LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES...CHAPTER 10/?
Title: Love Knows No Boundaries
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: EXO (minus Wufan and Minseok), BAP (minus Junhong), B1A4, SISTAR (minus Hyojung (Hyorin) and Bora), JB, SECRET (minus Sunhwa and Hana)
Pairing(s): Yongguk/Jieun, Baekhyun/Chanyeol, Luhan/Sehun, Himchan/Hyosung
Word Count: ~5800
Rating: PG-13 for language
Genre: College, AU, Crossover
Summary: College students. Blind, Deaf and Mute. Their lives deal with the ups and downs, like a roller coaster. They find relationships, and companionships. Life does not always have a happy ending but they can try to get their happy endings.
Author Note: IT'S LUNCH TIME~ The groups meet up separately at the Food Court; Himchan is in for a surprise.
Sign Language Guide
Families
Prologue | Jongdae | Chapter 1 | Daehyun | Chapter 2 | Zitao | Chapter 3 | Kyungsoo | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 |
Joonmyeon realizes he is wrong when they get to the Food Court. After searching the area, he, Luhan and Yixing come to a conclusion that that the others have not arrived. They are in the outdoor courtyard surrounded by the U-shaped University Food Court that houses the air-conditioned, indoor food express stalls. There are a lot of people gathering there at noon, though some eat lunch at 11AM or 1PM. Feeling hungry after their search, Joonmyeon and the Zhang brothers go to Subway to order their foot-long sandwiches. Once they have paid for their lunches, they search for one of the huge round tables that would be empty to seat at least 10 people. The round tables are all taken, so the trio decides to go with regular tables and bring them closer together so there will be two lines of people seated. After putting down their backpacks to save seats, they begin to eat as they wait for their friends, scanning the area and chatting about their plans for the rest of the week. Yixing still looks distracted, Joonmyeon thinks to himself. He’s been keeping an eye out for Jongdae the whole time. I understand today’s the first time he hasn’t escorted Jongdae, but really, Zitao’s trustworthy. Wonder if there’s something Yixing is not telling us about.
“Yixing-ah, is there something bothering you, hmm?” Luhan asks as he puts down his sandwich, his concerned eyes watching Yixing carefully. Yixing has not even touched his food since they arrived at the table. Luhan prods him, “Yixing…Yixing. Yah, Yixing-ah, hello?” When Yixing has not heard him, Luhan resorts to slapping him upside the head. Yixing starts at the action, snapping out of his focus and looking surprised at both Joonmyeon and Luhan, as if realizing they are there for the first time.
“Hm? Uhm…shall we eat?” Yixing opens his sandwich wrapper and notices that the others have already opened theirs long before he does. “…Oh.” He brings himself to finish opening his sandwich wrapper and eat his sandwich, as Luhan and Joonmyeon look at each other and back at Yixing.
Even when Yixing is eating, he still looks around, as if suspecting something to pop out of nowhere. Only Joonmyeon knows why he is being like this.
- - -
Sound of chatter gets louder and louder…
As the group walks to the Food Court, Zitao scans the plaza for their group of friends; after all, Luhan told Zitao and Jongdae this morning that they would be meeting in the University Food Court.
“Hmmm, Dongwoo-hyung, Jinyoung-hyung, what do you feel like having?” Sunwoo asks.
“What you say we all get pizza?” Dongwoo suggests, a hint of excitement in his voice.
“PIZZA! YEAH! LET’S GET THE SUPREME PIZZA, HYUNGS!” Junghwan shouts, startling Jongdae who is walking between him and Zitao. “Oops, sorry Jongdae,” Junghwan scratches the back of his head, feeling conscious about himself. “I couldn’t help myself, haha. Want to join us for pizza though, hm? Zitao?”
