "You better buy me a lot of food."
Junghee clapped her hands delightedly. "That's the spirit!"
"And," Gwiboon said quickly, "if you can kiss Lee Sungjong by Friday as well, Junghee will buy you food for a month."
"Hey, now," Junghee said, looking alarmed. "Don't go putting words in my mouth."
"You're the one who said it was impossible, anyway," Gwiboon said, curling her lips in what might have passed for an innocent smile were it not for the devilish spark in her eyes. "Surely you have nothing to lose?"
"Well, yeah," Junghee said reluctantly. "She probably can't do it."
Taeyeon's nostrils flared at that, and she shot Junghee a resentful glance that only Eunsook saw. The older girl laughed, her eyes crinkling with mirth.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Eunsook told Junghee.
Taeyeon nodded. "I'm already thinking of all the things you're going to buy me," she announced. "I hope your bank account is ready."
It was easy to talk big while in the company of the other three girls, but when faced with the prospect of somehow seducing both Jongin and Sungjong, neither of whom she'd met yet and one of whom was apparently gay, Taeyeon felt a little queasy. The club was holding firm on its ruling not to give her any advice until she'd succeeded in her task ("You have to prove yourself, Taeyeonnie!") but they told her that she should still sit with them during lunch ("We're not completely heartless, okay?") so they could provide moral support.
"And," Junghee had added, "if Jessica tries to mess with you again, we'll be there to make her back down."
Taeyeon had thanked Junghee for the sentiment, but she couldn't imagine that she would ever do anything to provoke Jessica, the blonde girl, ever again. Besides, right now that was the least of her worries. She thought long and hard about how exactly she would get around to locking lips with a strange boy, and one as shy as Kim Jongin to boot. From what little she'd seen of him, she knew that he was hardly the type to initiate any kind of flirtation; getting him to do so seemed a daunting task to a novice kisser. Sungjong was almost outrageously social and friendly, and so if he was at all inclined to kiss her, she had no doubt that she'd be able to find ample opportunity to make that happen. But Jongin was like her - he was, by and large, invisible. Getting him alone would require some scheming.
And so she walked into school the next day with a battle plan.
It was a vague, messy, and flawed plan, but nonetheless it filled her with inexplicable confidence. She caught sight of Jongin walking in the halls before the first bell and smiled at him, managing to look both skittishly shy and incredibly alluring at the same time. A bright red flush spread across Jongin's face as his eyes widened in surprise, and after a moment he smiled cautiously back at her. Taeyeon walked away with a huge grin on her face, so distractedly pleased with herself that she nearly crashed into Minho coming from the other direction.
"Easy there," he said, catching her by the arm and steadying her so she wouldn't fall. "You wanna watch where you're going?"
"Sorry, I'm so sorry," gasped Taeyeon, bowing her head in embarrassment. When she looked up, Minho seemed to be stifling a laugh.
"You know," he remarked, "you don't have to be so formal with me."
"I don't?"
"Nah. We're friends, right?"
"We are?"
"Taeyeon-ah," he said, chuckling. "You look so pained. Do you not want to be friends with me?"
"No, no," she said hurriedly. "I mean, yes. I mean, I do."
"Good," he said, and the way he beamed at her made Taeyeon's heart thud painfully against her ribcage.
"Oh," she said suddenly, thrusting a paper bag at him. "I, um, your jacket. I have your jacket. Thank you for letting me borrow it."
"No problem," he said, taking the bag. "And hey, if there's ever anything else I can do for you, just let me know. I mean, I know how tough it is to be the new kid."
"Thanks," Taeyeon said. "Actually, there is something you might be able to help me with."
"Really?" Minho said. "Shoot."
"Are you friends with Kim Jongin?"
Minho looked taken aback by the question. "Uh, kind of. He's good friends with my best friend, so yeah, I guess we're friends."
"Well, could you tell me... I mean, he just looks like, really smart," Taeyeon said nervously, fiddling with her shirtsleeves. "Is he any good at math?"
