On the Other Side of You (9/11)
HAH. HAAAAA. VICTORY.
Title: On the Other Side of You, Chapter 9
Rating: This chapter - PG. Overall, NC17.
Form: Chaptered, 9/11
Genre: crack, smut, drama, AU.
Summary: Yunho meets two boys with exactly the same faces, but as different as night and day. Who are they, and why are they everywhere he turns these days?
This chapter: Yunho meets up with Jae for coffee and returning-of-notes.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
It seems I'm always appologising with this fic. I know this is eons late, but frankly I’ve lost all motivation to write this story. Not to worry, I will finish it, eventually, but it’s gonna be a long slog. I’m going to try and wrap it up in maybe 2 more chapters. Hopefully. ^^; Absoultely no promises on when they'll be coming though.
AND XD XD I COULDN’T RESIST. He had to be in one of my Jaeho fics, somewhere! I’ve been dying to do it for ages, and this was an opportunity. Haha. :3
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He was late. He hadn’t meant to be, but he’d probably scheduled this a little tightly, what with how his psychology tutor liked to waffle on. The man was brilliant, but honestly didn’t know when to shut up. He’d practically run from his class, thankful that the coffee shop Jaejoong had suggested was not all that far from campus, so that hopefully he wouldn’t be too late. He’d been to the place a few times before… it was nothing special, but a good enough meeting point, where Yunho could finally give Jaejoong back his notes.
He jogged down the streets until he got the small cluster of shops which contained the coffee shop, grateful to see the dark blue sign of the place as he paused a moment to catch his breath. After taking a moment to compose himself, he pushed through the door.
Yunho spotted Jaejoong at a table on the far side of the room, sitting against the wall. He was laughing, hand over his mouth as his face lit with mirth. For a moment, Yunho just stared at him. It was only after a hand reached across to pull Jaejoong’s arm down that Yunho realized the little baker wasn’t alone.
Across from him was another young man with a thick muscular build and a soft, rounded face. The guy was also wearing a staff apron. Yunho frowned slightly, oddly affronted that Jaejoong was sitting with someone else when he was there to meet Yunho. It was also odd to see Jaejoong so animated. Whatever his conversation with the other man was, he seemed very engaged with it, talking and gesturing with a smile still on his face.
Huffing out a breath, Yunho shook himself mentally and made his way through the tables towards them, lips pursed. As he approached their table, he finally made out that they were not speaking Korean, but quite rapid-fire Japanese.
“Jaejoong?” Yunho said, half a greeting, half a question as he neared the table. Jaejoong looked up, surprise on his face dawning into recognition as he saw who had said his name.
“Ah! Yunho…!” He squeaked, shyness back full force it seemed.
“Sorry I’m a little late.” Yunho said apologetically, eyes wandering from Jaejoong to the young man opposite from him. Strangely enough, Yunho took an immediate disliking for the man. Up close, his face was quite attractive, with cupid bow lips and large, even eyes, but something about him rubbed Yunho the wrong way and he decided that the man looked quite gorilla-like with his dark skin and big arms.
“Oh, uhm, no, that’s okay.” Jaejoong stuttered out, looking across at his friend and then up at Yunho. “Uh… This is my friend Yamashita. Tomohisa, this is Yunho.” He introduced, fumbling over the words.
“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Yamashita said, his words slightly accented and a tad slow. Yunho nodded in acceptance of the greeting.
“You too.” He returned a little stiffly. He wondered what to do next - there were only two seats at the table. He looked pointedly from Jaejoong to Yamashita and back again, and Jaejoong seemed to get the point, suddenly jumping a bit in his seat and turning red.
“Uh…” He paused, pushing up his glasses nervously. He said something briefly in Japanese, and Yamashita smiled, nodding. He stood up and motioned Yunho to sit in his newly vacated seat.
“Would you like something to drink?” He asked Yunho pleasantly as he pulled a pad from his apron pocket.
“Yeah… uh, a café latte thanks.” He ordered absently, sitting down and pushing his bag under his seat.
“Sure. I’ll be back soon.” Yamashita said, wandering off after giving Jaejoong a last pleasant smile which Jaejoong shyly returned. Yunho frowned again.
“Who’s he?” He asked abruptly as soon as the other was out of earshot. Jaejoong turned back to look at Yunho, blinking at the expression he found on the taller’s face.
“Tomohisa? Ah, he’s a Japanese exchange student. He’s very nice.” Jaejoong said earnestly, as if trying to convince Yunho.
“He goes to our uni?” Yunho asked, mentally noting the name to see what he could find out about the guy. Jaejoong nodded.
“Yes… He’s a business student. But we do a sort of language exchange, so that we can both practice… he speaks Korean really well.”
“You speak Japanese really well.” Yunho returned, quite matter of factly, and Jaejoong blushed prettily.
“Ah, well… that is…” He mumbled as he pushed up his glasses in a reflexively nervous habit. Yunho laughed at his inability to take a compliment, causing him to flush even further. He was so easy to get a reaction from!
“How’ve you been?” Yunho decided to give the shy boy some slack and give him an out to responding to his compliment.
“Oh, uh fine I guess.” Jaejoong replied, almost startled by the question. For some reason it just seemed a little odd coming from Yunho… they’d only just seen each other a few days beforehand, had that strange conversation in the cafeteria of the uni. With Yunho’s odd friends. “And you?” He asked hurriedly after a moment, realizing it was generally what you were meant to ask in response.
