+ Spitting Games [1/3] [2PM]
Title: Spitting Games
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jay/Taecyeon
Word Count: ~22,200 (;__;)
Notes: AU. Written for onedaybb, but I honestly have no idea how this happened. Originally I was worried about meeting the 10,000 word deadline, and now… this. This is the longest thing I have written in years and it was fun, and it was exhausting, but it exists and I am both excited and petrified about that fact. Incalculable love to biases, my own cheerleader through this entire process.
Summary: There's a lot to be said for self-delusion when it comes to matters of the heart.
+
Jay sees her and knows immediately that she’s The One. He would never tell anyone he thought such sappy shit, not ever, but she’s so fucking fine that there is no way that she does not belong with him. She's not too tall, she has shiny hair and lips, and she's not even overdone-she's just wearing jeans and a frilly top-thing-but she still looks amazing.
When she smiles Jay can see her teeth gleaming, even in the laser-lit club, but it's when she laughs and looks up that he notices there's a tall guy at next to her, holding her hand. They look cozy, close, and Jay can feel the jealousy working its way through his body, from his chest and then radiating outwards, down to his limbs, spiking at his fingertips, and he kind of wants to-
But then the guy laughs too and turns around, and they are just way too similar-looking not to be related. Her brother, then, or a cousin. Not the competition. Jay feels himself relax, and he grabs Khun's sleeve and wrenches him over, away from the fifty million slutty chicks vying for his attention.
"Who's that?" he asks over the music, gaze never leaving her as the relative twirls her onto the dance floor. "She's got moves."
Khun rolls his eyes, not even making an effort to see who Jay's talking about. He seems focused on some dude dressed in bright yellow dancing in the corner, and Jay would be annoyed if he hadn't just found his future wife. "Which one? You say that every time."
"It's different this time, man," he insists, gawking openly now as she shimmies from side to side, her smooth movements offsetting the brother's stiff shuffle. They spin, the relative's back to Jay, completely blocking his view of her, and he scowls, trying to see around them. "She is fire."
Khun nods and pats him on the head, palm bouncing against Jay's perky fauxhawk. "Of course she is. They always are."
+
When he finally gets to her almost an hour later, slipping between her and some scary dude who thinks vibrating is dancing, she's more than grateful and offers to buy him a drink. He makes her laugh at the bar, and then they talk some and it turns out her name is Jihyen, she's Korean, and as well as being super-hot, she’s also really smart. Even though it makes him feel a little bit like a moron, like when she uses big words and knows what their drink total will be without the use of a calculator, he’s kinda digging the fact that he managed to score such a well-rounded chick.
Well, maybe not scored yet. But it’s only a matter of time.
+
After some severe contemplation, involving a borderline-lewd discussion with his crew and some vigorous alone time, he decides a few days later that the best way to win her over is to get in with the brother. He was a fucking giant when Jay finally saw him up close, with huge teeth and ears to match, super-dorky and kind of touchy, but Jay can’t be picky, not with such high stakes.
He gets Giant Teeth's phone number off Khun, because it so conveniently turns out Khun actually knows him from college, and has just finished dialling when he realises he has no idea about a name-so far he's just been referring to him as Giant Teeth, and Khun has always known exactly who he's talking about. He is about to hang up and call Khun back when he hears a breathless voice say, "Hello?", and then he's stuck.
"Ah. 'Sup?" he says, flustered but trying not to show it, clawing desperately at his cool. "This is Jay. You know, from the club the other night? Khun's friend."
A moment of silence, before, "The... little bitter guy or the even littler one with the moves?"
Jay grits his teeth. "The second one."
"Cool, man, I've never seen anyone dance like you, you were amazing! Even if I did keep losing sight of you in the crowd."
Jay frowns and wonders if he should feel flattered or offended. He settles on a mixture of both and then suddenly realises he's drumming his fingers on the kitchen bench. Frowning, he grabs an apple from the fruit bowl his mom optimistically keeps stocked up and bites into it to distract himself, because feeling nervous about speaking to a dude is one-hundred percent fucking
"Okay." There's silence again, awkward and stretching, and Jay rushes to fill it in.
"I just thought… you seemed… I mean, you know. You wanna-" And he cuts himself off. Maybe he should've thought this through a little more, because everything he's saying sounds like he's asking Giant Teeth on some kind of gay-ass date, which is not… it's just not. "Fuck it," he says finally. "I really dig your sister and I don't wanna look like a desperate fucking stalker in front of her so I kinda thought you could… Yeah. You know. Help."