Jongdae is about to respond when he feels a tug on his arm and hears a faint yell of his name. He shifts his head to find out where it is coming from and he feels Zitao turning his hand with palm upwards and then the familiar sensation of a calloused finger stroking characters on his palm. Jongdae makes out the names “Joonmyeon”, “Luhan”, “Yixing”, and “at two o’clock position, about 5 yards, with sandwiches”. Jongdae smiles and with his free hand, he feels around for an arm of one of his new friends. When he touches the arm, he hears a calm, gentle voice saying, “This is Jinyoung, what’s up?”
“I’m afraid that as much as Zitao and I would like the offer, our friends are already here. Zitao and I had plans to meet up with them today, anyway. But we should hang out and eat sometime in the near future. Please go ahead, maybe next time when we see each other, I’ll introduce you to them! Thanks for the walk and talk, guys. We’ll see you around!” Jongdae and Zitao bid their friends goodbye as Zitao leads Jongdae to where he sees the seated trio hogging several tables.
Meanwhile, the trio is watching the scene in front of their eyes. As they watch Zitao scanning the plaza, Yixing makes to stand up but stops mid-action when Luhan decides to yell out “JONGDAE! ZITAO!”. After Zitao hears the yell, he immediately finds them. Yixing sits back down as he and the others watch Zitao tug gently at Jongdae, appearing to be making some strokes on Jongdae’s palm. The trio assumes that Zitao is telling Jongdae about them. Sure enough, Jongdae talks to someone next to him, before he and Zitao bow to their friends and walk over to where Luhan, Joonmyeon and Yixing are seated.
Once the duo arrives, the trio greets them warmly, and the duo responds with a smiling nod from Zitao and a cheerful reply from Jongdae. Yixing stands up fully to draw a chair for Jongdae. He places a hand on Jongdae’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze and a small rub of his thumb, signaling Jongdae that it is him. He then lightly taps Jongdae’s shoulder twice and nudges Jongdae’s legs from behind with the chair, and Jongdae gets the message. Sitting down, Jongdae feels Yixing’s hand leave his shoulder, catches the whiff of Yixing’s fresh scent, and then hears two chairs scraping across the floor on either side of him. Jongdae then takes off his backpack and puts it on his lap; he is about to open the flap to get his packaged meal that his brother, Minseok, had prepared him this morning, when he hears a voice talking to him.
“Chen-ah, we have some sandwiches that we got from the Subway stall. Want some?” Luhan asks, using that nickname of Jongdae as endearment. Luhan has always been so caring towards his younger friends, especially with Sehun.
“Ah, thank you Luhan-hyung, but Minseok-hyung already prepared me food since I woke up a bit later than usual.” Jongdae searches for the Tupperware box with the rubber band wrapped around. He recognize it to be his meal box, since the rubber band is used to differentiate it from the other boxed items and mini-binders in his bag. He then takes it out, and places his backpack on the floor at his side and his lunch box on the table in front of him. He takes off the rubber band and the lid, and inhales the food. “Mmm, Minseok-hyung makes the best food. I can smell the kimchi omelette with carrots, and pickled radishes, and is that a tomato? What’s the tomato in here for?”
Yixing informs him that the tomato is part of a mini-salad he can see in the box. The box has four sections: one with kimchi omelette and rice, a side dish of pickled radishes, a mini-salad, and orange wedges.
“Minseok-hyung sure likes to spoil you because you’re such a handsome prince, Chen-ah,” Joonmyeon jokes with Jongdae. This makes Jongdae chuckle. “It’s quite a delicious meal you have. Better than our sandwiches, really.” Joonmyeon looks between Luhan’s, his, and Yixing’s sandwiches. He looks at Zitao, wondering if he has his lunch or if he is buying lunch, but he gets his answer once he sees Zitao retrieving his lunch box from his laptop bag, and opening a Tupperware container with fried tilapia and brown rice inside.
- - -
“So this is ‘G’ right? …And this is ‘D’?”
“Did I do it right? The ‘Ch’ letter? My…name…is…Gonngg…Ch…..annnshik.” [My name G-a-ng J-o-n-s-i-g] “Yeah? Yeah??” Chanshik says to Daehyun with an excited face, hoping that he got his name correct.
