On parallel planes, for choisiwon
Title: On parallel planes
For: choisiwon
Pairing: Kris/Suho, side Kai/D.O and very slight Sehun/Lu Han
Rating: PG
Length: 9100+ WC
Summary: highschool!AU; class rep Kim Joonmyun has one mission: to lead his rag tag team of five to the Math Olympiad this year.
Lu Han sets his pen down rather loudly next to his open notebook, startling Joonmyun. Joonmyun stares dumbly at the long chalk line he has scratched on the black board in involuntary response, jarring against the neatly written formula and round numbers he has been laboring on for the last fifteen minutes.
From his table, Kyungsoo stops writing to look at Lu Han. So do Jongin and Sehun. Though in Sehun’s case, Joonmyun suspects the freshman has never once looked away from Lu Han since the older steps through the classroom door into their Math club.
They are one problem in out of the five Joonmyun has prepared for today’s meeting. Lu Han has interrupted him right when Joonmyun is about to wrap up his meticulous explanation. Looks like whatever Lu Han has in mind, it is important. So Joonmyun sighs and turns to Lu Han; he’s too disturbed to even remember what he has been going on about anyway.
“Yes, Lu Han.”
On the other end, Kyungsoo puts away his notebook and pulls out another, getting ready to jot down club’s meeting minutes if need be. Jongin starts shaking his legs impatiently and Sehun rests his head in his propped up palm.
Having gotten the room’s attention, Lu Han’s eyes twinkle. Sehun chokes on his spit.
“Can we talk about the new Chinese transfer from Canada instead? Wu Fan?”
There’s a small thud and they all turn to see Sehun picking his head up from where it has connected with the table top. Sehun coughs, “What about him?”
Turning to Sehun, Lu Han swoons, “He’s dreamy isn’t he?”
Sehun blushes beet red and for a moment Joonmyun considers turning on the air conditioner in the room. Sehun looks down, trying to avoid Lu Han’s large eyes. He stutters, “I- I don’t know. I don’t really see him around.”
“Oh that’s right, you are still a freshman. He’s in our class,” Lu Han flicks his index finger between himself and Joonmyun, “He speaks Korean so well. I was surprised!”
“You also spoke Korean very well when you transferred here.” Joonmyun raises an eyebrow at Lu Han.
“Yes, but nobody bothered inviting me into the debate club.” Pursing his lips and ignoring Joonmyun, Lu Han turns back to the room at large, “The Literature teacher asked him to join right after class. He was arguing up a storm about Shakespeare something something with Mr. Park for like an hour!”
“Macbeth. We were talking about Macbeth,” Joonmyun helpfully interjects. He gets shushes from Sehun and a narrow glance from Lu Han. Lu Han continues on.
Normally, Joonmyun has ample respect and fondness for how Lu Han can endlessly sing positivity and praises for other people. At the moment however, as the clock ticks noisily above him, Joonmyun wishes to divine Mathematical beings he could somehow wrestle back control of the club meeting because Lu Han is waving his arms animatedly while jerking his eyebrows up and down, Sehun is mesmerized, Jongin is leaning against Kyungsoo with his eyes closed, Kyungsoo is swinging his legs under the table, algebra and geometry evidently forgotten.
Joonmyun finds his own thought wandering, is Lu Han aware of the effect he has on people? On Sehun? Does Sehun practice any other facial expressions aside from the dazed eye slack jaw one he wears around Lu Han? Granted Joonmyun doesn’t see Sehun a lot outside of Math club, but for the five weeks he has known the freshman, Sehun’s face is either pressed against the table snoring or fixed on Lu Han.
Joonmyun shakes his head and taps his chalk on the blackboard with half hope of breaking Lu Han’s spell on the underclassmen. His chalk breaks instead. So he sighs and goes back to finishing the problem. This way at least something will have been accomplished during today’s meeting.
Except now Joonmyun is staring at his own writing dumbly, unable to reconnect his previous train of thought. He looks in distress between the black board and the notes in his hand, turning the page back and forth and winces when he hears knocks coming from the open door.
Joonmyun looks up and widens his eyes in horror as a Wu Fan stands, in the flesh, smiling at him from the doorway. In the background Lu Han is talking merrily, “… and he was such a show-off during English- Ouch!”
Lu Han looks at the piece of chalk that’s just bounced off of his head and turns incredulous eyes on Joonmyun.
Joonmyun chirps, “Hello! Wu Fan!”
Still at the door, Wu Fan glances from Lu Han to Joonmyun.
Lu Han lets out a high pitched squeak.
Smiling with slight unease at Lu Han, Wu Fan strides over to Joonmyun holding up a black notebook, “Class rep, you forgot your notebook in the teacher’s lounge.”
“Oh! Thank you!” Joonmyun reaches for his notebook with both hands, slightly conscious about the difference in their height. Wu Fan is easily a whole head above Joonmyun, towering as he looks thoughtfully at the black board.
After a moment, he snaps his finger and points at the second line of formula, “Right here.”
Joonmyun does not follow, “Excuse me?”
“You forgot the negative sign, right here. That’s why you’re stuck right?” And Wu Fan proceeds to erase Joonmyun’s hard work that entire evening, replacing it with messy writing and launching into his own problem-solving spiel. Joonmyun stares at him dumbfounded, humility bubbling from a deep pit in his stomach, rising in unfamiliar waves. From behind he can hear Kyungsoo furiously writing everything down and Lu Han exclaiming, “That makes sense!” Occasionally, he thinks he hears Jongin’s not quite discreet cackle.
“There.” Wu Fan puts a check mark next to his result, “It’s actually a very common mistake. You just need to be extra careful next time,” he beams up at Joonmyun like he’s just done the Math club president a colossal favor. Joonmyun tries to smile back with gratitude, lip corners quivering.
“Any questions?” Wu Fan turns to the others.
Jongin raises his hand, “Please join our club.”
Joonmyun snaps, “No!” He glares at Jongin, just in time to see Kyungsoo stomping on Jongin’s foot. “I mean, you have your other club duties.” He looks back at Wu Fan and tries on his sweetest smile. “Well, anything else?” He wishes Wu Fan would just leave already.
As if on cue, Wu Fan shakes his head, “No, just dropping off your notes for Mr. Park. I hope I didn’t intrude.”
Lu Han materializes out of nowhere on Wu Fan’s side, “Nope, not at all. You should come to help out sometimes.”
“If you have time.” Joonmyun feels a twitch on the side of his head.
“Sure.” Wu Fan shrugs and finally steps out, waving bye to all of them.
Lu Han follows him to the door, flailing his arms and shouting, “See ya!”
As Wu Fan’s footsteps retreat down the corridor, Sehun echoes Joonmyun’s thought, “I don’t like him.”
Kim Joonmyun is in his last year of high school. For the third consecutive year he is voted class representative, his reputation earned through consistently placing first in his grade ever since he’s first set foot in Seoul High. He bows deeply and smiles brightly enough to be on good terms with both teachers and students. By the time he’s a senior, Joonmyun has gotten to know everybody in his class well enough to make carrying out class duties easy. It only makes sense when you’re the one people come to seeking help with assignments and homework.
Joonmyun is not perfect. He does not know the answers to all the subjects. He just pays absolute attention in classes. Enough to know a little more than his peers, thus appears holy and all-knowing. Plus the girls like coming to him because he speaks softly and smiles a lot.
Unlike Lu Han, Joonmyun is aware of the influence he has on people. So it stings a bit lately, when his classmates, especially Lu Han, start to crowd around Wu Fan’s desk asking for help with their English homework and such. Wu Fan is from Canada, Joonmyun reminds himself. That still doesn’t stop Wu Fan’s perfect English from grating on Joonmyun’s nerves. He buries his head in his Math notebook, poring over the remaining four problems from last club meeting, making sure he does not make any more silly, “common mistake” this time.
If anything (not Wu Fan) has proven a challenge during Joonmyun’s three year at the top of his school, it is Math club, his sole extra curriculum activity. It also could well be the deciding factor in getting him into his first choice college.
Seoul High has a solid reputation region-wise. Seoul High’s Mathematics Club has even bigger face to keep, having placed high in numerous competitions over the years. For the past five however, it has never gotten first.
Thus it falls on Joonmyun’s shoulders, as it happens when one senior class graduates and the year below takes over, the task of upholding and upgrading the club’s glory.
Joonmyun and Kyungsoo attend their upperclassmen’s graduation. After plenty of pictures and teary group hugs, former club head Kyuhyun whips a small bronze cast trophy from his gown sleeves- the trophy they have won that year, third place- and formally gives it to Joonmyun on two hands.
“You’re in charge now.” Kyuhyun ruffles his hair and pulls him in by the neck to celebrate the new captain. Everyone claps. Kyungsoo runs around snapping endless photos.
Wedged between Kyuhyun’s arm and his chest, Joonmyun wants to cry, for many reasons, heart aching from the parting with their seniors but brain overwhelmed by the impending fact that it is he, now, who must somehow end the club’s member dry spell. Kyungsoo is the sole person they have recruited that year. The year before, it was Joonmyun.
At the end of Joonmyun’s junior year, his Math club is down to two members.
As the situation goes, Joonmyun needs exactly five club members to 1) keep his club active and 2) be eligible for the city’s Math Olympiad coming up at the end of the school year. His one shot at recruiting new blood comes at the beginning of school, anytime after that proves inefficient in terms of prepping club members for the late spring tournament.
Lu Han, Jongin and Sehun are dealt to Joonmyun in the new school year, either by an incredible stroke of luck, or a subtly cruel hand of fate, Joonmyun still cannot decide. Kyungsoo has been a club regular since his freshman year.
Kyungsoo, in fact, doesn’t need recruiting. He is there because he and Joonmyun grow up together and ever since first grade Joonmyun has been Kyungsoo’s personal, free tutor anyway. Joonmyun doesn’t ask but he has a strong theory that Kyungsoo’s parents, Kyungsoo’s mother to be specific, have pulled plenty of strings to get Kyungsoo into Seoul High just so Kyungsoo can be close to Joonmyun. With grades alone, Kyungsoo has a 50/50 chance at best.
Academically Kyungsoo is neither fast nor slow, going at his own space and is obsessively detailed, so Joonmyun tasks him with secretarial duties like notes taking during meeting and compiling formula sheets. Kyungsoo’s expertly organized compilations help cut down their reviewing time in at least half, of that Joonmyun is pleased. Kyungsoo himself, on the other hand, is not exactly 100 percent reliable in real time competition. Joonmyun needs at least one other member who can keep up with his thought process.
When he spots Lu Han one day sitting alone behind bushes, leaning against a tree trunk as his fingers deftly twists and turns, solving a Rubik’s cube with rapid ease, Joonmyun repeatedly thanks his lucky star. As Lu Han finishes scrambling and solving his cube a second time, Joonmyun jumps out from the bush where he has been observing the transfer student, hair littered with leaves and twigs and a lone cricket, effectively scaring Lu Han into throwing the cube at him. Joonmyun catches it with one hand, extending it back to Lu Han.
“You are Lu Han, transfer student from China. Correct?”
One hand over his heart, Lu Han answers with wide eyes, “Yes sir.”
“Oh please don’t call me sir. I’m Joonmyun. I’m also a senior,” glancing at Lu Han’s Rubik’s cube in his hand, he says jovially, “That trick just now, can you show me?”
Pushing himself up, Lu Han smiles, “It’s not a trick really.”
They spend lunch that day discussing Rubik’s cube methods, the differences between Lu Han’s old school in China and Seoul High, where under the same tree Lu Han has been eating lunch alone with his Rubik’s cube for a week.
“You’re my first friend, Joonmyun-shi.” Lu Han turns crescent smile on Joonmyun and it is probably Joonmyun’s easy eye smile that propels Lu Han to say yes to joining his club.
Jongin and Sehun come together to the club’s first meeting of the year, two days after Lu Han is recruited. Jongin holds up a flyer with MEMBER WANTED in red block letters across the headline and Joonmyun says yes before either freshman opens their mouth. And thus, Joonmyun gleefully muses, concludes his first very successful recruiting event.
