(fic) love and other ailments [1/2]
exo | kaisoo (with mentions of baekyeol) | high school AU (PG-13)
jongin has been equipped with wonderful people skills and great friends. (no, not really)
word count: 4321
The sunlight streams in through Jongin’s window. It’s a beautiful day outside; the sky is a perfect blue, the birds are chirp-chirp-chirping in the green trees, the flowers are blooming, and the construction going on in his neighbours’ house seems to have finally stopped.
Jongin gets up and shuts the blinds before slipping back under the blankets.
He then proceeds to scowl to himself because he realizes it’s Monday and his stupid body clock has made sure that he wakes up at six-thirty a.m. on the dot just because it knows he takes that long to get out of the house.
Sehun, his roommate and winner of the coveted Asshole-Of-The-Year award two years and running, bursts his door open with an annoyingly loud sing-song of ‘GOOD MOOOOOORNING STARSHIIIIINE’.
Jongin doesn’t budge.
Sehun, of course, is already dressed in his uniform, primped and proper and not a hair out of place. Calling Sehun a nerd would be naming the one thing Sehun is anything but, though. Oh Sehun just really likes annoying his (unfortunate) roommate Kim Jongin, who has a problem with mornings, particularly monday mornings.
For some reason Sehun has chosen an accordion to wake Jongin up with today. It’s a toy one, Jongin notices as he cracks one bleary eye open to look at it. It’s painted a bright obnoxious fire hydrant red, complete with shiny yellow buttons and rainbow keys. How the hell does Sehun get this kind stuff without him noticing?
If anything, the sound the accordion makes is as obnoxious as it’s colors (and, of course, the person playing it) and Jongin pulls the covers over his head. Unfortunately this doesn’t help much and to make matters worse, the neighbours next door have chosen monday morning of all mornings to begin hammering in the room directly next to Jongin’s.
Sehun’s accordion solo grows increasingly unbearable. It’s clear the boy has no idea how to play the accordion but acts like he does, the chords and sharp notes creating a nightmarish soundscape. The music is gradually growing louder and louder and without warning there’s suddenly a very heavy object on top of Jongin. It is, of course, Sir Obnoxious himself, sitting on Jongin, still playing the accordion.
This, of course, drives Jongin over the edge and he reaches a hand out from under his blanket and grabs what he assumes is the accordion (or Sehun, he doesn’t really care at this point). Fortunately, it is the accordion and he promptly starts whacking Sehun as viciously as possible with it, causing the younger to yelp and dodge before finally getting up and running out of the room.
With a satisfied grunt he drops the accordion on the floor, ignoring it’s protesting cry of a c-chord and drifts easily back into slumber.
✦
He is rudely awoken by the sound of an alarm clock ringing. It’s better than sehun, he figures, and rolls over to turn it off. To his absolute horror he is greeted to the sight of the clock proudly showing him that it is eleven freaking a.m and he is late and about as dead as a dodo bird if the prefects, or the principal, for that matter, catch him (and they will. they always do.)
He leaps out of the bed, cursing all of Oh Sehun’s ancestors and predecessors as he steps on the wretched instrument sehun had attempted to wake him up with. It lets out a horrified shriek of an E-minor chord and Jongin sprints, or rather, hobbles, to the bathroom in record timing.
It’s eleven forty by the time he grabs his backpack, fully dressed and deodorant..ized. He successfully leaps over the accordion-ha! no accordion can stop the flawless Kim Jongin!- before promptly crashing into his room’s door. He gets up quickly and fixes his uniform.
“I meant to do that,” he says, before realizing there’s no one there with him. But he feels Sehun’s stuffed toys judging him behind the closed door so it’s somewhat justified.
The bus decides to leave without him today and the next one decides that there are no unfortunate, misunderstood, and tragically attractive students waiting for a bus at this hour so it’s going to take it’s own sweet time to arrive, so Jongin decides to just run. This, of course, is easier said than done, and Jongin’s pretty sure Sehun has cursed his entire day-or maybe entire life, at this rate- as his laces become undone and he trips and falls. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt anything except his dignity so he hurriedly picks himself back up before sprinting off again.
“Decided to be early, I see?” Mr. Lee, the principal, is standing outside the gates and he gives Jongin a smile. For a moment Jongin opens his mouth to start telling him how he helped an old lady cross the street when he realizes the students are still streaming in calmly and Mr. Lee’s smile is oddly genuine. He pulls out his phone to check the time and he feels his gut drop as soon as the glowing numbers greet him.
7:40 AM
“Fucking Oh Sehun!”
“DETENTION!”
✦
Jongin has a good mind to pour his whole packet of orange juice down Sehun’s shirt as the latter sits with him at lunch but he’s already got four hours detention for swearing in front of the principal and another warning for ‘unacceptable attire’ so he decides to try to kill Sehun with his eyes.
Sehun, of course, is immune to Jongin, as he always has been for some reason, and he only steals some of Jongin’s french fries in response. The kids at the table behind Jongin can feel his evil aura radiating off him and decide to move as quickly as possible.
Byun Baekhyun bounds up to the two of them, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, as he always is, but pauses when he sees the glare Jongin is giving Sehun. Jongin’s eyes are actually starting to water a little but he refuses to give up. Any second now lasers will shoot out of his eyes...
“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun starts but Sehun waves it away.
“Sit down, hyung. it’s alright. Jonginnie is just being a grumpy bunny, aren’t you Jonginnie winnie? Yes you are! Yes you are!” Sehun gushes at Jongin through his mouth of food and Jongin feels his eye twitch.