Around noontime, Dasom and Chanshik are learning the alphabet from Kyungsoo and Daehyun as they head towards the University Food Court. Daehyun smiles at Chanshik, and chuckles as he shakes his head. [Little-bit], He indicates to Chanshik which letters were mixed up. [G-o-ng Ch-a-n-s-i-g] He spells it slowly so that Chanshik can review and remember better in his next attempt to fingerspell his name. At the same time, Kyungsoo is watching Dasom spell her name and assisting her in demonstrating which letter is which. Dasom, like Chanshik, has messed up on her spelling with ‘G-i-m R-o-s-a-m’ and not ‘G-i-m D-a-s-o-m’.
Both Kyungsoo and Daehyun understand how tricky it is to remember some signs and to connect them to the right letters, because some of the hand structures are similar. When they first learned them back when they were young, they had a hard time understanding them too. They explain interactively and visually, tracing the patterns of hangul characters on the fingers. After reviewing the alphabet once, or twice, Dasom and Chanshik get the hang of spelling their names right and try spelling their mentors’ names. They then experiment spelling their other friends’ names, along with other general words.
“Oh, there’s Jihyun-unnie!” Dasom exclaims. “Kyungsoo, Daehyun, Chanshik, I had a great time talking with you guys! It was fun working with you guys in class, we should keep working together, or at least keep in touch. Here’s my number,” she takes out a scratch paper to write her number and gives it to Chanshik, since Kyungsoo’s hands are occupied in interpreting for Daehyun. She walks backward toward her best friend as she continues, “You guys text me and tell me who you are, because sometimes I forget later in the day to add numbers and then I don’t know which number belongs to whom. Hahaha, anyway, bye! Enjoy your lunch! Oh, and I promise that I will practice my alphabet so I can get the letters right and, who knows, maybe I will be able to do more than just spelling sentences!” Dasom then turns around to meet with her best friend, who looks really tall compared to Dasom, but not as tall as Chanshik, and has a dirty blonde hair tied up in a bun. Said Jihyun is texting on her cell phone when she hears Dasom calling her name again, and looks up. She looks a bit mad when the guys hear her say, “YAH! You didn’t answer your phone. I’ve texted you like 4 times! I was worried, you know.”
Kyungsoo and Chanshik look at each other before Kyungsoo shifts his eyes to Daehyun and tells him what they heard. Daehyun raises his eyebrows, and the three of them look back at the scene with Dasom and Jihyun. Dasom seems to be unaffected by her best friend’s shout because she has a happy face as she turns around, directing Jihyun’s attention to look at the guys. Right on cue, the three guys wave at the girls and Jihyun’s face contorts from a frown to a smile. Dasom then shows her the alphabet she learned and Jihyun has a look of shock and awe before she tries it herself.
Chatter gets louder and louder as they approach the Food Courtyard…Whoosh whoosh of the breeze leafing through the courtyard.
Some students are playing around, some are necking, and some are whispering and discussing whatever their topics are. The guys and girls are intermingling everywhere.
They walk a little further, finally arriving at the University Food Courtyard, before Kyungsoo and Chanshik hear a name being called.
“Chanshik-ah! Over here!”
Chanshik looks over to his right and sees his best friends, Dongwoo, Jinyoung, Sunwoo and Junghwan, standing in line together for pizza and waving to the trio. Chanshik waves back and hollers to them that he would be right there in a second. He turns to face Daehyun and Kyungsoo and asks them if they will like to join him and his friends for pizza, but Daehyun shakes his head with an apologetic smile. Kyungsoo too shakes his head, explaining that Daehyun is lactose intolerant, so he is trying to stay away from most dairy products, and that they already have a group of friends that might be waiting for them. Kyungsoo thanks Chanshik for the offer, and Chanshik thanks both of them for the lessons. Chanshik, having already copied Dasom’s number to his cell phone earlier, writes his number under Dasom’s writing on the scratch paper before giving it to Kyungsoo.
