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Luhan was going insane, his head was aching with every step he took and his friends wouldn't shut the fuck up. He loved his friends with his whole heart, really; even a bit of his hate for the world decreased at the sight of them… because they were the same shit as him (except Junmyeon and Yixing, of course; but you couldn't say the same about Yifan, Baekhyun, Jongdae and Kyungsoo).
They were volunteering at some Botany congress, they could hate people but their careers were more important than their childish wish of watching the whole humanity burn down in flames (specially that fucking bitch acting like he owned the place and she certainly didn’t). The point is: they were Biology students bored out of their mind wanting to do something different from his exhausting routine and then the congress happened. Almost everyone was helping as much as they could, their bosses were happy, the people attending the congress were happy and everything was going smoothly perfect but there’s always a ‘but’ and this time it came dressed like a fancy nightmare: long legs hugged by the skinniest jeans, tight t-shirts and eyes that caught Wu Yifan the first time they saw him, he was not happy about it. This new kid, Huang Zitao was his name, had the biggest, horrendous and deepest crush on Yifan, it was ridiculous and it physically hurt watching the love eyes when Yifan was clearly not into that kind of guy… or any guy for that matter, he was very straight, thank you very much. He had in mind some dates with Yixing, she was kind and had the most adorable dimpled smile in the world (he was not biased, he just liked the girl). Anyways, this Zitao kid didn’t understand it or didn’t want to understand that Yifan only saw him like the annoying new kid.
They met because Junmyeon was very social and wanted everybody to get along if the new kids were going to cover some details of the congress as well; like almost every congress in uni, this happened once every two years and the professors, researchers and staff needed all the help they could collect and it has a nice appeal to the students seeking for new experiences and all that stuff.
Junmyeon was positively beaming watching all the nervous smiles on the kids. He asked everyone their names and why they were there. Yifan skipped that part because it was utter bullshit and he really didn’t care about making new friends or fulfilling new kids expectancies, he kept his thoughts to himself while preparing coffee. Once he entered the room full of nervous faces, hell was released and they were all over him asking him his name, he ignored them and took a sit in the back but he didn’t notice the black haired guy sat only three sits apart. Junmyeon was furious so he casually prepared a game for pairs and of course he paired Yifan with the quiet guy in the back (he adored to annoy Yifan but he loved life, it was obvious he wasn’t going to live more than three minutes after the reunion was finished but he wanted to avoid as much pain as he could). Yifan said his name and played the lame game but when they were almost done, Junmyeon approached them and told the kid that Yifan was going to be a sort-of-teacher at some labs and Zitao smiled like the sun was down on Earth and happy rabbits were running around his chair, giving him chocolate kisses and hugging his ankles. Yifan wanted to throw up.
After some classes, Zitao began to stalk Yifan even when he was in class, asking him when he was free, when he was leaving, who was he leaving with. It was very annoying and Luhan wasn’t happy about it, he was the other sort-of-teacher and the stupid kid won’t stay with his mouth shut even if someone was aiming his head with an arrow. He asked stupid questions and even dared to waste some of Luhan’s time, okay, maybe Luhan was exaggerating a little here but how could he waste my time, he is not worthy of my knowledge, he can rot in hell while I watch the flames eating his flesh and it was enough because he was quite the pyromaniac. Another thing he had in common with Yifan.
Some weeks passed and Yifan was being protected by his loyal friends and he was grateful (even more grateful because he spent more time with Yixing now, but the girl was as oblivious as a golden fish). Reaching the final days of the congress, they all were busy working in the library with poster expos and conferences. The seven of them were taking a break at 12 M, their boss told them to wait for food and they all sat on the floor waiting for their well deserved lunch and of course Zitao let himself in because he has no education nor discretion sense. Zitao wasn’t really that bad, he was just too intense. They talked nicely until the food arrived, everyone took his portion and left the library because people don’t eat in libraries (duh). They decided to sit outside of the labs, in their spot; it has a nice view and was fresh enough. The food didn’t look delicious but it was free food and they were not going to complain on that, plus, they would have cookies later and cookies were worth the sacrifice (Luhan and Baekhyun said it).
They had a problem, only Zitao, Junmyeon, Yixing and Jongdae had chopsticks. So they sent their friend Minseok to buy some forks or something. As soon as Yifan said he didn’t bring his chopsticks, Zitao jumped out of his skin and offered his. “You can have mine, hyung, I’m not that hungry anyways and you can use them, I can wait, please?” Yifan’s face was dead serious when he said he prefered to wait for Minseok and his forks. Everyone fell silent, except Luhan because the little bastard was hiding his laughter behind the traditional i’m-just-drinking-my-juice-please-don’t-mind-me but he failed and the juice abandoned his body… through his nose. He was still giggling like a madman and Baekhyun joined the giggles festival. Awesome. Zitao was on the edge of tears but he just nodded and drank his juice, he looked young, very young, like a three-year-old baby. He came up with some lazy excuse and left with a broken heart, again.
Junmyeon wanted to rip his head off. “Did you really need to be a dick?” Yifan nodded and kept eating. “You know, if you’re going to reject him at least be nice about it, the poor kid has a heart after all”. Everybody was waiting for some reaction but it didn’t came, Baekhyun told Yifan it was rude and Jongdae, Yixing, Minseok and Luhan nodded. Everyone was happy again, except Junmyeon. He knew how it felt to be rejected by your object of adoration and he hated rude people, so sue him. They ate, laughed and came back to work.
“Yifan hyung! Can you write ‘packaged joy’ in this bag please?” Yifan sighed, it was going to be a long hour before Zitao left. Everybody felt sorry for him. It looked like the karma wanted him to pay some if his debts.
Unrequited love was something no one wanted to feel but everyone wanted to witness. They were going to hell.