(oneshot) i can be your hero, baby
i can be your hero, baby
taecyeon/eunjung
4120w, pg-13
So when he is locked outside his dorm clad only in his Superman boxers, screaming profanities at a snickering Nichkhun on the other side of the door, Taecyeon reasons to himself that he could probably keep his dignity if no one saw him.
-
Taecyeon likes to think he has enough common sense to pass college by without losing his dignity or his clothes (both of which can be linked together, as Jay helpfully points out), but sadly this is not the case.
So when he is locked outside his dorm clad only in his Superman boxers, screaming profanities at a snickering Nichkhun on the other side of the door, Taecyeon reasons to himself that he could probably keep his dignity if no one saw him.
Sadly, this is also not the case.
"Um, do you need any help?"
Taecyeon immediately stops pounding on the door and calling his roommates you little fuckers, I'm going to shave off your eyebrows tonight! when a pretty, pretty girl looks at him owlishly, hefting a large box in her hands. He blinks, opening and closing his mouth a few times before he registers that this pretty girl is the first person to see his new underwear (which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that they were standing in the middle of the hallway with zero alcohol in their system. Not that Taecyeon would need it, but it would definitely boost his confidence at this moment.)
"Er - no - I'm fine - as you can see. I'm just really hot - I mean, not like that - unless you're thinking that, which would be completely fine with me - but, uh - it's quite warm weather these days so - "
Oh god, someone stop him. Taecyeon can feel his ears burning as he attempts to stammer his way out this and still have a shot with this girl. But judging from the raised eyebrow and her pursed lips, he's probably blown it.
"Um, okay - I have to go now" she interrupts him in the middle of his tirade about global warming and how his friend, Jay - who's a b-boy and anthropology major - thinks it's all a conspiracy. "I still have some more boxes to move and it's getting pretty late so...yeah"
"Oh! Of course. Sorry I wasted so much of your time - I have this thing where I can't stop talking when it's awkward and then I just go on and on -"
"Yeah, I noticed"
Taecyeon inwardly cringes. Or physically, because the girl seems to be laughing at him. He takes that as a positive sign.
"So, um - do you need any help? With the moving and the carrying and the boxes and - stuff. I could - help?"
Oh god, why is he so uncool? The girl shakes her head, grinning. Yeah, she's definitely laughing at him.
"No, I'm fine," she manages through giggles. "I'm a big girl, and my room is just down the hall. And besides...I think you're the one that needs help right now. Or clothes"
Taecyeon makes a choking noise like a dying bird. The girl laughs again, before waving awkwardly with her hand under a box.
"I'll see you around, Superman"
And then she winks.
When Nichkhun and Jay finally open the door, Taecyeon socks them both in the stomach.
"I fucking hate you guys. Why didn't you convince me to wear silk boxers?"
Taecyeon is studiously taking notes in his psych lecture when someone plops down in the seat beside him.
"Hey there, Superman. I almost couldn't recognise you with clothes on"
Oh god. This could not be happening. He's experienced enough humiliation to last him for the rest of his life (and perhaps his children's), he doesn't need to go through this again during class.
No matter how insanely pretty this girl is and -and - and - wow, her legs look really long at this angle. And is that a mole on her left thigh he spies? Taecyeon is kind of unabashedly gaping at the lower half of her body before there is a delicate cough from her upper half.
"Excuse me, but my face is up here"
Taecyeon flushes to the tips of his ears.
"Sorry, I was looking at the - uh, floor" he manages to squeak, and it sounds even worse out loud than in his mind.
The girl laughs, and Taecyeon manages to look at her face without spouting some ridiculous nonsense about the benefits of carpet over hardwood.
Instead, his mind goes completely blank. She is pretty, so so so pretty - even prettier when there is light streaming on her high cheekbones and cupid bow lips and dark hair sweeping into her eyes and -
The girl cocks her head, regarding him as if she were trying to figure out the code to the safe in his head.
"You're pretty awful with girls, you know that right?"
It's more of a rhetorical question, but Taecyeon's brain stopped functioning the moment he identified the shade of brown her eyes were (coffee-coloured, like his favourite mocha).
"I know" he blurts out.
The girl bursts out laughing, attracting the attention of students and the droning professor. She makes an apologetic gesture, before bowing her head and beginning to take notes, oblivious to the fact that he was kind of blatantly staring at her. Taecyeon attempts to pay attention to the lecture again, but instead he's brainstorming ways to ask this girl out for dinner (or you know, her name).
God, why isn't Jay here when he needed him? The guy might wear obscenely tight shirts and can barely reach Taecyeon's shoulder, but he is a fucking snake with his words and Taecyeon knows no other that can convince twins to suck him off, at the same time.
Taecyeon is too busy debating whether to worship Jay or test him for STDs that he doesn't even realise that class has ended and the girl has left, presumably to find someone she hasn't seen in their underwear already.
Well, Taecyeon thinks. As long as it's not Jay.
"Dude, what's wrong with Taec?"
"If you're going to be banging your head on the table, at least do it refreshingly"
"Oh - is this about the boxers chick? Man, I still can't believe you didn't get her number. Or name. Or talked to her like a normal human being"
"Lay off him, guys. Can't you see he's suffering enough? She's in his psych class too"
"You used to be cool, hyung"
"Don't lie like that, that's just mean"
Taecyeon groans and attempts to block out his friends' comments by stuffing Chansung's bread roll in his ear. The younger boy yelps.
