(fic) love and other ailments [2/2]
exo | kaisoo (with mentions of hunhan) | high school AU (PG-13)
jongin has a date with the boy of his dreams. everything will be perfect. (no, not really)
word count: 3229
Baekhyun watches with dismay as Jongin continuously opens and slams his locker door shut. He winces each time the metal lets out a screech and then a ‘clang’. He bears with it for about 30 more times (because he is a patient person) before finally frowning.
“Can you please stop that? I can’t hear myself think,” he snaps and Jongin gives him an apologetic smile.
“Oh, sorry, Baek. It’s just that I really need to damage this.” He promptly grabs the locker door and continues abusing it, Baekhyun still cringing each time it slams.
“Should I ask why?”
“I want to switch lockers.”
“What? Why?!” Baekhyun gives him a hurt look and Jongin sighs. He expected this to happen. Baekhyun, after all, is the owner of the locker next to him. Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Sehun and Jongdae’s lockers are located nearly all the way on the other side of the school, and the long walks from class to locker have bonded him and Baekhyun over the course of the two years they’ve known each other. They’ve shared a lot of memories with these lockers (although most of them involve getting shoved into them as freshman, but a bad memory is a memory nonetheless).
“Because! I want to be closer to Kyungsoo.”
“You sit next to him in Anthro, Chem, and Physics. Not to mention you have like a bazillion other classes with him!”
“Closer!”
Baekhyun promptly gives him the dreaded puppy dog eyes and Jongin can already feel his resolve melt away as Baekhyun pushes his bottom lip out in a pout. But Jongin has one more trick up his sleeve.
“Chanyeol is trading lockers with me after they fix it.”
“And how long will that take?!”
“Like a day.”
“...I’ll get my baseball bat.”
Several hits, dents, scratches, and one yelp of ‘ow!’ (courtesy of when Jongin accidentally slammed his fingers in the door) later, the locker looks like it went through both world wars and a nuclear attack. Jongin makes his way to the administrator’s counter, preparing his depressed ‘I really loved my locker but I need a new one particularly the one next to Do Kyungsoo’ face. He does not, however, expect to see his roommate (Oh Sehun, Sir Obnoxious and Asshole-Of-The-Year two years running) and the administrator (Luhan, Chinese Pretty Boy, Most-Disorganized-Admin-Ever) engaging in a rather steamy lip-lock (or tongue-lock, but Jongin was trying his best to ignore that).
He lets out a yell of shock and horror and immediately the two of them jump back, clearly not expecting anyone to be present. The three of them freeze for a second before Luhan bolts and disappears under his desk while Sehun runs off screaming, “YOU DID NOT SEE ME I WAS NOT HERE THIS IS JUST A BAD DREAMMMMM!”
Jongin, of course, knows he is completely awake, so he takes a couple breaths and imagines frolicking Corgi puppies as a palate-cleanser. Then, being the cool person that he always is, he strides forward to the counter, clearing his throat.
“Luhan-”
“COUNTER IS CLOSED COME BACK TOMORROW THANKS FOR SHOPPING AT WAL- oh right I don’t work there anymore.”
Jongin clears his throat again. “Luhan, I need a new locker.”
“What?! Why.” He doesn’t need to look at Luhan to know that the boy is glaring.
“Okay first of all, can you please come out from under the desk. I think the people watching the security cameras think I’m crazy.”
“There are security cameras?!” Luhan shoots up, wild panic in his eyes as he frantically looks around.
“I was kidding.”
Luhan’s expression immediately grows sour and Jongin can almost feel the lasers slicing him.
“You’re in a relationship with my best friend and I’ll tell the school board?” He cringes, praying that the lasers can only cut skin deep.
The administrator sighs in defeat, though the irritation is still evident in his eyes. Jongin sighs in relief as the lasers seem to fade away (he swears they were there) and Luhan sits back down in his chair.
“What do you want?”
“I need a new locker,” he pouts now, trying to look at pathetic as possible. Luhan cringes in response.
“First of all, ew, stop doing...whatever the hell it is you’re doing with your mouth, and second, what’s wrong with your current one?” The older frowns at him briefly before taking a swig of water.
Jongin holds up his phone, displaying the photo he had taken of his locker. Luhan promptly spits out his water all over the phone, not to mention Jongin.
