Chapter Text
It's not that Soobin doesn’t feel anything. He does. He feels scared, happy, he feels the tightness in your stomach before the drop on a roller coaster. The problem is; he can’t express it. His older siblings make fun of him, call him a robot in human skin, but he can’t help it.
He could watch a comedy movie and not crack a smile, a horror and not even flinch, a sad movie with a bored look on his face.
Because of this, he.., doesn’t have many friends, in fact he only has two. He ONLY has two friends. They're the only people who talk to him not because they have to.
Kai is shy, but once he became comfortable around Soobin he became the definition of crackhead. He laughs like it was a competition. Even though Soobin can’t show it, he really appreciates Kai for being with him.
Taehyun was dragged along by Kai, though Taehyun didn’t mind. Always there to laugh at Kai doing something stupid. Always there to be unbothered by Kai doing something embarrassing. He was so smart that when Soobin was struggling with his homework Taehyun finished it for him with no struggle during lunch.
“Wow Hyung you’re so smart,” Kai said with wide eyes as Taehyun gave Soobin his homework back.
Taehyun shrugged, “Learned that during summer.”
“You went to summer school?” Soobin asked while he looked over the work, a bored tone in his voice despite being genuinely impressed.
“No, I was just bored”
Soobin was currently on his way to class, a bored look on his face. He was wondering about life after high school, he was a junior, and normally this is when you begin thinking about what you wanna do. But Soobin didn’t have a passion, he didn’t have something he was really good at, nothing that he loved doing. Unless watching documentaries counted. He wondered if he could get a job reviewing movies? That would be pretty fun-
“Move out my way kid!” Someone yells at him as he feels a pair of hands push him to the ground. Soobin quickly looks at who just pushed him.
Choi Yeonjun
Yeonjun stared at him, an angry look on his face. Soobin has heard a lot about Yeonjun. Rumors and gossip in the halls.
“I heard he slept with ______”
“I heard he beat up ____”
“I heard a rumor he sucked off the teacher to get a good grade”
“He's top of the class huh? I bet he slept with the teacher”
“Don’t let him hear you, he beat up ___ the other day”
The person in front of him underwhelmed him. Maybe because Soobin was tall but Yeonjun seemed small. He expected to see a huge buff guy who made Soobin feel like an ant. But despite all that, Yeonjun seemed to pull on the energy in the room, blue hair bright on him, black ripped jeans and a black hoodie on, black nail polish on-
‘wait, is he…, pouting?’
“Cute” Soobin says, not even realizing he did.
“What the fuck did you just call me?”
“Nothing,” Soobin got up quickly, “I need to get to class”
“Hey, you can’t just-“ Yeonjun reached out to him but Soobin was already walking away.
“Goodbye Choi Yeonjun.” Soobin said quickly as he (speed) walked away.
“What a fucking weirdo” Yeonjun said out loud, putting his hands into his pockets.
———
“How did you even fail that test, it was open notes,” Taehyun asked Kai while he looked at Kai’s 3/10 on their recent test.
“I thought the answers were trick questions; they seemed too obvious!” Kai yelled, grabbing his failed test back and shoving it in his backpack, embarrassed.
Taehyun rolled his eyes, “you seem to be thinking more than usual, did something happen?” Taehyun looked at Soobin who was staring into the table, clenching to his backpack.
“I talked to Choi Yeonjun,” Soobin said, not lifting his eyes to Taehyun. A monotone voice.
“Did he do something to you,” Kai asked, worried face, “I know his good friend, maybe I can talk to him-“
“He pushed me because we ran into each other, but he left me alone when I walked away. It is fine.” Soobin said, still staring at the lunch table.
“Are you sure? you seem.., out of it” Taehyun added.
Soobin finally looked up, “I'm sure,” he got up, putting his backpack on, “I have to go”.
“Soobin-“ Kai said
“goodbye,” Soobin walked away.
“Something happened,” Kai said as he looked at Taehyun.
“I agree, who’s your friend who knows Yeonjun,” Taehyun asked
“His name is Beomgyu, he's a sophomore. We have the same bus route,” Kai replied, “should we ask him what happened?”
“Yeah, you know Soobin. He won’t let us know if something is bothering him.”
———
Soobin stared at the flowers in his school’s garden. He loved flowers. He loved nature in general but flowers were beautiful, even when dead and died off they were pretty.
“Cute”
Soobin mentally cringed at the memory of him calling Yeonjun cute. He was a guy and he just called him cute. It had slipped out, not even crossing his mind before he said it. He wondered what Yeonjun thought about flowers. He wondered what his favorite flower was, what his favorite scent was.
“Hey giraffe neck!”
Soobin quickly turned around, being met with a blue haired boy dressed in all black, a boy with black hair behind him.
“what are you doing here? This place is restricted,” Soobin said
“What are you doing here?” Yeonjun said, eyebrow raising as he stepped closer to Soobin.
“Mr.Jeon gave me the keys, he said I could come when I wanted to,” Soobin replied.
“Well you left the gate open.” Yeonjun stepped closer again, hands leaving his pants pockets, “Mr. Jeon gave them to you? Of fucking course he would, I bet you’re a teachers pet, have you told on me for pushing you already?”
“no, why would I. You seem to get into enough trouble on your own,” Soobin said, no ill intention besides telling the truth.
“Listen kid-“
“Yeonjun there's people coming we have to go,” the guy with the black hair says, “wait is that Huening Kai?”
“Who? whatever, we’ll settle this later,” Yeonjun says quickly.
“settle what?” Soobin says, a bit of confusion leaking into his voice.
He watches as Yeonjun and the boy with black hair run off. He keeps staring at the gate until Taehyun and Kai run in.
“They really ran off huh? I thought you said Beomgyu was cool?” Taehyun said, taking big breaths.
“He is!” Kai says, “Hyung did they do anything to you?”
“Nothing besides empty threats,” Soobin bent down and touched the petals of the Gardenia flower, “did you know Gardenia’s are really hard to grow? They're really sensitive to temperature and even movement.”
“Hyung,” Kai called
“They smell really nice, but because of that insects are really attracted to them”
“Hyung,” Kai calls again
“I wonder how Mr. Jeon does such a good job growing them? Ah I should stop touching them”
“HYUNG!,” Kai yells
“Yes Kai?”
“You know you can talk to us hyung?”
“yeah,” Soobin stands up and faces then, “I know, come on; lunch is gonna end soon,” Soobin smiles and walks away.
“did he just-“ kai starts.
“smile?” Taehyun finishes.