"I was eating that, hyung!"
Junho pats him on the shoulder comfortingly.
"Maybe you can redeem yourself next time," he chirps, eyes curving into crescent moons optimistically. "Who knows, maybe she doesn't think you're a creep who wears lame boxers"
Taecyeon makes this pathetic, puppy-dog face.
"You guys didn't see her," he whines. "She was looking at me like I was some kind of disease! That needed to die. Because it was sad. And weird-looking. Do you guys think I'm weird-looking?" he pouts at the end for good measure, and some of his friends (okay, all of them) gag.
Taecyeon hasn't even begun to describe how pretty (and thereby, out of his league) she is when he lets out a high-pitched shriek.
"Oh god, it's her!"
Wooyoung doesn't even blink when Taecyeon dives under the table and clings onto his leg in an attempt to hide himself. Jay snorts.
"Way to make it obvious, Taec. Get out, you look like you're going down on Woodong over here."
Taecyeon crawls out from under the table just in time to see Wooyoung hurl a tomato at Jay's head. He looks over to the other side of the dining hall to see where the girl is at.
Except she's not there anymore.
"Um, hi"
Taecyeon nearly falls out of his seat. He slowly turns to the source of the sound, hoping the girl couldn't see how red his ears were going. His boys valiantly try to stifle their laughter, and Nichkhun punches Junsu the moment he lets out a giggle.
Loyalty, he can appreciate that.
The girl looks unfazed, smiling at him like she hadn't been privy to yet another awkward situation he seemed to have a knack of getting into.
"Sorry to disturb you guys, but I just transferred here and I need help with finding my new statistics tutor and well - you were the only person I recognised here" she laughs, blushing a little.
"Oh um, sure - so, uh - who were looking for?"
Taecyeon thinks that one day, he'll be immune to his own awkwardness.
The girl flashes him a grateful smile that makes his heart do a weird flippy thing, before fishing out a piece of paper.
"He was recommended by my professor. Um, do you know Ok - Ok Taecyeon?"
There is a moment of silence, before Jay begins to howl with laughter, and that seemed to set the rest of them off. Taecyeon is left sitting between six fully-grown men pointing and laughing at him, at one point inhaling soup as he guffawed (Chansung).
The girl blinks.
"If you don't know who he is -"
"This -" Junho manages to choke out, clapping his hand on Taecyeon's shoulder. "- is the man you're looking for"
Taecyeon cringes as his friends erupt in a fresh bout of laughter. He sneaks a look at the girl.
To his surprise, she hasn't run away screaming or hit him on the head with her three textbooks.
Instead, her lips are quirked in a pleased half-smile and her eyes are twinkling mischievously.
"Oh, I didn't know Superman was smart as well"
Chansung falls out of his chair, practically dying of glee.
Her name is Ham Eunjung.
"If you make even one pork or pig or fat-related joke," she had said seriously. "I will stab your eyes out with a pencil"
Taecyeon doesn't doubt her.
Eunjung is a second-year psychology major just like he is, but at her local college, they were a bit more lax with their teaching methods.
"Professor Kim said I had a lot to catch up with" she says nonchalantly, twirling her pen between her fingers.
Taecyeon nods, and goes through basic first-year statistics with her.
They spend three sleepless nights in the library before Eunjung is finally up to speed with this semester's work. They have a good system; Eunjung scribbles away at the tests he makes up and Taecyeon attempts to find a way to stare at her without getting caught.
She catches him every time.
"You're doing it again" Eunjung doesn't even look up from her paper, but Taecyeon sees the smirk tugging at her lips.
He coughs delicately.
"That should be a 73, not a 69" he points out
"That's not what he said ~" she sing-songs, correcting her answer as Taecyeon makes that dying bird sound in the back of his throat.
If he's honest with himself, that’s really their system; Eunjung being funny and smart and witty and snarky and brilliant, and Taecyeon not knowing how to deal with it.
She claps happily when Taecyeon gives her back her test with only two wrong answers, beaming at him like he's her saviour.
Taecyeon manages to smile back without looking too creepy ("Don't smile with all of your teeth, people will think you want to eat them, man") before looking at his watch.
"Shit, it's already ten and I haven't eaten since the morning" he groans, quickly packing up his stuff and wondering if his favourite diner had closed yet.
Eunjung sits there unmoving, watching him shove textbooks in his backpack, before bidding a hasty goodbye. Taecyeon begins to walk away, almost reaching the library doors before he stops in his tracks. He seems to be debating something in his head, and Eunjung can hear him darkly muttering before he turns around and walks back to the table. He halts stiffly in front of her, shifting uneasily and ears going impossibly red.
"Would you like to - I mean, if you want - we could - maybe, uh - eat together?" he manages to stammer out.
Eunjung is surprised he hadn't spontaneously combusted from sheer nervousness.
Taecyeon is more surprised she said yes.
"So, uh - not to ruin the mood or anything, but this isn't a date, is it?"
Eunjung looks up from her pancakes (breakfast is her favourite dinner, she tells him), blinking slowly. Her lips curve into a playful smile as she tilts her head.
"Why, do you want it to be a date?"
As expected, Taecyeon goes red and he chokes on his sandwich.
