Chapter Text
This is just another case of why one should not trust Park Woojin.
Don’t get Jihoon wrong – he loves his friend. Woojin is one the a few people that can handle Jihoon at his best and his worst (though the line is blurred most of the time) from the first day of middle school until they are about to graduate high school in less than three months. Six years is a long time, and an ample time to do many stupid things especially when you are growing boys – and Jihoon definitely cannot afford to lose Woojin as a friend now because he just knows too much.
Jihoon would like to believe that the relationship is mutual because he, too, has more dirt on Woojin than one could imagine.
He thinks that is the reason why they click so well together – because while Woojin calls Jihoon a two-faced bastard on daily basis, Jihoon can actually list all the mischiefs, pranks and occasionally borderline sabotage that Woojin has committed under his awkward, prim student council representative pretence.
And that’s why Jihoon is sure that something is up right now just by looking at Woojin’s face.
“What did you do to my phone, you sick bastard?”
Woojin snorts exaggeratedly, another tell-tale sign that Jihoon is all too familiar with. “What do you mean, I was just keeping it safe while waiting for the owner to come and collect it because the owner is a careless idiot?”
Jihoon hisses at the slander, while his fingers slide and tap at various apps to check the possible damage done by his friend. There is no new conversation started on his Kakao Tallk – though Woojin probably has deleted it – and no suspicious posts on his Facebook profile either so he has nothing much to indict Woojin with.
“I told you I did nothing! Your phone is locked with a password anyway,” Woojin insists. It is a chilly November night, and even with his padding he would very much like to return to the comfort of heating in his house rather than standing in front of the gate talking to Jihoon.
“You know my password from that one time I was stupid enough to give it to you!” Jihoon rebuts.
“There wasn’t just one time that you were stupid, Park Jihoon,” Woojin sighs dramatically just to agitate his friend. “It’s fucking cold, I’m going inside, see your stupid face tomorrow at school.”
Jihoon kicks Woojin on the shin in response before turning on his heels to go home, having to assume that everything is alright and Woojin is probably less shitty than Jihoon thought he is.
However, it turns out that Park Woojin is definitely the shittiest person Park Jihoon has ever met in his 18 years of living.
And he finds this out at 4 am when he is finally done with his nth Overwatch game of the night and is about to finally go to bed after checking his phone once.
There is an unfamiliar icon on the notification bar, a round-edged square with a circle inside – and Jihoon slides the bar downwards to see the notification.
realdefdanik: heyy
Who the fuck is realdefdanik? And Jihoon has not used Instagram for almost a year now after the disaster that was when some girls from his school – and subsequently other schools - found out his account and he got a mass influx of followers and comments on his photos and not to mention the direct messages that he did not even bother to read. He has set the account to private then, though it did nothing to the followers he gained before the change and deleted all his photos except for one - a random white puppy he found on his way home. He remembers deleting all the messages, too – and setting the notification for Instagram to be off on his phone.
This is probably one of the stupid decisions that Jihoon has made - and acknowledged – he should have deleted the account all together.
realdefdanik: asleep?
realdefdanik: oh its nearly 4 you must be asleep
realdefdanik: good morning when you read this in the morning then :)
Jihoon wants to barf.
Yet – another stupid decision in making – he taps the notification, anyway, assuring himself that it is only so that the annoying notification will go away. The messages pops up and he springs up to a sitting position, eyes widened at the messages displayed.
Yesterday 8:56 pm
hi
im jihoonie
wanna go for a with date me
Today 3:59 am
heyy
asleep?
oh its nearly 4 you must be asleep
good morning when you read this in the morning then :)
Park Woojin is so fucking dead tomorrow and he will not rest in peace.
oh you are not asleep
or did I wake you up
sorry cutie :(
Now Jihoon just wants to kill himself, instead.
wtf
who you calling cutie
fuck off
He should not have replied, the guy probably will go away if he just ignores him for a while – but Jihoon, unfortunately, has always been a bit short-tempered for his own good. He immediately comes with something better, though - he should block the guy instead and devise a plan to murder Park Woojin the first thing tomorrow.
Yet, another message appears.
why, you are a cutie in all your photos
and to answer your question
yes I’d like to go on a date
;)
Jihoon immediately goes to his profile because there should not be any fucking photos of himself – but there are. Loads of them, in fact. Most of them are cropped from two-shots with Woojin and some other friends, or in some cases his friends’ faces are covered by some stickers; which really makes it look like Jihoon an attention-seeking narcissist.
The icon of the direct messages appears again on the notification bar.
realdefdanik: you go to Seoul Art eh? I know that uniform heh
realdefdanik: I’ll pick you up for that date :)
There goes Jihoon’s plan to block the guy because what is the point if the guy will just come and find him at school, anyway? His next plan is to explain nicely to the guy about the whole misunderstanding and hope that the guy has some empathy in his bones, unlike someone he once referred to as his friend, commonly known as Park Woojin.
hey look
im sorry but this is a misunderstanding
my former friend hacked the acc and messaged you
so as you might guess
i don’t really want to go on a date w you
It takes some time for the guy to reply, and Jihoon is curious enough to wait so he proceeds to check the guy’s profile – after setting his profile on private again and deleting all the photos Woojin has posted. The guy’s profile is pretty much a haphazard of selfies in similar filters, alternating with some videos. It seems like the guy is quite popular, if one is basing that on the followers count.
96.12.10 Kang Daniel
“A foreigner?” Jihoon muses to himself. Daniel is not a common name, yet from the messages, it does not seem like the guy is a foreigner. He does not look like a foreigner, too, Jihoon thinks as he taps open some of the selfies.