“Ugh, gross.” Jongin immediately tries to clean off any trace of water on his phone (and himself) with the sleeve of his blazer. Luhan is choking, nearly doubled over.
“What the hell happened?!”
Jongin can only shrug but he remembers to look as sad as possible while he does it. The chinese sighs and shifts his chair closer to his desktop, pulling up several windows.
“Okay, okay...let’s see...there’s an open locker near the bio lab...”
“No!” Jongin bites his lip. Maybe Chanyeol had overestimated his ability in hacking into the school system... Luhan looks up at him, raising an eyebrow.
“I mean, no. I don’t take biology so...yeah...” Luhan sighs and clicks a few more times, tapping in some things and muttering something about ‘difficult, spoilt, ungrateful brats’. Jongin chews his bottom lip in anticipation.
“Well, I guess you can have the one by the computer room. Number-”
“781!” Jongin cries out.
Luhan gives him a questionable look.
“I uh...I pass by the computer room a lot. I have the locker numbers memorized.”
“...Right. Okay.” He hears Luhan mutter something about ‘total nerd’ as he edits the records. He finally gives him the combination number (although Jongin already knows it by heart backwards and forwards) and Jongin gives him a teary smile of ‘thank you, hyung!’ before he nearly prances off.
“And work on your acting!” He hears Luhan yell after him but he couldn’t care less.
“I still don’t understand why you traded lockers,” Sehun tells him through a mouthful of banana later that night. Jongin rolls over on the bed and faces him. His roommate is sitting at his desk in his blue polka-dotted pajamas and bunny slippers with his feet up. Jongin wonders what Luhan sees in him.
“So I can spend more time with Kyungsoo, duh.”
“Shouldn’t you be waiting for after the date to do that?”
“Tsk, tsk! Time waits for no man, Sehun!” Jongin waves his hand away dismissively. Sehun opens his mouth to retort but chokes on his mouthful of banana. Jongin laughs, yells ‘karma!’ at Sehun, panics, googles ‘the heimlich maneuver’ and successfully performs it on Sehun; all in under two minutes (because he is just that cool).
❤
Cologne? Check.
Wallet (not empty)? Check.
Jaw-dropping fashion sense? Check.
Lucky underwear? Check.
Jongin fixes his jacket as he checks himself in the mirror. He had spent nearly four hours perfecting his ‘I care about my appearance but not too much that I’m uncool’ look, and made sure his hair was the correct degree of messy. He runs his hand over his jaw and smiles at himself, satisfied.
That is, of course, until he realizes that there is something right between his eyebrows. Something bumpy and pink. He is struck with pure horror when he realizes that...it is! It is a pimple, leering at him in all it’s pimply-glory. Fortunately, it is the only blemish on Jongin’s otherwise flawless face, but it’s enough to make the boy have the beginnings of a panic attack.
Come on, Jongin! Figure out something, quick!
Something glints in the light and catches Jongin’s eye. He feels his mini-heart attack subside as he grabs the lifesaver. His orange-rimmed sunglasses. They thankfully match his outfit and Jongin slips them on. They cover the pimple perfectly, although he has to squint a little to see his reflection, but anything, anything is better than nothing at all.
He exits his room as confidently as possible. Sehun, who is leaning against the counter eating ramen (seriously, is he always eating?), promptly wrinkles his nose as soon as he sees Jongin.
“What?” Jongin blinks at him, despite the fact that Sehun can’t see it.
“Why are you wearing sunglasses indoors?”
“It’s...the trend now, don’t you know?” Jongin tries to sound as confident as possible.
“If you’re talking about looking like a total douchebag, then yeah, totally agree with you.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re out of style.”
Sehun slurps his ramen at an obnoxiously loud volume.
“You’re disgusting.”
“And you’re an idiot. Seriously, why the sunglasses?”
Jongin sighs. Sehun is, after all, his best friend, and they have an unspoken pact that they will always tell each other the truth. (This, of course, was broken when Sehun spoke nothing about dating Luhan, but then again Jongin likes to avoid discussing their relationship on his part, so it’s an exception.)
“Promise you won’t laugh?”
Sehun swallows his mouthful of ramen just in case. “Promise.”
Jongin takes off the sunglasses shamefully and waits for the laughter. To his surprise, and utter bewilderment, his action is met with deafening silence. With another sigh he points to the pimple.
Sehun squints. “You don’t have a unibrow? Congratulations?”