Baekhyun sits down a reasonable distance from the two of them at the table. Any minute now Jongin will throw something at Sehun and he doesn’t want to be used as a javelin or a shield any time soon.
“You did something again, didn’t you?” Baekhyun snaps warily.
“I was just being a good friend and making sure he wouldn’t get suspended...again.” Sehun’s tone is painfully innocent.
Jongin’s eye twitches once more, his eyes are actually starting to water.
Baekhyun sighs and picks up his milk carton, hugging it. “You’re my only friend....”
“I thought I was your only friend!”
The familiar booming voice makes Baekhyun and Sehun look up and Jongin takes this opportunity to look away and blink rapidly, fanning his eyes. It’s Park Chanyeol, Baekhyun’s best friend (and not-so-secret crush), aside from numerous others. He’d gotten reasonably popular ever since the school’s talent show; even gaining a decent following both online and on campus.
Anyway, Chanyeol somehow manages to fit his obscenely long legs under the cafeteria table and sits down across from Baekhyun, smiling brightly. Not like he ever stops smiling, of course, Jongin thinks with a slight shudder.
“My only sane friend,” Baekhyun says as he puts the milk carton down, petting it.
“Says the guy talking to the milk carton,” Sehun quips. Baekhyun tries to kick him under the table but ends up kicking Jongin instead and the latter actually feels tears coming to his eyes.
“Ohmygod I’m so sorry!” Baekhyun winces sympathetically.
“Right in the shin,” Jongin’s voice is strangled as he tries to compose himself. Sehun, of course, is cackling away, ignoring the neighbouring student’s mutters of ‘pure evil’.
“What? What happened?” Chanyeol blinks obliviously (Sehun) creepily (Jongin) cutely (Baekhyun).
“Nothing! Nothing,” Baekhyun says quickly, smiling serenely at Chanyeol. Maybe Jongin should try to kill him with his laser vision instead.
Chanyeol nods and starts to blabber about the upcoming marching band competition. He’s been playing tuba for as long as any of them can remember (partly because he was the only kid big enough to play it out of all of those who auditioned), and Baekhyun watches him with shiny eyes, clearly not paying attention. Jongin rolls his eyes. He doesn’t know who he should punch. Chanyeol, for being such an oblivious moron, or Baekhyun, for not believing that the object is his affections clearly reciprocates his emotions.
Meanwhile through Chanyeol’s story about how he tried to rescue his neighbour’s cat from the roof (“She finally hissed at me! I think she’s really warming up to me!”), someone calls his name. A boy jogs up to their table after Chanyeol waves him over.
“Guys, this is Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo, this is Baekhyun, Sehun, and that depressed form over there is Jongin.”
Jongin looks up to glare at Chanyeol but then freezes when he sees Kyungsoo.
Kyungsoo is the most perfect, adorable, perfect, beautiful, and did he say perfect? being Jongin has ever laid eyes on. He feels his sandwich slip from his fingers and land onto his tray but he doesn’t care. Kyungsoo blushes, shyly avoiding eye contact with any of them. Jongin wonders what it would be like to kiss those cheeks, or to hold them in his hands. He can already feel his mouth run dry.
Sehun nudges Baekhyun and cocks his head a little at Jongin and the two of them snigger.
“Well, uh. Nice meeting all of you! Chanyeol we have band practice, did you forget?”
“Oh, right right! Sorry! See you guys!” He gathers all his things quickly and Kyungsoo waves shyly at them before leaving, Chanyeol trailing behind him.
“You’re drooling on your food. And stop staring at his ass!” Jongin coughs quickly and wipes his mouth with the napkin.
“Drooling? What? I’m not drooling. Psh. Yeah, like I drool.” It’s Baekhyun’s turn to roll his eyes.
“Teach me your ways, O King of Discrepancy.”
It takes Jongin about three seconds to register that he probably looked like a gigantic creep and he promptly buries his face in his hands, groaning.
“Manjd laidbshk ishdfdk rueendks.”
“What?”
“My life in ruins,” Jongin repeats with his equally depressed tone.
Sehun smirks. “Has our Jonginnie finally found love?”
Jongin responds by throwing a slice of pizza at Sehun. Unfortunately, Sehun has incredibly good reflexes and dodges it easily, so the pizza ends up right on the face of Head Boy, Kim Junmyeon.
“DETENTION!”
“Oh fuck my life.”
✦
Fortunately (not fortunately) for Jongin, not only is Sehun Asshole-Of-The-Year and Sir Obnoxious, he is also somehow best friends with Troll-Of-The-Year and Snarky Supreme Kim Jongdae. It’s not like Jongin dislikes Jongdae, of course, he just feels like throwing Jongdae out of the nearest window 24/7, even when he’s not speaking, because Jongdae oozes an aura that fights with Jongin’s, buries it, and dances on it’s grave while screaming ‘GANGNAM STYLE’ at the top of it’s lungs. Oh yeah, Jongdae’s aura has lungs.
Because the luck gods have decided to shit on him that day, Jongin finds himself trying to look at Kyungsoo discreetly behind a random book he’s picked up as he entered the library. Kyungsoo is a librarian, besides being in the marching band, and Jongin finds it incredibly adorable watching him climb ladders and stand on his tip-toes as he sorts out books.
“You’re reading that upside down,” a familiarly annoying voice whispers in his ear suddenly and Jongin lets out a very-in his defense-manly shriek. This causes almost every single student in the library to turn in his direction and hiss ‘SHHHH!’ at him, even Kyungsoo, Jongin notices with a heavy heart and shrinks even lower behind the book in his seat (but not before giving Jongdae the scariest death glare he can manage).