Jay wonders for a brief moment if he's fucked everything up, but then the dude just laughs and he immediately knows everything's gonna be cool.
+
"Nichkhun told me about you," Taecyeon says as soon as Jay sits opposite him in the diner booth the next day. He crosses his arms and narrows his eyes, and Jay freezes mid-grab for the menu, startled by Taecyeon's tone. "That's the only reason I'm doing this. I'm not exactly in the practice of whoring out my sister for random dudes."
"Okay," Jay says. He slowly wraps his fingers around the menu and carefully draws it back towards himself, eyes never leaving Taecyeon's. "That's cool. I don't usually rely on the help of weirdos with huge teeth to score chicks but your sister's kinda an exception."
Jay is again left wondering if he's made a mistake as soon as the words leave his mouth, and they stare at each other for a few moments, the edges of the laminated cardboard biting into his skin. But then Taecyeon's eyes crease and his mouth stretches into a grin, and he laughs, kinda dorky and giggly but endearing all the same, particularly now that Jay knows he isn't going to get punched.
"That's what Khun said you'd say," Taecyeon says, and calls the waitress over.
+
After an hour or so, Jay realises that Taecyeon isn't really that bad. Obviously, he'd rather be spending time with Jihyen, but at least he's working his way there.
He's even discovered that he and Taecyeon-the fuck, that name is too long to even think, so Jay just decides to go with just Taec-have a history of sorts. They've both been Khun's friend for a few years, from different social groups, and they've even been to a few of the same events. In fact-
"I remember you," Taec says ominously, "from Khun's twenty-first."
Jay cringes. Khun's twenty-first birthday party had been a weird night for him, and one that he usually prefers to forget, but obviously Taec, if the smug grin he's failing to suppress is anything to go by, feels exactly the opposite.
"You were the dude who kept losing beer pong and got the stocking like three times!" Taec says, completely abandoning his attempts at a straight face and dissolving into laughter halfway.
Jay doesn't remember it at all, since it was the only time in his life he's ever given into peer pressure and been drunk, but there are a shitload of pictures on the Facebook of everyone at the party of his head squished into that stocking, so it's kinda hard to deny. Khun had told him the next day that it was the best party he'd ever been had. Jay's pounding head and constant vomiting had forced him to disagree, but he'd never been able to shake that legendary status the whole thing had landed him with.
"It was twice," he corrects sharply, "and that wasn't my fault."
"Oh, okay." Taec immediately sobers and nods, and Jay is surprised by how easy it is to intimidate him.
Until he sees the sparkle in Taec's eye, and the quiver of his lips as he holds in more laughter, and realises that he's having absolutely no effect on Taec at all.
"This is a fucking conspiracy," he says. Taec pulls an exaggerated sad face and helps himself to one of Jay's fries, snickering the entire time.
Jay forces himself to remember the curves of Jihyen's body in her jeans so that he doesn't punch her beloved brother in the face.
+
Jay is out jogging with Peatry before b-boy practice when he sees Taec again. Peatry is being particularly annoying, pausing to sniff at every tree and bush in existence, constantly stopping and starting and making it impossible for Jay to get a good rhythm up. He's pretty terrible at jogging anyway-he can dance for hours, but he doesn't have the right kind of cardio training for any sort of decent running time. It's something he occasionally thinks he should do something about, but then someone shows him their new tune or there's a new power move to learn and really, he has priorities.
They're passing their local park-cum-basketball court when Peatry stops for ages at what is apparently a fascinating tree stump. Jay tries to pull him away a million times but he's pretty stubborn for a little guy, so Jay has no choice but to stand around stupidly, waiting for his dog to stop inhaling some other dog's pee.
Thankfully there's a dude playing basketball nearby for entertainment. Jay turns his hat backwards so he can watch properly and tries not to laugh because even though this guy's tall, he's also really fucking failblog.
He's just so… uncoordinated. It's like he has no sense of rhythm, no idea what to do with his massive limbs, performing such jerky movements Jay thinks that he would hate to see what he's like on the dancefloor-and it's that very parallel that makes Jay realize he has.
He has, because it's Taec.
"Shit," he breathes, cringing as Taec takes his fifth shot at the basket from directly underneath it, which not only misses but bounces back to hit him in the shoulder.
Peatry pulls on the lead, finally ready to leave, but Jay directs him over towards Taec instead, intrigued by his terrible playing. He stops a few feet away as Taec gets as close to the hoop as he can, stands on his tiptoes, spends way too long aiming, takes another shot, and still misses.