By Park Jihoon’s standard, Kang Daniel is kind of cute himself, actually.
Jihoon catches himself and closes the profile immediately. He lies down again, deciding that he can just read Daniel’s replies tomorrow as they could not be more important than the sleep that he should be getting on a school night.
Right before he puts down his phone, though - the replies come.
realdefdanik: i see
realdefdanik: got it then
A relieved sigh escapes from Jihoon’s mouth, thanking the gods above that Kang Daniel is fortunately not some asshole set to ruin his peaceful school life. He slides the notifications right to make them disappear from the bar and puts the phone next to his pillow; a bad habit he never seems to outgrow.
Jihoon is just about to close his eyes when he notices the LED blinks on top of his phone, indicating yet another notification. Again, curiosity wins over the desire to get enough sleep – at this rate, he is going to get barely 3 hours anyway – and he reaches for the phone.
realdefdanik: still want to go for that date w you tho
There is only so much that Jihoon can deal for a night and this is pushing it. He slides the notification off, locks the screen and shoves the phone underneath his pillow; there is always tomorrow to deal with shit.
It has been quite sometime since Jihoon last used non-prescription glasses to school because past experience has taught him that the usage of the glasses, for some reason that is still a mystery to him, make the girls bother him by 529% more than usual and Jihoon very much wants to avoid that. However, the state of his eyes when he wakes up (woken up by his mother, to be precise) at 7 in the morning gives him no choices but to wear something as a cover or people will think he has undergone something tragic overnight.
Oh well, taking into account of the sorry case of Kang ‘realdefdanik’ Daniel, that is not really an overstatement.
Jihoon makes it to his class after escaping some skirt-wearing schoolmates who peer at his glasses enthusiastically with apologetic-sounding “sorry, I’m late” and apologetic-looking smile, 10 minutes before the first bell (which is by his quick calculation) should be ample time to scream at Park Woojin about the misery that his former friend has purposely instigated.
Woojin has his head buried in the fold of his arms on the desk when Jihoon slams his bag on the adjacent desk. It aggravates Jihoon to see Woojin resting when Jihoon is the one losing sleep over his stupid prank. He shoves Woojin’s shoulder, preparing himself to fire streams of all the swear words known to mankind at the boy but when Woojin lifts his head, all the profanity stops at the tips of his tongue.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asks instead, ogling at Woojin’s reddish eyes that are far worse than his own. “Did you even get any sleep, stupid?”
“I was about to when you shoved me, you dickhead,” Woojin croaks in response, and proceeds to clear his dry throat.
“I mean, last night! As if you can sleep through Seokhoon-ssaem’s class!” Jihoon is indignant. “Shit, Park Woojin, what the fuck happened?”
Woojin rests his aching head on the desk again, only now he is looking at Jihoon through half-opened eyes.
“The usual. You know there’s only one thing that despairs me in this otherwise beautiful life.”
His friend says it in mock whimsy but Jihoon gets it at once and turns around to look at the subject of the talk. It is always the same doe-eyed boy that sits across the room that woes Woojin; the boy who is now talking animatedly with his desk mates without any care of the world. Jihoon has no personal animosity with Ahn Hyungseob – in fact, they are quite close with Woojin as the common link – but at the moment, it is pretty infuriating to see Hyungseob’s carefree smile after the sight of Woojin’s swollen eyes.
“Do you need intervention? Should I go talk to him?”
Woojin jolts up at the suggestion, successfully startling Jihoon. He shakes his head adamantly, looking completely aghast just at the thought of it. “Don’t ever. You’ll make it worse, god, no.”
Jihoon has never considered himself as petty but that slightly offends him. He would like to think that he is not that bad of a mediator. He is matured in thoughts when his short temper does not interfere with his actions, and it is not like he has never been in relationships too – he might not yet be well-versed on the real problem with Hyungseob and Woojin but surely talking with and listening to both sides will help.
Perhaps the discontent shows more apparent on Jihoon’s face than he intended to, that Woojin immediately tries to appease him.
“It’s nothing much; just me saying the wrong things again and him being all dramatic about it – nothing worth your intervention at all,” he says earnestly, squeezing Jihoon’s hand in assurance for a second before letting go at once.
Jihoon sighs, deciding to let the matter go. He rummages his bag for the things he needs for the class, though from the corner of his eyes he can see Woojin staring at Hyungseob past his head.
“Just because your love life is messed up, that doesn’t give you right to mess up mine too, Park Woojin,” he mutters pointedly.
“Oh, Kang Daniel is your love life now? That escalates quicker that I wished it would.”
Jihoon almost breaks his neck as he turns his head swiftly towards Woojin, baring his non-existent fangs at the mere idea – but Woojin is finally grinning, and it makes Jihoon feel quite relieved that he decides against putting Woojin into a headlock as he had originally intended.
And – as if being summoned – Jihoon’s phone vibrates against the table and notifications appear on the screen in succession.
realdefdanik: still want to go for that date w you tho
realdefdanik: good morning cutie :) hope you have a great day at school :)
Jihoon groans and slams his head on the table, while Woojin gasps next to him, muttering “oh my god, I can’t believe this” over and over again. Yes, Jihoon does not really want to believe it either but it seems like in these few last months in high school, another task has come up for him - and that is to get rid of Kang Daniel, from his direct messages, and from his life altogether.
This is just another case of why one should not trust Park Woojin, ever.