“eh, same old same old. I’m wishing term would hurry up and end already.” Yunho replied easily, leaning casually on and elbow, propping his cheek in his hand. “My lectures are so boring…” He complained.
Jaejoong just looked at him, again stuck and not knowing how to respond. “You don’t like your course?” He ventured eventually, cupping the tall mug before him with both hands absently, looking across at the handsome, easy going boy across from him. He elaborated on his thought of Yunho’s earlier question being odd - the whole scene was a little odd. He honestly didn’t understand why Yunho was still talking to him. He’d thought the accidental meeting and note-lending would have been the end of it, with Yunho perhaps deigning to give back his notes at some point after having made use of his geeky-ness - but hardly like this. This was almost, Jaejoong flushed again at the very thought, almost like they were friends or something.
Yunho scrunched up his nose a little and shrugged nonchalantly.
“It’s okay I suppose. I mean, I find it interesting at times, and it’s way better then law - which is what my parents wanted me to do. I’m not really… academic I guess.” He was stopped from expanding further when Yamashita appeared by their table.
“Café latte.” The Japanese man said genially, sliding the drink down onto the table before Yunho. He looked over at Jaejoong. “Would you like another, Jaejoong?” He tilted his head in askance, but Jaejoong shook his head quickly.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t. Thank you so much, Tomohisa.” He said, so sincerely that Yunho raised his eyebrows, looking from Jaejoong to his café latte to Yamashita.
“No problem. We’ll meet again next week, yes?” Yamashita said, that odd lilt in his Korean making the words sound a bit off.
Yunho pulled his drink in towards him, eyeing the other man as the pair conversed. He wished Yamashita would just go away already - wasn’t he meant to be working?! It seemed like an age until they seemed to make an end to their conversation.
Yamashita waved at them, and bowed slightly to Yunho.
“Nice to have met you Yunho. Please enjoy.” He said in parting, to which Yunho just grunted to. He knew it was rude, but he didn’t really care. It wasn’t as if he’d be seeing this guy again anytime soon.
“So.” Yunho said after a moment. “I brought your folder back. Thanks again for letting me borrow them - it made a big difference, I can tell you.”
Jaejoong ducked his head bashfully, hands fiddling with a napkin nervously, folding it over on itself.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad they helped. It’s not like I have much use for them anymore.” He said quietly. Yunho just studied him as he took a sip of his drink.
“Well, they were very useful to me. You take brilliant notes, Jaejoong. You must be a very good student.” He complimented. Jaejoong’s face went red, and Yunho grinned slightly, abruptly coughing to cover it when the mousy boy looked up. His glasses were sliding down his nose, and the bashful expression, coupled with his red face, made him look adorable. “You must be on the honour roll, right?” Yunho prodded, half just to see if Jaejoong could possibly get any redder.
“I… uh.” True to form, the blush spread down his neck and up into his ears, making him glow pink all over. Yunho bit his lip in amusement, especially when Jae hunched over himself even more, as if to hide.
“I’m not very smart.” Jaejoong refuted after a moment to recover from his embarrassment.
“Oh come on, I’ve seen what you wrote - you know your stuff, and write well. And you said you’re at uni on a scholarship. You must be smart.” Yunho said, waving off Jaejoong’s refusal to accept a compliment. Jaejoong began shaking his head emphatically though.
“No… I’m really not very bright. I guess if you spend enough time on something, you eventually learn it though. And I guess I just like to study. It’s… quiet.”
Well, Yunho wasn’t sure he agreed with the first part (scholarships did not just fall out of the sky, no matter how much you wished for it), but ‘quiet’ seemed like just the sort of thing Jaejoong enjoyed, so he couldn’t argue that.
Jaejoong meanwhile was staring with conviction at his napkin and wondering why Yunho was doing this to him. Having the ability to melt into a little puddle and slide away would be much welcome right at the minute. This was so awkward!
And it continued to be awkward. They chatted tentatively about some of their university subjects and about some of the recent events like the student council elections in which thousands of trees were sacrificed in the name of guerrilla pamphlet attacks and nasty limpet lobbyists. Really though, like all of their previous conversations, Yunho found himself doing most of the talking while Jaejoong shyly offered words here and there when Yunho made it clear it was his turn to talk. The boy really wasn’t much of a conversationalists. For some reason though, Yunho didn’t mind at all, jabbering away and watching the odd, rather endearing reactions of the linguist.
It was nearly an hour later when Jaejoong’s occasional glances at the clock hanging on one wall of the café became more and more frequent, until he eventually spoke up.
“Thank you for returning my notes, Yunho. I’m really glad they were useful.” He said. “I'm really sorry, but... I, uhm, I have to go now.”
“Oh. Oh! Of course. Sorry.” Yunho said, wondering if he’d been babbling on at Jaejoong and keeping him in the café when he really wanted to leave. It seemed sadly likely that the pretty boy wouldn’t leave for fear of upsetting him, or something equally silly.
Yunho slid over the folder of notes, which Jaejoong packed into his ever-present, heavy looking book bag. Yunho stuffed his crumpled napkin into his mug and picked it up to leave in the collection area, slinging his own bag over one shoulder. Looking back, he saw Jaejoong standing, his head down and shoulders hunched. He waved at Yamashita, who was behind the counter still, and then began to move towards the door. Yunho caught up with him in a couple of steps.
