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“There you go,” Junmyeon smiles, bright and lovely. “I’ll see you around, man.”
Yixing is a stuttering mess, he can’t think of any good reply, so he opts to bow and briskly walk away. His cheeks, ears and neck are set on fire, his legs are a little weak, and oh God, his hand - he touched Junmyeon’s soft finger.
He takes the three fat books on the left hand and looks at his index finger. He can feel the softness of Junmyeon’s hand, it’s lingering, and - he wants more. A little more of the hand’s softness, a little more time to hold Junmyeon’s hand without feeling like a creep (no, he hasn’t done that, just dreamt of), a little more time to stare at his handsome face without having to look away. That right there, is heaven.
Yixing dumps the fat books on the table, takes a seat and sighs.
There is a loud squeak which echoes in the almost silent cafeteria, followed by many footsteps. Yixing turns around to find the volleyball team walking with food trays in their hand, chuckling at their captain.
Oh.
Junmyeon is helping a girl - the adorable nerd of their class, that’s not her name, but Yixing likes to call her that, who has natural pink cheeks and everyone thinks she’s blushing 24/7 - in picking up the books. Both crouched down, Junmyeon gives the last book and holds a few papers in his hand, blushing. He places the thin papers on her books and smiles sweetly. “I’m really sorry.”
“That’s okay,” She smiles back, “Thanks for helping, though.”
The girl catches Yixing’s eye, and he can see her tiny smirk. Damn you , he mouths, and she winks and comes to his table. Yixing glares at her, but can’t help his smile. “I hate you so much, Ji, did you know that?”
“Aw, baby, I love you, too.” She chuckles, “Besides, you already know he’s more into boys, even if he’s bi.”
“Yeah, yeah, that doesn’t mean he’ll be into me,” Yixing checks his watch. Mark and Mingyu are ten minutes late. “Where are Double M?”
“Lit class,” Jihye says, takes a bite of Yixing’s burger, and talks with her mouth full. “Shaid- uh, waith-” She chews fast (hand covering her mouth out of habit), and pushes the food to a side. “Mark texted me saying they’ll be about, um, twenty minutes, I think, late.”
Yixing nods and opens his history textbook. Him and Jihye always share their lunch, they aren’t heavy eaters, but like eating frequently. It’s a habit to simultaneously take bites of burgers or anything either of them, and many thought they were dating or something.
Yixing would rather be asked if he was dating Junmyeon, honestly. He wants to hangout with the Korean boy so much, and - as cliche as it sounds - have a ‘hangout’ somewhere and when they’re deep into the conversation, either of them would look and they’d stare at each other for a few seconds before hesitantly leaning in, and softly pressing their lips together, Junmyeon’s hand in Yixing’s hair, Yixing’s arms around Junmyeon’s waist.
The Chinese boy looks at Junmyeon - who is silently eating and nodding as his friend babbles next to him (for school’s top sport team, they sure are silent - or it’s Junmyeon’s effect). His cheeks are fully, he looks cute, and his lips are pink, so - so kissable . God, he wants to kiss those lips and see Junmyeon’s cheeks flush - and all that will be only in front of him. Only in front of his boyfriend .
A sharp pain shoots up from his ribcage, Yixing snaps his head towards Jihye and glares at her grin. “What?”
She nods towards Junmyeon, and when Yixing looks at the direction - crap , Junmyeon’s raising his eyebrow at him.
His cheeks burn from embarrassment, he shakes his head and cover his burning face behind his textbook.
“You’re so obvious, Xing.”
That’s Mingyu. He can be a total ass sometimes.
“I don’t know why he’s taking so much time to approach you, I would if someone keeps staring at me everyday at lunch.” Mark and Mingyu take seats in front of him, Mingyu is grinning while Mark is busy with his phone, probably texting his boyfriend. “That’s endearing and creepy at the same time, you know?”
