Chapter Text
Hitching his backpack higher on his shoulder, Junmyeon struggled to hold on to all the magazines and books in his arms. Mondays were always hectic. Suddenly his shoulder bumped into someone and something slid and before he quite knew what he was doing he was juggling books while apologizing.
“Man you have a lot of books.”
Clutching a couple of rescued magazines to his chest while one slowly escaped his grip and slid down his stomach, he looked up and met smokey eyes under hair dyed the color of blood and had to steel himself to not jerk back. The eyeliner was intense. And not allowed according to school rules. Makeup was supposed to be discreet .
Byun Baekhyun wasn’t very familiar with the word discreet. Junmyeon wasn’t entirely convinced he could spell it either.
“What is even all this crap.” Baekhyun picked up his geography book and stared at it like he’d never seen it before.
“My- our geography- we take geography together,” Junmyeon reminded him.
Baekhyun gave him a vaguely surprised glance. “Uhu?” Like he wasn’t sure; like he didn’t care.
“We got that book last week,” he tried.
Interest somehow awakened, Baekhyun gave the book an assessing once-over. Meanwhile Junmyeon started stacking up the magazines, fussing over a few damaged corners.
“And these?” Baekhyun asked, and he was too close again, Junmyeon jerked back this time because his voice was right in his ear.
Rubbing his ear defensively he glared at Baekhyun. Among other words Byun Baekhyun had trouble with, like discreet and dress code and on time and class , was personal space . Baekhyun just sat crouched next to him poking at a magazine.
“The next issue of the school paper,” Junmyeon explained, snatching the magazine out of Baekhyun’s hand. “The student council gets to take a look at the first print before it’s official.”
Baekhyun simply picked up another copy off the floor and opened it.
“For student council eyes only!” Junmyeon protested trying to take it back, but this time Baekhyun leaned away just barely out of his reach.
“It's a school paper, why would you need to see it first.” He read something and scoffed.
“It’s just a safety measure so they don’t publish something that- give me that!” He didn’t want to start a fight, not in the corridor, and not with the guy who smoked behind the gym building and hung out with some scary guys from the downtown high school. One of the girls in their class had gossiped that one of those guys had beaten up a kid so bad they’d had to helicopter him out to get fixed up. Not that Junmyeon listened to gossip, but it was his job as student council president to stay informed.
“Sounds like censor.” Baekhyun met his eyes, challenging, unafraid.
Junmyeon stared back with determination. “It’s not censor! We have a list of rules, that’s all we can complain about, if it breaks those rules.”
“And who made those rules?”
Junmyeon grit his teeth, careful to look calm and patient. “You’re going to be late to math.”
“I am?”
“It’s on the third floor. In three minutes.”
“You’ve got my schedule memorized?” One of Baekhyun’s eyebrows slowly went up, and Junmyeon felt himself go pink and then red when it kept rising.
“I have everyone’s schedule memorized!”
“Everyone?” Baekhyun didn’t believe that for a second.
“Not everyone,” Junmyeon rubbed his temple. “I’m told when people are late. Some people are late so often I know every class they should be in and isn’t. Your name comes up a lot,” he said, not liking how defensive he sounded, so he set his face in a scolding brother kind of way and waited.
“So I should go to math so you’re not scolded?”
“Yes! No! No you should go to math because you should learn math! It’s important-” Baekhyun neatly placed the magazine on top of Junmyeon’s pile and stood up while he was still talking. He wished he wasn’t so easy to rile up. He wished he was cooler. He wished he could start this conversation over, but judging by how all his conversations with Baekhyun went, few as they were, it wouldn’t go any better.
“Seems I’ve got a guardian looking out for me,” Baekhyun looked down at him, one corner of his mouth curving up.
“It’s really your own responsibility and for your own good, you know, and, hey! My book!”
“I’ve lost mine,” Baekhyun said, walking away, waving the geography book at him. “You’ll get it back in class.”
“But we don’t-” Baekhyun turned a corner. “-have geography today,” Junmyeon said helplessly.
“That went super well.”
He knew that dry ironic voice anywhere without looking. “Thanks, Sehun.”