"Um - only if you wanted, too" he mumbles through his napkin.
Eunjung smiles, but doesn't reply. Her foot bumps his under the table, and Taecyeon can feel his heart soar. They're like this for another three sandwiches (he's a growing boy, okay?), all comfortable silences and subtle flirting (oh god, he's actually, successfully making her happy) and Taecyeon thinks there's nothing that could possibly ruin this night.
"Is that you Taec?"
He hates - fucking hates - dramatic irony.
"Yoobin?" his jaw drops as the smile fades away on Eunjung's face and is replaced with confusion (and jealousy?)
Yoobin opens her arms expectantly, and Taecyeon awkwardly gets up and hugs her stiffly. Eunjung looks away, and Yoobin registers it immediately.
"Oh! I'm so sorry Taec, I had no idea you had company," she laughs, and it reminds him of a music box. "I guess that's my cue to leave, right?"
Taecyeon manages to smile as he pulls away, but it's more of grimace. Yoobin takes one long look at him, and for a moment it feels like she could see right through him.
"I'm glad you're doing well" she whispers, patting him on the arm before speaking in a louder, chirpier voice (he knows it's for Eunjung's benefit). "I'll see you at Minho's party, right?"
"Um, yeah - of course," he replies, glancing at Eunjung uneasily. "Everyone goes to Minho's party"
Yoobin laughs again, before bidding goodbye.
She and Eunjung do not make eye contact for the entire time.
Taecyeon sits back down tentatively. He waits for some kind of explosion.
"So, ex-girlfriend?"
He winces, but Eunjung looks unfazed.
"Yes. But from a long time ago. Like, so long ago, you could like, dig bones for it"
She cracks a smile, but it's far from the bright-eyed grin she's had on all night.
"So...was it serious?" she pushes around her last pancake nonchalantly, as if she didn't really care.
Taecyeon shrugs, looking away uncomfortably.
"I guess you could say that. Three years?" he attempts to laugh it off when Eunjung's head snaps up, her eyes comically wide.
"Wow - three years? What happened?" she blurts out before she can stop herself. "You don't have to answer" Eunjung mumbles apologetically, and it's the first time Taecyeon's known her to take something back.
He waves it off, grinning ruefully.
"It was nothing, really. I guess she just didn't want to be with me anymore" he manages to laugh genuinely, because it really was ages ago and he's moved onto better things (he hopes, oh god - he really, really hopes).
Eunjung furrows her brows.
"What, so she just dumped you without a reason? What a bitch" she mutters darkly.
Taecyeon chuckles at her squinty-eyed glare at nothing.
"Nah, she told me that it felt like I was scared to be around her. Like I didn't know how to treat a woman properly"
Somehow that makes Eunjung's face soften entirely, eyes wide and warm and much too beautiful for him to look at.
"Oh Taec," she's smiling at him now, shy and sincere. "But you do. You do"
"WHAT?" Jay screeches at him, throwing Nichkhun's law textbook at him. "SHE TOLD YOU ALL OF THAT AND YOU STILL DIDN'T GET ANY?"
Taecyeon cowers on his bed, nursing his bruises from the other books Jay had launched at him.
"It didn't seem like the right time - I was waiting for -” he attempts to explain, but Jay cuts him off with a withering glare.
"Don't you get it man? There is no right time - you either go for it or you lose your chance! Eunjung's obviously into you, but if you keep waiting around like a fucking waiter she's going to -"
"Wait, how do you know she's into me?" Taecyeon is gaping, utterly confused.
"She turned down Siwon to go study statistics in the library. With you." Jay says pointedly, rolling his eyes. "If she's not into you, I'll give you my left testicle. That's how I know"
Taecyeon blinks, absorbing this information. Eunjung - beautiful, smart, funny, witty, amazing Eunjung - liked him. Not Jay or Siwon, but him.
"I have to go find her" he says slowly, as if processing his thoughts at the speed of Junho. "Now. Like, right now. It's Minho's party tonight, isn't it? We should go - right now. She's going to be there - I know she is, let's go -"
Jay places a hand on the highest part of Taecyeon he can reach (his shoulder) before he opens the door.
"You're not going," Jay tells him sternly. "Not dressed like that you aren't"
Taecyeon looks down at his yellow T-shirt and orange sweatpants.
"Why? What's wrong with what I wearing?"
Jay snorts.
"Fucking fashion terrorist" he mutters under his breath as he pushes Taecyeon towards Nichkhun's wardrobe.
Taecyeon tugs at his (Nichkhun's) leather jacket uneasily as he attempts to navigate his way through the party. Minho had gone all out again, with seven kegs of unidentifiable alcohol and a DJ that played every imaginable house beat known to campus-kind.
There's even a punchbowl filled with condoms for convenience.
Taecyeon sighs, his head already pounding from the music and the drink Junsu had pushed in his hand the moment he walked in. He squeezes through a crowd of grinding, hormonally-driven people, looking everywhere for Eunjung.
All he can find is Nichkhun groping the Chinese dance major in a corner (Victoria?) and Chansung hitting on Min, the pint-sized biochemist, and getting rebuffed.
He groans, slumping against the wall in defeat. He sulks a bit (he's entitled to, he came to this party with the sole purpose of confessing his undying true love to a girl he can't find, or something to that extent) before catching stumbling, drunk Jinki from medical sciences and saving him from an embarrassing face-plant.