Jongin tries to peek at Kyungsoo over the edges of his book again but is blocked by Jongdae’s shit-eating grin as the latter takes a seat where his head immediately blocks Jongin’s line of sight.
“What do you want, you...freak?”
Jongdae rolls his eyes and Jongin wishes he were a balloon and could just deflate there and then.
“So you like Kyungsoo, huh?”
“No, I’m here to do research on this...” He hastily turns the book upright and realizes he’s been reading a book on slugs and has opened to a chapter about them mating, complete with a picture. He makes a strangled noise and pushes the book as far away from him as possible. Jongdae looks at him expectantly.
Jongin clears his throat. “I’m here to do research on slugs.”
“Tsk. Calling Kyungsoo a slug, how could you?”
Jongin’s eyes narrow. “I am not here for anything Kyungsoo related, Jongdae.”
“Sure, sure. Just like how you don’t take any classes related to biology yet for some reason you’re researching on slugs.”
“I like to...broaden my mind.”
Jongdae scoffs.
“Who taught you to lie? Chanyeol?”
“How much did Sehun pay you? I can pay you double.”
“Ha. Nice try, Jongin. But we both know I am incredibly loyal.” He doesn’t even flinch at the look that Jongin gives him.
“Also, he payed me thirty bucks.”
“Thirty bucks?!” Jongin lets out another manly shriek and is-yet again-hissed at by the entire population of the library. Stupid Sehun and his bottomless wallet.
Jongdae waits for the noise to subside before smirking.
“My services are not cheap, you know.”
“How classy.” Jongin realizes the book is gone and he curses silently. One of the other librarians must have cleared it while he was thinking up a witty comeback. He’d honestly rather read about mating slugs than have to talk to Jongdae.
“So, do you like him or not? I could talk to him for you, you know. We’ve known each other for three years.”
Or maybe even eat a slug.
Jongin tries to glare at Jongdae one last time but it seems the gods have chosen a different day to reveal his supernatural powers to him so he sighs in defeat.
“Yes, okay? Yes. He’s....perfect.” Jongin can feel himself melting into his shoes at that last statement but is quickly snapped out of his reverie by Jongdae scoffing.
“What?” He frowns, trying to gather as much information about Kyungsoo that he knows so that he can defend his reasons for his attraction to him. This, of course, proves to be very difficult since he’s only known Kyungsoo for about three hours and hasn’t even spoken to him, and Jongdae only watches in glee as Jongin scowls at the air as he struggles with his thoughts.
“Wow. You really are as hopeless as Sehun said you would be.”
“Are you two sleeping together or something? Seriously why the heck do you hang out with Sehun?”
Jongdae chooses to ignore Jongin’s statement. “Okay. Here’s what you should know about Kyungsoo...” He proceeds to rattle on a list of things and Jongin finds himself scrambling to remember them. By the end of it, he feels less than coherent, his brain swimming with new information and he tries to recite the list silently in his head.
Jongdae rises from the table and moves to leave, but not before stopping at Jongin’s side and whispering into his ear, “By the way, I lied. You’re just very obvious when it comes to staring.”
Jongin makes sure to curse all of Jongdae’s ancestors and predecessors too.
(But he does it a little too loudly and a pink detention slip is presented to him by a passing librarian.)
✦
By the time Jongin gets out of school it’s nearly eleven p.m and he’s exhausted. He’d decided to have all his detentions on one day because 1) it’s a real bitch to stay back at school a few days in a row and 2) anything to avoid Sehun or Jongdae. His stomach growls, scolding him for not taking care of him like he should, and Jongin pats his stomach as if to soothe it.
“Shh, baby. I’m sorry.”
He looks around and thanks god that no one was there to witness that.
The walk home is generally quiet and Jongin counts about six cars as he turns into his street. He can see the apartment block and the light in Sehun’s room is still on.
“Probably watching some sort of por-”
Jongin freezes as a familiar figure exits the convenience store in front of him. The perfect, adorable, perfect, beautiful, perfect being is doddling along, carrying a shopping bag on each arm. They don’t look particularly heavy, but Kyungsoo seems to be struggling a little. Jongin feels his heart melt and he almost swoons there and then on the sidewalk. Almost.
Thanking his fates and lucky stars and the gods above, Jongin strolls casually forward, pretending not to notice. He’ll just bump into Kyungsoo ever so gently and-
The fates, lucky stars and gods are probably laughing, Jongin decides as he walks right into a street lamp. To make matters worse, the loud clang of his skull hitting the metal is enough to make Kyungsoo turn to face him and then gasp in horror. He rushes over with his bags before putting them down.
“Are you okay?” He bites his lip in worry and Jongin starts seeing stars because the love of his life is talking to him?!?!?!!? And also because his head actually really does hurt.
Holding his head and trying to give Kyungsoo somewhat of an assuring grin, he nods.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure? It looked pretty bad...” Jongin resists throwing himself at Kyungsoo and yelling ‘take care of me for the rest of my life’ pretty well.
“It’s nothing, really!” Jongin laughs a little sheepishly and waves it off.
“O-oh. Okay then.” Suddenly Kyungsoo is smiling at him and Jongin wishes that the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
“You’re...Jongin, right? Chanyeol’s friend?”
He nods. Oh my god he knows my name I think I might explode.
“Cool. I’m Kyungsoo.” He holds out his hand and Jongin takes it. Control yourself, man! But it’s difficult when Kyungsoo’s hand feels soft and warm and squishy and fits perfectly in his and-
Kyungsoo takes his hand back and Jongin feels him take a little piece of his heart with it too. “I’ll uh...see you at school?” Jongin thinks he looks almost hopeful.