"Yeah," Minho said slowly. "I think so."
"That's great," Taeyeon said, smiling. "That's really good. Alright. Thanks, Minho!"
"Anytime," Minho said, bemused. He waved to her as she skipped off happily. "See you around."
To Taeyeon's delight, she found that math was not the only class she shared with Jongin. When she walked into her first period class, English, she spotted him sitting two seats in front of Taemin and Minho. And on top of that, he was sitting alone. She wasted no time in zipping over to him.
"Hi," she said breathlessly, leaning down over his desk. "Is anyone sitting here?"
"Oh," he said, reddening. "No, it's fine."
"Cool," she said. She slid into the chair next to him and pulled out her textbook. "I'm Lee Taeyeon."
"I know," he said, growing even redder. "I'm Kim Jongin."
"I know," she said, smiling.
By the end of the period, Taeyeon had made several observations about Jongin that she felt would help her in her quest to make him kiss her. Firstly, she discovered that Jongin was, like herself, the type of person whose cheerfulness and energy increased exponentially over time as you got to know him. At the beginning of the period he was quiet, reserved, replying to her whispered questions with one-word answers. By the end they were holding a regular conversation, with each of them addressing the other with animation and excitement. Taeyeon found that Jongin shared her interest in dancing, and they discussed the school's dance club; they'd both missed the cutoff for tryouts, but they wondered if they could make an appeal to the leaders of the club and gain late admittance. Several times during the period, Jung Yunho glared at them sternly from his position at the blackboard and cut off their talk, but then the conversation simply transferred from spoken to written word, as the two of them scribbled notes to each other in the margins of their notebooks in a kind of conspiratorial camaraderie. After that, Taeyeon was forced to admit to herself that Jongin was by no means mousy and shy, as she had initially believed.
Secondly, she learned that he was truly a valuable study asset. Whenever she had trouble with an English pronunciation or grammar concept, Jongin, who seemed to understand the material effortlessly, didn't hesitate to help her. English, which was in Taeyeon's opinion an incomprehensible, irrational, and just plain stupid language, made so much more sense when Jongin carefully explained some of its more confusing aspects. Especially when the teacher sped through topics without fully explaining them, Taeyeon felt extremely grateful to be sitting with Jongin, who was turning out to be possibly the most diligent seat partner she could ever have chosen.
And thirdly, Taeyeon realized the extent of the friendship between Kim Jongin and Lee Taemin. Every few minutes Taemin would lean forward, tap Jongin on the shoulder, and mutter something that made no sense to Taeyeon but was obviously the source of some highly amusing inside joke between them. Jongin would smile reservedly, Taemin would grin and giggle like a maniac, and then Yunho would bark at him to shut his mouth before he found himself with yet another detention. That only caused Taemin to grin ever wider and nudge the back of Jongin's chair with his foot, and Jongin would shake his head and resolutely ignore him. Still, as he conversed with Taeyeon, Taemin's name cropped up with consistent frequency. Jongin would mention that Taemin liked to dance as well, that Taemin had taught him how to skateboard, that he and Taemin had grown up next door neighbors and were practically brothers. Taeyeon began to feel that it would be difficult to persuade Jongin to do anything that Taemin didn't approve of, and she realized with disgust that she might have to befriend both of them before Jongin would kiss her. The idea repulsed her; Taemin was immature and unpleasant and she wanted nothing to do with him, ever. But it was purely for the sake of her entry to the club, and besides, Taemin was friends with Minho, so this could be a way to grow closer to him, as well.
(Not that she wanted to grow close to Minho as anything but friends, of course.)
As she left the classroom, Jongin walked with her.
"So what class do you have next?" he asked.
"Physics," she replied with a grimace. "I hate science."
"Ah, that's too bad," he said. "Physics is pretty neat."
"There's just so much math involved," Taeyeon sighed, hugging her books to her chest. "I'm terrible at math."