Jongin points at the pimple and Sehun squints again. He squints as he gets off the counter and walks all the way to Jongin, before squinting even more. He seems to suddenly understand as he pulls away with an ‘ah’.
“I know. It’s horrible.”
Sehun opens his mouth to say something when the doorbell rings. This sound is promptly followed by a call of ‘Sehun-ah~’ and Jongin recognizes Luhan’s voice. He watches as Sehun’s face changes color before slipping the sunglasses back on.
“I brought toys for us to play with ~”
At this, Jongin finds himself being pushed by Sehun to the front door. Luhan blinks at him in surprise when the door opens and promptly hides the bag he is holding behind his back. Sehun shoves Jongin out the door and grabs Luhan’s arm, yanking him into the apartment.
“OKBYEJONGINHAVEFUNONYOURDATEBUTNOTTOOMUCHFUNOKBYE!”
The door slams in his face.
It takes Jongin five seconds to register what has just happened before he scrunches his face up in disguest.
“NOT ON THE COUCH!” He yells at the door before leaving.
❤
The plan was that Jongin would pick Kyungsoo up from his block of flats and the two would walk to the ice cream parlor together, but Kyungsoo ends up meeting him halfway.
“I figured we’d be wasting time anyway. You’d be walking backwards,” Kyungsoo blushes (although Jongin can’t really tell because of the sunglasses but he figures just as much).
“You look really nice,” he finds himself blurting out in response. It only makes Kyungsoo blush even more (Jongin assumes). As they walk, Kyungsoo slips his hand into Jongin’s, intertwining their fingers together. Jongin suddenly feels really, really warm but it’s nice. They don’t really talk much, but the silence between them is comfortable and Jongin prides himself in successfully-not-tripping-over-anything in his half-blind state.
The ice cream parlor is thankfully not too crowded, and the two of them are ushered to their seats almost immediately. The place is almost a little too pink for his liking, but anything Kyungsoo likes, Jongin is willing to try to like too. Besides, the place smells of cookie dough and vanilla and Kyungsoo.
“So...do you come here a lot?”
“Kind of. Their ice cream is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted,” Kyungsoo says excitedly before looking embarrassed and Jongin can’t help but grin. When he tries to read the menu, however, he is anything but happy. He can barely see anything with the sunglasses on.
“Um...Jongin?”
“Yeah?”
“Uh...I hope this isn’t a personal question or anything but...why are you wearing sunglasses?”
Jongin freezes. He was hoping this kind of thing wouldn’t happen, mainly because 1) he doesn’t want to lie to Kyungsoo, particularly on their first date and 2) he’s really bad at lying.
“Oh...uh...the lights in here...are really bright.”
“You’ve been wearing them since we met on the street.”
“The...streetlights are bright too.”
“O-oh. Okay.” Kyungsoo nods and looks back at his menu. Jongin wishes he could kick himself.
“Ready to order?” Their waiter, whose nametag Jongin fails to be able to read, has a soft but pleasant voice, with the distinct hint of a chinese accent. Kyungsoo looks at Jongin expectantly.
“U-uh...why don’t you order first?”
Kyungsoo shrugs and smiles at the waiter. “Just the usual, Yixing.”
The man, Yixing, turns to Jongin. “And you?”
“Uh, I’ll have whatever he’s having,” Jongin said as smoothly as possible.
“But you might not like it...” Kyungsoo bit his lip as Yixing walked away.
“I trust you.” Jongin smiles and Kyungsoo returns the expression.
As soon as the dessert is served, Jongin realizes that there is another hurdle he's going to have to cross over. He can barely see his food.
“Aren’t you hungry? You’re not eating anything...” Kyungsoo sounded worried and disappointed, probably blaming himself for Jongin’s lack of appetite.
“Oh! No, no, don’t worry about me, just waiting for it to cool down.”
“Cool down?”
“I mean heat up. Right, ha ha.” Jongin laughs awkwardly before hastily stabbing his fork into the brownie.
“Oh, well, Jongin I-Jongin, Jongin, why are you eating that flower?”
Jongin hastily puts down the chrysanthemum which he has unwittingly speared off the table display. So much for sunglasses making people look cool.
“Sorry. I thought it was edible.” To his delight (and surprise), Kyungsoo hides his smile behind his hand, giggling.