“That’s my number right there, and I don’t mind texting either. Just make sure to put your names in the texts, like Dasom said. We’ll see each other on Thursday, yeah? Catch you guys later!” Chanshik makes his way towards his friends standing in line.
Kyungsoo and Daehyun are left to find their group, and so they scan the court for the couple consisting of a tall guy and a shorter guy, and the three friends: one blond-haired, one dirty blond-haired and a red-haired. Walking a little forward, Daehyun spots their group, except Yongguk, near the fruit smoothie stall. He leads Kyungsoo to the group and they greet their brothers and friends. Daehyun asks the group if they have seen Yongguk and Baekhyun tackles the question, saying that they have been there for the past 15 minutes - it is 12:10PM - since their professors let them out early.
“Yongguk-hyung should be on his way by now, if he isn’t here yet,” Baekhyun concludes. He then proceeds to take a sip from his strawberry banana fruit smoothie. Youngjae has his peanut butter chocolate fruit shake, he has argued in the past that chocolate is a fruit as well as a drink, so he might as well have dessert as part of lunch anyway. “Who can resist chocolate, anyways?” Youngjae asks rhetorically. JB has his mango berry gush smoothie, while Chanyeol settles with watermelon refresher with coconut water. They have also bought some flatbread sandwiches from the same fruit smoothie shoppe.
Daehyun and Kyungsoo go to order their fruit smoothies and lunches, and once they have gotten their orders, they return to the table and find Yongguk making his way to them.
[Hey Y-G-hyung! Where you? We all think you vanish or someone “tackle-you-to-ground” like David Goliath “throw-knock”] (Hey there, Yongguk-hyung! Where were you? We all thought you had vanished or that someone took you down like David took down Goliath), Daehyun greets Yongguk, ending it with a jokingly facial expression. Youngjae laughs and adds in, [O-r maybe meet someone bigger power *Youngjae makes a scared face* “head-sink-to-neck”] (Or maybe he met someone bigger and powerful than him to put him to shame).
“Ay, ma…watch it. Nobody compete with me out here, y’all hear? Anyway, nahh, guys, I got a target on someone today, and I’ll try to get him to like me by the end of this month.” [Attention, d-u-d-e. No one here “rank-to-top” me, understand? *He brushes off imaginary dust on his shoulder* anyway, no, today try flirt someone, hope end-of-month succeed]. Yongguk goes to sit down next to Youngjae and JB, across from Daehyun, Kyungsoo and the BaekYeol couple as he talks. He ends with a smirk on his face.
Youngjae seems skeptical, That’s in like 10 days from now. He reminds Yongguk as he signs for Daehyun, “You have your girlfriend, though, remember? Unless you wanna handle three-way relationships, it’s up to you. I have no say in that whatsoever; I’m fine with who you are and who you are with anyway, hyung…Just be aware of what you’re doing.”
Yongguk scoffs at Youngjae, “Being bisexual is pretty much the life for me; I like both girls and guys. I don’t have to choose one or the other. I can show them how I can give both of them affection and attention equally; but if one doesn’t respect me for who I am, the-“
“Yonggukie~” A female comes up behind Yongguk and covers his eyes with her small hands.
The group looks up behind Yongguk to see a beautiful gal with a naturally good-looking small face, wavy brown hair, and foxy eyes. She has a smile on her face that makes her seem angelic. The woman has her laptop bag slinging on her side, and a smoothie cup cradled in the hook of her elbow. Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Chanyeol have seen her a few times around on campus, but they do not know who she really is. The others, on the other hand, know who she is: Song Jieun, a music grad student like Yongguk, a best friend of Sunhwa and Hana, and the girlfriend of Yongguk.
