Chapter Text
Jaebum walked out of the Janitor's closet with his phone in his pocket, earbuds in, and a mop in its bucket in his hands. As a young Janitor at the college, he knew a lot of students looked at him wondering how he ended up with that kind of job. He had dropped out of high school years before, but his mother insisted he needed to make some kind of money and move out of the house soon, so he searched for any job he could that didn't require having to go back to high school. This job didn't have the best salary in the world, but he knew if he used the money wisely and saved it up, he would be able to get a small apartment and move out.
Jaebum walked along the halls, mopping the floors as he hummed along to his music. He had completely forgotten to put some kind of warning of the wet floors, so when he suddenly heard a loud thub behind him, he ripped out his earbuds and turned around. There behind him, a student, who must've stayed after his classes to study in the library or something had slipped because of the wet floors. Jaebum rushed over to help him, careful not to slip himself.
"I am so so sorry, are you okay?" Jaebum said, helping the other stand up.
"I'm fine, just clumsy I guess." the student replied.
When the other looked at Jaebum, he noticed how young he looked. Jaebum looked into the other's eyes and felt his heart begin to pick up the pace. He completely disregarded the other's confused expression as he stared at him for a few seconds, until one question snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Why are you mopping the floors, you're definitely too young to be a janitor."
"Oh, I volunteered to when I heard the Janitor was out sick." Jaebum quickly said, hoping his lie wasn't obvious.
"Oh, that's really nice of you." the other said with a wide smile, "I'm Yugyeom, I'm a Junior here."
"It's nice to meet you Yugyeom, I'm a senior here." Jaebum lied as he shook the other's hand.
Yugyeom smiled at Jaebum, wondering how he hasn't seen him around at least even once. He was pretty sure if he was a senior, he would've seen him at one of the parties his friend, Mark, was always dragging him to. Maybe he wasn't a party person? No, he didn't seem like the type who'd skip a good party to stay in his dorm to study for an upcoming test. Maybe he just never got invited to one? No, someone would've wanted someone like him to come.
"Hey, why haven't I seen you around here much?" Yugyeom asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Oh, I have the night classes, but I came today during the day because I had left something in the library last night when I went to go print a couple things for a project."
"That's cool, what are you studying to be?"
Jaebum bit his lip, not sure of a profession he'd wanted to be in. Honestly, he just wanted to live carefree and get by without needing school. He never thought he'd get asked this question, but he knew for sure he couldn't say "I don't know" as this was college, not high school.
"I wanna be a web designer." he said quickly.
"Oh cool! I'm studying to be software developer. I guess we're sort of in the same line of work, huh?" Yugyeom said with a soft laugh.
Jaebum returned the soft laugh and nodded. Suddenly, Yugyeom's phone went off. Taking it out of his pocket, he looked at the text and groaned.
"Mark is waiting for me, I'll catch you later. Oh, one question."
"Yeah?'
"Are you coming to Mark's party this weekend?"
"Yeah, meet me at the bubble tea shop tomorrow and tell me where it's at!" Jaebum said with a wide smile.
With a nod and a wide smile in return, Yugyeom ran off to go with Mark. Jaebum's smile slowly faded as he realized what he had agreed to. He, the janitor, going to a student's party. He knew people would be judging, or he'd probably kill the party, but he really wanted to hang out with Yugyeom, as he seemed like a nice guy. Slamming the mop into the bucket and putting his earbuds back in, Jaebum moved to another area of the school to continue working. He was angry with himself for lying, but he also felt deep down inside he would've sounded a bit cooler if he admitted he dropped out of high school.
Yugyeom ran out of the building and hopped in Mark's car. Mark, jokingly muttering a "finally" earned a smack on the arm from Yugyeom, who was throwing his bag in the backseat. Once he had put on his seatbelt, Mark began driving to a nearby convenience store.
"What took you so long?" Mark asked curiously.
"I slipped on a wet floor and a guy helped me up and we talked and-" Yugyeom was cut off my Mark's sudden teasing.
"Oh so Yuggie got himself a boyfriend?" Mark said, bursting out laughing.
"It's not like that!" Yugyeom said, blushing.
Mark continued to laugh as he pulled into the parking lot, Yugyeom pouting softly. Mark parked the car and turned to Yugyeom.
"Hey, I'm just kidding, but be honest, did you think he was hot."
Yugyeom's face was now completely red. Mark chuckled softly, waiting for a response from the other.
"I want Oreos." Yugyeom said quickly getting out of the car.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Mark said, getting out of the car and running after the younger one.
Yugyeom never did answer Mark's question, but in his head he kept thinking about Jaebum, and the more he thought about him, the more he realized, he was pretty hot. He did have some kind of punk vibe to him. Yugyeom wasn't usually into that, but something about Jaebum made his heart pound at the thought of him. Maybe it was how nice he was? He was still excited to see him the next day, however, he wasn't too sure if he was excited to be at a party with him as they are two completely different people at parties. Yugyeom liked to stay away from the crowd until Mark had convinced him to start dabbing in the middle of the room, while he thought Jaebum would be the type to be completely drunk and wild, which always seemed to be the type of person who was the life of the party.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Mark practically yell "Aye Jackson" besides him. Holding his many bags of Oreos, Yugyeom turned around to also greet Jackson. Jackson walked up to them and began to talk, the three stood there in the isle with the candy talking, enjoying themselves. Then, Mark suddenly brought up how Yugyeom met a guy after slipping on a wet floor at school.
"Wow, that sounds like the beginning of a cheesy love story in a horribly written fan fiction." Jackson teased.
Mark burst out laughing, and for some reason, Yugyeom began laughing too, although it wasn't completely funny to him. He just laughed because of Jackson's reaction, as he knew that was a typical reaction of his. Of course, it wasn't long before Jackson began teasingly asking about the guy Yugyeom met. Yugyeom tried hard to hide his blushing face. After a couple minutes, they went their separate ways, and Yugyeom was now resembling a tomato, holding at least 5 bags of mini Oreos in his arms. After they checked out and were on their way back to Mark's place to hang out for a bit, Yugyeom continued to think of Jaebum while nibbling on his Oreos.
'I wonder... if he feels the same way towards me like I do.' Yugyeom thought to himself, just before they pulled up to the building Mark's dorm was located in.