Strangely loathe to part ways, Yunho’s mouth engaged before his brain had a chance to think about the words.
“Come on. I’ll walk you home.” Yunho suggested, pushing open the café door and letting Jae walk through. Jae, predictably, pinked at the treatment.
“Uhm. Thank you Yunho… but I’m actually not going home right now.” Jaejoong told him, as they stood on the footpath outside the shop.
“Where are you going then?”
“Oh, I’ve got work.” Jae explained. Yunho’s face positively lit up.
“Work? At The King’s Man?” He asked, a bit too eagerly. Jae laughed slightly, covering it quickly with a hand. Yunho was really a little bit fanatical about the muffins, Jae thought. But he wasn’t about to say that to Yunho’s face!
“Yes. At the bakery.” He confirmed. Yunho beamed at him.
“Well then, I’m definitely coming with you then!” He said enthusiastically. Jaejoong’s smile was almost fond, Yunho thought as they began to walk down the road.
Wondering what to say next, Yunho tried to think of a topic. A certain tall, acerbic young man sprung to mind. Perhaps not exactly what Yunho wanted to talk about… but it was a start.
“How’s Changmin?” He tried. Jaejoong looked over at him, seeming a little bewildered at the sudden question.
“He’s fine…?” Jae said in reply, tentatively, as if he wasn’t sure what kind of answer Yunho wanted. Yunho just nodded though.
“Yoochun seems to think he’s a very smart guy.” Yunho put forward. Jaejoong’s expression cleared, and he began to look proud.
“Oh yes! Min is really smart. He’s only 17 you know. He skipped all these grades at school and still topped the entrance exams.” Jaejoong told him. Yunho grimaced a little at the glowing words. 17? No wonder the kid was a brat!
“Have you two known each other long?”
“Most of our lives. Changmin went to the same primary school as me. We’ve been friends ever since.” Actually, Changmin had been bullied for being younger and smaller, and Jaejoong had tried to help him. Jaejoong wasn’t exactly big or respected either, and didn’t make much of a rescuer. The shared beating however had somehow cemented a friendship, so Jaejoong couldn’t say he’d ever regretted it.
Yunho really wanted to know why Changmin seemed so protective of Jaejoong, but he figured he probably wouldn’t get much of a response from Jaejoong about it, and the last thing he wanted to do was to upset the boy.
“What does he study?” Yunho asked instead.
“Science. Chemistry mainly. He likes mixing stuff together. Seeing reactions, and so forth.” Jaejoong explained. Jaejoong had always tried to tell his friend that cooking was very much like chemistry, but it didn’t seem to matter - for all his genius in the science lab, Changmin was just as likely to blow something up in the kitchen.
“He must have long hours then.” Yunho observed, knowing the science kids always seemed to be buried in work.
“Yes. Quite a lot. We try to organize it so that we’re at uni at the same times though, so that we can eat together. It’s nice to see him.”
Yunho had no doubt, since Yoochun’s reconnaissance had brought back that the pair were like glue. Jaejoong had few people he hung out with, and the young genius seemed to be his constant companion. Most people didn’t know Jaejoong at all - he slid through the cracks somehow, unnoticed by even people that were in most of his classes. Changmin garnered more attention, given his touted cleverness and ‘reputation’ - he was already published in a few scientific magazines. Yunho could just imagine that the nerds of the university would love the lanky bugger.
“He’s going to do a lot of great things.” Jaejoong added after a few moments, smiling softly at the pavement.
“What about you?” Yunho asked, sick of talking about the other guy. Jaejoong looked up at him, that same puzzled expression on his face as before, like he couldn’t understand what Yunho was talking about. “Well, I mean - what do you want to do once you graduate?” Yunho tried to focus the question a bit more. It seemed obvious that anything to do with praising himself did not compute in Jaejoong’s brain.
“Oh. Uhm.” Jaejoong seemed to think about it for a moment, before shrugging a little, looking back at his shoes. “I don’t know.” He said, pretty simply. Though Yunho had the creeping suspicion he did know, he just didn’t want to tell Yunho.
“You don’t want to work as a translator? Go overseas?” He prodded. From the way Jaejoong was jabbering to that coffee boy, Jaejoong had to be pretty fluent in Japanese. And English was always in demand. If he had those kinds of skills, Yunho would be gone as soon as his last exam was done, off to see more of the world.
“Oh no!” Jaejoong sounded almost scared, or horrified, by the suggestion. “I couldn’t go overseas. No, no…” He mumbled off, shaking his head emphatically. Yunho’s brow furrowed.
“Why not? I’d want to. Go see places, try new things.” As soon as he’d said that though, he could see that it might not really be Jaejoong’s thing. He was so meek even in every-day situations, in places he visited all the time. He’d probably expire on the spot in some foreign land.
“No… I, I’d really rather not.” Jaejoong’s timid reply just confirmed his thought. “I don’t know… maybe translating documents? I think I could do that.” The bespectacled boy said after a pause in the conversation, almost as if he were offering the suggestion up to Yunho for approval.
“I’m sure you could.” Yunho said encouragingly. There was another pause, and then Yunho started talking without even thinking about it. “My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, you know? ‘Cuz my dad’s a lawyer, and his dad was too. But I hated the idea of it… I couldn’t stand the thought of having to… argue, and trick people and such.”