“Oh really?” Mark looks up at Mingyu, his voice challenging.When Mingyu nods, he turns leans back against the seat - almost slumps - and yells, “Hey, Junmyeon!”
Yixing blushes harder and looks at Junmyeon, the volleyball captain takes a glance at him (Yixing holds his breath for that one second), and nods his head in question.
“What’s it’s like to be stared at?”
Junmyeon almost chokes, and keeps his chopsticks down - seriously though, who eats pasta with chopsticks? - and gulps his food. “Depends,” He yells back, “Is it a girl or a boy?”
Everyone is looking at Mark now, Yixing notices, everyone seems to be curious about the topic. Mark grins - no, no, no, he’s not doing that. No. He’s not. He better not- “Boy!”
He’s getting his ass whipped. Definitely.
Yixing looks at Junmyeon again, irritation bubbling in his chest, but it sort of fades when Junmyeon chuckles. “I’m stuck between three things. 1. Checking me out, 2. Hates me, 3. Thinking about something else and ending up staring at me instead of a wall.”
“Thanks, dude.”
Junmyeon winks; he always does when he’s joking. “Anytime, my friend.”
“Totally the first one.” Jihye whispers into his ear. Yixing elbows her arm, hard. She grunts in pain. Suits her right.
~*~
“I’m surrounded by gay dudes,” Yixing chuckles, “And a straight girl. Where did I go wrong?”
“Probably in the Calculus.” Jihye snorts, laughing loudly. “My humor is so humorous, guys, wish any one of your understood.”
Mark scoffs. “You’re a weirdo, with equally weird humor, I’d rather not understand.”
Yixing chuckles and raises his hand, agreeing. He doesn’t need to look Mingyu to check if he’s raising his hand, too. It’s always like his, three of the four team up against one and have fun while the other suffers - and secretly enjoys it.
The room is silent again, Yixing is reading Korean War (which he doesn’t understand), and the other three are studying something else. They always choose a house to silently study by themselves, sharing a few jokes or thoughts randomly, and sometimes, if the expert of the subject is present, ask questions; and discuss - only if it’s mathematics.
Mark is on the computer chair, legs on the chair and book on his lap, he’s twirling his pencil between his fingers. Mingyu is on the floor, doing mathematics, while him and Jihye are on the bed, Jihye is away from the headboard while he is facing the headboard, marking important dates in the textbook.
Mark’s phone buzzes.
“No texting,” Jihye snaps (Yixing can see her annoyed face). “Tell your boyfriend to text later.”
“We’re just friends , Ji.”
Mingyu coughs a little. “Her bad. Friends with benefit .”
“You know what ,” Mark grunts, “I don’t care what ya’ll think about me and Jinyoung. And, yeah, I told him before I came here-”
Jihye fakes a cough. “And you say you’re not dating.”
“-so it’s either my dad, or Kunpimook.”
Yixing closes his book and gets up, he looks around the room - yeah, definitely needs to clean it. Too many papers, clothes, and useless pieces of wire ( this is why you shouldn’t like cutting small wire into smaller pieces , Yixing tells himself, too much of work later).
Mark stands up, and smiles at Yixing. “It was dad, I gotta go, dudes.”
He leaves with a small salute and purposefully ignores the ‘did you seriously do that?’ look three of them give him. That’s the lamest thing to do. Finger guns are better. Yixing picks up his phone, and opens his texts with Mark.
“Tell him he said ‘ya’ll’ in real life.” Jihye says.
Mingyu hums in agreement. “That makes him a hippie. Don’t forget that.”
Yixing grins. “Already on it. We’re not letting him forget.”
After a while, Mingyu leaves, and Jihye insists on them having a sleepover. Yixing loves his friend a lot, but a sleepover is risky, she’s very good in making him do things without even realizing, and now that she is aware of his crush, the risk has increased. He does not want to text - or call, or anything, honestly - Junmyeon at the middle of night.
Jihye abruptly leaves the room, and Yixing follows her, almost slipping on the stairs.