"Ooh ~ thanks Taecyeonnie!" Jinki flails a bit, smiling happily.
Taecyeon rolls his eyes.
"Hey, have you seen Eunjung? You know, the new girl?" he practically yells in the boy's ear.
Jinki blinks slowly, before nodding vigorously.
"Oh yea~ah! I totally just sa~aw her!" he makes a flapping gesture at the kitchen. "With my Siwonnie-hyung!"
Taecyeon lets go of Jinki, before trekking towards the kitchen. He weaves in and out of couples getting it on in the dark (was that Jay and Jessica and Yuri?), steps over hundreds over plastic cups before finally reaching the kitchen.
Where he sees something that nearly makes him throw up.
Eunjung laughs happily into her drink, leaning against the counter. Siwon smiles back at her, mere inches away from her. He places his hand on counter next to hers, and she doesn't even move.
Taecyeon can't stop watching, even if it feels like the air is being sucked out his lungs.
Siwon leans in to whisper something in her ear, but she pulls away, turning her head toward the living room. Towards Taecyeon.
They lock eyes, and for a moment it feels like air being sucked out his lungs is a good thing.
But it isn't, and Siwon is still there, so Taecyeon won't be. He turns on his heel and begins to leave, fighting at the lump growing in his throat and ignoring his friends' confused questions.
Ignoring the way she called out his name the moment she saw him.
Because Taecyeon is stupid enough to come with Jay and forgot to bring his keys, he is left sitting out on the curb of Minho's dorm.
Because he refuses to go back inside to find Jay and run the risk of running into Eunjung, he chooses to remain sitting outside on the curb.
He grumbles to himself, about how stupid he was to think Eunjung could ever be into him, how he could've never given her what she wanted anyway and why the fuck was Khun's jacket so small?
Taecyeon's so busy with berating himself and considering burning Nichkhun's wardrobe that he doesn't even notice the girl sitting beside him, watching him with a fond smile on her face.
"Hey"
Taecyeon swallows nervously, before he turns to face Eunjung.
"Hi"
There is an uncomfortable silence as the wind picks up around them. Taecyeon wordlessly takes off his jacket to drape it around her shoulders. He doesn't look at her. He can't. Or else he'll lose every resolve he's built up and turn into some pathetic puppy that just looks at her pitifully and howls why didn't you choose meeee~?
Eunjung clears her throat, staring at something in the distance.
"You left. When I tried to talk to you." she says quietly. "Why did you do that?"
She sounds hurt, confused. Taecyeon tries to keep his eyes on the piece of gum on the road, even if her quivering voice makes him want to crush her into a hug.
"You were talking to Siwon. I didn't want to disturb you guys" he replies, his own voice wavering.
"But I wanted you to"
Taecyeon's head snaps up. Eunjung's eyes are glittering and she looks so sad and confused and beautiful and -
"I was waiting for you to come"
- oh.
"I - I didn't know that" he manages to squeak out.
Eunjung looks at him - really looks at him. She reaches out to touch his jawline, and Taecyeon flinches before he leans into her fingertips. She traces his cheekbones, his forehead, his nose, before settling on his lips, sighing quietly.
"Why is it so hard for you to believe somebody actually likes you?" she asks softly, a breath away from his face. "That I like you"
Taecyeon doesn't answer, simply closes the distance between their lips and kisses her. Her fingers are between their lips and it should be awkward but it isn't - it really isn't - before she moves them away and really kisses him, parting her lips and looping her hand around his neck to pull him closer and oh -
They pull away when oxygen becomes vital, breathing hard. Eunjung's hair is tousled, her lips kiss-swollen and her dress rumpled, but she couldn't possibly look anymore beautiful to him than she already does.
"This is the part where you tell me where you tell me you like me too" Eunjung murmurs, resting her forehead against his.
"I thought it was a given"
"I'd like to hear it anyway"
Taecyeon chuckles at her playfulness, before lacing his fingers between his. The look in his eye is completely serious and it takes her breath away.
"I like you, Eunjung. You're smart and ridiculously gorgeous and funny and wonderful and just - you. You make the weirdest sounds when you try to figure out an equation and you like to eat breakfast for dinner and you have a mole on your left thigh and I wish I had something better to say but -" he's cut off by her lips, crushed against his in a searing kiss.
"It's enough - god, Taec," she mumbles against his lips. "It's always been enough"
They only pull away when his friends walk outside and shriek at the sight of them like the little girls they were.
(The second time Eunjung sees him in his Superman boxers, she bursts out laughing.
"Oh, Taec - of all nights," her shoulders start to shake, and Taecyeon pouts. "You knew we were going to have sex tonight and you decide to wear those?"
Taecyeon looks down and frowns.
"I thought you'd like it. Don't girls like it when their boyfriends are thoughtful and remember how they first met?" he's asking because now he's genuinely confused.
Eunjung giggles.
"They do, but our situation is different. This situation is different" she says pointedly, gesturing to the candles and the silk sheets and oh - he gets it now.
He smirks, walking towards her until he is close enough to read the look in her eyes.
"What if we didn't...need Superman anymore?" he asks in a low, husky voice that makes her shiver.
Eunjung curls a finger underneath the elastic waistband, looking up at him from under her thick lashes.