"Great shot, man," Jay says loudly, and Taec starts, turning around to face Jay as the ball rolls away.
"Jay," he says, surprised but grinning. "You live around here?"
"No, I'm here because it's not my local park."
Taec rolls his eyes. He moves closer and squats in front of Peatry, holding out a hand. Peatry sniffs it and must sense Taec's offensive levels of harmlessness because he rushes forwards, rubbing his body against Taec's legs. Taec laughs. "What's its name?"
"Peatry," Jay says, snickering at the amount of fur his dog is leaving on Taec's pants. "I wanted Homer but my brother's a douche."
"I had a hermit crab when I was thirteen. I wanted to call it Krusty but my sister said it was gross." He looks up from rubbing Peatry's stomach and grimaces. "We called it Princess instead."
"Suits you," Jay teases, and Taec performs some sort of weird, silent mocking laugh that Jay decides to ignore.
"So you come here often?" Taec gives Peatry one last pat and stands.
Jay frowns, because he had forgotten just how irritating their height difference is. "You trying to hit on me?"
"Yeah, I just can't resist you in a hat." Taec waggles his eyebrows and flicks the brim of Jay's cap before turning to go get the ball, which rolled to a stop in front of a nearby tree. Jay follows, but only to leave Peatry in a shady area, tied to a 'NO DOGS' sign. As Taec approaches, Jay sidesteps him and grabs the ball, dashing to the hoop and scoring a layup. He catches the ball as it exits the hoop, turns back to Taec and raises his eyebrows in a challenge.
Taec sighs, and it's obvious that they both know Jay's gonna kick his ass, but it's something Jay's sure they can both live with.
+
It takes no longer than thirty seconds for Jay to realize that Taec is just as shit at one-on-one as he is at around the world. He has the height that should be perfect but he still has no idea what to do or how to play, chasing Jay and flailing awkwardly whenever Jay goes for a basket.
It's not an effective strategy and Jay beats Taec eleven baskets to one, which Jay only let him have because he felt kinda sorry for him.
"Why are you even here?" Jay puffs, stealing Taec's water bottle and pouring half of it into his mouth.
Taec looks confused, waiting for Jay to return his bottle before finishing it off and squinting at him. "What?
"Dude, for real, you suck at this." He gestures to the basketball hoop behind them and bends over, hands on his knees, trying to regulate his breathing. Although it was an easy win it's been a while since he's had an opponent, and showing off always tires him out quicker.
"Which would be why I'm practicing," Taec points out, but Jay doesn't answer, still just breathing. It was probably a bad idea exercising so much when he has b-boy practice, too, but-
"Oh shit," he says suddenly, jerking up.
B-boy practice.
+
"Jay, what the hell, man?" Dial Tone calls out.
Jay hurries through the door, dropping his backpack and joining his crew on the floor, more late than ever since he almost forgot about Peatry and had to take him home, too. "Sorry guys," he says, immediately going into a set of stretches. "I had a thing."
"A thing?" Junior sounds skeptical as he spots Cha Cha's handstand on the other side of the mat. "You for real?"
"Yeah, man, where've you been? We've been waiting. Waiting and pining." Dial Tone moves over to help Jay out, pulling on his foot, and Jay hesitates before saying anything more.
Normally he would just tell them, because fuck, they know too much about each other already, but he just knows that as soon as he even mentions Taec they're gonna start ragging on him.
At least, that's what he would do.
"I dunno, it was just a thing," he says evasively, and it's a bad move because he sees Dial Tone and Junior exchange looks, Junior letting Cha Cha's feet go and moving closer. "Stop fucking looking at each other, okay? It's nothing, it's just this dude," Jay adds, but realises his first instinct was right when Dial Tone immediately starts cooing, making a love heart with his arm and Junior's. Even Cha Cha is fluttering his eyelashes obnoxiously, and Jay knows that there isn't even a point trying to explain about Jihyen, because with the mood they're in, it's not worth it. Fuck it, it's their loss. They can find out about Jihyen when he brings her to practice and she cheers for him and they fucking drool with jealousy. "We just played some ball, no biggie," he continues nonchalantly, and Dial Tone's eyes widen, his lips forming an impressive pout.
"I thought," he sniffles, "I thought we were your ballers," he says, voice wavering, and Junior snorts loudly.
"You guys are too fucking homo to be my ballers." He throws the closest water bottle at them, and they duck in just enough time.