“You’re cute,” Kyungsoo says somewhat absentmindedly before his hand flies back up to his mouth. His eyes are wide and Jongin finds himself grinning.
“What did you just say?” He teases.
“Nothing! I didn’t say anything!”
“No, I’m sure you said something.”
“I didn’t! I swear! It was just the wind!”
The two of them laugh it off and Jongin successfully manages to finally eat his brownie and ice cream.
“Ohmygod,” he says as soon as he swallows.
His date bites his lip in response. “I told you you might not like it-”
“This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.”
“I...really?” Kyungsoo is completely elated at this. Jongin can only nod in response as he continues eating the best dessert he has ever eaten in his entire life. The rest of the date carries on reasonably chaos-free, and Jongin gets an unexpected bonus when Kyungsoo offers to feed him and Jongin returns the favor.
Jongin takes care of the bill (“My treat, you’re the one who recommended this place after all.”) and the two of them start on their walk back. They’re holding hands again, Jongin’s not sure who initiated it this time, but it’s not important. What’s important is that he’s pretty damn sure right now that Kyungsoo has somehow managed to be even more perfect than he already is, and-
Burp!
Jongin covers his mouth in shock. Holy crap. Talk about excellent timing, digestive system! Kyungsoo’s eyes seem to be as wide as saucers and Jongin feels utterly humiliated. He’s so done it. Kyungsoo is going to think he’s a disgusting loser and tell him they should ‘just be friends’ and then avoid him for the rest of his life. He braces himself.
Then Kyungsoo starts laughing. Not even giggling, like how Jongin has gotten accustomed to. Full-on, head thrown back, stomach clutching laughing. Jongin blinks as he watches Kyungsoo, his eyes curled into perfect crescent moons. His laughter (as cheesy as it seems) is the most wonderful sound Jongin has ever heard.
And then, Kyungsoo burps.
This, of course, sends Jongin doubling over in laughter as he points at Kyungsoo. The boy, of course, is blushing madly and playfully hits Jongin’s shoulder, with shouts of ‘shut up! shut up!’ In between the giggles and whacks, Kyungsoo somehow ends up in Jongin’s arms, pressed up against him.
Jongin feels his breath hitch. Kyungsoo is looking up at him, lips parted slightly. His hands are resting on Jongin’s arms and Jongin feels his heart pound as he looks into Kyungsoo’s eyes. Well, this is it.
He leans in carefully, not too slowly but not too fast either so that Kyungsoo isn’t too surprised by his movement. Kyungsoo closes his eyes just as the last second and Jongin follows suit.
He feels the sunglasses press up against his face uncomfortably and his lips brush against something soft before he pulls away.
“You uh...you missed.”
Jongin is about to attempt to really kick himself when-
“Let’s just take these off and..” Without warning, Kyungsoo slides the sunglasses off and Jongin panics, covering his face with his hands.
“No, no! It’s hideous!” He freezes there, face still hidden, when he feels soft fingers prying at his own. It’s Kyungsoo, and Jongin doesn’t have the heart to fight back as the older pulls his hands away from his face. Jongin avoids looking at him as best as possible.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo sounds genuinely confused and Jongin bites his lip before looking back at him. There’s that moment of silence again but instead of squinting Kyungsoo blinks, still clearly just as confused as before.
He leans in and kisses Jongin again, eyes closed. Jongin melts into it. It there was anyway to describe perfection, this would come pretty damn close.
“I..uh..pimple..it..” Jongin can barely focus as soon as Kyungsoo pulls away. The latter giggles.
“First of all, I can barely see it. Second of all, don’t ever wear sunglasses again I like your eyes. Third of all, scratch that, I like you, all of you, a lot.” Kyungsoo is definitely blushing now, Jongin can see the pink hue under the streetlight, and he wishes he could have witnessed it all evening, but better late than never.
He leans in and kisses Kyungsoo again.
❤
Jongin might have evil friends, the luck of a plump, nice turkey on thanksgiving, raging hormones, and the grace of an octopus on roller skates, but he has Do Kyungsoo.
And that’s all that matters.