“Mr. Zhang, can I sleepover, please?”
Yixing manages to stop himself before he crashes onto the coffee table and shakes his head furiously. “You’re not sleeping over!”
There is a moment of silence in the room, his dad looks amused, while his mother is embracing their ‘sibling-like’ fight again.
Jihye pouts - and as adorable as that is, he is not buying it. Jihye’s an evil little witch with cute face. She turns around and clings onto his mother, whining cutely. “Mrs. Zhaaannnggg , please, please, please, can I sleepover here? No funny businesses, promise .”
Jihye has been his best friend since Yixing has moved here, his mother considers her as her daughter, while his dad enjoys her company and knows about Jihye’s family very well - that’s why she isn’t being questioned about her interests, why she’d like to sleepover and other embarrassing things.
His mother has already bought the pout and whining, he can already tell. His mother hugs Jihye from side and pats her cheek. “Keep your promise, Jihye-ah.”
Yixing groans. It’s going to be a hell of Friday night.
~*~
“Let’s talk about boys!” Jihye whispers, “It’s been, like, so long I haven’t rambled about boys.”
They’re both snuggled up with fluffy blankets on Yixing’s bed, the door is closed but his parents can barge in any time, so it’s safer to whisper-talk. Yixing yawns a little, and nods his head. It’s 1:10 AM, he’s tired, but apparently, Jihye isn’t.
“Okay, so, you know boys are jerks, right? Many are, at least. Then, there are exceptions like boys in my lit class, you, Mark, Junmyeon - and no, Mingyu is a jerk, he’s not in the list.” They both giggle a little. “But, the problem is their asses. Literally . Like, have you seen their butts? So cute, little butts they have.”
“I know, right?”
“Have you seen Yugyeom’s butt? And, and, William - he’s in my lit class - and his gang’s butts? So. Cute . Damn, I’d slap that every time he’d pass by if I could.”
Yixing chuckles. “You’re obsessed with butts.”
“It’s chill,” Jihye giggles. “Boy-butts are adorable, they’re so small. And, honestly? Girls with small butts are cute, too.”
“You said you’d ramble about boys, Ji.”
His statement is ignored completely. “Have you seen Junmyeon’s butt? He’s got the cutest butt, like, the jeans he wears - especially the one he wore today made his butt look cuter than usual. I felt like if I gave his butt a kiss it’d giggle like a small kid.”
“That’s gross!”
“But it’s so cute!”
“You’re comparisons are getting worse every day.”
Jihye salutes and winks at him. “Thanks.”
~*~
When they’re in the locker room, after two great hours of soccer, Yixing notices that Junmyeon’s butt is cute. It’s small, like Jihye said, and it looks soft.
Yixing wonders if he got to squeeze it, and just have his hand on it every day, 24/7 he wouldn’t get tired of it. Probably.
“Now you’re staring at my ass, too.” Junmyeon’s laugh echoes a little. “We gotta talk.”
‘We gotta talk’ sounds very serious, but it’s not a scary one. Like - like they’re going to talk about flowers or something. Or something, probably.
Yixing nods, gulps the lump in his throat and closes his locker, not daring to look at Junmyeon. His shoulders are tense, it feels as though someone has put tonnes of weight on them, his stomach is churning - with either excitement or fear, he curls his toes a little, feels the nerve pull hard and lets it go.
A warm hand holds his shoulder, his heartbeat is faster, and a thumb starts rolling on his shoulder blades, massaging the muscles there. “You’re super tense.”
“Y-yeah, I don’t usually play soccer for two hours straight.”
Junmyeon chuckles. “That explains.”
“You’re tense, too, dude,” He turns around and grins at the shorter boy, his heart pounding against his chest, and oh God, does he want to make-out with Junmyeon right now. “Also, you sort of suck at soccer.”
“ That ’s why I’m not in the team.”