"You were late because you were meeting some random guy. Who is more homo in this scenario?" Cha Cha points out, and Jay, having no more projectiles nearby, just flips him the bird.
"Seriously, though," Junior pushes, "you were late because of a 'thing', with a 'dude'. That sounds kinda shady."
Dial Tone nods. "Real shady."
"Slim Shady," Junior adds, and they burst into laughter and do their weird handshake-and-chest bump thing.
Jay glares at them. He really should catch on when the Orduna brothers are playing with him, but it's sometimes hard to tell when they double-team him like this.
"Fuck you," Jay says eloquently, kicking out at Dial Tone and turning away before he does anything worse to them, only to see Cha Cha slowly drawing his tongue over his bottom lip in the most disgusting way Jay has ever seen. Jay stares until he eventually stops.
"What?" Cha Cha says, frowning and wiping his mouth with his popped collar. "Too much?"
+
When Jay opens his front door to the insistent ringing of the bell a few days later, he's expecting it to be Mr Weston complaining about Peatry digging up his flowers again and is therefore more than slightly surprised to see Taec instead.
"The fuck," Jay says, blinking. "How do you even know where I live?"
Taec grins. "I got connections."
"Khun doesn't count," Jay tells him, but he just shrugs. "So," Jay adds, angling his body to take up as much room as possible as Taec tries to look inside his house, "wassup?"
"Not much."
"Okay," Jay says, and waits for Taec to continue. And waits some more. When it becomes obvious he isn't going to, Jay shrugs and moves to shut the door. He has things to do today, like play the new Assassin's Creed. Or re-style his hair. Or organize his shoes. Or watch b-boy videos on YouTube. Whatever the future holds for him, it does not involve being bugged by someone who's so terrible at basketball.
"Wait!" Taec sticks his gigantic foot over the threshold and Jay opens the door again, trying to keep his annoyance in check.
"Yes?"
"Jihyen's home today. All day. And it's hot. So she'll be wearing girl clothes."
Jay grins, both tempted by the thought and amused by Taec's awkwardness. "Instead of what, boy clothes? Your clothes? Your dad's clothes?"
"Dude come on, she's my sister. I'm all for you two finding true love and all but there's some things I don't really wanna think about. The point is, she'll be there." He turns away and starts down Jay's front steps.
"And you came all the way here to tell me that," Jay calls dubiously. Sure, he doesn't know Taec that well yet, but he's pretty sure showing up in person like this is weird, especially since cell phones were invented like ten years ago.
"Why not?" he says over his shoulder. "I can give you a lift in my sweet ride." He twirls his keys around his fingers and poses proudly next to an old beat-up Ford sedan.
"That's not a sweet ride," Jay says, finally leaving the sanctuary of his doorway. He moves closer, noticing the obvious rust on the underside, the lack of handle on the back door and crappy tread on the tyres. "It's a ride, but I wouldn't call it a sweet one."
"Hey," Taec says, pouting, "you wanna come or not?"
Jay takes a moment to look from Taec's car and back to his house, where his brother Jehan has appeared in the window and is sucking kissy-faces into the glass, like twenty years separate them and not two. He moves around to the passenger side.
"I'm picking the radio station," he says, and Taec lets him.
+
The trip to Taec's house is short, uneventful and mercifully quiet except for Taec's soft humming along with the radio. When they arrive it is to find two people sitting outside, perched against the fence. One of them is on his phone, the other just staring into space, and as Taec pulls up Jay sees that phone guy is Khun. Jay is immediately suspicious, shooting Taec a questioning look, but Taec ignores him.
"Oh look! Khun is here," he says instead, sounding completely rehearsed and insincere, getting out of the car before Jay can question him further. Jay clambers out and fist-bumps Khun and is just about to ask Taec what the hell is going on when Taec says, "And oh! Chansung is also here!" He performs a big hand gesture and points at the other guy, whose eyes widen.
"Why are you talking like that?" he asks.
"Never you mind, Chansungie," Taec says, still speaking in that ridiculous voice, smacking Chansung hard on the ass, but Khun steps forward and pulls Chansung away.
"That's his lying voice," Khun informs them, narrowing his eyes. "He used it on our TA last week."
Taec looks vaguely panicked. "What? Khunnie, come on-"
"What are you planning, Taecyeon?" Khun interrupts, hands on hips, and Jay would be laughing at how much he sounds like a mom if he didn't want to know the very same thing.