===
A/N: (hashtag beth got writer's block somewhere along the lines) ok wow I'm really sorry about the lateness of this T^T I lost the momentum somewhere sighhhh but oh well! here it is, finally. I can't believe I actually had drafts for this thing snfdjjnksjnl
also thank you to donghai for proofreading for me ;a; ilu and hi to thisismylastlie just because I can hur
jongin has a date with the boy of his dreams. everything will be perfect. (no, not really)
word count: 3229
Baekhyun watches with dismay as Jongin continuously opens and slams his locker door shut. He winces each time the metal lets out a screech and then a ‘clang’. He bears with it for about 30 more times (because he is a patient person) before finally frowning.
“Can you please stop that? I can’t hear myself think,” he snaps and Jongin gives him an apologetic smile.
“Oh, sorry, Baek. It’s just that I really need to damage this.” He promptly grabs the locker door and continues abusing it, Baekhyun still cringing each time it slams.
“Should I ask why?”
“I want to switch lockers.”
“What? Why?!” Baekhyun gives him a hurt look and Jongin sighs. He expected this to happen. Baekhyun, after all, is the owner of the locker next to him. Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Sehun and Jongdae’s lockers are located nearly all the way on the other side of the school, and the long walks from class to locker have bonded him and Baekhyun over the course of the two years they’ve known each other. They’ve shared a lot of memories with these lockers (although most of them involve getting shoved into them as freshman, but a bad memory is a memory nonetheless).
“Because! I want to be closer to Kyungsoo.”
“You sit next to him in Anthro, Chem, and Physics. Not to mention you have like a bazillion other classes with him!”
“Closer!”
Baekhyun promptly gives him the dreaded puppy dog eyes and Jongin can already feel his resolve melt away as Baekhyun pushes his bottom lip out in a pout. But Jongin has one more trick up his sleeve.
“Chanyeol is trading lockers with me after they fix it.”
“And how long will that take?!”
“Like a day.”
“...I’ll get my baseball bat.”
Several hits, dents, scratches, and one yelp of ‘ow!’ (courtesy of when Jongin accidentally slammed his fingers in the door) later, the locker looks like it went through both world wars and a nuclear attack. Jongin makes his way to the administrator’s counter, preparing his depressed ‘I really loved my locker but I need a new one particularly the one next to Do Kyungsoo’ face. He does not, however, expect to see his roommate (Oh Sehun, Sir Obnoxious and Asshole-Of-The-Year two years running) and the administrator (Luhan, Chinese Pretty Boy, Most-Disorganized-Admin-Ever) engaging in a rather steamy lip-lock (or tongue-lock, but Jongin was trying his best to ignore that).
He lets out a yell of shock and horror and immediately the two of them jump back, clearly not expecting anyone to be present. The three of them freeze for a second before Luhan bolts and disappears under his desk while Sehun runs off screaming, “YOU DID NOT SEE ME I WAS NOT HERE THIS IS JUST A BAD DREAMMMMM!”
Jongin, of course, knows he is completely awake, so he takes a couple breaths and imagines frolicking Corgi puppies as a palate-cleanser. Then, being the cool person that he always is, he strides forward to the counter, clearing his throat.
“Luhan-”
“COUNTER IS CLOSED COME BACK TOMORROW THANKS FOR SHOPPING AT WAL- oh right I don’t work there anymore.”
Jongin clears his throat again. “Luhan, I need a new locker.”
“What?! Why.” He doesn’t need to look at Luhan to know that the boy is glaring.
“Okay first of all, can you please come out from under the desk. I think the people watching the security cameras think I’m crazy.”
“There are security cameras?!” Luhan shoots up, wild panic in his eyes as he frantically looks around.
“I was kidding.”
Luhan’s expression immediately grows sour and Jongin can almost feel the lasers slicing him.
“You’re in a relationship with my best friend and I’ll tell the school board?” He cringes, praying that the lasers can only cut skin deep.
The administrator sighs in defeat, though the irritation is still evident in his eyes. Jongin sighs in relief as the lasers seem to fade away (he swears they were there) and Luhan sits back down in his chair.
“What do you want?”
“I need a new locker,” he pouts now, trying to look at pathetic as possible. Luhan cringes in response.
“First of all, ew, stop doing...whatever the hell it is you’re doing with your mouth, and second, what’s wrong with your current one?” The older frowns at him briefly before taking a swig of water.
Jongin holds up his phone, displaying the photo he had taken of his locker. Luhan promptly spits out his water all over the phone, not to mention Jongin.
“Ugh, gross.” Jongin immediately tries to clean off any trace of water on his phone (and himself) with the sleeve of his blazer. Luhan is choking, nearly doubled over.
