Chapter Text
Jake doesn't believe in love at first sight. He's not a fan of the entire "slow motion" or "everything around you stops" idea that comes along with the thought. He thinks it's complete nonsense and definitely a whole waste of time to ponder on when you "experience" it. Like any other person who grew up using their head rather than their heart, it's silly to think you would see your future with someone who you just so happen to pass by or catch a glimpse of.
Riki, one of his best friends, is a hopeless romantic; a literal fan of every cliche trope known to man even when he doesn't seem like it. He believes in love at first sight, believes that he'll know his true love through a burst of feelings. Jake tells him it's bullshit but Riki doesn't bother entertaining his hyung any further on the idea.
What Jake does believe in is hate at first sight. Or more accurately, dislike at first sight. Hate is too harsh of a word, that he would admit.
He believes in it because he has experienced it at one rainy morning where he was running late for class.
At the blaring brightness of the sun peeping through his window as his eyes try to make sense of his surroundings, his head, like a computer rebooting, strikes in horror as he takes note of two things. One, it is already bright out and it's a weekday. Two, he was not woken up by his alarm.
With a quick check on the time on his phone, he felt his feet move on their own, running from his bed to the bathroom to wash his face, brush his teeth, and put on cologne.
"FUCK!" he was screaming in his head, realizing that it was 30 minutes before first period and he had slept in 45 minutes more than he should. In a rush to catch up to the clock, Jake messily grabs the papers on his table, prioritizing his homework sheet and practically shoving them in his bag before putting on his uniform.
His mother walked right in on his panic, a worried look on her face as she sees Jake run around in his room to prepare for school.
"Oh my," she comments, "Jaeyun, dear, how are you still here?"
Jake doesn't stop to reply to his mother, running past her and making his way down the staircase, almost tripping at the last step.
"Sorry, mom! I'll be late! Love you!" He yells from the door as he hastily puts on his shoes, not letting another moment pass before leaving the house.
Jake was like a marathon runner, with the speed and strength he is exerting in his toes, he was running for dear life! Sometimes bumping onto walking passerby's.
As if his morning couldn't get any more hectic, he hears the sky rumble, a crack of thunder snapping in his ears.
"God, why!" he curses, frustrated at what was to come.
Soon enough, this was followed by a moderate downpour, his uniform getting soaked bit-by-bit even when he held his bag over his head to use as an umbrella. The pavements slowly become wet and slippery but that didn't stop Jake from running as if he would die if he slowed down. One more turn and he has reached the road leading up to the school gate, finally feeling fatigue catch up to him from all the running he had done to get there on time causing him to slow down.
Someone must've been in the same predicament as him, hearing quick splashing footsteps behind him get closer and closer. In a flash and in a turn of events, the said someone bumped onto Jake, causing him to drop his bag and some of his things. It would have been fine if it was any other paper that fell out but one of the few things that made it's way through Jake's half shut bag was his homework sheet. Jake froze for a moment before processing the paper scattered on the road.
That's a whole 30 points down the drain.
He looks up at the person who just passed him and felt his blood boil when he saw he was just looking back at him, staring at his now wet papers that are slowly getting dissolved by the rain that splatters on the road. The guy looked like he was debating if he should help him but, eventually, and unsurprising to Jake, he backs up and continues to run towards the gate, not even muttering or shouting an apology towards Jake's direction for causing this.
Jake's eyes scrunched up and even with the rain becoming a barrier between the both of them, he has a vague idea of the guy's face. After all, those eyebrows were very prominent even in the rain.
As much as Jake wants to stay there, yell his lungs out over how shitty his morning has been, the school bell echoing throughout the area snaps him out of that idea, picking up his bag and leaving the damaged papers on the ground, running inside the gate to get to school.
"Jaeyun?" the teacher says in concern, seeing as her student is drenched from head to toe when he entered the room. Jake was heaving in exhaustion and the entire class watched him, watched every drip of water fall out from his blazer and hair.
"Jaeyun, go to the nurse's office and ask for a towel and a spare uniform. Sit out the first few periods," the teacher advices, "Jungwon, go with him."
And Jungwon quickly stands up and walks on over to Jake, holding him by the shoulders and dragging his friend all the way to the small clinic in their school.
"Dude, what happened to you?" Jungwon asks, seeing as Jake was not in the best condition.
"I slept in," Jake sighs and replies.