“Y-yeah.” He waves a little pathetically as Kyungsoo picks up the bags and hurries off, as adorable as ever.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid Kim Jongin! Why were you born with such terrible people skills?! Why, why, WHY?!” He throws his arms up to the sky and yells at the moon, ignoring a couple who huddle closer together as they hurry by him.
“So, what have we learnt today, Jonginnie?” Sehun smirks from the couch as he watches Jongin pace around the kitchen in his pajamas, holding an ice pack to his head.
“That you are the worst person to live with and that you have cursed me for the rest of my life with your presence here, demon child.”
“Aw shucks, that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all year.”
“Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“I’m not the one who is going to have trouble sleeping because a certain wide-eyed acquaintance will be the object of his fantasies.”
“You’re a real creep, you know?”
Sehun takes this opportunity to give him the face Spongebob gave Squidward when he realized that Squidward liked krabby patties. Jongin can’t think of anything else so he hisses like a cat at Sehun before storming off to his room and slamming the door as dramatically as possible.
✦
Jongin decides that walking into a lamppost isn’t such a bad thing after all when Kyungsoo sees him during lunch and walks over. Sehun hides his smirk with his sandwhich while Baekhyun and Chanyeol (and apparently Jongdae sits with them now for some reason) blink in confusion as Kyungsoo approaches the table. Jongin thinks his heart might explode.
“U-uh. Hi. Is your head okay?” Kyungsoo shifts awkwardly, feeling the others staring at him. Jongin, of course, is starry-eyed and sees Kyungsoo with sparkles and a soft pink vignetting around him, and can only nod dumbly in response.
“Well, um...cool, yeah. I’ll just uh...go...back..bye.” Kyungsoo turns and nearly collides right into a passing student. He apologizes profusely before running off as quickly as possible.
“Ohmygod.” Baekhyun blinks.
Jongin turns back to their group and sighs dreamily.
“Did you already get him to have rough sex with you?!” Chanyeol demands a little too loudly and one of the passing prefects, Kim Minseok, Jongin remembers, shoots them a disapproving glare. Baekhyun turns bright pink and shushes him.
Sehun snorts. “This guy? He walked into a lamppost yesterday when he saw Kyungsoo coming out of the store.” Jongdae, of course, promptly high-fives him and joins him in the laugh fest. Jongin notices Baekhyun (thankfully) kick Chanyeol under the table before the latter can burst out in laughter.
“Oh come on, you guys. I think it’s cute Jongin likes Kyungsoo.”
“Shhh!” Jongin hisses. “The walls have ears!”
“We’re in the cafeteria, Jongin. Everyone is talking.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Anyway,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “You should ask him out.”
“Ask him out? Are you crazy?! Chanyeol, I think you need to give your boyfriend some medicine-”
“We’re not dating!” Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun reply simultaneously before blushing. Jongin raises an eyebrow.
“Uh-huh.”
“Look, just....it doesn’t hurt to try,” Baekhyun finishes quickly and looks down at his lunch, clearly flustered. He suddenly gets up the same time Chanyeol does and the two of them blink at each other.
“I’m not hungry,” the two of them say in unison.
“I’ll see you guys later.” Again, it’s said together.
The two of them part ways, leaving the table. A few seconds later they pass by again, crossing paths at the same time.
“I’m going this way,” they say simultaneously.
“Well....that was weird.” Jongdae shrugs and bites into his dumpling.
Jongin groans and puts his head on the table.
“He probably thinks I’m some sort of loser-”
“Which you are.” Jongdae and Sehun are synchronized now.
“-And I’m going to spend the rest of my days alone, talking to my cat who I shall name Kyungsoo because I actually want his companionship but I’ll take what I can get and make the most of it-”
“Uh, Jongin?”
“-And Kyungsoo will never know that I really really like him and that he shines like the freaking sun and who said he could be so freaking adorable and perfect and gorgeous-”
“Jongin.”
“-And who said he could just waltz into my life like that I mean it’s not fair! It’s not fair I tell you!”
“Jongin!”
“What?” Jongin snaps, sitting up. He then feels his whole body being enveloped in ice, starting from his feet and engulfing his entire being in less than two seconds because Kyungsoo is standing there with a dumbfounded expression on his face, eyes wider than ever.
Then, suddenly, he smiles and it’s definitely the most beautiful thing that Jongin has ever seen. The ice melts and Jongin feels his inside go all wobbly and he’s glad that he’s sitting down otherwise he’d probably collapse. Now he feels like his insides are all on fire.
“Friday, after school, there’s this really nice ice cream shop a few blocks down.”
“I...I...”
Kyungsoo blushes and leans in, pressing a kiss against Jongin’s cheek.
In that single moment, Jongin feels like he can fly, or discover new land, or wrestle a lion, or do pretty much anything. He thinks he’s seeing stars again only this time there’s definitely no pain involved.
Sehun and Jongdae stare at Jongin with their jaws dropped. Slowly, a dazed, sleepy smile spreads on Jongin’s face.
Sehun flinches uncomfortably. “Jongin?”
Jongin starts to giggle at them.
“Uh...are you okay, man?” Jongdae looks concerned now.
“I love you guys.”
“Oh god he’s gone insane. Abort abort abort!” Sehun and Jongdae scramble out of their seats as fast as they can.