“What the hell happened?!”
Jongin can only shrug but he remembers to look as sad as possible while he does it. The chinese sighs and shifts his chair closer to his desktop, pulling up several windows.
“Okay, okay...let’s see...there’s an open locker near the bio lab...”
“No!” Jongin bites his lip. Maybe Chanyeol had overestimated his ability in hacking into the school system... Luhan looks up at him, raising an eyebrow.
“I mean, no. I don’t take biology so...yeah...” Luhan sighs and clicks a few more times, tapping in some things and muttering something about ‘difficult, spoilt, ungrateful brats’. Jongin chews his bottom lip in anticipation.
“Well, I guess you can have the one by the computer room. Number-”
“781!” Jongin cries out.
Luhan gives him a questionable look.
“I uh...I pass by the computer room a lot. I have the locker numbers memorized.”
“...Right. Okay.” He hears Luhan mutter something about ‘total nerd’ as he edits the records. He finally gives him the combination number (although Jongin already knows it by heart backwards and forwards) and Jongin gives him a teary smile of ‘thank you, hyung!’ before he nearly prances off.
“And work on your acting!” He hears Luhan yell after him but he couldn’t care less.
“I still don’t understand why you traded lockers,” Sehun tells him through a mouthful of banana later that night. Jongin rolls over on the bed and faces him. His roommate is sitting at his desk in his blue polka-dotted pajamas and bunny slippers with his feet up. Jongin wonders what Luhan sees in him.
“So I can spend more time with Kyungsoo, duh.”
“Shouldn’t you be waiting for after the date to do that?”
“Tsk, tsk! Time waits for no man, Sehun!” Jongin waves his hand away dismissively. Sehun opens his mouth to retort but chokes on his mouthful of banana. Jongin laughs, yells ‘karma!’ at Sehun, panics, googles ‘the heimlich maneuver’ and successfully performs it on Sehun; all in under two minutes (because he is just that cool).
❤
Cologne? Check.
Wallet (not empty)? Check.
Jaw-dropping fashion sense? Check.
Lucky underwear? Check.
Jongin fixes his jacket as he checks himself in the mirror. He had spent nearly four hours perfecting his ‘I care about my appearance but not too much that I’m uncool’ look, and made sure his hair was the correct degree of messy. He runs his hand over his jaw and smiles at himself, satisfied.
That is, of course, until he realizes that there is something right between his eyebrows. Something bumpy and pink. He is struck with pure horror when he realizes that...it is! It is a pimple, leering at him in all it’s pimply-glory. Fortunately, it is the only blemish on Jongin’s otherwise flawless face, but it’s enough to make the boy have the beginnings of a panic attack.
Come on, Jongin! Figure out something, quick!
Something glints in the light and catches Jongin’s eye. He feels his mini-heart attack subside as he grabs the lifesaver. His orange-rimmed sunglasses. They thankfully match his outfit and Jongin slips them on. They cover the pimple perfectly, although he has to squint a little to see his reflection, but anything, anything is better than nothing at all.
He exits his room as confidently as possible. Sehun, who is leaning against the counter eating ramen (seriously, is he always eating?), promptly wrinkles his nose as soon as he sees Jongin.
“What?” Jongin blinks at him, despite the fact that Sehun can’t see it.
“Why are you wearing sunglasses indoors?”
“It’s...the trend now, don’t you know?” Jongin tries to sound as confident as possible.
“If you’re talking about looking like a total douchebag, then yeah, totally agree with you.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re out of style.”
Sehun slurps his ramen at an obnoxiously loud volume.
“You’re disgusting.”
“And you’re an idiot. Seriously, why the sunglasses?”
Jongin sighs. Sehun is, after all, his best friend, and they have an unspoken pact that they will always tell each other the truth. (This, of course, was broken when Sehun spoke nothing about dating Luhan, but then again Jongin likes to avoid discussing their relationship on his part, so it’s an exception.)
“Promise you won’t laugh?”
Sehun swallows his mouthful of ramen just in case. “Promise.”
Jongin takes off the sunglasses shamefully and waits for the laughter. To his surprise, and utter bewilderment, his action is met with deafening silence. With another sigh he points to the pimple.
Sehun squints. “You don’t have a unibrow? Congratulations?”