"Oh." Jongin looked as though something was on the tip of his tongue, but he said nothing.
"I'm so bad at math," Taeyeon continued, "that I bet I could really benefit from a tutor."
Jongin nodded, glancing at her timidly.
"You're good at math, right?"
"I guess so," he mumbled.
"Maybe you could tutor me!"
"I'm not a very good teacher," he said, ducking his head in embarrassment.
"You totally are. Just now, you taught me more English than the actual teacher did!"
"That was - "
"Come on," Taeyeon wheedled. "Be my tutor. I really want you to."
A deep blush spread over Jongin's cheeks. "I - I don't know..."
"Please?" Taeyeon grabbed his arm and widened her eyes adorably. "Please?"
And finally, to Taeyeon's unabashed delight, he said yes.
In the middle of art class, Gwiboon sidled over to Taeyeon and asked how her progress was going.
"Pretty good," Taeyeon told her excitedly. "I got him to agree to tutor me in math."
"Wow," Gwiboon said appreciatively. "Nice."
"Yeah," Taeyeon said, smiling. "He's a nice guy."
"Whoa." Gwiboon paused and looked up from her oil pastels. "Do you like him?"
"What? No!" Taeyeon sputtered.
"You totally do," Gwiboon squealed. "You totally like him! This is so cute."
"I don't like him," Taeyeon insisted. "I just think he's nice, okay?"
"Oh, sure," Gwiboon smirked. "Sure, sweetie."
Taeyeon sighed and returned to her still life of flowers and a bunch of grapes. There was no point in arguing with Gwiboon.
Taeyeon had planned on hanging out with Gwiboon during PE, but the other girl shot her down in the locker room.
"Taeyeon, no offense but I don't think you're ready to be friends with my friends yet," Gwiboon told her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Taeyeon said, hurt.
"They're just... I can't explain it. You wouldn't get along. I have yet to train you," Gwiboon said. She pulled on her gym shorts. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"
"Okay," Taeyeon said dully. She pulled her short hair into a ponytail. "See you."
On the field, Taeyeon caught sight of Amber and Chaerin. They waved her over, and gratefully Taeyeon jogged to join them.
"Hey, what's with the long face?" Amber said. "Something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine," Taeyeon said.
"You look cute with your hair up," Chaerin offered.
"Thanks," Taeyeon said, flushing.
"Where's Min?" Amber asked impatiently. "We can't play with three."
"Technically, we can," Chaerin said, sounding bored. "We've been doing it all semester."
"But now that we have Taeyeon, we shouldn't have to," Amber said, frustrated. She stamped her foot on the ground. "Damn it, Min!"
"I think Minyoung might be sick," Chaerin said speculatively. "That or just skipping school with her weird friends."
"Irresponsible," Amber muttered. "Shit. Well, I guess we have no choice."
"Hold on," Chaerin said, watching something over Taeyeon's shoulder. "Isn't that - ?"
"Taeyeon-ah!" cried Taemin, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. He bounded over to Taeyeon and grinned. "Hi."
"Uh, hello," Taeyeon said, confused. She searched Taemin's eyes carefully. "What do you want?"
"Jeez," Taemin said, scratching his head. "You're so cold. I just noticed that you guys were down one player. I was wondering if you needed someone to fill in."
"Really?" Amber said, perking up. "You'll play with us?"
"Are you serious?" Taeyeon said skeptically.
"Yeah, of course," Taemin said.
"There's no other reason you came to play with us?" Taeyeon pressed.
"Well, I mean," Taemin said, "I did get kicked out of the boys' game."
Chaerin laughed.
"It's alright," Amber said with dignity. "Take Min's place - it'll be you and Taeyeon versus me and Chaerin."
"Awesome," Taemin said. "Winning team right here!" He raised his hand to Taeyeon for a high five, which she pointedly ignored.
"Yeah right," Chaerin snorted. She turned to Amber. "Let's kill it."