He also finds out, during the same meeting, that Lu Han isn’t really interested in anything else mathematical besides solving Rubik’s cubes and Jongin and Sehun aren’t interested in anything at all besides Kyungsoo and Lu Han. (He finds out a little later that Jongin decides to join whatever club Kyungsoo is handing out flyers for upon checking Kyungsoo’s behind from the school’s dance team room. Sehun agrees when he spots Lu Han coming up to Kyungsoo)
It’s a recipe for disaster, the five of them together, but as Joonmyun sits down on his computer that night to write an email to Kyuhyun, he can’t help but feel an overflowing stream of pride and hope. He has roughly nine months and boundless amount of enthusiasm; it’s only a matter of planning. If they meet twice a week, by the time of the tournament everyone will be ready to kick ass.
Assuming they all progress at the same page.
By the third meeting during the second week of school, Joonmyun decides Jongin and Sehun will only be there to fill the 5-man team quota. Lu Han has soccer practice that day and has left early, leaving a snoring Sehun in his usual desk. One desk over Jongin has dragged himself right next to Kyungsoo, pushing hands and notebook onto Kyungsoo’s desk top under the pretense of not understanding the problem Joonmyun has explained to him three times.
Miraculously, Jongin gets it and is eventually able to finish his portion of assignment from just watching Kyungsoo solves the problem. Joonmyun stares in bewilderment as Jongin brings a hand up to pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek in form of thanks, the dormant big neighbor brother in him about to jump in and throw Jongin out of the window had it not been for Kyungsoo’s low giggles at Jongin’s antics. Joonmyun drops his chalk. He clears his throat and averts his eyes when they look at him, only to settle on Sehun drooling all over his table top.
Joonmyun dismisses both freshmen early and keeps Kyungsoo so they can work on a different lesson schedule with emphasis on the core three, himself, Kyungsoo and Lu Han.
“What’s wrong with Jongin?” Kyungsoo asks in surprise, “And Sehun?”
Joonmyun eyes the junior with one eyebrow raised, “Did you not see what happened today? They didn’t learn a thing. But it doesn’t matter, you, me and Lu Han together are enough for the actual questions. Jongin and Sehun can be placeholders.”
“Hyung, that’s a little shady. Plus what are they gonna do during club meetings from now on?” Kyungsoo asks in earnest.
Joonmyun rolls his eyes, “Stare at you and Lu Han like they’ve been doing from the start maybe?”
Kyungsoo tsk’s at his tone, “Hyung, I don’t know about Sehun, but Jongin’s actually a really fast learner. When he wants to learn. You can’t just give up on them.”
And that’s how Jongin and Sehun start eating lunch with them on the roof top, so they all can get to know one another a little better, as per Kyungsoo.
Lu Han has made many friends by now, not to mention a legion of fans that shows up to watch him play soccer and screams their throats hoarse whenever Lu Han scores or another player dares collide with him. He still prefers sticking with Joonmyun and Kyungsoo for lunch however, having taken a liking to Kyungsoo’s cooking.
As the scene pans out before him, Joonmyun wonders how this would improve his opinions on Jongin and Sehun seeing that the others automatically pair themselves up just like any normal club meeting. On the one side Jongin lays his head in Kyungsoo’s lap and demands Kyungsoo feed him food. Kyungsoo makes faces at him mostly, but feeds Jongin regardless. Opposite from them there are Sehun and Lu Han, the former sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, arms around his legs and head propped on top, lolling slightly to the side as he listens to the latter going on about celebrity gossips and upperclassmen he doesn’t know. Joonmyun gives Sehun props anyway, for nodding and exclaiming at all the right places in Lu Han’s many stories just when Joonmyun thinks Sehun isn’t listening anymore.
After their rather dramatic encounter with Wu Fan, Lu Han has somehow managed to rope him into their lunch circle. The two speak in laugh-laced Mandarin sometimes, but most of the time Lu Han turns to Sehun and by process of elimination Joonmyun is left with only Wu Fan to talk to.
Conversations come with noticeable effort for the first couple of times, to Joonmyun’s dismay. He isn’t used to being awkward around people. But Wu Fan in Joonmyun’s mind comes with a preconceived image of a cocky show-off, Joonmyun’s embarrassment from days ago preventing him from relaxing around Wu Fan. Perhaps Wu Fan senses the guard around him, he makes conscious effort at small talks.
Slowly, surely, Joonmyun comes to (kind of, just kind of) like the low bass of Wu Fan’s voice. He learns that Wu Fan too, has been made Captain of the debate team, and the basketball team, all while kicking Joonmyun’s ass on exams. Only some, far and few in between, Joonmyun has to remind himself. Because while resentment is inevitable -Joonmyun has never had to try too hard to earn his place at Seoul High - Joonmyun finds himself more and more in admiration and awe of Wu Fan every time he learns something new.
Wu Fan is methodical, almost bookish, in the ways he handles his responsibilities and in extension his life. Though he laughs and jokes a great deal, there is an air of maturity and confidence in his manners of speaking, especially evident when he interacts with Jongin and Sehun. Joonmyun figures it is Wu Fan’s assertion that has drawn Lu Han to him that very first day, that is drawing Joonmyun to him now. Wu Fan makes him feel very young and meek, but never in condescending ways, he’s rather warm and encouraging. Before Joonmyun knows it, aspiration has taken over his initial wariness towards Wu Fan.
“Let’s make a bet.” Joonmyun says over bites of omelet rice one day.
“Hmm?” Wu Fan hums from where he lays, arms folded under his head.
“Your club and mine, let’s see which one of us will get first place in the year end competitions.”
Wu Fan quirks an eyebrow at him, “And the reward?”
“Loser does whatever winner wants?”
“And if we both get first places?”
“Then I’ll give you the win, since you did have a late start.” Joonmyun purses his lips cheekily at Wu Fan.
Wu Fan deadpans, the slightest hint of a smirk ghosts over his lips, “You know, if you really want me to do something for you, you should just ask.”
Joonmyun does not expect that, tripping over his response as his cheeks start to flame, “N-No… I. What! It’s not like that.”
Joonmyun’s club members look over at them curiously as Wu Fan laughs heartily and pats Joonmyun’s back, “OK. It’s on.”
His cheeks are still slightly warm, but Joonmyun can feel the enthusiasm from two months ago lights anew. Math club is his number one priority. If he could beat Wu Fan at this, then maybe, just maybe, Joonmyun would be on more equal footing with Wu Fan.
Before the month-long winter break, Joonmyun compiles an assessment test from the reviewing material Kyuhyun has sent him and is pleased to find that both Kyungsoo and Lu Han are keeping up with schedule. Jongin and Sehun, like usual, finish the obvious problems and leave the rest blank. Good enough, the club starts winter break in high spirits, agreeing to keep meeting once a week to maintain their working rhythm.
Joonmyun checks off his calendar, six more months.
The month of December is long. Joonmyun spends most days drudging through the snow to walk to cram school. The work load keeps him busy, but the days drag on. Munching on dry cafeteria bread, Joonmyun misses the aroma and the taste of Kyungsoo’s packed lunch. He draws on the glass window and remembers the view from the roof top, Jongin’s raucous laughter, Sehun’s soft voice, Lu Han’s never-ending smile and mostly, mostly he mourns the lack of Wu Fan’s deep voice, telling him to remember to dress warmly because the snow is coming. They text almost every day, but somehow not physically seeing and touching Wu Fan gnaws at the edges of Joonmyun’s subconscious. He takes to preparing various problem worksheets for Math club so he has less time to ponder scenarios.
Two days before Christmas, Kyungsoo knocks on Joonmyun’s door and asks him to go for a walk. He doesn’t say much as he leads Joonmyun down a familiar road, hoodie pulled over his head, eyes obscured and steps brisk.
“What are we doing at school Kyungsoo? Wait, is that Jongin?” Joonmyun narrows his eyes at the gangly silhouette they are approaching. Kyungsoo nods. Jongin is waiting, presumably for Kyungsoo, at the school gate, absentmindedly kicking the snow at his feet.
Jongin’s face mirrors Joonmyun’s confusion when they come face to face, eyes glancing from Joonmyun to Kyungsoo. He stands up right and is resolutely not looking at Joonmyun. Kyungsoo nudges his elbow.
“Jongin has something to ask you, hyung.” Kyungsoo nods at Jongin, nudging him again.
“Hyung, this isn’t necessary.” Jongin whispers at Kyungsoo, almost pleadingly.
Kyungsoo just stares at him, hard and forceful.
Eventually Jongin sighs and starts, “I failed some Chemistry exams, so I’ve been taking supplementary lessons during the break.” His ears begin to redden at the tips.
“Is it not helping?” Joonmyun tries.
“I just don’t get it,” Jongin lets out an exasperated sigh, “if I fail the exam again though, they won’t let me continue with the dance team.”
Jongin lifts his eyes, “I need help Joonmyun hyung.”
Kyungsoo tugs on Joonmyun’s sleeves, “I’m no good with Chemistry, hyung. Will you help Jongin?”
Joonmyun looks at them both and heaves a sigh, “You guys are idiots you know that right. Why didn’t you ask me earlier? We should start reviewing right now.”
Kyungsoo’s face relaxes and his lips turn heart shape, “Hyung is the best!”
Jongin’s exam is on the last day of the year. Joonmyun spends the entire week at Kyungsoo’s house tutoring Jongin after cram school, only stopping to celebrate Christmas. He finds Kyungsoo correct, that Jongin is an extremely fast learner and can boast quite impressive concentration. “When he wants to,” Kyungsoo mouths to Joonmyun as Jongin bites his bottom lips, working to solve a chemical equation. Even when Joonmyun assures Jongin that he is caught up and ready for the exam, Jongin insists on reviewing until they are both nodding off in Kyungsoo’s room the night before the test. Kyungsoo cleans up the notes and paper strewn all over his floor and kicks them both out.
Joonmyun doesn’t hear from either Jongin or Kyungsoo the next day, but the day after that, New Year’s Day, both show up at his door step, cheeks pink with excitement.
Kyungsoo chirps, “He passes hyung.”
Jongin gives him a thumb up, “Joonmyun hyung’s the best.”
Their smiles are contagious and soon Joonmyun is grinning from ear to ear, thumbing Jongin right back, “You did well! Do you guys want to come in?”
“Nope, gonna go on a date.” Jongin grabs Kyungsoo by the waist and Kyungsoo is between squeaking and giggling.
Joonmyun kicks some snow at them, “Ew, get off my property!”
Jongin puts Kyungsoo down and Kyungsoo skips up Joonmyun’s steps, reaching into his coat pocket and presenting Joonmyun with a lucky charm, “We got it at the temple for you hyung. I made sure to pray extra hard for our club. We’re gonna take first place at the Olympiad this year.”
Joonmyun takes the charm, dangling it on his fingers. He smiles with teeth, “Fighting!”
After Jongin and Kyungsoo leave hands in hands, Joonmyun settles down in his couch to watch New Year specials with his family. His phone vibrates slightly in his pocket. Lu Han and Sehun have sent him New Year messages. He eyes the text fondly before opening a new message window. Half way into his text, his phone vibrates again.
Joonmyun’s breath hitches for a moment; Wu Fan. Wu Fan has texted him Happy New Year in Korean, Chinese and English. He grips the phone as he reads Wu Fan’s text over and over. Yep, it has been a good New Year’s Day
The first order of business during their first meeting after winter break has nothing to do with math. Lu Han has found out from Wu Fan that the debate team is sponsored personalized team varsity jackets by the school. He brings this up first and foremost, “We need to get our own club varsity jackets too.” He slams a hand down in resolution.
Joonmyun shakes his head, “Not happening, we don’t have any funding for that.”
Sehun raises his hand, “I want a Math club varsity jacket.”
Joonmyun turns to Sehun, eyebrows shooting out of the frame of his face, “Sehun. You. The dancer. Would be willing to walk around in a jacket full of nerdy Math symbols. Aren’t you and Jongin still telling your friends that you’re serving detention when you’re here?”
