Work Text:
Sungyoon dodges the flying arrow heading towards his table. The arrow slightly grazes his left side before falling slowly to the tiles below him. He retrieves the object, brushing off the invisible dust and putting it on the table. Upon the closer look, he finds that it is a wooden arrow with two heads on each opposing sides. The heads are actually heart shapes too. Sungyoon thinks he sees it somewhere but cannot recall.
He hears someone jogs to his table and lifts up his head. Jangjun smiles sheepishly at him.
"That's mine, hyung," he points to the arrow on sungyoon's table.
Sungyoon follows Jangjun's fingers, "Ah, figure that you will bring a toy to school," he nonchalantly says.
Jangjun mock gapes at Sungyoon, "Hyung, this is not just a toy. Let me educate you," he brings his right hand to his chest, nodding his head while showing his determination face. He then sits on the vacant seat across from Sungyoon.
"I don't want to though," Sungyoon pushes the arrow to Jangjun.
"Believe me you want to know. It's fun," Jangjun grins at him.
Sungyoon heaves a sigh, "Okay then, please enlighten me about the object that I don't care about."
Jangjun pouts before his expression brightens, eager to tell Sungyoon the story behind the arrow, "Do you know Doraemon?"
"Will you leave me alone if I say I don't know him?" Sungyoon picks his forgotten chopstick.
"So you do know!" Sungyoon groans and Jangjun stays on his seat, "now this, hyung, belongs to Doraemon."
"O..kayyyyy.."
"Well, not really, Jaehyun bought it in Japan when he visited for vacation," Jangjun corrects himself.
"..."
"But this really belongs to Doraemon. This is one of his magic objects," Jangjun makes a gesture of twirling an invisible wand. He glances at an unamused Sungyoon.
"..."
"..."
"Continue."
"Right! So this hyung, is an abekonbe. The Abekonbe is a gadget that resembles an arrow with two heads on each opposing sides. It is used to reverse or 'turn' an object's function, position or action. ... The word "Abekonbe" is probably based on the word "Abe Kobe" which means "opposite" or "other way around," Jangjun gives his insight about the object.
"You studies the origin, you-"
"I searched it on google."
"-must be looking up on the internet before. I know it."
"Yeah, even I memorize them better than everything I learn in school," Jangjun shrugs, "Anyway, hyung. This object also makes people do or say the opposite thing."
Sungyoon unconsciously leans forward. The abekonbe starts to pique his interest, "Like what?"
"Let me show you," Jangjun picks the arrow and places it briefly on his head.
"You're handsome, hyung," Jangjun says after he puts back the abekonbe on the table.
Sungyoon blinks. Did Jangjun just say that he is handsome?
"What are you talking about? You said I am handsome don-," Sungyoon pauses when he remembers, "wait. It is the opposite so you mean I am ugly?"
Jangjun bursts into laughter, his voice loud and rings on the crowded cafeteria, "I didn't say it. You said it yourself."
"You little," Sungyoon lifts his hand to hit Jangjun, but Jangjun already rises from his seat, his hand quickly taking the abekonbe.
"See you, hyung!" He runs from Sungyoon's table and goes back to his own table where he sits with his friends.
Sungyoon glares at Jangjun's retreating figure. Then he shakes his head at how he reacts to Jangjun.
He fixes his posture then starts eating his lunch. He bites the egg roll, trying to hide how the edge of his lips quirks.
Jangjun always successes to make him smile.
¤
Sungyoon yawns and closes his book. His classes for the day are finished and he can go home. He groans when he cranes his neck and hears a 'crack'.
He packs his belonging, putting his notes and a pen inside, zipping the bag closes after he makes sure he does not forget anything.
It is 10 p.m. and he just left the Academy Center. He is a senior now, he needs to study more. Seriously.
He fishes out his phone from his pocket, untangles the attached earphone and presses the sleep button. The reminder that his phone runs in low battery greets him.
"Aish," he grumbles incoherent words when he remembers that he forgot to charge his phone before school.
He sighs in defeat, putting his earphone on both of his ears. He will just pretend to listen to music so people don't approach him. Not that someone will go to him. He is a loner wherever he goes.
Well, except someone.
The first thing comes to his mind about this someone is his blinding smile. The way his nose scrunches up when he laughs and throws jokes with his friends. The mischievous glint in his eyes when he pranks people. The endless bunch of unique knowledge he gives to people who he forces to listen to. How he always jumps in excitement about anything.