“There’s always a guy like that,” Sehun said, while Junmyeon picked up the last books, making no effort to help. Finally Junmyeon stood up and pushed the stack of magazines at him, which he took without reacting. “Let him ruin his own life, who cares.”
“I care,” Junmyeon muttered. “At least while it reflects on me.”
“Not such a good guy are you,” Sehun said, the hint of a smile playing over his face but never touching his lips.
Junmyeon shot him a warning look.
It was true though. He cared because over the years, he’d brought all the delinquents around. One by one he’d talked, nagged, bribed and convinced them until they at least adhered to the rules and went to class. They may not behave in class, or keep their shirts buttoned a second longer than required, but that wasn’t his problem. Sehun, too, had been rebellious and moody when he’d first started and look at him now. The youngest seat in the student council, setting the standard, crushing upstart students and debate opponents alike. Junmyeon brushed off a stray thread on Sehun’s jacket arm, feeling proud of him. Maybe Sehun was right. Who cared about one guy.
At the student council meeting that afternoon, after they were done with evaluating the paper, vice president Irene brought up another matter.
“Some of the girls say the foreign exchange student isn’t behaving,” she said, “and I caught him in the corridor earlier, and, um,” she blushed.
“He’s not adhering to dress code,” secretary Kyungsoo said, tapping his pen against the meeting record. “I’ve heard too.”
“Someone should talk to him before the teachers do,” Irene said. “It’s probably just that he doesn’t know.” She looked around, waiting for someone to volunteer, because she was shy and didn't want to do it herself.
“Does anyone know him?” Junmyeon asked, looking around the room. Sehun was looking out the window, not paying attention. “Sehun?”
He jumped, as if caught doing something illegal. “What?”
“Do you know the foreign exchange student?”
“Isn’t he your age?” Sehun asked.
“Doesn’t he hang out a lot with that brute friend of yours?” Kyungsoo asked, earning a damning glare from Irene.
“Jongin knows him?” Junmyeon asked.
“Ummm...” Sehun said.
“Great. Then could you talk to him, or ask Jongin to talk to him? It’ll just be worse for him if the teachers approach him about it.” Junmyeon turned to the others. “How's attendance?”
“Staying solid,” Kyungsoo told him, flipping through a stack of papers. “Some of the usual stuff. The only one that is below the red line is...”
“Byun Baekhyun,” Junmyeon filled in.
“Yup.” Kyungsoo tapped his pen again, looking thoughtful. “What haven’t we tried?”
“I talked to his parents but they’re away a lot, they can’t help.” Baekhyun wasn’t the only kid at school with absent parents. This was a top school with top results; a lot of kids had parents that worked overseas or spent the vast majority of their lives in the office, Junmyeon's own parents included. “He doesn’t have any other family he’s close with. I discussed it with his teachers but he manages above minimum grade line, he’s not stupid.” Junmyeon frowned. That just annoyed him more. If Baekhyun was just stupid, and couldn’t keep up academically, he could recommend he moved to a different school with lower demands.
“I sent the girls on him,” Irene filled in. It wasn't a tactic Junmyeon approved of, but it worked on some guys. A charming girl, the vague possibility of scoring with that girl, could provide motivation. He knew they didn't go too far. Irene cared too much about her girlfriends to allow that to happen. “He flirted back but didn't care.”
“Usually the next step is friends or clique,” Kyungsoo said. It was about turning on the peer pressure. “But he doesn’t have friends, or clique. The alternative people don’t hang with him either.”
“Does he talk to anyone in school?” Junmyeon turned to Sehun.
“Not as far as I know,” Sehun said. “Can’t we just leave him alone, there’s always one.”
“We don’t aim for perfection, we aim to do the best we can, and that means never giving up,” Junmyeon scolded, not for the first time. “Let’s all think about this and we’ll return to it next week.”
They wrapped up the meeting, talked some, and slowly the room emptied. Sehun hung back by the window, quieter than usual. Junmyeon waited until everyone else were gone, and when he still made no move to leave he walked over.
“Everything alright?”
Again, Sehun jumped like stung by a bee. “Yeah, fine, everything.”