Jaejoong looked over at him in some surprise. It was quite a personal remark to make, and it was odd Yunho just offered it up to him with little preamble. Yunho himself was wondering why he was talking about this, why he felt the need to tell Jaejoong of all people, who he barely knew. Yoochun was the only other person he’d ever talked to this about… and he’d known Yoochun all his life. It wasn’t really something he liked to advertise.
“My father’s a bit of a bastard sometimes.” Okay, and he really hadn’t meant to say that. There was an intake of breath at his side, and he caught Jaejoong staring at him wide eyed, shock shining through his thick glasses. “Oh, not to me. He’s a decent enough dad.” Yunho waved away quickly. “I just meant… as a lawyer. He does whatever it takes, no matter the cost, y’know? And I don’t want to do that.”
“You want to help people.” Jaejoong’s voice was soft, but, unlike much of what Jaejoong said, it wasn’t a question. Yunho blinked at the surety of it.
“Huh?” He asked, intelligently. Jaejoong smiled at him, genuinely and fully - the sweet curve of his lips opening up his face beautifully.
“You chose psychology because you want to help people be better. Want to help them with their problems.” Jaejoong explained, eyes shining the idea of it.
Yunho, on the other hand, felt like someone had dropped an anvil on his head. Help people? That hadn’t really come into the debate when Yoochun and he had been flipping through course options, trying to figure out which sounded halfway interesting, would be deemed acceptable by their parents and didn’t require too much lab time or too many lecture hours.
But, looking over at how sincere and warm Jeajoong’s expression was, how chivalrous he seemed to suddenly believe Yunho to be… he couldn’t find the words to explain that to the other boy. He coughed, clearing his throat and looking away from the innocence in that gaze. Oh well, he told himself, if Jaejoong wanted to believe he was a saint or something, so much the better, right? Who cared what he thought anyway. He repeated this to himself a few times, kicking the nagging guilt he felt into the recesses of his mind.
“Maybe.” He eventually said, noncommittally. Jaejoong just smiled again though, seeming to take this as a confirmation, and Yunho thought that someone must have just drowned a kitten somewhere.
Jaejoong seemed to float happily on this thought for a while, walking silently beside Yunho. Their peaceful (or not-so, depending on how badly guilt was wringing your neck) stroll was interrupted by the tinny sound of a bad ringtone. Yunho knew it wasn’t his (his was a MP3 file of some dance song he liked), so it was Jaejoong searching through his bag frantically, trying to find his phone.
“Hello?” Jae’s voice was even softer then usual when he answered, brows drawn together as his attention clearly focused on listening. There was a sharp blast of incomprehensible noise from his phone that Yunho couldn’t discern. Jaejoong bit his lip as he listened, saying nothing as the noise continued. Finally enough of a pause presented itself for the young man to speak.
“Yes mother… I understand.” He said, and then the noise started again. Yunho’s ears pricked up even further at the mention of Jaejoong’s mother, but the voice, though loud, was impossible to make sense of for him. He instead watched Jaejoong from the corner of his eyes, trying not to be too overt in his interest.
Jaejoong’s face remained impassive with vague edges of worry hovering around him. It seemed like this strange event (to Yunho’s mind, anyway) was not an unusual occurrence. He bore the impatient-sounding litany silently, steps along the footpath not slowing. The rant - or lecture, more like - seemed to go on for forever, before it abruptly just cut off, silence filling the line. Jaejoong closed his phone slowly, tucking it back into his bag without another word.
Yunho eyed him, wondering what to say. He was unbearably curious, but he didn’t think Jaejoong would say anything if he asked outright.
“That was your mother?” He asked. Jaejoong shot a quick glance his way, but then looked away just as quickly, fiddling with his glasses.
“Yes.” He said. A moment’s hesitation, and then, “She just wanted to remind me that I have to pick up some things before going home.” The explanation seemed very final, and frustratingly unhelpful.
There were a few moments of silence while Yunho tried to think up an appropriately sneaky way to wrestle some more information from Jaejoong. Just as he was about to open his mouth however, Jaejoong let out a hurried little noise.
“Work!” he exclaimed, and almost ran away across the street towards the funny shop front of The King’s Man, which was looking particularly cheery for some reason.
Sighing, Yunho hurried after him, his nose quickly latching onto the happy smell of pastries, with his stomach eagerly following suit, letting out a loud rumble of anticipation. Pushing through the door, he saw Jaejoong already scuttling into the backroom. The place looked pretty deserted - there was only one lone girl in the store, sitting at one of the tables while staring goopily at Kibum as he arranged pastries on a tray.
“Hi there!” Kibum greeted, seeing him standing there. “Yunho, wasn’t it?” He asked, brows furrowing slightly as he recalled the name.
“Ah, yes…” Yunho muttered, coming up to the counter and trying to surreptitiously peer into the back room to try and catch a glimpse of Jaejoong.
“Back for more muffins?” The counter boy asked with a somewhat amused expression. He took the tray and loaded it back into its spot in the display cabinet. “Or are you here to see Jaejoong?”
Yunho transferred his gaze to Kibum, blinking. “Well. I.” He began, and then stalled and frowned a little.
“I’ll take two blueberry muffins.” He said finally, and willed himself not to try and peer through the backdoor again. After all, he was just there for muffins.