The memory about their first meeting makes him snort.
The first time Sungyoon met him, Jangjun almost split his head open. He had been playing football with his friends in cafeteria. A real ball. In cafeteria. While Sungyoon was just enjoying his lunch in solitude on his table.
It went like this. Precisely half an hour before the lunch break ended, Jangjun entered the place with his friends. They were passing the ball from one to another, some of them making noises as if they were a comentator. Jangjun got the ball then he started to juggle the ball on his knee, showing off his ability to his friends. They were cheering for Jangjun.
However, the ball slipped down to his foot and by instinct Jangjun kicked it hard.
To where Sungyoon was peacefully eating his meal.
"Watch out!" Jangjun screamed his warning.
Sungyoon looked up to see what happened but got hit by a ball instead. He fell from his seat and then everything was black.
He woke up to a face in front of him.
"Wha-"
"Thank God, you are alive!" The person shook Sungyoon's shoulders.
"It hurts."
"I am sorry. Are you feeling okay? Should I call the nurse? I am so sorry, can you see how many fingers?" The person thrust his fingers on Sungyoon's face.
"I am fine. And 5."
The person sighs in relief, "Thank God."
"But who are you? And where am I?" Sungyoon gazed at his surrounding. He himself was laying on a cotton bed.
"You are in the clinic and I am Jangjun," Jangjun offered his hand. Sungyoon only glanced at it.
"Why am I here?"
Jangjun scratched his neck while smiling guiltily, "My ball hit you then you blacked out and here you are."
Sungyoon's memory about what happened to him in cafeteria came flooding his mind.
"Ah. So you were playing with the ball in the cafeteria and it hit me?"
"Accidentally, yes, hehe.." Jangjun made a peace sign.
Sungyoon looked at Jangjun intently before he nodded, "Okay. Yeah. Whatever," he then sat on the bed and carefully rose from the bed. He almost exited the room before he turned at Jangjun, "do you know where 2-2 is? This is my first day and I only know the direction from my class to cafeteria and vice versa."
Jangjun's eyes lit up in joy, happy that he could assist the new student. He should be responsible for his action too. And maybe they could be friends.
Jangjun proceeded to chatter on Sungyoon's ears anything he knew about the school on their way back to Sungyoon's class.
True enough, Jangjun tried to make Sungyoon his friend. He realized that Sungyoon stayed away from the crowd and did not care about talking with other people.
He asked Sungyoon about his head the next day and days after until Sungyoon finally responded to him and told him to go away. Jangjun dismissed Sungyoon's refusal and still approached him every day to have a conversation.
Jangjun would ask him to join him and his friends on their table but Sungyoon declined because he saw that his friends turned their heads quickly when they knew Sungyoon looked at their direction. Jangjun once said that they were afraid of Sungyoon, because he was their sunbae and he was always alone. Jangjun asked him if he were a bad boy like the rumors spread among the students. Sungyoon answered that he was a killer on the loose. Jangjun promised to keep the secret till death.
The routine repeated the same. Jangjun would approach Sungyoon. Sungyoon would whisk him away. Sometimes though, when Sungyoon was in good mood or just Jangjun was so persistent, they would sit together on Sungyoon's table and had a conversation. Sungyoon did not want to admit but Jangjun made him feel less lonely.
Sungyoon smiles reminiscing their first meet. Jangjun's scream was so loud that day when the ball hit Sungyoon.
Jangjun is loud.
"Wah, the moon is full tonight!" Jangjun says, looking up at where the star stands on the night sky.
Yeah. Just like that.
"What does Sungyoon-hyung listen to?"
Hmm..nothing.
"Will he bite my hand if I touch his arm?"
No. Why would I?
"His butt look good from behind."
Yeah. Don't I know it.
Wait.
It is not only his fragment of imagination about Jangjun.
He glances from the corner of his eyes, seeing the shadow of someone when he passes the lamppost.
He also hears someone following him. He knows that steps.
Jangjun.
He keeps walking, focusing on Jangjun's voice.
"-and his bunny teeth. They are so cute. He is so cute," He pauses then giggles, "You know what funny, moon-nim? Seungmin said I like him. Pfft," Jangjun snorts, "as if I like him. I just want to be friends with him, so he will not be lonely. I know he is a good person. I want to always make him smile. I don't care if he sees me as silly or weird, I just..."