Jongin points at the pimple and Sehun squints again. He squints as he gets off the counter and walks all the way to Jongin, before squinting even more. He seems to suddenly understand as he pulls away with an ‘ah’.
“I know. It’s horrible.”
Sehun opens his mouth to say something when the doorbell rings. This sound is promptly followed by a call of ‘Sehun-ah~’ and Jongin recognizes Luhan’s voice. He watches as Sehun’s face changes color before slipping the sunglasses back on.
“I brought toys for us to play with ~”
At this, Jongin finds himself being pushed by Sehun to the front door. Luhan blinks at him in surprise when the door opens and promptly hides the bag he is holding behind his back. Sehun shoves Jongin out the door and grabs Luhan’s arm, yanking him into the apartment.
“OKBYEJONGINHAVEFUNONYOURDATEBUTNOTTOOMUCHFUNOKBYE!”
The door slams in his face.
It takes Jongin five seconds to register what has just happened before he scrunches his face up in disguest.
“NOT ON THE COUCH!” He yells at the door before leaving.
❤
The plan was that Jongin would pick Kyungsoo up from his block of flats and the two would walk to the ice cream parlor together, but Kyungsoo ends up meeting him halfway.
“I figured we’d be wasting time anyway. You’d be walking backwards,” Kyungsoo blushes (although Jongin can’t really tell because of the sunglasses but he figures just as much).
“You look really nice,” he finds himself blurting out in response. It only makes Kyungsoo blush even more (Jongin assumes). As they walk, Kyungsoo slips his hand into Jongin’s, intertwining their fingers together. Jongin suddenly feels really, really warm but it’s nice. They don’t really talk much, but the silence between them is comfortable and Jongin prides himself in successfully-not-tripping-over-anything in his half-blind state.
The ice cream parlor is thankfully not too crowded, and the two of them are ushered to their seats almost immediately. The place is almost a little too pink for his liking, but anything Kyungsoo likes, Jongin is willing to try to like too. Besides, the place smells of cookie dough and vanilla and Kyungsoo.
“So...do you come here a lot?”
“Kind of. Their ice cream is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted,” Kyungsoo says excitedly before looking embarrassed and Jongin can’t help but grin. When he tries to read the menu, however, he is anything but happy. He can barely see anything with the sunglasses on.
“Um...Jongin?”
“Yeah?”
“Uh...I hope this isn’t a personal question or anything but...why are you wearing sunglasses?”
Jongin freezes. He was hoping this kind of thing wouldn’t happen, mainly because 1) he doesn’t want to lie to Kyungsoo, particularly on their first date and 2) he’s really bad at lying.
“Oh...uh...the lights in here...are really bright.”
“You’ve been wearing them since we met on the street.”
“The...streetlights are bright too.”
“O-oh. Okay.” Kyungsoo nods and looks back at his menu. Jongin wishes he could kick himself.
“Ready to order?” Their waiter, whose nametag Jongin fails to be able to read, has a soft but pleasant voice, with the distinct hint of a chinese accent. Kyungsoo looks at Jongin expectantly.
“U-uh...why don’t you order first?”
Kyungsoo shrugs and smiles at the waiter. “Just the usual, Yixing.”
The man, Yixing, turns to Jongin. “And you?”
“Uh, I’ll have whatever he’s having,” Jongin said as smoothly as possible.
“But you might not like it...” Kyungsoo bit his lip as Yixing walked away.
“I trust you.” Jongin smiles and Kyungsoo returns the expression.
As soon as the dessert is served, Jongin realizes that there is another hurdle he's going to have to cross over. He can barely see his food.
“Aren’t you hungry? You’re not eating anything...” Kyungsoo sounded worried and disappointed, probably blaming himself for Jongin’s lack of appetite.
“Oh! No, no, don’t worry about me, just waiting for it to cool down.”
“Cool down?”
“I mean heat up. Right, ha ha.” Jongin laughs awkwardly before hastily stabbing his fork into the brownie.
“Oh, well, Jongin I-Jongin, Jongin, why are you eating that flower?”
Jongin hastily puts down the chrysanthemum which he has unwittingly speared off the table display. So much for sunglasses making people look cool.
“Sorry. I thought it was edible.” To his delight (and surprise), Kyungsoo hides his smile behind his hand, giggling.
“You’re cute,” Kyungsoo says somewhat absentmindedly before his hand flies back up to his mouth. His eyes are wide and Jongin finds himself grinning.