It’s weird how he can talk to Junmyeon right now, without any stuttering, without feeling like he’ll explode because of the overwhelming feelings, without feeling like he wants to scream.
Actually, no, remove the last one. He does want to scream. He wants to scream and tell Junmyeon how much he likes him and his ass - literally - and ask him out on dates so they have start dating and be cute as hell, and make the other couples jealous.
“I’d rather dribble and smash the ball, it’s so hard to kick while you’re trying to run.”
Yixing laughs softly. “You run, stop a little, and then kick. You’re going to fall over if you run and try to kick.”
“That’s dangerous, how the hell can you stop when you’re running so fast!”
“That’s why soccer is a skill .”
Junmyeon sighs, rolling his eyes a little, but he smiles nevertheless. “My bad, man, my bad.”
They continue to talk, Yixing anxiously waits for Junmyeon to ask why he’s been staring at his butt every time there is a moment of silence, but, surprisingly, Junmyeon doesn’t. The volleyball captain asks about his classes, how they’re going, if he has any tests, what video games does he like, asks for some new video game suggestions, and finally, when they’re leaving, Junmyeon calls him.
“Y-yeah?”
“We should, uh, we should hangout, sometime. Maybe?”
Yixing grins. “Totally.”
“See you tomorrow then, bye, dude.”
The captain waves at him as he leaves, and Yixing has to stand in a corner to wait and let himself calm down, and his burning face to cool. Thank God soccer was during the last two periods, or he’d have been late for his classes.
~*~
“You,” Jihye has the amused look on her face - the dirty amused one, which means she’s thinking of something dirty. “Will hangout with Junmyeon, sometime .”
“Yes, and it’s totally, hands down, friends hanging-out.”
Yixing takes a large bite of her burger and ignores eye-contact. That’d lead to cheeks burning from shyness and embarrassment, because he may or may not have had thought about it being non-friendly ‘hanging-out’ and squealed internally - and did all the Jihye stuff. And she totally knows that. She’s probably a psychic.
“Yixing.”
He chews his food harder, almost chokes and gulps down chunks of water.
“ Zhang .”
“That’d be me?”
She narrows her eyes, mischievous grin widening. “Zhang Yixing.”
“Precisely me, Cho Jihye.”
“Did you get a boner ?” Her eyes are wide, curiosity obvious in them, and she’s not even freaking whispering .
“Boner?”
Yixing chokes, holds his neck and tries to gulp the food which is trying to come out. He doesn’t notice the warm, familiar hand on his back, rubbing up and down, concerned - and a pair of evily satisfied - eyes, and the warmth of attention till he has downed his water bottle.
“You all good, Yixing?”
He nods, holds himself before he can melt from Junmyeon’s warmth, and gestures the volleyball captain to take a seat. Which ends up being next to him. Damn it. They could totally hold hands below the table.
“You guys were talking about boners during lunch,” Junmyeon chuckles, “Food-friendly topic.”
“We were talking about friendly stuff, actually.” Jihye smirks, “Which turned non-friendly.”
Yixing blushes a little. He doesn’t know what to talk about, and he’d rather listen to Junmyeon talk rather than talk over him, because Junmyeon has a singer-like voice - not that Yixing has heard a louder shower-singer named Kim Junmyeon in locker room. Nope. Nothing like that.
“That’s understandable. You were saying: boners?”
Jihye nods. “Yes, this friend of mine here,” she points at Yixing, “Is shiest when it comes to the boner topic. Trying to get him comfortable, ya’know?”
Yixing, saving himself from the embarrassment, takes out his phone, opens his messages with Jihye and sends: u used yk, irl. what a hip .
And her glare is satisfying.
Junmyeon nods, gulps the food in his mouth down and looks at him, smiling sweetly. “You seriously are shy?”
“She’s kidding .”
Jihye laughs, too loud for Yixing’s liking. “I’m teening .”