Taec busies himself with picking at his own fingernails. "Welllll," he says, "it's possible that I accidentally broke a window the other day, and since I am merely poor student with no employment, I have to pay my parents back somehow."
"How? By lying to your closest friends?" Khun asks, pouting.
"Nope. All we have to do is clean up the garage, and hey presto, my mom loves me again!" He finally looks up and grins widely. Jay, not for the first time and probably nowhere near the last, wants to punch him in the mouth.
He sighs instead, because now that it's obvious that Taec manipulated them all the odds that he might actually see his Soulmate today are very low. "Jihyen's not here, is she?"
"I think I saw her leave a few minutes before you got here," Chansung supplies helpfully.
"Which means she'll be back!" Taec slaps Jay heartily on the back, sounding way too cheerful for a huge hulking lying liar, before turning and opening the garage door with a flourish. "Ta da!"
As soon as the door's all the way up and enough light filters in to illuminate the space, Chansung lets out a disbelieving laugh, Khun physically recoils, and Jay just stares.
There is not one inch of spare space. The entire floor is covered in boxes stacked to the ceiling, some of them ripped and half-eaten by mice and all of them covered in cobwebs. There's a few pieces of furniture in the corner, but they're gross too and are covered in god-knows-what and it stinks.
It's one of the most disgusting things Jay's ever witnessed-overshadowed only by the time when Peatry rolled in something nasty at the park and he had to clean it up, and the time he accidentally walked in on his parents fucking in the kitchen pantry-and if they all don't get a fatal disease and cause a widespread epidemic, he'll be super surprised.
+
They go slowly at first, not even knowing where to start, but soon enough they all find a role that works for them and end up working well together. Taec should really be in charge since it's his house, but he has no idea how to clean anything and just lets Jay take charge. They all do, actually, but they seem to need someone to keep them on track so Jay doesn't really mind doing it. He puts Taec in charge of lifting because he's strong, Khun in charge of sorting because he's patient, and Chansung in charge of fetching because he seems eager to please, and it all runs pretty smoothly.
"Hey," Chansung says after a several long hours, hanging off Taec's arm and pulling on his massive ears, "I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry," Khun says, sounding tired as he eyes one of the half-disintegrated boxes he's left till last.
"You know what guys, it's cool, I think I got it from here," Taec says, throwing an arm around Chansung and pulling him closer. "Thanks for your help."
"Yeah, well, we didn't have much of a choice," Khun says, so passive-aggressive that Jay can't help rolling his eyes.
"Yes you did," Taec says firmly. "And I'm sorry I lied to you. If it helps, my mom really is sick, I really will buy you lunch, and Jihyen really is wearing a short skirt." Taec looks at each of them in turn, finishing with Jay who immediately feels uneasy under Taec's intense gaze.
He's never been good with this sentimental shit and he turns away to hide his discomfort. "Yeah, well you're buying our food. All of it," he insists, remembering that he has no money because he spent it all on a new pair of kicks. "And I'm not eating anything unless it's a burger."
+
After an argument with Taec leads to a violent game of rock-paper-scissors, Jay and Chansung end up being the ones to trudge to the end of Taec's street to get the burgers, even though Taec is the one with the car.
"He's such a dick," Jay rages, kicking a stone along the pavement. It deflects off a fence and flies directly into Chansung's shin, and Jay cringes. "Shit, sorry!"
Chansung frowns and bends down to rub his leg. "Thanks," he says sadly, and Jay feels even worse.
"I said sorry! Okay, just… order whatever you want, alright? Most expensive burger there is, it's yours," he says desperately.
"Really?"
Jay nods. "It's on Taec."
Chansung brightens and pushes at Jay's shoulder playfully as he straightens up. Jay goes flying forwards, because fuck is this kid strong, but he makes it look like it's what he meant to happen and jams his hands into his pockets, sauntering on. Chansung easily catches up with him and they walk a little in silence but Jay's curiosity gets the better of him.
"How do you know Taec, anyway?" he asks.
Chansung plucks a leaf from an overhanging tree and begins to tear it into strips. "We rap together sometimes."
Jay's entire body jerks to a stop, and he sputters. "Taec raps? Taec?" As in Taec, his dorky Taec, Taec who has no sense of rhythm Taec?
"He's good," Chansung says, looking back and grinning. "Girls love his voice."
Jay takes another moment to process this, before making a serious mental note to make Taec rap for him one day, because he is sure it will be one of the most hilarious things he's ever seen. It's amusing him enough just thinking about it, so much so that he completely tunes out of the conversation imagining it, only getting jolted back in when Chansung claps his hand down on his shoulder.