“Where are you guys going? Let me show you guys how much I love you!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
>> next
===
A/N: this is actually a two-shot but I'm just posting this to see if you guys are interested in a sequel. ^^; also I love writing shy!jongin it's pretty damn fun.
and I have actually played a (toy) accordion before and it is very, very verrry obnoxious. I was also able to wake up my friend's roommate while we were overseas LOL.
jongin has been equipped with wonderful people skills and great friends. (no, not really)
word count: 4321
The sunlight streams in through Jongin’s window. It’s a beautiful day outside; the sky is a perfect blue, the birds are chirp-chirp-chirping in the green trees, the flowers are blooming, and the construction going on in his neighbours’ house seems to have finally stopped.
Jongin gets up and shuts the blinds before slipping back under the blankets.
He then proceeds to scowl to himself because he realizes it’s Monday and his stupid body clock has made sure that he wakes up at six-thirty a.m. on the dot just because it knows he takes that long to get out of the house.
Sehun, his roommate and winner of the coveted Asshole-Of-The-Year award two years and running, bursts his door open with an annoyingly loud sing-song of ‘GOOD MOOOOOORNING STARSHIIIIINE’.
Jongin doesn’t budge.
Sehun, of course, is already dressed in his uniform, primped and proper and not a hair out of place. Calling Sehun a nerd would be naming the one thing Sehun is anything but, though. Oh Sehun just really likes annoying his (unfortunate) roommate Kim Jongin, who has a problem with mornings, particularly monday mornings.
For some reason Sehun has chosen an accordion to wake Jongin up with today. It’s a toy one, Jongin notices as he cracks one bleary eye open to look at it. It’s painted a bright obnoxious fire hydrant red, complete with shiny yellow buttons and rainbow keys. How the hell does Sehun get this kind stuff without him noticing?
If anything, the sound the accordion makes is as obnoxious as it’s colors (and, of course, the person playing it) and Jongin pulls the covers over his head. Unfortunately this doesn’t help much and to make matters worse, the neighbours next door have chosen monday morning of all mornings to begin hammering in the room directly next to Jongin’s.
Sehun’s accordion solo grows increasingly unbearable. It’s clear the boy has no idea how to play the accordion but acts like he does, the chords and sharp notes creating a nightmarish soundscape. The music is gradually growing louder and louder and without warning there’s suddenly a very heavy object on top of Jongin. It is, of course, Sir Obnoxious himself, sitting on Jongin, still playing the accordion.
This, of course, drives Jongin over the edge and he reaches a hand out from under his blanket and grabs what he assumes is the accordion (or Sehun, he doesn’t really care at this point). Fortunately, it is the accordion and he promptly starts whacking Sehun as viciously as possible with it, causing the younger to yelp and dodge before finally getting up and running out of the room.
With a satisfied grunt he drops the accordion on the floor, ignoring it’s protesting cry of a c-chord and drifts easily back into slumber.
✦
He is rudely awoken by the sound of an alarm clock ringing. It’s better than sehun, he figures, and rolls over to turn it off. To his absolute horror he is greeted to the sight of the clock proudly showing him that it is eleven freaking a.m and he is late and about as dead as a dodo bird if the prefects, or the principal, for that matter, catch him (and they will. they always do.)
He leaps out of the bed, cursing all of Oh Sehun’s ancestors and predecessors as he steps on the wretched instrument sehun had attempted to wake him up with. It lets out a horrified shriek of an E-minor chord and Jongin sprints, or rather, hobbles, to the bathroom in record timing.
It’s eleven forty by the time he grabs his backpack, fully dressed and deodorant..ized. He successfully leaps over the accordion-ha! no accordion can stop the flawless Kim Jongin!- before promptly crashing into his room’s door. He gets up quickly and fixes his uniform.
“I meant to do that,” he says, before realizing there’s no one there with him. But he feels Sehun’s stuffed toys judging him behind the closed door so it’s somewhat justified.
The bus decides to leave without him today and the next one decides that there are no unfortunate, misunderstood, and tragically attractive students waiting for a bus at this hour so it’s going to take it’s own sweet time to arrive, so Jongin decides to just run. This, of course, is easier said than done, and Jongin’s pretty sure Sehun has cursed his entire day-or maybe entire life, at this rate- as his laces become undone and he trips and falls. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt anything except his dignity so he hurriedly picks himself back up before sprinting off again.
“Decided to be early, I see?” Mr. Lee, the principal, is standing outside the gates and he gives Jongin a smile. For a moment Jongin opens his mouth to start telling him how he helped an old lady cross the street when he realizes the students are still streaming in calmly and Mr. Lee’s smile is oddly genuine. He pulls out his phone to check the time and he feels his gut drop as soon as the glowing numbers greet him.
7:40 AM
“Fucking Oh Sehun!”
“DETENTION!”
✦
Jongin has a good mind to pour his whole packet of orange juice down Sehun’s shirt as the latter sits with him at lunch but he’s already got four hours detention for swearing in front of the principal and another warning for ‘unacceptable attire’ so he decides to try to kill Sehun with his eyes.
Sehun, of course, is immune to Jongin, as he always has been for some reason, and he only steals some of Jongin’s french fries in response. The kids at the table behind Jongin can feel his evil aura radiating off him and decide to move as quickly as possible.
Byun Baekhyun bounds up to the two of them, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, as he always is, but pauses when he sees the glare Jongin is giving Sehun. Jongin’s eyes are actually starting to water a little but he refuses to give up. Any second now lasers will shoot out of his eyes...
“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun starts but Sehun waves it away.
“Sit down, hyung. it’s alright. Jonginnie is just being a grumpy bunny, aren’t you Jonginnie winnie? Yes you are! Yes you are!” Sehun gushes at Jongin through his mouth of food and Jongin feels his eye twitch.
Baekhyun sits down a reasonable distance from the two of them at the table. Any minute now Jongin will throw something at Sehun and he doesn’t want to be used as a javelin or a shield any time soon.