But, as it turned out, Taemin was actually a decent soccer player. His thin, muscled legs handled the ball effortlessly, and when he wound up and kicked, the ball shot with surprising velocity into the net. After the first two goals, Chaerin and Amber stopped laughing and joking about how they were going to destroy the Pretty Faces. After the fifth goal, they were yelling death threats and shoving viciously as they tried in vain to gain possession. The final score was nine to nothing, and Taemin graciously shook hands with the losers as they fumed and glared.
"Good game, all," he said glibly. He winked at Taeyeon. "You're pretty good."
"Thanks," she said cautiously.
"For a girl."
"YAH!" she exclaimed, drawing back one fist to pummel him.
"Gotta go," he said quickly, sprinting back to the boys' game, where he was immediately swooped up in Minho's arms.
"That little brat," Taeyeon spat.
"We're never letting him play with us again," Amber said decisively.
"Amen," sniffed Chaerin.
"Isn't this class over soon?" Taeyeon asked, looking around.
"Yeah," Amber said. "And then it'll be feeding time for the hordes of gossip-hungry cliques at this school."
"You say that like you don't have your own little clique," Chaerin said. "And you so do. Everyone does."
"Yeah but, see," Amber said, "People like Jung Jessica are so snotty and stuck up that they won't even talk to someone not in their own little social circle. And people like you and me are not that close-minded."
"You must be super dedicated to your anti-popular kids crusade," Chaerin remarked, "because you do realize that you're talking shit about your best friend's older sister, right?"
"Of course I know that," Amber said. "And of course I'm not against popular kids. Hell, you're a popular kid. It's just that one group that really pisses me off."
"Who?" Taemin said. "Jung Jessica?"
"Yeah. Her and a bunch of seniors, plus a couple juniors, plus Joohyun, who's in our grade. They do everything in this little pack, and they think they're so much better than everyone else - they, like, symbolize everything that's wrong with high school."
"You really dislike them," Taeyeon noted.
"Which is ironic," Chaerin put in, "because Jessica's little sister, Krystal, is Amber's best friend."
"Krystal is cool," Amber said defensively.
"No, she's not," Chaerin said, crossing her arms. "She's even worse than Jessica. Honestly, I have no idea how you put up with her."
"Whatever," Amber said. "The point is, this school is way too segregated. It's like, everyone should just be able to get along, you know? There are too many catfights here."
"Amber's from America," Chaerin explained to Taeyeon. "The land of the free or something."
"Yo," Amber said with a laugh. "Yo, dawg."
"Well, I agree," Taeyeon said softly. "I dislike the cliques as well."
"Mm," Chaerin said sympathetically. "I saw what happened at lunch yesterday, that was rough. You want to sit with us today? Me and Seunghyun oppa would take care of you."
"It's okay," Taeyeon declined, shaking her head. "I already have people to sit with."
"Really? Who?" Amber said curiously. "It's not Lee Taemin and Choi Minho, is it?"
"No, no," Taeyeon said, wrinkling her nose. She pointed to Gwiboon's knot of friends on the opposite side of the field. "Gwiboon, Junghee, and Eunsook. I'm sitting with them."
Chaerin's eyebrows shot up, and Amber's jaw dropped.
"Wait, seriously?"
"You're sitting with the In Crowd already? How the hell did that happen?" Amber said, awed.
"Honestly," Taeyeon said with a grimace, "I have no idea."
Today, Taeyeon had packed her own lunch. She walked into the cafeteria clutching it tightly, her eyes making a wide sweep of the room to locate any of the club members. Almost at once she saw Junghee and Eunsook waving to her enthusiastically, Eunsook bouncing up and down and completely oblivious to the stares her jiggling cleavage was attracting. Junghee slapped her on the arm and they both stopped waving as Taeyeon made her way over.
"Taeyeonnie!" Eunsook cried. "You look so cute with your hair up like that!"
"Oh," Taeyeon said, her hand flying up to her hurried ponytail. She pulled it loose, letting her hair hang loosely around her face again. "That was just for soccer."