~*~
Junmyeon needs help in his Chinese, and Yixing is a Chinese; and he tries his very, very best to say ‘you don’t make sense; you’re drunk, Junmyeon, go home.’ but fails terribly. Whatever Junmyeon says makes so much sense - and he didn’t even know you could take up Chinese as your second language in this school, what the hell - but there is no point in it now, he’s already said that he wouldn’t mind teaching his crush his mother tongue and act like a scholar in it, and mentally freak out, because let’s admit: Kim Junmyeon has charms, undeniably handsome charms.
And, Yixing notices, he’s coming to his house in two hours. Damn it, his room isn’t even clean for Yixing to enter.
He realizes he could’ve avoided this situation, because even Mark’s Chinese, Minghao (Mingyu’s new boyfriend - who, Yixing bets, will last for three months minimum) is Chinese too. Damnit, damnit, damnit.
And, Mingyu might be here in any minute - he’s late too - they could split up and finish cleaning before they get to working on their History homework. Yes, that works. That’s better, too, actually.
The doorbell rings, and Yixing snorts. Mingyu’s definitely not getting the cake. He expects hurrying footsteps coming to his room, and a clumsy Mingyu to open the door while panting and see Yixing with a book on his lap, a messy room, and game in the mobile very soon.
Except, that’s not what he gets. The whole house - or his room, at least - is silent, and a second later, his mother is calling him. “Yixing, your friend Junmyeon’s here!”
His heartbeat drops for a millisecond, and then goes hyper. Right, today’s Friday. It’s today, not tomorrow. Right, crap; why him?
He scrambles on his feet — after carefully closing the game and keeping it on the textbook — and desperately tries to tidy his mess of a room as much as he can before Junmyeon comes. Which is in three seconds. And he clears only a t-shirt - by taking it from the floor to throwing it in the open closet.
There is a knock on the door. Wow, people knock these days? Or I just don’t know because Cho Jihye has no manners?
Second one, definitely the second one. He hasn’t forgot how he was still naked — he wasn’t even wearing his boxers — and she barged in, groaning about her periods and how they should stop being melodramatic. Yixing chuckles to himself and clears his throat. “Come in.”
No, wait, shit, the room. The. Freaking. Room.
Before he can scream out a no, Junmyeon has already opened the door, and his amused smile does things to Yixing’s heart.
“Uh, hi.”
Junmyeon laughs. “Hey. Your room’s… nice .”
“Commentary is unwelcomed here.”
“Is that so?” Junmyeon steps in and closes the door behind him. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s chill.”
Yixing drops his gaze on the papers - some crumpled, some freshly ironed - and clothes on the floor. It’d definitely soft, they could get down (literally) and get all comfy between them, and maybe share kisses. And do the sweet talk, do stuff which boyfriends do. Holding hands, kissing, cuddling, hugging-
“Yixing?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sit on the bed, I’ll- I’ll clean up a little bit?”
Junmyeon bobs his head, scanning through the messy room. “Sure.”
Yixing feels a little embarrassment creep up his cheeks, but he guesses even Junmyeon’s room is like this — if not messier. Because, Junmyeon is a sportsman. They’re always messy… right? Oh God, please let them be messy .
As he starts picking up the clothes and throwing them right into his closet, he can feel Junmyeon’s eyes boring into his back, he can feel the pressure of a pair of eyes on his shoulder and he’s scared - or just not ready - to look at Junmyeon and ask why’s he’s staring.
He stares at Junmyeon, Junmyeon doesn’t ask why he’s staring. It’s probably just his thing, or he doesn’t know what to do.
“You know,” He says, throwing the final shirt of a side of the room into the closet, “You could start studying and, like, ask me when you need help, or something like that?”
“Hm.” Is all Junmyeon says, but it takes off the pressure, and Yixing takes the fresh papers, keeps them next to his book on the table, and stands there for a second, thinking about how better his room looks right now.