“You did something again, didn’t you?” Baekhyun snaps warily.
“I was just being a good friend and making sure he wouldn’t get suspended...again.” Sehun’s tone is painfully innocent.
Jongin’s eye twitches once more, his eyes are actually starting to water.
Baekhyun sighs and picks up his milk carton, hugging it. “You’re my only friend....”
“I thought I was your only friend!”
The familiar booming voice makes Baekhyun and Sehun look up and Jongin takes this opportunity to look away and blink rapidly, fanning his eyes. It’s Park Chanyeol, Baekhyun’s best friend (and not-so-secret crush), aside from numerous others. He’d gotten reasonably popular ever since the school’s talent show; even gaining a decent following both online and on campus.
Anyway, Chanyeol somehow manages to fit his obscenely long legs under the cafeteria table and sits down across from Baekhyun, smiling brightly. Not like he ever stops smiling, of course, Jongin thinks with a slight shudder.
“My only sane friend,” Baekhyun says as he puts the milk carton down, petting it.
“Says the guy talking to the milk carton,” Sehun quips. Baekhyun tries to kick him under the table but ends up kicking Jongin instead and the latter actually feels tears coming to his eyes.
“Ohmygod I’m so sorry!” Baekhyun winces sympathetically.
“Right in the shin,” Jongin’s voice is strangled as he tries to compose himself. Sehun, of course, is cackling away, ignoring the neighbouring student’s mutters of ‘pure evil’.
“What? What happened?” Chanyeol blinks obliviously (Sehun) creepily (Jongin) cutely (Baekhyun).
“Nothing! Nothing,” Baekhyun says quickly, smiling serenely at Chanyeol. Maybe Jongin should try to kill him with his laser vision instead.
Chanyeol nods and starts to blabber about the upcoming marching band competition. He’s been playing tuba for as long as any of them can remember (partly because he was the only kid big enough to play it out of all of those who auditioned), and Baekhyun watches him with shiny eyes, clearly not paying attention. Jongin rolls his eyes. He doesn’t know who he should punch. Chanyeol, for being such an oblivious moron, or Baekhyun, for not believing that the object is his affections clearly reciprocates his emotions.
Meanwhile through Chanyeol’s story about how he tried to rescue his neighbour’s cat from the roof (“She finally hissed at me! I think she’s really warming up to me!”), someone calls his name. A boy jogs up to their table after Chanyeol waves him over.
“Guys, this is Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo, this is Baekhyun, Sehun, and that depressed form over there is Jongin.”
Jongin looks up to glare at Chanyeol but then freezes when he sees Kyungsoo.
Kyungsoo is the most perfect, adorable, perfect, beautiful, and did he say perfect? being Jongin has ever laid eyes on. He feels his sandwich slip from his fingers and land onto his tray but he doesn’t care. Kyungsoo blushes, shyly avoiding eye contact with any of them. Jongin wonders what it would be like to kiss those cheeks, or to hold them in his hands. He can already feel his mouth run dry.
Sehun nudges Baekhyun and cocks his head a little at Jongin and the two of them snigger.
“Well, uh. Nice meeting all of you! Chanyeol we have band practice, did you forget?”
“Oh, right right! Sorry! See you guys!” He gathers all his things quickly and Kyungsoo waves shyly at them before leaving, Chanyeol trailing behind him.
“You’re drooling on your food. And stop staring at his ass!” Jongin coughs quickly and wipes his mouth with the napkin.
“Drooling? What? I’m not drooling. Psh. Yeah, like I drool.” It’s Baekhyun’s turn to roll his eyes.
“Teach me your ways, O King of Discrepancy.”
It takes Jongin about three seconds to register that he probably looked like a gigantic creep and he promptly buries his face in his hands, groaning.
“Manjd laidbshk ishdfdk rueendks.”
“What?”
“My life in ruins,” Jongin repeats with his equally depressed tone.
Sehun smirks. “Has our Jonginnie finally found love?”
Jongin responds by throwing a slice of pizza at Sehun. Unfortunately, Sehun has incredibly good reflexes and dodges it easily, so the pizza ends up right on the face of Head Boy, Kim Junmyeon.
“DETENTION!”
“Oh fuck my life.”
✦
Fortunately (not fortunately) for Jongin, not only is Sehun Asshole-Of-The-Year and Sir Obnoxious, he is also somehow best friends with Troll-Of-The-Year and Snarky Supreme Kim Jongdae. It’s not like Jongin dislikes Jongdae, of course, he just feels like throwing Jongdae out of the nearest window 24/7, even when he’s not speaking, because Jongdae oozes an aura that fights with Jongin’s, buries it, and dances on it’s grave while screaming ‘GANGNAM STYLE’ at the top of it’s lungs. Oh yeah, Jongdae’s aura has lungs.
Because the luck gods have decided to shit on him that day, Jongin finds himself trying to look at Kyungsoo discreetly behind a random book he’s picked up as he entered the library. Kyungsoo is a librarian, besides being in the marching band, and Jongin finds it incredibly adorable watching him climb ladders and stand on his tip-toes as he sorts out books.
“You’re reading that upside down,” a familiarly annoying voice whispers in his ear suddenly and Jongin lets out a very-in his defense-manly shriek. This causes almost every single student in the library to turn in his direction and hiss ‘SHHHH!’ at him, even Kyungsoo, Jongin notices with a heavy heart and shrinks even lower behind the book in his seat (but not before giving Jongdae the scariest death glare he can manage).