“That was last year, hyung.” Jongin chimes in from where he sits perking on top of a desk, “Also, I’m with Lu Han hyung. Let’s get some Math swag.”
Lu Han claps. Sehun turns around and fist pumps Jongin. Joonmyun looks desperately at Kyungsoo.
Kyungsoo offers him a small smile, “Well, it is good to remind people that we’re an active club.”
Joonmyun claws at his cheeks with both hands, “But money, where are we getting the money for this?”
Jongin snaps his fingers, “The school festival next month. We can organize a food booth. Selling pies,” he winks and shoots his index finger at Joonmyun, “Pies. Get it?”
Sehun stands up to bro-fist Jongin this time. Lu Han is flailing dangerously at his table and Kyungsoo starts laughing like a seal. Joonmyun looks at each of them slowly, realizing this is the first time they are actually working together. Like a real club. He bites his bottom lip to prevent the tears welling underneath his eyelid; he can go places with these people after all.
“And then Sehun and I will bring our crew. They will eat anything. And Lu Han hyung will bring his soccer fangirls. And voila, Math swag.”
It is a plan.
Joonmyun stays behind with Kyungsoo after club that day to work out numbers and expenses. If everything goes well, they’ll have their jackets and a little extra just in case. Kyungsoo neatly records everything in the club’s journal and Joonmyun takes it to the teacher’s lounge for an approval. The door opens before he can knock on it and Wu Fan stands towering on the other side. Joonmyun’s chest does a sudden jumpstart and it shocks him into stuttering a greeting.
Wu Fan’s hair has gotten longer over the break, his bangs pushed back by a hair band, strong eyebrows showing. From where Joonmyun stands, just half an arm length away, Wu Fan’s eyelashes are long and dark. Everything is perfect from this distance. The month he spends not seeing Wu Fan everyday is doing strange things to Joonmyun now, keeping his eyes fixed on Wu Fan’s and pumping his heart in full throttle.
“Sorry.” Wu Fan scoots over and Joonmyun blinks rapidly at the open space before him, trying to remember what he was doing. The club notebook is slippery in his sweaty fingers. He grips it with his other hand, wiping his palm on the side of his pants and wondering when he starts sweating during winter.
He briefs the club advisor of their plan for the school festival and after assuring the teacher that he can handle both Math club and his class responsibilities - there isn’t much for him to do as class rep, his class has been doing the same thing for the festival for three years and everyone knows what they’re supposed to do - he gets the go-ahead.
When Joonmyun peeks his head out from the longue door, Wu Fan is waiting for him, leaned against the wall of the empty hall with his school bag hung over his shoulder. They smile when their eyes meet.
“How was your break?” Joonmyun asks over their matched pace.
“It was fine. It was long actually. I’m too used to the two-week winter break in Canada, so I started getting really restless to start school again. Weird, huh?”
“No, no. Me too. And I’ve lived here all my life. But then towards Christmas and New Year I got stuck helping Jongin pass his Chemistry class, so I guess I was busy.”
“Busy is good.” Wu Fan pats Joonmyun’s shoulders. His hand is big.
“Hmm,” Joonmyun hums, “Since it’s your first New Year in Korea, did you try anything traditional with your family?”
“I just stayed home and watched TV.” Wu Fan shrugs.
“Really? Your parents didn’t want to go out on New Year’s Eve?”
“Maybe they did, but there’s really nothing too special where we live in Canada so I doubt it.”
“Canada? Wait…”
“I live by myself right now.” Wu Fan shrugs again, nudging a piece of ice to the side with his foot.
Joonmyun falters a bit in his step, the road is slippery. He hasn’t expected that particular turn of the conversation. Before his brain can process if it’s a safe topic to pursue he blurts, “So you spent Christmas and New Year by yourself? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He is surprised by his own incredulity, looking quickly away from Wu Fan the moment he stops talking.
Wu Fan asks, a hint of amusement in his question, “What should I have told you?”
“I don’t know… I guess you didn’t have to tell me anything,” the wind is cold on his face, making Joonmyun that much more conscious of the warmth creeping up on his cheeks, “But spending winter alone. Is sad.”
“It’s anticlimactic at best.” Wu Fan’s pace is even, so is his tone. Joonmyun has fallen half a step behind, feeling he’s miles away from Wu Fan, comprehending for the first time the depth of Wu Fan’s stoicism. Melancholy is a foreign concept. Joonmyun has never worried a day in his life, whereas Wu Fan’s calmness sets a definite undertone. He feels absolutely silly for harboring a crush on Wu Fan.
“Would you, would you like to come over? For dinner?” Joonmyun glances quickly at Wu Fan, berating himself inwardly. For all the effort he puts into leveling himself to Wu Fan’s silent maturity, Joonmyun still can’t help but act upon the prodding spontaneity whenever it comes to Wu Fan.
He also blames Wu Fan for indulging him.
The first minutes after they step through the door are awkward, Joonmyun’s mom coming to greet him and looking curiously at Wu Fan. Wu Fan ends up introducing himself while Joonmyun waves a vague arm between his mother and Wu Fan. He spends the rest of the evening being a guest in his own house whereas Wu Fan is effortlessly polite and friendly. Joonmyun looks down at his food during the entire meal while Wu Fan compliments the dishes and offers to help clean up. He only looks up when his mother snatches his bowl from him and asks him to bring Wu Fan upstairs.
They ditch their school bags in Joonmyun’s room and climb out, lying on their backs and stargaze on Joonmyun’s roof. The winter night sky in Seoul is desolate, the stars are far and few, dimming in the distance. It piques Joonmyun’s curiosity.
“Are you used to being away from home?” his heart starts thumping loudly again. He hopes Wu Fan doesn’t hear it.
“I’ve never been this long or this far away from home before. It’s my parents.”
“Why moved out? Why so far away? Why Korea?”
“I just jumped on the first available plane. I sent out applications to schools in other countries too, Seoul High was the first one that got back to me. I just knew I didn’t want to go to China, that wouldn’t put me too far away from home. Who knew, I could be in Japan or somewhere in Europe instead.”
Joonmyun gulps. He wonders if this is how winning the lottery feels like, a deafening rush of adrenaline that comes from realizing fate has done it all for him, has propelled Wu Fan to Korea, to Seoul High. He takes a dizzying breath, feeling the flimsy thread of possibility wrapping and numbing his fingertips. He wiggles his hands for warmth, brushing slightly against Wu Fan’s sleeve.
“Your parents were alright with everything?”
Wu Fan scoffs, a puff of air escapes his mouth in haste, dissipating into the dark, “No. My father and I, we seldom agree on anything, probably because we don’t talk often. It’s twisted really. I understand him perfectly. And that’s why I can never agree with him. Being in his head, is tiring.” Wu Fan draws a line in the air, “So I want to go, far away. Somewhere the echo of his thought can’t reach me. It’s despicable actually, I’m just running away, on my family’s money. I managed to convince my parents that this is some sort of spiritual journey, but I’m just a kid acting out. Sad huh?”
“No, no. I don’t think so. I think, breaking out of your mold, is good. Doing what you want is good.”
“But I don’t know what I want.” Wu Fan sighs, “Joonmyun-shi, you’re amazing you know. You got your entire future planned and sorted out. I’m just hopping around places because I can afford it.”
Joonmyun isn’t sure how to take Wu Fan’s compliment. He has been moving in a straight line all of his life because there have been few outside disturbances to knock him off his path. Around him, his parents, his friends, Kyungsoo are all on similar parallel lines. Wu Fan is the single deviant on his path. He wants to chase Wu Fan. At that very moment, lying shivering on the roof top, Joonmyun wants Wu Fan to be on the same line.
“Then just follow me,” he taps his knuckles on Wu Fan’s arm, “make short term plans first. Win the debate in five months. Graduate. Choose a university. Study. Get in. Then you’ll have plenty of time to think about what you want to do.” Joonmyun counts the goals on his fingers, feeling increasingly enthusiastic as he waves his open palm at Wu Fan.
Wu Fan sits up and smiles at him, eyes large and sad against the street lights, “I’m going back to Canada after graduation.”
Joonmyun has not considered that. He falls silent, the weight of the dark sky oppressive on his chest.
January passes with lethargic complacency. The sky is permanently cast in shades of grey and the days are spent indoor waiting in a stupor for the snow to melt.
February brings slivers of sunlight and Seoul High is getting itself ready for the annual school festival. Kyungsoo’s mother has generously donated all the pies they need for the fundraiser. It is up to Jongin and Lu Han to bring their respective crowds of customers.
The moment Kyungsoo finishes writing the price board a hoard of loud boys spills in front of their booth. Jongin and Sehun jump out to mingle with their friends and Kyungsoo waves at a couple of them from behind the counter. Joonmyun recognizes some of the ones in his grade, otherwise leaving Kyungsoo and Lu Han to handle the sales. He settles down in a folding chair at the back of the booth, idly wondering if he should go by his class’s game booth to check things out, but that would involve passing the debate club’s horror maze. Joonmyun sinks further into his seat, too much effort.
The day drags on. The chatter and laughter from the group in front of their booth ebb and flow. Sales start slowing down comes noon and Kyungsoo suggests Jongin and Sehun’s crew to go check out other booths too since they are kind of blocking the booth. Jongin boos and latches on to Kyungsoo, when the crowd starts getting rowdy with the whipped cream Joonmyun pushes himself off of his majesty chair to kick them all out.
Lu Han’s fan club does come by eventually, buying one pie and managing to pull both Lu Han and Sehun away from their booth to the maid café some of the girls are hosting. Lu Han’s last word before he skips off merrily is, “Cake!”
Joonmyun pulls the folding chair up next to Kyungsoo and flops down again, sighing.
Kyungsoo glances at him, worried, “Are you OK, hyung?”
“Yeah. Actually,” Joonmyun gulps and jumps off the chair, having glimpsed Wu Fan making his way over, “I’m gonna go to the restroom. For a while. Text me if you need anything.”
Kyungsoo stares at him with saucer eyes until he disappears around the corner.
By the time Joonmyun makes it back, Kyungsoo and Lu Han are emptying the coolers where they have kept the pies and Jongin and Sehun are working to take down the booth.
“What happened to the rest of the pies? Didn’t we have like, 10 left?”
Kyungsoo opens the cash box to smooth out all the bills, “Wu Fan hyung came by looking for you. He bought the rest of them for his club.” Kyungsoo turns and eyes Joonmyun knowingly. Thankfully he says nothing more.
From the back, Lu Han sing-songs, “Math swag.”
Joonmyun withholds the new jackets from all of them, promising he will give them out on the day of the competition.
“But that’s like, three months away!” Lu Han protests with his pen pointed at Joonmyun.
Joonmyun waves a piece of chalk back, “You’ll get yours. Think of it as incentive to try extra hard during these last three months.”
Time is gaining on them. Joonmyun worries his bottom lips, flipping through the lesson plan. They’re behind by one lesson, but Lu Han has been consistently inconsistent, scoring high on assessment tests but forgetting formulas the next day. Joonmyun cuts him slack because around this time third years also have to worry about cramming for college entrance exam. Lu Han also has soccer practices.
Kyungsoo is always on top of his portion of materials, but he can only memorize so much. Jongin and Sehun learn what they can, Jongin faring a little better but still nowhere ready for real competition.
Joonmyun flips through the study guide Kyuhyun has compiled for him every night, working problems over and over. Three months, he estimates, are enough for him to review and take over some of the others’ parts. As long as Joonmyun knows his math, they will be ok.
Nothing prepares him for Kyuhyun’s new email, however.
“Calculus? Why the hell would we be tested on Calculus? That’s college level math!” Joonmyun slams the notes on his table, the chalk dust in his hand flying up in frantic.
The Olympic is about a month and a half away, nagging in the back of Joonmyun’s head.
“Stay behind with me today Kyungsoo. We need to adjust the plan.”