"You look cute with it down, too," Junghee said. "Anyways. How're things going with Kim Jongin?"
"Good," Taeyeon said, sitting down. "I'm starving."
"But where's Gwiboon?" Eunsook asked, peering out at the crowd. "Don't you have fourth period with her?"
"Right," Taeyeon said, "but we didn't hang out together."
"Why not?" Junghee asked, frowning.
"She... well, I wanted to play soccer, and she didn't," Taeyeon explained. She decided to omit the part about her not being good enough to associate with Gwiboon's friends; the last thing she wanted was to sound ungrateful. "So I played with Amber and Chaerin."
"Ooh, Amber," Junghee said, giggling. "I like her. Gwiboon's kissed her a couple of times."
"Really?" Taeyeon said. "Is she gay, then?"
"Who knows?" Eunsook said with a shrug. "Gwiboonie's not exactly gay. Maybe Amber was just feeling bored and bicurious."
"And besides," Junghee added. "She is American."
"Who's American?" Gwiboon said, plopping down next to Taeyeon. "What'd I miss?"
"We were talking about your sexcapades with the female gender," Junghee said without taking her eyes off of Taeyeon. "Specifically Amber."
"Oh," Gwiboon said, taking a sip from her bottle of mineral water. "Don't use the word sexcapades, though. It implies so much more than what actually happened."
"What actually happened, then?"
"What usually happens in a kissing club?" Gwiboon says. "We kissed. That's it."
"Alright, whatever," Junghee said dismissively. "Well, Taeyeon was just telling us about her progress with Jongin."
"I already know about that," Gwiboon interrupted. "He's tutoring her. But what about Sungjong?"
"I don't even have any classes with him," Taeyeon pointed out. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to kiss him without meeting him first."
"I'm sure you'll work something out," Eunsook said kindly. "I believe you can do it."
"For the sake of my poor wallet," Junghee said, "I hope you don't. I mean, Christ. How am I supposed to buy you food when you eat so much."
Taeyeon smiled innocently. "I'm sure you'll manage, unni."
Junghee groaned.
"Also," Eunsook said, turning to Gwiboon. "Make sure you come to the meeting this afternoon. You're not busy, are you?"
"No," Gwiboon said, "I can make time. Why is it so important?"
"We just want to make sure everyone comes today," Eunsook said vaguely, "so we can all talk."
"Okay," Gwiboon huffed, "fine. Be all secretive."
"Well, it's just," Eunsook said, glancing at Taeyeon, "there's some stuff we haven't explained yet. Some stuff we need to discuss."
"Sure, that narrows it down," Gwiboon said. "Okay, whatever. Let's talk about something else right now."
"Like what?" Junghee asked idly, poking covertly at Eunsook's breasts. "Could we talk about how cute this year's freshman class is? Because they are really cute. I just want to sleep with the freshman class."
"Slut," Gwiboon coughed.
"They are kind of cute, aren't they," Eunsook said thoughtfully. "Taemin is rather adorable."
"He's mine, so back off," Junghee said at once. "I totally called dibs him."
"You can't call dibs on a person," Gwiboon said scathingly. "Besides, I bet he'd choose Taeyeon or me over you in a heartbeat. So get over yourself."
"Why are you so mean to me?" Junghee sulked. "I was just trying to say that Taemin is the cutest boy I have ever seen in my life."
"No, what you were trying to say is that just because you've kissed him, the rest of us shouldn't be allowed to look at him," Gwiboon said witheringly. "And that's stupid, and it completely defeats the purpose of the club."
"Let's not fight," Eunsook said helplessly.
"You kissed Taemin?" Taeyeon said incredulously to Junghee. "Why?"
"He's a handsome kid!"
"He's an asshole."
"He can be okay," Gwiboon interjected. "He was my lab partner a couple months ago, and I mean... he's kind of stupid, but he's a good person."