Jongin tries to peek at Kyungsoo over the edges of his book again but is blocked by Jongdae’s shit-eating grin as the latter takes a seat where his head immediately blocks Jongin’s line of sight.
“What do you want, you...freak?”
Jongdae rolls his eyes and Jongin wishes he were a balloon and could just deflate there and then.
“So you like Kyungsoo, huh?”
“No, I’m here to do research on this...” He hastily turns the book upright and realizes he’s been reading a book on slugs and has opened to a chapter about them mating, complete with a picture. He makes a strangled noise and pushes the book as far away from him as possible. Jongdae looks at him expectantly.
Jongin clears his throat. “I’m here to do research on slugs.”
“Tsk. Calling Kyungsoo a slug, how could you?”
Jongin’s eyes narrow. “I am not here for anything Kyungsoo related, Jongdae.”
“Sure, sure. Just like how you don’t take any classes related to biology yet for some reason you’re researching on slugs.”
“I like to...broaden my mind.”
Jongdae scoffs.
“Who taught you to lie? Chanyeol?”
“How much did Sehun pay you? I can pay you double.”
“Ha. Nice try, Jongin. But we both know I am incredibly loyal.” He doesn’t even flinch at the look that Jongin gives him.
“Also, he payed me thirty bucks.”
“Thirty bucks?!” Jongin lets out another manly shriek and is-yet again-hissed at by the entire population of the library. Stupid Sehun and his bottomless wallet.
Jongdae waits for the noise to subside before smirking.
“My services are not cheap, you know.”
“How classy.” Jongin realizes the book is gone and he curses silently. One of the other librarians must have cleared it while he was thinking up a witty comeback. He’d honestly rather read about mating slugs than have to talk to Jongdae.
“So, do you like him or not? I could talk to him for you, you know. We’ve known each other for three years.”
Or maybe even eat a slug.
Jongin tries to glare at Jongdae one last time but it seems the gods have chosen a different day to reveal his supernatural powers to him so he sighs in defeat.
“Yes, okay? Yes. He’s....perfect.” Jongin can feel himself melting into his shoes at that last statement but is quickly snapped out of his reverie by Jongdae scoffing.
“What?” He frowns, trying to gather as much information about Kyungsoo that he knows so that he can defend his reasons for his attraction to him. This, of course, proves to be very difficult since he’s only known Kyungsoo for about three hours and hasn’t even spoken to him, and Jongdae only watches in glee as Jongin scowls at the air as he struggles with his thoughts.
“Wow. You really are as hopeless as Sehun said you would be.”
“Are you two sleeping together or something? Seriously why the heck do you hang out with Sehun?”
Jongdae chooses to ignore Jongin’s statement. “Okay. Here’s what you should know about Kyungsoo...” He proceeds to rattle on a list of things and Jongin finds himself scrambling to remember them. By the end of it, he feels less than coherent, his brain swimming with new information and he tries to recite the list silently in his head.
Jongdae rises from the table and moves to leave, but not before stopping at Jongin’s side and whispering into his ear, “By the way, I lied. You’re just very obvious when it comes to staring.”
Jongin makes sure to curse all of Jongdae’s ancestors and predecessors too.
(But he does it a little too loudly and a pink detention slip is presented to him by a passing librarian.)
✦
By the time Jongin gets out of school it’s nearly eleven p.m and he’s exhausted. He’d decided to have all his detentions on one day because 1) it’s a real bitch to stay back at school a few days in a row and 2) anything to avoid Sehun or Jongdae. His stomach growls, scolding him for not taking care of him like he should, and Jongin pats his stomach as if to soothe it.
“Shh, baby. I’m sorry.”
He looks around and thanks god that no one was there to witness that.
The walk home is generally quiet and Jongin counts about six cars as he turns into his street. He can see the apartment block and the light in Sehun’s room is still on.
“Probably watching some sort of por-”
Jongin freezes as a familiar figure exits the convenience store in front of him. The perfect, adorable, perfect, beautiful, perfect being is doddling along, carrying a shopping bag on each arm. They don’t look particularly heavy, but Kyungsoo seems to be struggling a little. Jongin feels his heart melt and he almost swoons there and then on the sidewalk. Almost.
Thanking his fates and lucky stars and the gods above, Jongin strolls casually forward, pretending not to notice. He’ll just bump into Kyungsoo ever so gently and-
The fates, lucky stars and gods are probably laughing, Jongin decides as he walks right into a street lamp. To make matters worse, the loud clang of his skull hitting the metal is enough to make Kyungsoo turn to face him and then gasp in horror. He rushes over with his bags before putting them down.
“Are you okay?” He bites his lip in worry and Jongin starts seeing stars because the love of his life is talking to him?!?!?!!? And also because his head actually really does hurt.
Holding his head and trying to give Kyungsoo somewhat of an assuring grin, he nods.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure? It looked pretty bad...” Jongin resists throwing himself at Kyungsoo and yelling ‘take care of me for the rest of my life’ pretty well.
“It’s nothing, really!” Jongin laughs a little sheepishly and waves it off.
“O-oh. Okay then.” Suddenly Kyungsoo is smiling at him and Jongin wishes that the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
“You’re...Jongin, right? Chanyeol’s friend?”
He nods. Oh my god he knows my name I think I might explode.
“Cool. I’m Kyungsoo.” He holds out his hand and Jongin takes it. Control yourself, man! But it’s difficult when Kyungsoo’s hand feels soft and warm and squishy and fits perfectly in his and-
Kyungsoo takes his hand back and Jongin feels him take a little piece of his heart with it too. “I’ll uh...see you at school?” Jongin thinks he looks almost hopeful.