"Jay?" Chansung is saying, looking at him expectantly.
"Uh, what?"
"What about you? How do you know Taec?"
Jay pauses. He's never really thought about what to say if someone questions their friendship, but it's pretty obvious that if he says oh I'm just putting up with him while I make the moves on his sister he'll come off as a gigantic asshole.
But how do you say that in a nice way?
"His sister's hot," he says finally, beginning to walk again, letting Chansung take that however he wants.
Chansung frowns. "Really? I never noticed."
"Probably because she's never worn a meat dress," Jay shoots back, and Chansung laughs and shoves him again. Jay goes flying once more but he stumbles to a stop directly in front of the burger place so he doesn't bother to complain.
+
They're sprawled across Taec's lounge room furniture, stuffed full and exhausted and watching a Simpsons rerun when Jihyen comes home. Taec is dozing sitting up on the couch, Chansung is spacing out next to him, chewing lethargically on a banana, and Khun is spread across their thighs, head in Taec's lap and feet dangling over Chansung's armrest. Jay chose to separate himself from their threesome right from the beginning, sitting closest to the door in an armchair on Taec's other side, and he's trying to keep himself alert for when Jihyen gets back-which, of course, is the only reason he accepted Taec's offer in the first place-but he keeps drifting off, and when she does finally step into the room, laden with shopping bags, he misses it completely.
They all do actually, and it takes her loudly clearing her throat to get their attention. Taec doesn’t even open his eyes as he lets out a grunt, and the others look at her very briefly before turning back to the TV, but Jay panics and hurries to sit up, running a hand through his sweaty hair and turning on his best woo-the-ladies smile in the hope that it'll distract her from his sweaty grossness.
Jihyen blinks. "Hey Khun, hey Chan," she says. They wave tiredly. "Hey… other guy."
"Ugh," Taec says, after Khun pokes him insistently in the side, and he gestures vaguely in Jay's direction, "this is Jay. You've met."
"All true," Jay says, totally charming, rubbing his palms on the arms of the chair to dry them. It sucks that she doesn't remember him but he'd made a pretty good first impression and that's gotta count for something.
She tilts her head and looks at him. He tries not to be dazzled by her shiny earrings. Or her low neckline. "Oh," she says finally, eyes lighting up with recognition, "from the club, right?"
Jay nods. "Chyeah, you know, that's right." There's a few moments of silence and, feeling nervous, like he's being judged by the others, he suddenly jumps up and sticks out his hand for her to shake.
Which is the wrong move, since her hands are full of bags. She raises an eyebrow.
"Sorry," he says, shaking his head, "I mean, can I help with those?"
"I'm fine. You guys just go back to watching," she cranes her head to see the TV, and wrinkles her nose as Bart moons Mr Burns, "your stupid cartoons."
Taec wakes up fully at that, glaring after her as she leaves. "Hey, this is the most relevant and accessible social commentary produced since The Three Stooges," he calls, and her laughter trails down the hallway behind her until it's muffled by her bedroom door shutting and then the only sounds are Chansung and Homer's loud chewing.
Jay is still awkwardly standing in the middle of the room, not quite sure what just happened, and Taec looks at him and shrugs.
"What can I do, man? She's a free spirit."
Jay is suddenly hit by the realization that this may not be as easy as he'd thought.
+
Jay stays long after everyone else leaves, loitering around Taec's house in the hope that Jihyen will emerge from her room. She doesn't.
Still, though, Taec's company is preferable to his brother's, so he sticks around, even when Taec leaves for a little while to run an errand.
Taec very bravely leaves Jay in his room, probably because it's where he thinks he'll cause the least trouble, and Jay starts off trying to entertain himself by playing on his Wii. He gets bored within half an hour though, the joy found in screwing up all Taec's statistics only lasting so long, and gives up in favour of exploring Taec's room.
It's surprisingly tidy for someone like Taec, particularly after having seen his garage. There's no mess anywhere, although Jay can see the marks on the floor that indicate he's only vacuumed around furniture and not under it. He supposes it's a wonder that Taec even vacuumed at all.
And then Jay slides open one of the closet doors and finds where everything is. Obviously Taec's idea of cleaning is shoving everything out of sight-which is, upon second thought, pretty consistent with what Jay has learned about the Oks so far. Eyebrows raised, Jay skims over boxes messily marked 'Star Wars figures' and 'DBZ videos' and a horrific pile of unnecessarily bright laundry on the lowest level, only to have his attention caught by a folder labeled 'Yearbooks'.