Wasn’t he?
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Cast pics
Title: On the Other Side of You, Chapter 9
Rating: This chapter - PG. Overall, NC17.
Form: Chaptered, 9/11
Genre: crack, smut, drama, AU.
Summary: Yunho meets two boys with exactly the same faces, but as different as night and day. Who are they, and why are they everywhere he turns these days?
This chapter: Yunho meets up with Jae for coffee and returning-of-notes.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
It seems I'm always appologising with this fic. I know this is eons late, but frankly I’ve lost all motivation to write this story. Not to worry, I will finish it, eventually, but it’s gonna be a long slog. I’m going to try and wrap it up in maybe 2 more chapters. Hopefully. ^^; Absoultely no promises on when they'll be coming though.
AND XD XD I COULDN’T RESIST. He had to be in one of my Jaeho fics, somewhere! I’ve been dying to do it for ages, and this was an opportunity. Haha. :3
+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+♥+
He was late. He hadn’t meant to be, but he’d probably scheduled this a little tightly, what with how his psychology tutor liked to waffle on. The man was brilliant, but honestly didn’t know when to shut up. He’d practically run from his class, thankful that the coffee shop Jaejoong had suggested was not all that far from campus, so that hopefully he wouldn’t be too late. He’d been to the place a few times before… it was nothing special, but a good enough meeting point, where Yunho could finally give Jaejoong back his notes.
He jogged down the streets until he got the small cluster of shops which contained the coffee shop, grateful to see the dark blue sign of the place as he paused a moment to catch his breath. After taking a moment to compose himself, he pushed through the door.
Yunho spotted Jaejoong at a table on the far side of the room, sitting against the wall. He was laughing, hand over his mouth as his face lit with mirth. For a moment, Yunho just stared at him. It was only after a hand reached across to pull Jaejoong’s arm down that Yunho realized the little baker wasn’t alone.
Across from him was another young man with a thick muscular build and a soft, rounded face. The guy was also wearing a staff apron. Yunho frowned slightly, oddly affronted that Jaejoong was sitting with someone else when he was there to meet Yunho. It was also odd to see Jaejoong so animated. Whatever his conversation with the other man was, he seemed very engaged with it, talking and gesturing with a smile still on his face.
Huffing out a breath, Yunho shook himself mentally and made his way through the tables towards them, lips pursed. As he approached their table, he finally made out that they were not speaking Korean, but quite rapid-fire Japanese.
“Jaejoong?” Yunho said, half a greeting, half a question as he neared the table. Jaejoong looked up, surprise on his face dawning into recognition as he saw who had said his name.
“Ah! Yunho…!” He squeaked, shyness back full force it seemed.
“Sorry I’m a little late.” Yunho said apologetically, eyes wandering from Jaejoong to the young man opposite from him. Strangely enough, Yunho took an immediate disliking for the man. Up close, his face was quite attractive, with cupid bow lips and large, even eyes, but something about him rubbed Yunho the wrong way and he decided that the man looked quite gorilla-like with his dark skin and big arms.
“Oh, uhm, no, that’s okay.” Jaejoong stuttered out, looking across at his friend and then up at Yunho. “Uh… This is my friend Yamashita. Tomohisa, this is Yunho.” He introduced, fumbling over the words.
“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Yamashita said, his words slightly accented and a tad slow. Yunho nodded in acceptance of the greeting.
“You too.” He returned a little stiffly. He wondered what to do next - there were only two seats at the table. He looked pointedly from Jaejoong to Yamashita and back again, and Jaejoong seemed to get the point, suddenly jumping a bit in his seat and turning red.
“Uh…” He paused, pushing up his glasses nervously. He said something briefly in Japanese, and Yamashita smiled, nodding. He stood up and motioned Yunho to sit in his newly vacated seat.
“Would you like something to drink?” He asked Yunho pleasantly as he pulled a pad from his apron pocket.
“Yeah… uh, a café latte thanks.” He ordered absently, sitting down and pushing his bag under his seat.
“Sure. I’ll be back soon.” Yamashita said, wandering off after giving Jaejoong a last pleasant smile which Jaejoong shyly returned. Yunho frowned again.
“Who’s he?” He asked abruptly as soon as the other was out of earshot. Jaejoong turned back to look at Yunho, blinking at the expression he found on the taller’s face.
“Tomohisa? Ah, he’s a Japanese exchange student. He’s very nice.” Jaejoong said earnestly, as if trying to convince Yunho.
“He goes to our uni?” Yunho asked, mentally noting the name to see what he could find out about the guy. Jaejoong nodded.
“Yes… He’s a business student. But we do a sort of language exchange, so that we can both practice… he speaks Korean really well.”
“You speak Japanese really well.” Yunho returned, quite matter of factly, and Jaejoong blushed prettily.
“Ah, well… that is…” He mumbled as he pushed up his glasses in a reflexively nervous habit. Yunho laughed at his inability to take a compliment, causing him to flush even further. He was so easy to get a reaction from!
“How’ve you been?” Yunho decided to give the shy boy some slack and give him an out to responding to his compliment.
“Oh, uh fine I guess.” Jaejoong replied, almost startled by the question. For some reason it just seemed a little odd coming from Yunho… they’d only just seen each other a few days beforehand, had that strange conversation in the cafeteria of the uni. With Yunho’s odd friends. “And you?” He asked hurriedly after a moment, realizing it was generally what you were meant to ask in response.