“Y-yeah.” He waves a little pathetically as Kyungsoo picks up the bags and hurries off, as adorable as ever.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid Kim Jongin! Why were you born with such terrible people skills?! Why, why, WHY?!” He throws his arms up to the sky and yells at the moon, ignoring a couple who huddle closer together as they hurry by him.
“So, what have we learnt today, Jonginnie?” Sehun smirks from the couch as he watches Jongin pace around the kitchen in his pajamas, holding an ice pack to his head.
“That you are the worst person to live with and that you have cursed me for the rest of my life with your presence here, demon child.”
“Aw shucks, that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all year.”
“Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“I’m not the one who is going to have trouble sleeping because a certain wide-eyed acquaintance will be the object of his fantasies.”
“You’re a real creep, you know?”
Sehun takes this opportunity to give him the face Spongebob gave Squidward when he realized that Squidward liked krabby patties. Jongin can’t think of anything else so he hisses like a cat at Sehun before storming off to his room and slamming the door as dramatically as possible.
✦
Jongin decides that walking into a lamppost isn’t such a bad thing after all when Kyungsoo sees him during lunch and walks over. Sehun hides his smirk with his sandwhich while Baekhyun and Chanyeol (and apparently Jongdae sits with them now for some reason) blink in confusion as Kyungsoo approaches the table. Jongin thinks his heart might explode.
“U-uh. Hi. Is your head okay?” Kyungsoo shifts awkwardly, feeling the others staring at him. Jongin, of course, is starry-eyed and sees Kyungsoo with sparkles and a soft pink vignetting around him, and can only nod dumbly in response.
“Well, um...cool, yeah. I’ll just uh...go...back..bye.” Kyungsoo turns and nearly collides right into a passing student. He apologizes profusely before running off as quickly as possible.
“Ohmygod.” Baekhyun blinks.
Jongin turns back to their group and sighs dreamily.
“Did you already get him to have rough sex with you?!” Chanyeol demands a little too loudly and one of the passing prefects, Kim Minseok, Jongin remembers, shoots them a disapproving glare. Baekhyun turns bright pink and shushes him.
Sehun snorts. “This guy? He walked into a lamppost yesterday when he saw Kyungsoo coming out of the store.” Jongdae, of course, promptly high-fives him and joins him in the laugh fest. Jongin notices Baekhyun (thankfully) kick Chanyeol under the table before the latter can burst out in laughter.
“Oh come on, you guys. I think it’s cute Jongin likes Kyungsoo.”
“Shhh!” Jongin hisses. “The walls have ears!”
“We’re in the cafeteria, Jongin. Everyone is talking.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Anyway,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “You should ask him out.”
“Ask him out? Are you crazy?! Chanyeol, I think you need to give your boyfriend some medicine-”
“We’re not dating!” Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun reply simultaneously before blushing. Jongin raises an eyebrow.
“Uh-huh.”
“Look, just....it doesn’t hurt to try,” Baekhyun finishes quickly and looks down at his lunch, clearly flustered. He suddenly gets up the same time Chanyeol does and the two of them blink at each other.
“I’m not hungry,” the two of them say in unison.
“I’ll see you guys later.” Again, it’s said together.
The two of them part ways, leaving the table. A few seconds later they pass by again, crossing paths at the same time.
“I’m going this way,” they say simultaneously.
“Well....that was weird.” Jongdae shrugs and bites into his dumpling.
Jongin groans and puts his head on the table.
“He probably thinks I’m some sort of loser-”
“Which you are.” Jongdae and Sehun are synchronized now.
“-And I’m going to spend the rest of my days alone, talking to my cat who I shall name Kyungsoo because I actually want his companionship but I’ll take what I can get and make the most of it-”
“Uh, Jongin?”
“-And Kyungsoo will never know that I really really like him and that he shines like the freaking sun and who said he could be so freaking adorable and perfect and gorgeous-”
“Jongin.”
“-And who said he could just waltz into my life like that I mean it’s not fair! It’s not fair I tell you!”
“Jongin!”
“What?” Jongin snaps, sitting up. He then feels his whole body being enveloped in ice, starting from his feet and engulfing his entire being in less than two seconds because Kyungsoo is standing there with a dumbfounded expression on his face, eyes wider than ever.
Then, suddenly, he smiles and it’s definitely the most beautiful thing that Jongin has ever seen. The ice melts and Jongin feels his inside go all wobbly and he’s glad that he’s sitting down otherwise he’d probably collapse. Now he feels like his insides are all on fire.
“Friday, after school, there’s this really nice ice cream shop a few blocks down.”
“I...I...”
Kyungsoo blushes and leans in, pressing a kiss against Jongin’s cheek.
In that single moment, Jongin feels like he can fly, or discover new land, or wrestle a lion, or do pretty much anything. He thinks he’s seeing stars again only this time there’s definitely no pain involved.
Sehun and Jongdae stare at Jongin with their jaws dropped. Slowly, a dazed, sleepy smile spreads on Jongin’s face.
Sehun flinches uncomfortably. “Jongin?”
Jongin starts to giggle at them.
“Uh...are you okay, man?” Jongdae looks concerned now.
“I love you guys.”
“Oh god he’s gone insane. Abort abort abort!” Sehun and Jongdae scramble out of their seats as fast as they can.
“Where are you guys going? Let me show you guys how much I love you!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
>> next
===
A/N: this is actually a two-shot but I'm just posting this to see if you guys are interested in a sequel. ^^; also I love writing shy!jongin it's pretty damn fun.
and I have actually played a (toy) accordion before and it is very, very verrry obnoxious. I was also able to wake up my friend's roommate while we were overseas LOL.