It’s only half cleaned, but it looks good — handsome, even. He should do this often: cleaning the room and making it look handsome like him. Him and his room could even be mistaken for couples!
“You really thought I wanted help with Chinese?”
Yixing jerks forward, heart pounding against his chest, heartbeat audible in his ears, he leans against the nearest wall, hands curled into new fists — he just doesn’t bring them forward to punch Junmyeon.
“They don’t even take English seriously, Yixing.”
I know, Yixing whines in his head, but I- something happened- I don’t even know why I said okay in the first place .
Junmyeon leans in, his face in centimeters away from Yixing’s, and oh God, they could totally kiss right now. Junmyeon smirks, “You’re so innocent.”
“J-J-Jihye would disagree.”
“She doesn’t know my perspective,” Junmyeon leans closer, their noses almost touching. Even though Junmyeon is shorter than Yixing, his confidence balances his shortness perfectly. “Nor I care for that.”
Yixing smiles awkwardly. Honestly, he had dreamt about this sort of situations, but he wasn’t expecting it to be real so soon, he hadn’t even thought of what sexy things he would say.
“I like you.”
Yixing wants to scream, but Junmyeon’s lips are pressed against his, and it’d be rude to push him away and scream. (Read: also because he likes Junmyeon’s lips against his).
It’s a short kiss, neither of their bodies move, but there isn’t any too much of distance between their bodies so it’s not even awkward. Yixing’s heart is pounding so hard and so loud, he thinks Junmyeon can hear it, too. Before Yixing can move his arms to Junmyeon’s waist - or neck, anywhere - to continue the kiss, Junmyeon breaks the kiss, panting very slightly and smiling shyly.
It’s Junmyeon who wraps his arms around Yixing’s waist, and his bottom lip is sucked between his teeth. “So…?”
Yixing smiles, equally shy, and ducks his head a little — only to connect their foreheads. God, it feels like some movie thing to do. But, he gets why people like it. It feels nice, his stomach is stirring, and there are tickles bubbling in his chest.
“I… um, I like- I like you, too.”
~*~
Mark and Jinyoung are finally a thing. Jihye and him groan out a finally when Mark announced it, and got their heads smacked.
“Double M’s dating.” Jihye sighs, “We’re left, Yixing.”
Mark and Mingyu chuckle, and Yixing shifts nervously. “No, actually.”
He cringes, closes his eyes, tight, and waits for the volcano to erupt. But, it doesn’t. He feels a hand on his back, hears a soft chuckle and a loud laugh — which is not what he expected.
“Finally,” Jihye is still wheezing like a dog as she talks, “Your dumbass took so long to tell me about your first gay relationship!”
He opens his eyes, and is greeted by the whole volleyball and basketball team laughing and smiling at them, and Junmyeon is next to him, his nose on Yixing’s shoulder, which gives him a giddy feeling. But, the attention he’s getting is making him shy — and sort of embarrassed.
~*~
“Who is that kid?”
Yixing splutters on his coffee a little, coughs and looks at his dad with a confused look. “Which kid?”
“Korean kid. What was his name, again? Jun… Jun-something.”
Yixing tries not to roll his eyes. “Junmyeon.”
“Yeah, him. What do you guys study for three hours straight?”
Make-out, kiss, cuddle, play video games. There aren’t any books — except for the sports magazine Junmyeon likes to collect . Yixing chuckles a little, half at his thoughts, half at the question. “Chinese, dad. He’s failing bad in them. And, I guess, we’re close enough for him to feel comfortable at our house?”
“You don’t have an option of Chinese in your school,” His mother pipes in, wiping her wet hands on the apron, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She still looks pretty. “Or did they suddenly change the system?”
Yixing shakes his head, smiling. “No, he’s taking extra classes — I don’t know what it’s called, but he’s having difficult even there, so I’m helping him out.”
Both his parents smile at him, proud. Yixing does feel bad for lying to them, but it’s only for a while. Till he’s independent enough to live for months if he gets kicked out.