“eh, same old same old. I’m wishing term would hurry up and end already.” Yunho replied easily, leaning casually on and elbow, propping his cheek in his hand. “My lectures are so boring…” He complained.
Jaejoong just looked at him, again stuck and not knowing how to respond. “You don’t like your course?” He ventured eventually, cupping the tall mug before him with both hands absently, looking across at the handsome, easy going boy across from him. He elaborated on his thought of Yunho’s earlier question being odd - the whole scene was a little odd. He honestly didn’t understand why Yunho was still talking to him. He’d thought the accidental meeting and note-lending would have been the end of it, with Yunho perhaps deigning to give back his notes at some point after having made use of his geeky-ness - but hardly like this. This was almost, Jaejoong flushed again at the very thought, almost like they were friends or something.
Yunho scrunched up his nose a little and shrugged nonchalantly.
“It’s okay I suppose. I mean, I find it interesting at times, and it’s way better then law - which is what my parents wanted me to do. I’m not really… academic I guess.” He was stopped from expanding further when Yamashita appeared by their table.
“Café latte.” The Japanese man said genially, sliding the drink down onto the table before Yunho. He looked over at Jaejoong. “Would you like another, Jaejoong?” He tilted his head in askance, but Jaejoong shook his head quickly.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t. Thank you so much, Tomohisa.” He said, so sincerely that Yunho raised his eyebrows, looking from Jaejoong to his café latte to Yamashita.
“No problem. We’ll meet again next week, yes?” Yamashita said, that odd lilt in his Korean making the words sound a bit off.
Yunho pulled his drink in towards him, eyeing the other man as the pair conversed. He wished Yamashita would just go away already - wasn’t he meant to be working?! It seemed like an age until they seemed to make an end to their conversation.
Yamashita waved at them, and bowed slightly to Yunho.
“Nice to have met you Yunho. Please enjoy.” He said in parting, to which Yunho just grunted to. He knew it was rude, but he didn’t really care. It wasn’t as if he’d be seeing this guy again anytime soon.
“So.” Yunho said after a moment. “I brought your folder back. Thanks again for letting me borrow them - it made a big difference, I can tell you.”
Jaejoong ducked his head bashfully, hands fiddling with a napkin nervously, folding it over on itself.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad they helped. It’s not like I have much use for them anymore.” He said quietly. Yunho just studied him as he took a sip of his drink.
“Well, they were very useful to me. You take brilliant notes, Jaejoong. You must be a very good student.” He complimented. Jaejoong’s face went red, and Yunho grinned slightly, abruptly coughing to cover it when the mousy boy looked up. His glasses were sliding down his nose, and the bashful expression, coupled with his red face, made him look adorable. “You must be on the honour roll, right?” Yunho prodded, half just to see if Jaejoong could possibly get any redder.
“I… uh.” True to form, the blush spread down his neck and up into his ears, making him glow pink all over. Yunho bit his lip in amusement, especially when Jae hunched over himself even more, as if to hide.
“I’m not very smart.” Jaejoong refuted after a moment to recover from his embarrassment.
“Oh come on, I’ve seen what you wrote - you know your stuff, and write well. And you said you’re at uni on a scholarship. You must be smart.” Yunho said, waving off Jaejoong’s refusal to accept a compliment. Jaejoong began shaking his head emphatically though.
“No… I’m really not very bright. I guess if you spend enough time on something, you eventually learn it though. And I guess I just like to study. It’s… quiet.”
Well, Yunho wasn’t sure he agreed with the first part (scholarships did not just fall out of the sky, no matter how much you wished for it), but ‘quiet’ seemed like just the sort of thing Jaejoong enjoyed, so he couldn’t argue that.
Jaejoong meanwhile was staring with conviction at his napkin and wondering why Yunho was doing this to him. Having the ability to melt into a little puddle and slide away would be much welcome right at the minute. This was so awkward!
And it continued to be awkward. They chatted tentatively about some of their university subjects and about some of the recent events like the student council elections in which thousands of trees were sacrificed in the name of guerrilla pamphlet attacks and nasty limpet lobbyists. Really though, like all of their previous conversations, Yunho found himself doing most of the talking while Jaejoong shyly offered words here and there when Yunho made it clear it was his turn to talk. The boy really wasn’t much of a conversationalists. For some reason though, Yunho didn’t mind at all, jabbering away and watching the odd, rather endearing reactions of the linguist.
It was nearly an hour later when Jaejoong’s occasional glances at the clock hanging on one wall of the café became more and more frequent, until he eventually spoke up.
“Thank you for returning my notes, Yunho. I’m really glad they were useful.” He said. “I'm really sorry, but... I, uhm, I have to go now.”
“Oh. Oh! Of course. Sorry.” Yunho said, wondering if he’d been babbling on at Jaejoong and keeping him in the café when he really wanted to leave. It seemed sadly likely that the pretty boy wouldn’t leave for fear of upsetting him, or something equally silly.
Yunho slid over the folder of notes, which Jaejoong packed into his ever-present, heavy looking book bag. Yunho stuffed his crumpled napkin into his mug and picked it up to leave in the collection area, slinging his own bag over one shoulder. Looking back, he saw Jaejoong standing, his head down and shoulders hunched. He waved at Yamashita, who was behind the counter still, and then began to move towards the door. Yunho caught up with him in a couple of steps.