Yongguk recognizes the voice and the touch of her hands, and he greets her warmly as he removes her hands from his face gently and turns around, “Hey babe~ Haven’t heard from you all weekend, I missed you.” He pulls her down to his lap and gives her a peck on the cheek, and Jieun blushes as she glances at the group, raking her fingers through the lower ends of her hair. She is very shy about PDAs, especially Yongguk’s public displays of affection, even if it is a mere gesture. The group does not mind the couple, and so they greet her comfortably.
“Oh, Jieun-noona, this is Park Baekhyun, Kim Chanyeol and Park Kyungsoo. Guys, this is Song Jieun-noona. Jieun-noona is a music grad, like Yongguk-hyung. Kyungsoo and Daehyun are in the same journalism major, while Baekhyun, me, and JB are in the same music major. Chanyeol is a theater major. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun are old friends of ours from elementary school and we just recently reconnected a few weeks ago. Chanyeol is Baekhyun’s boyfriend, by the way.” Youngjae introduces the parties, while Baekhyun interprets for Daehyun’s sake. The two parties nod respectfully. “Kyungsoo is the deaf brother, but since he has hearing aids, he can talk and read lips.”
Jieun, despite being Yongguk’s girlfriend for the past two years as well as being Sunhwa’s best friend, knows only a few signs and several letters. She finds it awkward for her hands to form letters and signs, so she would often resort to paper-pen communication with Daehyun if she is without Sunhwa, Yongguk or Youngjae. She is incredibly patient, one of her traits that Yongguk finds appealing about her.
“Ahh~ I see, pleased to meet you all. Yongguk, what was that I heard about girls and guys? Did you find some guy…or another girl?” Jieun eyes him warily as she sets her smoothie on the table. She knows about Yongguk’s bisexuality, and she has no problem with it. As long as Jieun finds the guy, that Yongguk flirts with, to either be devilishly handsome, or good-natured to temper with Yongguk’s brash personality. She likes to think of it as an alliance with a guy to keep Yongguk in control. However, if it is with another girl, it is a different story.
“Ah no, Jieun, there’s this guy that I have my eyes on. He’s in music as well, and he seems very egoistic about music. He claims to have traditional instruments in his family’s house. This morning, our professor played some kind of weird stuff like the guitar’s grandfather and the drum’s great-great grandmother. Out of everyone in the classroom, this guy was the only one who knew the style of music and identified the instruments down to the detail.
“At first I was irritated with him, but when he turned around after he introduced himself to the professor, he looked right at me. And shit, man, he’s too frickin’ pretty to be a man, yet he has this air of manliness about him. And I was like all this, and he was like all that,” Yongguk reenacts the scene from this morning’s class lecture, also signing at the same time for Daehyun. When he gets to the part where he says “I was like all this and he was like all that”, he imitates the faces he and Himchan did. It got the whole group laughing. Jieun however is smiling, thinking of who this mystery man is. Yongguk chuckles a bit at the sight of his girlfriend and his group of friends. He brings his hand to scratch the back of his head in embarrassment.
“Er…yeah, so I kinda fell asleep in class - YAH don’t you give me that look, Youngjae, that professor was talking so monotonously today, I swear it’s hard to keep awake in that class - and after class, this guy came to me and told me that he saved my ass by lying to the professor that I had a rough night. We talked some more, I flirted with him a lot than I should have because, shit, he is just too frickin’ pretty and handsome at the same time. I even called him “princess” a few times and he got riled up about it. He was pretty adorable too. Anyway, he gave me his notebook so I can catch up on the notes. I gotta give it back to him on Thursday, ‘in pristine condition or else’.” Yongguk laughs as he does the air-quote gesture with his hands, and then stares slightly into space at the memory.
“Hmm, sounds like a dreamy guy~,” Jieun nudges sideways at Yongguk, chuckling. “What’s his name, Guk-ah?”
Just when Yongguk is about to reply, there is a shout of “JONGUPPIE~!!!” behind him. Yongguk looks to his left as Jieun does the same at the noise.