"That might work"
It does - it really, really does.)
-
taecyeon/eunjung
4120w, pg-13
So when he is locked outside his dorm clad only in his Superman boxers, screaming profanities at a snickering Nichkhun on the other side of the door, Taecyeon reasons to himself that he could probably keep his dignity if no one saw him.
-
Taecyeon likes to think he has enough common sense to pass college by without losing his dignity or his clothes (both of which can be linked together, as Jay helpfully points out), but sadly this is not the case.
So when he is locked outside his dorm clad only in his Superman boxers, screaming profanities at a snickering Nichkhun on the other side of the door, Taecyeon reasons to himself that he could probably keep his dignity if no one saw him.
Sadly, this is also not the case.
"Um, do you need any help?"
Taecyeon immediately stops pounding on the door and calling his roommates you little fuckers, I'm going to shave off your eyebrows tonight! when a pretty, pretty girl looks at him owlishly, hefting a large box in her hands. He blinks, opening and closing his mouth a few times before he registers that this pretty girl is the first person to see his new underwear (which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that they were standing in the middle of the hallway with zero alcohol in their system. Not that Taecyeon would need it, but it would definitely boost his confidence at this moment.)
"Er - no - I'm fine - as you can see. I'm just really hot - I mean, not like that - unless you're thinking that, which would be completely fine with me - but, uh - it's quite warm weather these days so - "
Oh god, someone stop him. Taecyeon can feel his ears burning as he attempts to stammer his way out this and still have a shot with this girl. But judging from the raised eyebrow and her pursed lips, he's probably blown it.
"Um, okay - I have to go now" she interrupts him in the middle of his tirade about global warming and how his friend, Jay - who's a b-boy and anthropology major - thinks it's all a conspiracy. "I still have some more boxes to move and it's getting pretty late so...yeah"
"Oh! Of course. Sorry I wasted so much of your time - I have this thing where I can't stop talking when it's awkward and then I just go on and on -"
"Yeah, I noticed"
Taecyeon inwardly cringes. Or physically, because the girl seems to be laughing at him. He takes that as a positive sign.
"So, um - do you need any help? With the moving and the carrying and the boxes and - stuff. I could - help?"
Oh god, why is he so uncool? The girl shakes her head, grinning. Yeah, she's definitely laughing at him.
"No, I'm fine," she manages through giggles. "I'm a big girl, and my room is just down the hall. And besides...I think you're the one that needs help right now. Or clothes"
Taecyeon makes a choking noise like a dying bird. The girl laughs again, before waving awkwardly with her hand under a box.
"I'll see you around, Superman"
And then she winks.
When Nichkhun and Jay finally open the door, Taecyeon socks them both in the stomach.
"I fucking hate you guys. Why didn't you convince me to wear silk boxers?"
Taecyeon is studiously taking notes in his psych lecture when someone plops down in the seat beside him.
"Hey there, Superman. I almost couldn't recognise you with clothes on"
Oh god. This could not be happening. He's experienced enough humiliation to last him for the rest of his life (and perhaps his children's), he doesn't need to go through this again during class.
No matter how insanely pretty this girl is and -and - and - wow, her legs look really long at this angle. And is that a mole on her left thigh he spies? Taecyeon is kind of unabashedly gaping at the lower half of her body before there is a delicate cough from her upper half.
"Excuse me, but my face is up here"
Taecyeon flushes to the tips of his ears.
"Sorry, I was looking at the - uh, floor" he manages to squeak, and it sounds even worse out loud than in his mind.
The girl laughs, and Taecyeon manages to look at her face without spouting some ridiculous nonsense about the benefits of carpet over hardwood.
Instead, his mind goes completely blank. She is pretty, so so so pretty - even prettier when there is light streaming on her high cheekbones and cupid bow lips and dark hair sweeping into her eyes and -
The girl cocks her head, regarding him as if she were trying to figure out the code to the safe in his head.
"You're pretty awful with girls, you know that right?"
It's more of a rhetorical question, but Taecyeon's brain stopped functioning the moment he identified the shade of brown her eyes were (coffee-coloured, like his favourite mocha).
"I know" he blurts out.
The girl bursts out laughing, attracting the attention of students and the droning professor. She makes an apologetic gesture, before bowing her head and beginning to take notes, oblivious to the fact that he was kind of blatantly staring at her. Taecyeon attempts to pay attention to the lecture again, but instead he's brainstorming ways to ask this girl out for dinner (or you know, her name).
God, why isn't Jay here when he needed him? The guy might wear obscenely tight shirts and can barely reach Taecyeon's shoulder, but he is a fucking snake with his words and Taecyeon knows no other that can convince twins to suck him off, at the same time.
Taecyeon is too busy debating whether to worship Jay or test him for STDs that he doesn't even realise that class has ended and the girl has left, presumably to find someone she hasn't seen in their underwear already.
Well, Taecyeon thinks. As long as it's not Jay.
"Dude, what's wrong with Taec?"
"If you're going to be banging your head on the table, at least do it refreshingly"
"Oh - is this about the boxers chick? Man, I still can't believe you didn't get her number. Or name. Or talked to her like a normal human being"
"Lay off him, guys. Can't you see he's suffering enough? She's in his psych class too"
"You used to be cool, hyung"
"Don't lie like that, that's just mean"
Taecyeon groans and attempts to block out his friends' comments by stuffing Chansung's bread roll in his ear. The younger boy yelps.