He looked out the window. Half the soccer team were out there playing around, throwing a tennis ball back and forth and trying to jump over each other in some kind of improvised, complicated game. Jongin was among them. “Is that the exchange student?” Irene had shown him around, Junmyeon hadn’t met him yet.
“Um, yeah,” Sehun said. “Yixing, I think he’s named. Zhang Yixing.”
Junmyeon wrinkled his nose trying to memorize the name. “You seemed preoccupied today.”
“Sorry, it’s nothing, I’m just tired.”
“You’re not fighting with Jongin are you?” Was that why he was watching them?
“I’m not, listen, look, you don’t have to fix everything, I can take care of myself!” Sehun glared at him, angry but also looking a little shocked by his own outburst. “It’s nothing,” he muttered, and turned back to the window.
“If it’s ever not nothing, you can talk to me,” Junmyeon promised.
“Yeah, sure.” Sehun sighed and looked at him briefly. “Thank you.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah tomorrow.”
Sehun had been an angry young man when they first met. His parents also absent, to the degree where his aunt had been more involved with his school performance than them, he’d acted out, refused authority, refused to let anyone help him. Junmyeon had gotten through with endless patience, showing that someone cared, someone listened. And maybe baited him with power, by introducing the debate team to his quick-witted sass. Now Sehun was like the little brother he never had.
Junmyeon thought about it as the afternoon passed, and decided to talk to Jongin; just a friendly talk to check in. The sporty guys sometimes stayed after school to hang at the football field the next street over, help each other with homework and meet up with girls. Junmyeon wandered that way and heard the noise long before he saw anything.
Some kids were gathered in one corner of the field, loud and happy. The sky was blue, the grass green, and fresh energy radiated over the whole place. As Junmyeon went closer he realized half the guys were competing in some way, split into two teams, running an obstacle course marked out with shoes and shirts. Running, crawling, carrying each other; sweaty, covered in grass, some of them shirtless. Jongin was running, so Junmyeon joined the audience while he waited. Suddenly Jongin looked over and noticed him, pointed and said something, waved and came over.
“Mr. President!”
“Don't call me that,” Junmyeon said deferentially, not comfortable with how the entire crowd had gone silent, looking at them.
“C'mon join us! We need one more.”
“No, no.”
Jongin boxed his shoulder playfully, then seemed to regret it, fidgeting, eyes darting. “C'mon, I know you can do it, show the exchange students you're more than a nerd.”
More people joined in, and eventually Junmyeon caved, desperate to get this unwanted attention away from him. He liked attention when he chose it, not when people suddenly attacked him like this. They went barefoot so he stripped down to t-shirt and pants. Some girls cheered for him – President Kim – and Jongin wanted him to take the t-shirt off too but that was not going to happen. Finally he joined the other guys by the start line. The exchange student was in their team too and smiled and waved at him so he nodded back.
Someone counted down. Junmyeon had his head full trying to remember what each shoe marker meant, had to wait someone in once to see if they ran or crawled, and for the final part when they were supposed to carry one person across the finish line Jongin pointed to Yixing and they heaved him up together. The finish line was impossibly far away but eventually they got across, cheered on by the other guys, just a few steps behind the others, and Junmyeon collapsed in the grass, exhausted.
“Nice work!” Yixing exclaimed, raising his hand for a high five.
Junmyeon and Jongin humored him, before Jongin said, “we lost.”
“Yeah but it went better than before with Sehun,” Yixing said.
“Sehun was here?”
“You took Sehun's place,” Jongin said, then pointed across the field. “He's over there sulking.”
Junmyeon squinted. There was a figure sitting by a box on the other side of the field. Sehun's shape looked discouraged even from all the way over there.
“It's nice to finally meet you,” Yixing said, extending a hand in a formal greeting. Then he saw how covered in dirt and grass his hand was and lowered it again, laughing.
“Nice to meet you too,” Junmyeon said. The guy had some accent, but not much. “Do you know if something’s up with Sehun. He seemed off today and he won’t talk to me about it. Why is he sitting all the way over there?”