Jay grins.
He eagerly yanks the folder out, ignoring the stack of papers that flies to floor in its wake, and takes it over to Taec's bed, sprawling on it and opening the folder from the back. It's Taec's yearbook from senior year, and Jay's grin widens. Oh, this should be good.
He flicks through the pages, searching for Taec's face or even his name, and he almost misses it, but then he sees one very familiar protruding ear, and-
Jay stares in horror. Right at the front of the photo, the one completely occupied by nerds, the one with the heading 'Chess Club', is teenaged Taec wearing big glasses and clothes that look even stupider than the ones he wears now.
He immediately bursts into laughter. He laughs for ages, for so long his eyes start to water, and every time he thinks he's done, he looks at the photo and starts up again. It only gets worse when he turns the page to find him in the Jazz Club, too, not even looking at the camera for some reason, his hair even more terrible than it was in the Chess picture.
The last picture he finds is the least incriminating, of Taec on the soccer team, and Jay is just laughing at their terrible uniform and how Taec looks like a criminal when-
"He can't actually play, you know," he hears suddenly, from very close, too close, and it surprises him so much he nearly falls off the bed.
"Shit!" he curses, as he kicks himself in the leg.
"Sorry, I thought you heard me come in," Jihyen says mildly, perching next to him, crossing her legs. The skirt she's wearing inches up her thighs and Jay clears his throat.
"No, it's cool, you know, I'm good. I mean. Yeah." He sits upright and swings his legs over the edge, sitting next to her, not so close as to scare her away but close enough that he can feel her body heat.
"He's so different now," she muses, leaning closer to Jay, running her finger over the picture of Taec. "It was so easy to just dismiss him before, but now…" She pulls back abruptly and Jay immediately feels bereft. "He's grown up so much in the past few years, it's hard to keep up. He makes me feel old."
Jay snorts. "You definitely don't look it."
She raises an eyebrow and he shrugs, unapologetic and making her laugh. "Thanks. It's just, I don't know. I mean… Does he have a girlfriend?" she asks abruptly, and Jay blinks.
"I dunno, I haven't really known him long enough," he admits. Taec's never talked about a girl before, but they're not really that close so it's not all that surprising. "I don't think so?"
"Huh," she says, leaning back on her palms, and Jay works not to be too distracted by her shirt as it rides up. "He hasn't had one in a while."
"He hasn't had a chick?" Jay asks, surprised, because he'd have thought that girls would love someone as tall as Taec.
"I don't know why. He's smart and he's funny-"
"He's cheesy and lame, he has really whack fashion sense, he's terrible at sports…" Jay continues, and she laughs again.
"Okay, okay, those too." They're silent for a moment. Jay's kinda thrown off his game since they just spent so long talking about Taec, but he's just about to pitch another topic when she stands up, smoothing down her skirt. "I should go. Nice to see you again, Jay." She smiles at him and he tries to remember how to smile back, watching her as she leaves.
She's perfect. She's so fucking hot and god, Jay really can't believe they spent the entire time talking about Taec. He is what they have in common, so it's probably not really that weird, but still.
At least he has more of an in now, which is good. And not only that, but she called him by his name, and smiled, and flirted, so really there's a lot more good than bad.
"Fucking yes," he breathes, deciding to leave on a good note and tossing Taec's yearbook back into the folder before shoving it back into the closet. Crossing to Taec's desk, he grabs a pen and a random piece of paper and leaves Taec a message.
Bball, he scribbles. Tuesday mournin. Mybe I can teech u sumthing. Payce.
PS. u ever mention chess round me and Ill cut u
+
"You have a tattoo," Taec says as Jay reaches for the bottle of water. The sun had come out halfway through their game and Jay had shed his t-shirt, never one to miss an opportunity to show off his abs. Taec, obviously not confident enough in his body to do the same, had simply rolled the legs of his pants up to reveal some way hairy legs-which Jay had, of course, given him shit for.
It must be the first time Taec's ever seen him shirtless because he's had this tattoo for a while now, since he graduated and was freed from the rules and regulations of his shitty high school. His uncle doesn't care, either, as long as Jay turns up to work on time and changes the tyres he's supposed to, so he's even considering getting another one.