"I was eating that, hyung!"
Junho pats him on the shoulder comfortingly.
"Maybe you can redeem yourself next time," he chirps, eyes curving into crescent moons optimistically. "Who knows, maybe she doesn't think you're a creep who wears lame boxers"
Taecyeon makes this pathetic, puppy-dog face.
"You guys didn't see her," he whines. "She was looking at me like I was some kind of disease! That needed to die. Because it was sad. And weird-looking. Do you guys think I'm weird-looking?" he pouts at the end for good measure, and some of his friends (okay, all of them) gag.
Taecyeon hasn't even begun to describe how pretty (and thereby, out of his league) she is when he lets out a high-pitched shriek.
"Oh god, it's her!"
Wooyoung doesn't even blink when Taecyeon dives under the table and clings onto his leg in an attempt to hide himself. Jay snorts.
"Way to make it obvious, Taec. Get out, you look like you're going down on Woodong over here."
Taecyeon crawls out from under the table just in time to see Wooyoung hurl a tomato at Jay's head. He looks over to the other side of the dining hall to see where the girl is at.
Except she's not there anymore.
"Um, hi"
Taecyeon nearly falls out of his seat. He slowly turns to the source of the sound, hoping the girl couldn't see how red his ears were going. His boys valiantly try to stifle their laughter, and Nichkhun punches Junsu the moment he lets out a giggle.
Loyalty, he can appreciate that.
The girl looks unfazed, smiling at him like she hadn't been privy to yet another awkward situation he seemed to have a knack of getting into.
"Sorry to disturb you guys, but I just transferred here and I need help with finding my new statistics tutor and well - you were the only person I recognised here" she laughs, blushing a little.
"Oh um, sure - so, uh - who were looking for?"
Taecyeon thinks that one day, he'll be immune to his own awkwardness.
The girl flashes him a grateful smile that makes his heart do a weird flippy thing, before fishing out a piece of paper.
"He was recommended by my professor. Um, do you know Ok - Ok Taecyeon?"
There is a moment of silence, before Jay begins to howl with laughter, and that seemed to set the rest of them off. Taecyeon is left sitting between six fully-grown men pointing and laughing at him, at one point inhaling soup as he guffawed (Chansung).
The girl blinks.
"If you don't know who he is -"
"This -" Junho manages to choke out, clapping his hand on Taecyeon's shoulder. "- is the man you're looking for"
Taecyeon cringes as his friends erupt in a fresh bout of laughter. He sneaks a look at the girl.
To his surprise, she hasn't run away screaming or hit him on the head with her three textbooks.
Instead, her lips are quirked in a pleased half-smile and her eyes are twinkling mischievously.
"Oh, I didn't know Superman was smart as well"
Chansung falls out of his chair, practically dying of glee.
Her name is Ham Eunjung.
"If you make even one pork or pig or fat-related joke," she had said seriously. "I will stab your eyes out with a pencil"
Taecyeon doesn't doubt her.
Eunjung is a second-year psychology major just like he is, but at her local college, they were a bit more lax with their teaching methods.
"Professor Kim said I had a lot to catch up with" she says nonchalantly, twirling her pen between her fingers.
Taecyeon nods, and goes through basic first-year statistics with her.
They spend three sleepless nights in the library before Eunjung is finally up to speed with this semester's work. They have a good system; Eunjung scribbles away at the tests he makes up and Taecyeon attempts to find a way to stare at her without getting caught.
She catches him every time.
"You're doing it again" Eunjung doesn't even look up from her paper, but Taecyeon sees the smirk tugging at her lips.
He coughs delicately.
"That should be a 73, not a 69" he points out
"That's not what he said ~" she sing-songs, correcting her answer as Taecyeon makes that dying bird sound in the back of his throat.
If he's honest with himself, that’s really their system; Eunjung being funny and smart and witty and snarky and brilliant, and Taecyeon not knowing how to deal with it.
She claps happily when Taecyeon gives her back her test with only two wrong answers, beaming at him like he's her saviour.
Taecyeon manages to smile back without looking too creepy ("Don't smile with all of your teeth, people will think you want to eat them, man") before looking at his watch.
"Shit, it's already ten and I haven't eaten since the morning" he groans, quickly packing up his stuff and wondering if his favourite diner had closed yet.
Eunjung sits there unmoving, watching him shove textbooks in his backpack, before bidding a hasty goodbye. Taecyeon begins to walk away, almost reaching the library doors before he stops in his tracks. He seems to be debating something in his head, and Eunjung can hear him darkly muttering before he turns around and walks back to the table. He halts stiffly in front of her, shifting uneasily and ears going impossibly red.
"Would you like to - I mean, if you want - we could - maybe, uh - eat together?" he manages to stammer out.
Eunjung is surprised he hadn't spontaneously combusted from sheer nervousness.
Taecyeon is more surprised she said yes.
"So, uh - not to ruin the mood or anything, but this isn't a date, is it?"
Eunjung looks up from her pancakes (breakfast is her favourite dinner, she tells him), blinking slowly. Her lips curve into a playful smile as she tilts her head.
"Why, do you want it to be a date?"
As expected, Taecyeon goes red and he chokes on his sandwich.
"Um - only if you wanted, too" he mumbles through his napkin.