“What’s on your mind hyung?” Kyungsoo asks when it’s just the two of them in the empty club room, “I’ve known you all my life, this is the first time you’ve gotten so flustered over anything. You can’t be that scared of Calculus.” Kyungsoo nudges him with the tip of his shoe.
Joonmyun sighs wearily, “It came out of nowhere, screws everything up.”
“They pull surprises like this every year though. We always manage to get around to it. You’re the one who always tells me to stay calm and think of a solution.”
“That’s what I’m doing right now.” Joonmyun scratches out something in his lesson plan, eyebrows furrowing.
Kyungsoo pulls the stack of paper away from under his pen, “Hyung. What you are right now is the furthest thing from calm. Is it Wu Fan hyung?”
Joonmyun lets out a sharp breath, “He’s leaving for Canada after graduation.”
Kyungsoo lapses into stunted silence. He extends a hand to rub small circles on Joonmyun’s back, “I’m sorry hyung. I didn’t know.”
Joonmyun inhales, “That shouldn’t matter though. He is here on a transfer program. Naturally he’ll go back to his own country.”
Kyungsoo’s hand is still, warm against the early spring breeze.
Joonmyun presses his palms against his face, “We’re running out of time.”
Kyungsoo squeezes his shoulder and slides the packet of paper back in front of him, “Short term goals hyung. Let’s tackle the lesson plans first.”
Joonmyun stares at the paper in front of him. The lucky charm Kyungsoo and Jongin have gotten for him dangles on the side of his school bag in his peripheral. Step by step, he’ll figure this out step by step. Because Wu Fan is right, Joonmyun does have his life panned out in clear stages. He’ll take it one step at a time.
Wu Fan waits for Joonmyun outside of the teacher’s lounge one day in May, leaning against the exact spot on the wall, school bag on his shoulder. Déjà vu washes over him and he feels the smallest throb in his chest.
“When are you leaving?” Joonmyun asks over the matching rhythm of their walk.
“Two weeks after graduation.” Wu Fan’s hair is even longer now, gathered in a pony tail at the back of his head. His shirt is unbuttoned at the top. He looks young and more like a high school senior today than ever. Joonmyun kind of likes it.
“So, remember our bet?”
“Yeah. I think I figured out what I want you to do for me.” Wu Fan cocks his head.
Joonmyun purses his lips, “Win first, then we’ll talk. And me too.”
They walk together in silence, the sun setting behind their backs and their shadows stretching on the narrow road, Joonmyun’s looking even more like a kid next to Wu Fan’s. In that moment, Joonmyun really wishes that he were a little bit taller. Just a little. He wants to see the world on Wu Fan’s height.
The club spends every evening at Kyungsoo’s house the week right before the Math Olympic. Joonmyun makes sure every single one of them has taken care of their school responsibilities first. It’s trying, but they all pull through somehow.
They study well into the night before. At midnight Lu Han and Sehun start nodding off, leaning into each other and breathing evenly. Jongin has his head in Kyungsoo’s lap and a notebook over his face, no doubt also drooling underneath. They’ll all wake up with cricks in their necks the next morning, but Joonmyun doesn’t have the heart to wake them now.
Kyungsoo sets down his own notes, moving Jongin’s head to a pillow and gets up to prepare blankets and pillows for everybody. Joonmyun mutters formulas under his breath one last time then tosses everything in his school bag. Enough is enough.
The city’s Math Olympiad is held in Seoul High gymnasium this year. There are 6 other schools and 3 rounds of competitions in the tournament.
“Last year champion is seeded straight into the semi final round. The other schools are lotto’ed into pairs. We’re right here, so we’ll go against the champ when we get through the elimination,” Kyungsoo points at the tournament chart and explains the overall scenario to Jongin, Sehun and Lu Han. Students from other schools narrow their eyes at Kyungsoo’s choice of word.
“If you get through the elimination,” a boy sneers. Jongin glares right back and he huffs, walking away with his team.
Straightening his brand new varsity jacket, Joonmyun nods at his team, “Let’s go.”
They crush during the elimination round. The other team looks on in horror as Lu Han repeatedly slams his hand on the buzzer before anybody else can react, paying no regard to the questions asked. Kyungsoo and Joonmyun handle most of them anyways. Joonmyun did not count on this strategy, and frankly Lu Han’s reaction speed scares him, just a little, but so far it is working out brilliantly. Seoul High scores a whopping 300 to nothing in the first round, moving on to the semi final.
There is an individual problem solving segment in the second round and Joonmyun sends out Lu Han, the senior being the second best when it comes to solving equations. He has to save himself for the final round, for each member can only participate in the individual round once. The other team sends out a mousy girl that Joonmyun recognizes from last year. She’s quite fast and precise.
Joonmyun puts a hand over his heart and prays incessantly for Lu Han.
As he fears the other team finishes first, but their final answer is rejected. Panicked, the girl starts erasing her entire paper and working frantically from the beginning. Meanwhile, Lu Han works steadily and the last 5 seconds of the round, he slams his buzzer. Seoul High wins the individual round by one negative sigh. Joonmyun breaths deeply, common mistake.
The team round proves more difficult. Lu Han’s former opponent proves to be on par with him in buzzer speed. Eventually Seoul High wins thanks to the leading points from the individual round.
The two final teams are given a 15-minute break before the last round starts, so Kyungsoo passes water and snacks around. Lu Han stands up to walk around and stretch, coming back with a flyer in his hand.
“Looks like the debate competition will also be here in the evening. We should stay to cheer on Wu Fan’s team!”
Joonmyun takes the flyer from Lu Han, remembering the bet he has with Wu Fan and feeling entirely fired up, “Yeah sure. Let’s kick ass first.”
Lu Han claps his hands in glee.
The final round is laborious. Again, Lu Han dominates the buzzer but the questions are getting increasingly harder in scope. Seoul High manages more right answers but ends up trailing by two points at the end of the team round because there is a penalty for wrong answers and guesses.
Joonmyun pats Kyungsoo who sits right next to him and thumbs up the rest of the team, “No worries. We’ll win it back during the individual round.”
This year, to add a twist, the final individual round contenders are decided by a drawing. As fate would have it, Sehun is picked.
Sehun stands up and heads to the podium in a daze, wandering to the opponent’s instead. Lu Han runs over and guides him back, squeezing Sehun’s shoulders and mouthing, “You can do it.” Behind them, the opposing team snickers and high-fives one another from under the table.
Joonmyun scowls at them. He calls a quick time-out and walks to Sehun, patting the freshman’s back. Sehun looks at him in guilt, “Sorry hyung.” He whispers.
Joonmyun shakes his head, “Just do what you can. I believe in you.” He slips the good luck charm into Sehun’s jacket and thumbs him up with a smile. Sehun smiles gingerly back.
When he settles back down with the rest, the moderator calls start and reveals the question. All nine of them, with the exception of Sehun, take one collective sharp breath. Kyungsoo whimpers in the back of his throat and Jongin mutters, “What is this witchcraft?”
Joonmyun scans the problem and shudders. It is complicated, but doable, but it would have take him the entire allotted time to solve it. Sehun doesn’t stand any chance.
Lu Han glances at Sehun’s opponent, “At least they’re struggling too. What happens if they both don’t get the right answer?”
“Neither team will get points. But that means we’ll lose.” Kyungsoo says worriedly, beads of sweat starting to roll down from his temple.
“Wait, what is Sehun doing?” Jongin points to the podium, they all follow his finger.
Sehun, as if possessed, has picked up his pencil and now writing furiously on his piece of paper. His opponent glances over in shock and he too, starts filling his own paper. They finish at the same time, right when the alarm goes off, signaling the end of the allotted time.
The moderator looks over both answers carefully then pushes his glasses up and there is an awful moment of silence during which Sehun’s opponent bites into his fingernails and Sehun stares ahead with a poker face.
“And, five points to Seoul High.”
They scream.
Joonmyun jumps off his seat, knocking his chair over as he and the others pounce on Sehun.
“Dude what the hell happened?” Jongin ruffles Sehun’s hair with both hands.
Sehun shrugs rather nonchalantly, “That was the 3x3 Rubik cube solving equation. I’ve been looking it up in my free time.”
Kyungsoo stares open mouthed at Sehun and Lu Han turns the freshman around, “Oh Sehun, you’re a genius.” He pulls Sehun into an embrace, jumping up and down in celebration. Sehun turns beet red.
Joonmyun laughs loudly and slaps Sehun’s back, “Good job freshman.”
Sehun turns to him, grin taking up his entire face and hands the charm back to Joonmyun, “Thanks hyung.”
They shake hands with the other teams and bow to the judges and moderator and run up to the audience benches to wait for the debate competition. The trophy ceremony will combine both the Math Olympiad and the debate. Kyungsoo disappears and comes back with sandwiches and everybody scarves down on their share, the event of the morning finally taking its toll.
“Congratulations hyung.” Kyungsoo says as he flops down next to Joonmyun.
Joonmyun leans his head back and lets out a deep breath, “It’s over, just like that. To think we were so worked up for nine whole months.”
Kyungsoo jabs a finger at him, “You, hyung, to think you were so worked up for nine months,” he puts his hands on his knees and smiles at Joonmyun, lips turning heart shape, “I’ve always believed hyung could do it. Because it’s you.”
Joonmyun reaches out to pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek, “No, Kyungsoo. We did it together, the five of us.”
On the other end, Lu Han starts clapping and pointing down, “It’s starting, it’s starting.”
Joonmyun leans forward to look for Wu Fan, spotting him almost too easily. Wu Fan is wearing Seoul High uniform blazer today, a long, lean tie hung neatly below his collar, hair pushed back and gelled in an imposing business manner. Naturally he towers over everyone else.
Lu Han yells and waves like a maniac until Wu Fan makes eye contact with them, to which Lu Han cheers even louder. Wu Fan sees Joonmyun and waves with the barest hint of a smile. Joonmyun thumbs him up and Wu Fan winks in response like he’s just gotten a secret message.
Joonmyun almost falls off his seat.
Kyungsoo coos, “Somebody’s in a good mood today.”
Wu Fan’s team places second, losing to the first place school by five points. Lu Han is the most disappointed. He sulks through the award ceremony and only stops pouting when both clubs announce a celebratory trip to the barbecue house.
On the way there, Joonmyun walks slow and deliberate, counting his footsteps until Wu Fan is the only one matching his pace. Wu Fan has forgone his blazer, loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt at the top again.
“So, congrats.”
“You too.” Joonmyun nods, “You did very well in there. I was surprised.”
“Thanks. Listen, I’ve been thinking about what you said, about making short term goals. And I realize this is not short term, but I think I want to be a lawyer. So I guess the immediate goals are get into college, major in Political Science.”
Joonmyun rubs his chin, “Sounds good. See, you’re already an expert at this planning thing.”
Wu Fan grins at him, a different grin from his usual tight lip one. This time, Joonmyun glimpses gum. And the new smile changes Wu Fan’s features in a way that makes Joonmyun’s lower stomach coil and fires his brain in strange places, places that scream at him to pull Wu Fan down and kiss him senseless in front of all their club members. Joonmyun puts a hold on that thought. Instead, he closes in to Wu Fan’s side, their arms brushing.
“About our bet.”
Joonmyun grabs Wu Fan’s wrist and they stop walking. From where they touch, Joonmyun can feel Wu Fan’s pulse, quick and seeming to match the erratic beating of his own heart.
“Wu Fan, go out with me.” He announces.
Wu Fan looks thoughtfully at him, he starts, “Not that I have a choice in the matter since I did lose that bet,” he swallows, “but you know I’ll only be here for a little more than two weeks. That’s OK with you?”
Joonmyun nods in resolute, “I like you.”
“OK. Then let’s start now.” Wu Fan pulls his wrist free to grab Joonmyun’s hand in his, “Incidentally, I planned on asking you to take me on a date had I won that bet.” Wu Fan winks again.
Joonmyun laughs and feels the warmth of their joined hand spread over his entire body. Wu Fan is still too tall and infinitely more mature than Joonmyun, but maybe Joonmyun isn’t too far from away from him anymore.