Jongin shrugged and shook his head. “ He's a bit prickly but no more than usual. He got upset that we messed up. Embarrassed. You know how he is.” He looked to Yixing.
Yixing paused. Looked between them and hesitated.
“Have you noticed anything off- anything strange with Sehun?” Jongin asked, slower.
“No,” Yixing said slowly. “Nothing.” Smiled. “Are you joining us for ice cream?”
“Not today,” Junmyeon said; he had some chores to deal with. “Don’t you have homework.” Jongin rolled his eyes, which was fine, he knew it was a joke. “I’ll get out of your way. Don’t tell Sehun I asked, I just wanted to check in.”
“Sure,” Jongin said. “See ya.”
“Bye,” Yixing said.
Junmyeon left. As he walked away, boys cheering behind him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Yixing had understood the question perfectly the first time but hesitated for some other reason. But wh y would he lie about Sehun? He must have imagined it.
He'd planned to walk home and pass by the book store and the flower shop on the way, but he couldn't well walk through all of the city with grass all over himself. Dismayed that he'd allowed Jongin and the guys to convince him to join; that he hadn't had better self control, he decided he'd rather take the bus.
Halfway home he had to switch bus. It wasn't more than a minute's wait, but while he was standing at the stop, trying to brush dirt off his pants, he heard a familiar voice. Except it was followed by something he'd never heard before: l aughter. Confused, he looked around.
On the other side of the road stood a figure with unmistakable hair striped in the color of blood, together with two other guys, talking and laughing. Byun Baekhyun, laughing. Talking to people, and laughing. Junmyeon wanted to rub his eyes like a comic book figure. The two other guys looked young, but tough. Baekhyun's dress code violation stretched as far as ripped jeans, but both his friends had the same, only the tall guy had bright blue hair and a brightly patterned shirt, and the third guy was dyed blond in boots and a big army jacket falling off his shoulders. These must be the kids from the other school that people said he hung out with. The kids who had beaten someone up.
At school Baekhyun barely even smiled, and if he did, only in the ironic sense. He'd gone to Junmyeon's school for one and a half years and been in classes with him for a semester, but Junmyeon had never heard him laugh before. He always seemed – and looked – like such a snarky sourpuss, but now, laughing, messing around, almost bouncing on his toes, there was a whole other energy. For the first time Junmyeon thought he kinda looked good.
His bus arrived. Baekhyun and his friends started walking. Junmyeon was torn for a second, but only one, and then he turned and scuttled along the road while pulling his sweater out of his bag. With hood up and dirty pants Baekhyun wouldn't recognize him, he was sure. He was going to follow him, find out who Baekhyun really was and who his friends were, and he was going to figure out a way to bring Baekhyun around. Baekhyun was the only spot on his otherwise spotless record and he was going to figure him out or die trying.
The three-man gang walked for a while, before they entered a clothes store. They were in a part of town now that Junmyeon had never been, and the store was unfamiliar. He strolled around and pretended to look among the shelves of outrageous clothes – everything colorful or patterned or printed with profanities – while the three talked loudly and tried on clothes right there in the aisles, pulling sweaters on and off, switching hats between each other.
What was this? Junmyeon stared at a jacket in speechless wonder. It wasn't more than a bunch of shreds held together by god knew what. Why would anyone wear this? He looked up to find the blond guy standing right in front of him and couldn't bring himself to do anything but blink.
“Hey, excuse me, could I...?”
“Chenchen!” someone yelled from the other side of the store.
“Eeeeyyy stop calling me that!” the guy loudly complained. He reached for Junmyeon, who jumped to the side like struck by lightning. Giving him a weirded out look, he reached past and took a hat off a shelf right next to him. “Chanyeol! C'mere!”
The tall guy came walking. They discussed the hat for a moment, trying it on, before the shorter guy decided to buy it. It went well with his jacket.
With that their shopping was done. They headed out again, wandered aimlessly, ended up at a café and drank ice tea. Junmyeon sipped from a cafe latte from a couple of tables over. He couldn't sit closer, but he couldn't hear their conversation from there. To his surprise, Baekhyun opened his bag and pulled out the geography book and seemed to read it, pointing out passages to the other two. They spent the next hour bent over the book, talking, sometimes arguing. Baekhyun took notes on his phone.