Eunjung smiles, but doesn't reply. Her foot bumps his under the table, and Taecyeon can feel his heart soar. They're like this for another three sandwiches (he's a growing boy, okay?), all comfortable silences and subtle flirting (oh god, he's actually, successfully making her happy) and Taecyeon thinks there's nothing that could possibly ruin this night.
"Is that you Taec?"
He hates - fucking hates - dramatic irony.
"Yoobin?" his jaw drops as the smile fades away on Eunjung's face and is replaced with confusion (and jealousy?)
Yoobin opens her arms expectantly, and Taecyeon awkwardly gets up and hugs her stiffly. Eunjung looks away, and Yoobin registers it immediately.
"Oh! I'm so sorry Taec, I had no idea you had company," she laughs, and it reminds him of a music box. "I guess that's my cue to leave, right?"
Taecyeon manages to smile as he pulls away, but it's more of grimace. Yoobin takes one long look at him, and for a moment it feels like she could see right through him.
"I'm glad you're doing well" she whispers, patting him on the arm before speaking in a louder, chirpier voice (he knows it's for Eunjung's benefit). "I'll see you at Minho's party, right?"
"Um, yeah - of course," he replies, glancing at Eunjung uneasily. "Everyone goes to Minho's party"
Yoobin laughs again, before bidding goodbye.
She and Eunjung do not make eye contact for the entire time.
Taecyeon sits back down tentatively. He waits for some kind of explosion.
"So, ex-girlfriend?"
He winces, but Eunjung looks unfazed.
"Yes. But from a long time ago. Like, so long ago, you could like, dig bones for it"
She cracks a smile, but it's far from the bright-eyed grin she's had on all night.
"So...was it serious?" she pushes around her last pancake nonchalantly, as if she didn't really care.
Taecyeon shrugs, looking away uncomfortably.
"I guess you could say that. Three years?" he attempts to laugh it off when Eunjung's head snaps up, her eyes comically wide.
"Wow - three years? What happened?" she blurts out before she can stop herself. "You don't have to answer" Eunjung mumbles apologetically, and it's the first time Taecyeon's known her to take something back.
He waves it off, grinning ruefully.
"It was nothing, really. I guess she just didn't want to be with me anymore" he manages to laugh genuinely, because it really was ages ago and he's moved onto better things (he hopes, oh god - he really, really hopes).
Eunjung furrows her brows.
"What, so she just dumped you without a reason? What a bitch" she mutters darkly.
Taecyeon chuckles at her squinty-eyed glare at nothing.
"Nah, she told me that it felt like I was scared to be around her. Like I didn't know how to treat a woman properly"
Somehow that makes Eunjung's face soften entirely, eyes wide and warm and much too beautiful for him to look at.
"Oh Taec," she's smiling at him now, shy and sincere. "But you do. You do"
"WHAT?" Jay screeches at him, throwing Nichkhun's law textbook at him. "SHE TOLD YOU ALL OF THAT AND YOU STILL DIDN'T GET ANY?"
Taecyeon cowers on his bed, nursing his bruises from the other books Jay had launched at him.
"It didn't seem like the right time - I was waiting for -” he attempts to explain, but Jay cuts him off with a withering glare.
"Don't you get it man? There is no right time - you either go for it or you lose your chance! Eunjung's obviously into you, but if you keep waiting around like a fucking waiter she's going to -"
"Wait, how do you know she's into me?" Taecyeon is gaping, utterly confused.
"She turned down Siwon to go study statistics in the library. With you." Jay says pointedly, rolling his eyes. "If she's not into you, I'll give you my left testicle. That's how I know"
Taecyeon blinks, absorbing this information. Eunjung - beautiful, smart, funny, witty, amazing Eunjung - liked him. Not Jay or Siwon, but him.
"I have to go find her" he says slowly, as if processing his thoughts at the speed of Junho. "Now. Like, right now. It's Minho's party tonight, isn't it? We should go - right now. She's going to be there - I know she is, let's go -"
Jay places a hand on the highest part of Taecyeon he can reach (his shoulder) before he opens the door.
"You're not going," Jay tells him sternly. "Not dressed like that you aren't"
Taecyeon looks down at his yellow T-shirt and orange sweatpants.
"Why? What's wrong with what I wearing?"
Jay snorts.
"Fucking fashion terrorist" he mutters under his breath as he pushes Taecyeon towards Nichkhun's wardrobe.
Taecyeon tugs at his (Nichkhun's) leather jacket uneasily as he attempts to navigate his way through the party. Minho had gone all out again, with seven kegs of unidentifiable alcohol and a DJ that played every imaginable house beat known to campus-kind.
There's even a punchbowl filled with condoms for convenience.
Taecyeon sighs, his head already pounding from the music and the drink Junsu had pushed in his hand the moment he walked in. He squeezes through a crowd of grinding, hormonally-driven people, looking everywhere for Eunjung.
All he can find is Nichkhun groping the Chinese dance major in a corner (Victoria?) and Chansung hitting on Min, the pint-sized biochemist, and getting rebuffed.
He groans, slumping against the wall in defeat. He sulks a bit (he's entitled to, he came to this party with the sole purpose of confessing his undying true love to a girl he can't find, or something to that extent) before catching stumbling, drunk Jinki from medical sciences and saving him from an embarrassing face-plant.