"He's good at soccer," Taeyeon said, "I'll give him that, but really, I don't see what else could possibly be 'good' about him."
"His looks," Junghee said.
"That's all you care about, isn't it," Eunsook said dryly.
"Taemin is nice," Gwiboon continued, ignoring Eunsook and Junghee, "but I'll take Minho every time."
"Really." Taeyeon tried not to sound too interested. "Why's that?"
"I mean - it's Minho," Gwiboon said, as though her reasoning should be obvious. "He's a soccer god, he's got perfect looks, he's charming, and smart to boot. I don't see what's not to like."
Eunsook and Junghee exchanged glances.
"Gwiboonie," Eunsook began gently.
"Save it, unni," Junghee said tersely. "We'll talk after school."
Gwiboon eyed them both suspiciously. The topic of conversation turned to how awful all of the English teachers were, but Gwiboon was strangely silent. When the bell rang, she rose without a word and stomped dramatically off to her next class.
"What's gotten into her?" Taeyeon wondered.
"It's probably just that time of the month," Junghee said. "Don't worry about her. She can be kind of a bitch, but you love her anyway."
Taeyeon made sure she and Jongin sat together during math. He seemed somehow nervous about sitting with her, but excited all the same.
"So, you really want me to tutor you in math?" he said once the teacher had turned them loose to work in pairs on a problem set.
"Yeah," she said. "Math is my worst subject - worse than English, if you can believe that."
"Well," he said with a little laugh. "I guess we should figure out where you need help, then."
They started in on the problem set, and Jongin patiently walked Taeyeon through the steps of expanding a binomial. As he spoke, gesturing with his pencil to emphasize the importance of using the proper coefficients, Taeyeon gazed with interest into the deep brown of his eyes, noting with a little spark of pleasure that his face grew red and flustered whenever their eyes met. After a while, she grew fascinated with his lips as well, and she watched them distractedly as they opened, closed, stretched, puckered, were occasionally wetted with a quick swipe of tongue. She wondered how a boy could have such rich, plump lips. She wondered what they tasted like.
"Taeyeon? Are you listening?"
"What? Oh - yeah!" Taeyeon said with a start. Her elbow knocked against the desk, sending her pencil clattering to the ground between their chairs. "Sorry."
She bent to pick it up, and as she rose from the ground, she found herself close - too close - to Jongin. Her nose was nearly brushing his jacket as she sat back up.
"Sorry," she murmured, her face lingering near his. They were breathing the same air, then, and Taeyeon's heart was pounding so hard she thought it might leave her chest altogether. She could nearly taste him, he was so close, and he wanted to kiss her, she was sure of it -
"It's okay," he replied shakily as he jerked away from her, his face flaming. "Um, so back to Pascal's Triangle..."
For the rest of the period, Taeyeon remained fixated on how good Jongin smelled, and Jongin, though he continued to help her on the problem set, refused to meet her eyes. When the bell rang and they were both swept up in the bustle of chattering teenagers leaving the classroom, Taeyeon managed to catch him by the elbow of his jacket and make arrangements for their upcoming tutoring session.
"Is tomorrow okay?" she asked.
"Sure," he said. "Do you want to do it at your house or mine?"
"Mine should be okay," she said. "We can take the bus there. Ah, my mom won't be there, though... is that okay with you?"
"Yeah," he said, and for some reason began to blush. "That's fine."
"Great! So I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Yeah. See you."
Taeyeon had a free period then, and she skipped off to the library feeling very accomplished. It was exhilarating, in a scary kind of way, to know that her first kiss was just around the corner. She thought of how gorgeous Jongin's lips were, how close she'd been to feeling them against her own, and her teeth chattered with anticipation as she imagined just how the next day's events would play out. The two of them would ride the bus together, sharing her headphones and smiling at the music on her iPod. She might even be so bold as to cuddle with him a little. Then, when they were at her house, settled in and studying hard, she'd be cutely concentrating on a problem when Jongin would break the silence and grab her hand.