Daehyun wonders why everyone in his group and some people around them are looking in the same direction. Kyungsoo places his hand on Daehyun’s arm, getting his attention, and informs him that someone was yelling to someone. He points to the source ten yards from where they are. Daehyun cranes his neck to see.
Jieun goggles at the handsome man standing near the table, his hands cupping his mouth in a form of a megaphone. Next to him, there appears to be another person occupying one of the benches. She does not recognize the wavy purple hair, but the face, the woman’s face looks so familiar with that gummy smile of hers. She notices several lunch bags on the table before she looks back up at the standing man, studying his face before realizing who he is.
Yongguk looks back at the group with a gleeful smirk, “That’s him right there. Moon. Him. Chan,” just as Jieun has uttered his name at the same time. Yongguk raises his eyebrow at her in mild shock, “You know him?”
Jieun is still staring at the man, as if in a trance, yet she answers Yongguk promptly, conscious of her state. “Yes, almost everyone talks about this guy. The way he holds himself as a dignified student, and it’s true that he has the traditional musical instruments in his family’s house. My gosh, Yongguk, he came to you this morning?!” Jieun whirls around to face Yongguk, snapping out of her daze and looking at him with awed disbelief. Yongguk looks at her as if she is some crazed fangirl. “Um…yeah, babe. He did.” Yongguk glances at his group, who are all looking back at him with raised eyebrows and a smile on their faces.
“What, why are you guys looking at me like that for?” When Yongguk gets no reply, only some shaking of heads, he gets slightly irritated. “What, you guys?” He looks back at Himchan, who is cupping his mouth to shout again in that deep, rich voice.
“JONGUPPIE-YAH, OVER HERE, HYUNG’S GOT SOME FOOD FOR YOU! LOOK TO THE RIGHT. I’M WAVING. AISH, CAN’T YOU SEE ME WAVING?”
Yongguk winces and notices Moon Himchan who is jumping up and down, waving - more like flailing - his arms. Finally, it seems that Himchan to have gotten said Jongup’s attention because he lowers his arms and Himchan suddenly feels someone watching him. Himchan turns his head and suddenly makes eye contact with Yongguk. Himchan suddenly jerks, bit startled, causing Yongguk to guffaw behind closed lips and puffed cheeks, his shoulders shaking. Yongguk attempts to make a straight face, but Himchan retorts by shooting a look of scorn and sticking out his tongue at him. Yongguk seems unaffected, shaking his head with a smile on his face, but very amused at his manners.
- - -
Jongup is walking with Jongin and Sehun when they find the group of Jongin and Sehun’s friends. The trio is about to walk over before Jongin holds Jongup back for a moment. Jongin explains to Jongup that there is something he should know before meeting the group.
“Two of my friends are interesting people when you meet them. I need your promise that you will be mindful of who they are and what they do. One of the two friends is blind and the other one is mute, so please don’t make it a big deal, okay?” Jongin stares downward at Jongup because of the height difference, his hands on Jongup’s shoulders, making sure he has gotten Jongup’s full attention. Jongup stares back up at him, giving away no sign of confusion or comprehension. He blinks a few times before nodding slowly and says “Okay, no problem.” Sehun stares from behind Jongin, passively watching the scene.
Jongin nods once before taking his hands off Jongup’s shoulder and leading the way. When Jongup meets his new friends, he bows to each and every one of them. He notices that two friends, true to what Jongin said earlier, have slightly different reactions. A short guy does not seem to acknowledge the bow and stares straight ahead. Jongup can see the faint cloudy eyes. The other guy, although the others have said “hi” and “welcome”, makes no sounds, he only smiles and nods once at Jongup. When he meets Jongdae, he shyly moves forward without anyone telling him to do so, and, to everyone’s surprise, he extends his hand and prods gently at Jongdae’s subtly outstretched hands. Jongdae almost retracts his hands from the sudden move before returning and feeling around Jongup’s hand. Once Jongdae finishes, he shakes Jongup’s hand, and Jongup uses his free hand to pat on their joined hands in respect, smiling sheepishly. When it is time to meet Zitao, Jongup bows and shakes his hand, not showing any disrespect or making a blunt move to question Zitao’s muteness. Joonmyeon asks Jongup if he would like to join them for lunch, but Jongup politely declines with the bright smile on his face. He explains that his hyung is around here at the Food Court, already having bought the food. Just as Jongup bows to Joonmyeon, the group hears a yell from somewhere near their location.