For: choisiwon
Pairing: Kris/Suho, side Kai/D.O and very slight Sehun/Lu Han
Rating: PG
Length: 9100+ WC
Summary: highschool!AU; class rep Kim Joonmyun has one mission: to lead his rag tag team of five to the Math Olympiad this year.
Lu Han sets his pen down rather loudly next to his open notebook, startling Joonmyun. Joonmyun stares dumbly at the long chalk line he has scratched on the black board in involuntary response, jarring against the neatly written formula and round numbers he has been laboring on for the last fifteen minutes.
From his table, Kyungsoo stops writing to look at Lu Han. So do Jongin and Sehun. Though in Sehun’s case, Joonmyun suspects the freshman has never once looked away from Lu Han since the older steps through the classroom door into their Math club.
They are one problem in out of the five Joonmyun has prepared for today’s meeting. Lu Han has interrupted him right when Joonmyun is about to wrap up his meticulous explanation. Looks like whatever Lu Han has in mind, it is important. So Joonmyun sighs and turns to Lu Han; he’s too disturbed to even remember what he has been going on about anyway.
“Yes, Lu Han.”
On the other end, Kyungsoo puts away his notebook and pulls out another, getting ready to jot down club’s meeting minutes if need be. Jongin starts shaking his legs impatiently and Sehun rests his head in his propped up palm.
Having gotten the room’s attention, Lu Han’s eyes twinkle. Sehun chokes on his spit.
“Can we talk about the new Chinese transfer from Canada instead? Wu Fan?”
There’s a small thud and they all turn to see Sehun picking his head up from where it has connected with the table top. Sehun coughs, “What about him?”
Turning to Sehun, Lu Han swoons, “He’s dreamy isn’t he?”
Sehun blushes beet red and for a moment Joonmyun considers turning on the air conditioner in the room. Sehun looks down, trying to avoid Lu Han’s large eyes. He stutters, “I- I don’t know. I don’t really see him around.”
“Oh that’s right, you are still a freshman. He’s in our class,” Lu Han flicks his index finger between himself and Joonmyun, “He speaks Korean so well. I was surprised!”
“You also spoke Korean very well when you transferred here.” Joonmyun raises an eyebrow at Lu Han.
“Yes, but nobody bothered inviting me into the debate club.” Pursing his lips and ignoring Joonmyun, Lu Han turns back to the room at large, “The Literature teacher asked him to join right after class. He was arguing up a storm about Shakespeare something something with Mr. Park for like an hour!”
“Macbeth. We were talking about Macbeth,” Joonmyun helpfully interjects. He gets shushes from Sehun and a narrow glance from Lu Han. Lu Han continues on.
Normally, Joonmyun has ample respect and fondness for how Lu Han can endlessly sing positivity and praises for other people. At the moment however, as the clock ticks noisily above him, Joonmyun wishes to divine Mathematical beings he could somehow wrestle back control of the club meeting because Lu Han is waving his arms animatedly while jerking his eyebrows up and down, Sehun is mesmerized, Jongin is leaning against Kyungsoo with his eyes closed, Kyungsoo is swinging his legs under the table, algebra and geometry evidently forgotten.
Joonmyun finds his own thought wandering, is Lu Han aware of the effect he has on people? On Sehun? Does Sehun practice any other facial expressions aside from the dazed eye slack jaw one he wears around Lu Han? Granted Joonmyun doesn’t see Sehun a lot outside of Math club, but for the five weeks he has known the freshman, Sehun’s face is either pressed against the table snoring or fixed on Lu Han.
Joonmyun shakes his head and taps his chalk on the blackboard with half hope of breaking Lu Han’s spell on the underclassmen. His chalk breaks instead. So he sighs and goes back to finishing the problem. This way at least something will have been accomplished during today’s meeting.
Except now Joonmyun is staring at his own writing dumbly, unable to reconnect his previous train of thought. He looks in distress between the black board and the notes in his hand, turning the page back and forth and winces when he hears knocks coming from the open door.
Joonmyun looks up and widens his eyes in horror as a Wu Fan stands, in the flesh, smiling at him from the doorway. In the background Lu Han is talking merrily, “… and he was such a show-off during English- Ouch!”
Lu Han looks at the piece of chalk that’s just bounced off of his head and turns incredulous eyes on Joonmyun.
Joonmyun chirps, “Hello! Wu Fan!”
Still at the door, Wu Fan glances from Lu Han to Joonmyun.
Lu Han lets out a high pitched squeak.
Smiling with slight unease at Lu Han, Wu Fan strides over to Joonmyun holding up a black notebook, “Class rep, you forgot your notebook in the teacher’s lounge.”
“Oh! Thank you!” Joonmyun reaches for his notebook with both hands, slightly conscious about the difference in their height. Wu Fan is easily a whole head above Joonmyun, towering as he looks thoughtfully at the black board.
After a moment, he snaps his finger and points at the second line of formula, “Right here.”
Joonmyun does not follow, “Excuse me?”
“You forgot the negative sign, right here. That’s why you’re stuck right?” And Wu Fan proceeds to erase Joonmyun’s hard work that entire evening, replacing it with messy writing and launching into his own problem-solving spiel. Joonmyun stares at him dumbfounded, humility bubbling from a deep pit in his stomach, rising in unfamiliar waves. From behind he can hear Kyungsoo furiously writing everything down and Lu Han exclaiming, “That makes sense!” Occasionally, he thinks he hears Jongin’s not quite discreet cackle.
“There.” Wu Fan puts a check mark next to his result, “It’s actually a very common mistake. You just need to be extra careful next time,” he beams up at Joonmyun like he’s just done the Math club president a colossal favor. Joonmyun tries to smile back with gratitude, lip corners quivering.
“Any questions?” Wu Fan turns to the others.
Jongin raises his hand, “Please join our club.”
Joonmyun snaps, “No!” He glares at Jongin, just in time to see Kyungsoo stomping on Jongin’s foot. “I mean, you have your other club duties.” He looks back at Wu Fan and tries on his sweetest smile. “Well, anything else?” He wishes Wu Fan would just leave already.
As if on cue, Wu Fan shakes his head, “No, just dropping off your notes for Mr. Park. I hope I didn’t intrude.”
Lu Han materializes out of nowhere on Wu Fan’s side, “Nope, not at all. You should come to help out sometimes.”
“If you have time.” Joonmyun feels a twitch on the side of his head.
“Sure.” Wu Fan shrugs and finally steps out, waving bye to all of them.
Lu Han follows him to the door, flailing his arms and shouting, “See ya!”
As Wu Fan’s footsteps retreat down the corridor, Sehun echoes Joonmyun’s thought, “I don’t like him.”
Kim Joonmyun is in his last year of high school. For the third consecutive year he is voted class representative, his reputation earned through consistently placing first in his grade ever since he’s first set foot in Seoul High. He bows deeply and smiles brightly enough to be on good terms with both teachers and students. By the time he’s a senior, Joonmyun has gotten to know everybody in his class well enough to make carrying out class duties easy. It only makes sense when you’re the one people come to seeking help with assignments and homework.
Joonmyun is not perfect. He does not know the answers to all the subjects. He just pays absolute attention in classes. Enough to know a little more than his peers, thus appears holy and all-knowing. Plus the girls like coming to him because he speaks softly and smiles a lot.
Unlike Lu Han, Joonmyun is aware of the influence he has on people. So it stings a bit lately, when his classmates, especially Lu Han, start to crowd around Wu Fan’s desk asking for help with their English homework and such. Wu Fan is from Canada, Joonmyun reminds himself. That still doesn’t stop Wu Fan’s perfect English from grating on Joonmyun’s nerves. He buries his head in his Math notebook, poring over the remaining four problems from last club meeting, making sure he does not make any more silly, “common mistake” this time.
If anything (not Wu Fan) has proven a challenge during Joonmyun’s three year at the top of his school, it is Math club, his sole extra curriculum activity. It also could well be the deciding factor in getting him into his first choice college.
Seoul High has a solid reputation region-wise. Seoul High’s Mathematics Club has even bigger face to keep, having placed high in numerous competitions over the years. For the past five however, it has never gotten first.
Thus it falls on Joonmyun’s shoulders, as it happens when one senior class graduates and the year below takes over, the task of upholding and upgrading the club’s glory.
Joonmyun and Kyungsoo attend their upperclassmen’s graduation. After plenty of pictures and teary group hugs, former club head Kyuhyun whips a small bronze cast trophy from his gown sleeves- the trophy they have won that year, third place- and formally gives it to Joonmyun on two hands.
“You’re in charge now.” Kyuhyun ruffles his hair and pulls him in by the neck to celebrate the new captain. Everyone claps. Kyungsoo runs around snapping endless photos.
Wedged between Kyuhyun’s arm and his chest, Joonmyun wants to cry, for many reasons, heart aching from the parting with their seniors but brain overwhelmed by the impending fact that it is he, now, who must somehow end the club’s member dry spell. Kyungsoo is the sole person they have recruited that year. The year before, it was Joonmyun.
At the end of Joonmyun’s junior year, his Math club is down to two members.
As the situation goes, Joonmyun needs exactly five club members to 1) keep his club active and 2) be eligible for the city’s Math Olympiad coming up at the end of the school year. His one shot at recruiting new blood comes at the beginning of school, anytime after that proves inefficient in terms of prepping club members for the late spring tournament.
Lu Han, Jongin and Sehun are dealt to Joonmyun in the new school year, either by an incredible stroke of luck, or a subtly cruel hand of fate, Joonmyun still cannot decide. Kyungsoo has been a club regular since his freshman year.
Kyungsoo, in fact, doesn’t need recruiting. He is there because he and Joonmyun grow up together and ever since first grade Joonmyun has been Kyungsoo’s personal, free tutor anyway. Joonmyun doesn’t ask but he has a strong theory that Kyungsoo’s parents, Kyungsoo’s mother to be specific, have pulled plenty of strings to get Kyungsoo into Seoul High just so Kyungsoo can be close to Joonmyun. With grades alone, Kyungsoo has a 50/50 chance at best.
Academically Kyungsoo is neither fast nor slow, going at his own space and is obsessively detailed, so Joonmyun tasks him with secretarial duties like notes taking during meeting and compiling formula sheets. Kyungsoo’s expertly organized compilations help cut down their reviewing time in at least half, of that Joonmyun is pleased. Kyungsoo himself, on the other hand, is not exactly 100 percent reliable in real time competition. Joonmyun needs at least one other member who can keep up with his thought process.
When he spots Lu Han one day sitting alone behind bushes, leaning against a tree trunk as his fingers deftly twists and turns, solving a Rubik’s cube with rapid ease, Joonmyun repeatedly thanks his lucky star. As Lu Han finishes scrambling and solving his cube a second time, Joonmyun jumps out from the bush where he has been observing the transfer student, hair littered with leaves and twigs and a lone cricket, effectively scaring Lu Han into throwing the cube at him. Joonmyun catches it with one hand, extending it back to Lu Han.
“You are Lu Han, transfer student from China. Correct?”
One hand over his heart, Lu Han answers with wide eyes, “Yes sir.”
“Oh please don’t call me sir. I’m Joonmyun. I’m also a senior,” glancing at Lu Han’s Rubik’s cube in his hand, he says jovially, “That trick just now, can you show me?”
Pushing himself up, Lu Han smiles, “It’s not a trick really.”
They spend lunch that day discussing Rubik’s cube methods, the differences between Lu Han’s old school in China and Seoul High, where under the same tree Lu Han has been eating lunch alone with his Rubik’s cube for a week.
“You’re my first friend, Joonmyun-shi.” Lu Han turns crescent smile on Joonmyun and it is probably Joonmyun’s easy eye smile that propels Lu Han to say yes to joining his club.
Jongin and Sehun come together to the club’s first meeting of the year, two days after Lu Han is recruited. Jongin holds up a flyer with MEMBER WANTED in red block letters across the headline and Joonmyun says yes before either freshman opens their mouth. And thus, Joonmyun gleefully muses, concludes his first very successful recruiting event.