"Taeyeon-ah," he would say, his face set and his voice serious. "I can't take this anymore."
"Take what?" she would respond, her eyes wide and clueless.
"You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," he would say, leaning close to her. "I can't help but want to kiss you."
"Jongin-ah..."
"Don't talk."
And then she would close her eyes and he would kiss her and fireworks would go off behind her eyelids and fill her with explosions of the very best kind.
By the time she got to the library, Taeyeon had run through the scenario three times in her head, and each time it just felt more perfect. The only aspect of the scene that was even slightly unrealistic was the "concentrating cutely" bit. Taeyeon thought she could probably act cute, but concentrating on math was always a struggle. If she was to focus all of her energy on looking nice and kissable, she decided that it would behoove her to actually learn the math lesson; after all, what fun would it be to have an actual tutoring session?
She strolled down a couple of library aisles searching for a copy of the math textbook. The cool, quiet calm of the library began to seep through her skin, and she smiled vacantly as she traced the spines of the shelves' numerous dusty tomes. The books were smooth and satiny to the touch, and she couldn't help but imagine the magical moment of the kiss once more - she would run her hands all through his hair and over his collarbones and down his arms and maybe let her palms rest on his chest, savoring the heated pulse of his heartbeat...
And then Taeyeon's daydreams came to an abrupt end, halted by the soft giggles coming from the end of the very end of the very farthest aisle. A low male voice began murmuring something, and then a female voice whispered a response. And this would have been normal and good and fine, and Taeyeon would have withdrawn once more to her active imagination and walked away and forgotten about it, if she hadn't also detected the slow slide of fabric on fabric, an almost inaudible rustling friction, and the faintest trembling of the book shelf. Curiously, apprehensively, she turned the corner of the library aisle, and, in one quick glance, took in the silhouette of two figures melded into one.
She spun away, shocked, and covered her face as she processed what she had seen: that had been two people kissing. Kissing. In the library, of all places. Taeyeon was scandalized and outraged and everything a decent person ought to be after seeing such a thing, but she didn't walk away. She tread quietly back to her vantage point just around the corner from the oblivious couple and opened her eyes wide. The two figures, moving slowly, sinuously against each other were shaded from the buzzing white lights of the library's main room, but Taeyeon squinted into the darkness and slowly, gradually, was able to make out every detail of the tryst. She saw the girl's hands fisted in the shoulders of the boy's uniform. She saw the boy's lean neck bending, angling to suit the girl's shorter stature. She saw his hands, his sensuous fingers, working themselves unhurriedly from the curve of the girl's hips to her creamy thighs, which were spread and held taut around his legs. She saw the way the girl, flushed and frenzied, smirked invitingly between kisses and wound her body against his in slow, tantalizing waves; she saw how the boy tightened his grip on her at that, patience in his face but fire in his eyes.
Taeyeon saw it all, and it was too late to unsee it. She saw it all, and she missed nothing. Least of all the fact that the two sharing furtive kisses in the library were Minho and Gwiboon.
Feeling almost lightheaded, Taeyeon drew back at last and crept away from the aisle, making her way shakily to where she had left her backpack, in the study area of the library. Arriving at her chair, she sat. She became aware that she was breathing heavily in the otherwise quiet room, and she pressed her hands to her mouth, hard, and squeezed her eyes shut, as though that would block out the images flying through her mind. Her eyes flew open again, and she stared down at the imitation wood grain of the table. This was just too much to take in - Minho, perfect Minho, being so bold as to kiss Gwiboon, Gwiboon, in the back of the library? What was happening?
But she had known - hadn't she? - that the two had kissed before. Gwiboon had dutifully reported it to the club, and their fifteen kisses were carefully noted on the whiteboard. So this little rendezvous was hardly surprising, aside from perhaps the location. And the two were perfectly within their rights to kiss any time they wanted, wherever they wanted, as far as Taeyeon was concerned. It was none of her business when and where they decided to meet, and what they wanted to do together.