"What does it say?" Taec asks, leaning in so close Jay can feel his breath against his collarbone. It feels weird but Taec doesn't give him an opportunity to complain, just tilts Jay's whole body out of the shadow created by the backboard in the midday sun, and mouths the words as he reads. "What are those numbers?"
"They're predictions of the future," Jay says, struggling to keep a straight face, swigging the remainder of the water. "In those years in the future, some crazy shit is gonna go down." Taec looks up at him, thoroughly confused, and Jay laughs and shoves at him, collapsing back onto the ground. "You fuckhead, they're the years my family was born."
"Aww," Taec teases, lowering himself down next to Jay, "that's so sweet. A mom-approved tattoo."
"I got one, don’t I?"
"Hey, I could get one if I wanted."
Jay snorts. He can practically feel Taec pouting. And lying.
"I could! If I really wanted to, I could. But I don't, so that voids this entire conversation, and I refuse to think I am any less of a man because of it." He pauses. "But the point is, I could."
"Yeah, okay Angelina Jolie, I get it," Jay laughs, elbowing him hard in the ribs. Taec retaliates and they descend into silence.
Time's slowly getting on and he should really get home soon, because he promised Jehan he'd bring pizza for lunch, and the moron's already called five times to remind him. The tarmac isn't all that comfortable, either, and a decent-sized stone is digging right into his lower back, but he ignores it, lulled by Taec's steady breathing beside him.
"If I was gonna get a tattoo," Taec says quietly a few minutes later, right when Jay is beginning to feel super-sleepy, "I'd get a cat."
"A cat," Jay says flatly. He can't be fucking serious. "Where?"
"My ass."
Jay punches him on the arm.
+
Jay has no idea how, but Taec somehow manages to time his calls so that they are as inconvenient for Jay as possible. The first time, Jay is in the bathroom. The second time, the shower. The third time, an undisclosed location participating in undisclosed acts, and so on.
When he calls this time Jay is in the middle of a routine with Cha Cha, and Junior, who's supposed to be videotaping them, answers for him. Jay keeps an eye on him through the mirror and immediately doesn't like the way Junior's grin broadens, or the way he looks so slyly at Jay. Thankfully the song finishes quickly and Jay hurries over and grabs for his phone, but Junior is a little shit and tries to keep it away from him, leaving Jay with no choice but to use force.
"Is that guy okay?" Taec asks as soon as Jay wrestles the phone from Junior and grunts a greeting.
"He's just a little retarded," Jay pants. "It's not his fault, he was dropped on his head as a kid. A lot." Junior flips him the bird and takes his place on the floor.
"So anyway, I spoke to Jihyen," Taec says animatedly, but Jay knows him well enough by now to realise that could mean anything. He signals to Cha Cha that he's leaving, ignoring Junior's catcalls and shoving him over as he passes.
"Break it down," he says, stepping outside and leaning against the wall. It's uncharacteristically warm, the balmy breeze doing nothing to soothe his sweat-soaked skin, and he realises way too late that he should have grabbed his water bottle before coming out.
"Not much to break down, man, she just told me to text you her phone number and you guys can go from there."
"Really?" Jay frowns. Someone of Jihyen's calibre, he would have expected it to be harder. "That's all she said?"
"Yes."
"Taec, if you're fucking with me-"
"I'm not, that's what she said! Don't tell me you're doubting your Jayness…"
"I'm not doubting, there's nothing to doubt," he snaps. But still. This almost feels like she gave in too easily. Girls like her supposed to play hard to get. What if this is a trap?
He's about to say as much but someone yells something on the other end, asking Taec a question, and Taec fades out as he answers them.
"Who is that?" Jay asks, suddenly distracted, straining to hear, and Taec laughs distantly before his voice gets closer.
"Chansung and I are playing Starcraft. He just-Junho, what the hell, we're supposed to be working together!" More voices, more laughter.
"Okay," Jay says dully and briefly wonders why Taec didn't invite him. His technofail is pretty widely known, and Taec probably just thought he wouldn't be interested but it would've been nice to be asked. "Guess I'll see you nerds later, then."
"Oh, Jay, wait," Taec calls loudly, just as Jay's about to hang up, "she likes flowers."
Jay's mind goes blank for a moment before he remembers who Taec's referring to. "What kind?"
"What?" Taec says, sounding distracted, and Jay tamps down on his frustration.
"Flowers, what kind? There's more than one."
Taec laughs. "I dunno, man, go with your gut. Annyeong!" He hangs up.
When Jay goes back inside, Junior is still snickering. This time Jay trips him right in the middle of his baby mill.
+
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