He also finds out, during the same meeting, that Lu Han isn’t really interested in anything else mathematical besides solving Rubik’s cubes and Jongin and Sehun aren’t interested in anything at all besides Kyungsoo and Lu Han. (He finds out a little later that Jongin decides to join whatever club Kyungsoo is handing out flyers for upon checking Kyungsoo’s behind from the school’s dance team room. Sehun agrees when he spots Lu Han coming up to Kyungsoo)
It’s a recipe for disaster, the five of them together, but as Joonmyun sits down on his computer that night to write an email to Kyuhyun, he can’t help but feel an overflowing stream of pride and hope. He has roughly nine months and boundless amount of enthusiasm; it’s only a matter of planning. If they meet twice a week, by the time of the tournament everyone will be ready to kick ass.
Assuming they all progress at the same page.
By the third meeting during the second week of school, Joonmyun decides Jongin and Sehun will only be there to fill the 5-man team quota. Lu Han has soccer practice that day and has left early, leaving a snoring Sehun in his usual desk. One desk over Jongin has dragged himself right next to Kyungsoo, pushing hands and notebook onto Kyungsoo’s desk top under the pretense of not understanding the problem Joonmyun has explained to him three times.
Miraculously, Jongin gets it and is eventually able to finish his portion of assignment from just watching Kyungsoo solves the problem. Joonmyun stares in bewilderment as Jongin brings a hand up to pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek in form of thanks, the dormant big neighbor brother in him about to jump in and throw Jongin out of the window had it not been for Kyungsoo’s low giggles at Jongin’s antics. Joonmyun drops his chalk. He clears his throat and averts his eyes when they look at him, only to settle on Sehun drooling all over his table top.
Joonmyun dismisses both freshmen early and keeps Kyungsoo so they can work on a different lesson schedule with emphasis on the core three, himself, Kyungsoo and Lu Han.
“What’s wrong with Jongin?” Kyungsoo asks in surprise, “And Sehun?”
Joonmyun eyes the junior with one eyebrow raised, “Did you not see what happened today? They didn’t learn a thing. But it doesn’t matter, you, me and Lu Han together are enough for the actual questions. Jongin and Sehun can be placeholders.”
“Hyung, that’s a little shady. Plus what are they gonna do during club meetings from now on?” Kyungsoo asks in earnest.
Joonmyun rolls his eyes, “Stare at you and Lu Han like they’ve been doing from the start maybe?”
Kyungsoo tsk’s at his tone, “Hyung, I don’t know about Sehun, but Jongin’s actually a really fast learner. When he wants to learn. You can’t just give up on them.”
And that’s how Jongin and Sehun start eating lunch with them on the roof top, so they all can get to know one another a little better, as per Kyungsoo.
Lu Han has made many friends by now, not to mention a legion of fans that shows up to watch him play soccer and screams their throats hoarse whenever Lu Han scores or another player dares collide with him. He still prefers sticking with Joonmyun and Kyungsoo for lunch however, having taken a liking to Kyungsoo’s cooking.
As the scene pans out before him, Joonmyun wonders how this would improve his opinions on Jongin and Sehun seeing that the others automatically pair themselves up just like any normal club meeting. On the one side Jongin lays his head in Kyungsoo’s lap and demands Kyungsoo feed him food. Kyungsoo makes faces at him mostly, but feeds Jongin regardless. Opposite from them there are Sehun and Lu Han, the former sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, arms around his legs and head propped on top, lolling slightly to the side as he listens to the latter going on about celebrity gossips and upperclassmen he doesn’t know. Joonmyun gives Sehun props anyway, for nodding and exclaiming at all the right places in Lu Han’s many stories just when Joonmyun thinks Sehun isn’t listening anymore.
After their rather dramatic encounter with Wu Fan, Lu Han has somehow managed to rope him into their lunch circle. The two speak in laugh-laced Mandarin sometimes, but most of the time Lu Han turns to Sehun and by process of elimination Joonmyun is left with only Wu Fan to talk to.
Conversations come with noticeable effort for the first couple of times, to Joonmyun’s dismay. He isn’t used to being awkward around people. But Wu Fan in Joonmyun’s mind comes with a preconceived image of a cocky show-off, Joonmyun’s embarrassment from days ago preventing him from relaxing around Wu Fan. Perhaps Wu Fan senses the guard around him, he makes conscious effort at small talks.
Slowly, surely, Joonmyun comes to (kind of, just kind of) like the low bass of Wu Fan’s voice. He learns that Wu Fan too, has been made Captain of the debate team, and the basketball team, all while kicking Joonmyun’s ass on exams. Only some, far and few in between, Joonmyun has to remind himself. Because while resentment is inevitable -Joonmyun has never had to try too hard to earn his place at Seoul High - Joonmyun finds himself more and more in admiration and awe of Wu Fan every time he learns something new.
Wu Fan is methodical, almost bookish, in the ways he handles his responsibilities and in extension his life. Though he laughs and jokes a great deal, there is an air of maturity and confidence in his manners of speaking, especially evident when he interacts with Jongin and Sehun. Joonmyun figures it is Wu Fan’s assertion that has drawn Lu Han to him that very first day, that is drawing Joonmyun to him now. Wu Fan makes him feel very young and meek, but never in condescending ways, he’s rather warm and encouraging. Before Joonmyun knows it, aspiration has taken over his initial wariness towards Wu Fan.
“Let’s make a bet.” Joonmyun says over bites of omelet rice one day.
“Hmm?” Wu Fan hums from where he lays, arms folded under his head.
“Your club and mine, let’s see which one of us will get first place in the year end competitions.”
Wu Fan quirks an eyebrow at him, “And the reward?”
“Loser does whatever winner wants?”
“And if we both get first places?”
“Then I’ll give you the win, since you did have a late start.” Joonmyun purses his lips cheekily at Wu Fan.
Wu Fan deadpans, the slightest hint of a smirk ghosts over his lips, “You know, if you really want me to do something for you, you should just ask.”
Joonmyun does not expect that, tripping over his response as his cheeks start to flame, “N-No… I. What! It’s not like that.”
Joonmyun’s club members look over at them curiously as Wu Fan laughs heartily and pats Joonmyun’s back, “OK. It’s on.”
His cheeks are still slightly warm, but Joonmyun can feel the enthusiasm from two months ago lights anew. Math club is his number one priority. If he could beat Wu Fan at this, then maybe, just maybe, Joonmyun would be on more equal footing with Wu Fan.
Before the month-long winter break, Joonmyun compiles an assessment test from the reviewing material Kyuhyun has sent him and is pleased to find that both Kyungsoo and Lu Han are keeping up with schedule. Jongin and Sehun, like usual, finish the obvious problems and leave the rest blank. Good enough, the club starts winter break in high spirits, agreeing to keep meeting once a week to maintain their working rhythm.
Joonmyun checks off his calendar, six more months.
The month of December is long. Joonmyun spends most days drudging through the snow to walk to cram school. The work load keeps him busy, but the days drag on. Munching on dry cafeteria bread, Joonmyun misses the aroma and the taste of Kyungsoo’s packed lunch. He draws on the glass window and remembers the view from the roof top, Jongin’s raucous laughter, Sehun’s soft voice, Lu Han’s never-ending smile and mostly, mostly he mourns the lack of Wu Fan’s deep voice, telling him to remember to dress warmly because the snow is coming. They text almost every day, but somehow not physically seeing and touching Wu Fan gnaws at the edges of Joonmyun’s subconscious. He takes to preparing various problem worksheets for Math club so he has less time to ponder scenarios.
Two days before Christmas, Kyungsoo knocks on Joonmyun’s door and asks him to go for a walk. He doesn’t say much as he leads Joonmyun down a familiar road, hoodie pulled over his head, eyes obscured and steps brisk.
“What are we doing at school Kyungsoo? Wait, is that Jongin?” Joonmyun narrows his eyes at the gangly silhouette they are approaching. Kyungsoo nods. Jongin is waiting, presumably for Kyungsoo, at the school gate, absentmindedly kicking the snow at his feet.
Jongin’s face mirrors Joonmyun’s confusion when they come face to face, eyes glancing from Joonmyun to Kyungsoo. He stands up right and is resolutely not looking at Joonmyun. Kyungsoo nudges his elbow.
“Jongin has something to ask you, hyung.” Kyungsoo nods at Jongin, nudging him again.
“Hyung, this isn’t necessary.” Jongin whispers at Kyungsoo, almost pleadingly.
Kyungsoo just stares at him, hard and forceful.
Eventually Jongin sighs and starts, “I failed some Chemistry exams, so I’ve been taking supplementary lessons during the break.” His ears begin to redden at the tips.
“Is it not helping?” Joonmyun tries.
“I just don’t get it,” Jongin lets out an exasperated sigh, “if I fail the exam again though, they won’t let me continue with the dance team.”
Jongin lifts his eyes, “I need help Joonmyun hyung.”
Kyungsoo tugs on Joonmyun’s sleeves, “I’m no good with Chemistry, hyung. Will you help Jongin?”
Joonmyun looks at them both and heaves a sigh, “You guys are idiots you know that right. Why didn’t you ask me earlier? We should start reviewing right now.”
Kyungsoo’s face relaxes and his lips turn heart shape, “Hyung is the best!”
Jongin’s exam is on the last day of the year. Joonmyun spends the entire week at Kyungsoo’s house tutoring Jongin after cram school, only stopping to celebrate Christmas. He finds Kyungsoo correct, that Jongin is an extremely fast learner and can boast quite impressive concentration. “When he wants to,” Kyungsoo mouths to Joonmyun as Jongin bites his bottom lips, working to solve a chemical equation. Even when Joonmyun assures Jongin that he is caught up and ready for the exam, Jongin insists on reviewing until they are both nodding off in Kyungsoo’s room the night before the test. Kyungsoo cleans up the notes and paper strewn all over his floor and kicks them both out.
Joonmyun doesn’t hear from either Jongin or Kyungsoo the next day, but the day after that, New Year’s Day, both show up at his door step, cheeks pink with excitement.
Kyungsoo chirps, “He passes hyung.”
Jongin gives him a thumb up, “Joonmyun hyung’s the best.”
Their smiles are contagious and soon Joonmyun is grinning from ear to ear, thumbing Jongin right back, “You did well! Do you guys want to come in?”
“Nope, gonna go on a date.” Jongin grabs Kyungsoo by the waist and Kyungsoo is between squeaking and giggling.
Joonmyun kicks some snow at them, “Ew, get off my property!”
Jongin puts Kyungsoo down and Kyungsoo skips up Joonmyun’s steps, reaching into his coat pocket and presenting Joonmyun with a lucky charm, “We got it at the temple for you hyung. I made sure to pray extra hard for our club. We’re gonna take first place at the Olympiad this year.”
Joonmyun takes the charm, dangling it on his fingers. He smiles with teeth, “Fighting!”
After Jongin and Kyungsoo leave hands in hands, Joonmyun settles down in his couch to watch New Year specials with his family. His phone vibrates slightly in his pocket. Lu Han and Sehun have sent him New Year messages. He eyes the text fondly before opening a new message window. Half way into his text, his phone vibrates again.
Joonmyun’s breath hitches for a moment; Wu Fan. Wu Fan has texted him Happy New Year in Korean, Chinese and English. He grips the phone as he reads Wu Fan’s text over and over. Yep, it has been a good New Year’s Day
The first order of business during their first meeting after winter break has nothing to do with math. Lu Han has found out from Wu Fan that the debate team is sponsored personalized team varsity jackets by the school. He brings this up first and foremost, “We need to get our own club varsity jackets too.” He slams a hand down in resolution.
Joonmyun shakes his head, “Not happening, we don’t have any funding for that.”
Sehun raises his hand, “I want a Math club varsity jacket.”
Joonmyun turns to Sehun, eyebrows shooting out of the frame of his face, “Sehun. You. The dancer. Would be willing to walk around in a jacket full of nerdy Math symbols. Aren’t you and Jongin still telling your friends that you’re serving detention when you’re here?”