Silence.
"Darn it! I like him. I like Sung- HYUNG!!!" Jangjun jumps when Sungyoon turns around.
"What did you say just now?" Sungyoon asks, mouth agape.
"'Hyung'," Jangjun's eyes flicker anywhere except at Sungyoon.
"No. Before that."
"'Darn it'?" Jangjun supplies.
"After that."
"'I like him'."
"Between the 'I like him' and 'hyung'," Sungyoon divides.
Jangjun clears his throat, "'I like Sung?'"
"Sung-?"
"Yoon?"
"Are you asking me?" Sungyoon asks back.
"No?"
"What?"
"What? Ah hyung!" Jangjun stares at Sungyoon when he gets an idea, "I just you know playing around with the abekonbe and I am walking behind you, so you are the first person comes to my mind. And so yeah I says I like you because it is the opposite..ha..ha.."
"So you don't like me?" Sungyoon crosses his arms.
Jangjun hurriedly answers, "No. I like you!"
Sungyoon tilts his head.
"I mean I like don't like you?" Jangjun grimaces. It does not make sense.
"Jangjun you-"
"AH!" Jangjun squeals when he gets another idea. He opens his bag, rummages through it, hands feeling for something inside. He gives a triumphant yell when he finds it. The abekonbe.
Sungyoon does not say anything about how the object is crushed on the bottom of Jangjun's bag while Jangjun said that he played with the arrow before he confessed his feeling.
Jangjun places the arrow on Sungyoon's head for a few second, "Nah. There. You can also say that you like me. Then we are even."
Sungyoon answers, "No. I will not say it."
"C'mon hyung. Just say it once."
"No. I won't."
"Ah waeeeee," Jangjun whines. Can Sungyoon just say it and save him from this embarassment?
"Because it is not the opposite."
Jangjun stops whining. What?
"What?" Jangjun believes he heard wrong.
"I don't know. Maybe I like you?"
"You like me?"
"Maybe. I want you to make me smile too."
"So..."
"So..."
"You want to get to know me?"
"Okay."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"This is awkward."
"Yeah."
Sungyoon takes some steps toward Jangjun. Their height are similar so Sungyoon does not have to tiptoe or lower his head to be in the same line with Jangjun's head.
"Hyung.."
Sungyoon puts his arms around Jangjun's neck, leaning forward...
...then puts the younger on a headlock.
"Ah hyung! Hurts!" Jangjun hits Sungyoon's arm.
"You lied to me about using the abekonbe to confess," Sungyoon tightens his grip on Jangjun' neck but not to the extent that he blocks Jangjun's air, "Say you're sorry first."
"Okay, okay," Jangjun admits, "I am sorry I am using the abekonbe to confess."
Sungyoon lets Jangjun go. Jangjun puts some distance between them.
"Geez. I thought you are going to kiss me or something."
Sungyoon rolls his eyes, "Why would I want to kiss you?"
"Because I have lips?"
"...."
"..."
"This is awkward."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
¤
"Are you dating?" Jaehyun asks the giggling Sungyoon and Jangjun across from him.
Both of them are looking at something on Jangjun's phone and fall into a heap of laughter, do not bother to respond to Jaehyun.
Jaehyun glances at Seungmin, then Seungmin glances at Youngtaek who sits beside him. Jangjun and Sungyoon have been attached at the hip for a week. Sungyoon now eats on their table too.
They were a bit hesitant at first but when they see that Sungyoon was not that scary like they thought, they start to talk to him.
Youngtaek calls them, "YA!"
Jangjun and Sungyoon lift their head.
"Are you dating?"
Jangjun and Sungyoon look at each other, smiling from ear to ear, then look back at their friends.
"What?" Jangjun asks.
"Are you dating?"
"We..ell.." Jangjun throws a look at Sungyoon. He grasps something from the bench, between him and Sungyoon.
"Ask us again," Sungyoon says.
"Are you dating?"
"Yes."
"No."
Sungyoon and Jangjun answers simultaneously.
"Wait, Jangjun. What is that on your hand? Don't say that-" Seungmin gapes at Jangjun.
Jangjun smirks, pulling the object so the others can see, "One of us used the abekonbe when we answered."
The trio groan.