“JONGUPPIE~!!”
Everyone in the group and Jongup look around to see where the source is coming from.
“JONGUPPIE-YAH, OVER HERE, HYUNG’S GOT SOME FOOD FOR YOU! LOOK TO THE RIGHT.”
Jongup blinks as he concentrates on finding the source, his eyes constantly scanning the hustling and bustling students in the food court.
“I’M WAVING. AISH, MOON JONGUP, CAN’T YOU SEE ME WAVING?”
Jongup starts to focus on anyone who is waving, and then he feels a tap on his shoulder. He looks to his left to see Zitao pointing. Jongup follows the direction and he immediately finds his brother. He waves excitedly before turning around to thank Zitao and thank the others. Jongup tells them that next time, he can bring his brother over and they can eat together with the group. He then departs and makes his way to his hyung.
“HYUNG! What did you get for us??” Jongup runs towards Himchan, about to hug his brother when he sees him sticking his tongue out at someone and sneering. He slows to a stop and wonders to himself, He has never acted this childish before. “Ah, hi, Hyosung-noona!” He immediately captures a sight of wavy purple hair and a gummy smile on a busty young woman sitting next to his hyung. Hyosung is Himchan’s girlfriend, who is a sweetheart and also funny. Even though she has already graduated the previous year at a different college as a Dance Grad student, she still visits Himchan and Jongup to have lunch with them.
“Jonguppie~ Aigoo, aigoo~ You’re such a cutie patootie! Sit next to noona! Omo, you’ve changed your hairstyle. Looking to impress someone, mm?” Hyosung waves at Jongup and beckons him to sit next to her. Obedient as he is, he takes his place next to Hyosung. Jongup laughs and shakes his head. He enjoys her company, but his main concern is his brother acting childishly.
“Hyung, what’s wrong?” Jongup tugs at his brother’s arm. Himchan, still standing, is startled and he turns around to see Jongup looking up innocently at him. He moves slightly to wrap his arms softly around Jongup’s shoulders. Himchan pats Jongup’s head before letting go.
“Oh, it’s just that jerk from my morning class, Bang Yong Guk, who was flirting with me like Romeo when all I did was giving him my notebook so he could catch up!” Himchan sighs dramatically, sitting down opposite his brother and his girlfriend. He glances at Jongup and asks him, “Where were you? We were waiting for you for the past 10 minutes.”
“Oh…er…I…met some new friends from my first year dancing class! Their names are uh…Kim…Jongin and…Taehu - uhm I mean, Sehun. They’re twin brothers. They also introduced me to their group, over there! See?” Jongup points to the group seated far behind Himchan and waves, so Himchan turns around to see the group waving back. “They’re awfully nice, one is a sweet guy - Lee Jongdae, I believe? - he’s blind. And there is another guy who is mute, uhm…something like Hwang…Jito? Zito? Zitao! Yeah, Huang Zitao. I think one is Joonmyeon, another is Eesing? Yixing?, and the other one is Ruhan.” He continues to babble excitedly, with his contemplative and bright personality infecting Hyosung and Himchan in a matter of seconds, leaving them with big grins on their faces.
“But hyung, who’s Bang Yongguk? Maybe…he was a bit too grateful for you to save him from the trouble this morning. What does he look like, though?” Jongup looks curiously between Hyosung and his hyung. Hyosung rakes her hand through Jongup’s hair almost as if she wants to calm him down from all the excessive talking. His personality and appearance makes him endearing and cute, and, despite Jongup’s age, she cannot pass up the opportunity to mother him.