“That was last year, hyung.” Jongin chimes in from where he sits perking on top of a desk, “Also, I’m with Lu Han hyung. Let’s get some Math swag.”
Lu Han claps. Sehun turns around and fist pumps Jongin. Joonmyun looks desperately at Kyungsoo.
Kyungsoo offers him a small smile, “Well, it is good to remind people that we’re an active club.”
Joonmyun claws at his cheeks with both hands, “But money, where are we getting the money for this?”
Jongin snaps his fingers, “The school festival next month. We can organize a food booth. Selling pies,” he winks and shoots his index finger at Joonmyun, “Pies. Get it?”
Sehun stands up to bro-fist Jongin this time. Lu Han is flailing dangerously at his table and Kyungsoo starts laughing like a seal. Joonmyun looks at each of them slowly, realizing this is the first time they are actually working together. Like a real club. He bites his bottom lip to prevent the tears welling underneath his eyelid; he can go places with these people after all.
“And then Sehun and I will bring our crew. They will eat anything. And Lu Han hyung will bring his soccer fangirls. And voila, Math swag.”
It is a plan.
Joonmyun stays behind with Kyungsoo after club that day to work out numbers and expenses. If everything goes well, they’ll have their jackets and a little extra just in case. Kyungsoo neatly records everything in the club’s journal and Joonmyun takes it to the teacher’s lounge for an approval. The door opens before he can knock on it and Wu Fan stands towering on the other side. Joonmyun’s chest does a sudden jumpstart and it shocks him into stuttering a greeting.
Wu Fan’s hair has gotten longer over the break, his bangs pushed back by a hair band, strong eyebrows showing. From where Joonmyun stands, just half an arm length away, Wu Fan’s eyelashes are long and dark. Everything is perfect from this distance. The month he spends not seeing Wu Fan everyday is doing strange things to Joonmyun now, keeping his eyes fixed on Wu Fan’s and pumping his heart in full throttle.
“Sorry.” Wu Fan scoots over and Joonmyun blinks rapidly at the open space before him, trying to remember what he was doing. The club notebook is slippery in his sweaty fingers. He grips it with his other hand, wiping his palm on the side of his pants and wondering when he starts sweating during winter.
He briefs the club advisor of their plan for the school festival and after assuring the teacher that he can handle both Math club and his class responsibilities - there isn’t much for him to do as class rep, his class has been doing the same thing for the festival for three years and everyone knows what they’re supposed to do - he gets the go-ahead.
When Joonmyun peeks his head out from the longue door, Wu Fan is waiting for him, leaned against the wall of the empty hall with his school bag hung over his shoulder. They smile when their eyes meet.
“How was your break?” Joonmyun asks over their matched pace.
“It was fine. It was long actually. I’m too used to the two-week winter break in Canada, so I started getting really restless to start school again. Weird, huh?”
“No, no. Me too. And I’ve lived here all my life. But then towards Christmas and New Year I got stuck helping Jongin pass his Chemistry class, so I guess I was busy.”
“Busy is good.” Wu Fan pats Joonmyun’s shoulders. His hand is big.
“Hmm,” Joonmyun hums, “Since it’s your first New Year in Korea, did you try anything traditional with your family?”
“I just stayed home and watched TV.” Wu Fan shrugs.
“Really? Your parents didn’t want to go out on New Year’s Eve?”
“Maybe they did, but there’s really nothing too special where we live in Canada so I doubt it.”
“Canada? Wait…”
“I live by myself right now.” Wu Fan shrugs again, nudging a piece of ice to the side with his foot.
Joonmyun falters a bit in his step, the road is slippery. He hasn’t expected that particular turn of the conversation. Before his brain can process if it’s a safe topic to pursue he blurts, “So you spent Christmas and New Year by yourself? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He is surprised by his own incredulity, looking quickly away from Wu Fan the moment he stops talking.
Wu Fan asks, a hint of amusement in his question, “What should I have told you?”
“I don’t know… I guess you didn’t have to tell me anything,” the wind is cold on his face, making Joonmyun that much more conscious of the warmth creeping up on his cheeks, “But spending winter alone. Is sad.”
“It’s anticlimactic at best.” Wu Fan’s pace is even, so is his tone. Joonmyun has fallen half a step behind, feeling he’s miles away from Wu Fan, comprehending for the first time the depth of Wu Fan’s stoicism. Melancholy is a foreign concept. Joonmyun has never worried a day in his life, whereas Wu Fan’s calmness sets a definite undertone. He feels absolutely silly for harboring a crush on Wu Fan.
“Would you, would you like to come over? For dinner?” Joonmyun glances quickly at Wu Fan, berating himself inwardly. For all the effort he puts into leveling himself to Wu Fan’s silent maturity, Joonmyun still can’t help but act upon the prodding spontaneity whenever it comes to Wu Fan.
He also blames Wu Fan for indulging him.
The first minutes after they step through the door are awkward, Joonmyun’s mom coming to greet him and looking curiously at Wu Fan. Wu Fan ends up introducing himself while Joonmyun waves a vague arm between his mother and Wu Fan. He spends the rest of the evening being a guest in his own house whereas Wu Fan is effortlessly polite and friendly. Joonmyun looks down at his food during the entire meal while Wu Fan compliments the dishes and offers to help clean up. He only looks up when his mother snatches his bowl from him and asks him to bring Wu Fan upstairs.
They ditch their school bags in Joonmyun’s room and climb out, lying on their backs and stargaze on Joonmyun’s roof. The winter night sky in Seoul is desolate, the stars are far and few, dimming in the distance. It piques Joonmyun’s curiosity.
“Are you used to being away from home?” his heart starts thumping loudly again. He hopes Wu Fan doesn’t hear it.
“I’ve never been this long or this far away from home before. It’s my parents.”
“Why moved out? Why so far away? Why Korea?”
“I just jumped on the first available plane. I sent out applications to schools in other countries too, Seoul High was the first one that got back to me. I just knew I didn’t want to go to China, that wouldn’t put me too far away from home. Who knew, I could be in Japan or somewhere in Europe instead.”
Joonmyun gulps. He wonders if this is how winning the lottery feels like, a deafening rush of adrenaline that comes from realizing fate has done it all for him, has propelled Wu Fan to Korea, to Seoul High. He takes a dizzying breath, feeling the flimsy thread of possibility wrapping and numbing his fingertips. He wiggles his hands for warmth, brushing slightly against Wu Fan’s sleeve.
“Your parents were alright with everything?”
Wu Fan scoffs, a puff of air escapes his mouth in haste, dissipating into the dark, “No. My father and I, we seldom agree on anything, probably because we don’t talk often. It’s twisted really. I understand him perfectly. And that’s why I can never agree with him. Being in his head, is tiring.” Wu Fan draws a line in the air, “So I want to go, far away. Somewhere the echo of his thought can’t reach me. It’s despicable actually, I’m just running away, on my family’s money. I managed to convince my parents that this is some sort of spiritual journey, but I’m just a kid acting out. Sad huh?”
“No, no. I don’t think so. I think, breaking out of your mold, is good. Doing what you want is good.”
“But I don’t know what I want.” Wu Fan sighs, “Joonmyun-shi, you’re amazing you know. You got your entire future planned and sorted out. I’m just hopping around places because I can afford it.”
Joonmyun isn’t sure how to take Wu Fan’s compliment. He has been moving in a straight line all of his life because there have been few outside disturbances to knock him off his path. Around him, his parents, his friends, Kyungsoo are all on similar parallel lines. Wu Fan is the single deviant on his path. He wants to chase Wu Fan. At that very moment, lying shivering on the roof top, Joonmyun wants Wu Fan to be on the same line.
“Then just follow me,” he taps his knuckles on Wu Fan’s arm, “make short term plans first. Win the debate in five months. Graduate. Choose a university. Study. Get in. Then you’ll have plenty of time to think about what you want to do.” Joonmyun counts the goals on his fingers, feeling increasingly enthusiastic as he waves his open palm at Wu Fan.
Wu Fan sits up and smiles at him, eyes large and sad against the street lights, “I’m going back to Canada after graduation.”
Joonmyun has not considered that. He falls silent, the weight of the dark sky oppressive on his chest.
January passes with lethargic complacency. The sky is permanently cast in shades of grey and the days are spent indoor waiting in a stupor for the snow to melt.
February brings slivers of sunlight and Seoul High is getting itself ready for the annual school festival. Kyungsoo’s mother has generously donated all the pies they need for the fundraiser. It is up to Jongin and Lu Han to bring their respective crowds of customers.
The moment Kyungsoo finishes writing the price board a hoard of loud boys spills in front of their booth. Jongin and Sehun jump out to mingle with their friends and Kyungsoo waves at a couple of them from behind the counter. Joonmyun recognizes some of the ones in his grade, otherwise leaving Kyungsoo and Lu Han to handle the sales. He settles down in a folding chair at the back of the booth, idly wondering if he should go by his class’s game booth to check things out, but that would involve passing the debate club’s horror maze. Joonmyun sinks further into his seat, too much effort.
The day drags on. The chatter and laughter from the group in front of their booth ebb and flow. Sales start slowing down comes noon and Kyungsoo suggests Jongin and Sehun’s crew to go check out other booths too since they are kind of blocking the booth. Jongin boos and latches on to Kyungsoo, when the crowd starts getting rowdy with the whipped cream Joonmyun pushes himself off of his majesty chair to kick them all out.
Lu Han’s fan club does come by eventually, buying one pie and managing to pull both Lu Han and Sehun away from their booth to the maid café some of the girls are hosting. Lu Han’s last word before he skips off merrily is, “Cake!”
Joonmyun pulls the folding chair up next to Kyungsoo and flops down again, sighing.
Kyungsoo glances at him, worried, “Are you OK, hyung?”
“Yeah. Actually,” Joonmyun gulps and jumps off the chair, having glimpsed Wu Fan making his way over, “I’m gonna go to the restroom. For a while. Text me if you need anything.”
Kyungsoo stares at him with saucer eyes until he disappears around the corner.
By the time Joonmyun makes it back, Kyungsoo and Lu Han are emptying the coolers where they have kept the pies and Jongin and Sehun are working to take down the booth.
“What happened to the rest of the pies? Didn’t we have like, 10 left?”
Kyungsoo opens the cash box to smooth out all the bills, “Wu Fan hyung came by looking for you. He bought the rest of them for his club.” Kyungsoo turns and eyes Joonmyun knowingly. Thankfully he says nothing more.
From the back, Lu Han sing-songs, “Math swag.”
Joonmyun withholds the new jackets from all of them, promising he will give them out on the day of the competition.
“But that’s like, three months away!” Lu Han protests with his pen pointed at Joonmyun.
Joonmyun waves a piece of chalk back, “You’ll get yours. Think of it as incentive to try extra hard during these last three months.”
Time is gaining on them. Joonmyun worries his bottom lips, flipping through the lesson plan. They’re behind by one lesson, but Lu Han has been consistently inconsistent, scoring high on assessment tests but forgetting formulas the next day. Joonmyun cuts him slack because around this time third years also have to worry about cramming for college entrance exam. Lu Han also has soccer practices.
Kyungsoo is always on top of his portion of materials, but he can only memorize so much. Jongin and Sehun learn what they can, Jongin faring a little better but still nowhere ready for real competition.
Joonmyun flips through the study guide Kyuhyun has compiled for him every night, working problems over and over. Three months, he estimates, are enough for him to review and take over some of the others’ parts. As long as Joonmyun knows his math, they will be ok.
Nothing prepares him for Kyuhyun’s new email, however.
“Calculus? Why the hell would we be tested on Calculus? That’s college level math!” Joonmyun slams the notes on his table, the chalk dust in his hand flying up in frantic.
The Olympic is about a month and a half away, nagging in the back of Joonmyun’s head.
“Stay behind with me today Kyungsoo. We need to adjust the plan.”