Strangely loathe to part ways, Yunho’s mouth engaged before his brain had a chance to think about the words.
“Come on. I’ll walk you home.” Yunho suggested, pushing open the café door and letting Jae walk through. Jae, predictably, pinked at the treatment.
“Uhm. Thank you Yunho… but I’m actually not going home right now.” Jaejoong told him, as they stood on the footpath outside the shop.
“Where are you going then?”
“Oh, I’ve got work.” Jae explained. Yunho’s face positively lit up.
“Work? At The King’s Man?” He asked, a bit too eagerly. Jae laughed slightly, covering it quickly with a hand. Yunho was really a little bit fanatical about the muffins, Jae thought. But he wasn’t about to say that to Yunho’s face!
“Yes. At the bakery.” He confirmed. Yunho beamed at him.
“Well then, I’m definitely coming with you then!” He said enthusiastically. Jaejoong’s smile was almost fond, Yunho thought as they began to walk down the road.
Wondering what to say next, Yunho tried to think of a topic. A certain tall, acerbic young man sprung to mind. Perhaps not exactly what Yunho wanted to talk about… but it was a start.
“How’s Changmin?” He tried. Jaejoong looked over at him, seeming a little bewildered at the sudden question.
“He’s fine…?” Jae said in reply, tentatively, as if he wasn’t sure what kind of answer Yunho wanted. Yunho just nodded though.
“Yoochun seems to think he’s a very smart guy.” Yunho put forward. Jaejoong’s expression cleared, and he began to look proud.
“Oh yes! Min is really smart. He’s only 17 you know. He skipped all these grades at school and still topped the entrance exams.” Jaejoong told him. Yunho grimaced a little at the glowing words. 17? No wonder the kid was a brat!
“Have you two known each other long?”
“Most of our lives. Changmin went to the same primary school as me. We’ve been friends ever since.” Actually, Changmin had been bullied for being younger and smaller, and Jaejoong had tried to help him. Jaejoong wasn’t exactly big or respected either, and didn’t make much of a rescuer. The shared beating however had somehow cemented a friendship, so Jaejoong couldn’t say he’d ever regretted it.
Yunho really wanted to know why Changmin seemed so protective of Jaejoong, but he figured he probably wouldn’t get much of a response from Jaejoong about it, and the last thing he wanted to do was to upset the boy.
“What does he study?” Yunho asked instead.
“Science. Chemistry mainly. He likes mixing stuff together. Seeing reactions, and so forth.” Jaejoong explained. Jaejoong had always tried to tell his friend that cooking was very much like chemistry, but it didn’t seem to matter - for all his genius in the science lab, Changmin was just as likely to blow something up in the kitchen.
“He must have long hours then.” Yunho observed, knowing the science kids always seemed to be buried in work.
“Yes. Quite a lot. We try to organize it so that we’re at uni at the same times though, so that we can eat together. It’s nice to see him.”
Yunho had no doubt, since Yoochun’s reconnaissance had brought back that the pair were like glue. Jaejoong had few people he hung out with, and the young genius seemed to be his constant companion. Most people didn’t know Jaejoong at all - he slid through the cracks somehow, unnoticed by even people that were in most of his classes. Changmin garnered more attention, given his touted cleverness and ‘reputation’ - he was already published in a few scientific magazines. Yunho could just imagine that the nerds of the university would love the lanky bugger.
“He’s going to do a lot of great things.” Jaejoong added after a few moments, smiling softly at the pavement.
“What about you?” Yunho asked, sick of talking about the other guy. Jaejoong looked up at him, that same puzzled expression on his face as before, like he couldn’t understand what Yunho was talking about. “Well, I mean - what do you want to do once you graduate?” Yunho tried to focus the question a bit more. It seemed obvious that anything to do with praising himself did not compute in Jaejoong’s brain.
“Oh. Uhm.” Jaejoong seemed to think about it for a moment, before shrugging a little, looking back at his shoes. “I don’t know.” He said, pretty simply. Though Yunho had the creeping suspicion he did know, he just didn’t want to tell Yunho.
“You don’t want to work as a translator? Go overseas?” He prodded. From the way Jaejoong was jabbering to that coffee boy, Jaejoong had to be pretty fluent in Japanese. And English was always in demand. If he had those kinds of skills, Yunho would be gone as soon as his last exam was done, off to see more of the world.
“Oh no!” Jaejoong sounded almost scared, or horrified, by the suggestion. “I couldn’t go overseas. No, no…” He mumbled off, shaking his head emphatically. Yunho’s brow furrowed.
“Why not? I’d want to. Go see places, try new things.” As soon as he’d said that though, he could see that it might not really be Jaejoong’s thing. He was so meek even in every-day situations, in places he visited all the time. He’d probably expire on the spot in some foreign land.
“No… I, I’d really rather not.” Jaejoong’s timid reply just confirmed his thought. “I don’t know… maybe translating documents? I think I could do that.” The bespectacled boy said after a pause in the conversation, almost as if he were offering the suggestion up to Yunho for approval.
“I’m sure you could.” Yunho said encouragingly. There was another pause, and then Yunho started talking without even thinking about it. “My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, you know? ‘Cuz my dad’s a lawyer, and his dad was too. But I hated the idea of it… I couldn’t stand the thought of having to… argue, and trick people and such.”