He shouldn't be surprised that Baekhyun studied, maybe. Even though he skipped a whole lot of classes he still did decently on tests, and always handed in written assignments. He'd never seen it happen before, though, and it was kind of interesting that he chose to do it together with people. He seemed like such an antisocial person, but the person Junmyeon saw out here today was just not the same at all. Baekhyun exchanged some words with people at the table next to them, and flirted shamelessly with the barista, like he did this every day.
It was starting to get late. Junmyeon should get home, should get on with his chores, but he was too intrigued now. When the gang took off again he followed, through the city maze, in through a side door, down a corridor, and things were getting very noisy. Was this a back entrance to a club? He made sure the hood would stay up and opened the end door of the corridor. Still loud music, but empty hallways and little rooms. Carefully, he kept looking around, half expecting some shady drug dealer to show up. Worn floor boards, but clean. Some undefined smell of sweat and pee and cleaning agents and alcohol and perfumes and a million other things. Backstage, he was backstage at a club.
Someone burst out of a door, he barely jumped out of the way, almost crawling out of his skin but the person didn't care about him at all. Then a few more people showed up. Trying to stay out of the way, he scuttled along the hallways until he was more or less forced through an open door, straight into the solid wall of music as he entered the actual club. Pumping beats and a hundred drunk people talking and whispering and yelling at once. He hugged the wall next to the door and stayed, trying to orient himself.
That's when he realized the stage lights were shining down on a familiar red-striped head, flanked by one blue and one blond. Baekhyun, on stage, holding a guitar. No way. He played instruments? No, more than that, he fucking sang, he was the fucking singer! The recorded music faded out, as Baekhyun grabbed the mic.
“Hey guys,” he said.
The crowd cheered like they knew him. They knew him?
“It's us again.”
Another cheer.
“Did you miss us?” Baekhyun made a show of listening for the response and nodding in contentment. “Alright let's do this. Chenchen?”
The blond guy, standing by a monstrous construction looking like two synths and some random electronics stitched together by a madman, gave him the finger and the audience laughed and whistled.
“Kim Jongdae, my friend,” Baekhyun corrected. “Count us in.”
Jongdae pressed some keys and a beat appeared. On cue, Chanyeol's bass and Baekhyun's guitar joined in in some kind of poppy squeal, almost jazz-like, before it took off and the audience started dancing. Baekhyun leaned forward and put his lips to the microphone.
Not only did Byun Baekhyun sing, he did it damned well. Junmyeon stood hypnotized in his corner, speechless. Jongdae shared the song with him, but there was no doubt Baekhyun lead. Byun Baekhyun was the lead singer in a band. Junmyeon groaned internally. Could it be any more cheesy? Could he be any more cheesy, for thinking it was actually kinda cool? And Baekhyun had changed his torn jeans for tight black pants, and up there with the guitar, Junmyeon had to admit he looked kinda sexy too. Just a little bit.
Before he knew it, several songs had passed. Baekhyun told the audience they were taking a break and would be on again later. Junmyeon decided he better leave. However, he'd not paid to enter this place and was pretty sure, since alcohol was being served, that he wasn't old enough to be here. Walking past the bouncer by the exit may not be a great idea. So he tried to go back in the door he'd come from and realized it couldn't be opened from this side without a key. For a moment his mind locked up. Then the door burst open and he tried to go inside right away just from sheer panic, and crashed right into the person coming out knocking their heads together.
“Ow. Sorry I...”
Junmyeon looked up to see why the sentence didn't finish, and there he was.
“Holy shit,” Baekhyun said.
Junmyeon rubbed his head and corrected his hood.
“What the fuck,” Baekhyun said.
Junmyeon straightened and put his hands in his sweater pockets and tried to look like he went to places like this every day, dressed like this, and that it was, in fact, just a coincidence that they'd ran into each other.
“What the actual fuck,” Baekhyun said.