"Yeah that explains you being late but not you looking this lifeless and dead," Jungwon jokes, "You look like a kicked puppy, hyung."
"Well it's not my fault some asshole bumped into me when I was clearly in front of him!" Jake yelled, causing Jungwon to pat his shoulder as a reminder to keep his voice down.
"Alright, alright, I get you! Keep it down," he scolds, "I don't want to get in trouble for disrupting classes."
"I'm just pissed right now, okay."
"Yeah, I get that. But let's not think about that right now. You need to get out of your wet clothes before you catch a cold."
They finally reached the door to the nurse's office and Jungwon slides it open. There, they both see the nurse handing another male student a set of the uniform. He looks behind the guy and looks at the two of them.
"Uniform?" the nurse asks.
"Yes, sir." Jake answers.
"Alright, wait here."
The guy who the nurse was assisting earlier on turned around to leave, but Jake's eyes widened.
Prominent eyebrows!
"Hold it right there!" he says, blocking the door so the other guy can't exit, "Y-You're the guy who bumped into me a while ago!"
The other only raised a brow at Jake but soon enough understood what he meant when he looked down to Jake's hand which was holding a semi-shut bag. He doesn't say anything and keeps his mouth closed, looking at Jake in silence with nothing to say.
Jake got irritated.
"So not even an apology?!" he says in frustration, "Look, I don't care if you didn't help me back there to pick up my stuff or whatever but the least you could do is apologize, you know."
Jungwon starts holding onto Jake's shoulder, knowing that this wouldn't end well if he doesn't restrain his friend.
"My calculus worksheet, soaked! That's 30 points down the drain! I'm not expecting you to redo the thing for me but this is part of my grade!"
"Jake, calm down." Jungwon tries to interfere.
"Are you still not gonna say anything? Huh?"
"I—"
"Here's the uniform," the nurse intercepts, breaking the tension between the two to which the other guy used as a door of opportunity to take advantage of Jake's distraction to zip out of the room.
"HEY!" he yells outside down the hall, letting out a groan when the person left at the corner.
Jungwon nervously smiles at the nurse and takes the uniform on behalf of Jake, tapping his shoulder to get his head back in the room.
"Hyung, stop beefing with Park Sunghoon and change your uniform."
"Park Sunghoon..?" He repeats as a question. Jungwon just looks at him in shock.
"You don't know him? He's part of the school's gymnastics team and the best one there is, apparently. Don't you see him on posters posted by the school's bulletin boards?"
"Look, famous or not, he still costed me my grade. I don't care if he's the school's pride and whatnot, he's still the reason why my grade is gonna have a toll!"
Jungwon just sighs and pushes Jake towards the nearby restroom, shoving him inside with the new set of clothes.
"Just... just change, hyung. Don't think about it anymore."
How could Jake not think about it anymore? The guy was a fucking asshole!
—————
Sunghoon was in a dilemma.
There he was, in the pouring rain, running his feet as they burn with fatigue until he accidentally bumps onto a guy walking up the small upslope to the school. He hears their belongings crash and splash on the ground, causing him to stop in his actions and look back.
He sees papers getting soaked and his foot prepared itself to go back and help. But between helping the dude he bumped into and avoiding a certified disciplinary notice if he is late once more, he takes it in himself that the latter is far more important. So he turns back to the school's direction and runs inside, leaving whoever the other person was to deal with their predicament in the rain.
"Hyung, did you get into a fight with the swim team? You're soaking wet!" Sunoo comments as he sees Sunghoon arrive in class dripping, "Go to the clinic first and get a dry uniform. You're wetting the class floor!"
Sunoo was usually the one who arrives to school early and gives the class a little clean up every now and then so of course he would care about the floors more than what has happened to his own friend. But Sunghoon doesn't have the energy to point that out to Sunoo and just dragged his feet along the hall to the nurse's office.
As soon as he opened it, the only nurse present at that time took one glance at him and went to the backroom, not even a small greeting towards him before he did so. Sunghoon figured that it was already obvious as to why he was there in the first place, just looking around to waste whatever time he was holding.
The moment the nurse came back and handed him a fresh set of uniform, the clinic's door slid open, two pairs of footsteps coming in.
"Uniform?" the nurse in front of him asked the people behind him.
"Yes, sir." He heard one of them reply.
"Alright, wait here." And the nurse left again.
Sunghoon wasn't gonna waste another moment, even though he wasn't able to thank the nurse for the clothes. He was running late.