“What’s on your mind hyung?” Kyungsoo asks when it’s just the two of them in the empty club room, “I’ve known you all my life, this is the first time you’ve gotten so flustered over anything. You can’t be that scared of Calculus.” Kyungsoo nudges him with the tip of his shoe.
Joonmyun sighs wearily, “It came out of nowhere, screws everything up.”
“They pull surprises like this every year though. We always manage to get around to it. You’re the one who always tells me to stay calm and think of a solution.”
“That’s what I’m doing right now.” Joonmyun scratches out something in his lesson plan, eyebrows furrowing.
Kyungsoo pulls the stack of paper away from under his pen, “Hyung. What you are right now is the furthest thing from calm. Is it Wu Fan hyung?”
Joonmyun lets out a sharp breath, “He’s leaving for Canada after graduation.”
Kyungsoo lapses into stunted silence. He extends a hand to rub small circles on Joonmyun’s back, “I’m sorry hyung. I didn’t know.”
Joonmyun inhales, “That shouldn’t matter though. He is here on a transfer program. Naturally he’ll go back to his own country.”
Kyungsoo’s hand is still, warm against the early spring breeze.
Joonmyun presses his palms against his face, “We’re running out of time.”
Kyungsoo squeezes his shoulder and slides the packet of paper back in front of him, “Short term goals hyung. Let’s tackle the lesson plans first.”
Joonmyun stares at the paper in front of him. The lucky charm Kyungsoo and Jongin have gotten for him dangles on the side of his school bag in his peripheral. Step by step, he’ll figure this out step by step. Because Wu Fan is right, Joonmyun does have his life panned out in clear stages. He’ll take it one step at a time.
Wu Fan waits for Joonmyun outside of the teacher’s lounge one day in May, leaning against the exact spot on the wall, school bag on his shoulder. Déjà vu washes over him and he feels the smallest throb in his chest.
“When are you leaving?” Joonmyun asks over the matching rhythm of their walk.
“Two weeks after graduation.” Wu Fan’s hair is even longer now, gathered in a pony tail at the back of his head. His shirt is unbuttoned at the top. He looks young and more like a high school senior today than ever. Joonmyun kind of likes it.
“So, remember our bet?”
“Yeah. I think I figured out what I want you to do for me.” Wu Fan cocks his head.
Joonmyun purses his lips, “Win first, then we’ll talk. And me too.”
They walk together in silence, the sun setting behind their backs and their shadows stretching on the narrow road, Joonmyun’s looking even more like a kid next to Wu Fan’s. In that moment, Joonmyun really wishes that he were a little bit taller. Just a little. He wants to see the world on Wu Fan’s height.
The club spends every evening at Kyungsoo’s house the week right before the Math Olympic. Joonmyun makes sure every single one of them has taken care of their school responsibilities first. It’s trying, but they all pull through somehow.
They study well into the night before. At midnight Lu Han and Sehun start nodding off, leaning into each other and breathing evenly. Jongin has his head in Kyungsoo’s lap and a notebook over his face, no doubt also drooling underneath. They’ll all wake up with cricks in their necks the next morning, but Joonmyun doesn’t have the heart to wake them now.
Kyungsoo sets down his own notes, moving Jongin’s head to a pillow and gets up to prepare blankets and pillows for everybody. Joonmyun mutters formulas under his breath one last time then tosses everything in his school bag. Enough is enough.
The city’s Math Olympiad is held in Seoul High gymnasium this year. There are 6 other schools and 3 rounds of competitions in the tournament.
“Last year champion is seeded straight into the semi final round. The other schools are lotto’ed into pairs. We’re right here, so we’ll go against the champ when we get through the elimination,” Kyungsoo points at the tournament chart and explains the overall scenario to Jongin, Sehun and Lu Han. Students from other schools narrow their eyes at Kyungsoo’s choice of word.
“If you get through the elimination,” a boy sneers. Jongin glares right back and he huffs, walking away with his team.
Straightening his brand new varsity jacket, Joonmyun nods at his team, “Let’s go.”
They crush during the elimination round. The other team looks on in horror as Lu Han repeatedly slams his hand on the buzzer before anybody else can react, paying no regard to the questions asked. Kyungsoo and Joonmyun handle most of them anyways. Joonmyun did not count on this strategy, and frankly Lu Han’s reaction speed scares him, just a little, but so far it is working out brilliantly. Seoul High scores a whopping 300 to nothing in the first round, moving on to the semi final.
There is an individual problem solving segment in the second round and Joonmyun sends out Lu Han, the senior being the second best when it comes to solving equations. He has to save himself for the final round, for each member can only participate in the individual round once. The other team sends out a mousy girl that Joonmyun recognizes from last year. She’s quite fast and precise.
Joonmyun puts a hand over his heart and prays incessantly for Lu Han.
As he fears the other team finishes first, but their final answer is rejected. Panicked, the girl starts erasing her entire paper and working frantically from the beginning. Meanwhile, Lu Han works steadily and the last 5 seconds of the round, he slams his buzzer. Seoul High wins the individual round by one negative sigh. Joonmyun breaths deeply, common mistake.
The team round proves more difficult. Lu Han’s former opponent proves to be on par with him in buzzer speed. Eventually Seoul High wins thanks to the leading points from the individual round.
The two final teams are given a 15-minute break before the last round starts, so Kyungsoo passes water and snacks around. Lu Han stands up to walk around and stretch, coming back with a flyer in his hand.
“Looks like the debate competition will also be here in the evening. We should stay to cheer on Wu Fan’s team!”
Joonmyun takes the flyer from Lu Han, remembering the bet he has with Wu Fan and feeling entirely fired up, “Yeah sure. Let’s kick ass first.”
Lu Han claps his hands in glee.
The final round is laborious. Again, Lu Han dominates the buzzer but the questions are getting increasingly harder in scope. Seoul High manages more right answers but ends up trailing by two points at the end of the team round because there is a penalty for wrong answers and guesses.
Joonmyun pats Kyungsoo who sits right next to him and thumbs up the rest of the team, “No worries. We’ll win it back during the individual round.”
This year, to add a twist, the final individual round contenders are decided by a drawing. As fate would have it, Sehun is picked.
Sehun stands up and heads to the podium in a daze, wandering to the opponent’s instead. Lu Han runs over and guides him back, squeezing Sehun’s shoulders and mouthing, “You can do it.” Behind them, the opposing team snickers and high-fives one another from under the table.
Joonmyun scowls at them. He calls a quick time-out and walks to Sehun, patting the freshman’s back. Sehun looks at him in guilt, “Sorry hyung.” He whispers.
Joonmyun shakes his head, “Just do what you can. I believe in you.” He slips the good luck charm into Sehun’s jacket and thumbs him up with a smile. Sehun smiles gingerly back.
When he settles back down with the rest, the moderator calls start and reveals the question. All nine of them, with the exception of Sehun, take one collective sharp breath. Kyungsoo whimpers in the back of his throat and Jongin mutters, “What is this witchcraft?”
Joonmyun scans the problem and shudders. It is complicated, but doable, but it would have take him the entire allotted time to solve it. Sehun doesn’t stand any chance.
Lu Han glances at Sehun’s opponent, “At least they’re struggling too. What happens if they both don’t get the right answer?”
“Neither team will get points. But that means we’ll lose.” Kyungsoo says worriedly, beads of sweat starting to roll down from his temple.
“Wait, what is Sehun doing?” Jongin points to the podium, they all follow his finger.
Sehun, as if possessed, has picked up his pencil and now writing furiously on his piece of paper. His opponent glances over in shock and he too, starts filling his own paper. They finish at the same time, right when the alarm goes off, signaling the end of the allotted time.
The moderator looks over both answers carefully then pushes his glasses up and there is an awful moment of silence during which Sehun’s opponent bites into his fingernails and Sehun stares ahead with a poker face.
“And, five points to Seoul High.”
They scream.
Joonmyun jumps off his seat, knocking his chair over as he and the others pounce on Sehun.
“Dude what the hell happened?” Jongin ruffles Sehun’s hair with both hands.
Sehun shrugs rather nonchalantly, “That was the 3x3 Rubik cube solving equation. I’ve been looking it up in my free time.”
Kyungsoo stares open mouthed at Sehun and Lu Han turns the freshman around, “Oh Sehun, you’re a genius.” He pulls Sehun into an embrace, jumping up and down in celebration. Sehun turns beet red.
Joonmyun laughs loudly and slaps Sehun’s back, “Good job freshman.”
Sehun turns to him, grin taking up his entire face and hands the charm back to Joonmyun, “Thanks hyung.”
They shake hands with the other teams and bow to the judges and moderator and run up to the audience benches to wait for the debate competition. The trophy ceremony will combine both the Math Olympiad and the debate. Kyungsoo disappears and comes back with sandwiches and everybody scarves down on their share, the event of the morning finally taking its toll.
“Congratulations hyung.” Kyungsoo says as he flops down next to Joonmyun.
Joonmyun leans his head back and lets out a deep breath, “It’s over, just like that. To think we were so worked up for nine whole months.”
Kyungsoo jabs a finger at him, “You, hyung, to think you were so worked up for nine months,” he puts his hands on his knees and smiles at Joonmyun, lips turning heart shape, “I’ve always believed hyung could do it. Because it’s you.”
Joonmyun reaches out to pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek, “No, Kyungsoo. We did it together, the five of us.”
On the other end, Lu Han starts clapping and pointing down, “It’s starting, it’s starting.”
Joonmyun leans forward to look for Wu Fan, spotting him almost too easily. Wu Fan is wearing Seoul High uniform blazer today, a long, lean tie hung neatly below his collar, hair pushed back and gelled in an imposing business manner. Naturally he towers over everyone else.
Lu Han yells and waves like a maniac until Wu Fan makes eye contact with them, to which Lu Han cheers even louder. Wu Fan sees Joonmyun and waves with the barest hint of a smile. Joonmyun thumbs him up and Wu Fan winks in response like he’s just gotten a secret message.
Joonmyun almost falls off his seat.
Kyungsoo coos, “Somebody’s in a good mood today.”
Wu Fan’s team places second, losing to the first place school by five points. Lu Han is the most disappointed. He sulks through the award ceremony and only stops pouting when both clubs announce a celebratory trip to the barbecue house.
On the way there, Joonmyun walks slow and deliberate, counting his footsteps until Wu Fan is the only one matching his pace. Wu Fan has forgone his blazer, loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt at the top again.
“So, congrats.”
“You too.” Joonmyun nods, “You did very well in there. I was surprised.”
“Thanks. Listen, I’ve been thinking about what you said, about making short term goals. And I realize this is not short term, but I think I want to be a lawyer. So I guess the immediate goals are get into college, major in Political Science.”
Joonmyun rubs his chin, “Sounds good. See, you’re already an expert at this planning thing.”
Wu Fan grins at him, a different grin from his usual tight lip one. This time, Joonmyun glimpses gum. And the new smile changes Wu Fan’s features in a way that makes Joonmyun’s lower stomach coil and fires his brain in strange places, places that scream at him to pull Wu Fan down and kiss him senseless in front of all their club members. Joonmyun puts a hold on that thought. Instead, he closes in to Wu Fan’s side, their arms brushing.
“About our bet.”
Joonmyun grabs Wu Fan’s wrist and they stop walking. From where they touch, Joonmyun can feel Wu Fan’s pulse, quick and seeming to match the erratic beating of his own heart.
“Wu Fan, go out with me.” He announces.
Wu Fan looks thoughtfully at him, he starts, “Not that I have a choice in the matter since I did lose that bet,” he swallows, “but you know I’ll only be here for a little more than two weeks. That’s OK with you?”
Joonmyun nods in resolute, “I like you.”
“OK. Then let’s start now.” Wu Fan pulls his wrist free to grab Joonmyun’s hand in his, “Incidentally, I planned on asking you to take me on a date had I won that bet.” Wu Fan winks again.
Joonmyun laughs and feels the warmth of their joined hand spread over his entire body. Wu Fan is still too tall and infinitely more mature than Joonmyun, but maybe Joonmyun isn’t too far from away from him anymore.