“Hi,” Junmyeon tried, to put a stop to the swearing.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
He shrugged, because what was he supposed to say. Someone wanted to come out and they were blocking the way, so Baekhyun grabbed his sweater and pulled him inside, planting him against the hallway wall. His mouth opened twice but quietly closed again both times.
Junmyeon wasn't doing much better. His brain was spinning in circles trying to figure out how to solve this. Finally he heard himself say, “Do your parents know you're...”
“Of course they don't fucking know, what the fuck do you think?”
“Stop swearing so much.”
“Are you serious? Are you serious right now, what, how did you get in here?”
Junmyeon took a deep breath. “From now on,” he said, looking straight into Baekhyun's eyes, “you're going to follow the dress code, go to your classes, and not be late.”
Baekhyun stared at him like he was an alien wearing pink.
“Or,” Junmyeon said. Just that.
“Or what?” Baekhyun demanded. “Shit. Shit!” He let go of Junmyeon's sweater and walked a lap in the hallway, just a tiny little anxious circle. “Really? You're going to use this to blackmail me into what, wearing neat pants?”
“Yes,” Junmyeon said, because that was pretty much exactly what was happening here.
“No,” Baekhyun said, and walked another lap. “You're here too!” he stopped to say.
“I saw a fellow student in a place where he shouldn't be, and because I worried for his safety, I followed him and found him here,” Junmyeon resisted the urge to gesture and stayed very still. “Do the owners know you're underage? Do they let you in, and let you play, anyway?”
Baekhyun gave him a pained look. “Look, they're friends, they're good people...”
“I bet they'd get their license revoked, or at least a serious warning.” He startled when Baekhyun kicked the wall next to his shin, and set his jaw, not budging. “You're gonna beat me up? That'll look even better.” Baekhyun was skinny. Sort of scary, but he didn't look very strong.
All angry trapped animal, knowing he was screwed, Baekhyun glared at him.
“This is for your own good,” Junmyeon added.
Baekhyun shook his head. Walked one more lap, and leaned into Junmyeon's face. “Listen,” he said. “Fine, you win. I'll play along your dollhouse dream, and you'll leave these people alone, okay? But don't even start with me, about my own good. What the fuck do you know.”
“I know school is important,” Junmyeon said, with a feeling that he didn't know when to quit and that he'd already won so why was he still talking. Why did Baekhyun always get to him and get him worked up and making a fool of himself. Still, he couldn't stop. “I know you'll look back one day and wish you'd made something of yourself. I know education is good and useful no matter what you want to do later. Discipline isn't just pointless rules, it's learning to exercise control over yourself, that'll let you accomplish great things later.”
“Control,” Baekhyun scoffed.
“We can't control everything, but that doesn't mean we should give up on the things we can,” Junmyeon said.
“And what about stuff that makes you happy?”
Junmyeon shrugged. “You go to school right, you can keep doing this stuff, I'm guessing it makes you happy. So it's win-win really.”
“You're so full of shit, it's unbelievable.”
Junmyeon would have answered, but right then Baekhyun's two friends showed up. “Hey,” Chanyeol said, “What's up, who's this?”
“Hello, nice to meet you,” Junmyeon said before Baekhyun had a chance to say anything. He held out his hand to them. “I'm Kim Junmyeon, I'm student council president of Baekhyun's school.”
Jongdae shook his hand, giving him a thoughtful look.
“You're that guy, aren't you,” Chanyeol said, also shaking his hand without returning the introduction. “The guardian.”
“I'm not a guardian, I'm student council president,” Junmyeon repeated.
“He was just leaving, he just stopped by to get his book back.” Baekhyun pushed him ahead towards a door. Inside it was some of their clothes and his bag, and he took out the geography book and ceremoniously handed it over. “See you tomorrow at school.”
“Yes, see you,” Junmyeon said cheerfully. “Don't stay up too late.”
He left, knowing they would talk about him the moment he was gone. Would Baekhyun tell them the truth about what had happened? It seemed more likely he wouldn't. He seemed very concerned with keeping his two lives separate from each other. It didn't matter. What mattered was that he'd won. He'd found Baekhyun's weak point and he'd brought him around, and from now on his record was shining perfectly white and he'd never have settled for less.