But before he could slide the doors open, the person who just came in shouted "Hold it right there!" and using their hand to block the door.
"Y-You're the guy who bumped into me a while ago!"
A while ago?
Sunghoon, out of instinct, raised a brow and analyzed the person in front of him, taking note of how much he is scrunching his nose to show off his anger, all the way to how his clothes were dripping wet which was same to him. He looked down further and noticed him holding his bag, half shut and papers peeking out.
That's when he remembered.
Oh, it's the guy I didn't help.
"So not even an apology?" the guy hissed, "Look, I don't care if you didn't help me back there to pick up my stuff or whatever but the least you could do is apologize, you know."
That was the only time he noticed the other's friend, trying to hold him back by grabbing ahold of the shoulder.
Sunghoon was still speechless from the entire thing. Of course he would be. He's flustered and frustrated! On one hand, this guy is gonna make him late and earn him a disciplinary warning and second, he actually doesn't have anything to say for himself. Amidst confrontation where he could be spewing whatever nonsense there is on the top of his head to work as an excuse, he's still speechless. Kinda shameful in his opinion.
"My calculus worksheet, soaked! That's 30 points down the drain! I'm not expecting you to redo the thing for me but this is part of my grade!"
Well shit, my tardiness is part of my grade too! My student record! But you don't hear me whining about that on you.
"Jake, calm down." Sunghoon hears the friend speak but the person glaring at him just brushes it off.
"Are you still not gonna say anything? Huh?"
In his head, Sunghoon should defend himself and also apologize for what happened back there. He gets that the guy is upset— he would be too if he was left in the rain and his worksheet that he had to submit got soaked— but, shit, he has his own thing to worry about!
And for the second time this morning, Sunghoon was in another dilemma. He knows he should apologize to get this entire thing over with and he can head back as quickly as he could. And honestly, Sunghoon swears on his mom, he really was supposed to apologize at that moment! But the nurse cut that opportunity short.
"Here's the uniform." The nurse said as he came back, breaking the tension and causing the person who was holding back the door to let their guard down.
That was his chance!
And as if he had no control over himself, he slid the door open and ran! Ran as if he would get hunted down by a predator!
"HEY!" he hears the person yell at him from the clinic but he doesn't slow down and ignores the call.
Fuck apologizing! He'll do it another time. What matters is that his record stays clean.
(Spoiler alert: it didn't)
—————
Needless to say, after that incident, Jake held quite a grudge against this Park Sunghoon guy. What's worse was the fact they were in the same grade. Different classes, of course, but still batchmates. That means, even when he doesn't want to cross paths with that "unapologetic rain leaving asshole", there would be instances where he does and he feels the inside of his body burn from anger. Even Riki, an underclassman whom they have befriended, could feel the tension without knowing much of the context other than the countless "THAT'S 30 POINTS DOWN THE DRAIN" and "HE DIDN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE!" that Jake kept yapping about in their group chat.
Jake would often send Sunghoon a glare, as if constantly reminding him of the sins he has done against him and Sunghoon would look away immediately, not wanting to entertain the guy. Jake would get annoyed from it and sometimes pretend to try to jump on him but, luckily, either Jungwon or Riki was always there beside him to stop him in case he'd one day be serious of beating up Sunghoon in the school hallway.
Eventually, it became a daily thing. Jake would get to school, see Sunghoon, glare, and walk away. Jungwon thinks it's stupid at this point but the moment he noticed Sunghoon rolling his eyes and doing the same, he knew this would be for a while before one of them backs down from the childish glaring.
Like really, glaring? What was that supposed to do at all? But Jungwon isn't one to intervene in whatever enemies or disliking the two has on each other. At least it wasn't a physical type of hating each other.
Sunghoon has learned to expect Jake to be cold towards him ever since that time at the nurse's office. He wasn't going to dwell on the entire thing and maybe apologize later on when he sees him but when he got back and was met with a disciplinary notice for being tardy for the fifth time, Sunghoon, too, held a grudge against Jake. That was a stain on his record!
If Jake can be petty and glare at him then Sunghoon would do the same! He's also hard headed and petty! Sunoo would agree on that statement.
If Sunghoon didn't bump into Jake and Jake didn't hold up Sunghoon until he was late, this entire thing wouldn't have happened! This weird disliking sentiment towards each other wouldn't happen!
But their mutual "dislike" of one another started there, a single incident under morning rain.
— TO BE CONTINUED