“What did you just say?” He teases.
“Nothing! I didn’t say anything!”
“No, I’m sure you said something.”
“I didn’t! I swear! It was just the wind!”
The two of them laugh it off and Jongin successfully manages to finally eat his brownie and ice cream.
“Ohmygod,” he says as soon as he swallows.
His date bites his lip in response. “I told you you might not like it-”
“This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.”
“I...really?” Kyungsoo is completely elated at this. Jongin can only nod in response as he continues eating the best dessert he has ever eaten in his entire life. The rest of the date carries on reasonably chaos-free, and Jongin gets an unexpected bonus when Kyungsoo offers to feed him and Jongin returns the favor.
Jongin takes care of the bill (“My treat, you’re the one who recommended this place after all.”) and the two of them start on their walk back. They’re holding hands again, Jongin’s not sure who initiated it this time, but it’s not important. What’s important is that he’s pretty damn sure right now that Kyungsoo has somehow managed to be even more perfect than he already is, and-
Burp!
Jongin covers his mouth in shock. Holy crap. Talk about excellent timing, digestive system! Kyungsoo’s eyes seem to be as wide as saucers and Jongin feels utterly humiliated. He’s so done it. Kyungsoo is going to think he’s a disgusting loser and tell him they should ‘just be friends’ and then avoid him for the rest of his life. He braces himself.
Then Kyungsoo starts laughing. Not even giggling, like how Jongin has gotten accustomed to. Full-on, head thrown back, stomach clutching laughing. Jongin blinks as he watches Kyungsoo, his eyes curled into perfect crescent moons. His laughter (as cheesy as it seems) is the most wonderful sound Jongin has ever heard.
And then, Kyungsoo burps.
This, of course, sends Jongin doubling over in laughter as he points at Kyungsoo. The boy, of course, is blushing madly and playfully hits Jongin’s shoulder, with shouts of ‘shut up! shut up!’ In between the giggles and whacks, Kyungsoo somehow ends up in Jongin’s arms, pressed up against him.
Jongin feels his breath hitch. Kyungsoo is looking up at him, lips parted slightly. His hands are resting on Jongin’s arms and Jongin feels his heart pound as he looks into Kyungsoo’s eyes. Well, this is it.
He leans in carefully, not too slowly but not too fast either so that Kyungsoo isn’t too surprised by his movement. Kyungsoo closes his eyes just as the last second and Jongin follows suit.
He feels the sunglasses press up against his face uncomfortably and his lips brush against something soft before he pulls away.
“You uh...you missed.”
Jongin is about to attempt to really kick himself when-
“Let’s just take these off and..” Without warning, Kyungsoo slides the sunglasses off and Jongin panics, covering his face with his hands.
“No, no! It’s hideous!” He freezes there, face still hidden, when he feels soft fingers prying at his own. It’s Kyungsoo, and Jongin doesn’t have the heart to fight back as the older pulls his hands away from his face. Jongin avoids looking at him as best as possible.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo sounds genuinely confused and Jongin bites his lip before looking back at him. There’s that moment of silence again but instead of squinting Kyungsoo blinks, still clearly just as confused as before.
He leans in and kisses Jongin again, eyes closed. Jongin melts into it. It there was anyway to describe perfection, this would come pretty damn close.
“I..uh..pimple..it..” Jongin can barely focus as soon as Kyungsoo pulls away. The latter giggles.
“First of all, I can barely see it. Second of all, don’t ever wear sunglasses again I like your eyes. Third of all, scratch that, I like you, all of you, a lot.” Kyungsoo is definitely blushing now, Jongin can see the pink hue under the streetlight, and he wishes he could have witnessed it all evening, but better late than never.
He leans in and kisses Kyungsoo again.
❤
Jongin might have evil friends, the luck of a plump, nice turkey on thanksgiving, raging hormones, and the grace of an octopus on roller skates, but he has Do Kyungsoo.
And that’s all that matters.
===
A/N: (hashtag beth got writer's block somewhere along the lines) ok wow I'm really sorry about the lateness of this T^T I lost the momentum somewhere sighhhh but oh well! here it is, finally. I can't believe I actually had drafts for this thing snfdjjnksjnl
also thank you to donghai for proofreading for me ;a; ilu and hi to thisismylastlie just because I can hur