Jaejoong looked over at him in some surprise. It was quite a personal remark to make, and it was odd Yunho just offered it up to him with little preamble. Yunho himself was wondering why he was talking about this, why he felt the need to tell Jaejoong of all people, who he barely knew. Yoochun was the only other person he’d ever talked to this about… and he’d known Yoochun all his life. It wasn’t really something he liked to advertise.
“My father’s a bit of a bastard sometimes.” Okay, and he really hadn’t meant to say that. There was an intake of breath at his side, and he caught Jaejoong staring at him wide eyed, shock shining through his thick glasses. “Oh, not to me. He’s a decent enough dad.” Yunho waved away quickly. “I just meant… as a lawyer. He does whatever it takes, no matter the cost, y’know? And I don’t want to do that.”
“You want to help people.” Jaejoong’s voice was soft, but, unlike much of what Jaejoong said, it wasn’t a question. Yunho blinked at the surety of it.
“Huh?” He asked, intelligently. Jaejoong smiled at him, genuinely and fully - the sweet curve of his lips opening up his face beautifully.
“You chose psychology because you want to help people be better. Want to help them with their problems.” Jaejoong explained, eyes shining the idea of it.
Yunho, on the other hand, felt like someone had dropped an anvil on his head. Help people? That hadn’t really come into the debate when Yoochun and he had been flipping through course options, trying to figure out which sounded halfway interesting, would be deemed acceptable by their parents and didn’t require too much lab time or too many lecture hours.
But, looking over at how sincere and warm Jeajoong’s expression was, how chivalrous he seemed to suddenly believe Yunho to be… he couldn’t find the words to explain that to the other boy. He coughed, clearing his throat and looking away from the innocence in that gaze. Oh well, he told himself, if Jaejoong wanted to believe he was a saint or something, so much the better, right? Who cared what he thought anyway. He repeated this to himself a few times, kicking the nagging guilt he felt into the recesses of his mind.
“Maybe.” He eventually said, noncommittally. Jaejoong just smiled again though, seeming to take this as a confirmation, and Yunho thought that someone must have just drowned a kitten somewhere.
Jaejoong seemed to float happily on this thought for a while, walking silently beside Yunho. Their peaceful (or not-so, depending on how badly guilt was wringing your neck) stroll was interrupted by the tinny sound of a bad ringtone. Yunho knew it wasn’t his (his was a MP3 file of some dance song he liked), so it was Jaejoong searching through his bag frantically, trying to find his phone.
“Hello?” Jae’s voice was even softer then usual when he answered, brows drawn together as his attention clearly focused on listening. There was a sharp blast of incomprehensible noise from his phone that Yunho couldn’t discern. Jaejoong bit his lip as he listened, saying nothing as the noise continued. Finally enough of a pause presented itself for the young man to speak.
“Yes mother… I understand.” He said, and then the noise started again. Yunho’s ears pricked up even further at the mention of Jaejoong’s mother, but the voice, though loud, was impossible to make sense of for him. He instead watched Jaejoong from the corner of his eyes, trying not to be too overt in his interest.
Jaejoong’s face remained impassive with vague edges of worry hovering around him. It seemed like this strange event (to Yunho’s mind, anyway) was not an unusual occurrence. He bore the impatient-sounding litany silently, steps along the footpath not slowing. The rant - or lecture, more like - seemed to go on for forever, before it abruptly just cut off, silence filling the line. Jaejoong closed his phone slowly, tucking it back into his bag without another word.
Yunho eyed him, wondering what to say. He was unbearably curious, but he didn’t think Jaejoong would say anything if he asked outright.
“That was your mother?” He asked. Jaejoong shot a quick glance his way, but then looked away just as quickly, fiddling with his glasses.
“Yes.” He said. A moment’s hesitation, and then, “She just wanted to remind me that I have to pick up some things before going home.” The explanation seemed very final, and frustratingly unhelpful.
There were a few moments of silence while Yunho tried to think up an appropriately sneaky way to wrestle some more information from Jaejoong. Just as he was about to open his mouth however, Jaejoong let out a hurried little noise.
“Work!” he exclaimed, and almost ran away across the street towards the funny shop front of The King’s Man, which was looking particularly cheery for some reason.
Sighing, Yunho hurried after him, his nose quickly latching onto the happy smell of pastries, with his stomach eagerly following suit, letting out a loud rumble of anticipation. Pushing through the door, he saw Jaejoong already scuttling into the backroom. The place looked pretty deserted - there was only one lone girl in the store, sitting at one of the tables while staring goopily at Kibum as he arranged pastries on a tray.
“Hi there!” Kibum greeted, seeing him standing there. “Yunho, wasn’t it?” He asked, brows furrowing slightly as he recalled the name.
“Ah, yes…” Yunho muttered, coming up to the counter and trying to surreptitiously peer into the back room to try and catch a glimpse of Jaejoong.
“Back for more muffins?” The counter boy asked with a somewhat amused expression. He took the tray and loaded it back into its spot in the display cabinet. “Or are you here to see Jaejoong?”
Yunho transferred his gaze to Kibum, blinking. “Well. I.” He began, and then stalled and frowned a little.
“I’ll take two blueberry muffins.” He said finally, and willed himself not to try and peer through the backdoor again. After all, he was just there for muffins.
Wasn’t he?
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Cast pics