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Jaebum yawns as he stretches his arms carelessly over his head. He blocks and distracts the students behind him, but he doesn’t care; all he wants to do right now is sleep. Jinyoung elbows him roughly and Jaebum glares at him to no avail, as his eyes remain glued on his glowing laptop screen. As expected of the valedictorian of the year, Jinyoung is furiously typing notes and highlighting certain parts of his hard copy slides of this lecture. Unknowingly, his thick eyebrows furrow and wrinkles spread themselves across his handsome forehead. Jaebum sits up his chair and shifts his position to face Jinyoung. He leans his head on his palm and stares at him wordlessly. Jinyoung notices from the corner of his eye (he always notices) but chooses to ignore his complete slacker of a boyfriend as he struggles to keep up.
Their mass combined lecture finally ends and the entire hall gradually regains its energy as all the Physics and Math major students start chatting about what they were going to have for dinner next, lecture (almost) long-forgotten.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Jinyoung teases as he packs his belongings.
“Already have.” Jaebum answers, in a random tune.
Even though it’s been almost a year, Jinyoung still wonders what made him accept Jaebum’s suggestion to date in the first place. He glances over to observe Jaebum, and is fairly impressed by how he’s immaculately dressed in a crisp navy blue shirt, and cream coloured chinos. He shuts down his MacBook Air, and tucks it into his leather sling bag. He feels Jinyoung staring but only smirks and looks at another direction. Jinyoung rolls his eyes at his usual childish and chic-like behaviour before tapping on Jaebum’s shoulder and leading the way outside.
A few jocks block his way to the entrance, laughing loudly and obnoxiously over some guy’s tragic drunk story. Jinyoung tries to call for their attention but they blatantly ignore him and continue with their mindless conversations. Jaebum is a very impatient man and Jinyoung can already feel his body temperature rising. Before he can drag Jaebum to the other exit, Jaebum is already stepping forward and provoking the sportsman.
“Move the fuck out of my way.” He seethes.
Only then, do the jocks hear them as they start to form a threatening circle around the two of them. Jaebum protectively pushes Jinyoung behind him but makes no move of backing down. He’s about to hit the guy when suddenly someone breaks into their circle, pulling the other jocks back.
“Yo bro cut it out! That’s Im Jaebum.” His friend practically begs.
Jinyoung almost laughs at how quickly the fierce expressions on their faces shift to awkward and highly uncomfortable. One thing led to another and somehow, the valedictorian of the year and President of the Student Council aka himself, is dating the President of the MMA (mixed martial arts) Society in school. It’s an odd pairing.
Jaebum snickers in response and cocks his head haughtily, as if daring him to make a move. It'll all be child's play to him anyway. He suddenly feels Jinyoung’s hand wrap around his and squeezes. Jaebum breaks away from his temporarily sadistic thoughts and reminds himself to calm down. Jinyoung continues to rub soothing circles on the back of his palm and at once, he feels his anger slowly fade away.
"C'mon," Jinyoung urges as he leads Jaebum past the jocks.
He heads straight for the council room and sits Jaebum down next to him. Jaebum's nose is still flaring and his jaw is tense as he struggles to control his anger. Coming from an abusive household, Jaebum has developed severe anger management issues. That's one of the main reasons behind joining the MMA Society in the first place. He was allowed to be a beast in there, slamming and punching people till their faces bled. All he saw, all of the time was red.
That changed two years later when he met Jinyoung.
He was beating a guy senseless until Jinyoung, who was informed by one of his council members that a serious fight broke out, burst into the scene to pull him back. Normally, Jaebum would fight back and punch anyone who held him back as well but Jinyoung was different. His shining eyes, as Jaebum recalls, were over flowing with sincerity and concern. He's taken aback by how, for once, he isn't staring back into a pair of fearful eyes and snaps out of his blind rage immediately. He slumps into Jinyoung's arms as Jinyoung catches him, and collectively instructs the bystanders to bring Jaebum's victim to the infirmary.
The school's infirmary is tiny, seeing as to how seldom they use it so knowing this, Jinyoung singlehandedly supports Jaebum's weight on his back and trudges back to the Council room. He treats the cuts on Jaebum's bruised knuckles and winces at the number of scars he has on his chin and hands.
Jaebum wakes up a couple of hours later and jolts in surprise by his unfamiliar surroundings. Jinyoung jerks awake by Jaebum's sudden movement and instantly grabs hold of his wrists.
"Shh," he hushes gently. "You're safe. I'm not the best first aider so I don't want you moving around when your injuries may be prone to infections."
Jaebum blinks back unsurely as he lets Jinyoung’s words sink in. You're safe.
For the next while, Jaebum allows Jinyoung to fuss over him and even, feed him food. He was very stubborn and reluctant at first but eventually changes his mind when Jinyoung starts whining about wasting the food that he’s already bought.
“Think about the children in Africa!” He exaggerates and pulls a long face.
Jaebum broods silently when Jinyoung wins that argument and feeds him a spoonful of rice with kimchi soup. After that incident, Jaebum has never once left Jinyoung’s side. Despite his tough and chic exterior, he was surprisingly persistent in convincing Jinyoung to go out with him. Even if Jinyoung tells the truth, no one would believe in him anyway with rumours spreading about how Jinyoung was the one who was first infatuated with Jaebum, or that he was Jaebum’s fling.
If only they knew.
“You okay, babe?” Jinyoung asks after a moment of silence.
Jaebum nods and slowly opens his eyes. Jinyoung is watching him with a worried expression plastered on his face. Just like the first time we met.
“What would I do without you, Park Jinyoung?” Jaebum sighs as he pulls Jinyoung into his embrace.
“You would sleep in all day, and probably drop out of school to join a gang or something. Man, that would sure have been fulfilling.” Jinyoung wittily replies as he presses a kiss onto Jaebum’s cheek.
Jaebum grins and wraps his arms around Jinyoung’s waist protectively.
Thank you for saving me from myself.