"Ooh ~ thanks Taecyeonnie!" Jinki flails a bit, smiling happily.
Taecyeon rolls his eyes.
"Hey, have you seen Eunjung? You know, the new girl?" he practically yells in the boy's ear.
Jinki blinks slowly, before nodding vigorously.
"Oh yea~ah! I totally just sa~aw her!" he makes a flapping gesture at the kitchen. "With my Siwonnie-hyung!"
Taecyeon lets go of Jinki, before trekking towards the kitchen. He weaves in and out of couples getting it on in the dark (was that Jay and Jessica and Yuri?), steps over hundreds over plastic cups before finally reaching the kitchen.
Where he sees something that nearly makes him throw up.
Eunjung laughs happily into her drink, leaning against the counter. Siwon smiles back at her, mere inches away from her. He places his hand on counter next to hers, and she doesn't even move.
Taecyeon can't stop watching, even if it feels like the air is being sucked out his lungs.
Siwon leans in to whisper something in her ear, but she pulls away, turning her head toward the living room. Towards Taecyeon.
They lock eyes, and for a moment it feels like air being sucked out his lungs is a good thing.
But it isn't, and Siwon is still there, so Taecyeon won't be. He turns on his heel and begins to leave, fighting at the lump growing in his throat and ignoring his friends' confused questions.
Ignoring the way she called out his name the moment she saw him.
Because Taecyeon is stupid enough to come with Jay and forgot to bring his keys, he is left sitting out on the curb of Minho's dorm.
Because he refuses to go back inside to find Jay and run the risk of running into Eunjung, he chooses to remain sitting outside on the curb.
He grumbles to himself, about how stupid he was to think Eunjung could ever be into him, how he could've never given her what she wanted anyway and why the fuck was Khun's jacket so small?
Taecyeon's so busy with berating himself and considering burning Nichkhun's wardrobe that he doesn't even notice the girl sitting beside him, watching him with a fond smile on her face.
"Hey"
Taecyeon swallows nervously, before he turns to face Eunjung.
"Hi"
There is an uncomfortable silence as the wind picks up around them. Taecyeon wordlessly takes off his jacket to drape it around her shoulders. He doesn't look at her. He can't. Or else he'll lose every resolve he's built up and turn into some pathetic puppy that just looks at her pitifully and howls why didn't you choose meeee~?
Eunjung clears her throat, staring at something in the distance.
"You left. When I tried to talk to you." she says quietly. "Why did you do that?"
She sounds hurt, confused. Taecyeon tries to keep his eyes on the piece of gum on the road, even if her quivering voice makes him want to crush her into a hug.
"You were talking to Siwon. I didn't want to disturb you guys" he replies, his own voice wavering.
"But I wanted you to"
Taecyeon's head snaps up. Eunjung's eyes are glittering and she looks so sad and confused and beautiful and -
"I was waiting for you to come"
- oh.
"I - I didn't know that" he manages to squeak out.
Eunjung looks at him - really looks at him. She reaches out to touch his jawline, and Taecyeon flinches before he leans into her fingertips. She traces his cheekbones, his forehead, his nose, before settling on his lips, sighing quietly.
"Why is it so hard for you to believe somebody actually likes you?" she asks softly, a breath away from his face. "That I like you"
Taecyeon doesn't answer, simply closes the distance between their lips and kisses her. Her fingers are between their lips and it should be awkward but it isn't - it really isn't - before she moves them away and really kisses him, parting her lips and looping her hand around his neck to pull him closer and oh -
They pull away when oxygen becomes vital, breathing hard. Eunjung's hair is tousled, her lips kiss-swollen and her dress rumpled, but she couldn't possibly look anymore beautiful to him than she already does.
"This is the part where you tell me where you tell me you like me too" Eunjung murmurs, resting her forehead against his.
"I thought it was a given"
"I'd like to hear it anyway"
Taecyeon chuckles at her playfulness, before lacing his fingers between his. The look in his eye is completely serious and it takes her breath away.
"I like you, Eunjung. You're smart and ridiculously gorgeous and funny and wonderful and just - you. You make the weirdest sounds when you try to figure out an equation and you like to eat breakfast for dinner and you have a mole on your left thigh and I wish I had something better to say but -" he's cut off by her lips, crushed against his in a searing kiss.
"It's enough - god, Taec," she mumbles against his lips. "It's always been enough"
They only pull away when his friends walk outside and shriek at the sight of them like the little girls they were.
(The second time Eunjung sees him in his Superman boxers, she bursts out laughing.
"Oh, Taec - of all nights," her shoulders start to shake, and Taecyeon pouts. "You knew we were going to have sex tonight and you decide to wear those?"
Taecyeon looks down and frowns.
"I thought you'd like it. Don't girls like it when their boyfriends are thoughtful and remember how they first met?" he's asking because now he's genuinely confused.
Eunjung giggles.
"They do, but our situation is different. This situation is different" she says pointedly, gesturing to the candles and the silk sheets and oh - he gets it now.
He smirks, walking towards her until he is close enough to read the look in her eyes.
"What if we didn't...need Superman anymore?" he asks in a low, husky voice that makes her shiver.
Eunjung curls a finger underneath the elastic waistband, looking up at him from under her thick lashes.
"That might work"
It does - it really, really does.)
-