Himchan takes his lunch bag that has his name on it, and then wordlessly passes the other bag to Jongup while Hyosung gets her bag from the middle of the table. He replies to his brother with a nod to his right, in Yongguk’s direction. Jongup looks to his left and tries to find him among the crowded, blurred people in his sights. “He’s the one with red hair, sitting next to a girl with brown hair,” he hears Himchan mutter. Jongup finally catches the red-haired man and goes, “oh”. He looks back at Himchan before he does a double take.
Hands are flurrying and there are emotions constantly changing on his face. Dirty blond hair, thick lips and handsome features…Looking between a guy, who is apparently Yongguk judging from the red hair, and someone next to the mysterious person. An expression of glee shows on the mysterious person’s face as the whole group laughs.
“Hyung, Hyosung-noona…do you know who are the others? What are they doing and why are they like that?” Jongup is unaware that the words start falling out of his mouth, and both Hyosung and Himchan hear the question before looking at each other. Jongup seems to be in a daze. All he can see is the guy with the thick lips and his hands moving so fast. Somewhere in his blurred-out vision, where said mysterious guy is the only clear object of focus, there are others who are moving their hands and few others who do not. They continue like this, and everyone is looking back and forth at each other.
Himchan and Hyosung look over to Yongguk and the group’s location, and Himchan’s breath hitches. They stare in shock for two different reasons; Hyosung in shock that she recognizes the woman she has not seen for a long time, not since high school, and Himchan in shock at Yongguk’s change in personality compared to what he saw this morning.
Oh my god, Yongguk seems so much nicer, very genuine and somewhat more carefree than this morning. Is this the same Yongguk, or am I imagining things? My god, his hands. Whoa wait, what the heck am I thinking? Himchan shakes his head out of his stupor, realizing he has been staring at Yongguk a bit too long. What the heck was that? Why was I thinking about his hands?! I’m straight! I have Hyosung! He’s...straight…isn’t he? He has that girl. But his hands, they’re so fluid and…the way his expressions are full of emoti- whoa stop right there, Moon Himchan. But I can’t contain myself from thinking about Yongguk’s moving body parts, *mental gasp* that sounded so wrong just now. Himchan makes an inward revolted face while still staring at him.
Whoa whoa whoa wait, what the heck is wrong with you, my fast-beating heart? Can’t you be still? Actually on a second thought, don’t be still. I’d rather not die…just go slower than now, please. GOSHDANGIT. Himchan places his hand gently on his chest, where his heart continues to beat rapidly and he feels his stomach twisting in all the wrong places. No no no, I cannot be in love with him, nor should I have FEELINGS for the guy, I mean, LOOK AT HIM. His eyes quickly dart at Hyosung, before resting his eyes back on Yongguk once again. But thinking back to this morning, his voice was so sexy, I just wanna drown in it like chocola- what the fudge? NO STOP. STOP.
Himchan takes an involuntary shuddering gasp and looks back at Jongup, who is looking meekly at his older brother and stealing glances to his left, and at Hyosung, who is observing Himchan with her eyebrow raised and her eyes showing concern.
“I-it’s nothing. I just…kind of remembered…something for the weekend.” Himchan cannot believe he told a fib to his girlfriend, to his best friend that he trusts. He pretends to scratch his forehead so that with his hand covering part of his face, Hyosung cannot perceive the glance that Himchan shoots at Yongguk.
Jongup opens his lunch bag and takes out his brother’s homemade Panini sandwich, which has eggplants in it. Himchan also has a Panini but with julienned Portobello mushrooms in it. They eat with their minds deep in thoughts about whom they had just seen, while Hyosung sits, watching them with concern. The Moon brothers ever so slowly, but surely, like a drop of hot burning sauce into a bowl of soup, start feeling flustered at the thought of them itching - no, wanting - to know more about their crushes; their curiosity getting the best of them as they keep glancing at Yongguk and the mysterious male student sitting across from him.