Still, she couldn't help but feel completely shaken.
She had told herself not to like Minho. She had promised herself that she wouldn't fall for him. But now, having seen him so passionately kiss another girl, she couldn't deny that the feelings stirring in her chest were hurt and jealousy. She barely knew Minho; it was wrong of her to feel so bitter and hateful towards Gwiboon right now. But she couldn't help it. It was one thing to see names and numbers on a whiteboard. It was quite another to see with her own eyes what those fifteen kisses added up to.
Taeyeon spent the rest of her free period distracted and jumpy, staring vacantly into her lap and trying to stop thinking about how it sounded when Minho exhaled into Gwiboon's skin. When she saw the two of them slinking out from the back aisle, she turned red as a beet and immediately busied herself by pretending to work on her math sheet. As she moved her pencil randomly over the paper and let her gaze wander over the various equations, she realized that she didn't really know how to do any of the problems. And she remembered that she had never actually retrieved a textbook from the library shelves. As the bell rang and students began to shuffle out of the library and into the noisy, crowded halls, she groaned.
So much for studying.
"Where the fuck is Gwiboon?" Junghee said impatiently.
"Probably sucking face with Minho," Eunsook said, frowning down at her history homework. "She'll turn up."
Taeyeon said nothing.
The three of them had convened in the club room shortly after school had ended, but for some reason Eunsook and Junghee didn't seem to be concerned any longer with Taeyeon's progress in her initiation mission. She didn't mind not being interrogated, of course, especially given that her mind was still fixated on what she'd witnessed in the library - she hadn’t given another thought to Jongin since her brief venture into voyeurism. But she did find it intriguing that Eunsook and Junghee seemed to be worried about the same thing she was. From what she'd picked up of their whispered conferences, they wanted Gwiboon there so they could lecture her, presumably about Minho, if the frequency with which they mentioned him was anything to go by.
But it had been half an hour since school had let out, and still there was no sign of Gwiboon.
"I'm calling her," Junghee said decisively. "If she's decided to skip or something, then we're going to go straight to her house and she is going to fucking get it."
"Let's wait another five minutes," Eunsook suggested. "I'm sure she's coming - "
"I'm here!" Gwiboon announced loudly, bursting into the small room and taking them al by surprise. "Did you miss me?"
"Yeah, we fucking missed you, princess," Junghee snorted derisively. She crossed her arms and furrowed her eyebrows angrily, but the slight upturn of her lips belied her affection for the younger girl.
"Well, don't be sad," Gwiboon said breezily. "I'm here now." She settled into one of the chairs and set her bag down on the table. "What'd I miss?"
"Nothing," Eunsook said. "We were just waiting for you to get here."
"Why?" Gwiboon asked. "Are we playing a game? Are we going to help Taeyeonnie? Are we going to eat food? I love food."
"Gwiboon. You know why," Eunsook said. Gwiboon scowled, all the animation drained from her face.
"No, I don't," she said, a challenge in her voice. "Tell me."
"We just wanted to ask," Junghee said, "if you and Minho were getting... you know. Serious."
Taeyeon stared intently at Gwiboon as they all waited for her response.
"No," she said defiantly after a short pause. "We're not. God."
"It's just that you spend so much time with him," Eunsook said gently. "And the way you talk about him - "
"There's nothing between us," Gwiboon snapped.
Junghee raised one eyebrow. "Nothing?"
"Well, not much," Gwiboon amended. "Not nearly enough for us to be 'serious,' whatever that means."
"You know what it means," Junghee said sharply. "And you know what happens if you have a steady boyfriend."
Taeyeon raised her hand. "I don't know what happens."
"You can't be in the club," Junghee said bluntly. "Having a boyfriend kind of takes the fun out of kissing lots of people, you know?"
"Oh," Taeyeon said.
"Look, I get it," Gwiboon said. Her face was hard and set. "I'll stop kissing Minho."
"Yes," Eunsook said serenely. "See that you do."